Words of War

Language born from conflict

Wars destroy, but they also create — new borders, new alliances, and new words that outlast the battles that birthed them.

5260

Words

1109

Languages

Themes

Language histories

Latina Latin (656)Ēald Englisċ Old English (267)Français French (226)Ancien Franceis Old French (185)Italiano Italian (183)Ἑλληνική Ancient Greek (176)日本語 Japanese (168)English English (154)

Latin656

abdicāre

To abdicate is to 'speak away' one's power —…

abdomen

The Latin word abdomen — meaning belly, possibly from…

aboriginal

A Roman legend about Italy's original inhabitants gave…

abscessus

An abscess is a 'going away' — Latin abscessus, from…

absolution

Surprisingly, absolution began as a legal untying.

abstractus

The Romans had a verb for 'dragging away'—and…

absurdus

The philosophical absurd — Camus's central concept —…

acceleratio

Galileo didn't measure speed rolling those balls down…

accommodation

Cicero used this word to mean adjusting your speech to…

acquiescence

To acquiesce is to go quiet inside a disagreement you…

acutus

Acute means 'sharp' — Latin acutus, past participle of…

ad hoc

Latin for 'to this'—a phrase that became the name for…

addiction

Roman law could bind a debtor to a creditor's…

adorable

Adorable once described gods, not kittens.

adult

The Romans had a past tense for growing up, and…

advocātus

An advocate was originally someone 'called to'…

aequatio

An equation is a statement of equality — Latin…

aequinoctium

The Latin compound for 'equal night' — aequus nox —…

aequitas

Roman philosophers called it 'evenness of soul';…

aera

A Latin word for a fixed numerical starting point —…

affect

Latin afficere meant to act on someone, and English…

agile

Agile is a Latin word for nimble that Silicon Valley…

agrārius

The Romans had a word for land reform — agrārius — and…

albēdō

The Latin word for 'whiteness' became the scientific…

alias

A criminal's alias is literally Latin for 'at another…

alibi

The Latin word for 'elsewhere' became a courtroom…

allusio

An allusion plays beside the point — Latin allusio…

alter ego

Other self. Cicero coined it to describe a true…

alumen

Humphry Davy named a metal in 1808 and accidentally…

alūmen

A bitter mineral salt that ancient dyers could not…

amuletum

The Romans had a word for something carried to ward…

anima

Animism is the belief that the world breathes — Latin…

annexio

Annexation is the act of 'binding to' — Latin ad- (to)…

annulus

Surprisingly, annulus is a little ring with a long…

aperture

The opening in a camera lens through which light…

Apis

The Romans named the bee with a word whose origin no…

Aprīlis

Nobody knows where April's name comes from. The Romans…

arbor

The shaded garden bower that invites you to sit…

arcuballista

The medieval crossbow was called arcuballista in Latin…

arcus

The Romans did not invent the arch — the Mesopotamians…

ardor

Ardor is passion in the form of fire — the Latin…

armata

An army is not a group of soldiers. Etymologically, it…

arte factum

Latin for 'made with skill' — the word originally…

artificialis

Artificial once meant made with great skill — ars,…

The Romans called their smallest coin an 'as' — a…

atrium

The Roman word for the blackened, smoke-stained…

auctio

The Latin word for an auction is built on the verb 'to…

auditus

An audit was originally a hearing — Latin auditus…

Augustus

The month of August exists because Rome's first…

auripigmentum

The Romans named their brightest yellow 'gold…

Aurōra

The Romans named the goddess of dawn Aurōra — related…

autumn

The Romans borrowed autumn from the Etruscans, and no…

avarice

Latin avaritia named a Roman civic failure before the…

Belgium

belgium

Caesar praised a people; nearly two thousand years…

benignus

Benign means 'well-born' — Latin benignus, from bene…

binarius

Binary means 'consisting of two' — Latin binarius,…

binary-star

More than half of all stars in the sky are two stars…

blandus

Latin blandus meant 'smooth, flattering, charming.'…

bona fide

In good faith — two Latin words that became the…

Britain

britain

A Greek sailor named these islands before Rome ever…

cadaver

The medical word for a dead body hides a morbid…

cadence

Surprisingly, cadence began with falling, not flow.

caelestis

The Latin word for 'belonging to the sky' — from…

caeruleus

The Latin poet's word for sky-colored and sea-colored…

calcaneus

The Roman word for heel also gave us calcium, lime,…

calculus

Before mathematics had symbols, Romans did arithmetic…

calx

The Latin word for lime and the residue left after…

campus

Campus means 'field' in Latin — an open flat area —…

Canariae Insulae

The canary bird is named after the Canary Islands—but…

cancellārius

One of the most powerful titles in Western government…

candēla

candela

The Latin word for candle came from a verb meaning 'to…

candēla

candela

The Latin word for candle meant 'a thing that…

candelarius

A chandler made and sold candles — Latin candela, a…

canna

A Latin word for a hollow reed became, through Arabic…

cannabis

The painter's most essential surface was named for…

capitalis

The word for accumulated wealth began as the Latin…

capitulum

The word for a section of a book comes from the Latin…

cappella

Every chapel on earth is named after a cloak — the…

capsula

A Roman word for a small box now names everything from…

carbo

The Latin word for charcoal became the name of the…

cardinālis

The Latin word for a door hinge became a title for…

carpe diem

Horace did not mean 'seize the day' — he meant 'pluck…

caseus

Latin caseus gave English cheese, Spanish queso, and…

castellum

In Catalonia, groups of people stack themselves into…

castellum

Castle comes from the Latin for a small fort — and the…

cathedra

A bishop sits down, and the chair he occupies becomes…

caveat

The Latin subjunctive for 'let him beware' became the…

cecum

Roman physicians named the intestine's starting pouch…

cellārium

A Latin word for a storeroom — any room where…

cēnsus

Every five years, Rome counted its citizens — not…

centrum + fugere

You're being thrown outward by a force that doesn't…

centrum + petere

Isaac Newton named the only force that matters in…

centuria

The Romans measured time in hundreds — a centuria was…

centurio

The Roman centurion — the professional backbone of the…

Cerēs

The Roman goddess of grain and agriculture became the…

cicada

cicāda

Periodical cicadas spend thirteen or seventeen years…

circuitous

Roman armies marched in circuits long before the word…

circumnavigatio

Circumnavigation is sailing around — Latin…

cirrus

The Latin word for a curl of hair became the name for…

cisterna

The Latin word for a box that holds water named the…

civil

Latin civis built cities, citizenship, and the word…

clāvīcula

The collarbone is called a clavicle — from the Latin…

cleric

Strangely, cleric began as a lot.

cliens

A client was not a customer but a dependent — in Roman…

codex

The codex — the ancestor of every modern book — was…

cohors

The word for a place of justice started as the Latin…

Colombia

colombia

A country named for a man who never set foot in it.

colony

The Romans sent colonists to hold land they had taken;…

Colosseum

The Colosseum was named for a colossus — a colossal…

Colosseum

Colossēum

The largest amphitheater ever built was named after a…

columbina

The flower's Latin name means 'dove-like' — because…

columna

The Latin word for a column — possibly from the same…

columna

A column is a vertical cylinder that holds up a…

comes

The Latin word for a companion — comes, someone who…

comes stabuli

The highest-ranking police officer in the…

commūnitās

The word comes from Latin commūnis, meaning 'shared' —…

compactum

Before it meant small or dense, compact meant an…

compilare

Latin compilare meant to plunder or pillage a store of…

compulsio

compulsiō

The Latin word for being driven together — originally…

computare

Computer was a job title before it was a machine. The…

condensatio

Condensation is a thickening — Latin condensatio meant…

conducere

The same Latin word that leads an orchestra together…

confluentia

The Latin word for 'flowing together' — the point…

congressus

Congress means 'walking together' — Latin con-…

conscience

Oddly, conscience began as shared knowledge.

conscientia

Consciousness is knowing together with — Latin…

cōnscrīptus

The Roman Senate was called patres conscripti —…

constituentia

Constituency comes from Latin constituere — to…

constitūtiō

A Latin word meaning simply 'to set up together'…

consuetudo

The border tax on goods is called customs — from Latin…

consul

Two men elected annually to run the Roman Republic,…

contemptus

Contempt is the only emotion that looks down. Fear…

convalescere

Latin had a dedicated verb for the gradual return of…

convalescere

Convalescence is growing strong together — Latin…

convent

Strangely, convent began as a gathering.

coquina

The kitchen is named from the Latin for 'cooking…

corneolus

cor-NEE-oh-lus

A blood-red stone that scribes and soldiers wore on…

corōna

The Latin word for a crown — a circle of honor placed…

corporalis

corporālis

The corporal was the soldier in charge of a body of…

cortina

cortīna

A curtain wall is the stretch of wall between two…

crescere

A crescent is the shape of a moon that is growing —…

crucibulum

From the Latin for 'night lamp' or 'earthen pot,' the…

culcita

The Latin word for a stuffed mattress crossed into Old…

culīna

culina

The Latin word for kitchen has been cooking inside…

cumulus

The Latin word for a heap or pile became the name for…

cūria

The Roman senate met in a building called the Curia,…

currens

The Latin present participle of 'to run' — currens,…

currere

The word for a river's flow is also the word for…

cursor

The blinking line that shows where your next letter…

Czechia

czechia

The official short name that took the world seventy…

datum

Data was not something you collected. It was something…

datum

The Latin word for 'something given' — a thing cast,…

de jure

From the law — the twin of de facto and its opposite,…

decimalis

Decimal comes from decimus, Latin for 'tenth.' Humans…

decimāre

decimare

Roman commanders killed every tenth soldier to teach…

deductio

Aristotle invented the syllogism two thousand years…

deficit

From Latin 'it is lacking.' A bureaucrat's way of…

Deciduous

deh-SID-yoo-us

The Latin word for falling away gave botany its most…

deity

Surprisingly, deity is the plain state of being a god.

denarius

The Roman silver coin worth ten asses was so…

dēpositiō

The same word that means removing a king from power…

descendentem

The word for children and grandchildren literally…

desertum

A desert is not named for its sand or its heat. It is…

despise

To despise someone in Latin was simply to look down at…

destillāre

The Latin verb for dripping — drops falling from a…

destroy

Destroy is the word for building, run backward.

dēsultōrius

Roman circus riders who leaped from one galloping…

dilapidatus

dī-lapidātus

A building falls apart stone by stone. The Romans had…

dictātor

Rome invented the dictator not as a tyrant but as an…

diffusio

A dye drop spreads through water without anything…

diligence

Diligence was first a love word, not a work word.

discretion

A Roman sieve became English tact, one slow step at a…

dissolution

The formal ending of a parliament — dissolution —…

dissonantia

The word that meant 'sounding apart' was treated as a…

dividendum

A dividend is, in Latin, simply 'the thing that is to…

dīvortium

The word comes from Latin dīvertere, meaning 'to turn…

docēre

A doctor was a teacher for a thousand years before…

doctrine

Surprisingly, doctrine began as teaching, not dogma.

Dominica

dominica

Columbus arrived on a Sunday and named an entire…

dominium

The master of a household gave his name to a word that…

domus

The Latin word for a house — the fundamental shelter…

ducatus

Duchy comes from Latin ducatus — the territory of a…

duodenum

Twelve fingers measured this gut, and that measurement…

duplicitous

Duplicitous is younger by five centuries than the noun…

duumvirātus

Two men sharing power equally — the Romans had a word…

dux

The Latin word for a leader — dux, from ducere, to…

Ecuador

ecuador

A country that named itself for the invisible line…

ēdictum

Roman magistrates 'spoke out' their policies on the…

educatio

The Latin root of 'education' means 'a leading out' —…

education

Romans built this word from the verb meaning to lead a…

effeminate

Rome built this word to police the borders of manhood.

ego

The most ordinary word in Latin — simply 'I' — became,…

egress

The emergency exit above you descends from Rome's word…

elation

Elation is the feeling of being lifted — the Latin…

ēmancipātiō

The word for freedom contains the Latin word for hand…

emeritus

Emeritus means 'one who has earned their discharge' —…

envy

The sin of wanting what others have is named for the…

equine

A Latin word for horse carries the same root as the…

ergo

Therefore. Descartes made it famous with 'I think,…

erudite

Erudite once meant scraped free of roughness, not…

Esquilino

Rome's most feared hill was once the city's largest…

evaporatio

Evaporation is steaming away — Latin evaporatio came…

evidence

Evidence is the Latin word for what the eye cannot…

eviscerated

Eviscerated names both the surgeon's knife and the…

evolution

Evolution means unrolling a scroll. Darwin's theory…

excommunicatio

Excommunication means 'out of communion' — the word…

excruciating

Excruciating pain is pain off the cross—literally. The…

excursio

In Latin, an excursion was a military raid — a running…

existence

Existence is a word that means standing out, not…

existentia

The word 'existential' was a minor piece of medieval…

expeditio

expedītio

An expedition originally meant freeing your feet from…

expert

The world's experts were once simply people who had…

exponens

An exponent means 'one who sets forth' — Latin…

extorquere

Latin extorquere meant 'to twist out' — to wrench…

extra

Outside, beyond. In theater, an actor hired for a…

faith

Surprisingly, faith began as trust pledged between…

fallacy

Surprisingly, fallacy began as a verbal trick, not a…

fames

A Latin word for hunger became a word for…

familia

The Latin word familia did not mean parents and…

fānāticus

In Rome, a fanaticus was someone possessed by a god in…

fascia

The Latin word for a bandage or a band — fascia —…

fatal

Fatal once meant fated, not dead, and the difference…

febris

Fever was a disease before it was a symptom. For most…

feline

No one knows where the Romans got their word for cat.

femur

The Latin word for thigh — femur, of uncertain origin…

feral

The Latin word for untamed animals that escaped and…

fertilis

The Latin word for 'fruitful' became the name for the…

festivus

The Latin word for festive or joyful — from festum, a…

fidelity

The Latin goddess of trust gave her name to your hi-fi.

filamentum

Edison tested thousands of threads before finding the…

foeniculum

The word for fennel means 'little hay' in Latin—named…

formatum

Format comes from the Latin formatus — shaped or…

fornax

fornāx

Furnace comes from the same Latin word as…

forum

The Roman forum was not a building but an open…

fossilis

The Latin word meant 'dug up' — and for centuries,…

fraternity

A word for brotherhood that outlived the empire that…

funiculus

A Latin diminutive meaning 'little rope' — from funis,…

furia

The Furies were three goddesses who punished…

generalis

generālis

A general officer commands the whole — not a company,…

gentiana

An Illyrian king discovered the plant's medicinal…

genuinity

Genuinity predates genuineness by decades and still…

genuinus

The Latin word for 'genuine' is connected to the knee…

genus

Linnaeus borrowed a Latin family term to build the…

Germany

Julius Caesar named a people who never used his label…

gibbōsus

A Latin word meaning 'humped' or 'swollen' — applied…

gladiātor

The word means 'swordsman,' but most gladiators fought…

gradus

The Latin word for a step on a staircase became the…

grānārium

The Latin word for a grain storehouse named the…

grānum

The word for a single seed became the word for an…

gravitas

gravis (heavy)

The force that holds planets in orbit carries the same…

Greece

greece

The Greeks never called themselves Greek; a small…

habeas corpus

The writ that requires the government to produce a…

habeas corpus

Habeas corpus — 'you shall have the body' — is a writ…

hallucinatio

The word for seeing what is not there comes from a…

harēna

Romans spread sand on the amphitheater floor to soak…

hibiscus

A Latin word for a marsh mallow wandered through…

Hispanic

hispanic

Rome named a peninsula; Washington named a people.

hospitable

The host and the hostage were once the same Latin word.

hospitāle

A Latin word for a place that welcomes guests became…

hospitalitās

The same Latin root produced 'hospitality,'…

humanitas

Humanism begins with humanitas — Latin humanitas meant…

humble

The Latin word for soil became the English word for…

humiditas

Humidity is moisture in the air — Latin humiditas came…

ianitor

iānitor

The Roman doorkeeper who served the two-faced god of…

Iānuārius

The first month of the year is named after a god with…

Iberian

iberian

The Iberians named two different peoples on opposite…

immunitas

Immunity means 'freedom from duty' — Latin immunitas,…

imperātor

The title that named the rulers of Rome, Byzantium,…

inaugurāre

Every presidential inauguration unknowingly reenacts…

incandescere

The lightbulb did not spring from Edison's head. It…

incensum

From Latin 'to set on fire' — a word that names not a…

incunabula

Incunabula — books printed before 1501 — takes its…

indignatio

Indignation is anger with a moral warrant. The word…

indulgentia

The word that triggered the Protestant Reformation…

inferre

Medieval logicians borrowed a Latin word for 'carrying…

infinitas

Infinity is not a number. It is the negation of a…

inflammatio

Inflammation means 'setting on fire' — Latin…

inflatio

Inflation meant swelling or puffing up long before it…

infundere

The Latin verb for pouring something into a vessel…

infusion

Infusion began in Roman medicine and now names every…

ingenium

An engine was originally a clever idea — the Latin…

initiatio

Initiation is going in — Latin initiatio meant the act…

injunction

The court order that commands someone to stop doing…

inoculare

From gardeners grafting buds to doctors inserting…

inoculare

Inoculation is a gardening term — Latin inoculare…

insomnia

The Latin word for sleeplessness was originally a…

instinct

Thomas Aquinas used this word for divine guidance in…

īnsula

insula

The Romans invented the apartment building, called it…

insurgent

A Latin word for 'rising up' became the word for…

introvertere

Carl Jung took a 17th-century anatomical term for…

intueri

The Latin word for to look at or contemplate became…

investire

To invest money originally meant to clothe it — Latin…

Iovis

The king of the Roman gods became the adjective for…

irascible

Latin crystallized a Roman philosopher's rage problem…

ischium

Greece named the sitting bone after the concept of…

itinerans

An itinerant is a journey-maker — Latin itinerans came…

itinerarium

itinerārium

Romans carved their itineraries into stone pillars…

Iuppiter

The king of the Roman gods gave his name to the…

iurisprudentia

Jurisprudence — 'knowledge of the law' — is the…

Germinate

JER-mih-nayt

The seed is not sleeping — it is waiting, holding its…

jūdex

The word combines 'law' and 'speak' — a judge is,…

jugulum

The Latin word for throat comes from the word for…

juniperus

The tree that flavors gin has a name that may mean…

laesio

A lesion is an injury — Latin laesio, from laedere, to…

languor

The Latin word for weakness became the one English…

lapis Tiburtinus

The Romans quarried this porous limestone from Tivoli…

laqueus

The Latin word for a noose or snare — laqueus, a loop…

larix

The only conifer that drops its needles in autumn — a…

latrocinium

Larceny — the legal word for theft — descends from the…

laurus

The laurel wreath was Apollo's plant — Latin laurus…

lavandula

A flower named for the act of washing — from the Latin…

lēgātum

The word originally meant a specific bequest in a will…

legatus

Latin legatus meant a person sent with a commission —…

legiō

The Roman legion took its name from legere, 'to…

lēgiōnārius

The word for a Roman soldier survived the empire by…

lēgis lātor

A legislator is a 'law-bringer' — one who carries the…

lēgislātiō

The Romans fused 'law' and 'carrying' into one word —…

libīdō

Sigmund Freud borrowed a Latin word that meant 'desire…

librārium

The word for a building full of books comes from the…

ligamentum

The Latin word for a binding — from ligāre, to tie —…

locus

The Latin word for 'place' became mathematics' term…

locusta

The same Latin word — locusta — meant both 'locust'…

longitudo

Longitude means length — the long lines running from…

lumen

Cold light—the glow of fireflies and fungi—earned its…

luminosus

A star's luminosity is its total energy output — the…

luna

Lunacy — madness attributed to the influence of the…

lūnāticus

For two thousand years, humans believed the full moon…

lustrare

lūstrāre

The Latin word for purification and illumination — the…

lūstrum

lustrum

Before it meant five years, a lustrum was a…

lympha

Lymph comes from the Latin word for clear water — and…

māchina

Latin māchina came from Greek mēkhanē, meaning a…

magistrātus

The Latin word for 'master' — magister — grew a suffix…

magnitudo

The scale for measuring star brightness was invented…

magnum

A Latin word meaning simply 'great' or 'large' — the…

Māius

May is named after a goddess so obscure that the…

malignus

Malignant tumors are tumors with bad intent — Latin…

malva

A teenage chemist accidentally made a purple dye from…

mandamus

A writ whose name means 'we command' — the bluntest…

mandatum

A mandate is a command placed in your hands — Latin…

manipulation

A Roman handful of grain became the word for bending…

manufactura

Manufacture meant made by hand — manus (hand) and…

Mars

The Romans saw blood in the night sky and named the…

Mārs

The Roman god of war became the adjective for military…

Mārtiālis

Martialis

The god of war named a month, a planet, and every…

Mārtius

March was not the third month. It was the first. For…

matricula

mātrīcula

To matriculate is to be entered on a list — the Latin…

Mauritius

mauritius

An island named for a Dutch prince who never landed…

maxima

The Latin word for 'greatest' was shortened into a…

mediastinum

The chest's middle ground was named for a Roman…

mercator

The Latin word for a trader — one who deals in merx,…

mercatus

A Latin word for the act of trading — mercatus, the…

mercēnārius

The Latin word for 'hired worker' became the word for…

merciarius

A mercer was a dealer in textiles, especially fine…

Mercurius

The messenger god who wore winged sandals and moved…

mercy

Unexpectedly, mercy began with payment withheld.

