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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Perhaps from Middle English flouten (“to play the flute”); compare with Dutch fluiten.

From de- + animate.

From Brobdingnag + -ian, fictional country inhabited by giants in Gulliver's Travels.

From Old French digestible, equivalent to digest + -ible.

Late Middle English in the sense "piece, lump," of uncertain origin, but possibly related to the noun bat with the sense of "beaten" fabric.

From Middle English coler (“yellow bile”), from Old French colere (“bile, anger”), from Latin cholera (“bilious disease”), from Ancient Greek χολή (kholḗ, “bile”). Doublet of cholera.

From Middle English enamouren, a late back-formation from enamoured, itself a partial calque of Old French enamore, past participle of enamorer, enamourer, equivalent to prefix en- + amor + -er. See amour, and compare inamorato.

From Middle English forenone, equivalent to fore- + noon.

flabbergastment

From flabbergast + -ment.

Borrowed from Italian credenza. Doublet of credence.

Borrowed from French frappé.

From Middle English fromward, framward, from Old English framweard (“about to depart, departing, doomed to die; with his back turned”, adjective) and framweardes (“away from”, adverb), equivalent to from + -ward. Compare froward.

From Italian dispartire and its source, Latin dispartire.

From French débutant, equivalent to debut + -ant.

From chamber + -mate.

Borrowed from French, from Ottoman Turkish دیوان (divan), from Classical Persian دیوان (dēwān), from Middle Persian d(p)ywʾn' (dēwān, “archive, collected writings”), from Sumerian 𒁾 (dub). Compare mattress, from Arabic (both of Middle Eastern origin, due to the local custom of lying on padding on floor being foreign to Europeans). Doublet of dewan, douane, and diwaniya.

* French décamper, Old French descamper.

From Middle English [Term?], from Latin congruus, from congruō (“to coincide with; to agree”).

From down- + grade.

From Middle English coverlite, from Anglo-Norman cuver-lit, formed on cuvrir (“to cover”) + lit (“bed”). Cognate with Catalan cobrellit.

From exude + -ate (noun-forming suffix).

The verb is first attested in 1530, the adjective in 1626; borrowed from Latin attenuātus, the perfect passive participle of attenuō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from ad- (“to, towards, at”) + tenuo (“to make thin”), itself from tenuis (“thin”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix).

Borrowed from Scots bawbag (“ballsack”). Doublet of ballbag.

From Ancient Greek κακοδαίμων (kakodaímōn, “ill-starred”, from κακός (kakós, “bad”) + δαίμων (daímōn, “genius, divinity”)). By surface analysis, caco- + demon.