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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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Compare Danish klat.

From Latin clāvis (“a key”). Doublet of clave and clef.

Borrowed from Latin clima, from Ancient Greek κλίμα (klíma, “(zone of) latitude”, literally “inclination”), from κλίνω (klínō, “to slope, incline”). See also climate.

From chowder + headed.

From Latin carnificare, from Latin carnis (“flesh”) + facere (“to make”). Compare French carnifier.

From cling + -some.

From choke + point.

Borrowed from French centimètre; equivalent to centi- + metre.

Borrowed from Scots claver.

From catamenia + -al.

From chain + work.

From Catholic + -ly.

Imitative, ca. 1600. More at churr.

From cheap + -en.

From carpent(er), carpent(ry) + -ing.

From New Latin chemicus, chimicus, chymicus.

Old French cense, French cens, Latin census.

From Middle English causelees, causeles; equivalent to cause + -less.

From citrus + -ous.

From centi- + pawn.

Borrowed from Latin cloāca (“sewer”), related to cluō (“cleanse; purge”), but the derivation is uncertain.

Like its cognate / alternative form chinkapin, chinquapin is an alteration of chechinquamin / chincomen (the form found in early records), from an Algonquian language (sometimes said specifically to be from Powhatan). The final element is *mini (“berry, fruit”). Hewitt suggested that the first element was a word meaning "large, great" cognate to xinkw- (“big, large, great”).

Named after the mineralogist Von Carnall (1804-74), + -ite.