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.

2619

Words

665

Languages

Themes

Language histories

Latina Latin (218)Français French (114)Italiano Italian (103)Ēald Englisċ Old English (83)Ἑλληνική Ancient Greek (77)Ancien Franceis Old French (74)日本語 Japanese (71)العربية Arabic (52)

Latin218

abdicāre

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

abdomen

The Latin word abdomen — meaning belly, possibly from…

absolution

Surprisingly, absolution began as a legal untying.

advocātus

An advocate was originally someone 'called to'…

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 —…

alibi

The Latin word for 'elsewhere' became a courtroom…

alūmen

A bitter mineral salt that ancient dyers could not…

amuletum

The Romans had a word for something carried to ward…

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…

arbor

The shaded garden bower that invites you to sit…

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…

Aurōra

The Romans named the goddess of dawn Aurōra — related…

bona fide

In good faith — two Latin words that became the…

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…

calculus

Before mathematics had symbols, Romans did arithmetic…

calx

The Latin word for lime and the residue left after…

Canariae Insulae

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

cancellārius

One of the most powerful titles in Western government…

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…

cappella

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

cardinālis

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

cathedra

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

caveat

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

cellārium

A Latin word for a storeroom — any room where…

cēnsus

Every five years, Rome counted its citizens — not…

centurio

The Roman centurion — the professional backbone of the…

Cerēs

The Roman goddess of grain and agriculture became the…

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…

columna

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

comes stabuli

The highest-ranking police officer in the…

conscience

Oddly, conscience began as shared knowledge.

constitūtiō

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

consul

Two men elected annually to run the Roman Republic,…

convalescere

Latin had a dedicated verb for the gradual return of…

convent

Strangely, convent began as a gathering.

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…

crucibulum

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

culīna

culina

The Latin word for kitchen has been cooking inside…

currens

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

datum

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

de jure

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

decimāre

decimare

Roman commanders killed every tenth soldier to teach…

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…

destillāre

The Latin verb for dripping — drops falling from a…

dēsultōrius

Roman circus riders who leaped from one galloping…

dictātor

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

dividendum

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

doctrine

Surprisingly, doctrine began as teaching, not dogma.

domus

The Latin word for a house — the fundamental shelter…

ēdictum

Roman magistrates 'spoke out' their policies on the…

educatio

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

ego

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

faith

Surprisingly, faith began as trust pledged between…

fallacy

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

fānāticus

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

femur

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

foeniculum

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

forum

The Roman forum was not a building but an open…

funiculus

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

genuinus

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

gibbōsus

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

gradus

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

habeas corpus

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

harēna

Romans spread sand on the amphitheater floor to soak…

hibiscus

A Latin word for a marsh mallow wandered through…

hospitāle

A Latin word for a place that welcomes guests became…

ianitor

iānitor

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

inaugurāre

Every presidential inauguration unknowingly reenacts…

incensum

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

incunabula

Incunabula — books printed before 1501 — takes its…

infundere

The Latin verb for pouring something into a vessel…

īnsula

insula

The Romans invented the apartment building, called it…

Iovis

The king of the Roman gods became the adjective for…

iurisprudentia

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

Germinate

JER-mih-nayt

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

laqueus

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

latrocinium

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

lavandula

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

lēgis lātor

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

lēgislātiō

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

ligamentum

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

locus

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

longitudo

Longitude means length — the long lines running from…

luna

Lunacy — madness attributed to the influence of the…

lūnāticus

For two thousand years, humans believed the full moon…

lūstrum

lustrum

Before it meant five years, a lustrum was a…

magistrātus

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

magnum

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

malva

A teenage chemist accidentally made a purple dye from…

mandamus

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

Mārs

The Roman god of war became the adjective for military…

mercator

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

mercatus

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

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…

millennium

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

minūta

minuta

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

miracle

Unexpectedly, miracle began with simple wonder.

