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 Greek dēmagōgos 'leader of the people', from dēmos 'people' and agōgos 'leading'.

From Greek dēlētērios 'noxious, destructive', from dēleisthai 'to hurt'.

From French déjà vu, literally 'already seen'.

From Latin deciduus 'falling off', from decidere, formed from de- 'down' and cadere 'to fall'.

Formed from de- ('reverse, remove') plus centralize, itself from central.

From the legal maxim de minimis non curat lex, 'the law does not concern itself with trifles'.

From Latin de facto, literally 'from the fact' or 'from the deed'.

An initialism, in the electrical sense of direct current and in the geographical sense of District of Columbia.

Originally an allusion to an unknown horse with a dark coat winning a race, as used in the 1831 novel The Young Duke by Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881).

German danke 'thanks', from danken 'to thank', related to English thank.

From Greek kytos 'hollow vessel, cell' and plasma 'something moulded or formed'.

From curtal, an obsolete word for a horse with a docked tail, reshaped under the influence of Latin curtus 'shortened, cut short'.

Origin obscure, with a number of possible etymologies suggested: * a dialectal word, * a word related to the name of the now-forgotten inventor, * a derivation from French couvert (“covered”), although couvert is not used in this sense and the French translation of culvert is ponceau or buse de drainage, * a derivation from an unrecorded Dutch word, possibly *coul-vaart, a combination of Dutch coul-, from French couler (“to flow”), and Dutch vaart (“a trip by boat, a canal”).

An initialism of chief technology officer.

From French crèche 'manger, crib', ultimately of Germanic origin and related to English crib.

An initialism of continuing professional development.

A shortening of commercial, chosen as the label for the commercial top-level domain.

An abbreviation of Latin confer, the imperative of conferre 'to bring together, compare'.

An initialism of carbon copy, from the sheets of carbon paper once used to produce duplicates of typed letters.

An initialism of can't be bothered (also of cost-benefit analysis in business use).

From the verb browse, which came into English from Old French brost 'bud, young shoot', originally describing animals feeding on shoots and leaves.

An initialism of best friends forever.

From Latin laudabilis, from laudare, meaning to praise.

From Latin languidus, from languere, meaning to be faint or weak.