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 French charpentier, "carpenter," from Latin carpentarius.

Borrowed from Italian Colonna.

The surname is from the place name.

From the German and Jewish (via Yiddish פֿײַן (fayn)) surname, from the adjective fein (“fine”), similar to the surname Fine.

From German Schäfer (“shepherd”). More at Schaefer.

Based on the geography of Cape Verde, between or close to both a Canary and a European option.

Scottish habitational surname, from a place called Arnot, near Kinross.

Named after Clyde Cessna (1879-1954), who founded the American aircraft company that still bears his name.

Borrowed from Mandarin 賈／贾 (jiǎ).

From Swedish backe ("hill") or bäck ("stream") + ström ("stream").

Borrowed from Barngarla dyimba (“ashes”).

Borrowed from Egyptian šw (“Shu”, literally “Emptiness”), a derivative of the verb šwj (“to be empty, devoid of”).

From Middle English flynt.

Perhaps related to gumption. The term long pre-dates the slow-witted character from the 1994 film Forrest Gump.

Borrowed from Mandarin 曹 (cáo).

Variant of Wetherby.

An anglicization of Bengali মুখুজ্জে (mukhujje).

Reduced form of MacCabe or McCabe, anglicized form of Irish Mac Cába.

Borrowed from Italian Visconti.

Borrowed from Arabic أكبر (akbar), meaning "greater" or "greatest."

Borrowed from Japanese 藤本 (Fujimoto).

From Arabic shahid, "witness, martyr."

Variant of Buchmann.

From the German surname Stutenbecker, later anglicized to Studebaker; the company was founded by the Studebaker family.