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 Sanskrit jayakartā, meaning roughly "that which brings victory."

From Old French malfaisance, "doing evil," from male ("badly") and faire ("to do").

From Medieval Latin prosaicus ("in prose"), from Latin prosa ("prose"), ultimately from provorsus ("straightforward") — the sense shifted from "written in prose" to "plain and unpoetic" over time.

Named after Draco, an ancient Athenian lawmaker famous for punishing even minor offences with death.

From Scots feckless, "without feck (effect)" — built from effect + -less.

From Middle English balled, of uncertain origin — likely related to an old word for "ball" or "round object," describing a smooth, hairless head.

Formed from "transcend" plus the noun-forming suffix "-ence."

From Old English ġēarlīċ, formed from "year" plus the adjective/adverb suffix "-ly."

From Latvia plus the suffix -n.

From Old English scearu, "a cutting, a division," from an old root meaning "to cut or divide" — the same root behind shear and shard.

From slave plus the suffix -ery.

From Old French damage, tracing back to Latin damnum ("loss" or "harm") — the same root behind "condemn" and "damn."

A learned borrowing based on Latin hilaris ("cheerful"), which itself comes from the Ancient Greek hilarós, meaning "cheerful" or "merry."

From an Old French word for "deeds" or "exploits", which in English narrowed down over time from storytelling to joking around.

Coined from genesis ("origin"), modelled on words like "antithesis"/"antithetic".

From Latin nexus, "a binding together, connection," from the verb nectere, "to tie or bind."

From Latin morosus ("fussy, self-willed, peevish"), related to mos ("custom, habit, will").

From Jagannath, a title of the Hindu deity Krishna. The word entered English through witnesses to the Rath Yatra festival in Puri, India, where a massive wagon carrying an idol of Jagannath was pulled through the streets by huge crowds, appearing unstoppable once in motion.

From Anglo-Norman province, from Latin prōvincia, likely from prō- ("forward") plus vinciō ("to bind, tie.")

A loan-translation of German Ökologie, coined in 1866 by the biologist Ernst Haeckel from Greek oîkos ("house") plus -logía ("study of") — literally, the "study of the household" of nature.

Borrowed via French from Italian risco/rischio; the deeper origin is disputed, with theories ranging from Latin resecum ("that which cuts, a reef") to Arabic and Greek roots tied to fortune or hazard at sea.

From Old French union, from Late Latin unio ("oneness, unity"), from Latin unus ("one").

From French campagne, ultimately from Latin campus ("field"), originally referring to military operations conducted in open country.

From Medieval Latin sclavus ("slave"), from Late Latin Sclavus ("Slav") — a grim legacy of Slavic peoples being forced into slavery in the Middle Ages.