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 Medieval Latin rotarius, ultimately from Latin rota, "wheel."

From Middle French invisibilité, from Latin invisibilitas.

From Welsh bryn, meaning "hill, mound."

From Old English hunta ("hunter") combined with a place-name element, related to Huntingdon.

Formed from hijack plus the noun-forming suffix -ing.

From a Middle English diminutive of the given name Roger. The substitution of H for R is common in English words derived from Norman French.

Old French · 600

From Old French, ultimately from Germanic elements meaning roughly "spear" and "strength," and the name of a seventh-century Belgian saint.

Formed from trick plus the noun suffix -ery, first recorded in the early 18th century.

A variant of an old dialect word, scranny, meaning \"lean\" or \"of poor quality,\" possibly from a Scandinavian root meaning \"rubbish\" or \"shrivelled.\"

From down- + hill.

From Middle English gaping, gapynge, variants of Middle English gapand, gapande, equivalent to gape + -ing.

From the stage name of magician and escape artist Harry Houdini (1874-1926), who took it in tribute to French magician Robert-Houdin.

From Middle English sponeful, formed from "spoon" plus "-ful."

From New Latin mimosa, based on Latin mimus ("actor"), a nod to the plant's "performance" of shrinking away when touched. The cocktail takes its name from the bright yellow flowers of a related mimosa tree.

Originally a strutting dance performed by African American communities in the 19th century, often in competitions where the winning couple was awarded a cake. Because top dancers made it look effortless, "cakewalk" came to mean anything easy.

Built on inflame plus the suffix -atory.

From Middle English *yicchy, *ȝicchi, from Old English ġiċċiġ (“itchy”), equivalent to itch + -y. Cognate with Scots yeukie (“itchy”), West Frisian jokkerich (“itchy”), Dutch jeukachtig and jeukerig (“itchy”).

From Medieval Latin archidioecesis, from Greek arkhi-, "chief", plus Latin dioecesis, "diocese".

From "dim" plus the agent suffix "-er".

From flash + back.

A shortened, trademarked form of the chemical name para-acetylaminophenol.

From French gargouiller, ultimately related to "gutter" and "throat" — the same root gives us "gargoyle."

From hill + top.

Maybe ultimately from Celtic *tir (“land”), from Proto-Celtic *tīros from Proto-Indo-European *ters- (“dry”), i.e. "dry land".