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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Borrowed from Wemba-Wemba yabij.

From Middle English woning, wuning, wunnunge, from Old English wunung (“act of dwelling, living, dwelling, habitation, inner room of a dwelling”), from Proto-West Germanic *wunungu, equivalent to wone + -ing. Cognate with Scots wonnyng, wonyng, wonyn (“habitation, dwelling, shelter”), Dutch woning (“dwelling, house”), German Wohnung (“dwelling, apartment”), Swedish våning (“floor, apartment, flat”).

From Zoar, mentioned in the Bible as the place where Lot fled with his wife and two daughters to escape death when Yahweh destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, from Biblical Hebrew צֹעַר (tso`ar, “insignificance, smallness”).

From xeno- + -philic.

From the 1983 film Mr. Mom, in which it is a child's word for his security blanket; perhaps from a childish diminutive of *woob (compare plushie, from plush), an alternative pronunciation of wub, from wuv, a baby talk form of love (cf. luv).

From yoni + -ic, from Sanskrit योनि (yoni).

From wood + working.

Arabic الزُّبَانَى الشَّمَالِيّ (az-zubānā š-šamāliyy, “the Northern Claw”).

From Hebrew יהונתן.

From Middle English wicchedome, from Old English wiċċedōm, equivalent to witch + -dom.

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin 洋梓 (Yángzǐ).

From Middle English wrawlen. Compare Danish vråle.

From wreck + -ful.

From xerox + -er.

Variant of Wilk, a back-formation from Wilkin.

From Middle English wynde, probably from wynden (“to wind, proceed, go”). Compare also Old English ġewind; Old Norse venda.

From Middle English yestreen, alteration of yestereven (“last night, yesterday evening”), from Old English ġiestranǣfen (“yesterday evening”), equivalent to yester- + e'en (“evening”). Cognate with West Frisian justerjûn (“yestreen; last night”).

From Middle English ȝedding, ȝeddynge, from Old English ġieddung (“utterance, saying, prophecy, song, poetry, poetical recitation, meter”), from ġieddian (“to speak formally, discuss, speak with alliteration, recite, sing”), equivalent to yed + -ing.

Minced form of God's wounds, with reference to the wounds from Christ's crucifixion. Compare strewth, blimey, gadzooks, 'sblood, crikey.

Learned borrowing from Old English wyrm. Doublet of worm, which was inherited.

From witful + -ness.

After the English physician and mineralogist William Withering (1741-1799) in 1790.

From worry + guts.