missilis

Latin had a simple word for anything thrown —…

moneta

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

mortarium

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

nasturtium

The nasturtium is the nose-twister — Latin nasus…

navigare

nāvigāre

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

navis

The central hall of every church in the Western world…

nebula

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

nescius

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

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…

nova

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

obiter dictum

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

obsidianus

Obsidian is volcanic glass — lava quenched so rapidly…

occidens

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

octave

Unexpectedly, octave began simply as the word for an…

omnibus

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

orbita

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

oriens

To orient yourself is to find the east — because…

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…

Palatium

Palātium

Every palace in every language traces back to one hill…

papilio

A tent that looked like a butterfly with its wings…

pedonem

The humblest piece on the chessboard takes its name…

pendulum

pen-du-lum

The swinging weight that made mechanical clocks…

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…

placebo

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

plēbiscītum

When the common people of Rome voted without the…

plumbārius

Every plumber carries the Latin word for lead in their…

port

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

porticus

A covered walkway that colonized the edges of Roman…

praecessio

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

prayer

Oddly, prayer began as a spoken plea.

premise

Surprisingly, premise once meant a thing sent before.

prīvilēgium

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

pro bono publico

For the public good — a phrase from Roman civic…

profane

Oddly, profane first meant simply outside the temple.

prose

Strangely, prose began as straight speech.

proverb

Unexpectedly, proverb began as a word put forth in…

pūpilla

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

quorum

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

ratificare

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

recipe

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

rector

Surprisingly, rector began as a straightener and a…

recusare

Roman litigants could object to an unfavorable judge;…

reliquiae

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

repent

Surprisingly, repent began with pain, not apology.

requiem

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

rēte

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

rīvālis

A rival was originally someone who shared your river —…

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…

sanctio

The same Latin word that means divine approval also…

satelles

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

scalpellum

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

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…

secunda

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

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…

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…

sinister

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

soliloquium

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

solstitium

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

spectrum

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

spirit

Surprisingly, spirit began as breath.

statutum

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

stellāris

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

stipulārī

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

sub poena

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

sublimis

The alchemists used sublimation for the moment a solid…

tabernāculum

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

tempestas

Latin named time and weather with the same word —…

terrificus

Built from the Latin verb for causing terror, this…

torpedo

The Romans named the electric ray for its numbing…

tribūnal

Roman tribunes sat on a raised platform to dispense…

turris

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

umbra

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

uncialis

Uncial script gave the medieval world its most…

vestment

Surprisingly, vestment was once just any garment.

vetō

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

via

The Romans built roads so straight and so durable that…

villānus

A Roman farmworker became a medieval serf, then a…

vindemia

vindēmia

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

vinum

vīnum

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

virtue

Oddly, virtue began as manliness.

volutus

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

vulgaris

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

Greek

203

asymptōtos

a-SIM-ptote

A line that approaches but never arrives — the Greeks…

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…

amphibious

Unexpectedly, amphibious first meant living a double…

ἀναρχία

anarkhía

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

ἄγκυρα

ánkyra

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

ἀνθολογία

anthología

The Greeks called a poetry collection a 'gathering of…

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…

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…

Vietnamese

bánh mì

BAN mee

The Vietnamese word for bread is also the word for the…

bánh cuốn

banh cuon

A sheet of steamed rice batter, translucent as morning…

bộ đội

BOH dwee

The Vietnamese term for soldier — used to name the…

đồng

DAWNG

The name of Vietnam's currency is the same word as the…

gỏi cuốn

GOY kwon

The Vietnamese fresh spring roll is named for a salad…

nón lá

NAWN lah

The conical palm-leaf hat of Vietnam is named for…

nem

NEM

The same three-letter word names a fermented pork…

nước mắm

NOOK mahm

The fermented fish sauce that defines Vietnamese…

áo dài

OW die

Vietnam's national costume is named for something…

phở

A bowl of soup that rebuilt a nation after war.

