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 the town of Paisley in Scotland, once famous for weaving fabric with this pattern.

From Old English mistiġ, formed from mist plus -y.

From winter plus time.

A compound of spring and time.

From puff plus the agent suffix -er.

From Latin perpetuitas, "continuance," from perpetuus ("perpetual").

Formed from thieve plus the noun-forming suffix -ery.

From generous plus the adverb-forming suffix -ly.

From event + -ual.

From Middle English eternally, eternaly; equivalent to eternal + -ly.

From hour + -ly.

From French réalisation, built from realize plus the noun-forming ending -ation.

From "favorable" plus "-ly".

From Latin beneficiarius, "one granted a favor or privilege," from beneficium ("benefit") — making it a distant cousin of "benefactor," even though the two words end up meaning close to opposites in everyday use.

From have + -s, from Middle English heven, hebben, from Old English hebban, from Proto-West Germanic *habbjan, from Proto-Germanic *habjaną (“to take up, lift”), from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂pyéti, from the root *kap-. See have for details.

From Greek anthē, "blossom" — it was also used as an epithet of the goddess Hera.

From silence plus the agent suffix -er, meaning "something that makes quiet."

Named after Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson, a 10th-century king who united Danish tribes, since the technology similarly unites different devices.

Perhaps an Americanized spelling of German Schwinger or Zwinger.

A compound of "letter" and "head" (in the sense of the top part of a page).

From Old French chien terrier, "earth dog," from terre, "earth" — a reference to the breed's habit of digging into burrows after prey.

From under- plus rated.

From anchor + man, extended from the literal sense of the person who holds the anchor position — steady and reliable.

Named after the plant genus Scopolia, combined with "amine," a chemistry term for a class of nitrogen-containing compounds.