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 doublet of "load" — both come from Old English lād, "way, course, journey." "Lode" kept its old sense as a mining term for a mineral vein, surviving mainly in words like "lodestone" and "lodestar."

From proctology + -ist.

From Middle English slattyd, equivalent to slate + -ed.

Coined in 1956 by psychiatrist Humphry Osmond from Greek psykhē ("mind") and dēlos ("visible, manifest") — literally "mind-manifesting."

From breath + the suffix -less ("without").

From Late Latin captor, "one who seizes," from Latin capio, "to take."

From Latin captivitas, built on captivus, "prisoner" — from the same root as "captive" and "capture."

A direct borrowing from French nouveau, "new" — a doublet of the English word "novel."

From Old French grevous, related to Latin gravāre ("to burden") — built on the same root as "grief" and "grieve."

From genetic plus the suffix -ist ("person who practices or studies").

A straightforward compound of "hell" and "hole," first recorded in the 1800s.

From the Roman family name "Julius," via the Latin adjective "Iulianus."

From French satin, itself traced back to "Zaitun," the old Arabic name for the Chinese port city of Quanzhou, from where the fabric was originally exported to Europe.

From the verb last, meaning "to endure", plus -ing.

From flame + thrower, translating German Flammenwerfer.

From in- plus audible.

From fire and -proof, on the model of words like waterproof.

Borrowed from Hindi maharaja, literally "great king" — first recorded in English in the late 17th century.

From stubborn + the adverb-forming suffix -ly.

From Middle French persistance, from persistant, from Latin persistēns, from persistō. By surface analysis, persist + -ence.

From Old French endurance, from endurer ("to endure"), plus the suffix -ance.

From Medieval Latin sophisticatus. The word originally meant "adulterated" or "not genuine" and only later came to mean "refined" or "worldly."

From "pig" plus "skin" — American footballs are nicknamed this way because early rugby balls were covered in leather, sometimes pigskin.

From "pig" plus "headed", comparing stubbornness to the supposed obstinacy of a pig.