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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Borrowed from the Japanese name ゆりこ (Yuriko).

From French berthe, the same word that gives English "bertha."

Borrowed from Japanese ともこ (Tomoko).

Borrowed from Japanese さちこ (Sachiko).

Borrowed from French renard ("fox"), or from Old French Renart.

From mjw, the ancient Egyptian word for "cat," as rendered by 19th-century Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius.

Diminutive + -y.

From Aramaic bar ʾabbā ("son of the father").

Blend of Sayori + Yuri.

Borrowed from Japanese あきこ (Akiko).

Borrowed from Japanese 芹沢 (Serizawa).

From the Irish surname Ó Branagáin, itself derived from bran ("raven") — the word drifted from a personal name into slang for a drunken spree.

Borrowed from Japanese せつこ (Setsuko).

Borrowed from the Japanese name ゆきこ (Yukiko).

Borrowed from Japanese 永田 (Nagata) or 長田 (Nagata).

A patronymic form of the surname Dear, meaning roughly "son of Dear."

Borrowed from Japanese 美子, 芳子 (よしこ, Yoshiko, literally “good, excellent child”).

A casual shortening of "decomposition" or "decomposed."

Borrowed from German Hauser.

From Japanese Momoko.

Transliteration of Japanese 大田 (Ōta).

Borrowed from Czech Franta.

A pun on every + pony, modeled on "everybody," popularized by the My Little Pony fandom.

An Anglo-Norman nickname from corb (“crow”), or shortened from the Corbinian, the name of a Frankish eighth-century saint, probably from Latin corvus (“crow, raven”).