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 tool + kit.

From sponge + -er.

From Middle English *sough, swough, swogh, from Middle English swoȝen, swowen, from Old English swōgan (“to make a sound; move with noise; rush; roar”), from Proto-West Germanic *swōgan, from Proto-Germanic *swōganą from Proto-Indo-European *sweh₂gʰ-, same source as English echo (via Ancient Greek). Cognate with Scots souch (“sough”), Icelandic súgur (“a rushing sound, rustle”). Noun replaced Middle English swei, sweȝ from Old English swēg. More at swoon.

From Middle English sornes, sornesse, sarnesse, from Old English sārnes (“bodily pain; mental pain, affliction, grief”), from Proto-West Germanic *sairanassī, equivalent to sore + -ness. Cognate with Scots sairness (“soreness”), Old Frisian sērnisse, sērnesse (“injury, lesion”), Middle Low German sêrnisse, sêrenisse (“wounding, injury, distress, need”).

From Middle French toque (“toque”), from Arabic طَاقِيَّة (ṭāqiyya).

Nickname for a well-built or brave person, from Middle English stalworth (“physically strong, hardy, robust; brave, courageous”), from Old English stǣlwierþe (“able to stand in good stead, serviceable”).

Learned borrowing from Latin simulācrum (“image, likeness”), from simul(ā) + -crum (a variant of -culum, from Proto-Indo-European *-tlom, a suffix forming instrument nouns), from similis (“similar (to)”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one; together”).

From Middle English tribulation, from Old French tribulacion, from Late Latin trībulātiō (“distress, trouble, tribulation, affliction”), from Latin tribulāre (“to press, probably also thresh out grain”), from trībulum (“a sledge consisting of a wooden block studded with sharp pieces of flint or with iron teeth, used for threshing grain”), from terēre (“to rub”); see trite.

From thoughtful + -ness.

From un- + amenable.

Clipping of Shulamith, Shulamit, Shulamis, diminutives of Hebrew שולמית \ שׁוּלַמִּית (shulamít).

From underwrite + -er.

From sham + -er.

From Late Latin tabulātus (“having a floor; floored”), perfect passive participle of tabulō (“to fit with planks”), from tabula (“board, plank”), of uncertain origin, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂- (a variant of *steh₂- (“to stand”)) + *-dʰlom (a variant of *-trom (suffix forming nouns denoting tools or instruments)). Equivalent to table + -ate (verb-forming suffix).

From thorough + going (adjective).

From Middle English schote, of uncertain origin. Perhaps a special use of Middle English schote (“projectile, young shoot”), or perhaps of Middle Low German origin, cognate with West Flemish schote (“young piglet”).

From steer + -er.

From Middle English unethe, uneathe (“difficult, not easy”), from Old English unēaþe (“difficult, not easy”). By surface analysis, un- + eath. See eath, easy for further. First attested in the Old English period.

* "naked": British slang, from 1923, combining (like a popular etymology) two meanings of stark (“strong, utterly; barren”) with stark naked, which is from Old English steort (“tail”), referring to the tail-end (as in butt-naked). * "crazy": stark (“shortening of stark raving mad”) + -ers

Onomatopoeic, from the ejection of a liquid. Compare with spooge, spoo, spooch. The term is first attested isolatedly in noun sense 2 ("ejection", "ejaculation"), referring to a dripping mop, in a 1919 St. Nicholas issue (see quotations); it is used in Anthony Burgess' 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange to represent the impact of a sudden, forceful, splashing blow; it also appears in a 1966 book as an onomatopoeia for the milking of a cow. The term was popularized in all its senses around late 1980s, as evidenced in two 1991 slang dictionaries.

From Latin squarrosus (“(perhaps) scurfy, scabby”).

1924, Latin trānsdūcō + -er. By surface analysis, transduce + -er.

Borrowed from Medieval Latin ultrāmarīnus, from Latin ultrā (“beyond”) + marīnus (“of or relating to the sea, marine”). By surface analysis, ultra + marine. Noun sense 1 (“pigment”) refers to the fact that lapis lazuli was obtained from foreign countries and hence “beyond the sea”.