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 Latin calceolus (“little shoe, slipper”) + -ate (adjective-forming suffix), from calceus (“calceus, footwear”) + -olus (diminutive noun-forming suffix), from calx (“heel”) + -eus (adjective-forming suffix).

From box + -ful.

From blackless + -ness.

From bing (“thump, sudden bang”) + -le (diminutive suffix).

Probably Bohemian + Hungarian. Compare hunk, hunky, honky.

From Middle English bluntnes, bluntnesse, equivalent to blunt + -ness.

From broad + wing.

From brood + -er.

Borrowed from Serbo-Croatian Bòšnjāk (“Bosniak”), from Bȍsna (“Bosnia”). Equivalent to Bosniac: Bosnia+-ac.

From butt in (“to join a conversation or situation in which one is not welcome or invited, interject”) + -sky (a variant of -ski (suffix added to a word, name, or phrase to invoke Russianness, Polishness, or a more general Slavicness)), humorously modelled after Russian surnames, and originally and often used in the form of a surname.

From the genus name Buteo, from Latin būteō.

Borrowed from Russian большевист (bolʹševist).

From bewitch + -er.

From Latin calceātus, participle of calceāre (“to shoe, to provide with shoes”), from calceus (“calceus, shoe”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix), from calx (“heel”) + -eus (“-y”, adjective-forming suffix). Equivalent to Latin calceus + -ate (adjective-forming suffix).

While it's commonly believed that the name originated from Broly from the Dragon Ball anime franchise, (whose name is a transliteration of the Japanese ブロリー (Burorī), itself coined as a pun on the English broccoli, a theme used in the naming of members of the fictional Saiyan alien species (e.g. Vegeta, from vegetable)) - its usage actually predates Dragon Ball's popularity in the United States, likely existing in New York City at least before 1996.

From Cornish boos (“food, meal, fare”) + gut.

Borrowed from French brochette, diminutive of broche (“spit”).

From Sinhalese [script needed] (kaḷu-madīriya), perhaps from Coromandel ebony (see coromandel), changed by association with Sinhalese කළු (kaḷu, “black”); or perhaps a metathetic variant of coromandel via Dutch kalamanderhout.

Borrowed from Italian bocce.

From Irish ceard (“a tinker”).

From cadet + -ette.

Of unclear origin. Apparently from the dialectal term burgood (“yeast”). * Perhaps ultimately from Welsh burym (“yeast”) + cawl (“cabbage, gruel”), * Or perhaps from Arabic بُرْغُل (burḡul). * Or, from an alteration of ragout.

From brain + -ish.