meridianus

Meridian — the imaginary line that runs from pole to…

milia passuum

mīlia passuum

A mile is a thousand paces — specifically, a thousand…

militia

The Roman word for military service became the…

millennium

A Latin compound meaning simply 'a thousand years' —…

milliarium

The milestone measured a thousand paces — Latin…

minūta

minuta

A minute is not named for its duration but for its…

miracle

Unexpectedly, miracle began with simple wonder.

misericordia

Medieval monks stood for hours during prayers—so…

missilis

Latin had a simple word for anything thrown —…

moment

A moment is named for movement, not stillness.

momentum

The Latin word for 'movement' became the mathematical…

monēre

monere

Your computer screen is named after a Latin verb…

moneta

The place where money is made takes its name from a…

monumentum

The Latin word comes from monere, 'to remind' — a…

mortarium

The same word names both the bowl in which you grind…

munitio

mūnītiō

The Latin word for 'fortification' became the English…

mūrālis

The word 'mural' comes from the Latin for 'wall.' A…

musculus

The Romans called both the bivalve and the bicep…

nasturtium

The nasturtium is the nose-twister — Latin nasus…

nature

Born from birth itself, Latin gave English its most…

navigare

nāvigāre

A Latin compound of 'ship' and 'to drive' — the word…

navis

The central hall of every church in the Western world…

navis

The nave of a church, the nausea in your stomach, and…

nebula

A Latin word for mist or cloud was applied to smudges…

negotiation

Romans invented the word for business by defining it…

nescius

A word that once meant ignorant, foolish, and even…

nigella

The tiny black seeds on top of your naan bread are…

nihil

Nihilism — the denial of all moral values, meaning, or…

nimbus

A Latin word for a rain cloud — or the radiant halo…

nolo contendere

I do not wish to contest — the plea that admits…

nostrum

Latin for 'our own' became English for 'snake oil' —…

nova

The Latin word for 'new' — nova stella, a new star —…

November

When the Senate offered to rename November after…

numerale

A numeral is a symbol for a number — and the most…

nutrition

The science of eating began as a word for nursing a…

obedience

Obedience is the Latin word for listening with your…

obiter dictum

A remark made in passing — words spoken by the way —…

obituarius

Latin obire meant 'to go toward' — specifically, to go…

oblātiō

The Latin word for an offering — from ob-ferre, to…

obliterate

To obliterate is literally to strike the letters off a…

obsessio

obsessiō

The word originally described a military siege — the…

obsidianus

Obsidian is volcanic glass — lava quenched so rapidly…

obstacle

Obstacle holds a frozen man inside it, still standing…

obstetrics

The science named for the act of standing before a…

occidens

If the Orient is where the sun rises, the Occident is…

occiput

Every skull wears a first-century Roman name on its…

occultus

Occult means 'hidden' — and before it meant magic, it…

octave

Unexpectedly, octave began simply as the word for an…

offer

What was carried to God is now carried to the…

olfactory

Of all the senses, smell alone reaches memory before…

ominous

The Romans took their most consequential decisions…

omnibus

A Latin word meaning 'for all' — the dative plural of…

omniscient

The word for knowing everything was coined to name…

opinion

Romans had a word for what you think but cannot prove.

option

In Roman legions, an option was a man chosen, not a…

opus

The Latin word for work became music's highest honor —…

orbita

The rut worn by a cart wheel — orbita, the track left…

ordinare

The Latin word for putting things in order became the…

oriens

To orient yourself is to find the east — because…

orientation

Before it meant finding your bearings, orientation…

oscillate

The word for swinging comes from tiny masks hung in…

ostensibly

A word about apparent truth descends from a Latin verb…

otiose

Latin leisure gave English a word for what should not…

ovatio

An ovation was the lesser Roman triumph — not quite a…

paene umbra

A Latin compound meaning 'almost shadow' — the…

paganism

Surprisingly, paganism began as a village word.

pāgānus

A Latin word meaning 'country dweller' — a rural…

palatinus

The word for a holy warrior began as a job title for a…

Palatium

Palātium

Every palace in every language traces back to one hill…

palatum

The roof of your mouth became the word for refined…

papilio

A tent that looked like a butterfly with its wings…

patella

The kneecap is called a patella — Latin for 'small…

pecūliāris

The English word for 'strange' comes from the Latin…

pedonem

The humblest piece on the chessboard takes its name…

pen

Your pen is named after a feather. The word carries…

pendulum

pen-du-lum

The swinging weight that made mechanical clocks…

penicillum

Alexander Fleming's contaminated petri dish in 1928…

penicillus

The word for the most common writing tool on earth…

people

One Latin word split into both people and public on…

per capita

By the head — the Roman way of dividing estates…

peregrinus

The word for a holy traveler originally meant…

pergula

A Roman word for a projecting eave or shopfront awning…

perjurium

Perjury — the crime of lying under oath — takes its…

permutatio

A permutation is a rearrangement — Latin permutatio,…

perpendiculum

Perpendicular comes from the Roman plumb line —…

pessimus

The word for someone who expects the worst comes from…

pinnaculum

The pointed stone ornaments on Gothic cathedrals are…

pinus

The Latin word for pine may share a root with 'pain'…

placebo

The first word of a medieval funeral prayer — 'I shall…

plēbēius

The Latin word for the Roman common people — plebs —…

plēbiscītum

When the common people of Rome voted without the…

plumbārius

Every plumber carries the Latin word for lead in their…

plumbum

The Romans hung lead weights on strings to find true…

pōmum grānātum

The name means 'apple full of seeds,' which is a…

pontifex

The most puzzling etymology in Roman religion:…

port

The left side of a ship is named for the harbor —…

porticus

A covered walkway that colonized the edges of Roman…

Portugal

Two Latin words for a harbor fused together, and that…

portus

The Latin word for a harbor was also the word for a…

postumus

This word for 'after death' contains a spelling error…

pōtiō

The same Latin root that gives us potion also gives us…

praecessio

Earth spins like a wobbling top — and the slow drift…

praeludium

The word literally means 'before the play' — it was…

praemium

Premium was a reward taken in advance — Latin praemium…

praeposterus

Preposterous literally means 'backwards' — from the…

praesidēns

The most powerful political title in the modern world…

praevaricari

To prevaricate is to walk crookedly—a Roman legal term…

prayer

Oddly, prayer began as a spoken plea.

premise

Surprisingly, premise once meant a thing sent before.

principatus

Latin principatus named Augustus Caesar's form of…

prior

Latin prior meant the one who comes before — former,…

prīvilēgium

Privilege is literally a 'private law' — a rule that…

pro bono publico

For the public good — a phrase from Roman civic…

processio

The word means 'a going forward' — and every funeral…

processor

Processor comes from the Latin procedere — to move…

prodigium

A prodigy was originally an omen — Latin prodigium…

productivity

This word began as a farmer's term for fertile soil…

profane

Oddly, profane first meant simply outside the temple.

professor

A professor is someone who professes — who publicly…

progenies

The Latin word for offspring means 'that which is born…

progenitor

The Latin word for forefather comes from pro- and…

proiectio

Latin proiectio meant throwing forward — a physical…

prōlētārius

The Latin word for a Roman citizen whose only…

prorogation

The suspension of Parliament — not dissolution, but…

prose

Strangely, prose began as straight speech.

proverb

Unexpectedly, proverb began as a word put forth in…

pubis

The Romans named the pelvic bone after the arrival of…

pugil

The formal word for boxing comes from the Latin for…

pultes

The hot, damp mass of herbs that your grandmother…

pūpilla

The dark circle at the center of your eye is named for…

quadrans

Quadrant means a quarter — and the navigational…

quaternio

William Rowan Hamilton carved the formula for…

quorum

A minimum number that makes a meeting legal — the word…

radius

A Latin word for a beam of light became the technology…

radius

Radiology is the science of rays — Latin radius meant…

rancor

The Latin word for rancid meat became the English word…

ratificare

To make a treaty real, you must make it fixed — and…

rebelliō

The word comes from Latin rebellāre, meaning 'to wage…

recipe

Recipe was a doctor's command, not a cook's…

reciprocity

Rome built this word to face in two directions at once.

reciprocus

The Latin word for waves flowing back and forth became…

rector

Surprisingly, rector began as a straightener and a…

recusare

Roman litigants could object to an unfavorable judge;…

redemption

Before it meant salvation, it meant paying cash to…

reflex

Your knee jerks before your brain knows it happened.…

rēgicīdium

Killing a king is so rare and so consequential that it…

regimentum

A regiment was originally a system of government — it…

regressio

Latin regressio meant going back — a literal return…

reliquiae

A Latin word meaning 'remains' — what is left behind…

remordere

Remorse means 'to bite again' — from Latin re- (again)…

repent

Surprisingly, repent began with pain, not apology.

replenishment

The Latin word for full emptied itself into English…

repressio

Latin repressio meant to press back or restrain — used…

requiem

The first word of a Catholic prayer for the dead —…

rēsīna

Trees bleed resin when they are wounded, and that…

rēte

The light-sensitive layer at the back of your eye is…

retrogradus

When a planet appears to move backward against the…

ridiculous

A Roman word for the professional buffoon became…

riparius

The English word for flowing water originally meant…

rīvālis

A rival was originally someone who shared your river —…

rōs marīnus

Rosemary has nothing to do with roses or with anyone…

rōstrum

Romans decorated their speaking platform with the iron…

rubeus

Latin named it simply for its redness — rubeus, red —…

rubrica

A rubric was originally text written in red ink — the…

sacrament

Strangely, sacrament began as a soldier's oath.

sacred

What is sacred began with a dangerous holy boundary.

saint

Unexpectedly, saint first meant simply holy.

salarium

Roman soldiers were paid in salt—or at least that's…

salutare

The Latin greeting that Roman soldiers exchanged — and…

San Salvador

San Salvador named Christ before the country borrowed…

sanctio

The same Latin word that means divine approval also…

sanguineus

The word for optimism comes from the Latin for 'blood'…

satelles

A Roman bodyguard or attendant — a satelles, one who…

scalpellum

The surgeon's most essential blade takes its name from…

Scandinavia

scandinavia

The name Scandinavia contains an n that Pliny the…

science

Latin's word for mere knowing became the name for…

scrība

For most of recorded history, the ability to write was…

scrinium

A shrine began as a box — a Roman chest for storing…

scripture

Surprisingly, scripture began as a plain word for…

sculpere

The Latin verb for carving stone shares its root with…

secans

A line that cuts through a circle gave trigonometry…

secessio

Secession means 'going apart' — Latin se- (apart) and…

secretary

The keeper of secrets became the keeper of schedules.

secunda

The second is not called 'second' because it follows…

seditio

Sedition means 'going apart' — Latin se- (apart) and…

semestris

A Latin word for a six-month period — from sex (six)…

senātor

The Roman Senate took its name from senex — 'old man'…

senātus

The Roman Senate took its name from senex — old man —…

serica

A worsted wool named, at its deepest root, for the…

servus

The Latin word for slave — servus — was softened into…

sestertius

sēstertius

The standard Roman accounting coin — the sestertius —…

sextans

The instrument that allowed sailors to find their…

sidereus

When Galileo titled his 1610 telescopic report…

sincērus

One famous theory says Romans sold honest marble…

singularis

The Latin word for alone or unique — from singulus,…

sinister

The Latin word for 'left-handed' became the English…

sinus

The hollow space behind your nose is named with the…

Slovakia

slovakia

A nation named for the act of speaking one's own…

sōlāris

Solar comes from sōl, the Latin sun god — the same…

solidus

The Roman gold coin called the solidus — from the…

soliloquium

A Latin word meaning 'speaking to oneself' — coined…

solstitium

The Latin compound for 'the sun standing still' — sol…

sōlus + ipse

The word for a person who believes they are the only…

Spain

Rome named the rabbit-land, and the rabbit-land became…

spatial

A word built from Roman measurement now organizes the…

species

The Latin word for 'appearance' became biology's most…

spectrum

A specter and a spectrum are the same word — Latin…

spectrum

The Latin word for an apparition — something seen, a…

spinal

The spine is named for a thorn — spina in Latin meant…

spirit

Surprisingly, spirit began as breath.

stamina

Your stamina was literally a thread. The Fates spun…

status quo

The Latin phrase for 'the way things are'—a term used…

statutum

When a medieval king 'stood something up' in council,…

stellāris

The Latin word for 'of the stars' — from stella, a…

stimulus

A pointed stick used to drive cattle became the…

stipendium

Roman soldiers were paid in stipendia — and two…

stipulārī

Roman contracts were sealed by a verbal exchange — 'Do…

strictus

The same Latin word that means 'tight' gave English…

stupor

The word that now means a dazed, half-conscious state…

sub poena

A subpoena — literally 'under penalty' — is a court…

sublimis

The alchemists used sublimation for the moment a solid…

subsidium

Originally meant reserve troops sitting behind the…

substantially

The word for mostly started as a medieval argument…

suburbium

Originally the shabby fringe just outside Roman city…

success

Latin successus meant any outcome until English…

sulcus

A plowman's furrow became the fold that holds memory.

superstitiō

Superstition comes from the Latin for 'standing over'…

surgere

The Latin word for 'to rise' gave English both the…

tabernāculum

A Roman soldier's tent became the dwelling place of…

tabula rasa

The blank wax tablet of Roman schoolchildren became…

talus

Roman soldiers rolled ankle bones as dice, and doctors…

temperament

From Latin temperare (to mix in due proportion), the…

temperare

temperāre

To temper chocolate is to control its crystal…

tempestas

Latin named time and weather with the same word —…

tenōr

Tenor comes from the Latin for 'to hold' — because in…

termes

Termites build structures taller relative to body size…

terra firma

Solid earth. Venice called its mainland territories…

terra incognita

The phrase cartographers wrote across blank spaces on…

terrēnum

The word for the ground you walk on comes from the…

terrificus

Built from the Latin verb for causing terror, this…

terror

The word 'terrorism' was coined during the French…

textura

The Latin word for weaving became the English word for…

thuribulum

thūribulum

The Latin word for a censer — the metal vessel swung…

tībia

The Latin word for the shinbone — tibia — originally…

tinctus

The Latin word for 'dipped' — what happens when you…

torpedo

The Romans named the electric ray for its numbing…

torpor

The Latin word meant both physical numbness and moral…

torques

torquēs

The rigid neck ring worn by Celtic warriors was so…

traditio

The Latin word meant 'a handing over' — which is what…

translūcēns

The Latin word for 'shining through' named the…

tribūnal

Roman tribunes sat on a raised platform to dispense…

tribune

The Roman magistrate who protected the plebs from the…

tribus

The Romans divided their citizens into tribus for…

trirēmis

A ship powered by 170 oars arranged in three stacked…

triumphantly

A Roman war parade became an adverb for every kind of…

tuba

The Latin word for a war trumpet — tuba — was recycled…

tubercle

A Roman swelling grew into the name for a…

turris

A Latin word for a tower — carried by Roman legions…

Ulysses

ulysses

The greatest wanderer in literature got his name from…

umbilical

The navel of the earth and the cord of every birth…

umbra

The Latin word for shadow — the darkness cast by a…

uncia

The inch and the ounce are the same word — both…

uncialis

Uncial script gave the medieval world its most…

unction

The oil that anointed kings became the grease of…

unity

Latin bound it to the number one long before nations…

ūniversum

The word universe means 'turned into one' — a Roman…

usurpare

To usurp is to seize by use — Latin usurpare, from…

utensil

Every fork in your drawer descends from a Roman word…

valedictio

valedictiō

The valedictorian says goodbye — the Latin root means…

value

Latin's word for 'be strong' became the English…

velocitas

Velocity is not the same as speed. A ball thrown…

venereus

Venereal diseases are named for Venus, the goddess of…

Venus

The Romans named the brightest object in the night sky…

verbena

Romans gathered this herb for their most sacred…

vernaculus

The Latin word meant 'belonging to home-born slaves' —…

vernalis

The vernal equinox — the spring crossing of the…

versus

A verse is a turning. The poet turns at the end of a…

vertical

Every skyscraper traces back to a word that once meant…

vestment

Surprisingly, vestment was once just any garment.

veterinarian

Veterinarian was built from the Latin name for old,…

vetō

Roman tribunes shouted a single word — vetō, I forbid…

via

The Romans built roads so straight and so durable that…

viaticum

The word for a pleasure cruise started as the Latin…

villānus

A Roman farmworker became a medieval serf, then a…

vindemia

vindēmia

A Latin word for the grape harvest — the annual act of…

vindicated

A Roman law term for claiming property became…

vinetarius

A vintner was a wine merchant — from Latin vinetum…

vinum

vīnum

A word older than Rome itself — borrowed from a lost…

virtue

Oddly, virtue began as manliness.

virus

Virus meant 'poison' or 'slime' in Latin. The Romans…

vivid

English borrowed the Latin word for alive and turned…

volition

The Latin word for wishing quietly became the word for…

volutus

A Latin word for rolling and turning gave its name to…

vomit

Latin named the body's oldest rejection and never…

vox populi

The voice of the people. Medieval scholars believed it…

Vulcānus

Vulcanus

The Romans believed a lame blacksmith god had his…

vulgar

Vulgar once named the language of ordinary people…

vulgaris

The Latin word for 'of the common people' described…

vulnerability

The Latin word for wound became the English word for…

vulpine

Latin borrowed the fox into English vocabulary,…

vulva

The Latin word for womb once meant wrapper, from the…

Greek

347

asymptōtos

a-SIM-ptote

A line that approaches but never arrives — the Greeks…

aerobic

Louis Pasteur named a whole category of life after air…

αἰθήρ

aithēr

The Greeks named the upper sky aithēr — the blazing,…

Ἀκαδημία

Akadēmía

A grove of olive trees sacred to an obscure Attic hero…

ἀχάτης

akhátēs

A stone named for a Sicilian river carried that…

ἀλκυών

alkuṓn

A grieving queen who threw herself into the sea was…

ἀλφάβητος

alphábētos

The Greeks named their writing system after its first…

ἀμάραντος

amárantos

The Greeks imagined a flower that never faded, and…

ἀμνηστία

amnēstía

The ancient Greeks believed a city could heal itself…

ἄμορφος

amorphos

Greek amorphos meant 'without shape' — the negation of…

amphibious

Unexpectedly, amphibious first meant living a double…

ἀνάλημμα

análēmma

If you photograph the sun at the same time every day…

ἀναρχία

anarkhía

The Greek word for 'without a ruler' was a…

ἄνεμος + μέτρον

anemos + metron

Three rotating cups on a stick measure the wind by…

ἄγκυρα

ánkyra

A Greek word for a bent hook — something that catches…

ἄνοδος

anodos

The path up. William Whewell gave electricity two…

ἀνθολογία

anthología

The Greeks called a poetry collection a 'gathering of…

anthrōpos + logos

anthrōpos logos

Anthropology — the study of humans — was formally…

ἀντιπάθεια

antipátheia

Antipathy is sympathy's mirror image — if sympathy…

ἀπάθεια

apátheia

Stoic philosophers considered apátheia — freedom from…

ἀφήλιον

aphēlion

The Greeks named the point where a planet strays…

aphonia

Surprisingly, aphonia begins with the plain idea of…

apocalypse

Apocalypse began as an unveiling, not an ending.

