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 Middle English "boy" (servant, young man), traced back to a Germanic root referring to a younger brother or male relation.

From Late Latin indicativus, from indicare, "to indicate."

From Old French essaumple, from Latin exemplum, "a sample or model taken out" — a doublet of "sample."

From Spanish cucaracha, reshaped in English under the influence of the unrelated words "cock" and "roach."

Borrowed from Zulu impala.

Borrowed from Spanish bongo, referring to the Afro-Cuban hand drum.

From Tagalog ate ("elder sister"), itself borrowed from a Hokkien word for "eldest sister."

From Old English trēow, "tree" — related to "true" and "tar," from a very old Indo-European root for wood.

From Old English tō, going back to a Proto-Germanic root meaning "to" — a very old, core function word with cognates across most Germanic languages.

From Old French fait, from Latin factum ("a thing done") — a doublet of "fact".

From Middle English feet, fet, from Old English fēt, from Proto-Germanic *fōtiz, from Proto-Indo-European *pódes, nominative plural of *pṓds (“foot”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Fäite (“feet”), West Frisian fiet (“feet”), German Füße (“feet”), Danish fødder (“feet”), Swedish fötter (“feet”), Faroese føtur (“feet”), Icelandic fætur (“feet”).

Origin uncertain, but likely from an Aboriginal Australian language; early English spellings of the word appear from around 1790.

From Hawaiian wikiwiki ("quick"), shortened from "WikiWikiWeb," the name of the first wiki software created in 1995.

From Old English huntian, "to hunt," from a Proto-Germanic root possibly connected to an Indo-European word meaning "to catch or seize."

From an Aboriginal Australian word (Dharug "gula"), possibly meaning "no water" — koalas get nearly all their moisture from leaves.

Borrowed from Dharug (an Australian Aboriginal language) wumbat.

Borrowed from Guugu Yimithirr (an Aboriginal Australian language) gangurru, the name for a particular grey kangaroo species — despite the popular myth, it does not mean "I don’t know."

From Ancient Greek murioi ("countless, ten thousand"), via Latin and French — originally used to mean exactly ten thousand before it came to mean simply "a huge number."

From Old English mynd/gemynd ("mind, memory"), from a Germanic root ultimately tied to the Proto-Indo-European word for "thought" — the same root behind "mental" and "mention".

From Greek xylo-, "wood," and -phone, "sound" — literally "wood sound."

From Dutch jacht, a shortening of jaghtschip ("pursuit ship") — the light, fast vessels the Dutch once used to chase down pirates. The word came into English after the Dutch gave King Charles II a similar boat as a gift in 1660.

From Old English to niht, "at/on (this) night."

Borrowed from Spanish llama, itself from Quechua.

Borrowed from Tibetan bla ma, meaning "superior" or "master."