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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inconsequential

From in- ("not") plus consequential ("having significant consequences").

From Late Latin impetuosus ("violent"), from Latin impetus ("attack, force").

From Gargantua, the giant with an enormous appetite in Rabelais's 16th-century satirical novel.

From Late Middle English freighten, related to Middle Dutch vrachten ("to load a ship with cargo"), itself from a noun meaning cargo or hire fee.

From Latin fortuitus, "happening by chance."

From Greek ephemeros, "lasting a day" — originally used for short-lived flowers and insects.

From Latin aemulari, "to rival or strive to equal," related to aemulus ("rival").

From Greek empeirikos, "experienced," from empeiria, "experience."

From French duper, thought to come from an old term for the hoopoe bird, once considered a foolish-looking creature.

From Spanish filibustero ("pirate"), itself from French flibustier, ultimately traced back to Dutch vrijbuiter — "freebooter" — the same root that gives English the word freebooter.

From Old French "diminutif", from Latin "dīminūtīvus", based on the past participle of "dīminuere", "to lessen".

From Latin congregatio, from congregare ("to gather into a flock"); adopted by 16th-century Bible translator William Tyndale to render the Greek word for a "gathering of the faithful".

From French charlatan, borrowed from Italian ciarlatano, blending "ciarlare" (to chatter) with "cerretano" (a hawker from the town of Cerreto, once known for its traveling quack doctors).

From Italian capriccioso, from capriccio ("caprice, sudden fright").

From Latin candor, meaning "brightness" or "whiteness," from candere, "to shine" — the idea of a bright, unclouded honesty.

From Old French brouster, "to nibble buds and shoots" — the original sense was about animals grazing, and the casual "look around" meaning developed from that image of sampling a little here and there.

From French bourgeois, "town dweller," ultimately from a Germanic word related to "borough."

From Latin asylum, from Ancient Greek asylon ("sanctuary, refuge"), literally "not subject to seizure."

From Latin aridus, "dry, parched," from arere, "to be dry."

From Latin arbitrarius, "uncertain, subject to a judge's discretion", from arbiter, "judge".

From Latin anomalia, from Ancient Greek anomalia ("irregularity"), from anomalos ("uneven"), the opposite of homalos ("even, level").

A back-formation from "ambivalence", from German Ambivalenz, built from Latin ambi- ("both ways") plus valere ("to be strong").

From Greek aisthētikos, "of sense perception," via German Ästhetik or French esthétique — the same root that gives us "anaesthetic" (removing sensation).

From Old English sċīnan ("to shine, to be resplendent"), a very old Germanic word still recognisable in Dutch schijnen and German scheinen.