ἀπόγειον

apógeion

The word for the moon's farthest point from Earth is…

ἀπόφθεγμα

apóphthegma

A Greek word for a terse, memorable saying — the kind…

ἀποστάτης

apostátēs

The Greek word for someone who stands away from their…

ἀπόστολος

apóstolos

A Greek word meaning 'one who is sent' — a messenger,…

ἀποθήκη

apothēkē

A Greek word for a storehouse became the name for the…

ἀψίνθιον

apsínthion

A Greek word for wormwood — a bitter, aromatic herb…

Latin (from Greek)

caminus

camīnus

The Greek word for a furnace became the Latin word for…

decanus

decānus

A dean was originally a leader of ten — the Latin word…

garum

The Roman Empire ran on a fermented fish sauce so…

hōra

hora

An hour was never sixty minutes in the ancient world —…

ink

The fluid that carries language onto surfaces takes…

pantomimus

Pantomime comes from the Greek for 'imitating…

peristȳlum

peristylum

The walled garden at the heart of the Roman house was…

spira

Latin spira meant 'coil, twist.' The word named the…

stylus

The pointed instrument used to inscribe marks onto a…

syncopatio

syncopātiō

The Greek word for 'cutting short' — a medical term…

τέσσερα / tessera

tessera

The small stone cube in a Roman mosaic is called a…

thermae

Roman public baths were not a luxury — they were the…

Welsh11

alltud

Welsh law gave strangers a precise legal status and…

corgi

A 'dwarf dog' from Wales conquered Buckingham Palace —…

cwm

This three-letter word without a single conventional…

cwrwgl

The coracle is one of the oldest watercraft designs in…

eisteddfod

eye-STETH-vod

Wales has kept its poets in competition for over five…

gwlanen

One of the few Welsh words to conquer the world—a…

hiraeth

heer-eyeth

Hiraeth is routinely described as untranslatable — a…

hwyl

There is a Welsh word for the ecstatic flow that…

cromlech

KROM-lek

The Neolithic chambered tombs of Britain and Brittany…

cwtch

kutch

Cwtch means a small storage cupboard under the stairs,…

Lloyd

A Welsh word for the color grey became one of…

English from Old French

baldric

BAWL-drik

A decorated sword belt — worn diagonally across the…

belfry

A belfry has nothing to do with bells. The word…

buckram

A stiff fabric used to reinforce book covers and…

destrier

The medieval war horse is named for the right hand —…

folie

The architectural folly — a deliberately useless…

maillot

mallet

The wooden hammer — softer than iron, kinder to…

palfrey

The word for a lady's gentle riding horse is a ghost…

pilcrow

The paragraph mark — that backwards P with a double…

shawm

The loudest instrument in medieval Europe was a…

tenon

The projecting tongue of wood that slides into a…

trestel

trestle

The sawyer's support bench — two crossed frames…

Dharug11

budyari

budgeree

A colonial adjective for good began as an Aboriginal…

coolamon

A wooden bowl became an English word before many…

gurrawaŋ

currawong

An Australian bird entered English with its cry still…

din-go

dingo

The wild dog of Australia gave English its name from…

giba

gibber

The Dharug word for stone gave Australian English both…

gunyah

A house word entered English while the houses…

myall

A colonial insult began as an Aboriginal word for a…

nulla nulla

nulla-nulla

English kept an Aboriginal club word and dropped…

waddy

English kept the club and nearly forgot the hand that…

warada

waratah

A flower name outlived the colony that tried to rename…

warrigal

Australia gave English a word for wildness, then used…

Finnish10

ahkio

A sled word survives because snow never negotiates.

motti

A word for stacked firewood became a strategy taught…

palsa

A frozen hump in the tundra gave climate science a…

perkele

Finland's most powerful profanity was once the name of…

pulkka

pulka

A winter vehicle became an English word by outrunning…

puukko

A small knife gave Finnish craft its sharpest cultural…

ruska

An entire season in Finland is named for leaves…

sauna

The only Finnish word in everyday global use—a hot…

sisu

The untranslatable grit that let Finland survive—and…

talkoot

The Finnish word for communal work that demands…

Irish Gaelic10

bean sídhe

The wailing woman who foretells death — Irish…

cailín

The Irish diminutive for a girl — cailín, little girl…

caoinim

The most human sound in the world — the wordless wail…

droimnín

The gentle whale-backed hills that ripple across…

eiscir

A gravel ridge formed under a glacier gave Irish…

Fenian

fenian

A band of mythic warriors became the name of a real…

hubbub

The English word for noisy confusion came from an…

sail éille

A walking stick from one Irish village became the…

seamróg

The most recognized symbol of Ireland is a diminutive…

uisce beatha

Irish monks called it 'the water of life.' English…

Middle Dutch10

accijns

The tax on goods produced and sold within a country —…

bolwerc

A bulwark was made of tree trunks — bol (trunk) plus…

būsen

The Dutch verb for drinking to excess sailed across…

kitte

A sports team's uniform is called a kit — from Middle…

luc

The concept that defines gambling, superstition, and…

Netherlands

netherlands

A country named for what it lacks: elevation above the…

stapel

The 'staple' commodity — the essential product of a…

stoof

Before it was something you cooked on, 'stove' was a…

tanckaert

The tankard was the serious drinker's vessel — a…

tromme

A sound that imitates itself. The Middle Dutch tromme…

Yoruba9

abara

The steamed twin of acarajé, abara crossed the…

agogo

A bell word from Yorubaland now keeps time for half…

aṣẹ

ashe

A single Yoruba syllable became prayer, verdict, and…

dùndún

The hourglass-shaped drum that can replicate the tones…

egusi

A soup is named for the seed, not the bowl.

Èṣù

The Yoruba orisha who stands at crossroads, carries…

Ògún

The Yoruba orisha of iron, war, and labor is named…

Sàngó

The Yoruba orisha of thunder, lightning, and justice…

waka

Waka is a Yoruba Islamic musical genre originating in…

Swahili9

amani

Swahili word for peace, from Arabic—a single word…

bwana

The colonial master's most confident title — the word…

dawa

Medicine, cure, remedy. Also an argument, a case, a…

jenga

A global tower game is named by a verb meaning build.

panga

The broad-bladed machete that clears East African…

simba

The Swahili word for lion — one of the oldest animal…

sukuma

Sukuma means 'push' in Swahili, and the name of the…

Tanzania

Tanzania is a political portmanteau coined in 1964 by…

twiga

The giraffe has one of the most onomatopoetically…

English from Latin

augurium

augury

Rome's most consequential political decisions required…

avian

The Latin root for bird — avis — gave English its word…

incipit

Before title pages existed, every manuscript announced…

incunabula

Books printed before 1501 have their own collective…

compositor

kəm-POZ-ih-tər

The craftsman who set type by hand — picking…

ligature

When two letters touch and merge into one graceful…

manicule

For centuries, readers drew tiny pointing hands in the…

trident

TRY-dent

Three teeth — the weapon of the sea god became the…

viridian

A Victorian chemist synthesized a new green from…

Classical Chinese9

德

dé

The Chinese character for virtue or moral power was…

君子

Jūnzǐ

Junzi — the exemplary person, the noble of character —…

禮

Lǐ

Li — ritual, propriety, the elaborate system of…

命

mìng

The Chinese character that means both 'fate' and…

氣

Qì

Qi — the vital breath or life-force that flows through…

仁

Rén

Ren — benevolence, humaneness, the supreme Confucian…

道

Tào / Dào

Tao — the Way — is the untranslatable concept at the…

文

wén

The Chinese character that means both 'writing' and…

五行

Wǔxíng

Wuxing — the Five Phases or Five Movements — is the…

Afrikaans8

aardvark

A South African compound entered English natural…

biltong

South Africa's dried meat tradition carries, in its…

kaross

A cloak of skins became a museum word for a vanished…

rondavel

The circular thatched hut of southern Africa has no…

rooibos

An Afrikaans word meaning 'red bush' — a name so plain…

spoor

Trackers across southern Africa read the land like…

springbok

South Africa's national animal has a name built from…

stoep

The shaded ledge before a Cape farmhouse became the…

New Latin8

America

america

A German cartographer in 1507 gave Amerigo Vespucci's…

aquafaba

Bean water got a Latin name in 2015 and conquered…

armistitium

Armistice means 'arms standing still' — the guns don't…

Cnidaria

cnidaria

The phylum named for the stinging nettle contains the…

syllabus

A printing mistake became a schoolword.

synovium

A sixteenth-century alchemist named this joint…

Wisteria

An American anatomist had his name misspelled in a…

xeroderma

A Greek compound for dry skin became dermatology's…

French (from Latin)

armoire

The tall wardrobe that holds clothing was originally…

juxtaposer

A Latin word for 'next to' merged with a French word…

niche

A hollow in a wall built to hold a saint's statue…

ponton

A pontoon is a floating bridge that armies have been…

répertoire

Repertoire comes from the Latin for 'find again' — it…

triomphe

The trump card began as a triumph — a word borrowed…

umbrage

The word for shade became the word for the shadow that…

vermeil

Vermeil is gilded silver — silver covered in gold —…

Irish8

bogach

Bog is an Irish word for the soft, waterlogged ground…

carraigín

carragheen

A seaweed got its name from a little rock and fed…

céilí

ceili

A word for a visit turned into a room full of dancing.

dinnseanchas

din-shan-a-khus

Dinnseanchas is the Irish tradition of place-name lore…

geis

gesh

A geis was a magical prohibition or obligation laid…

slew

A host of warriors shrank into an indefinite English…

tory

A hunted outlaw gave Britain one of its grandest…

tobar

tubber

A tobar is a holy well in Ireland — one of thousands…

Akkadian8

gammalu

gam-ma-lu

The animal that made desert trade possible carries a…

𒀭𒌋𒁯

Ištar

Ishtar was the most powerful goddess in the Akkadian…

𒅗𒊭𒋾

kunuk

The cylinder seal was the signature of ancient…

lardu

lar-du

The perfume that anointed kings and was poured over…

napṭu

NAP-too

The word for the flammable liquid that seeps from the…

saqqu

SAK-koo

The humble cloth bag — carried to markets, filled with…

šamaššammū

sha-mash-SHAM-moo

The plant that feeds the world's oldest culinary…

ziqqurratu

A ziggurat is a Mesopotamian stepped temple-tower — a…

Greek (modern coinage)

ἀ + νόσος + γνῶσις

a + nosos + gnosis

The cruelest trick a damaged brain can play is not…

ἀγνωστικός

agnōstikós

A word invented by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1869 from…

ἀντί + βιωτικός

antí + biōtikós

Antibiotic literally means 'against life' — and the…

δεινόσαυρος

deinósauros

Richard Owen needed a name for the terrible,…

ὁρμῶν

hormōn

Hormone was coined in 1905 from the Greek for 'setting…

πρόσωπον + ἀγνωσία

prosopon + agnosia

The neurological condition that makes you unable to…

τηλέφωνον

tēléphōnon

The Greeks had words for 'far' and 'voice' but never…

Kimbundu7

Angola

angola

A royal title misread as a place name became a country.

calulu

An Angolan okra stew crossed the Atlantic and never…

makumba

macumba

A ritual term crossed the Atlantic and became both…

milonga

A Bantu word crossed the Atlantic and helped teach…

kilombo

quilombo

A war camp word became the name of freedom settlements.

quindim

Brazil's golden custard carries a word from Angola in…

semba

A Kimbundu word for the navel-bump — the moment when…

English (compound)

blueberry

The blueberry is one of the few fruits native to North…

earthenware

Earthenware is the oldest manufactured material in…

hummingbird

The hummingbird is named for the sound its wings make…

manslaughter

Manslaughter is the Anglo-Saxon word for killing that…

stoneware

Stoneware is not made of stone — it is clay fired so…

watercolour

Watercolor is the only major painting medium named for…

woodpecker

The woodpecker hits its head against a tree at 20…

Chinese (Mandarin)7

茶

chá

One plant, one Chinese character, two pronunciations —…

炕

kàng

In northern China's bitter winters, families slept,…

荔枝

lì zhī

An emperor's beloved concubine craved this fruit so…

馒头

mántou

The steamed bun whose name may contain a grim legend —…

上海

Shànghǎi

When English speakers say someone has been…

武术

wǔshù

China's word for martial arts means 'the art of…

無為

wuwei

The Daoist principle of 'non-action' doesn't mean…

Anglo-French7

embesiler

To embezzle is to 'make away with' — the Anglo-French…

enditer

An indictment — from the Old French for 'to write…

flotsam

Maritime law needed two words: one for wreckage that…

havok

Havoc was not a description but a command — the battle…

impeachment

Impeachment comes from a Latin word for foot shackles,…

mesdemeaner

A misdemeanor is literally a 'mis-behaving' — the word…

reregarde

The rearguard is what watches what is behind —…

Zulu7

imbizo

A chief's summons became South Africa's tool for…

impi

An English war word came straight from the language of…

induna

A colonial administration borrowed its local word for…

izimbongi

The Zulu praise poets spoke power into being before…

khwela

A Zulu word meaning 'climb up' — shouted as a warning…

sawubona

The Zulu greeting sawubona doesn't mean 'hello.' It…

vuvuzela

A plastic stadium horn from South Africa generated…

Arabic / Urdu

انتظار

intezaar

An Arabic word for waiting that in Urdu became a…

جنون

junoon

An Arabic word for possession by jinn — spirits that…

محفل

mehfil

An Arabic word for a circle — a place where people…

محبت

mohabbat

An Arabic word from the root for a seed that clings to…

مشاعرہ

mushaira

An Arabic word meaning a mutual exchange of poetry — a…

قوّالی

qawwālī

From the Arabic root meaning 'to speak' or 'to say,'…

سکون

sukoon

An Arabic word meaning stillness — the peace that…

Cantonese

長衫

chèuhngsāam

The form-fitting silk dress that Western fashion…

chop-chop

A Cantonese urgency echoed twice, pressed into English…

litchi

A fruit so prized in Han China, emperors had it…

paktong

Chinese metallurgists smelted nickel-silver alloy…

師傅

sifu

A craftsman title became global martial-arts authority.

siu mei

siu-mei

Cantonese roasters turned an imperial court technique…

Burmese

လုံချည်

longyi

Half the population of Myanmar wraps a single tube of…

lungyis

Myanmar's national garment is a tube of cloth that has…

မုန့်ဟင်းခါး

mohinga

Myanmar's national dish — a fish-based rice noodle…

Myanmar

myanmar

The formal Burmese name for their homeland is eight…

nat

In Burmese animism, spirits are nat—powerful beings…

သနပ်ခါး

thanakha

For two thousand years, Burmese children have worn…

Pashto

afghan

The word for your grandmother's crocheted blanket…

اتن

attan

The national dance of Afghanistan has no single…

لویہ جرگہ

loya jirga

For centuries, Pashtuns have gathered in grand…

ننواتی

nanawatai

The Pashtun code says if you seek shelter, even from…

پشتونولی

pashtunwali

The unwritten code that governs Pashtun life has no…

Chinese

Annam

annam

China named Vietnam's heartland Pacified South in 679…

本機

běnjī

A soft, unbleached silk fabric that Westerners loved…

絲

sī

A Chinese word for the thread drawn from a silkworm's…

丝

sī

The thread that built the longest trade route in human…

xiàngqí

Xiangqi — Chinese chess — means 'elephant game.' The…

Arabic/Persian

lazaward

Lapis lazuli's blue stunned the ancient world—Persian…

مثنوی

masnavī

The Persian verse form built for long stories used…

مطلع

maṭlaʿ

In Persian and Urdu poetry, the matla is the opening…

رباعیات

rubāʿīyāt

A single Victorian translation of a Persian…

ساقی

sāqī

The wine-bearer of Persian poetry is simultaneously a…

Telugu5

కుడగు

kuḍagu

The Telugu word for a clay cooking pot traces back to…

మరప్పు

marappu

Telugu has a word — marappu — that means both…

முங்கூஸ்

muṅkūs

The small, quick, fearless serpent-killer — and the…

పందికొక్కు

pandikokku

How a Telugu pig-rat crossed oceans and lent its name…

వీర

vīra

The Dravidian word for a warrior-hero — vīra —…

Italian (from Latin)

baroccio

Jane Austen used the barouche as social shorthand —…

basso

The Italian word for 'low' named both the deepest…

cupola

A little cup turned upside down became the crown of…

patina

Patina — from the Italian and Latin word for a shallow…

rotunda

A rotunda is a circular building or room covered by a…

Ukrainian5

біфштек

bifshtek

An English beefsteak survived four languages to become…

борщ

borshch

A humble beet soup became a battlefield—its name now…

борщ

borshch

A beet soup became the most politically charged bowl…

гопак

hopak

From the Ukrainian exclamation 'hop!' — a cry of…

varenyky

Ukraine's national dumpling owes its name to a single…

French from Latin

bombazine

Queen Victoria wore bombazine for forty years of…

décanter

To decant wine is to pour it off the edge — away from…

liaison

The word for a secret affair is the same word French…

massif

French geologists needed a word for a block of…

terrasse

The word for a raised outdoor platform comes from the…

Anglo-Norman French5

brocour

The person who arranges your stock trades was…

embrouder

Embroidery is painting with thread — the Bayeux…

ordinance

The English word for military weapons is a spelling…

pied de grue

A crane's foot became the symbol for family…

wagier

A wager was originally a pledge of good faith in a…

English from French

chammy

A mountain goat gave English a cloth and then a slang…

ha-ha

The most aristocratic garden feature in English…

orangerie

The orangery — that long glass-fronted room on the…

Robin

robin

A bird named after a man named Robert — and how a…

shalloon

The lining fabric inside 18th-century coats was named…

Malayalam5

കൊപ്പര

koppara

The dried heart of the coconut — and the word that…

Malabar

malabar

A coastline became an adjective, a spice brand, and…

ഓലൻ

olan

Kerala's quietest dish carries a name older than its…

പായസം

payasam

A dessert word began as a Sanskrit word for milk, not…

tekka

The wood that built the British Empire came with its…

Sumerian5

dingir

Surprisingly, dingir began as both sky and god.

𒀭𒄑𒂆𒈦

GilgameS

Gilgamesh is the oldest named literary hero in…

𒀭𒈹

Inanna

Inanna is the Sumerian goddess of love and war whose…

𒈗

lugal

Lugal was the Sumerian word for king, built from the…

ma-na

MA-na

The Sumerian unit of weight — the mina — is the oldest…

Swedish5

fika

The Swedish coffee break isn't just coffee. It's a…

gravlax

Sweden's cured salmon takes its name from a medieval…

ombudsman

In 1809, Sweden invented a new kind of official—the…

Sjögren

Sjogren

Nineteen patients and one doctoral thesis gave…

tungsten

Swedish miners named it 'heavy stone' - now it lights…

Norwegian5

fjeld

Scandinavia's barren highlands needed a word that…

flo

From the Norwegian word for a flat layer or slab, the…

huldre

Surprisingly, huldre is a hidden one made visible in…

kraken

Sailors' nightmares of giant tentacles reaching from…

lemming

A small Arctic rodent became a symbol of blind…

Hindi/Urdu from Persian

जिमखाना

jimkhānā

Gymkhana — now meaning a horse-riding competition or a…

पायजामा

pāyjāmā

The British went to India, saw comfortable trousers,…

सरदार

sardār

A Persian word for chieftain climbed the Himalayas and…

शिकार

śikār

The British turned a Persian word for hunting into the…

सिपाही

sipāhī

The word for an Indian soldier in the British army…

Latin/English

amplificare

amplifier

A word meaning 'to enlarge' became the device that…

coronation

A flower whose name may descend from the Latin word…

cortisol

The stress hormone that comes from the adrenal cortex…

rationalisatio

Rationalization describes the construction of…

Pali4

අනත්ත

anattā

Twenty-five centuries ago, the Buddha made a claim so…

මෙත්තා

mettā

The oldest guided meditation in the Buddhist canon is…

मुदिता

mudita

Sympathetic joy—happiness at another person's good…

සති

sati

The Buddha's word for remembering that you exist,…

English from Old French from Latin

arbalest

AR-bə-lest

The medieval war crossbow that terrorized knights and…

glaive

GLAYV

A polearm that scholars have argued about for…

treille

The garden trellis — that familiar criss-cross of wood…

vellum

VEL-əm

The finest writing surface of the medieval world was…

Urdu4

عورت

aurat

The Urdu word for woman began as an Arabic term for…

بقرخانی

bakarkhani

A Mughal nobleman's name may be baked into every layer…

izzat

An Arabic word for divine power became South Asia's…

nihari

Delhi's butchers cooked this bone marrow stew all…

Gujarati4

avadavat

A red finch named after the Indian city that sold it…

dhokla

Dhokla fermented in Gujarat for seven centuries before…

હડતાળ

hartal

A market shutdown became a language of mass politics.

સત્યાગ્રહ

satyagraha

A political weapon was named in a newspaper contest.

Catalan

barceloneta

Barcelona built a new neighborhood in 1753 to house…

Eixample

eixample

Barcelona's famous grid district takes its name from a…

ensaimada

Mallorca's coiled pastry carries its defining…

sobrasada

Mallorca named its most famous sausage after its own…

Punjabi4

ਭੰਗੜਾ

bhaṅgṛā

A harvest dance from the wheat fields of Punjab became…

ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ

gurduārā

A Punjabi word for "gateway to the guru" became the…

tikka

A Punjabi word for a small piece crossed two oceans to…

tikka masala

Half the name is Turkic, half Arabic, and the dish may…

Turkic

böri

bohri

A steppe wolf-name survives in military surnames and…

буран

buran

The same steppe storm named a Soviet space shuttle.

