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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Formed by clipping a longer word — "appetizer" or "appendix/appendicitis/appendectomy" — down to "appy" and adding the informal "-y" ending.

From Mandarin Chinese 師傅/師父 (shīfu), meaning "master" or "teacher."

Borrowed mainly from Tamil and Sinhalese, and common across several South and Southeast Asian languages as an exclamation of dismay.

Ellipsis of sotto voce.

Northern Irish variant of McEvoy.

From the male lead of the 1917 Bengali novel Devdas, whose story has since been retold many times on screen.

An Egyptian name meaning roughly "effective for Aten," adopted after the pharaoh changed his name from Amenhotep IV.

From Hindi शास्त्री (śāstrī), meaning "one learned in the shastras."

From Sanskrit शिखा (śikhā).

From Old English hāliġ ("holy") + wielle ("well, spring").

From Arabic ʕirfān, meaning "knowledge" or "gnosis."

Borrowed from Japanese きこ (Kiko).

Borrowed from Vietnamese Chăm Pa.

Ultimately from mechanical, mechanic, perhaps via mecha.

Variant of Dutch Palm.

Probably a habitational surname from a lost or unidentified place in England.

From Arabic مبارك (mubārak, "blessed").

* As a Hungarian and Slovak surname, from the personal name Goda, formed from Proto-Slavic *goditi (“to please”). This is also Germanized from the Sorbian form, see Goede. * As a Japanese surname, from 合田.

From Middle English blew, from Old English blēow, from Proto-West Germanic *blē.

From Romance languages.

From Middle English Frankeleyn, Frankelein, from Middle English frankeleyn, frankelein, frankelyng (“a landowner, freeman, gentleman”), from Anglo-Norman fraunclein, of obscure formation; probably from Medieval Latin francus (“free”) + Old French -lenc (“-ling”). By surface analysis, frank + -ling.

Traces back to Old French castel ("fortress, castle") or its cognates in other Romance and Germanic languages.

Borrowed from Italian Rallo.

From Japanese characters meaning "river" and "plain/field."