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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The English form Yahweh emerged in 19th-century scholarship as a rendering of the ancient Hebrew Tetragrammaton יהוה, first appearing in Bible translations around 1902.

From Old English prēost, itself from Late Latin presbyter, from Greek presbúteros meaning "elder."

From Latin minister, "servant" or "attendant," built from minor, "lesser" — the same root that gives us "minor."

From Old French clergie, "learned men," ultimately from Latin clericus, "one ordained for religious service."

From Old French civilien, built from civil plus the suffix -ian.

From Old French civil, from Latin cīvīlis ("relating to a citizen"), from cīvis ("citizen").

From Latin civicus, "having to do with citizens or a city."

From Latin civicus, "pertaining to a city or its citizens."

From Old French cite, from Late Latin civitatem ("citizenry, community"), from Latin civis ("citizen").

Named after Tangier, Morocco, the port through which the fruit was originally exported to Europe.

From Dutch baas ("master"), originally a respectful term for an older relative; it took on its modern sense of "person in charge" in colonial New Amsterdam (now New York).

In the sense of a person, from Middle English calkelatour (“a mathematician, an astrologer”), borrowed from Latin calculātor, equivalent to calculate + -or. The other meanings arose in Modern English.

Formed from compute plus the suffix -ing, turning the verb into a noun describing the activity itself.

From Old English genōg, meaning "sufficient," tracing back to a very old Germanic root shared with Dutch genoeg and German genug.

From "side" plus "winder" (one that winds or moves in loops), describing the snake's sideways, looping way of crossing sand.

From Old French ambre, from Arabic anbar ("ambergris") — originally referring to a waxy whale product before the name shifted to the fossil resin.

From Old French primerose, from Medieval Latin prima ("first") and rosa ("rose") — likely named because it flowers so early in spring.

A contraction of the older phrase "God be with ye," gradually shortened over centuries; "God" shifted to "good" by analogy with phrases like "good morning" and "good night."

From Latin "hibernatus," the past participle of "hiberno" ("to winter"), from "hibernus" meaning "wintry."

Traced to Middle English gunne, thought to derive from Gunnhild, a Norse female name once given as a nickname to siege engines and cannons — the name combines Old Norse words both meaning "battle".

Recorded in American English from the mid-1800s, likely a variant of the older greeting/attention-call "hey."

First recorded in the early 1800s as a variant of "hollo"; often credited to Thomas Edison as the standard telephone greeting, though the word predates the telephone.

Borrowed from Spanish mosquito, "little fly", from mosca ("fly") plus a diminutive ending, ultimately from Latin musca.

Borrowed from an Eastern Algonquian word meaning roughly "it strips [bark]," describing how the animal feeds.