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 Old High German got ("God") and harti ("hard, strong").

Named after King James I of England, combined with "town."

A 19th/20th century variant of Juliana. Can also be interpreted as a combination of Julia + Anne.

From Gordon + -y.

From Gordon + -ie.

From Russian Ди́ма (Díma), a diminutive of the male given name Дми́трий (Dmítrij, “Demetrius”).

From Chuck + -y.

From Chuck + -ie.

Formed from mine (an excavation for extracting minerals) plus the adjective suffix -y, the same pattern as "rocky" from "rock."

From Japanese, blending pika (the sound of a spark or glitter) with chū (the sound a mouse makes).

The character's name may come from the Sanskrit word for "warrior."

Borrowed from Sanskrit जय (jaya, literally “victory”).

Uncertain; 17thC, originally in the folklore of southwest England; perhaps diminutive of dialectal Swedish pysk (“fairy”), though the transmission of a Swedish dialect term to southwest Britain is unexplained; perhaps Puck (“Robin Goodfellow”) + -sy; see Wikipedia.

From the given name Edmund.

From Hindi विक्रम (vikram), from Sanskrit विक्रम (vikrama).

Borrowed from Sanskrit चन्द्र (candrá, "moon").

Named after Starbuck, the first mate in Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick, itself inspired by the real-life Starbuck family, a prominent whaling family from Nantucket, Massachusetts.

From French barrette, tracing back to Late Latin barretum ("a cap").

From Ancient Greek Λαέρτης (Laértēs).

From New Latin petechialis, from petechia (the tiny skin spot itself), of disputed further origin.

From French Poitiers, ultimately named after the Pictones, a Gaulish tribe who inhabited the region.

Borrowed from Japanese 黒沢 (Kurosawa).

Borrowed from Hungarian Liszt.

A straightforward compound of wood and house.