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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17th century, borrowed from Late Latin dēfaecātiō.

From dead + land.

From devil + -ment (suffix forming nouns indicating the actions or results of what is denoted by the words it is attached to).

From deference (or its Latin type *dēferentia) + -al; compare essence, essential; prudence, prudential, etc. Coined by Scottish novelist, poet and playwright Walter Scott.

From crunchy. Use to refer to infantrymen in Vietnam is from their "crunching" through the jungle brush. Use to refer to white Afrikaners is perhaps from their supposed tendency to eat crunchy food.

From Latin cruciatus.

From debilitatus, the past passive participle of Latin dēbilitō (“to weaken, debilitate”), from the adjective dēbilis (“weak”), itself from de- + habilis (“able”). Equivalent to Latin dēbilitō + -ate (verb-forming suffix; adjective-forming suffix).

From Japanese 出汁 (dashi, “essence, dashi soup”) (hiragana だし), from noun form of 出す (dasu, “to draw, to extract”).

Borrowed from French déterminant, equivalent to determine + -ant.

First attested in 1575; borrowed from Latin dēpilātus, perfect passive participle of dēpilō, see -ate (verb-forming suffix).

PIE word *ḱwṓ Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek κῠνηγετῐκός (kŭnēgetĭkós), from κυνηγέτης (kunēgétēs, “hunter”) + -ῐκός (-ĭkós, suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives); and κυνηγέτης (kunēgétēs) from κύων (kúōn, “dog”) + ἡγέτης (hēgétēs, “leader”).

From cyto- + smear.

From cum + rag.

From curly + cue.

From French cunette (possibly also lacunette), from Italian cunetta (“cunette”), said to be from lacunetta, diminutive of lacuna (“ditch; lagoon; gap”), from Latin lacūna (“hole, pit; cavity, cleft, hollow, opening; gap, void”), from lacus (“lake”), from Proto-Indo-European *lókus (“lake, pool”).

From derp + -y.

From a medieval diminutive of Dick.

From diagnose + -er.

From de- + orbit.

From criminal + -ise.

First attested in 1647; borrowed from Medieval Latin culminātus, perfect passive participle of culminō (“to crown”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from Latin culmen (“peak, highest point”, oblique stem culmin-) + -ō (verb-forming suffix), older form columen (“top, summit”), from Proto-Italic *kolamen, from a Proto-Indo-European base *kol-, *kelH- (“to project, rise; peak, summit, top”), whence also English hill and holm.

From demon + -ish.

From dare + -ful.

From deipno- + -phobia.