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 descencioun, from Old French descension, from Latin dēscēnsiō, dēscēnsiōnem.

From Crete + -an.

From Cynthus + -ian and Cynthia + -ian. In sense 2, by metonymy for Artemis, Greek goddess of the Moon, whose mythical birthplace was the Cynthus.

From de- + initialize.

From a language of the West Indies. Probably from Antillean Creole dachine or another French creole, from French (chou) de Chine (literally “(cabbage) of China”), as the species originated in China.

Borrowed from French démagogique, equivalent to demagogue + -ic.

From cusp + -er.

From Latin cucurbita (“gourd”), + -aceous.

From Middle French découpler. By surface analysis, de- + couple.

From depend + -ee (“target of action”).

From cremate + -ory.

From defeat + -ism, after French défaitisme, coined in 1915 by Russian writer Grigorij Aleksinskij as a translation of Russian пораже́нчество (poražénčestvo), also coined by him as a derivation of порази́ть (porazítʹ, “to strike, defeat”).

From Middle English dentifricie, from Latin dentifricium (“powder for rubbing the teeth”), from dens (“tooth”) + fricāre (“to rub”). Compare French dentifrice.

Borrowed from Latin Cynthus, from Ancient Greek Κύνθος (Kúnthos).

From Middle English combren, aphetic form of acombren or encombren, borrowed from Old French encombrer, ultimately either from Latin cumulus or Proto-Celtic *kombereti (“to bring together”), from *kom- + *bereti (“to bear”). Cognate with German kümmern (“to take care of”).

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek κύανος (kúanos), a shade of blue variously described as similar to cornflower, copper carbonate, and lapis lazuli, Mycenaean Greek 𐀓𐀷𐀜 (ku-wa-no), possibly from Hittite [script needed] (kuwannan-, “a precious stone; copper; shade of blue”). Compare modern Greek κυανός (kyanós), also used for cyan.

Borrowed from Middle French crudité, from Latin crūditās. By surface analysis, crude + -ity. Doublet of crudité.

From a medieval diminutive form of the given name Robert + the patronymic suffix -s.

Transliteration of Avestan 𐬛𐬀𐬉𐬎𐬎𐬀 (daēuua). Doublet of deva.

From Middle English coilon, borrowed from Old French coillon (“testicle, vile fellow, coward, dupe”), from Vulgar Latin *cōleōnem, from Latin cōleus (“sack, scrotum”). Doublet of culeus and cojones.

From a medieval diminutive of Dick.

From translingual Curcuma, from Arabic كُرْكُم (kurkum, “turmeric”) + -in.

From crate + -ful.

From Latin decennialis, from decennium (“10-year period”) + -ālis, from decennis (“10-year”) + -ium (“-ium”, suffix forming abstract nouns), from decem (“ten”) + annus (“year”) + -is (suffix forming compound adjectives).