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 green plus way, describing a path through green, undeveloped land.

Named after the French town of Chablis, in Burgundy, where the wine is produced.

From super- + glue, originally a trademark of the Super Glue Corporation that became a generic name.

From New Latin ponderosa, "heavy" — a nod to the density of the wood.

Via Italian and French from Ottoman Turkish, from Arabic Halab, of uncertain deeper origin.

Borrowed from Russian Ки́ров (Kírov). Renamed in 1934, after Sergey Kirov (1886–1934), a Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet communist assassinated in 1934.

Named after the Californian town where this style of surfboard was first developed.

Believed to be an American mangling of French décalcomanie, the process of transferring printed designs (decals) onto surfaces — the word drifted from "cheap novelty transfer" to "silly and unconvincing."

From Latin complicatio, "a folding together," the noun form of complicare — see "complicate."

From sip plus the diminutive suffix -y.

A compound of "black" and "water," describing water that looks dark rather than clear.

From Premier League.

Borrowed from Danish and Norwegian Nielsen; it shares its roots with the English surname Nicholson.

A patronymic from Han + -sen.

* As a Danish and Norwegian surname, borrowed from Danish and Norwegian Pedersen. Compare Petersen. * As an English surname, variant of Peterson.

From Peter + "-son", paralleled by Scandinavian Pedersen and Petersen and Slavic Petrovic-type surnames.

From Meg + -ie.

As an English surname it is simply a spelling variant of Dean; as an Irish surname it can be an anglicized form of Mac an Deagánaigh, meaning "son of the deacon".

A chemical name formed by contracting "(diiso)prop(yl)ph(en)ol," describing its molecular structure.

Borrowed from Japanese emoji (絵文字), from e ("picture") + moji ("character"); its resemblance to the English word "emotion" is a coincidence.

Borrowed from Mandarin 瑤/瑶 (yáo).

From Japanese あらき (新木, 荒城, 荒木).

A straightforward compound of "phone" and "book."

From prefecture plus the adjective-forming suffix -al.