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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 brother + -like. Piecewise doublet of friarlike.

From French bilieux, from Latin bīliōsus (“full of bile”), from bīlis (“bile”) + -ōsus (“full of”).

From Middle English bitour, botor, from Old French butor, from Gallo-Roman *butitaurus, a blend of Latin būtiō (“bittern”) and taurus (“bull, ox”).

From Middle English beverage, probably a nickname or an occupational surname.

Malapropism in the English Bible of the Hebrew כֹּפֶר / כּוֹפֶר (kōp̄er, “henna”) by confusion with camphor. The Hebrew is from Akkadian 𒇒𒌓𒀀 (kupru, “bitumen, pitch”) from Akkadian 𒅗𒉺𒊒 (kapāru, “to smear, to daub on”).

From Old English Burgweard (“a personal name”) + -s- + Proto-Celtic *limos (“elm”).

From Middle English bire, bier, byr, from Old English bȳre.

Onomatopoeic. Compare bleb and blob.

From Latin bōs + -icide.

Borrowed from French bolide, from Latin bolis, from Ancient Greek βολίς (bolís, “missile, arrow, javelin”). Doublet of bolis.

Borrowed from Latin callum (“hard skin”). Displaced Old English wearr.

From blithesome + -ness.

From bug + house.

From body + style.

From button + hook.

From brain + -let.

From brew + master, a calque of German Braumeister.

Variant of Cameron.

From French bis, akin to Italian bigio (“light gray, tawny”). Doublet of beige.

From break + neck.

From Middle English blein, from Old English bleġen, bleġene, from Proto-Germanic *blajinǭ, *blajjinǭ, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to swell up”). Cognate with West Frisian blein (“blain”), Dutch blein, blegn (“blain”), Middle Low German bleine (“blain”). Related also to dialectal Norwegian bleime (“blister”), Old Swedish blēma (“blister”), French bleime (“an inflammation of a horse's hoof”).

From Middle English blaunchen, from Old French blanchir, from Old French blanc (“white”), from Early Medieval Latin blancus, from Frankish *blank, from Proto-Germanic *blankaz (“bright, shining, blinding, white”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleyǵ- (“to shine”). Cognates Cognate with blench (“to deceive, to trick”) through Proto-Indo-European, whence other etymology of blanch.

From caco- + -graphy, perhaps after Middle French cacographie.