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 abandoner, built from a ("to") and bandon ("control, jurisdiction"), so originally "to hand over to someone else's control" — which shifted to mean giving something up entirely.

From American Spanish abulón, itself from an Indigenous California language, referring to the red abalone found along that coast.

From Biblical Hebrew אֲבַדּוֹן (ʾăḇaddōn), meaning "destruction" or "ruin", from the verb ʾāḇaḏ, "to perish".

From Latin abacus, from Ancient Greek ábax, meaning a slab or board covered in sand for drawing or counting.

From Old English onbæc, literally "on back" — the sense of being pushed backward by surprise.

Shortened from words such as "abdominal" or "abscess", depending on the sense.

From Afrikaans aardvark, literally "earth pig" — from aarde ("earth") and vark ("pig") — because Dutch settlers in South Africa thought the burrowing animal resembled a pig.

From Old French fable, from Latin fabula ("story"), rooted in fari, "to speak" — the same root gives us "fame" and "affable".

From Fabius Maximus, the Roman general who wore down Hannibal's invading army by avoiding pitched battles and cutting his supply lines rather than fighting directly. His name later gave rise to the Fabian Society, a British group that pushed for socialism through gradual reform.

From the medieval solfège system devised by Guido of Arezzo, who took the syllable from the Latin hymn "Ut queant laxis," where "fa" begins a line of the text.

From Old English nama, going back through Proto-Germanic to a very old Indo-European root for "name" — the same root that gives Latin nomen and, ultimately, English "noun."

An altered form of "pompion," ultimately from Greek pepon, meaning a large ripe melon.

From Old English heafod, going back through Germanic to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "head" or "cup" — a distant relative of "cape," "chief," and "captain."

From Old French aigle, from Latin aquila — it replaced the native Old English word "earn" (still surviving as "erne").

From Latin prōductus, the past participle of prōdūcō, "to lead forth" — first used in English in a mathematical sense.

The plural of ware ("goods for sale").

From Old French marcheandise, tracing back to Latin mercatus, "trade" or "market" — the same root that gives us "market" and "commerce."

From Old English dael, meaning "part" or "share", related to dole.

From Old French patronage, built from patron plus -age.

From Old English cræft ("strength, skill"), from a Proto-Germanic root meaning power or strength — the sense narrowed over time from raw power to skilled ability.

From Latin adiectivus, "added on," from adicere ("to throw toward, to add"). This was a translation of the Greek grammatical term for a word "added" to a noun.

From Latin verbum, "word," which also gives us "word" itself — the two are distant relatives (a doublet).

From Middle Low German trade, meaning "track" or "course," brought into English by Hanseatic merchants — the sense shifted from a merchant's regular route to commerce itself.

From Middle English swappen, originally meaning "to strike" — the idea being that people once struck hands together to seal a trade.