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 soupy + -ness.

Borrowed from Latin stāgnātus, past participle of stāgnō (“cover the land as a lake, stagnate”), from stāgnum (“pond, swamp”).

Inherited from Middle English strewynge.

From splat + book, from the tendency for all the books in the series to be named uniformly, with only the name of the group varying. See splat (“asterisk”), a symbol used as a wildcard in computing.

From stratum + -ification.

From New Latin subangulāris. By surface analysis, sub- + angular.

From Old English stān (“stone”) + tūn (“enclosure; town, settlement”). Compare Stanton, which shares the same etymology.

From New Latin stāmen, from Ancient Greek στῆμα (stêma).

From Anglo-Norman surseser, from Old French sursis, past participle of surseoir, from Latin supersedēre. Spelling later influenced by association with unrelated cease, which likely also influenced the meaning. Related to supersede.

From speed + well.

From sun + ray.

From Latin submersus, past participle of submergo.

From sub- + Tartarean.

From stick + -able.

From Ancient Greek σπέρμα (spérma, “sperm”) + ζῷον (zōîon, “living thing”), equivalent to spermato- + -zoon.

From swag (“to droop; to sag”) + belly.

Latin sugere (“to suck”).

From spill + over.

Borrowed from Italian spumante.

From sucky + -ness.

From spice + berry.

From sun + porch.

From Middle English spume, from Old French espume, from Latin spūma.

From Middle English sunne brente, equivalent to sun + burnt.