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 Old English dūstiġ, formed from "dust" plus "-y" — describing something covered in or resembling dust.

A shortened form of puppy.

Spanish · 1906

Believed to come from a Neapolitan greeting meaning roughly "dude" or "handsome," itself borrowed from Spanish. First recorded in New York City around 1906. Despite popular myth, it is not an acronym for "without papers."

Italian · 1800

An alteration of "Diego," a common Spanish given name; sailors in 19th-century America first applied it to Spanish-speaking crewmen before it broadened, and later narrowed in some countries to mean specifically "Italian."

From Old English beorg ("hill") or burg ("fort").

From Middle English untamed, untemed, equivalent to un- + tamed and/or untame + -ed. Compare Dutch ongetemd (“untamed”), German ungezähmt (“untamed”), Danish utæmmet (“untamed”), Swedish otämd (“untamed”), Icelandic ótamin (“untamed”).

Borrowed from Mexican Spanish mestengo, meaning a feral or stray animal.

Formed from intra- ("within") and cranial, from Latin cranium, "skull."

From Old English fearh ("piglet"), tracing back to a very old Indo-European root also behind Latin porcus — making "farrow" a distant relative of "pork."

From the Ancient Greek epithet Dēlíā, referring to Artemis's birth on the island of Delos.

From Latin Caelia, feminine of the Roman family name Caelius, probably from caelum, "heaven."

From Japanese 西 (nishi), meaning "west," reflecting how the western side of the sumo rankings is seen as lower status, by analogy with the setting sun.

From the brand name Skype, a video-calling and messaging app launched in 2003; the name itself is thought to derive from "sky peer-to-peer."

From Latin compressio, from comprimere — see "compress."

Borrowed from Spanish Córdoba.

From Old English dysiġ, "foolish, stupid", from Proto-West Germanic *dusīg, "stunned, dazed".

Traces back to a West African language, likely Igbo, and arrived in English via the transatlantic slave trade, alongside the plant itself.

From Old English ġeorran/gyrran ("to creak, grate, chatter"), an ancient Germanic word for making a rough noise; the sailing sense developed as a dialectal offshoot meaning quick and responsive.

From Old English unġebrocen, from un- + broken.

From Latin sedimentum, "a settling," from sedere, "to sit" — the particles have quite literally "sat down."

From Old French reins, see also rein in French.

From fisher and man.

From Hebrew natzrat, of uncertain deeper origin.

From Old English nōwiht, a fusion of "no" and "wight" (creature/thing) — literally "not anything." A doublet of "naught" and "not."