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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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Named after Daniel Chapman Stillson, the American inventor who patented the tool in the 1870s.

Variant spelling of Masoud.

(given name) From Russian Степа́н (Stepán, “Stephen”), from Greek Στέφανος (Stéfanos). Doublet of Stephen. :(surname) From Czech Štěpán.

An occupational surname for someone who used a pick, found in English, German, and Dutch forms.

Ultimately from Hokkien, via Philippine Spanish Cinco, an alternative form of Sinco/Singco, which are historically transcriptions following Spanish orthography of a Hokkien name with honorific used as surnames since the Spanish colonial era of the Philippines.

Borrowed from Spanish manta (“blanket”).

A habitational surname from the village of Saintbury in Gloucestershire, recorded in the 12th century as Seynesbury.

From money and penny, an old nickname for a miser.

Borrowed from Russian Волков (Volkov).

An old technical term for the tube, unrelated to the fictional robot villain of the same name from the Transformers franchise, which was coined separately.

Borrowed from Hindi कृष (kŕṣ), Derived from Hindi कृष्णा (kŕṣṇā).

From the surname Astor + the suffix -ia.

Borrowed from Italian Scavo.

Borrowed from Japanese 上田 (Ueda).

From the German surname, from the noun Krähe (“crow”).

From Mandarin 喬/乔 (Qiáo).

* As a German surname, Americanized from Gehr * As an English surname, spelling variant of Geary * As a Hungarian surname, from the personal name Gergely

* As a Catalan surname, from Samà in Catalonia * As an Italian surname, variant spelling of the surname Samà. * As a Hindi/Gujarati surname, from सम्मा (sammā), name of a tribe. See Samma. * As an Asturian-Leonese surname, from Sama in Asturias. * As a Japanese surname, from 狭い (“narrow”), written phonetically as 佐満.

Borrowed from Portuguese Monsanto.

Borrowed from Hungarian László, from the Slavic given name Ladislav, a variant of Vladislav. Doublet of Ladislaus.

Borrowed from Persian زمانی (zamâni).

Formed from the island name Saba plus the suffix "-an."

From Punjabi, related to a word for "orange" and ultimately connected to the same root as the English word orange.

Borrowed from Italian Serpico.