English dictionary, thesaurus, translations & etymology

Etymology — The origins of English words

Where do words come from? Trace the origin and history of any English word, from its Latin, Greek or Old English roots through to its modern meaning. Every etymology is sourced.

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Latin lex, meaning "law." The computing sense comes from "lexical analysis," shortened to "lex."

From Old English teth, the plural of tooth, tracing back to Proto-Germanic and ultimately Proto-Indo-European roots.

Shortened from clitoris.

Named after the Hydra of Greek mythology, the multi-headed monster slain by Hercules; the tiny pond creature was named for its ability to regenerate in a similar way, and the figurative sense of an unstoppable, ever-multiplying problem comes from the same myth.

From Latin lyra, "a lyre" — the same word behind the musical instrument lyre and, in anatomy, a brain structure whose crisscrossing fibres reminded early anatomists of lyre strings.

From French enveloppe. The "safe operating limits" sense grew out of the aviation phrase "flight envelope."

From Latin collapsus, the past participle of collabor, meaning "to fall together".

From wide + spread, describing something spread out over a broad area.

A simple compound of sun + up, describing the sun coming up.

From Middle English sonne-rys, literally "sun" + "rise" — the sun rising.

From Old French diamant, from Latin adamas ("hardest metal"), from Greek adamas — the same root as "adamant." Diamond and adamant are doublets.

From Greek krystallos ("clear ice"), reflecting how ancient people once believed quartz crystal was permanently frozen ice.

From Latin vetare, "to forbid" — Roman officials once used the single word "veto" ("I forbid") to block a proposal outright.

Borrowed directly from Latin via, "road" — the same root that gives us "voyage" and "convey."

From translingual Venus (“a genus of clams”), from Latin.

From trail + -er. The film-preview sense dates back to when previews were shown after ("trailing") the main feature, rather than before it as is standard today.

From Old French joie, from Latin gaudium ("joy"), from gaudēre ("to rejoice, be glad").

From happy plus the noun-forming suffix -ness.

From Old English sorg ("care, grief"). Despite the resemblance, it is not historically related to "sorry" or "sore."

From Old French "preisier" ("to prize" or "to value"), from Latin "pretiare," from "pretium" ("price" or "value") — making "praise" a distant cousin of "price" and "prize."

From Latin crusta ("hard outer covering"), the same root that gives us "crustacean" and "custard".

From Old English spīwan, from Proto-Germanic *spīwaną — related to English "spit" and German speien, all going back to an ancient root meaning "to spit or vomit."

From Scots, probably from Low German traam ("shaft, beam"); the rail-vehicle sense grew out of "tramway," originally a log-covered road later used for horse-drawn coal carts called trams.

From Old English wenn, meaning "a wen" or "boil" — an old, mostly informal term rarely used in modern medical writing.