Tết

TET

The Vietnamese Lunar New Year carries a name that is a…

Middle English11

back gamen

Its name may mean 'back game' — a game where captured…

banefire

The celebratory blaze in the backyard descends from…

begle

The beagle's name may be the loudest clue to its…

borel

The humblest of fabrics, whose name may trace back to…

cup + board

cup-bord

A cupboard was literally a cup-board — an open shelf…

ekename

An 'ekename' lost its opening letter to a neighboring…

fonned

Before it meant loving and affectionate, fond meant…

gossomer

Gossamer began as 'goose summer' — the warm autumn…

gun wale

A word that preserves in its spelling the age when…

hale yarde

A rope named for what it does — to haul a yard — the…

yeoman

YOH-mən

The yeoman at his plow and the Yeoman of the Guard at…

Georgian11

ჭაჭა

CHA-cha

The Georgian word for grape pomace — the pressed skins…

ჩურჩხელა

churchkhela

Georgian warriors carried these candle-shaped strings…

გვინო

gvino

Georgia invented wine eight thousand years ago — and…

ხაჭაპური

kha-CHA-pu-ri

A bread that is also a vessel, a meal that is also a…

ხინკალი

khin-KA-li

The Georgian dumpling that you must eat with your…

ქვევრი

KVEV-ri

Eight thousand years before oak barrels, before…

ლობიანი

lobiani

Georgia's spiced bean bread is named simply for its…

მარანი

ma-RA-ni

The Georgian wine cellar is not a storage room but a…

ნაზუქი

nazuki

Baked in the same clay ovens as lavash, this Georgian…

საწივი

satsivi

Georgia's signature cold walnut sauce transforms a…

თამადა

ta-MA-da

The toastmaster who conducts a Georgian feast is not a…

Hindi11

बांसुरी

bansuri

A flute kept the memory of bamboo inside its name.

चारपाई

charpoy

An English camp bed is literally just a four-legged…

दही

dahi

One of South Asia's oldest foods is still called by an…

खादी

khadi

A homespun cloth became a political weapon.

खाट

khāṭ

The Indian bed frame that became the hospital bed and…

लूट

lūṭ

The Hindi word for plunder entered English during the…

मसाला

masala

The word for spice mixture now seasons songs, films,…

पकोड़ा

pakora

The name of a fritter probably began as a word for…

tāḍī

A fermented sap drink tapped from palm trees in India…

थाली

thali

A plate became a philosophy of eating.

टोपी

ṭopī (Hindi)

The pith helmet became the visual signature of British…

Māori11

iwi

EE-wee

The Māori word for tribe — whose older meanings…

whakapapa

FAH-kah-pah-pah

The Māori word for genealogy literally means 'to place…

whānau

FAH-no

The Māori word for family — rooted in the verb 'to be…

karakia

kah-RAH-kee-ah

The Māori incantation or prayer — a precise verbal…

kaitiaki

kai-tee-AH-kee

The Māori guardian, trustee, or steward — a word whose…

utu

OO-too

Widely mistranslated as 'revenge,' utu is actually the…

pōwhiri

PAW-fee-ree

The Māori welcoming ceremony — a formal protocol for…

tangi

TAHNG-ee

The Māori word for a funeral gathering — and for the…

taiaha

This weapon was also a grammar lesson delivered at…

tikanga

tee-KAHNG-ah

The Māori word for custom, protocol, and the right way…

wharenui

A house can be a body, an ancestor, and a parliament.

