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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A modern chemical coinage built from "ethyl," "imidazole," and "carboxylate," reflecting the drug's chemical structure.

A compound of snake and skin.

Borrowed from Hebrew moser, "informer," via Yiddish — used in English mainly within Jewish communities and, more broadly, in crime slang.

The chat sense comes from clipping "ignore" and adding the informal -y ending; the dog sense is simply a nickname formed the same way from "Italian Greyhound."

From Ancient Greek Ēléktra, related to ēlektron, "amber."

From French Anatole, from Ancient Greek ἀνατολή (anatolḗ, "sunrise").

A compound of hard + man.

A shortened form of "cardiovascular."

From Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Russian Еле́на (Jeléna), from Latin Helena, from Ancient Greek Ἑλένη (Helénē). Doublet of Helena.

From Russian наде́жда (nadéžda, "hope").

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 蘇州 (Sūzhōu).

From Russian Кири́лл (Kiríll), from Ancient Greek Κύριλλος (Kúrillos). Doublet of Cyril.

Named after Picardy, the region in northern France.

From Middle English modership, built from "mother" plus the suffix "-ship," which turns a noun into a state or condition (compare "friendship").

Simply "nude" plus the informal "-ie" ending, the same pattern as "movie" from "moving picture."

A fused, old-fashioned spelling of "damn me."

From super- + max, short for "maximum security".

The -ing form of whoosh, used as a noun for the ongoing sound or action.

Borrowed directly from German Autobahn ("car road"), from Auto ("car") and Bahn ("path, way").

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Ἔλῐσσᾰ (Élĭssă); probably from Phoenician 𐤀𐤋𐤀𐤎𐤕 (ʾlʾst /⁠Elishat⁠/), 𐤀𐤋𐤀𐤎 (ʾlʾs /⁠Elisha⁠/).

From the English surname Remington, originally from Rimington, meaning roughly "settlement by the boundary stream."

A compound of "lake" and "shore".

A pure sound word (onomatopoeia) — invented to imitate the bang of a gunshot or explosion.

Borrowed from Spanish cebiche; the word's deeper origin beyond that is uncertain.