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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From Old French violence, from Latin violentia, from violēns, "violent."

From Old French grain, from Latin granum ("seed"), the same root behind "corn" and "granule."

From Old English sceaduwe, related to sceadu ("shade") — shadow and shade are doublets from the same Germanic root.

From Arabic sawahil, "coasts," describing the peoples of the East African coastline.

Named after the 19th-century German physicist Wilhelm Eduard Weber, a pioneer of electromagnetism.

Named after the Scottish engineer James Watt, whose improvements to the steam engine made him a defining figure of the Industrial Revolution.

Named after the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta, inventor of the first electrical battery.

Named after the Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), whose pioneering work on electromagnetism and alternating current lent his name to both the physics unit and, later, the car brand.

A direct borrowing from Latin pauper, meaning "poor" — the same root that gives us "poverty" and "impoverish."

From the Somali people's own name for themselves, Soomaali.

From Arabic, referring to the House of Saud, the royal family that founded and rules the country.

From Old English brōd ("brood, hatching"), tracing back to a very old root meaning "heat" or "breeding warmth."

A compound of "trade" and "mark," describing a mark used to identify goods in trade.

From Old English scoru, borrowed from Old Norse skor, "a notch or tally," related to the idea of cutting a mark for every twenty animals passing through a gate — hence the old meaning "twenty."

From Middle English gol ("boundary, limit"), likely from an Old English word for a barrier or gap — the sports and ambition senses both grew from the idea of a marked end-point to reach.

From Late Latin bȳzantīnus, from Byzantium — the figurative "overly complicated" sense comes from the reputation of the Byzantine imperial court for intrigue and complex politics.

From an alteration of "bunny" (a swelling), ultimately traced through Old French and Old Norse words for "bump" or "swelling."

* (Roman Empire): Latin Ostia * (Italy): Italian Ostia, from Latin Ostia

Old English · 1500

From Old English lim ("limb, branch"); the silent "b" was added in spelling around the late 1500s, similar to the "b" in crumb.

From "Dominican Republic," itself named after Santo Domingo; the religious order is named after its founder, Saint Dominic.

From an earlier English word meaning nautical clearance or bearing-away room, related to "bear" — the idea of the space a ship needs to safely carry itself clear of others.

From Greek parabole ("comparison") via Latin and Old French — a doublet of "parabola" and "palaver."

From "where" plus "as," first used in the 14th century to mean roughly "where," later shifting to its contrastive sense.

From Ancient Greek Λέσβος (Lésbos).