курган

kurgan

A Turkic word for a burial mound — a hill raised by…

кымыз

qımız

Fermented mare's milk, the drink that sustained…

Kannada4

bonda

Bonda is round by name, a Dravidian word for the ball…

ಇಡ್ಲಿ

idli

One of India's softest foods has a hard medieval paper…

ಕಾಲ

kāla

Time itself has a name, and it traveled further than…

ಕೊಡಗು

koḍagu

A Kannada word for a region became the name for a…

Oromo

Borana

The Borana Oromo are a pastoral subgroup of the Oromo…

ግዳ

gadaa

The Oromo people of Ethiopia developed a democratic…

ኢርሬቻ

irreecha

The Oromo give thanks for the rains at the shores of…

ዖዳ

odaa

The sycamore fig tree is sacred to the Oromo people.…

Wolof4

ቦንግስ

bouye

The baobab tree—called 'bouye' in Wolof—can live two…

hipi

A Wolof word meaning to open one's eyes — to see…

Jolof

jollof

A kingdom became dinner and started arguments.

jollof rice

A medieval West African empire dissolved but its name…

English (American)

breakdancing / breaking

breaking

The dancers who invented breaking never called it…

cakewalk

The cakewalk started as enslaved people mocking their…

lynch

A Virginia magistrate who bypassed the courts during…

switchel

Before Gatorade, American farmers drank a…

Mexican Spanish4

burrito

A little donkey's name became the most portable meal…

campechana

A seafood cocktail named for the city where Spanish…

campechano

Campeche's reputation for warmth turned a city name…

mariachi

A word of disputed origin — possibly from a French…

English (origin uncertain)

bustle

The bustle — a pad or frame worn under a skirt to…

cantilever

A cantilever is a beam that sticks out into empty air…

nog

Eggnog is two mystery words stuck together — nobody is…

Shandygaff

shandygaff

Nobody knows where the word shandygaff came from,…

Brazilian Portuguese

cachaça

cachaca

Brazil's national spirit began as a rough byproduct…

cafuné

cafune

Brazilian Portuguese has a dedicated word for the act…

feijoada

Brazil's national dish began as slave food — the parts…

moqueca

A Tupi fish-smoking rack became Brazil's most bitterly…

Taíno4

caimán

caiman

Europe learned this reptile's name from the Caribbean…

casabe

Columbus tasted this flatbread in 1492, and its name…

cay

A tiny island gave English one of its shortest travel…

Haiti

haiti

Haiti kept its indigenous name when it became the…

Classical Nahuatl4

calpolli

Surprisingly, calpolli was a house-group before it was…

chalchihuitl

For the Aztecs, jade outranked gold in every register…

octli

The drink that fed gods and fueled empire long before…

tlacoyo

This stuffed corn oval fed Aztec markets centuries…

Tupi4

canjica

Sweetened white corn simmered in milk is the taste of…

guaraná

Named after the Guaraní people of the Amazon, whose…

ka'apiûara

The world's largest rodent — the size of a Labrador…

tipi'óka

Tapioca is the starchy residue of the cassava root —…

Late Latin4

capitaneus

A captain is literally a head-man — and the same Latin…

compāniō

Your companion is literally someone you share bread…

equiparation

Strangely, equiparation began as a learned act of…

excaldare

excaldāre

To scald is to burn with hot liquid — the Latin root…

Uzbek4

чапан

chapan

A robe built for cold mornings became a word for…

norin

Uzbekistan gave horse-meat noodles a new name in the…

палов

plov

A wedding dish became a national emblem and a global…

Urgench

A city on the Silk Road in what is now Uzbekistan gave…

Old French from Latin

corvée

For most of human history, the landlord did not need…

dormeor

The window that projects from a sloped roof is named…

eslite

The 'elite' were literally picked out from everyone…

puie

For the first thousand years of Christianity, churches…

Greek via Latin

crystal

The ancient Greeks were so convinced that mountain ice…

Οὐρανός

Ouranos

William Herschel discovered the seventh planet in 1781…

Πλούτων

Plouton

An eleven-year-old girl in Oxford suggested the name…

Rhizome

RY-zohm

Beneath every meadow runs a hidden architecture — the…

English from French from Latin

kern

KERN

The overhang of a metal type character — the part that…

culverin

KUL-vər-in

A cannon named for a snake — its long barrel and…

petard

peh-TARD

An explosive device for blowing open gates —…

poniard

PON-yərd

The small dagger that Renaissance assassins and…

Javanese

ꦒꦩꦺꦭꦤ꧀

gamelan

Gamelan is the name for the bronze percussion…

gudeg

Gudeg is a Javanese dish of young jackfruit stewed in…

kris

keris / kris

The keris is a Javanese asymmetric dagger whose wavy…

lahar

Lahar is a Javanese word for the volcanic mudflows…

Maori

haka

The haka is not a war dance — it is a declaration, a…

poi

A small ball on a cord, swung in rhythmic patterns as…

pounamu

The Maori word for New Zealand nephrite jade names a…

tuatara

The tuatara has been called a living fossil — but the…

English (eponym)

Hansom

An architect named Joseph Hansom patented a safety cab…

Negus

A seventeenth-century English colonel mixed port wine…

Newton

The SI unit of force is named after Isaac Newton, who…

Shrapnel

One of the few words in English named after a weapons…

Old Persian

مغ

maguš

The word 'magic' comes from the Magi — the Zoroastrian…

Persian

persian

Persia named itself after a small southern province,…

خشتراپاون

xšaçapāvan

Old Persian xšaçapāvan meant 'protector of the realm'…

xshathrapavan

The satrap was a Persian provincial governor — and the…

Yiddish (from Hebrew)

מַזָּל טוֹב

mazaltov

A Babylonian star name became the world's most…

מגילה

megile

A sacred scroll of the Hebrew Bible became a Yiddish…

משוגעת

meshugaat

The Hebrew word for madness became Yiddish's…

שמועות

shmues

Holy rumors became friendly chat became the art of…

Aymara

achachilas

In Aymara cosmology, mountains are not geology. They…

pachamanca

Earth itself is the pot in this ancient Andean feast.

Tinku

tinku

In the Bolivian Andes, communities gather to fight…

Rapa Nui

ahu

These stone platforms of Easter Island were sacred…

moʻai

moai

The stone figures of Easter Island are not anonymous…

moai

The monolithic statues of Easter Island were carved…

Greek + Latin

anti + fungus

Fighting the mushroom kingdom. The drugs are newer…

anti + virus

Against poison. The prefix older than the pathogen,…

αὐτόματος + mobilis

automatos + mobilis

Engineers in the 1880s bolted together a Greek word…

Modern Latin from Greek

azalea

ə-ZAY-lee-ə

Botanists named this flowering shrub for dryness —…

hydrangea

hy-DRAY-nee-ə

Named for a water vessel because its seed capsule…

clematis

KLEM-ə-tis

The Greeks named this climbing vine for a twig — the…

Thai from Sanskrit

บาท

bàat

Thailand's currency takes its name from an ancient…

สตางค์

sà-taang

Thailand's smallest denomination — one hundredth of a…

สงกรานต์

songkran

A Sanskrit word for the sun's movement became the…

English (nautical)

bearing

The English word for the direction of one point from…

dead reckoning

For centuries, sailors crossing featureless ocean…

leeway

The nautical word for the sideways drift of a ship…

Modern Latin, named for a person

begonia

bih-GOH-nee-ə

A flower named not for its appearance, its scent, or…

forsythia

for-SY-thee-ə

Every March, millions of suburban gardens briefly turn…

zinnia

ZIN-ee-ə

A wildflower from the Mexican plateau, named for a…

Marathi3

bhajji

Bhajji names the act of eating before it names the…

Dadar

dadar

Mumbai's busiest railway junction takes its name from…

Powai

powai

A fishermen's creek became Mumbai's technology…

Afrikaans from Dutch

boerewors

South African farmer's sausage. Coiled beef-and-spice,…

braai

South African barbecue, from Dutch braden 'to roast.'…

trek

Boer farmers named their ox-wagon migrations—and gave…

English (uncertain origin)

bollard

The short metal post on a dock where ropes are tied is…

bungy

The elastic cord that lets you fall from bridges may…

ketch

The two-masted sailing vessel that became the workboat…

Proto-Germanic

bru

Brewer comes from Proto-Germanic *breuwan — to brew,…

sterrō

The word for star has barely changed in five thousand…

Sweden

sweden

Sweden named itself after a tribe whose own name no…

Serbian

четник

chetnik

A word for fighters in bands became a century-long…

гусле

gusle

A one-string instrument name carries centuries of…

Kosovo

Kosovo means the field of blackbirds, named for a…

Guaraní

chip'á

The Guaraní word for a cheese bread became so tied to…

coatí

coati

This animal is named for its nose, not its tail.

Paraguay

The river the Guaraní called 'crowned' now names a…

Rioplatense Spanish

choripán

choripan

Two words, one grill, and a sandwich that became…

panqueques

A British pancake, respelled and thinned, conquered…

tuco-tuco

tucutuco

An underground rodent is named for the sound it makes,…

Latin (modern coinage)

circa + dies

circa diem

Circadian was coined in 1959 by a biologist who needed…

herba + -cīda

The word for a chemical that kills weeds was coined in…

pestis + -cīda

The word pesticide was coined from the Latin for…

Dharug (Australian Aboriginal)

corroboree

The English settlers who watched with bewilderment…

wombat

A burrowing marsupial so anatomically extreme — with a…

woomera

A spear-throwing device that multiplied human arm…

Middle English (origin uncertain)

cuffe

Nobody is sure where cuff comes from — and it has two…

haberdasher

Nobody knows where haberdasher comes from — one of the…

pedder

A peddler walks — the word may come from 'ped,' a…

Hindi (from Sanskrit)

धोबी

dhobī (Hindi)

The washerman who kept the British Empire in clean…

खिचड़ी

khicṛī (Hindi) / khichdi

The simple Indian comfort food of rice and lentils…

महावत

mahāvat (Hindi) / mahāmātra (Sanskrit)

The elephant trainer who could redirect a…

Hindi / Sanskrit

धोती

dhoti

The cloth that Gandhi chose over the suit was not…

घी

ghī (Hindi) / ghṛta (Sanskrit)

Clarified butter distilled to its essence — the…

साड़ी

sari

A single unstitched length of cloth -- no needle, no…

Greek (via Latin)

αἴνιγμα

ainigma

The Greek word for a riddle became a Nazi cipher…

δίλημμα

dilemma

The Greeks built a word for being trapped between two…

ἐπιφάνεια

epiphaneia

The Greek word for a god's appearance became the…

Middle Dutch / Low German

docke

A word borrowed from Dutch harbor workers — possibly…

knack

A sharp crack, a snap of the fingers, a click of…

spelter

The old English name for zinc — a metal so strange to…

French (eponym)

Déodat de Dolomieu

Dolomieu

A French geologist imprisoned during the Napoleonic…

églomisé

Églomisé is painting on the back of glass — the…

jacquard

A silk weaver's son from Lyon invented a loom that…

Italian (Venetian)

ducato

The most trusted coin in medieval Europe was named not…

laguna

Venice gave the world a word for the shallow waters…

luganega

Cicero wrote about this sausage two thousand years…

Old Irish

dún

Dún is the Old Irish word for a fortified hill or…

Eoghan

eoghan

An Irish name spoken since the third century, with…

luchorpán

The Old Irish for 'small-bodied one' — a fairy cobbler…

Proto-Indo-European3

medu

Mead—honey fermented with water—is almost certainly…

*méh₂tēr

méh₂tēr

The word for 'mother' is nearly the same in languages…

*ph₂tḗr

ph₂tḗr

The Proto-Indo-European word for father is not related…

Modern Greek3

φέτα

féta

Feta means 'slice' in Greek — the cheese was named for…

μεράκι

meraki

Putting your soul into your work. Leaving a piece of…

Metaxa

metaxa

Spyros Metaxas blended aged brandy with Muscat wine in…

Twi3

fufu

One of West Africa's great staple foods is named by a…

kelewele

Spiced fried plantain takes a name built from the…

kontomire

A taro leaf that crossed three oceans feeds half of…

Old Norse / Scandinavian

gala

A word that may have begun as a Scandinavian verb…

rogg

Before it covered your floor, the Scandinavian 'rug'…

skvala

A Scandinavian word for a sudden cry or rushing sound…

Venetian Italian

gazeta

The word for a newspaper comes from the price of…

ghèto

A Venetian foundry gave its name to every walled-in…

Montenegro

Venetian sailors named this country after a mountain…

Kimbundu (Angola)

kingombo

A Bantu word for okra became Louisiana's signature…

kizomba

Kizomba means party or celebration in Kimbundu — the…

semba

Semba is the original Angolan dance from which samba…

Babylonian (Akkadian)

𒄩𒄠𒈬𒊏𒁉

Hammurabi

Hammurabi was a Babylonian king who reigned from 1792…

𒀭𒀫𒌓

Marduk

Marduk rose from a minor deity of a small city to…

𒀭𒋾𒊩𒆳

Tiāmat

Tiamat was the primordial salt-water ocean personified…

Cantonese Chinese3

大班

daai baan (Cantonese) / dà bān (Mandarin)

In 19th-century Canton, the Cantonese called the…

行

hong

A single Chinese syllable once ran the foreign trade…

堂

tong

A word for a hall became a word for a gang.

Czech3

houfnice

Bohemian rebels built a weapon to fight crusaders—its…

husitský

The followers of a burned Czech preacher gave their…

píšťala

pistala

From medieval pipe to revolutionary weapon—the…

Nyungar (Aboriginal Australian)

jarrah

The towering hardwood tree whose timber built colonial…

karri

The third-tallest tree species on Earth — a…

quokka

The small, smiling marsupial of Rottnest Island — the…

English from Swahili (Bantu)

kanga

KAH-ngah

A rectangle of printed cotton that East African women…

pole pole

POH-lay POH-lay

The two most important words on Mount Kilimanjaro are…

shamba

SHAHM-bah

The Swahili word for a small farm or garden holds…

Low German / Dutch

knappen + zak

The knapsack is literally a 'snap-sack' — a bag for…

smokkelen

The word for moving goods secretly through customs…

smuggelen

Smuggler comes from a Low German or Dutch word meaning…

Low German3

kontor

Oddly, kontor began as a place for counting.

Labskaus

labskaus

A sailor's crimson hash that named an entire city's…

swamp

The forested wetlands of the American South were given…

Mapudungun

machitun

A Mapuche healing ceremony named after the healer who…

nguillatun

The sacred ceremony where the Mapuche people gather to…

Toqui

toqui

The Mapuche war chief carried a stone axe as…

Sanskrit/Hindi

महारानी

mahārānī

The feminine form of maharajah entered English not…

मंदिर

mandir

A Hindu temple: not merely a building but the earthly…

पंचायत

pañcāyat

India's oldest form of local government is named after…

Samoan

malae

The Samoan village green has no fence, no owner, and…

siapo

Samoan bark cloth woven from paper mulberry, decorated…

tatau

The English word for permanent ink marks on skin comes…

Bengali3

মিষ্টি দই

mishti doi

Bengal's sweetest yogurt was born from clay, milk, and…

puchka

Kolkata put its own word on a dish that all of India…

ras malai

Two Sanskrit words, one Bengali dessert, centuries of…

Hokkien Chinese3

pancit

Filipino noodles carry a Hokkien phrase meaning simply…

twakow

Singapore's river commerce ran on these flat-bottomed…

烏龍

wū lóng (Mandarin) / ū-liông (Hokkien)

A black dragon coils inside your teacup — the name for…

Latin (via Old French)

page

The flat surface on which you read these words was…

pen

The instrument used to write these words is named, at…

triplus

The highest voice in the choir got its name from being…

Classical Chinese (Confucian)

孝

xiào

The Chinese character for filial piety shows an old…

義

yì

The Chinese character for righteousness shows a sheep…

中庸

zhōngyōng

Translated as 'the Doctrine of the Mean,' this…

Akan

akwaaba

The Akan word for welcome — akwaaba — greets visitors…

nkra

The visual symbols used by the Akan people of Ghana…

Abkhazian

аджика

ad-ZHEE-ka

A chili paste from the subtropical coast of the Black…

ajika

Abkhazia's spicy paste carries a name that simply…

English from Arabic

أمير

amīr

An Arabic prince became the captain of English…

assassin

A medieval sect's name became the word for political…

Arabic via Spanish

الطوب

aṭ-ṭūb

Sun-dried mud bricks that built civilizations — and…

Šereš / Xérès

Sheresh / Jerez

Sherry—the fortified wine of southern Spain—is simply…

English from Old English

adese

adze

The adze is the oldest shaping tool in human history —…

broadcast

Before it meant sending signals through the air,…

Occitan2

aioli

France popularized it. Occitan named it first.

bourride

Sète's answer to bouillabaisse has aioli where…

Zulu (South African)

amapiano

Amapiano means 'the pianos' in Zulu — a South African…

gqom

Gqom — pronounced 'gome' or 'gorm' in approximation —…

Gascon French

Armagnac

armagnac

France's oldest brandy carries the name of a…

béret

The beret is one of Europe's oldest surviving hat…

English (from Latin)

aureolin

A golden-yellow watercolor pigment invented in 1848…

subliminal

The word for perception below the threshold of…

Italian from Germanic

balcone

A Germanic word for 'beam' became the Italian platform…

schifo

The English word for a small boat came from Italian,…

Yucatec Maya2

Belize

A muddy river gave its name to a nation.

sacbé

sak beh

Ancient Maya cities were connected by perfectly…

Hindi/Marathi

भाजी

bhājī

The deep-fried vegetable fritter that became a British…

डुंगरी

Dungri

A coarse cloth named for a neighborhood in Bombay —…

Modern Greek (coined)

δέκαθλον

dékathlon

The word for ten contests was invented in 1912 for a…

δί + ἆθλον

dí + âthlon

The only Olympic sport that combines skiing and rifle…

Swiss German2

biwacht

Soldiers sleeping under the stars owe their word to…

Putsch

The word for a sudden, violent attempt to overthrow a…

Scottish English2

black mail

Blackmail has nothing to do with letters. The 'mail'…

glamer

Scottish magicians altered 'grammar' into 'glamour,'…

Irish English

Blarney

Blarney — smooth, flattering, persuasive talk that is…

limerick

A five-line comic verse form named after an Irish…

Old Norse / Old Swedish

blundra

From the Old Norse verb meaning 'to shut one's eyes'…

gantr

Two different gauntlets hide in one English word — the…

Japanese from Chinese

盆栽

bonsai

An entire forest in a pot — the Japanese art of…

moxa

For three thousand years, Chinese physicians burned…

Australian English

bonzer

Australian goldfields produced one of the language's…

shickered

Hebrew Scripture's word for Noah's disgrace became…

Greek from Turkish

μπουζούκι

bouzouki

The instrument that became the sound of modern Greece…

τζατζίκι

tzatziki

The yogurt sauce that traveled from Central Asia to…

Scots2

braw

The Scots word for 'fine' and 'good' might come from…

tweel

A misread scrawl of a Scottish word — tweel, the local…

Alsatian French

Bretzel

bretzel

The pretzel's oldest name was Latin for little arms.

quetsche

A purple Alsatian plum traveled from Damascus to…

Middle French2

browse

Before you browsed the internet, livestock browsed…

javeline

A Celtic word for a light throwing spear survived…

English (South African)

bushbaby

The nocturnal primate that sounds like a human infant…

gumboot

Gumboot dance developed among South African gold…

French/Latin

careening

Before dry docks existed, the only way to clean a…

lateen

The triangular sail that made it possible to sail…

Old North French2

cariage

A medieval French word for the act of carrying became…

scarce

The word for not enough began as Latin for picked out…

Urdu / Persian

kamarband

The sash worn with black-tie formal wear is a garment…

کشمیر

Kashmīr

The softest wool in the world comes from the…

Tupi (via Portuguese)

kyinha

The fiery pepper that transformed global cuisine…

macavuana

The brilliant parrots whose feathers once served as…

Spanish from Quechua

charango

The small Andean lute was built on the shell of an…

vizcacha

A mountain rodent carries an Andean name through a…

Romani (from Sanskrit)

chavo

chavo / chavi

The most contentious word in British class…

kosh

kosh / koshter

The British slang for a bludgeon—the weapon of…

Lakota

Šahíyena

Cheyenne is not what the Cheyenne call themselves — it…

thípi

tipi (or tepee, teepee)

Dwelling—a portable tent engineered for temperature…

Old Chinese

Chinese

chinese

The Qin emperor who burned books gave his dynasty's…

Xiongnu

xiongnu

China built a wall against them, and the Romans may…

Hindi from Sanskrit

चिट्ठी

ciṭṭhī

Chit — a short note, a signed voucher, a brief written…

देखो

dekho

Dekko — British slang for 'a look' or 'a glance' — is…

Medieval Latin (from Celtic)

clocca

The word clock comes from the medieval word for a bell…

vassallus

The Celtic word for a young man or retainer — *gwas —…

Old French (from Latin)

composte

The word for rotting vegetable scraps in your backyard…

preinte

The word for pressing ink onto paper comes from the…

Dharug (Aboriginal Australian)

cooee

The long, rising call used to attract attention across…

koala

The marsupial that sleeps twenty hours a day and…

Italian from Greek

cornice

The projecting ledge at the top of a building wall…

trullo

In a dry limestone plain of southern Italy, farmers…

French (disputed)

croquet

Croquet may come from the French word for a small hook…

joli rouge

Nobody knows for certain where the pirate flag got its…

Old Church Slavonic

цар

czar

A Slavic corruption of Caesar — the name of a Roman…

voivode

A war leader became a prince, a governor, and…

English (surname)

Davenport

The word davenport describes two completely different…

sandwich

The most eaten hand-held food in the world carries the…

English (place name)

Derby

The twelfth Earl of Derby started a horse race in 1780…

Rugby

In 1823, a schoolboy at Rugby School allegedly picked…

Biblical Hebrew

דְּבַשׁ

devash

The Hebrew Bible's word for honey named both the…

מֶרְכָּבָה

merkabah

A divine chariot described by Ezekiel became the…

German (surname)

Diesel

A German engineer's surname became an engine, a fuel,…

Mesmer

To mesmerize someone—to hold them in rapt, unblinking…

Navajo

Diné

The Navajo people call themselves Diné—'the people'—a…

hooghan

The Navajo word for home became an architectural icon…

Greek/Latin

diploma

A diplomat carries a diploma — Greek diploma means 'a…

dysfunction

Greek prefix, Latin root: dysfunction was medicine's…

Bambara2

jembe

A Bambara phrase meaning 'everyone gather together in…

shea

A butter tree reached English by way of a…

Breton2

taol maen

dolmen

The stone table — two or more massive upright slabs…

men hir

A menhir is simply a long stone — men hir in Breton —…

English from Hindi (place name)

