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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A compound of sun and down.

Borrowed from French décor.

A compound of "river" and "side."

Coined as a near-anagram of the word "expands," reflecting the fabric's stretchiness.

From steward plus the feminine suffix -ess.

From un- + forget + -able.

Formed from fruit plus the adjective ending -y.

From "Hick," an old pet form of the name Richard, which became a generic nickname for an unsophisticated country fellow.

A direct translation of the German Regenwald ("rain forest"), built from "rain" and "forest".

Borrowed from Dutch brouwerij, matching "brew" with the "-ery" ending used for places of production, like "bakery".

From overwork + -ed.

From dream plus -er.

From "slug" (to hit hard) plus the agent suffix "-er" — literally "one who slugs."

Formed from the name Edward plus the adjective-forming suffix -ian, referring to King Edward VII's reign.

From Sir John Falstaff, a comic character created by William Shakespeare who appears in the Henry IV plays and The Merry Wives of Windsor.

From Latin carīna ("the keel of a ship") — the constellation was named by the French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille in 1763.

From Middle English armerie, armurie, armorye, from Anglo-Norman armurrie, from armure (“arms, armor”) + -ie (“-y”). By surface analysis, armour + -y.

From Latin India, historically applied broadly to regions east and west that early European explorers associated with India.

From Middle English "see-syde," literally "sea side."

Coined in 1916 by Charles N. Chadbourn from realty plus the agent-noun ending -or (as in "actor"), originally to label members of the U.S. National Association of Realtors.

From Latin infusio, "a pouring into," from infundere.

Named after the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell, whose equations unified the description of electricity and magnetism.

From Late Latin repulsio, from Latin repulsus, the same root as "repulse."

From French intolerance, or directly from Latin intolerantia, from in- ("not") plus tolerantia ("tolerance").