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 Old English scēadan, "to separate or divide" — the storage-building sense grew later from the idea of something set apart from the main house.

From Old English sċieran, "to shear or shave," an ancient Germanic word related to "shore" and "shard" through a root meaning "to cut."

The past participle of "shake".

Compare shock (“a bundle of sheaves”).

From Old English sceacan, going back to a Proto-Germanic root meaning "to shake or escape" — related to "shock".

From Old English siwian, "to sew, stitch, join together," from a Proto-Germanic root also giving us the word seam.

From Old English settan, "to make sit" — the causative form of sit.

From send + -t. See send.

The past tense and past participle of sell; the informal "convinced" sense comes from the same idea of a persuasive argument that has "made the sale."

From Old English sellan, meaning "to give" or "to hand over for money" — the same Germanic root shows up in Swedish sälja and Danish sælge.

From Old English secan, "to seek, search for," from a Proto-Germanic root also found in Dutch zoeken and German suchen.

From Arabic سِين (sīn).

From Old English saga/sagu, from a Germanic root related to "cutting" — the "old saying" sense comes from a separate Old English word meaning "speech."

The past tense and past participle of say, from Old English sægde.

From Hebrew רָן (ran).

From Old English rinnan and iernan, both meaning "to run," which merged over time into one word.

The past participle of "rise," formed the same way English builds other "-en" past participles like "broken" or "spoken."

From Old English rīsan, "to rise," from a Proto-Germanic root meaning "to arise" or "get up."

From French parasol, from Italian parasole — para- ("to shield against") + sole ("sun"), literally "sun-shield."

From Old English hrung, from Proto-Germanic *hrungō — related to German Runge ("stake, pole").

Borrowed from French rang.

From Old English hring, meaning a circle or ring, going back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to turn or bend."

The past participle of "ride," extended in compounds like "guilt-ridden" and "disease-ridden" to mean plagued or dominated by something.

The place-name and surname sense traces to Old English rodu, meaning "a clearing" — used for a person from a cleared patch of woodland.