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 Old French corteis/curteis, meaning "courteous" — a doublet of the modern word courteous.

From Latin Vivianus/Viviana, probably from vivus, "alive."

Uncertain, used in Scotland since the sixteenth century; possibly from Latin orabilis (“yielding to prayer”) or a variant of Annabel.

Borrowed from Spanish and Portuguese Manuel, short for Emanuel.

A habitational surname from Mortemer in France, literally meaning "dead pond".

Named after French climber Gaston Rébuffat, credited with popularizing the technique.

From Old Norse rǫnd ("shield") plus úlfr ("wolf") — literally something like "shield-wolf."

A German name brought to England by Prince Rupert of the Rhine in the 17th century; a doublet of "Robert."

From Old Norse Grim, a personal name, and býr ("village").

From Welsh bangor ("wattle").

Originally a surname derived from a Middle English diminutive of Genevieve.

Borrowed from German Bonn.

From Old English *clacian ("to slap, clap, clack"), imitative in origin.

From Arabic ibn, "son."

From Swedish Göteborg, meaning roughly "fort on the Göta river".

From suspend plus the ending -er, meaning "the thing that suspends" — compare "hanger."

From Middle English splint, splente, related to Middle Low German splinte and Middle Dutch splint, ultimately from a Proto-Germanic root meaning "to split," referring to a thin piece of wood.

Origin uncertain; possibly related to poke (a small bag), by way of Middle English pukkeren.

From boat plus load; the informal "large amount" sense grew out of the literal one.

Borrowed from the Māori word kākā, the native name for the bird.

A variant of Vaughan, from Welsh bychan (“small”).

From an Ojibwe word for the Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) people, referring to the murky water of Lake Winnipeg where they were once encountered.

From Middle English whelere, formed from "wheel" plus the agent suffix "-er."

From meteorology + -ist.