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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Blend of dumb + confound.

Coined in 1920 by the British physician and sexologist Havelock Ellis (1859–1939) after Chevalier d'Eon (1728–1810), a French diplomat, spy and soldier who presented as male for 49 years, then as a female for 33. Ellis had previously used the term sexo-aesthetic inversion.

From Middle English fauchoun, from Old French fauchon (cognate with Italian falcione), from Vulgar Latin *falciōnem, from Latin falx.

From Middle English [Term?], from Old English eahtafeald. Equivalent to eight + -fold.

From expedite + -er.

From Ancient Greek Ἐνδυμίων (Endumíōn).

From Middle English enbatelen, embatailen, from Old French embataillier (“to array for battle”), from em- (Latin in) + bataille (“battle”).

Blend of eavesdrop + read.

From enthrone + -ed.

PIE word *h₁ésh₂r̥ Learned borrowing from New Latin exsanguinātus (“depleted of blood, exsanguinated; lacking blood, bloodless”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix). Exsanguinātus is a participial adjective formed on ex- (“out, from”) + sanguī̆s (sanguin-) (“blood”) + -ātus.

Borrowed from Japanese 蝦夷 (Ezo).

From Easter + -tide (“period surrounding a festival”).

From extro- + -version. As a variant of extraversion, popularized in psychology by Phyllis Blanchard's use of the (then nonstandard) spelling extrovert in her publication "Psycho-Analytic Study of August Comte" (1918).

From facsimile + -ize.

From Ancient Greek Ἦλις (Êlis).

From false + heart.

From eco- (prefix meaning ‘ecology; the environment’) + (via)duct (“bridge with several spans that carries traffic over a valley or other obstacles”).

Learned borrowing from New Latin explicātōrius, from Latin explicō (“to unfold, open out”). By surface analysis, explicate + -ory.

First attested in 1694. From Ancient Greek δύσπεπτος (dúspeptos, “difficult to digest”), from δυσ- (dus-, “bad”) + πέπτω (péptō, “to digest”).

Borrowed from Latin fascia (“a band, bandage, swathe”). Related to fascēs (“bundle of rods containing an axe with the blade projecting”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰask- (“bundle, band”). Cognate with fajita, fess, and fascism.

From Arabic أَنْف (ʔanf, “nose”) (i.e. of Pegasus).

From French facultatif. By surface analysis, faculty + -ative.

From Latin ēnuntiātus, past participle of ēnuntiō (“to report, declare”), from ē- + nūntiō (“to report”). Doublet of enounce.

From east + lake.