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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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From Basque Aiara, after a town in the Basque Country.

Borrowed from Spanish Álvarez.

From Dutch "Vlacke Bos," meaning "wooded plain."

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin 夏 (Xià).

From Old English æsċ (“ash tree”) + land, equivalent to ash + land. Many places in the United States are named after Ashland, Henry Clay's estate.

From Wyandot saundustee (“water”).

From Bruce McLaren, Formula One driver and race team founder.

Anglicized form of Irish and Scottish Gaelic Mac Néill (“son of Níall”).

Borrowed from Mandarin 黃/黄 (Huáng). Doublet of Wong, Huynh, and Hoang.

Variant of Hollingworth.

A reduced Anglicized form of Irish Ó Dúnadhaigh, or a Scottish habitational surname from the barony of Downie.

From Anglo-Norman corbet (“little crow; carrion crow”), probably a nickname for someone with dark hair or complexion.

From Spanish, Catalan and Asturian-Leonese surname, from several placenames derived from nava (“plain, treeless plateau”), from Paleo-Hispanic, probably Basque naba (“plain, valley”). See Navarra.

From Hebrew Yedidyah, from yedid ("beloved") and Yah ("God").

From "transformer" — literally "something that transforms."

* As a Scottish and Irish surname, Anglicized from Mac Cionaodha, Mac Cionaoith. * Also as an Irish surname, Anglicized from Mac Coinnigh (“son of Coinneach”), also treated in Scotland as equivalent to Kenneth. Both senses above are derived from Pictish *ᚉᚔᚅᚔᚑᚇ. Sometimes Anglicized in Scotland as McKenzie.

From an unrecorded Old English personal name plus a word meaning "woodland clearing."

From Middle English featherston, fetherstane, from Old English feoþerstān, fiþerstān (literally “four-stone”), from Old English fiþer- (“four”) + stān (“stone”).

From either the Old English personal name Wine, which is a byname from wine (“friend”), or winn (“pasture”) + tūn (“enclosure; settlement, town”).

From Old English strǣt (“street, paved high-way”) + tūn (“enclosure; settlement, town”).

Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Cathail ("son of Cathal").

* As an English surname, from Old English mæne (“common, shared”) + lēah (“woodland”). Equivalent to mean + -ley (“lea”). * Also as an English surname, from the adjective manly (“brave, manly”). * As an Irish surname, anglicized from Ó Máinle (“descendant of Máinle”); see Malley. * Also as an Irish surname, from Ó Maonghaile (“descendant of Maonghal”), from maoin (“wealth”) + gal (“valor, fury”).

Borrowed from Italian Mancuso.

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 蔣 /蒋 (Jiǎng). Doublet of Chiang, Chiong, Chionh, and Kiang.