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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Named after Nina, the daughter of caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, whose name he famously hid within his drawings.

From link plus the suffix -age.

American slang from the mid-1800s, likely a reshaping of "kit and boodle"; "the whole boodle" is recorded from the 1830s.

From adaptable plus the suffix -ity.

From Medieval Latin Alsatia, ultimately from Old High German words meaning "inhabitant of the other (bank of the Rhine)".

Related to "grizzle," an old word describing something streaked with gray — the grizzly bear gets its name from the grayish tips of its fur.

From Old French greil, related to Latin crāticula — the same root that gives us "grill" and "grate."

From French Lyon, from the Roman name Lugdūnum ("fort of Lug"), named after the Celtic deity Lugus.

From Latin instructor — equivalent to instruct + -or.

From anonymous plus the adverb suffix -ly.

From Ancient Greek anonymos ("nameless") plus the noun suffix -ity.

From George plus the feminine suffix -ina.

Ancient Greek · 1845

From Ancient Greek logistikós ("skilled in calculating"), from logízomai ("I reason, I calculate"). The mathematical "logistic curve" sense was coined by Pierre François Verhulst in 1845.

Deverbal from lock up.

synchronization

From "synchronize" plus the noun-forming suffix "-ation."

Origin uncertain; began as U.S. military slang, possibly linked to Mexican Spanish rancho, which once carried connotations of filth or squalor.

From Latin notarius ("clerk, secretary"), via Old French notarie.

From statute + the adjective-forming suffix -ory.

From Ancient Greek Σαλώμη (Salṓmē), from Hebrew שְׁלוֹמִית (sh'lomít) (belonging to the same root as שָׁלוֹם (shalóm, “peace”)).

From house + keeping.

Formed by adding the feminine ending "-ess" (from French, ultimately Greek) to "heir."

Old English · 2000

From Old English hēafodlēas, a straightforward joining of head and the negative suffix -less; the tech sense is a modern 20th/21st-century extension.

From Middle English serchour, sercher, from Old French cercheor; equivalent to search + -er.

Borrowed from Latin sculptor, from sculpere ("to carve") plus the agent suffix -or.