देवली

Deolālī

Doolally — meaning slightly mad or eccentric — comes…

जोधपुर

Jodhpur

Jodhpurs — close-fitting riding breeches flared at the…

Jamaican English2

dreadlocks

The word dread once signaled holy terror, not a…

ska

A word of mysterious origin — perhaps imitating a…

Middle English / Old French

dresser

A kitchen sideboard for dressing food — arranging,…

tack

When a sailboat turns through the wind, it tacks — a…

Armenian2

դուդուկ

doo-DOOK

The Armenian double-reed instrument carved from…

խաշ

khash

Khash is eaten at dawn, after cooking all night, by…

Spanish from Latin

ejido

After a revolution that cost a million lives, Mexico…

hacienda

A word for "things to be done" became the name for an…

Spanish/Portuguese

embargo

A word for seizing ships became the weapon of…

mosquito

The deadliest animal on earth has a name that means…

Spanish / Portuguese

escudo

The Spanish and Portuguese word for a shield — escudo,…

rumbo

A rhumb line is the navigator's straight line — a…

French from Italian

espalier

To espalier a fruit tree is to press it flat against a…

pastiche

The word for a work of art made of imitated styles or…

Italian via French

facciata

The front of a building shares its root with the human…

pontil

The iron rod that gives a glassblower's finished work…

Tongan

Fiji

fiji

Fiji is the Tongan pronunciation of a Fijian word that…

Tonga

tonga

Tonga means south, and the kingdom sits exactly where…

Turkish / Persian

ferman

A Persian word meaning 'command' -- the Sultan's…

sipahi

A Persian word for a mounted soldier -- one who serves…

German from Latin

Brezel

A monk twisted dough into the shape of arms crossed in…

Fraktur

Germany's most distinctive typeface was named for the…

Latin/Italian

fuga

Fugue means 'flight' in Latin, and the form it names…

harmonica

Named for harmony itself — from the Greek word for a…

Old Norman French

gaiole

The English language has two words for the same thing…

warenne

A rabbit warren was not, in its medieval origins, a…

Gascon

garbure

The stew of Gascony that must be thick enough to hold…

Lourdes

lourdes

A Pyrenean fortress town became the world's most…

Maltese

gbejniet

A sheep's cheese carries Arabic and Sicilian ancestry.…

pastizzi

The plural of a Maltese street pastry became English…

Kikuyu

githeri

Boiled maize and beans outlasted colonialism, famine,…

irio

In Kikuyu the word for food became the name of Kenya's…

Irish / Scottish Gaelic

gob

The blunt, informal English word for a mouth — 'shut…

seanchaidh

shan-a-khee

The seanachie was not simply a storyteller — he was…

Old French (from Frankish)

escroe

The word that named the dominant reading format for…

garder

The word for someone who protects a child comes from…

Dutch / German

gulden

The Dutch currency for four centuries — the guilder —…

wagen

A Germanic word for a wheeled vehicle — from the same…

uncertain

hapertas

Haberdasher is among the most etymologically…

turmoil

One of English's great etymological mysteries —…

Tahitian

haka

The Tahitian haka is a ceremonial dance performed at…

motu

A small island on the reef — separated from the main…

Powhatan (Algonquian)

ärähkun

The animal that washes its food taught English…

pawcohiccora

Hickory is the only major English tree name derived…

Purépecha2

huarache

A sandal gave its name to a street food shaped like a…

uchepo

Michoacán's fresh corn tamal carries a name older than…

Latin from Greek

hypocaustum

hypocaust

Two thousand years before underfloor heating became a…

stola

A Roman matron's formal garment became a Christian…

Phoenician

Ibiza

ibiza

Phoenician traders named this island three thousand…

Jezebel

jezebel

A Phoenician queen's name became English's sharpest…

Swahili (from Arabic)

imani

Imani means faith in Swahili, but the word's Arabic…

kanzu

The kanzu is a long white robe worn by Muslim men…

English/French

interface

The surface where two systems meet is an interface —…

porthole

The round window of a ship was originally a gun port—a…

English (technical)

internetwork

A Cold War military project to connect computers so…

software

A mathematician coined the word in 1958 as a…

Arabic / Persian / Urdu

عشق

ishq

Not merely love but a force that unmakes you — an…

قصہ

qissa

An Arabic word meaning to follow a track — to trace…

Serbian/Croatian

коло

kolo

Kolo means 'wheel' — the dance is a circle, and in the…

šljivovica

The plum brandy of the Balkans carries its fruit's…

Noongar2

kylie

A curved stick from Western Australia gave English a…

quenda

One Aboriginal name survived because settlers needed a…

Uyghur

lagman

Silk Road merchants stretched this dough across three…

nan

A Uyghur flatbread baked in a tandoor carries the…

English (acronym)

LASER

A physicist's acronym for an impossible-sounding…

RADAR

A wartime acronym for detecting invisible aircraft by…

German (Swiss dialect)

Löss

Loess is a wind-blown deposit of fine silt that…

Rucksack

A Swiss-German back-sack climbed the Alps and…

Old High German

Luxembourg

luxembourg

A fortress named in 963 grew into a dynasty, a duchy,…

Switzerland

switzerland

Switzerland takes its name from a single village that…

English (personal name)

mackintosh

The waterproof raincoat is named after a Scottish…

Wellington boot

The waterproof rubber boot worn across muddy fields…

Arabic / Persian

maydān

Maidan means an open public space — and the word…

qānūn

The qanun is a 78-string zither central to Middle…

Nenets

малица

malitsa

The malitsa is a Nenets parka made from 4-5 reindeer…

Ямал

Yamal

The name means 'end of the land'—and the Nenets drive…

Ojibwe (Algonquian)

manidoo

Manitou names the animating spiritual power that…

wīgiwām

Wigwam entered English from the Ojibwe word for 'their…

Shona

mbira

The mbira is a thumb piano of extraordinary antiquity…

Zimbabwe

zimbabwe

A Shona word for a chief's stone meeting place became…

English (neologism)

meritocracy

The word was invented in 1958 as a warning — a…

technocracy

An American engineer coined the word in 1919,…

Kurdish

نۆروز

newroz

The Kurdish New Year celebrated by fire-jumping and…

پێشمەرگە

peshmerga

The armed fighters of Kurdistan are named with a…

English from Medieval Latin

oleander

OH-lee-an-der

One of the most poisonous plants in the world, it…

pica

One of typography's most fundamental units of…

Cueva

Panama

panama

Panama took its name from a Cueva word meaning place…

Panama City

Panama City carries a fish-abundance word from a…

English (scientific portmanteau)

parsec

A parsec — contraction of 'parallax arcsecond' — is…

pulsating star

A pulsar is a rapidly rotating neutron star that…

Javanese / Malay

pesantren

The Islamic boarding school that has educated Javanese…

tempeh

tempe

A cake of soybeans bound by white fungal threads,…

Swahili from Arabic

safari

A word that meant simply "journey" became a spectacle…

شجاع

shuja'

An Arabic word for courage became the Swahili word for…

Persian via Hindi

سرود

sarōd

The fretless metal-stringed instrument at the heart of…

شال

shāl

The Kashmir wrap that warmed empresses and became…

Modern Latin hybrid

semi + conductor

A material that's neither a good conductor nor a good…

super + conductor

At temperatures colder than outer space, certain…

Tagalog (Filipino)

sinigang

Sinigang is a Filipino sour soup — pork ribs, shrimp,…

tinola

Tinola is a Filipino chicken-ginger soup so culturally…

Narragansett (Algonquian)

askutasquash

Squash — the vegetable — preserves most of the…

msíckquatash

Succotash preserves a Narragansett word for…

Old French via Middle English

Tendril

TEN-dril

The tendril does not grip by accident — it reaches,…

Verdure

VER-dyoor

The medieval eye that looked out across a living…

Afrikaans (from Dutch)

veld

The open grassland that shaped South African identity…

veld

Veldt is the Afrikaans word for 'field' — the open…

Rumsen Ohlone

aulon

The iridescent shellfish prized by sushi chefs and…

Greek (from akis, a point or thorn)

ἀκακία

akakia

Acacia comes from the Greek word for a thorn — and the…

French / Italian

accollata

accollāta

Before it meant praise, an accolade was a literal…

Malay (via Persian)

achar

acar

The tangy, spiced pickle served alongside rice and…

Old French (from Medieval Latin)

acquiter

An acquittal — from the Old French for 'to discharge a…

English (from Latin acer + Greek hylē)

acrylic

Acrylic fiber — the synthetic substitute for wool — is…

Ancient Greek from Phoenician

Ἄδωνις

Ádōnis

The most beautiful man in Greek mythology was not…

English (from Latin ad + rēnālis)

adrenaline

The hormone is named for where it is made — on top of…

Tigrinya / Amharic

ዓድዋ

Adwa

A town in northern Ethiopia whose name became a word —…

Nigerian English

Afrobeat

A word coined by Fela Kuti to name the music he was…

Efik

akpan

A firstborn son's title governed trade on the Cross…

Ancient Greek (from Egyptian)

alabaster

alabastron

The ancient Egyptians carved their most precious…

Medieval Latin (from Arabic)

alembroth

Paracelsus called this mercury compound the key to all…

Russian (from Greek name)

александрит

aleksandrit

A gemstone discovered on the birthday of a future tsar…

Greek (modern coinage from ancient roots)

ἀ-λέξις-θυμία

a-léxis-thymía

In 1973, a psychiatrist at Harvard built a Greek word…

French (from Arabic)

Algeria

Algeria is named for islands that no longer exist.

English from Arabic/Persian

algorithm

A Persian mathematician's name became the invisible…

Old French (from Latin alligāre)

aloi

The word comes from Latin alligāre, meaning 'to bind…

English from Quechua/Aymara

allpaqa

alpaca

The Andean camelid with the softest fiber in the…

Italian / Latin

altrui

Altruism — the concern for others' welfare at the…

Ancient Egyptian (via Latin)

ꜣmn

AH-men

The pungent gas that smells of cleaning fluid and…

French (surname)

Ampère

The unit measuring electrical current—every amp on…

English (from Old English ancleow)

ankle + -et

anklet

The word is English — ankle plus the diminutive -et —…

Bugis

anoa

A buffalo shrank on an island and kept its old name.

Latin from Italian

antenna

A sailing ship's yardarm became an insect's feeler…

English (from Greek/Latin)

anti + matter

Paul Dirac predicted it in 1928 from pure mathematics…

Greek + Greek

anti + microbial

Against the invisible. The umbrella term that covers…

Modern Latin (from Greek)

antisepticus

Before antisepsis, hospitals killed more patients than…

Nez Perce / French

Palouse

The Appaloosa is among the oldest horse breeds in…

Italian (from Arabic)

arabesco

A ballet position named after Arab decorative art was…

Latin (from Greek, from Semitic)

Arabic

arabic

Arabic is the Latin word for a language that already…

Sicilian Italian

arancino

Sicily's golden fried rice ball carries nine centuries…

Latin (from arbiter, judge/witness)

arbitrātiō

The word comes from a Latin term for a person who goes…

Spanish from indigenous (Cumanagoto / Timoto-Cuica)

arepa

Venezuela and Colombia have been fighting over this…

Filipino1

arnis

Arnis began as armor. Then the armor vanished and the…

English from Dutch/German via French

arquebus

AR-kwi-bus

The first firearm light enough to carry on a shoulder…

Arabic (via Malay/Tamil)

عرق

arak / arrack

Arrack is a word that traveled the entire Indian Ocean…

Arabic via Italian

دار الصناعة

dār aṣ-ṣināʿa

One of the world's most famous football clubs is named…

Anglo-French (from Latin arsio)

arsion

Arson is from the Latin for 'burning' — and for most…

English from Swahili from Arabic

askari

ah-SKAH-ree

A single Arabic word for soldier traveled from the…

German (coined by Bayer AG)

Aspirin

Aspirin was the first mass-marketed drug in history,…

Filipino (Tagalog)

atchara

The Philippines' most beloved pickle carries a Persian…

Arabic via Medieval Latin

athanor

The alchemist's furnace had a name that meant it would…

Dhivehi (Maldivian)

atholhu

The ring-shaped coral islands named in the language of…

Nahuatl (Aztec)

āhuacatl

ahuacatl

Named for what it looks like—and yes, that means what…

Kurdish / Persian / Urdu

آزادی

azadi

Freedom. The one word chanted in every Kurdish…

Akkadian / Hebrew place name

Bāb-el

The English word for incomprehensible noise and…

Latin (from Greek Bakkhos)

Bacchanalia

Bacchanālia

The Roman Senate banned the Bacchanalia in 186 BCE —…

Lao1

ບາສີ

baci

A ceremony became a word. The word still tries to call…

Middle English (compound)

bag + pipe

bagpipe

The instrument most associated with Scotland probably…

Old French (from Latin bajulare)

baillier

Bail comes from the Old French word for 'to deliver' —…

Old French (from Latin baiulāre: to enclose)

bail

The bailey was the yard inside a castle's walls — and…

Ottoman Turkish / Arabic

باقلوا

bāqlawā

Layers of buttered pastry soaked in honey and studded…

Ottoman Turkish / Persian

bahşiş

The word a traveler hears most insistently across the…

English (from Crimean place name)

balaclava

A catastrophic military blunder in Crimea left…

Mandinka / Dyula (West Africa)

balafon

The xylophone of West African griots — the instrument…

Latin from Greek from Semitic

balsamum

A resin from ancient Gilead traveled through Hebrew,…

Mande (West African)

bamanankan

The language of thirteen million people gave its name…

English from Malay/Kannada

bambu

bamboo

The fastest-growing plant on Earth grew its name…

Portuguese (from Marathi Vandre)

Bandra

bandra

A fishing hamlet's name survived Portuguese forts,…

Hindi (from Sanskrit valayin)

baṅglī

The glass bracelets sold for pennies in Indian bazaars…

Gujarati via Portuguese and English

বানিয়া

banian

A caste label became a tree name through colonial…

Italian (via French banquet)

banchetto

A banquet was originally a small bench — a banchetto —…

Malay (place name)

Bantam

Bantam (place name, now Banten)

A port city on the western tip of Java gave its name…

Old French (origin uncertain)

barbacane

The barbican was the first thing you attacked and the…

Old Irish / Welsh

bard

Celtic poets held a rank equal to warriors — the…

New Latin (from Greek báros + métron)

barometer

The barometer was invented to prove that air has…

Frankish / Medieval Latin

baro

The word for the lowest rank of the English peerage —…

Spanish (via French)

barraca

The Spanish word for a simple hut made of mud and…

Spanish (from Caribbean origin, possibly Arawakan)

baracuda

The torpedo-shaped predator of tropical reefs carries…

Nyulnyul / Gangulu (Australian Aboriginal)

barramundi

A fish so prized it was given a name meaning…

French (from Italian)

bas-relief

basso-rilievo

The art form that stands halfway between painting and…

Latin (from Greek, possibly from Egyptian)

basaltes

Basalt is the most abundant rock on Earth's surface —…

Egyptian Arabic

basbousa

Egypt's semolina cake has a name that even Arabic…

Ottoman Turkish (from Turkic basmak)

Basturma

basturma

Pressed under stone for weeks, this cured beef emerged…

Italian (from battaglia, 'battle')

battaglione

A battalion is a group sized for battle — the word is…

Javanese / Indonesian (from Hokkien bé-chia)

becak

A becak is an Indonesian cycle rickshaw — a…

English (from Hebrew via place name)

Bethlehem

A hospital named after the birthplace of Christ became…

Latin / Proto-Germanic

bibere

The word beer may come from the Latin for 'to drink' —…

Scots Gaelic

beinn

The Scots Gaelic word for mountain peak got frozen…

Portuguese (from Kimbundu/Bantu)

berimbau

A single-string bow that survived the Middle Passage…

English from Old Norse

berserkr

berserk

Viking warriors wore bear skins into battle—and gave…

Tamil / Sanskrit

பரதநாட்டியம்

bharatanatyam

A name woven from legend and linguistics — 'Bharata's…

Piedmontese

bicerin

Turin's oldest café has served the same layered drink…

French (from Breton bizou)

bijou

The French word for a small, exquisite piece of…

Marshallese / French

Bikini

The world's most famous swimsuit was named after a…

Portuguese/Latin

binnacle

The wooden box that housed a ship's compass — the most…

Hungarian (personal name)

Bíró

The ballpoint pen that ended the fountain pen's long…

French (origin disputed)

bisque

The creamy shellfish soup called bisque may take its…

English (from Old English biter)

bitter

Bitters were invented as medicine for stomachaches and…

Italian/Basque

bizarro

The origin of 'bizarre' is itself bizarre—it may come…

French (from Dutch)

blocus

The word for sealing a port shut comes from a Dutch…

American English (coined 1907)

blurb

A satirist invented a fake woman named Miss Belinda…

Sanskrit/Pali

बोधि

bodhi

The word for the Buddha's awakening sits inside a fig…

Modern scientific Latin

Bohrium

bohrium

A disputed element name settled a Cold War naming…

Filipino Spanish / Tagalog

bolo

BOH-lo

The heavy single-edged blade of the Philippine…

English (from Old English bolster)

bolster

A bolster is a long cylindrical pillow that runs the…

Bantu (uncertain)

bonobo

Our closest living relative was the last great ape…

Old English (from Proto-Germanic)

book

The word for the bound volume that reshaped…

Aboriginal Australian

buma

boomer

A returning weapon named a generation by accident, not…

English from Dharug (Aboriginal Australian)

boomerang

The weapon that comes back was named by people the…

American English (coined)

boondoggle

A Boy Scout craft project became the American word for…

Venetian / Greek

bora

BO-rah

The violent cold wind of the Adriatic coast carries…

Medieval Latin (origin uncertain)

borago

borāgo

The Romans said borage made soldiers courageous, the…

Italian (Modenese dialect)

borlengo

It is so thin it was once called a joke, and the name…

New Latin (named 1789, for Louis Antoine de Bougainville)

Bougainvillea

Bougainvillea is named for the first French…

French (from German/Dutch)

Bollwerk

Every tree-lined Parisian boulevard was once a…

Middle Low German / Dutch

boegspriet

The pole that juts from a ship's bow like an…

Middle English / uncertain

boie

Boy is one of the most common words in English and one…

English (from a surname)

Boycott

boycott

An entire community refused to speak to one man — and…

French (proper name)

Braille

A fifteen-year-old boy blinded in an accident invented…

Portuguese / Spanish

brisa

The word for a gentle wind came to English through…

Italian (from Celtic/Gaulish)

brio

A Celtic word for vigor survived Rome, became Italian,…

Norman French

brioche

A Norman verb for breaking bread — and possibly a name…

Scots Gaelic / Pictish

broch

Scotland's most mysterious buildings are…

Old Welsh / Common Brythonic

broc

BROK

Every English speaker who has ever seen a…

Old French (from Latin buccula, 'cheek strap')

bucle

A buckle was originally the cheek strap on a Roman…

Sanskrit / Pali

बुद्ध

buddha

Buddha is not a name. It is a title meaning 'the…

Yuwaalaraay (Australian Aboriginal)

budgerigar

The world's most popular pet bird — found in three…

Old French (from Latin būculus)

bugle

The bugle — the instrument that wakes soldiers in the…

Persian/Arabic

بلبل

bulbul

Persian poetry's nightingale is a bird so resonant it…

Jagera / Turrbal (Aboriginal Australian)

bunya

The immense conifer whose football-sized cones fed…

Fijian from Proto-Oceanic

bure

The traditional Fijian house, the bure, is a thatched…

Rundi (Kirundi)

Burundi

A kingdom's name outlasted every empire that tried to…

Buryat

Buryatia

The name Buryatia is Russian bureaucracy applied to a…

English (disputed: possibly from Hungarian bocskai)

busby

The tall fur cap worn by British Household Cavalry…

Hebrew via Medieval Latin

qabbālāh

Jewish mysticism became English for a secret political…

Cumanagoto

cachapa

Venezuela's sweetest flatbread carries the name of an…

Spanish from Taíno

cacique

Columbus borrowed a Caribbean title and Spain never…

Late Greek / Medieval French

katastichon

A cadastre is a map that answers the question every…

Arabic / Persian / Turkish (via French)

قهوه‌خانه

qahwa-khāneh

A word that began as an Arabic name for a stimulating…

Spanish (from Latin)

caldera

A caldera is the vast circular depression left after a…

Malayalam / English

കോഴിക്കോട്

Kōḻikkōṭ

The plain cotton cloth that dressed half of colonial…

Trinidad Creole (origin disputed: West African kaiso, or possibly French Caribbean créole)

calypso

The music that became the sound of the Caribbean —…

French (from camarade, roommate)

camaraderie

Camaraderie comes from the French for 'roommate' — the…

Flemish1

Kamerijk

A fine white linen that carries the name of a Flemish…

New Latin (named 1753, for Georg Josef Kamel)

Camellia

Camellia is named for a Jesuit brother who never…

French (place name)

Camembert

camembert

A Norman farmer's wife and a revolutionary-era priest…

Ladin

canederli

A Tyrolean bread dumpling that crossed the Alps into…

Spanish (from Carib/Taino)

Caníbal

Columbus misheard a people's name and gave the world…

Taíno/Arawakan

canaoua

The first American word to enter European languages —…

Spanish (Andalusian/Romani)

cante jondo

Deep song. The oldest heartbreak in flamenco, codified…

Italian (Tuscan)

cantuccini

The diminutive suffix did not make these biscuits…

Canadian English

Canuck

canuck

An insult borrowed from Americans became Canada's…

Spanish from a Philippine place name

capiz

A shell became a material, then a material became a…

Old Provençal / Old French

cabestan

The rotating barrel that sailors walked in circles to…

English acronym from Latin

CAPTCHA

The scrambled text you squint at online is named with…

Latin (from Gaulish)

carrus

A Celtic word for a two-wheeled war chariot rolled…

Welsh English

Cardigan

An earl who led a catastrophic cavalry charge into…

Mi'kmaq (Algonquian)

xalibu

Caribou reached English from the Mi'kmaq word for the…

Gaulish1

carnyx

It was a trumpet with an animal's scream.

