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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See march (“border area”).

Borrowed from Hindustani paṭhān — the same people are also known as Pashtun.

Latin Lavinia, of obscure meaning. Lavinium was a town in ancient Latium.

From German Bremer, built from the city name Bremen plus the agent-forming suffix -er, the same pattern used in "Berliner" or "Londoner".

A variant spelling of "Candy," itself a nickname for Candace.

From Old English fǣtt, related to Proto-Germanic words for "fattened" or "stuffed".

From Old English mǣnan ("to intend, complain"), related to the word "moan".

A variant of Bowell with a post-medieval added -s.

Named after Jim Bowie, the 19th-century American frontiersman associated with this style of large hunting knife.

Borrowed from French boucher, "butcher." A doublet of the English surname Butcher.

Abbreviation of thirty-two.

From Japanese meka, itself shortened from the English word "mechanical".

From Italian "esposito," meaning exposed, historically applied to foundling children.

Borrowed from Italian Rossi.

Ultimately from a Celtic word for "apple tree".

From the name of the social networking site MySpace, popular in the mid-2000s.

Named after the whirlpools of the Naruto Strait in Japan, which the fish cake's spiral pattern is meant to resemble.

From a colloquial Bengali word (bōs) describing this same tapping technique.

Borrowed from Irish Úna, a doublet of Una.

From the trademark Polaroid, originally the name of a light-polarizing plastic material before becoming linked to instant cameras.

From Hebrew ארון (aron, "ark" or "chest").

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Μίνως (Mī́nōs).

First recorded around 1861 in American Civil War slang, of uncertain origin — possibly linked to a British dialect word "scaddle" meaning "to run off in fright."

A dialect variant of "great," altered through sound-shifting in Middle English speech.