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.

Browse etymology by letter

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Recently added

From Latin in vitro, literally "in glass", a reference to the glass vessels used in laboratory work.

Related to French en particulier. Compare Spanish en particular and Italian in particolare.

Compare various calques such as Spanish en otras palabras, Portuguese em outras palavras, French en d'autres termes and Italian in altre parole.

Inherited from Middle English in general.

From fact (“deed, action”) (now obsolete, except in law). Perhaps ultimately a calque of French en fait.

From Middle English [Term?].

Calque of New Latin in nuce, derived from an anecdote in Pliny the Elder, who ascribes to Cicero the claim that the whole Iliad was once written on parchment and enclosed within a nutshell (Naturalis Historia 7.21.85). Compare typologically Czech stručný, stručně (< struk).

Borrowed from Hawaiian imu. Doublet of umu.

An initialism of information and communications technology.

An initialism of International Baccalaureate.

hyperventilating

From Greek hyper-, over or excessive, and Latin ventilare, to fan or blow.

From Greek hyper-, over or excessive, and trophē, nourishment.

From Greek hydro-, water, and philos, loving.

From human right + -s (suffix forming plural nouns and pluralia tantum).

An abbreviation of high school.

holier-than-thou

From a phrase in the Book of Isaiah, in which a speaker tells another 'I am holier than thou'; thou is the archaic singular you.

hola, cómo estás

Spanish, literally 'hello, how are you'; estás is the informal second-person form of estar, to be.

From head + space.

An abbreviation of high definition.

An initialism of historically black college or university.

From hawk, the bird of prey, long used figuratively for a person who favours war, with the adjective ending -ish.

From nineteenth-century cricket, where a bowler who dismissed three batsmen with successive balls was traditionally presented with a hat.

Spanish hasta 'until' plus luego 'later, afterwards', literally 'until later'.

A compound of hard and ware, originally naming goods made of metal; the computing sense was formed by analogy, and software was coined afterwards as its opposite.