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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Derived from Translingual uwu.

From utility, ultimately from Latin utilis 'useful', with the suffix -arianism forming the name of a doctrine.

An initialism of 'unique selling point', also expanded as 'unique selling proposition'.

An initialism of Universal Serial Bus.

From un- 'reverse of' plus subscribe, from Latin subscribere 'to write underneath, to sign'.

under the weather

From under the weather bow (“affected by bad weather; seasick”); weather bow is a nautical term referring to the side of a ship exposed to bad weather.

From un- 'not' plus abridged, which came through Old French from Latin abbreviare 'to shorten'.

From Japanese umami, from umai 'delicious' and mi 'taste'.

An initialism of 'take your time'.

An initialism of 'thank you so much'.

From twin + -ing.

In the warning sense, an initialism of 'trigger warning'.

An initialism of 'talk to you later'.

An abbreviation of teletypewriter, the early printing terminal that connected to a computer or telephone line.

From truant, which came into English from Old French truant meaning 'vagabond' or 'beggar'.

From the Greek legend of the Trojan War, in which Greek soldiers hid inside a large wooden horse to get inside the walls of Troy.

From Latin trans- 'through' and spirare 'to breathe'.

transliteration

From Latin trans- 'across' and littera 'letter', so literally 'carrying letters across' from one alphabet to another.

From Latin transcribere, from trans- 'across' and scribere 'to write'.

From French tranche 'a slice', from trancher 'to cut'.

A compound of trail and blaze in its sense of marking trees with cuts to show a route through forest.

Of uncertain origin. Possible alteration of tug (“to pull”) + -le

An initialism of 'too much information'.

From French titrer 'to determine the strength of a solution', from titre 'standard, fineness, proportion'.