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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 child bed; equivalent to child + bed.

From cis- (“on this side”) + Atlantic.

Compound of clod + hopper (agentive form of the verb hop). Perhaps affected by analogy with grasshopper. The term originated in the 17th century as a derogatory name for a farm laborer—someone who "hopped" (stomped) over "clods" of earth; attested in the sense of "peasant" since the seventeenth century; the extended sense of "boot" or "shoe" dates from the nineteenth century. While originating in Britain, the term survives most strongly in Southern/Appalachian speech.

Modified from cheers.

From Latin Chersonēsus, from Ancient Greek Χερσόνησος (Khersónēsos), from χερσόνησος (khersónēsos, “peninsula”), from χέρσος (khérsos, “dry”) + νῆσος (nêsos, “island”).

From cock + eye. See cock (“to turn up”).

Shortened from chromolithograph.

Based on Latin claustrum (“cloister”). Doublet of cloistral.

Probably a reduced form of Cockerham or a variant of Cochrane.

From French chouette (“owl”).

From cock + breath.

From Ancient Greek χοϊκός (khoïkós, “earthy, earthen”) + -al, from χοῦς (khoûs, “dust, dirt”).

From Clementine + -y.

From coco + yam, because old cocoyam was planted in coconut groves and resembled yams. New cocoyam was so named because it resembled old cocoyam.

From cause + -ation.

From carpet + monger.

Clipping of cocksucker.

From Late Latin chorion, from Ancient Greek χόριον (khórion, “membrane surrounding the fetus, afterbirth”).

Unadapted borrowing from Latin claustrum (“a bolt, bar”). Doublet of cloister.

From Old English ċild.

Deverbal from close down.

From Caucasian + -oid.

From cliff + hanger, evoking the image of someone left hanging from a cliff, thereby having an uncertain fate. The term cliffhanger is considered to have originated with the serialized version of Thomas Hardy's A Pair of Blue Eyes, published in Tinsley's Magazine in the 1870s, in which the character Henry Knight is left hanging off of a cliff. It was inspired by a real life story from his wife Emma's childhood, when she had to rescue one of her school friends from a similar position.

A spelling variant of Carly.