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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Uncertain. Perhaps from band(s) (“swaddling clothes”) + -ling, or a modification of German Bänkling (“bastard-child”), equivalent to bench + -ling.

Borrowed from Latin collum (“the neck”). Doublet of col.

From French exactitude, from exact, from Latin exactus, perfect passive participle of exigō (“demand, claim as due" or "measure by a standard, weigh, test”), from ex (“out”) + agō (“drive”).

From Latin cōnfiscātiō. By surface analysis, confiscate + -ion.

From clad + -ing. Compare clothing, ultimately from the same source.

From Latin expiātus, past participle of expiō (“atone for”).

From de- + complexify.

From Middle English, borrowed from Latin Capricornus, from capra (“goat”) and cornū (“horn”), calque of Ancient Greek Αἰγοκέρως (Aigokérōs, “horned goat; name of constellation”), calque of Akkadian 𒀯𒋦𒈧𒄩 (suḫurmāšu), from Sumerian 𒀯𒋦𒈧𒄩 (ᴹᵁᴸSUḪUR.MAŠ, “the Goat-Fish; name of constellation”).

Late 19th c., from de- + (ac)celerate. Compare deaccelerate.

Deverbal from cut up.

Borrowed from French cerise (mid 19th century), itself from Vulgar Latin ceresia, from Latin cerasium. Doublet of cherry and kirsch.

From cross (“grumpy”) + patch (“fool”).

From Einstein + -ium. Named after Albert Einstein.

From Old French confrere, from Latin confrāter. The word which was originally only used for the second sense became obsolete in the 17th century and reappeared in the mid 18th century as a re-borrowing of Modern French confrère whence the first sense is from.

From Italian Carlotta, an equivalent of Charlotte.

From Middle English clepen, clepien, from Old English cleopian, clipian (“to speak, cry out, call, summon, invoke, cry to, implore”), from Proto-Germanic *klipōną (“to ring, sound”), from Proto-Indo-European *gal- (“to sound”). Cognate with Old Frisian klippa, kleppa (“to ring”), Dutch kleppen (“to toll, chatter”), Middle Low German kleppen (“to strike, sound”), Middle Low German kleperen (“to rattle”).

From Ancient Greek ἀσυμμετρία (asummetría), from ἀσύμμετρος (asúmmetros) + -ία (-ía), from ἀ- (a-) + σύμμετρος (súmmetros); equivalent to a- + symmetry.

From flounder (“act clumsily (verb)”) + -ish.

From down + beat.

Mid-17th century. From Latin duplus.

From Middle French expiation, from Latin expiātiō(n) (“satisfaction”).

Nominalization of divagate (from the Latin verb divagare) + -ion (from the Latin suffix -io).

Deverbal from dust up.

From Latin desquamare (“to scrape the scales off a fish”), from squāma (“scale”).