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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A habitational surname from Devon, from Old English words for "hook or spur of land" and "post."

From Latin severus, "stern, serious."

Borrowed from Valencian Benidorm.

From Middle English ake ("oak") + royd ("clearing").

Shortened from Ebenezer, equivalent to Hebrew אֶבֶן (éven, "stone").

From Sanskrit शिवजी (śivajī).

An acronym for Node.js, Express.js, React, and a database (using SQL), coined in the late 2010s.

From socks (“a cat’s paws that are a different colour from the main body”).

A Transliteration of Russian Вадим (Vadim).

Formed from "bride" plus the adjective-forming suffix "-y", on the same pattern as "dreamy" from "dream".

Borrowed from German Krauß.

Borrowed directly from the French surname Clouseau.

Ultimately from Arabic وَسِيم (wasīm, literally “handsome, graceful”).

A clipped, informal shortening of Lincoln.

Borrowed from the Japanese surname 柏木 (Kashiwagi), literally "oak tree."

Borrowed from Japanese 国 (Kuni), 久邇 (Kuni) or くに (Kuni).

A transliteration of the Russian name Фёдор (Fjódor), itself descended from the Greek name Theodore, meaning "gift of God."

Borrowed from Japanese 玉城 (Tamaki), 玉木 (Tamaki) or たまき (Tamaki).

Borrowed from Japanese 上野 (Ueno) or 植野 (Ueno).

Borrowed from Japanese 大塚 (Ōtsuka).

Borrowed from the Japanese surname 高田 (Takada).

Borrowed from Czech Škoda.

Related to the Italian given names Federico and Alfredo; the slang sense is widely traced to the character Fredo Corleone in The Godfather.

Anglicized form of Scottish Gaelic Mac Gille Uidhir and Irish Mac Giolla Uidhir (“son of the dun lad”), from Mac + gille + uidhir, obsolete form of odhar (“dun; dark”).