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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In the banking sense an initialism of electronic funds transfer. The amphibian sense is a separate and much older word, Old English efeta; 'newt' developed from it when 'an ewt' was misheard as 'a newt'.

An initialism: in the music sense, of electronic dance music; in the engineering sense, of electrical discharge machining.

A modern pseudo-Latin coinage rather than a genuine classical word; it is usually explained as combining Latin ecce, behold, with dentes, teeth. It is not recorded in classical Latin sources.

From earmark, a notch or mark cut into the ear of a farm animal to show who owned it.

From Greek dyspnoia, difficulty of breathing, from dys-, bad or difficult, and pnoe, breathing.

From Greek dysphoria, discomfort or distress, from dys-, bad or difficult, and pherein, to bear.

From Old English dwinan, to waste away or languish.

From French duvet, down or fine feathers.

From Old English dragan, to draw or pull, so literally a drawing or pulling; the same word as American draft.

An alteration of docs, short for documents, from the practice of releasing documents about a person online. Also spelled doxx.

An initialism of downloadable content.

From Greek diourētikos, from diourein 'to pass urine', formed from dia- 'through' and ouron 'urine'.

From displace, itself from French desplacer, formed from des- 'away' and place.

From Latin dispergere 'to scatter', formed from dis- 'apart' and spargere 'to strew'.

discombobulated

A fanciful American formation of the nineteenth century, deliberately comic in shape; the exact model is not established.

From Anglo-Norman legal French desclaimer 'to renounce a claim', from des- 'away' and clamer 'to call, claim'.

From Old French desbourser 'to pay out', formed from des- 'out of' and bourse 'purse'.

A reduplication of dally 'to waste time, linger'.

From Latin diffundere 'to pour out, spread', formed from dis- 'apart' and fundere 'to pour'.

From Greek didaktikos 'skilled at teaching', from didaskein 'to teach'.

A shortening of dictionary.

devil's advocate

A translation of Latin advocatus diaboli, the informal name for the official appointed in Roman Catholic canonisation proceedings to argue against a candidate's sainthood.

From Latin deponere 'to lay down, put aside', used in later legal Latin of laying down testimony; the grammatical sense reflects a verb having 'laid aside' its passive meaning.

From French denture 'set of teeth', ultimately from Latin dens, dentis 'tooth'.