Tamil11

அரிசி

arici

The grain that feeds half the world — and whose…

கஞ்சி

congee

A humble rice gruel traveled empire routes and fed…

சுருட்டு

curuṭṭu

The cigar without a pointed end — and a Tamil word for…

தோசை

dosa

A fermented crepe from South India outlived empires…

gingelly

English named sesame oil with a Tamil word and then…

இடியாப்பம்

idiyappam

Threads of rice became one of South India's oldest…

குருவிந்தம்

kuruvintam

Tamil gem traders named the hardest mineral after…

பச்சிலை

paccilai

The heavy, earthy perfume that scented Victorian…

பறையர்

paṟaiyar

A Tamil caste name became English's cruelest word for…

சாம்பார்

sambar

A royal kitchen accident probably named the broth that…

உத்தப்பம்

uttapam

The thicker cousin of dosa kept a quieter name and a…

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…

Romani10

baro

The Romani word for 'big' or 'great' traveled from…

chal

The Romani word for a young man — chal — carries…

chiv

chiv / chivomengro

The prison slang for a makeshift knife is one of…

diklo

The Romani neckerchief known as a diklo was never just…

drom

For the Romani people, the road was never merely a…

gorgio

gorgio / gadjo

The Romani word for a non-Romani person—the settled…

hotchiwitchi

The hedgehog has a name in Romani — hotchiwitchi —…

mulo

The Romani mulo is a spirit of the dead who refuses to…

Rom

The name that an entire people gave themselves simply…

stariben

stariben / sturiben

The British slang for prison—as in 'stir-crazy'—is…

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…

Ottoman Turkish8

ağa

agha

In the Ottoman Empire, 'ağa' was a title that could…

bey

The word 'bey' was the Ottoman Empire's most elastic…

dolma

The Turkish verb for 'to stuff' gave its name to an…

efendi

Every time a European correspondent addressed a…

kayık

The slender, high-prowed rowing boats that darted…

عثمانی

ottoman

An empire's name ended up under your feet.

saray

The word 'seraglio' reached English by the most…

vezir

The Grand Vizier was the most powerful man in the…

Welsh8

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…

cromlech

KROM-lek

The Neolithic chambered tombs of Britain and Brittany…

cwtch

kutch

Cwtch means a small storage cupboard under the stairs,…

Irish Gaelic8

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…

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…

American English8

bazooka

A comedian's homemade horn gave its name to an…

blizzard

A word of uncertain origin that appeared on the…

bohunk

An insult welded two nationalities into one blunt…

dead-line

During the Civil War, a deadline was the line around a…

jack pot

A poker rule requiring a pair of jacks or better to…

nerd

A nonsense creature in a Dr. Seuss book escaped the…

pinochle

PEE-nuk-ul

The most popular American variant of a French card…

zipper

An onomatopoeic brand name — coined for the sound a…

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…

English from Old French

baldric

BAWL-drik

A decorated sword belt — worn diagonally across the…

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…

tenon

The projecting tongue of wood that slides into a…

trestel

trestle

The sawyer's support bench — two crossed frames…

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…

Basque7

bertsolari

A Basque oral poet who improvises sung verse in public…

Euskara

Linguists have spent two centuries searching for…

galdegaia

Unexpectedly, galdegaia is a modern Basque compound.

lauburu

Basque for 'four heads,' the lauburu is an ancient…

pintxo

The Basque word for the small-plate tradition that…

sorgin

The Basque sorgin — usually translated as 'witch' —…

txakoli

A tart, slightly sparkling white wine produced only in…

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…

Latin (from Greek)

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…

stylus

The pointed instrument used to inscribe marks onto a…

thermae

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

Amharic7

በርበሬ

BER-ber-AY

Ethiopia's master spice blend takes its name from an…

ዶሮ ወጥ

DO-ro WOT

Ethiopia's most celebrated dish — a long-simmered…

ዕንሥጥ

ənset

Scientists have called it 'the tree against hunger' —…

እንጀራ

injera

The spongy, sour flatbread that serves as plate,…

ክትፎ

KIT-fo

Ethiopia's answer to steak tartare is seasoned with…

ጤፍ

ṭeff

The world's smallest grain fed an empire for three…

ጠጅ

TEJJ

Ethiopia's ancient honey wine has been brewed in the…

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…

Chinese (Mandarin)6

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…

Swahili6

bwana

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

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…

twiga

The giraffe has one of the most onomatopoetically…

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…

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…

δεινόσαυρος

deinósauros

Richard Owen needed a name for the terrible,…

πρόσωπον + ἀγνωσία

prosopon + agnosia

The neurological condition that makes you unable to…

τηλέφωνον

tēléphōnon

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

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…

Maori

haka

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

poi

A small ball on a string, swung in rhythmic patterns…

pounamu

The Maori word for New Zealand nephrite jade names a…

tuatara

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

Malayalam4

കൊപ്പര

koppara

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

Malabar

malabar

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

പായസം

payasam

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

tekka

The wood that built the British Empire came with its…

Zulu4

impi

An English war word came straight from the language of…

induna

A colonial administration borrowed its local word for…

khwela

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

vuvuzela

A plastic stadium horn from South Africa generated…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Norwegian4

