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 Old French abstenir, based on Latin abstineo, "to hold oneself back," from abs- ("away from") and teneo ("to hold").

Formed from absorb plus the -ing suffix.

From Latin absolvere, "to set free" or "acquit," built from ab ("away from") and solvo ("to loosen, release").

From Old French absolution, from Latin absolutio, "acquittal," based on absolvo, "to absolve."

From late Middle English absolutly, formed from absolute plus the adverbial suffix -ly.

Formed from absent plus the suffix -ee, following the same pattern as "employee" or "trainee."

From Old French absent, from Latin absens, the present participle of absum, "to be away from" — built from ab ("away") and sum ("to be").

From Old English þē, a form of the demonstrative pronoun that eventually took over as the standard definite article in Middle English.

From Old English tō dæġe, literally "on this day" — a fusion of to and day that became a single word over time.

From Old English Englisċ, "of the Angles," the Germanic tribe whose name also gave us "England".

From Czech robota, meaning "forced labor," popularized by the 1920 play R.U.R. by Karel Čapek.

From Old French servant, the present participle of servir ("to serve"), ultimately from Latin servire.

From Old English bān, meaning bone or the bone of a limb, going back to an ancient Germanic root.

From Old English winter, from a Proto-Germanic root shared with Dutch winter and German Winter.

From Ancient Greek nu, the name of the letter.

From Old English hlēapan, "to run or jump," an ancient Germanic word also related to "elope," "gallop," and "interlope."

From Old English wiċe/wucu ("week"), from a Germanic root meaning "sequence" or "turn" — ultimately related to a very old word meaning "to bend or yield".

From Latin raptor, "plunderer" or "one who seizes" — the same root as "rapture" and "rapacious."

From Late Latin mīllennium, built from mīllennis ("of a thousand years") plus the noun-forming suffix -ium.

From Old French calendier, from Latin calendarium ("account book"), from calendae, the first day of the Roman month when debts were due.

First recorded in the 1780s with an unclear origin — early uses meant an odd or eccentric person, and the "test of knowledge" sense only became common in the 19th century.

From Old Norse oddi, meaning "point" or "triangle" — an object that stuck out on its own rather than pairing neatly with another, which is how it came to mean "leftover" or "unmatched".

From Japanese 訓読み (kun'yomi), literally "meaning reading."

From Old Norse ón, án (“without”), from Proto-Germanic *ēnu, *ēno, *ino (“without”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḗnu (“without”). Cognate with North Frisian on (“without”), Middle Dutch an, on (“without”), Middle Low German āne (“without”), German ohne (“without”), Gothic 𐌹𐌽𐌿 (inu, “without, except”). Unlikely to be related to Ancient Greek ἄνευ (áneu, “without”), which is likely akin to Proto-Germanic *sundraz instead (whence sunder).