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 an earlier form cole-florye — cole (from Latin caulis, "cabbage stalk") + flower — later respelled to look more Latin.

A clipped, informal use of the Latin-derived prefix "multi-," meaning "many."

From Armenian, referring to storm spirits in traditional folklore.

From Old English stæf, originally meaning a stick or letter of the alphabet; the "team of employees" sense arrived much later, borrowed from the military use of "staff" for an officer's support team.

From Old English crōc, meaning "hook" or "bend," related to Germanic and Norse words for a curved shape.

From the Greek prefix "micro-," meaning "small," which was later clipped off to stand as its own adjective in casual English.

From the Greek prefix "mega-," meaning "great" or "large" — the same root found in words like megaphone and megabyte.

Shortened from words built with the prefix "mini-," itself from Latin minimus, "smallest."

A learned borrowing from Latin minimum, the neuter form of minimus, "least" or "smallest."

Borrowed via French from Latin maximum, the neuter form of maximus ("greatest").

From Latin consumptio, from consumere ("to consume"). Equivalent to consume + -tion.

Borrowed from Japanese, where 灯籠 (tōrō) names the traditional lantern.

From Old French consumer, from Latin consumere, "to use up," from con- ("with, together") + sumere ("to take").

From Latin fractio ("a breaking"), from frangere ("to break") — the same root as fracture and fragment.

From Old French college, from Latin collegium, "a group of colleagues" — related to the word colleague.

From Old English "cyssan," a very old Germanic verb for kissing, related to similar words in Dutch, German, and Scandinavian languages.

From Middle English kenel, borrowed from Old French chenil, ultimately from Latin canis, meaning "dog".

A clipped, informal form of "elephant."

From Old English ēa ("river"), related to Latin aqua and modern English "aquatic".

From Old French disner, which originally meant "breakfast" before shifting to refer to the main meal of the day, ultimately from Vulgar Latin roots meaning "to break one's fast."

First recorded in the 1580s meaning simply "a hunk of food," lunch likely comes from lump, in the same way hunch comes from hump. The word later merged in meaning with luncheon, and by the 1800s lunch had become the everyday term for a midday meal.

From Old English mǣl, originally meaning "measure" or "set time" before narrowing to "time for eating" and then "the food eaten at that time".

From Old French quasser, from Latin quatere, "to shake," blended with Latin cassare, "to annul."

From Arabic šāš, meaning "muslin cloth" — the word originally described a fine fabric wound around the head or waist, and only later came to mean the sliding frame of a window.