Greek (via Latin/French)

χάρτης + γραφία

chartēs + graphia

The word for mapmaking fuses the Greek for a sheet of…

French (from caisse, from Italian cassa)

caissier

The person at the register and the verb meaning 'to…

Sanskrit/Persian

کشمیر

Kashmīr

A valley in the Himalayas gave its name to the…

French (from Occitan cassolo, a type of pot)

cassoulet

Cassoulet is named after its cooking pot — a cassole,…

Papuan Malay (via Malay)

kèsuari

cassowary

The cassowary — the world's most dangerous bird —…

Muscogee (Creek)

catalpa

The ornamental tree planted across American streets…

Catawba (Siouan)

Catawba

Catawba is both a nation and a grape — the pink wine…

Old French (from Latin calidus)

caudel

For five centuries, the first drink given to a woman…

Old French/Latin

caulk

The ancient craft of hammering waterproof fiber into…

Italian (from Latin caballus)

cavalleria

Cavalry comes from caballus, the Latin slang word for…

English compound

cease + fire

ceasefire

Before 1918, there was no word for 'stop shooting.'…

Swedish (surname)

Celsius

The temperature scale that most of the world uses…

Hindi (via Persian, from Chinese)

चाय

chāy

The overland twin of 'tea' — a word that traveled by…

South African township vernacular

chakalaka

Johannesburg's mine kitchens invented a relish whose…

French from Franco-Provençal

chalet

A Alpine herder's summer hut became the world's symbol…

Latin (from Greek kylix)

calix

The chalice that holds communion wine is named with…

French (from Cambrai)

chambray

A Flemish city famous for its fine linen gave its name…

Filipino (via Spanish from Nahuatl)

champorado

An Aztec chocolate drink crossed the Pacific and…

Spanish (from Basque)

chaparro

cha·pa·RRAL

The scrubby, thorny, fire-adapted shrublands that…

Medieval Latin (from capella, 'little cloak')

capellanus

A chaplain is a keeper of cloaks — the word comes from…

Gaulish via Latin

carrus

The Gaulish war-cart that terrified Julius Caesar's…

English from Persian/Arabic

شاه مات

shāh māt

"The king is dead"—but which king, and whose language?

Hindi/Sanskrit1

चीता

cītā

The fastest land animal on Earth has a Sanskrit name…

Arabic (from Greek via Egyptian)

al-kīmiyāʾ

The word 'chemical' descends from 'alchemy,' which…

Choctaw1

Cherokee

Cherokee is a Choctaw name for a people who never…

English place name

Chesterfield

The deep-buttoned, roll-armed sofa that became the…

Carib

chigoe

A Caribbean flea's name crossed the Atlantic long…

Bantu (Kongo)

kivili-chimpenze

A word from a Bantu language of Central Africa —…

Spanish (from Chincha, Quechua)

chinchilla

chin·CHIL·la

A small Andean rodent with the densest fur of any land…

Chinook Jargon / English

chinook

shi-NOOK

A warm wind that can raise temperatures by 20°C in an…

Old North French (from Latin caesellum)

cisel

The chisel is one of the oldest tools humans ever…

English from Nahuatl

chocolate

The Aztecs drank the gods' bitter water. Europe added…

Chinese (Cantonese/Pidgin English)

炒

chǎo

The casual English word for food — 'let's grab some…

Quechua/Aymara

ch'uñu

The Incas invented freeze-drying a thousand years…

Yiddish from Hebrew

חוצפה

chutzpah

The audacity to sue your parents for giving birth to…

French — the name Cyprus

Chypre

chypre

A perfume category named after an island — and built…

Italian (Marche dialect)

ciauscoli

A spreadable salami from the Apennines that dissolves…

Greek from Phoenician

kinnamomon

The spice that bankrolled empires—and whose origins…

English from French, ultimately Arabic

zabad

civet

The most scandalous ingredient in classical perfumery:…

Latin (from clēmēns, mild/merciful)

clēmentia

Clemency is mercy granted by the powerful to the…

Middle English (from Scandinavian)

clumse

Clumsy originally meant 'numb with cold' — from a…

Early Modern English

cockpit

A pit where roosters fought became where pilots fly.

English (origin uncertain, possibly from caudle)

caudle (possibly)

caudle

To coddle an egg is to cook it gently in water just…

Temne / Mandinka

kola

A bitter nut chewed for centuries across West Africa…

Old French (from Latin collare, 'neckband')

colier

A collar is a neckband — from Latin collum (neck). The…

Latin place name

Colonia Agrippina

The scented water you splash on in the morning is…

Latin (from com- + merx: together + goods)

commercium

Commerce literally means 'goods together' — from the…

Kikongo / Spanish

conga

The conga drum carries its African origin in its name…

Italian (contra + bando, 'against the ban')

contrabbando

Contraband is literally 'against the ban' — and the…

English (portmanteau, 1940s)

condensation trail

A wartime abbreviation for condensation trail gave…

Yuwaalaraay1

gulabaa

coolabah

The tree under which Banjo Paterson's swagman camped…

Spanish (possibly from Portuguese or Khoikhoi)

corral

co·RRAL

An enclosed space for horses or cattle that became a…

Spanish (correr + de + toro)

corrida de toros

The Spanish term for the bullfight translates…

French (from Italian, from Medieval Latin, from Arabic)

corsaire

A word that sailed from Arabic merchant ships through…

Ukrainian/Turkic

козак

kozak

Cossack names the free horsemen of the Ukrainian and…

Tupi (via Portuguese/French)

susuarana

The big cat known by more names than any other animal…

French/Lakota

coup

On the Plains, touching your enemy in battle was worth…

Lakota/French

coup

In Plains warfare, touching an enemy without killing…

Welsh / Celtic

craig

crag

The English word for a steep, rugged rock face comes…

English (compound, possibly from German/Dutch)

crane berry

The cranberry is named after the crane — the flower…

Old English from Proto-Germanic

crane

The tallest of Europe's flying birds gave its name to…

French from Croatian

Hrvat

The necktie's ancestor is named after Croatia—because…

Italian (from Medieval Latin)

credenza

The low sideboard in every modern office and dining…

Old French (from Latin crena: notch)

créneau

A crenel is the gap between two merlons — the notch in…

Irish English (Hiberno-English)

croog

In Irish kitchens, a croog was the small clay pot that…

French (from Latin crux, 'cross')

croisade

The word crusade was coined after the wars it…

French (from Latin corium, 'leather')

cuirasse

A cuirass was originally leather body armor — the word…

Spanish (Colombian)

cumbia

KOOM-bya

Colombia's national rhythm was named by the enslaved…

Chinese (Hokkien/Cantonese via Pidgin English)

感謝

gám jeh

The old naval and merchant slang word 'cumshaw' —…

English (unknown origin)

curmudgeon

Nobody knows where this word comes from — which seems…

Romani (via Persian)

kushto

kushto / kushti

The British slang word for 'great' or 'excellent'—made…

Hindi/Urdu

खुशी

khushi

The Hindi word for 'pleasure' became British slang for…

English/Greek

cyberspace

William Gibson invented the word cyberspace in a 1982…

Vietnamese (from French)

xích lô

SIK loh

The three-wheeled pedal rickshaw of Vietnam carries a…

Persian / Kurdish

دف

daf

The large frame drum that Sufi ceremonies use to…

Dutch/Greek

de affodil

A flower whose English name is a beautiful accident —…

Lithuanian (also Latvian: dziesma)

daina

The Baltic folk song tradition so ancient it preserves…

Avestan

dakhma

A tower built not for the living but to keep death…

Sanskrit / Tibetan

ཌཱ་ཀི་ནི

dakini

Dakini — 'she who moves through the sky' — is the wild…

Latin from Aramaic1

damascenum

The small purple plum in English jam jars is still…

Old French (from Latin dominium: lordship)

dangier

Danger originally meant 'power' — specifically the…

Hindi/Urdu (from Persian)

दरबार

darbār

The Persian word for a royal audience hall became, in…

Yoruba (via Hausa)

danshiki

The dashiki began as a West African work garment worn…

Persian / Urdu

داستان

dastaan

A Persian word for the grand epic narrative — tales so…

Uzbek (from Persian)

دسترخوان

dastarkhan

A dastarkhan is the tablecloth spread for communal…

English (from personal name)

David

davit

The crane that lowers lifeboats into the sea is named…

Latin (from dēliciae: delight, pleasure)

dēliciōsus

Delicious comes from the Latin for 'delight' — and for…

French (from Latin dēpositum: something laid down)

dépôt

Depot comes from the French for 'something laid down'…

Afar / East African

dik-dik

The dik-dik is an antelope the size of a rabbit, and…

Old English (from Proto-Germanic *dillaz)

dill

The word dill probably comes from a Germanic root…

Arabic (from Latin denarius)

دينار

dīnār

The dinar crossed from Rome to Arabia to eight modern…

Greek (via Latin dioecesis)

dioíkēsis

A diocese was a Roman tax district before it was a…

Francoprovençal

diots

The Savoyard sausage called diot has been cured in…

Arabic from Greek from Akkadian

drachma

dir-ham

The currency still used across the Arab world carries…

Italian (from Latin/Greek)

disastro

Before science explained catastrophe, the stars took…

Latin/French

disinficere

A disinfectant un-infects — the word combines dis…

Latin (from dissidēre, to sit apart)

dissidēns

The Latin word for a dissident means 'one who sits…

Afar

Djibouti

djibouti

A woven palm mat became the name of a nation.

Dutch / Portuguese

dodaars / doudo

The Portuguese called it stupid, the Dutch called it…

German (from Czech)

Taler

A silver coin minted in a Bohemian valley gave its…

French/Italian (origin debated)

domino

The domino tile may take its name from a priest's…

Nguni1

donga

A ravine in South Africa became an English geology…

Old French (from Latin dominus: lord)

donjon

The donjon was the lord's tower — and when it became…

Irish (place name)

Donnybrook

The English word for a wild, chaotic brawl takes its…

English (coined from DOPA + amine)

dopamine

Dopamine is not the 'pleasure chemical' — it is the…

Old English (from Brittonic Celtic via Latin)

Dorchester

dorchester

A Roman fort built over a Celtic fist gives England…

Old French (from double, 'doubled')

doublet

A doublet was named for its construction — two layers…

Old English (from Proto-Germanic *dūbǭ)

dūfe

Doves and pigeons are the same thing — there is no…

English from Middle Low German

dövel

dowel

The humble wooden peg that has reinforced joints,…

Old French (from Latin dos)

dot

The word for a bride's inheritance has been outlawed…

English (translation of various Aboriginal Australian concepts)

Dreamtime

Dreamtime is an English mistranslation of Aboriginal…

English (from Old French dragie)

dredge

Dredging food in flour before frying comes from the…

English (frequentative)

drib

Dribble started as a word for a tiny trickle of liquid…

Gaulish / Old Celtic

druides

The learned priests of the ancient Celts — 'those who…

Spanish (from duen de casa)

duende

The Spanish word for the uncanny spirit that makes a…

Dutch (from the town of Duffel)

Duffel

The duffel bag, the duffel coat, and duffel fabric are…

English from Swahili from Arabic from Akkadian

duka

DOO-kah

A small shop in East Africa whose name traveled from a…

Romani-influenced English

dukkering

Fortune-telling has many names, but dukkering — the…

Old French from Latin/Greek

dolce melos

The hammered string instrument's name literally means…

Hindi / Punjabi

दुपट्टा

dupatta

The long scarf that covers shoulders, drapes over…

Jamaican Creole (from Bube dupe or related Bantu/Igbo forms)

duppy

The Jamaican word for a ghost — the spirit of the dead…

Tibetan / Dzongkha

རྫོང

dzong

Dzong — 'fortress' in Tibetan — names the great…

Old French (from Latin aquila)

aigle

The bald eagle is not bald — 'bald' here comes from an…

Greek/Latin (coined)

electron

The ancient Greeks rubbed amber and saw sparks. Two…

Old French (from Frankish *smalt)

esmail / esmal

esmail

Enamel is glass fused to metal at 800 degrees — the…

Old French (from Latin incantare)

enchanter

To enchant someone is to sing a spell onto them — the…

Mexican Spanish (from Nahuatl)

enchilada

en·chi·LA·da

A corn tortilla dipped in chili sauce and wrapped…

Old French (from Frankish *graban)

engraver

The art of cutting lines into metal takes its name…

Sumerian / Akkadian

𒂗𒆠𒆕

Enkidu

Enkidu was created from clay and divine spittle to…

Latin / Old French

inodia

A Latin phrase meaning 'it is hateful to me' collapsed…

Vulgar Latin1

excappare

To escape was to slip out of your cloak while someone…

French (from Italian scarpa: slope)

escarpe

An escarpment is a steep slope — and in fortification,…

Catalan / Occitan

espadrille

The flat canvas shoes with braided rope soles that…

Greek (coined 1843)

euphōnion

The euphonium's name means 'beautiful sound' in Greek…

Neo-Latin (from Latin ex + traditio)

extraditio

extrāditio

Extradition was coined in the eighteenth century from…

Latin (from falx, sickle)

falcō

The fastest animal on earth is named after a farming…

English from French, possibly from Spanish or Arabic

fanfare

A fanfare is a trumpet flourish that says: pay…

Old French (from Medieval Latin felonia)

felonie

A felony originally meant an act of betrayal by a…

Arabic (possibly from Greek)

فلوكة

falūka

The lateen-rigged sailing vessel that has plied the…

Mandarin1

風水

fēng shuǐ

Ancient geomancy that moved from Chinese graves to…

German (via Swiss German)

Pfeife

The small, shrill flute that accompanied soldiers into…

Dutch (via Spanish and French)

vrijbuiter

A Dutch word for pirate sailed through Spanish and…

Middle English from Latin

finial

The ornamental point crowning a spire or gable gets…

Spanish/Portuguese from Provençal/Germanic

flamenco

The bird, the dance, and the Flemish people all share…

Medieval Latin from Germanic

flasca

The flask began as a woven basket casing around a…

Italian (Florentine)

fiorino

Florence put a flower on its gold coin and the flower…

German / Latin

Föhn

FERN (approximately) / FOEHN

The warm Alpine wind that melts winter snow overnight,…

Scandinavian / Middle English

fog

A word of murky origin — possibly Scandinavian,…

French (from Wolof foño)

fonio

Fonio is one of Africa's oldest cultivated grains —…

English from Middle French from Latin

font

FONT

Every time you choose a typeface on a screen, you are…

Old French / Latin

forge

The word that names both the furnace and the act of…

Old Frankish

France

france

France bears the name of a Germanic tribe that…

English (medieval coinage)

free lance

A knight whose lance was pledged to no lord sold his…

Dutch/Middle Dutch

vracht

Dutch merchants loading their ships called the cargo…

Medieval Latin from French

frisium

frieze

The decorative band running around the Parthenon got…

New Latin (from German)

Fuchsia

fuchsia

A German botanist who died in 1566 woke up in the…

Yoruba (Nigeria)

fújì

Fuji music — the driving, percussive popular music of…

Hausa/Fulani

Fulani

Africa's largest nomadic people named themselves. The…

English/Latin

futures

A futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell…

English via Spanish

gabardine

GAB-ər-deen

The fabric of Humphrey Bogart's trench coat and the…

Old English via Old Norse

gafol

The triangular wall at the end of a pitched roof…

French (possibly Frankish)

guêtre

The protective ankle and leg coverings worn by…

Sámi

gakti

The traditional Sámi outfit that tells your…

Italian (possibly from Old French gale, 'merrymaking')

gala

The word for a lavish party came to English through…

Arabic from Chinese

خولنجان

khūlanjān

Medieval Europeans paid more for galingale than for…

English from Old French from Medieval Latin

galley

GAL-ee

The proof of a typeset text and the long oared warship…

Old French (possibly Greek)

galoche

The rubber overshoe that keeps your dress shoes dry…

Italian (surname)

Galvani

To galvanize a crowd—to shock them into action—takes…

English from Portuguese from Khmer

gamboge

Cambodia gave its name to a tree resin, and that tree…

Old North French (from Frankish)

gardin

A garden is an enclosed place. The word comes from a…

Old French (from Frankish *wrist, 'a band')

gartier

The Most Noble Order of the Garter — the highest order…

Spanish (from Quechua or Mapuche; origin disputed)

gaucho

The mounted herder of the South American pampas — the…

English via Arabic

gauze

gawz

The thinnest of all woven fabrics, the one used to…

Classical Chinese (Neo-Confucian)

格物

gé wù

Four characters from the Great Learning became the…

Lushootseed

geoduck

An enormous clam gave English a word people still…

French (from the name Georgette de la Plante)

georgette

Georgette fabric is named after Georgette de la…

English (surname blend)

Gerry + salamander

The political practice of drawing electoral districts…

Soninke

Ghana

Ghana was a king's title for centuries before it…

Persian / Azerbaijani

قورمه

ghormeh

The Persian word for preserved or sun-dried meat gave…

French (from Turkish)

gilet

The sleeveless padded vest worn by hikers and…

American English (origin unknown)

gimmick

A word that arrived from nowhere, possibly an anagram…

English from Japanese from Chinese

ginkgo

GING-koh

The last surviving member of an ancient plant lineage…

French (from Old French glacier: to slip)

glacis

A glacis is a gentle slope in front of a fortification…

Italian/French

glissando

The musical term for sliding between notes — borrowed…

Khoikhoi1

ǃnù

gnu

English kept the click out and the animal stayed…

Kikongo / Kimbundu

nguba

A Bantu word for peanut survived the Middle Passage,…

English (coined)

googol

A nine-year-old boy invented a word for a number so…

Filipino (from Hokkien Chinese)

goto

Manila's most comforting tripe porridge carries a…

English (from Medieval Latin grana paradisi)

grains of paradise

Medieval spice traders told Europeans that these seeds…

Italian (from Langobardic)

grappa

Grappa—the Italian pomace spirit distilled from grape…

Old French from Celtic

gravele

Gravel is sand's diminutive — the little version of…

Old French from Frankish

graver

The tool that engraved Dürer's prints, Gutenberg's…

English (RAF slang, origin unknown)

gremlin

Invisible saboteurs that RAF pilots blamed for…

Spanish (via Arabic)

Grenada

grenada

Columbus's sailors named this island after the…

Old French (from Latin grammatica)

grammaire

A grimoire is a book of spells — and the word is a…

Brazilian Portuguese / Spanish

gringo

The word for a foreigner in Latin America has at least…

English naval slang

grog

The word for a watered-down alcoholic drink—and by…

French (from Gruyères, Switzerland)

Gruyère

Gruyère is named after a small Swiss town of fewer…

Old English (from Proto-Germanic *geldą: payment)

gild

A guild is a group that pays together — the word comes…

English (from Guinea, West Africa)

guinea

The guinea was worth one pound and one shilling — a…

Greek (via Italian and French)

κόλπος

kólpos

The Greek word for a fold in a garment — the hollow…

English from Chinese

工合

gōng hé

A Chinese industrial slogan became the English word…

Arawak

Guyana

An Arawak word for 'land of water' outlasted every…

Guadeloupean Creole

gwo ka

gwo-ka

The name means 'big drum,' and the music born in…

English from Middle High German via French

halberd

HAL-berd

A weapon that is simultaneously an axe, a spear, and a…

Cypriot Greek (possibly from Arabic ḥallūm)

χαλλούμι

halloúmi

Halloumi is the cheese that does not melt — it squeaks…

Old French (from Germanic)

herbergeor

The person who found you a room for the night became…

English from French, from Italian

Arlecchino

harlequin

Harlequin — the masked, diamond-patched trickster of…

Hausa / Twi

harmattan

har-muh-TAN

The dry, dusty wind that blows from the Sahara toward…

French (from Greek harmonia)

harmonium

The harmonium was invented in Paris in 1842, exported…

English from Latin from Etruscan

haruspex

The Etruscan specialists who read the future in animal…

Old English (from Proto-Germanic *habukaz)

hafoc

The word 'hawk' also means to sell goods aggressively…

Low German / Middle Dutch

höker

A hawker is a seller who shouts — the word probably…

French (from Greek)

hélicoptère

We say 'heli-copter' as though it means something that…

English (from Ancient Greek)

heptathlete

Seven events forged into one body, and the word…

German (Pennsylvania Dutch dialect)

Hexe

Hex is the German word for witch — brought to America…

Ghanaian English

highlife

A word that originally described the elite social…

Powhatan Algonquian (Virginia)

hominy

The swollen white corn kernels eaten across the…

English (from Irish surname)

Hooligan

One rowdy family in 1890s London lent their name to…

Romanian1

horă

hora

A circle dance whose name may trace back to the Greek…

Turkic/Mongol via Russian

орда

orda

The Mongol word for 'camp' became English's word for…

Urdu / Persian (from Arabic)

هودج

hawdaj (Arabic) / haudah (Urdu/Persian)

A canopied throne carried on the back of an elephant —…

Yagara

umpee

humpy

The Indigenous Australian word for a temporary shelter…

English (onomatopoeic, origin uncertain)

hurdy-gurdy

The droning wheel-bowed instrument of medieval Europe…

English (from Inuit/Cree contact)

husky

A corruption of the word 'Esky' or 'Huskemaw' —…

French from Greek

hydrogène

Antoine Lavoisier named the most abundant element in…

Danish

hygge

The world's coziest word began with a verb for…

Latin (possibly from Iberian Celtic or pre-Latin Alpine source)

ibex

The mountain goat that ancient Romans drove nearly to…

Igbo (Nnobi)

Igbo

The Igbo people named themselves with a word that may…

English from Italian / Latin

incarnadine

A word that meant flesh-colored became a word that…

Zulu/Xhosa

indaba

The Zulu word for a conference between chiefs — a…

Zulu/Ndebele

indlamu

Indlamu is the warrior dance of the Zulu and Ndebele…

Latin via Old French

inquisita

The Norman king's mechanism for cataloguing his…

English (from Latin insula, island)

insulin

Insulin is named after the islands inside your…

Turkish (from Arabic, from Greek)

iskender

A Bursa cook named Alexander invented a dish that…

Oscan

Italy

italy

Italy's name began as a cattle-herding word for a…

Bengali / Odia from Sanskrit

জগন্নাথ

Jagannāth

A fine cotton cloth is named after Jagannath Puri, the…

Italian (brand name)

Jacuzzi

An Italian-American family's surname became the word…

Tamil / Sanskrit (via Portuguese)

சக்கரை

cakkarai (Tamil) / śarkarā (Sanskrit)

The Sanskrit word for grit and gravel became the name…

Tupi-Guaraní1

jaguara

"The beast that kills in one leap"—South America's…

English (American, origin unknown)

jamboree

Jamboree appeared in American English around 1868 with…

Filipino English1

jeepney

JEEP-nee

After World War II, Filipinos took the American…

English from Quechua

ch'arki

charki

The Inca dried llama meat for their armies — and their…

English (coined 1939)

jet stream

Japanese pilots discovered it first, American bombers…

Anglo-French/Latin

jettison

The maritime law term for throwing cargo overboard to…

Dutch/uncertain

gybe

gib

The triangular sail at the front of a ship also gave…

English (American slang)

jitterbug

The jitterbug was named as an insult — it originally…

Caribbean Creole (Trinidad, Guyana, St. Vincent — from Kikongo nzambi or related Bantu)

jumbie

The spirit-figure of the French and Dutch Caribbean —…

Javanese/Malay

jong

The Chinese sailing vessels that dominated Asian trade…

Portuguese (from Malay)

junco

The great flat-bottomed trading vessels of China and…

Latin (from iūs + dictiō)

iūrisdictiō

Jurisdiction means 'the speaking of law' — and the…

Hopi

kachina

A sacred being became a museum label in two…

Turkish/Arabic

قفطان

qafṭān

From the Ottoman palace to African royalty to Moroccan…

Greek (coined 1817)

καλός + εἶδος + σκοπέω

kalos + eidos + skopeō

A Scottish physicist fused three Greek words into one…

Maranao / Maguindanao (Filipino)

kampilan

The great single-edged sword of the Philippine Islands…

Thai from Malay

กะปิ

gà-pì

The pungent fermented shrimp paste that underlies…

English from Malay

kapuk

kapok

The Malay word for the silky fiber that filled…

Russian (from Turkic)

каракуль

karakul'

Named for a remote lake in the Pamir Mountains, this…

Middle Persian

کشک

kashk

A fermented whey cake older than empires survives…

Newari / Sanskrit

Kathmandu

kathmandu

A city named after a single wooden building still…

Inuit (Kalaallisut)

qajaq

A boat so perfectly designed that four thousand years…

Kazakh1

Kazakhstan

A steppe name built from wandering freedom and Persian…

Arabic / Persian / Turkish

کباب

kabāb

An Arabic and Persian word for roasted or grilled meat…

Malay/Indonesian

kecap

The Heinz bottle on your table descends from a Malay…

English (nautical, origin uncertain)

kedge

When a sailing ship ran aground or was becalmed, the…

English (origin debated)

keep

The keep is the part of the castle you retreat to when…

Akan (Asante/Ghana)

kente

Strips of hand-woven silk and cotton, assembled into…

Kamba

Kenya

kenya

An ostrich-patterned mountain gave its Kamba name to a…

Urdu/Persian

खाकी

khākī

The color of dust became the color of empire.

