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 horse plus play. Horse was long used as an intensifier meaning 'large, coarse or rough', as in horseradish and horse laugh.

Origin uncertain; possibly linked to Old Norse words for moving quickly, and connected to the English word "skittish".

From the earlier phrase high jinks, originally the name of a boisterous parlour drinking game.

A phrasal verb from clown, the circus performer, in the sense of behaving like one.

From joke plus the agent suffix -ster, as in trickster and prankster.

practical joker

From practical joke, where practical means 'carried out in action' as opposed to merely spoken, plus the agent noun joker.

slapstick comedy

From the slapstick, a stage prop made of two thin boards hinged so that striking someone produced a loud crack with almost no force, allowing pretend beatings to sound violent and look painless.

From dead in the sense 'lifeless, without movement' plus pan, old slang for the face.

A compound of sketch, in the sense of a brief and lightly drawn piece, and comedy.

A noun formed from the phrasal verb send up, in the sense 'to hold up to ridicule'.

From French lampon, a name for a scurrilous satirical song, which entered English in the seventeenth century. The further origin of the French word is disputed.

From Italian burlesco, from burla 'joke, mockery, jest', which entered English through French burlesque in the seventeenth century.

From French farce, literally 'stuffing', from Latin farcire 'to stuff'. Comic interludes were originally 'stuffed' into the gaps between the acts of serious religious plays, and the name of the filling transferred to the joke.

A compound of prank and war, using war in its common figurative sense of a sustained back-and-forth contest.

whoopee cushion

From whoopee, an exclamation of boisterous delight, and cushion; the product was sold under this name from the early twentieth century.

From the slap stick, the hinged double board used in commedia dell'arte and pantomime to make a loud slapping noise; the name of the prop transferred to the style of comedy it accompanied.

A compound of one and liner, a thing consisting of a single line.

knock-knock joke

Named after its opening line, imitating the sound of knocking at a door.

A compound of dad and joke, from the stereotype of a father telling unembarrassed puns to his children.

A blend of the first name of the singer Rick Astley and roll, formed on the model of the earlier bait-and-switch link joke known as the duckroll.

From Italian antico, ancient, from Latin antiquus. The word was first applied to the grotesque human and animal figures found in excavated Roman remains, and passed from those strange images to strange behaviour.

Middle English jape, of uncertain origin; possibly from Old French japer, to yelp or chatter.

From the phrasal verb wind up, in the sense of tightening a spring and hence provoking or agitating a person.

A compound of wise, in the slang sense of impudent or knowing, and crack, a sharp spoken remark; American in origin.