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…

Polish4

hetman

A German captain crossed Slavic frontiers and became a…

mazurek

A peasant dance from Mazovia — Poland's broad central…

miód

The Slavic honey-word is a cousin of Sanskrit madhu,…

pierogi

Pierogi — Poland's filled dumplings — carry a name…

Kimbundu

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.

semba

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

Javanese

ꦒꦩꦺꦭꦤ꧀

gamelan

Gamelan is the name for the bronze percussion…

kris

keris / kris

The keris is a Javanese asymmetric dagger whose wavy…

lahar

Lahar is a Javanese word for the volcanic mudflows…

Yiddish (from Hebrew)

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…

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…

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…

Swedish3

gravlax

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

ombudsman

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

tungsten

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

Kannada3

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Middle Dutch3

būsen

The Dutch verb for drinking to excess sailed across…

luc

The concept that defines gambling, superstition, and…

stoof

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

Italian (from Latin)

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…

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…

Uzbek3

чопон

chapan

A robe built for cold mornings became a word for…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Cantonese Chinese

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.

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…

Ukrainian3

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…

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…

Yoruba3

agogo

A bell word from Yorubaland now keeps time for half…

aṣẹ

ashe

A single Yoruba syllable became prayer, verdict, and…

egusi

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

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…

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…

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…

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…

New Latin2

syllabus

A printing mistake became a schoolword.

Wisteria

An American anatomist had his name misspelled in a…

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…

Persian via Hindi

سرود

sarōd

The fretless metal-stringed instrument at the heart of…

شال

shāl

The Kashmir wrap that warmed empresses and became…

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,…

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…

Venetian Italian

gazeta

The word for a newspaper comes from the price of…

ghèto

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

Turkish / Persian

ferman

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

sipahi

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

Tupi (via Portuguese)

kyinha

The fiery pepper that transformed global cuisine…

macavuana

The brilliant parrots whose feathers once served as…

Japanese from Chinese

盆栽

bonsai

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

moxa

For three thousand years, Chinese physicians burned…

Italian from Greek

cornice

The projecting ledge at the top of a building wall…

trullo

In a dry limestone plain of southern Italy, farmers…

Tupi2

ka'apiûara

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

tipi'óka

Tapioca is the starchy residue of the cassava root —…

French/Latin

careening

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

lateen

The triangular sail that made it possible to sail…

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…

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…

English (scientific portmanteau)

parsec

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

pulsating star

A pulsar is a rapidly rotating neutron star that…

Narragansett (Algonquian)

askutasquash

Squash — the vegetable — preserves most of the…

msíckquatash

Succotash preserves a Narragansett word for…

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…

English (uncertain origin)

bungy

The elastic cord that lets you fall from bridges may…

ketch

The two-masted sailing vessel that became the workboat…

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…

English (neologism)

meritocracy

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

technocracy

An American engineer coined the word in 1919,…

Wolof2

hipi

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

Jolof

jollof

A kingdom became dinner and started arguments.

Italian (Venetian)

ducato

The most trusted coin in medieval Europe was named not…

laguna

Venice gave the world a word for the shallow waters…

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…

German (Swiss dialect)

Löss

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

Rucksack

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

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…

Gujarati2

હડતાળ

hartal

A market shutdown became a language of mass politics.

સત્યાગ્રહ

satyagraha

A political weapon was named in a newspaper contest.

