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 Middle English even ("evening"), from Old English ǣfen. Medieval days ran sunset to sunset, so the night before a holiday counted as part of it.

From Old English ælf, from a Proto-Germanic root probably meaning "white" or "shining." The tall, noble elf of modern fantasy owes much to J.R.R. Tolkien's writing.

From "dumb" (originally meaning "silent, unable to speak") plus the suffix "-y" — the "silent" sense extended to anything nonfunctional or lifeless, like a mock-up or a mute stand-in.

From Middle English dudde, an old word for ragged clothing, later applied to anything useless.

From Middle English sir, an unstressed form of sire, ultimately from Latin senior ("older, elder").

From Old French dame ("lady"), from Latin domina ("mistress of the house").

A clipped form of "developer".

From Old French division, from Latin dīvīsiō, built on dīvidō, "to divide".

From Old French multiplicacion, from Latin multiplicatio, built from multiplicare ("to multiply").

The "prevent" and "thin metal sheet" senses come from separate Old French roots meaning "to trample" and "leaf" respectively — both eventually collapsed into the single English spelling "foil."

From German Elektrokardiogramm, still used in English as an alternative to the more common abbreviation ECG.

From Old English rotian, "to rot or become corrupted," going back to a Proto-Germanic root meaning the same.

Origin uncertain — possibly from an Old English word meaning "to seize" or from a Dutch verb meaning "to capture," picked up through contact between English and Dutch speakers.

A altered form of "sect," shaped by the Latin word saeptum, meaning "fence" or "enclosure."

From Norwegian seihval, combining sei ("pollock") with hval ("whale"), since the whales were often seen near pollock shoals.

From Old French deü, "owed," the past participle of devoir ("to owe") — ultimately from Latin debere, also the root of "debt" and "duty."

From Spanish uno, meaning \"one\" — the number a player is left holding when they call it out.

Borrowed from Spanish tres, "three" — a doublet of English three and trey.

From Portuguese jaguar, itself from an Old Tupi word meaning roughly "beast that kills its prey in one bound."

The noun is from late Middle English jagge, from Old English giagga, giacga. The ultimate origin could be sound-symbolic of sudden movement, compare with jam, rag and Middle English dag, of which jag may be a palatalised variant. The verb is from jaggen, from Old English giacgian.

From Middle English tak/takke, meaning a hook or nail, from an Old Northern French word for a peg or pin.

From Old English hamm, originally meaning the back of the knee, later extended to the thigh and then to the cured meat from it.

From Old French plaisir/plaire, from Latin placere ("to please, to seem good"). It displaced the older Old English word līcian, which survives today as "like."

From Middle English loupe ("opening in a wall") combined with hole; the legal/technical sense grew out of the idea of a narrow gap someone could slip through.