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.

Browse etymology by letter

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Recently added

From Middle French cubique, built from "cube" plus "-ic."

From Latin linearis, from linea ("line"); a doublet of lineal.

New Latin · 1610

From Greek trigonon ("triangle") and metron ("measure"), coined in the 1610s as New Latin trigonometria.

From Latin discretus, "separated," the same root as "discreet" — the two words split apart in spelling and meaning over time.

From Old English mynet ("coin"), from Latin moneta — named after the temple of Juno Moneta in Rome, where Roman coins were struck. The herb "mint" is an unrelated word from the same-sounding Old English minte.

Borrowed directly from Spanish casa ("house"), from Latin casa — a doublet of the French-derived English word "chez."

From Turkish Ankara, ultimately traced to an ancient Greek word for "anchor," referring to a bend in a local river.

Borrowed from Spanish Madrid.

The verb sense is a back-formation from "Stockholm syndrome," a term coined after a 1973 bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden, in which hostages formed an unexpected bond with their captors.

From Greek iota, the name of the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet — used figuratively for centuries to mean "the tiniest amount," echoing a line from the New Testament about not changing "one iota" of the law.

From Greek theta, the eighth letter of the modern Greek alphabet.

From Ancient Greek ἦτα (êta).

From Old English Lunden, ultimately from the Roman name Londinium, whose deeper origin is uncertain but likely Celtic.

Ultimately from Old East Slavic Москов- (Moskov-), referring originally to the Moskva River.

From "Kurd" plus the suffix "-ish," which marks nationality or language, as in "English" or "Turkish."

From Japanese 日本 (Nippon), an alternate reading of the same characters usually pronounced "Nihon."

From Old English stod, related to Old Norse stod — originally referring to a herd of horses kept for breeding.

From Ancient Greek idea ("form" or "pattern"), rooted in eidō, "to see" — the same root gives us "idol" and "eidolon". Latin borrowed it as idea, and English took it from there.

From Middle English Parys, Paris, from Old French Paris, from the Late Latin name of an earlier settlement, Lutetia Parisiorum (“Lutetia of the Parisii”), from Latin Parīsiī, a Gaulish tribe, from Transalpine Gaulish *parios (“cauldron”), from Proto-Celtic *kʷaryos, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷer-. Doublet of Parizh.

From Ancient Greek Ἀθῆναι (Athênai), named after the goddess Athena.

From Middle English dawnen, related to the older word daw, meaning to grow light.

From Middle English dauncere, built from dance plus the "person who does it" ending -er.

From Old English dæglic, built from "day" plus the adjective-forming suffix "-ly," meaning literally "day-like" or "day-related."

From up- + stair + -s.