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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Blend of snicket + ginnel + alleyway. Coined by Mark W. Jones in 1983 in his book A Walk Around the Snickelways of York.

From slab (“mud, sludge”) + -y.

Borrowed from German Sitzkrieg (“sitting war”), a pun on Blitzkrieg (“lightning war”).

First attested in 1615. Borrowed from French somnolent, from Old French sompnolent, from Latin somnolentus, from somnus (“sleep”).

Inherited from Middle English sorwefully; by surface analysis, sorrowful + -ly.

From obsolete Irish sidhe (now spelled sí), "fairy mound", a sense found in English only in lowercase (sidhe); use to mean "fairies" or "a fairy", found in English in both lowercase and capitalized form, is from an ellipsis of Irish aos sidhe, now spelled aos sí, "people of the fairy mound".

The verb is a variant of snape, from Middle English snaipen (“to injure; of sleet or snow: to nip; to criticize, rebuke, revile”) [and other forms], from Old Norse sneypa (“to disgrace, dishonour; to outrage”), from Proto-Germanic *snaupijaną, from Proto-Germanic *snūpaną, *snūbaną (“to cut, snap”); further origin unknown. The noun is derived from the verb.

From Middle English sothfast, from Old English sōþfæst (“true, trustworthy”), from Proto-West Germanic *sanþafast. Equivalent to sooth + fast.

From six + penny.

From Middle English saulesoth, *soulescot, from sāwolsċeatt (“an ecclesiastical due, to be paid for every deceased person to the clergy of the church to which he belonged, in consideration of the services performed by them in his behalf”), equivalent to soul + scot.

From Old French sortilège, from Medieval Latin sortilegium (“witchcraft”), from Latin sortilegus (“sorcerer, diviner”), from sors (“fate”) + legere (“choose”).

From sister + -ship.

From snooze + -y.

The noun is derived from Middle English skaine, skayne (“quantity of string, thread, etc., wound on a reel; the string, thread, etc., so wound”), from Old French escaigne (modern French écagne, écaigne (Picardy)); further etymology uncertain, probably from Proto-Celtic, from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to split off”). The verb is derived from noun. cognates * Irish scáinne (“skein, clew”)

Noun sense “snide remark” as back-formation from snarky (1906), from obsolete snark (“to snore, snort”, verb) (1866), from Middle English *snarken (“to snore”), from Proto-West Germanic *snarkōn, equivalent to snore + -k. Compare Low German snarken, North Frisian snarke, Swedish snarka, German schnarchen, and English snort and snore. Of Germanic origin, but ultimately onomatopoeic.

From Medieval Latin Sinicus, from Sina (“China”) + -icus (“-ic”), from Late Latin Sinae (“the Southern Chinese; Southern China”), from Ancient Greek Σῖναι (Sînai), q.v. Equivalent to Sino- + -ic.

From slog + -er.

From Middle English *sideli (adjective), sideli (adverb), equivalent to side + -ly. Cognate with German seitlich (“lateral”). Compare also sideling.

From skull + -y; (game): from the skulls which are drawn around the center square in the game.

From slumber + -land.

From Latin somnus (“sleep”) + ambulatio (“a walking about”), from ambulare (“to walk”). See somnolent, amble.

From socio- (prefix meaning ‘society’) + -fugal (suffix meaning ‘travelling out from’), coined by the English psychiatrist Humphry Osmond (1917–2004) in 1957: see the quotation.

From Sinese + -ian. Compare earlier Chinesian.

From silk + -like, q.v.