Urdu / Hindi / Persian

خاکی

khākī

The color of modern military uniforms worldwide was…

Mongolic/Turkic

хаан

khaan

From Genghis to Imran — the title that ruled half the…

Hausa1

kilishi

Northern Nigeria's answer to jerky is older than the…

Latin from Mesopotamian technology

culina

kiln

The oven that fires pottery and bricks carries a Latin…

Ojibwe1

kinkajou

A wolverine's old name was stolen by a rainforest…

Unami Delaware (Algonquian)

kinnikinnick

The longest common word of Native American origin in…

Hopi (from Keresan)

kiva

A kiva is a circular, semi-underground ceremonial room…

English (New Zealand marketing)

kiwifruit

kiwi

A Chinese gooseberry got renamed after a flightless…

Yiddish from German

קלאָץ

klots

The Yiddish word for a wooden block became American…

Russian (from Old Norse)

кнут

knut

A Norse whip became a Russian instrument of state…

Japanese (from Chinese gōng'àn)

公案

kōan

A koan was originally a legal term — a 'public case'…

Hausa from West African languages

kola

The Hausa word for a nut became the ingredient that…

Czech/Slovak

koláč

A round Czech pastry named for the wheel became the…

Alsatian German

kouglof

An Alsatian ring cake whose name contains its own…

Afrikaans from Portuguese

kraal

A Portuguese word for a livestock pen traveled to…

Malay/Javanese

keris

The kris is a wavy-bladed dagger from Southeast Asia —…

Kimbundu / Portuguese

ku duro

Kuduro means hard ass in Kimbundu-influenced…

English from Japanese

kudzu

KUD-zoo

A vine so aggressive in its American habitat that it…

Maguindanaon

kulintang

A row of gongs gave an island world one of its great…

Cantonese/Mandarin Chinese

功夫

gōngfu

It never meant martial arts—it meant mastery of…

English (from German surname Kunz)

kunzite

A pink gemstone named after a man — Tiffany's chief…

Arabic (Egyptian), from Hindi khichri

kushari

Egypt's national street dish began as colonial army…

Hokkien1

kutsinta

A sticky orange rice cake carries six centuries of…

English from Ga (Ghana)

kwashiorkor

kwah-shee-OR-kor

A Ghanaian word for the illness a child gets when a…

Spanish (from Latin pax)

La Paz

la-paz

A city named for peace was born from the…

English from Greek via Latin

ladanon

labdanum

The resin that ancient Greeks collected from goat…

English (from Labrador, Canada)

labradorite

Named for the frozen coast of Labrador, where Moravian…

Ancient Greek (possibly pre-Greek)

λαβύρινθος

labýrinthos

The Minotaur's maze gave English a word for any…

Sanskrit (via Portuguese and Persian)

lākshā

A hundred thousand tiny insects gave their lives to…

Ottoman Turkish (from Arabic)

lahmacun

A flatbread whose Arabic name survived the Ottoman…

Latvian and Lithuanian

Laima

The Baltic goddess of fate who lives in the linden…

Fijian

lali

A slit drum carved from a single tree trunk, the lali…

Portuguese (Brazilian)

lambada

The lambada was banned in Brazil before it became a…

Latin (possibly from Celtic or Spanish)

lancea

The lance was the weapon that defined mounted warfare…

English (diminutive of lap, from Old English lappa, 'flap')

lapel

A lapel is a little lap — a small flap folded back on…

Lao/Thai

ລາບ

lâap

Lao and Isaan cuisine's national dish — a pungent,…

Latvian

Latvia

Latvia takes its name from a tribe the German…

Northern Sami1

lávvu

lavvu

One of the world's oldest houses is still portable.

Old English (from Old Norse)

lagu

The English word 'law' comes from Old Norse lagu,…

French (from Old Norse)

Le Havre

A Viking word for harbor survived to name one of…

Middle Dutch / Middle English

legger

The accounting book that records every transaction in…

English from Arabic/Persian/Sanskrit

ليمون

laymūn

A fruit traveled from India to Persia to Arabia to…

French (personal name)

leotard

The tight-fitting garment worn by gymnasts, dancers,…

Sesotho

Lesotho

Moshoeshoe I named his nation in 1822 using the…

Russian / Caucasian

лезгинка

lezginka

Named for the Lezgin people of the Caucasus Mountains…

Latin (from libare, 'to pour')

libatio

A libation is a drink poured out for the gods — the…

English (coined 1977)

limerence

When a psychologist needed a word for the obsessive,…

English (Old English)

limestone

Limestone is the only common rock named for its use…

Latin from ancient Near Eastern trade

linum

linen

The fabric of pharaohs and priests takes its name from…

Italian (from Arabic lisān al-Faranī)

lingua franca

The phrase we use for any common language between…

Lithuanian

Lithuania

The first written mention of Lithuania is a death…

English (calque from multiple indigenous languages)

longhouse

Across three continents and thousands of years, human…

Middle English (from Middle Dutch lūpen: to peer)

loupe

A loophole was originally an arrow slit in a castle…

Portuguese (from Fiot/Bantu)

macaco

A Bantu word for monkey passed through Portuguese…

Amharic (via Italian)

ማኪያቶ

mäkiyato

The word means 'stained' in Italian, but it was Addis…

Vulgar Latin (possibly from Latin mateola, 'mallet')

massa

The mace was a weapon designed to get around armor —…

Spanish (diminutive)

machete

The 'little mallet' that became the essential tool —…

Italian (proper name)

Machiavelli

The word for ruthless political cunning is named after…

Turkish / Arabic

makrama

A word for a fringed towel or napkin -- something…

English (from Madras, India)

madras

MAD-rəs

A lightweight cotton fabric of bright plaid and check…

Dutch/Norse

malström

A real whirlpool off the coast of Norway became a word…

Sicilian Italian (origin disputed)

mafia

Nobody knows where the word 'mafia' comes from — it…

Italian (from a place name)

Magenta

The vivid pinkish-purple color is named after a bloody…

Greek / Latin

magma

Magma is molten rock inside the Earth — and the word,…

English (coined 1992)

magnet + star

A dead star with a magnetic field a quadrillion times…

Greek and English

magnetosphere

The invisible bubble surrounding Earth that protects…

New Latin (named for Pierre Magnol, 1703)

Magnolia

Magnolia is named after a French botanist who never…

Uncertain (possibly Mayan/Arawak)

mahogany

The word that became synonymous with luxury furniture…

Makonde (Bantu)

Makonde

Makonde is a Bantu people of southeastern Tanzania and…

English from Mahlemut (Inupiaq people name)

malamute

The large working sled dog of the Arctic carries the…

Medieval Italian

mala aria

Bad air — the wrong theory that accidentally gave the…

Wemba Wemba1

mallee

A whole Australian landscape is named after a tree…

Kimbundu / Haitian Creole

mambo

A Kimbundu word for a voodoo priestess crossed the…

English from French and Arabic

mameluke

A word for a slave became a title of military power.

Yaghan

mamihlapinatapai

A look between two people, each waiting for the other…

Polynesian (Oceanic)

mana

Spiritual power became a video game stat—but it meant…

Rapa Nui/Polynesian

mana

Mana is spiritual power in Polynesian cultures — not…

English (from Old French mantel, from Latin mantellum)

mantel

The mantel above your fireplace is named after a…

Greek (place name)

Μαραθών

Marathon

A Greek soldier ran 26 miles to deliver news of…

Greek (through Latin)

amaracus

amárakos

The ancient Greeks placed marjoram on graves and grew…

Old Norse / Old High German

marc

The word mark — from an Old Norse term for a unit of…

Romansh

marmota

The Alpine rodent that sleeps eight months a year owes…

Marshallese

jebro

The sailing canoe that crossed the Pacific. Built to…

English from Latin via French

Martin

martin

A bird christened after a soldier-saint whose feast…

Luganda1

matoke

ma-TOH-kay

The Luganda word for unripe cooking bananas that are…

Greek (from Carian name)

Μαυσωλεῖον

Mausōleion

A grief-stricken queen built her husband's tomb so…

American English (from a surname)

Maverick

maverick

A Texas rancher who refused to brand his cattle gave…

Latin (from mediāre, to be in the middle)

mediātiō

A mediator stands in the middle — the Latin mediāre…

Sanskrit / Hindi

melā

Mela means a gathering or fair in Sanskrit and Hindi —…

Greek/Italian

μελόδραμα

melodrama

A word combining 'song' and 'action' — music plus…

Hindi / Urdu (hybrid of English + Arabic)

मेमसाहिब

memsāhib (Hindi/Urdu)

Half English, half Arabic, born in colonial India —…

Algonquian (Eastern)

menhaden

A fertilizer fish gave English one of its strangest…

Spanish (Dominican)

merengue

meh-RENG-gay

The Dominican Republic's national dance shares its…

Estonian1

mets

The Estonian word for forest — and the interior…

Old French (from Latin milium)

mil

The grain that fed more humans than wheat for most of…

English (from Milan)

Milaner

The person who makes your hat is named after the…

English (from Milan, Italy)

millinery

Millinery comes from Milan — the city that exported…

Latin (New Latin)

mimosa

The plant that closes when you touch it got its name…

Hebrew / Aramaic

מִנְיָן

minyan

Jewish prayer requires a quorum. Ten adults must be…

Occitan / French

mistral

mee-STRAL

The cold, violent wind that scours the Rhône Valley…

Hawaiian / Proto-Polynesian

moana

A word shared across every Polynesian language meaning…

Arabic (place name)

mocha

al-Mukha

The word that names a flavor — the dark, chocolatey…

English (technical portmanteau)

modulator-demodulator

The device that once connected you to the internet…

Puerto Rican Spanish

mofongo

An African word survived the Middle Passage and became…

Arabic / Hindi

mufassal

Mofussil — the rural districts of India beyond the…

Persian from Mongol

مغول

mogul

The Mongol emperors of India became Wall Street's word…

Fula / West African Creole

mojo

A West African charm word that became the soul of…

French from Latin and Greek

monocle

The single eyeglass worn by Edwardian aristocrats and…

French (from Savoyard dialect)

moraine

A moraine is the rubble a glacier leaves behind — the…

Portuguese (from Amazigh)

Morocco

A Moroccan city gave an entire country its European…

Galician1

morriña

The grief of a depopulated homeland—longing for…

English from Italian

montimbanco

mountebank

A mountebank was literally a man who climbed onto a…

English (possibly Hindi)

mugger

Nobody is entirely sure where mugger comes from—it may…

Natick (Massachusetts Algonquian)

mugwump

The English word for a fence-sitter in politics —…

Yupik / Inupiaq

mukluk

The tall, soft boot worn across the Arctic tundra…

Old English (from Latin mōrum + Old English berie)

mōrberie

The mulberry tree fed the silkworms that built China's…

Cree (Algonquian)

muskeg

The vast, waterlogged peat bogs that cover millions of…

Muscogean

Mvskoke

Muskogee is the English rendering of Mvskoke — the…

Algonquian (Abenaki/Powhatan)

musquash

The semiaquatic rodent of North American marshes was…

Hindi / Malay

maina

The bird that talks back — the mynah has been the…

Mexican Spanish (from a name)

nacho

One man's improvised snack in 1943 became a…

Korean (Sino-Korean)

냉면

naengmyeon

Pyongyang's most celebrated noodle was first a winter…

Telugu/Tamil

namaskaram

The South Indian greeting: a bow with hands pressed…

Nama (Khoikhoi)

Namibia

namibia

A desert named for nothingness gave a nation its…

Russian (from Kabardian/Nart languages)

нарзан

narzan

The 'water of the Narts' — a legendary mineral spring…

Nauruan1

Nauru

nauru

Nauru's name translates as I go to the beach, a phrase…

Urdu / Hindi (from Persian, from Arabic)

نواب

navāb (Urdu) / navāb (Hindi)

The Mughal Empire's provincial governors were called…

Sotho-Tswana

Ndebele

ndebele

A Sotho name for warriors hiding behind shields became…

Italian / French

neroli

An Italian princess brought orange blossom perfume to…

New Latin (from Greek)

neurosis

A word coined to describe disorders of the nerves that…

Latin (from niger, black)

nigellum

Niello is the only decorative technique named after…

Tuareg

Niger

niger

A river name traveled from the Sahara through Lisbon…

Arabic (for Egyptian concept)

miqyas al-nil

For five thousand years, Egypt's prosperity was read…

Kikongo (Bantu)

nkisi

An nkisi is a Kongo power object — a carved figure or…

French (from Latin natalis)

noël

Noël is the French word for Christmas, from the Latin…

Cornish / Brythonic substrate

noggin

NOG-in

A small wooden drinking cup with a Celtic name became…

Russian/Latin

номенклатура

nomenklatura

Nomenklatura — 'list of names' in Latin — was the…

Hawaiian / Polynesian

noni

A fruit so pungent it was called the 'vomit fruit' by…

Greek (medical Latin coinage)

nostalgia

A 17th-century doctor invented a disease for homesick…

Okinawan / Japanese

ヌンチャク

nunchaku

Two sticks connected by a cord — a weapon born from…

English from Zulu / Tsonga (Bantu)

nyala

nyah-LAH

The 'shifty one' — a name given by Zulu speakers to…

Bantu1

nyama

The Bantu word for meat, game, and animal — nyama — is…

English (coined 1938)

nylon

Nylon was the first fully synthetic fiber — invented…

Bavarian German1

Obazda

obazda

The single z in Obazda marks where in Bavaria you grew…

Jamaican Creole (from Igbo/Twi/West African, possibly from Hebrew via Arabic)

obeah

The Caribbean spiritual practice called obeah was…

Odia

ଓଡ଼ିଶୀ

Oḍiśī

Odissi was nearly destroyed twice — once by Mughal…

Low German / Scandinavian

oegla

ögla

From a Low German or Scandinavian word related to…

Seneca

ohiiyo'

ohio

Ohio is a Seneca word that simply meant the great…

Spanish (from Arabic)

ojalá

ojala

Ojalá is an Arabic prayer that Spain turned into a…

Nsyilxcən

Okanagan

okanagan

The name Okanagan comes from its own people's language…

Sicilian/Italian

omertà

The Mafia's code of silence — a word that forbids its…

English from Latin from Proto-Indo-European

oraculum

oracle

The Latin word for 'divine utterance' comes from…

Italian (Apulian)

orecchiette

Little ears pressed by thumb across rough wooden…

French from Uzbek

organdi

The sheer cotton fabric used for wedding veils and…

Uzbek / Turkic

Urganch

A crisp, translucent silk that rustles when you walk…

Italian (Lombard)

ossobuco

Ossobuco means 'bone with a hole' in Lombard dialect —…

Coined (American English, 1890s)

Ouija

The Ouija board was patented as a toy in 1891, and its…

English (of Malay technical origin)

cadik

outrigger

The lateral float that gives outrigger canoes their…

Valencian/Catalan

paella

The pan that named the dish — and sparked eternal…

Latin (via Anglo-Latin)

pagina

pāgina

A pageant was originally a movable stage — a…

Persian / Hindustani

پای‌جامه

pāy-jāma

The Persian phrase for 'leg garment' — pāy-jāma —…

Palauan1

Palau

palau

The island nation took its English name from a Spanish…

West African Pidgin English (from Portuguese palavra)

palava

Palava means 'trouble' or 'a heated argument' in West…

Medieval Latin (from a proper name)

Pamphilus

The word for a cheap, unbound printed document comes…

English (from literary character)

Pandarus

A fictional go-between in a medieval love story lent…

Greek (coined 1789)

panorama

An Irish painter invented both the immersive painting…

Zulu/Sotho (South African urban)

pantsula

Pantsula is the street dance of South African…

Persian (via Old French)

پرّه‌کت

parrah-kat

A small parrot whose name likely descends from a…

Nenets (via Russian)

парка

parka

An Inuit and Yupik word for a hooded animal-skin…

French (from Latin parabola, word/speech)

parole

Parole means 'word' in French — as in 'word of honor.'…

French (eponymous)

Pasteur

Louis Pasteur developed pasteurization in 1864 to save…

Italian/Spanish

pavana

pa-VAH-na

The stateliest dance of the Renaissance has two…

Persian (via Latin)

هلو

holu

The Romans called it the Persian apple — malum…

Medieval Latin / Celtic

pett

Peat is fuel, archive, and landscape all at once — and…

Algonquian (Illinois/Miami)

pakan

pakani

The nut that required a stone tool to crack — and…

Latin (via English)

pedimentum

A pediment is the low triangular gable crowning the…

Chinese (Hokkien/Cantonese)

白毫

pe̍h-hō

The tea grade name 'pekoe' — which appears on millions…

Latin / Hungarian military tradition

pellis

The fur-lined jacket that hussars wore hanging from…

Cree

pimîhkân

The most calorie-dense portable food in human history…

Welsh / Brythonic Celtic

pennant

PEN-ant

A triangular flag that flies from every yacht mast and…

Latin (via Anglo-French)

appendicium

The word for a shed attached to a wall — a lean-to, a…

Latin / Etruscan

persōna

A persona was a mask worn by actors on the Roman stage…

Italian (Ligurian)

pesto

The name is the past participle of the verb to pound —…

Modern English (coined from Greek)

petrichor

A word invented in 1964 by two Australian scientists —…

Middle English (from Anglo-Norman petite cote, 'small coat')

petite cote

A petticoat was originally a small coat worn by men —…

Ancient Egyptian/Greek

Φάρος

Pharos

A small island off the coast of Alexandria gave its…

Latin from Greek (Phasis, Colchis)

phasianus

The game bird on English country estates carries the…

Italian (Romagnolo dialect)

piadina

Rome called it plàdena; Romagna made it eternal.

