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 maestro + -like. Piecewise doublet of masterlike.

Borrowed from Unami Lënape / lënape.

From Latin lemurēs. See lemur.

From French Lapierre.

From maculate + -ism, or a back-formation from immaculism.

Borrowed from Dutch Landen.

Shortened form of lollipop pants, which was the standard form in Rhode Island at least through the mid 1980s. It is not known when the shortened form became the standard term.

From liquid + -ness.

From limn + -ed.

From Latin licere.

Possibly from Old English Leodis (“a Celtic kingdom”). Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary included an etymology from Marsh Lane in Leeds (volume 3, page 565). The word "lane" used to be pronounced /lɔɪn/ in the Leeds area, but this pronunciation has passed out of use.

From Latin Lyceum, from Ancient Greek Λύκειον (Lúkeion) (the name of a gymnasium, or athletic training facility, near Athens where Aristotle established his school), from Λύκειος, from Proto-Greek *λύκη), "light." The meaning of the epithet "Lyceus" later became associated with Apollo's mother Leto, who was the patron goddess of Lycia (Λυκία) and who was identified with the wolf (λύκος). Doublet of lycée and Lyceum.

Generally thought to derive, like manikin, from Middle Dutch mannekijn. Compare French manakin, German Manakin. Doublet of manikin and mannequin.

From lustless + -ness.

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the standard Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 老子 (“the Old One, the Venerable One”).

From love + -ling. Compare West Frisian leaveling (“darling”), Dutch lieveling (“darling, sweetheart”), Afrikaans liefling (“darling”), German Liebling (“darling”); perhaps calqued, inspired, or reinforced by the term.

From lamb + chop.

From leg + -let.

Borrowed from Latin lucifer (“light-bearing”) (from lux, lucis (“light”)) + the suffix -ous.

From know + -some.

Variant of Marley.

From Fore kúru (literally “trembling, shivering”). Perhaps eventually from Proto-Gorokan *kút(V) (“dangling, shaking”) if cognate with the reduplicated element of Yagaria gúli gúli hu- (“be loose, rattle”).

From man + -ling.

From Middle English lemman, variant of leofman, from Old English *lēofmann ("lover; sweetheart"; attested as a personal name), equivalent to lief + man ("beloved person"). In the past, incorrectly asserted to derive from French l'aimant (“the [male] lover”).