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 nano- (a billionth) plus second.

Shortened from "radiotelegraphy", itself built from "radio-" (relating to radiation/rays) plus "telegraphy".

From Latin digitalis, "of the finger," from digitus — the modern computing sense comes from digits (0s and 1s) being the basic units of digital data.

From Old English fyrest, related to German Fürst ("prince," literally "first-born"), from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "before."

From Old English "weorc," from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to make" — the same root that gives us "energy" and "organ."

Formed from wire plus the suffix -less, originally describing early radio technology that sent signals without a physical wire connection.

An initialism for Short Message Service, the mobile-phone protocol used to send short text messages.

From Old French, from Latin "mobilis," meaning "easy to move," from "movere" ("to move").

From Latin frequentia ("crowd, throng"), related to frequens ("frequent").

From net + work — originally describing a literal woven, net-like structure, later extended to any interconnected system.

Related to "hide" (Old English "hydan"); the "beating" sense likely comes from the older meaning of whipping someone with a strip of animal hide.

From Middle English ballokes, the plural of ballok ("testicle"), from Old English bealluc.

From Latin accommodatio, "adjustment," from accommodare — see "accommodate." The meaning "a place to stay" only appeared in English around 1600.

From Greek akakia, likely referring to a thorny tree, via Latin acacia.

From Latin addere, "to add or put to," from ad- ("to") plus dare ("to give").

From Old English eallswā, built from all + so, literally "just like".

From Middle English forecasten, from fore- + cast ("to throw" or "to calculate in advance").

From Old French compaignie ("companionship"), related to companion — literally those who "share bread."

From Old English giestrandæg, a compound of "yester-" (relating to the previous day) and "day".

From Anglo-Norman encreistre, from Latin increscere ("to grow"), from in- plus crescere ("to grow").

From Old English latost, the superlative form of "late" — so "last" originally meant "latest".

From Old English secgan, "to say" — an ancient Germanic verb related to German sagen and Dutch zeggen.

From Old English butan, meaning "outside of, except," itself built from be- plus out.

From Old English tacan, borrowed from Old Norse taka ("to touch, take"), from a Germanic root meaning "to touch."