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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Borrowed via Latin concha from Ancient Greek kónkhē, meaning "mussel, cockle, or shell-like cavity."

Origin unknown; possibly an old sailors' alteration of the word "squirt."

From Old French ris, ultimately traced back through Greek and Persian to an Eastern language, possibly Sanskrit or an early Dravidian source — reflecting how far the crop travelled before reaching English.

From Latin aequinoctium, from aequus ("equal") + nox ("night").

From French épisode, from New Latin *epīsodium, from Ancient Greek ἐπεισόδιον (epeisódion, “a parenthetic addition, episode”), neuter of ἐπεισόδιος (epeisódios, “following upon the entrance, coming in besides, adventitious”), from ἐπί (epí, “on”) + εἰς (eis, “into”) + ὁδός (hodós, “way”).

From Greek epílogos, "a conclusion" — from epi- ("in addition") + légein ("to speak").

From Greek epilepsia, from epilambanein, "to seize," from epi- ("upon") plus lambanein ("to take").

Borrowed from Sanskrit om, a mystical syllable used across Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions.

From Spanish salsa, "sauce," from Latin salsus, "salted."

From Spanish guayaba, from a Taíno word.

Borrowed from French omelette in the early 1600s, itself thought to derive from an alteration of "lamelle" (thin plate).

Borrowed directly from Spanish, where it originally meant "little cake."

From Spanish guacamole, itself from the Aztec (Nahuatl) ahuacamolli — a blend of "avocado" and "sauce."

Spanish · 1696

Via Spanish aguacate from the Nahuatl āhuacatl. First recorded in English in a 1696 list of Jamaican plants.

From Old French esmeraude, tracing back through Latin smaragdus to Greek smaragdos, itself likely borrowed from an ancient Semitic word for a flashing gem.

From Old French cinnamone, from Latin cinnamomum, from Greek kinnamomon — ultimately traced by ancient writers to a Phoenician word, related to Hebrew qinnamon.

From Old French grappe, "bunch of grapes," originally meaning "hook," since grapes were harvested with a hooked tool. It displaced the earlier Old English word "wine-berry."

Named after Rudolf Diesel, the German engineer who developed the compression-ignition engine in the 1890s.

From Old English torr and Old French tour, both ultimately from Latin turris, "a tower."

From Old French lymon, ultimately from Arabic laymūn, tracing back through Persian and Sanskrit — a distant cousin of the word lime.

From Old French escarlate, originally naming a fine woollen cloth, itself traced back through Arabic and possibly Byzantine Greek — the colour sense came later, from the cloth's typical dye.

From Old English streawberige, joining "straw" and "berry" — most likely because wild strawberries spread along straw-like runners, or because pickers once threaded them onto straws to carry them.

From Old French moustarde, related to "must" (unfermented grape juice), which was originally mixed with ground mustard seed to make a paste.

From an English transliteration of the Hebrew divine name, formed by combining its consonants with the vowels of a different word traditionally substituted for it out of reverence when reading aloud.