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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Transliteration of Sanskrit पाण्डु (pāṇḍu).

Named for the mouth of the River Plym in Devon, England; the name was later carried to numerous towns in the United States and elsewhere by English settlers.

From Old English, roughly meaning "the woodland clearing belonging to Dudda," a personal name.

From Old English Eadwine, combining ead ("wealth, fortune") and wine ("friend").

Named after the Italian Renaissance painter Vittore Carpaccio, supposedly because the dish's deep red colour reminded its Venetian inventor of the artist's paintings.

From French, from Middle French Deyle, from Medieval Latin Dadila, from Late Latin Datira.

From German Busch ("thicket, wood").

From hill + side.

From emphatic + the adverb suffix -ally.

From Old English words for "foot" and "man," originally describing a foot soldier before shifting to mean a household servant.

From Korean 안 (An), written with the hanja 安.

Various origins: * Borrowed from German Bau, perhaps a short form of compounds with this element, such as Bauhofer or Baumann. * Borrowed from French Bau, perhaps a variant of Beau. * Variant of Bao, a surname of Chinese origin.

A compound of sight and seeing.

From short + handed.

From Old English norþ ("north") + wīċ ("settlement, dwelling place") — literally "the northern settlement."

From Latin invulnerabilis, "unable to be wounded" (in-, "not," + vulnerare, "to wound," from vulnus, "wound").

From Old English sċimerian, related to German schimmern — both describing a faint, trembling gleam of light.

Localities in England, from Old English hēg (“hay”) + lēah (“wood, clearing”). Equivalent to hay + -ley (“lea”).

Formed by adding the agent suffix "-er" to "race"; first recorded in the mid-1600s.

From the common given name Becky (short for Rebecca), which became a stock stereotype name in African American Vernacular English and internet slang during the 2010s.

Via Latin and Greek from Sanskrit gáṅgā, meaning roughly "swift-goer".

Borrowed from Italian Giovanni. Doublet of John.

Named after the English cathedral city of Canterbury, apparently because early furniture of this type was first made or sold there.

Old French · 1960

First recorded in Old French as Camaalot in Chrétien de Troyes' Arthurian romances; the political sense nods to the 1960 musical Camelot.