French (Provençal)

picaillon

A tiny copper coin from Piedmont traveled to Louisiana…

Chinese Pidgin English

pidgin

The word for a simplified contact language between…

Latin (from peregrinus, 'foreigner, stranger')

peregrinatio

A pilgrim is a foreigner — Latin peregrinus meant a…

Inuvialuktun

pingo

An Inuvialuit word for a mound of earth-covered ice…

Cornish (English dialect)

piskie

Cornish fairies got their English name by accident—or…

Old French from Medieval Latin

pichier

The pitcher and the beaker are the same word — split…

Greek (via French medical Latin)

pneumothorax

Laennec coined this clinical term for a collapsed lung…

Algonquian (Mohegan-Pequot)

Podunk

Podunk — meaning a small unimportant place — was…

English (origin disputed)

poker

Poker is a word whose own etymology is a bluff — its…

Tibetan (via Balti)

པུ་ལུ

pulu

A Tibetan word for a willow root ball became the name…

English (from Greek poly + German Ester)

polyester

Polyester — from Greek poly (many) and German Ester (a…

English from Quechua/Mapudungun

punchu

poncho

A simple hole in a blanket became the most practical…

English via French

poplin

POP-lin

The name of the most common shirt fabric in the world…

English (Middle English)

posset

Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth drugged the guards' possets…

English and Arabic

potash

potash / kalium

Its English name means pot-ash — literally the residue…

Nuu-chah-nulth (Wakashan)

p'ácʼaɬ

p'acal

Potlatch named a ceremony in which the host gave…

Massachusett / Narragansett (Algonquian)

pauwau

Powwow entered English as a word for an Indigenous…

Latin (from praecēdere, to go before)

praecēdēns

The legal concept of precedent — that past decisions…

Latin (from prae- + gnāscī: before birth)

praegnāns

Pregnant literally means 'before birth' — from the…

Latin (from prōficere: to advance)

profectus

prōfectus

Profit comes from the Latin for 'to advance' — to make…

Latin (via Vatican usage)

propaganda

The Catholic Church coined a word for spreading the…

Modern Latin1

psychotic

A Viennese baron coined psychosis in 1845 and…

Nigerian Pidgin English

puff-puff

West African street food named for the sound of dough…

Hindi-Urdu

pukka sahib

pukka-sahib

The British empire coined a phrase for the gentleman…

Urdu/Hindi from Persian

پردہ

pardah

Purdah — the practice of female seclusion, and the…

Hindi (patti) via British India

puttees

The spiral leg-wrappings that British soldiers wore…

Middle English (uncertain)

poselet

Nobody knows where the word 'puzzle' comes from —…

Greek (via French)

pylon

A pylon was first the monumental gateway of an…

English (from Irish/Joycean)

Three quarks for Muster Mark!

quark

Murray Gell-Mann named an elementary particle after a…

English (Latin/scientific coinage)

quasi-stellar radio source

A quasar is among the most luminous objects in the…

Celtic / Old French

cé / kai

quay

The waterfront platform where ships tie up to load and…

Norwegian (surname)

Quisling

The word for a traitor who collaborates with an…

Arabic / Pashto

ربااب

rabab

A bowed lute with a goatskin belly. The national…

New Latin (named 1821, for Stamford Raffles)

Rafflesia

Rafflesia arnoldii is the world's largest individual…

Old Norse / Old English

regnbogi

The word is exactly what it says: a bow made of rain —…

Korean from Japanese

라면

ramyeon

Japan's ramen became Korea's ramyeon — spicier,…

English from Spanish or French

rapier

RAY-pee-ər

The thrusting sword that redefined honor, masculinity,…

French (from Italian rivellino)

ravelin

A ravelin is a triangular fortification built in front…

English (coined 1924)

rayon

Rayon was the first artificial fiber, predating nylon…

Middle English (from Old French recorder)

recordour

The recorder has nothing to do with recording. It…

French (from recroître, 'to grow again')

recruter

A recruit was originally a plant that grew back after…

Middle Dutch / Old Norse

rif

The Dutch called the dangerous ridge of rock or sand…

Old French (from re- + taillier: to cut)

retaillier

A retailer is someone who cuts — the word comes from…

Old French (from Latin rebellare)

reveler

Revelry comes from the same Latin root as rebellion —…

Italian (Sienese)

ricciarelli

Siena's almond cookies may carry the name of a…

American English (jazz origin)

riff

Nobody knows exactly where this word came from, but by…

English (from Scandinavian)

rigging

The word for all the ropes and cables on a sailing…

Kashmiri

rogan josh

The name means boiling oil, not the lamb dish the…

German (from the town of Rottweil)

Rottweiler

The Rottweiler is named after a small German town…

English (Caribbean colonial)

rum

The spirit that powered the triangular slave trade,…

English from Old Norse / Proto-Germanic

rūna

rune

Before it named an alphabet, 'rune' meant a secret or…

English from Old French / Latin

russet

The coarse reddish-brown cloth that clothed the…

Kinyarwanda

Rwanda

Rwanda preserves the name of a fifteenth-century…

Old English (from Proto-Germanic *rugiz)

ryge

Rye was a weed that invaded wheat fields and then…

Russian (from Slavic)

соболь

sobol'

A small Siberian weasel had fur so valuable it drove…

Hungarian (from Turkic)

szablya

A nomad's curved sword cut its way from the Eurasian…

Narragansett Algonquian (New England)

sachem

The word for a paramount chief of the Algonquian…

Austrian German

Sachertorte

sachertorte

A sixteen-year-old apprentice invented Vienna's most…

Old Norse/Icelandic

saga

The medieval Icelandic word for 'story' became…

Abenaki

sôgemak

sagamore

Colonial English borrowed a title, then used it like a…

Old French (from Latin salīre: to leap)

saillie

A sally port is a hidden door in a fortress wall —…

Malay / Indonesian

sambal

The fiery chili paste that anchors Indonesian and…

Old French via medieval Latin via Byzantine Greek

samite

The 'mystic samite' of Arthurian legend -- the cloth…

Narragansett

samp

A Narragansett corn word crossed two oceans to feed…

Khmer

សំពត់

sampot

The Khmer wrapped garment — the sampot — appears on…

Spanish (from Hebrew)

San José

San Jose

A California city carries a Hebrew name that predates…

Latin via Greek

San Sebastián

A martyred soldier's Greek title became a Basque…

Akan (Twi)

sankofa

The Akan symbol of a bird reaching backward to take an…

Chinese / Arabic

刺桐

Cìtóng / Zaytūn

The glossy fabric that lines coffins and ball gowns is…

English from Yiddish/Polish

שמאק

schmuck

A word for "jewel" became the perfect American insult.

English (from Old French esconse, from Latin absconsa)

sconce

A sconce is a wall-mounted light fixture. The word…

English (from Hindi/Persian)

seersucker

The puckered striped cloth that became the uniform of…

English from Greek/Latin

semicolon

Aldus Manutius invented the semicolon in Venice in…

Muscogean / Spanish

Simanoli

The Seminole were not an ancient nation — they formed…

French (from Swiss dialect)

sérac

Sérac — a Swiss cheese lent its name to the white ice…

Arabic (for Egyptian structure)

serdab

Inside certain Old Kingdom mastabas, Egyptian builders…

Latin (through Old French sergent)

serviens

A sergeant was originally a servant — the word comes…

English from Dutch

serif

SEHR-if

The tiny finishing strokes at the ends of letterforms…

Punjabi/Sanskrit

ਸੇਵਾ

sēvā

A Punjabi word for "service" became the core of Sikh…

Arabic (from Egyptian)

šdwf

sha-DOOF

The counterweighted lever that lifts water from the…

Persian / Old Iranian

شاه

shāh

The Persian word for king — shāh — is hiding in plain…

Classical Chinese (strategic/aesthetic)

勢

shì

The Chinese strategic concept that gave rise to Sun…

Old French (from Latin sedere)

sege

A siege is literally a sitting — the attackers sat…

Old French (from Latin signum)

signet

A signet ring was not jewelry — it was an identity…

Akkadian / Sumerian tradition

sīrum

SEE-rum

The tower that stores grain on every farm and the…

Latin (from Greek personal name)

simonia

simōnia

The crime of buying or selling religious offices was…

Swahili (from English)

simu

The Swahili word for telephone is simu — a borrowing…

Hokkien (Min Nan Chinese)

先生

sinseh

In the shophouses of Southeast Asia, a word for…

Italian / Arabic

scirocco

shi-ROK-oh

The hot, moisture-laden or dust-laden wind that blows…

Middle Low German

slag

The glassy waste left when ore surrenders its metal —…

Scandinavian (uncertain)

slamb

A grand slam in cards, a slam dunk in basketball, a…

Middle English / Germanic

slēt

A word from the cold margins of Germanic Europe —…

Old Slavic

Slovenia

A country named after the ancient Slavic word for…

Anglo-Norman / Latin

sueil / solum

The English word 'soil' has two unrelated ancestors…

Hindi / English

solar topee

A pith helmet that crossed continents on one borrowed…

Latin (from sōlus, alone)

sōlitūdō

Solitude and loneliness are not the same thing — one…

Italian (from Latin solus, 'alone')

solo

Solo is Italian for 'alone' — and the word traveled…

Somali

Somalia

somalia

A Cushitic patriarch's name expanded into a…

English acronym

Sound Navigation And Ranging

acronym

The ocean is dark and silent until you send a pulse.…

English (translation of Aboriginal Australian concepts)

songline

Songlines are Aboriginal Australian paths across the…

Italian (Venetian dialect)

soppressa

Venice pressed its pork differently and named the…

English (brand name)

SPAM

spam

Canned meat became unwanted email—because of a Monty…

English (possibly Irish English)

dispatch cock

Spatchcock — splitting a bird flat for faster roasting…

Greek via Modern Latin

Spore

SPOR

Long before the flower evolved, the spore was the only…

Greek/English

stalagma

Greek for 'a drop' became the name for cave…

English (from Old French and Anglo-Norman)

stalemate

Stalemate is a condition in chess where you cannot…

Trinidadian English1

steelpan

The only acoustic instrument invented in the 20th…

French (from Spanish estacada, from estaca, 'stake')

estacade

A stockade is a fence made of stakes — and also a…

English (from Old English stocc, 'trunk, stump')

stock

Stockings were named for the stocks — the wooden frame…

Latin/Greek

stratum + sphaira

stratosphere

In 1902, a French meteorologist launched unmanned…

Italian (from Germanic)

stucco

A Germanic word for crust went to Italy, became art,…

Pali / Sanskrit

སྟུ་པ

stupa

The stupa is a mound of earth over relics that became…

Latin (coined 1834)

sub + conscius

sub conscius

A word built from Latin parts — below knowing — named…

Neo-Latin1

helianthus

The flower that turns to face the sun was given a…

Modern Latin (scientific)

supernova

Supernova — Latin for 'new star above' — is the name…

Georgian (from Arabic)

სუფრა

SUP-ra

The Georgian word for feast entered the language from…

Surinen (indigenous)

Suriname

An entire nation carries the name of a people the…

Persian/Tajik

سوزنی

sūzanī

The needle's answer to the loom — Central Asian brides…

English (origin obscure)

syllabub

SIL-uh-bub

An Elizabethan dessert of cream whipped with wine or…

English (from Greek synthesis)

synthesizer

The word synthesizer — from Greek synthesis, meaning…

Tagalog (Filipino, from Hokkien tāu-hū)

taho

Taho is a Filipino street food of warm soft tofu,…

Min Nan Chinese

tahu

China invented bean curd; Hokkien traders gave…

Russian (from Turkic/Mongolian)

тайга

taiga

The world's largest forest biome got its name from…

Totonac

tajín

tajin

An ancient Totonac city gave its name to a chili-lime…

Turkic / Mongolian

тамга

tamga

The ancient Turkic-Mongolian word for a clan's…

Latin (humorous misuse)

tandem

A Latin word meaning 'at length' or 'finally' was…

Hindustani from Persian

تنور

tandoori

The clay oven that gives tandoori chicken its name is…

Arabic / French place name

Tanger

The small, easy-peel citrus fruit takes its name from…

Chinese (origin debated)

七巧板

qī qiǎo bǎn (Mandarin)

Seven flat shapes — five triangles, one square, one…

Portuguese, from Sanskrit/Gujarati tānkī

tanque

The armored vehicle that changed warfare in the First…

Tongan/Polynesian

tapa

Tapa is the broad Polynesian family of bark cloths.…

Samoan / Proto-Polynesian

talo

taro

Taro is not just a crop — it is, in Hawaiian…

Scottish English (possibly Old French)

tartan

The crisscrossed woolen pattern that identifies…

French (from the Tatar peoples)

Tatare

tar-TAR

A dish of raw beef served with capers and egg yolk…

Tatar

Tatarstan

A tribal name from Chinese annals became a republic's…

English from Tahitian/Samoan

tatau

tattoo

Captain Cook heard a sound—tap, tap, tap—and brought…

Spanish (tele + novela)

telenovela

The Spanish word for a serialized television drama is…

New Latin (from Greek tēle + skopeîn)

telescopium

The telescope was not invented by Galileo — it was…

Kurdish / Persian

تنبور

tembur

A sacred lute for the Alevi and Yezidi peoples. Not a…

Old Turkic / Mongolian

тэнгэр

tengri

The ancient Turkic and Mongolian word for the eternal…

Lakota (Siouan)

thípi

The conical hide dwelling that defines visual…

French (from Latin terra, 'earth')

terrine

A terrine is named after its dish — Latin terra…

French (coined from Greek)

théodicée

Gottfried Leibniz needed a word for the problem of why…

English from Russian (proper name)

theremin

The only instrument you play without touching is named…

New Latin (from Greek thermós + métron)

thermometrum

The thermometer was invented before scientists agreed…

Anglo-Indian English (from British slang, adopted into Hindi)

टिफ़िन

ṭifin (Hindi, borrowed back from English)

An old English slang word for a light snack traveled…

Italian (Emilian dialect)

tigella

The bread took its name from the clay disc that cooked…

Persian (via Greek and Latin)

تیگر

tigra

The Persian word for arrow — tigra — became the name…

Māori/Polynesian

tiki

Sacred Polynesian ancestors became kitschy bar…

French (from Greek via Latin)

timbre

The French word for the stamp on a coin — the mark…

Amharic / Ge'ez

ጥምቀት

TIM-kat

The Ethiopian celebration of the Baptism of Christ…

Italian (from Greek tympanon)

timpani

The orchestral kettle drums are called timpani —…

Spanish (Peru)

tiradito

Japanese sashimi technique gave a Spanish diminutive a…

Greek (via German)

Τιτάν

Titán

Martin Heinrich Klaproth named an element after the…

Nahuatl (Oaxacan)

tlayuda

Oaxaca's largest tortilla started as a farm worker's…

Taino/Arawak

tabaco

tabako

The Taino offered sacred leaves to their gods—and…

Algonquian (Mi'kmaq/Abenaki)

toboggan

The sled that taught Europeans how to play in winter.

Ewe

Togo

In Ewe, togo names the exact place where a lagoon…

Hungarian from possibly Slavic

tokaj

A Hungarian wine region's name may come from a Slavic…

Medieval Latin (from Greek telos)

tolneum

Toll roads, death tolls, and church bells tolling…

Algonquian (Powhatan/Renápe)

tamahak

The Virginia Algonquian word for a stone-headed…

Greek (via Latin and French)

tome

A tome — a large, imposing volume — takes its name…

Latin American Spanish

torrejas

A Lenten bread soaked in wine survived five centuries…

Anglo-French (from Latin)

tort

A tort is a civil wrong — not a crime, but a harm done…

Sinhalese

තුරමලි

turamali

Sri Lankan gem traders called it turamali —…

Latin (from Greek týrris)

turris

Tower comes from a word so old that even the Greeks…

South African English (origin debated, possibly Shona/Ndebele)

toyi-toyi

Toyi-toyi is the South African protest dance — a…

Middle Low German / Scots

tram

A coal mine rail word that became the name of the…

Old French (from Latin traditio)

traïson

Treason and tradition are the same Latin word —…

Old French (from Latin truncare, 'to cut')

trenchier

Trench comes from the French word for cutting — a…

Ligurian dialect

trofie

A tiny twisted pasta from Recco that has no agreed…

Latin from Greek (Troy)

Troia

The word for a hidden destructive program lurking…

English dialectal

troll

A word that may have meant to roll or to stroll was…

French (from trousse, 'bundle')

trousseau

A trousseau was a bundle — the clothes and linens a…

Scottish Gaelic / Old French

tryst

The word for a secret romantic meeting descends from a…

Tswana

tsessebe

One of Africa's fastest antelopes entered English…

Tswana (Bantu)

tsetse

The name of the fly that shaped the entire history of…

Cretan Greek

τσικουδιά

tsikoudia

Every Cretan household once had a still, and the law…

Tsotsitaal (South African township slang)

tsotsi

Tsotsi is South African slang for a street criminal or…

English from Latin tuberosa

polyanthes tuberosa

tuberose

The flower they called the queen of the night — so…

Turkish via Latin from Persian

tülbend

The flower that crashed the Dutch economy has a…

Algonquian

tumpline

The tumpline — a strap worn across the forehead to…

Russian (from Sami)

тундра

tundra

The treeless frozen plains needed a name—Siberian…

Latin (from Semitic)

tunica

The simple T-shaped garment worn by Roman slaves and…

French (from Arabic, from Phoenician)

Tunisia

Tunisia may carry the name of a goddess who guarded…

Dagbani

tuo zaafi

tuo-zaafi

The Dagomba name for hot porridge outlasted every…

Creek (Muscogean)

eto opilwa

Tupelo is a Creek word meaning swamp tree — and it…

Māori (Aotearoa/New Zealand)

turangawaewae

tu-ranga-wae-wae

A place to stand. The ground where you have the right…

Old Turkic1

Turkey

turkey

The Turks gave the world a name for a bird they had…

Hindi via English

tussah

TUS-uh

While the world knows the silk of the domesticated…

Tuvaluan

Tuvalu

tuvalu

Tuvalu means eight standing together, though nine…

Lenape (Munsee Delaware)

tuksit

A Lenape word for a crooked river became a lake, then…

English (possibly from Wolof)

twerk

An ancient dance move emerged from West African…

Twi (Akan)

Twi

twi

Missionaries spelled it four ways before the language…

English from Japanese/Chinese

大君

taikun

The word for a Japanese warlord became Wall Street's…

Polish / Turkic origin

ułan

ulan / uhlan

The lancer cavalry who became the most feared and…

Zulu / Xhosa

umkhonto

Umkhonto means 'spear' in Zulu and Xhosa. It was the…

Xhosa1

umngqusho

Nelson Mandela called this dish his favorite food on…

Indian English

updation

Where standard English says update, a billion speakers…

German from Greek

Uran

Martin Heinrich Klaproth named his new element after…

Neo-Latin (coined from Greek)

Utopia

utopia

Thomas More built his perfect society from a Greek pun…

Latin via English

vaccīnus

A country doctor noticed milkmaids didn't get…

Serbian/South Slavic

вампир

vampir

A Serbian word for the undead travelled from Balkan…

Melanesian (Bislama)

Vanuatu

vanuatu

The name a newly independent nation chose for itself…

Romani (from Ossetic/Iranian)

vardo

vardo / vordon

The iconic painted wagon of the Romani traveler—the…

Spanish (diminutive of Venezia)

Venezuela

venezuela

Amerigo Vespucci saw stilt houses over a lake and…

English from Tamil via French

vettiver

vetiver

A grass root so tenacious it holds riverbanks together…

Latin (from vigil, 'awake, watchful')

vigilia

A vigil is the act of staying awake — Latin vigilia…

Italian from Old Provençal

viola

The viola may be named after the Roman goddess of joy.…

Fon/Ewe (West African)

vodun

A sacred religion became a slur—then began reclaiming…

Dutch / Middle Dutch

wafel

The grid-patterned cake came to English with its Dutch…

English (from Middle Dutch wagenschot)

wainscot

Wainscot is the wood paneling on the lower half of a…

Hindi/Urdu from Sanskrit

वाला

vālā

Wallah — the person who does a thing, the one in…

Dutch (from Old Norse)

hvalros

Vikings called it 'whale-horse' - and that strange…

Massachusett (Algonquian)

wampompeag

Wampum was not beads for decoration — it was a…

Chinook Jargon (from Native American sources)

wapato

A wetland tuber named a place before maps named the…

Frankish1

war

War began as a word for confusion.

English (from Old English waru: goods)

ware + house

warehouse

A warehouse is a house for wares — and the word is so…

Thai from Pali/Sanskrit

วัด

wát

The Thai temple complex that anchors every village in…

Algonquian (Ojibwe/Cree)

wendigo

A wendigo is a cannibalistic spirit from Algonquian…

English (from whole + sale)

wholesale

Wholesale means buying the whole thing at once — the…

Fox/Meskwaki (Algonquian)

wickiup

A wickiup is a dome-shaped dwelling of bent saplings…

English from Afrikaans

wildebeest

WIL-duh-beest

Dutch settlers arriving in southern Africa named this…

Wiradjuri1

wilga

A desert tree kept its Aboriginal name because English…

Australian Aboriginal

willy-willy

A dust devil learned to whirl in English twice.

English (early modern, from Dutch or Low German)

wolvering

The most ferocious mustelid in the world — pound for…

Modern English

xenophile

A word for loving strangers, built from the Greek term…

Nguni Bantu

Xhosa

xhosa

A Khoikhoi name for fierce strangers became the…

Yagara (Australian Aboriginal)

yakka

The Australian word for hard work — 'hard yakka' — is…

Syriac → Persian

یلدا

Yalda

The Persian winter solstice festival takes its name…

Chukchi

яранга

yaranga

Siberia built a house that walked with the reindeer.

Middle High German

ייִדיש

Yiddish

A language born from exile carried a civilization's…

South Slavic

Yugoslavia

yugoslavia

The Slavic word for south built a country, then…

Ainu

yukar

Ainu epic poetry performed by firelight for hours.…

Old English (from Old Norse jól)

geol

Yule was a midwinter festival celebrated by Germanic…

Turkic (via Russian)

yurt

Portable homes that crossed continents—the…

Japanese (from Chinese)

柚子

yùzi / yuzu

This ancient citrus fruit traveled from China to Japan…

Greek (from Hebrew qanna'im)

ζηλωτής

zelotes

Jewish resistance fighters who chose death over Roman…

Haitian Creole

zonbi

zombi

From Kongo, where it meant 'spirit of the dead.' In…

Turkish (from Persian)

zurna

The reed flute that has called people to weddings,…

Louisiana Creole French

zarico

A word likely born from the Creole pronunciation of…

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