Bambara2

jembe

A Bambara phrase meaning 'everyone gather together in…

shea

A butter tree reached English by way of 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…

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…

Serbian

четник

chetnik

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

гусле

gusle

A one-string instrument name carries centuries of…

Telugu2

முங்கூஸ்

muṅkūs

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

పందికొక్కు

pandikokku

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

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…

Punjabi2

ਭੰਗੜਾ

bhaṅgṛā

A harvest dance from the wheat fields of Punjab became…

ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ

gurduārā

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

English from Hindi (place name)

देवली

Deolālī

Doolally — meaning slightly mad or eccentric — comes…

जोधपुर

Jodhpur

Jodhpurs — close-fitting riding breeches flared at the…

Low German / Dutch

knappen + zak

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

smokkelen

The word for moving goods secretly through customs…

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…

Anglo-French2

enditer

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

havok

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

Dharug (Aboriginal Australian)

cooee

The long, rising call used to attract attention across…

koala

The marsupial that sleeps twenty hours a day and…

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…

Ojibwe (Algonquian)

manidoo

Manitou names the animating spiritual power that…

wīgiwām

Wigwam entered English from the Ojibwe word for 'their…

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 (acronym)

LASER

A physicist's acronym for an impossible-sounding…

RADAR

A wartime acronym for detecting invisible aircraft by…

Spanish/Portuguese

embargo

A word for seizing ships became the weapon of…

mosquito

The deadliest animal on earth has a name that means…

Latin/Italian

fuga

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

harmonica

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

Anglo-Norman French2

brocour

The person who arranges your stock trades was…

pied de grue

A crane's foot became the symbol for family…

Old Irish

dún

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

luchorpán

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

English (eponym)

Hansom

An architect named Joseph Hansom patented a safety cab…

Shrapnel

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

German (surname)

Diesel

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

Mesmer

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

Cantonese2

長衫

chèuhngsāam

The form-fitting silk dress that Western fashion…

師傅

sifu

A craftsman title became global martial-arts authority.

English (personal name)

mackintosh

The waterproof raincoat is named after a Scottish…

Wellington boot

The waterproof rubber boot worn across muddy fields…

Middle French

browse

Before you browsed the internet, livestock browsed…

javeline

A Celtic word for a light throwing spear survived…

Greek via Latin

crystal

The ancient Greeks were so convinced that mountain ice…

Rhizome

RY-zohm

Beneath every meadow runs a hidden architecture — the…

Noongar2

kylie

A curved stick from Western Australia gave English a…

quenda

One Aboriginal name survived because settlers needed 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…

English from Arabic

أمير

amīr

An Arabic prince became the captain of English…

assassin

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

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…

English (surname)

Davenport

The word davenport describes two completely different…

sandwich

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

Powhatan (Algonquian)

ärähkun

The animal that washes its food taught English…

pawcohiccora

Hickory is the only major English tree name derived…

Old Persian

مغ

maguš

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

خشتراپاون

xšaçapāvan

Old Persian xšaçapāvan meant 'protector of the realm'…

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…

Taíno2

caimán

caiman

Europe learned this reptile's name from the Caribbean…

cay

A tiny island gave English one of its shortest travel…

Late Latin2

compāniō

Your companion is literally someone you share bread…

equiparation

Strangely, equiparation began as a learned act of…

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…

English (technical)

internetwork

A Cold War military project to connect computers so…

software

A mathematician coined the word in 1958 as a…

Māori/Polynesian

tiki

Sacred Polynesian ancestors became kitschy bar…

Italian (Florentine)

fiorino

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

Scottish Gaelic / Old French

tryst

The word for a secret romantic meeting descends from a…

Chinese (Hokkien/Cantonese via Pidgin English)

感謝

gám jeh

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

Ancient Greek (possibly pre-Greek)

λαβύρινθος

labýrinthos

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

American English (coined 1907)

blurb

A satirist invented a fake woman named Miss Belinda…

French (from the Tatar peoples)

