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 the Māori name Hōri, itself borrowed from the English name "George".

Borrowed from Catalan, Italian and Spanish Franca or, alternatively, from Portuguese França.

Borrowed from Latin Circē.

Clipping of Tesla + -ie.

Borrowed from Japanese 香(か)川(がわ) (Kagawa).

From Japanese Miyagi.

Borrowed from Japanese 安藤 (Andō).

Patronymic surname, borrowed from Spanish Andrés.

From Sanskrit पद्म (padma), meaning "lotus".

From Maris Lane, Trumpington, Cambridge (the founding site of Cambridge University's Plant Breeding Institute), from Etruscan Maris.

From Old English lār, "lore" — the same root behind the modern words "learn" and "lore."

From Latin imbecillus, meaning "weak" — literally "without a supporting staff."

Borrowed from Spanish Salinas, a metonymic occupational surname for a worker in a salt mine.

Grew out of the American English phrase "ants in one's pants" — first recorded as rural Southern US slang in the early 1900s.

From Biblical Hebrew שְׁלֹמֹה (šəlōmōh), built on שָׁלוֹם (šālôm, "peace") — the same name as English "Solomon."

Fanciful variant of Maddie.

Formed from print plus -ing.

From Latin epicus, from Greek epikos, related to epos, "word, story."

As an English surname, from Old English words for brushwood or an enclosure; as an Irish surname, an anglicised form of Ó hAodha, "descendant of Aodh."

From the Irish word "láí," meaning spade.

A casual shortening of "parmesan" or "parmigiana."

Origin uncertain — possibly from "bride" plus "-ie", from a tradition of serving the pastry at weddings, though it may instead come from a baker's surname.

* From the name of a 7th-century English female saint, Kyneburga or Cyneburg, from Old English cyne- (“royal”) + burh (“fortress”). * English: probably a habitational name from East and West Kimber in the parish of Northlew in Devon, so named from Old English cempa (“warrior”) (or the Old English personal name Cempa) + bearn (“grove/wood”). It may also be an altered form of Kimbrough. Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Kinberg.

From the Italian surname Mussolini, itself derived from mussola or mussolina ("muslin"), tracing back to Mosul in present-day Iraq, where the fabric originated.