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 interpreteur, from Latin interpretari, "to explain," built on the same root as interpret.

From Old French falir, ultimately from Latin fallere, "to deceive or disappoint."

From Old English fann, "a winnowing fan," from Latin vannus, a tool used to toss grain into the air to separate it from chaff.

From snow + flake. Compare Saterland Frisian Sneeflokke (“snowflake”), Dutch sneeuwvlok, Luxembourgish Schnéiflack, German Schneeflocke.

From business plus woman.

From "black" (the colour of forged iron) plus "smith," an old word for someone who shapes metal.

From actor plus the feminine suffix -ess.

Partly from Middle French vent ("wind"), from Latin ventus, and partly from French éventer. A doublet of "wind" (the noun).

From Latin "translator," from "translatus" ("carried across"), from "transferre."

From Old English berġe, a very old Germanic word for small stoneless fruit — related to similar words in German and Scandinavian languages.

From Old English nān þing, literally "not any thing."

From the Greek letter name psi (Ψ), going back to Ancient Greek psei.

From Latin chī, taken from Ancient Greek χεῖ (kheî), the name of the letter Χ.

From the Greek letter phei, borrowed into Latin and then English as "phi."

From Ancient Greek sigma, likely from a root associated with hissing sounds, referencing the letter's "s" sound.

From Old French hamelet, a diminutive of hamel, itself a diminutive of ham ("home, village"), ultimately from the same Germanic root as the English word "home."

From Latin perennis, "lasting through the year", from per- ("throughout") + annus ("year").

From Old French village, from Latin vīllāticus, related to villa.

Named after the Earl of Sandwich, said to have ordered meat between bread so he could keep gambling without stopping to eat.

From Greek paradeisos, originally meaning a walled garden or park, tracing back to a Persian word for an enclosed pleasure-ground — it displaced the earlier Old English word neorxnawang.

Short for "popped corn," from pop + corn.

From Old English belifan, built from be- plus a root related to "leave" in the old sense of "give permission" — over time this shifted to mean "hold something to be true."

From Latin lemures, "spirits of the dead" — the naturalist Carl Linnaeus chose the name in 1754 because of the animals' ghostly nocturnal habits and slow, silent movements.

From Ancient Greek Ἀτλαντίς (Atlantís), related to Atlas.