Tatare

tar-TAR

A dish of raw beef served with capers and egg yolk…

Welsh English

Cardigan

An earl who led a catastrophic cavalry charge into…

Khoikhoi

ǃnù

gnu

English kept the click out and the animal stayed…

Middle Dutch / Old Norse

rif

The Dutch called the dangerous ridge of rock or sand…

Dutch / Portuguese

dodaars / doudo

The Portuguese called it stupid, the Dutch called it…

English (from Old French and Anglo-Norman)

stalemate

Stalemate is a condition in chess where you cannot…

English from Malay

kapuk

kapok

The Malay word for the silky fiber that filled…

Hungarian (from Turkic)

szablya

A nomad's curved sword cut its way from the Eurasian…

Arabic (from Egyptian)

šdwf

sha-DOOF

The counterweighted lever that lifts water from the…

Italian/Basque

bizarro

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

Spanish (from Basque)

chaparro

cha·pa·RRAL

The scrubby, thorny, fire-adapted shrublands that…

Filipino Spanish / Tagalog

bolo

BOH-lo

The heavy single-edged blade of the Philippine…

Classical Chinese (Neo-Confucian)

格物

gé wù

Four characters from the Great Learning became the…

Thai from Pali/Sanskrit

วัด

wát

The Thai temple complex that anchors every village in…

Russian (from Kabardian/Nart languages)

нарзан

narzan

The 'water of the Narts' — a legendary mineral spring…

Occitan

aioli

France popularized it. Occitan named it first.

Greek (via French)

pylon

A pylon was first the monumental gateway of an…

Spanish from Taíno

cacique

Columbus borrowed a Caribbean title and Spain never…

French — the name Cyprus

Chypre

chypre

A perfume category named after an island — and built…

Chinese (Hokkien/Cantonese)

白毫

pe̍h-hō

The tea grade name 'pekoe' — which appears on millions…

Zulu/Xhosa

indaba

The Zulu word for a conference between chiefs — a…

Hindi via English

tussah

TUS-uh

While the world knows the silk of the domesticated…

Old North French

cariage

A medieval French word for the act of carrying became…

English from Old English

adese

adze

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

Natick (Massachusetts Algonquian)

mugwump

The English word for a fence-sitter in politics —…

English (from literary character)

Pandarus

A fictional go-between in a medieval love story lent…

English from Arabic/Persian/Sanskrit

ليمون

laymūn

A fruit traveled from India to Persia to Arabia to…

Greek (from akis, a point or thorn)

ἀκακία

akakia

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

Polish / Turkic origin

ułan

ulan / uhlan

The lancer cavalry who became the most feared and…

Mi'kmaq (Algonquian)

xalibu

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

English from Zulu / Tsonga (Bantu)

nyala

nyah-LAH

The 'shifty one' — a name given by Zulu speakers to…

Middle Low German / Dutch

boegspriet

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

Old Norman French

warenne

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

Mexican Spanish (from Nahuatl)

enchilada

en·chi·LA·da

A corn tortilla dipped in chili sauce and wrapped…

Italian (from Latin/Greek)

disastro

Before science explained catastrophe, the stars took…

Lao/Thai

ລາບ

lâap

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

Spanish (possibly from Portuguese or Khoikhoi)

corral

co·RRAL

An enclosed space for horses or cattle that became a…

Tamil / Sanskrit (via Portuguese)

சக்கரை

cakkarai (Tamil) / śarkarā (Sanskrit)

The Sanskrit word for grit and gravel became the name…

Hopi

kachina

A sacred being became a museum label in two…

Italian / Arabic

scirocco

shi-ROK-oh

The hot, moisture-laden or dust-laden wind that blows…

Old French/Latin

caulk

The ancient craft of hammering waterproof fiber into…

Old French / Latin

forge

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

English from Middle French from Latin

font

FONT

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

Akan (Asante/Ghana)

kente

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

Hebrew / Aramaic

מִנְיָן

minyan

Jewish prayer requires a quorum. Ten adults must be…

Turkish / Arabic

makrama

A word for a fringed towel or napkin -- something…

Yagara

umpee

humpy

The Indigenous Australian word for a temporary shelter…

Hindi/Urdu from Sanskrit

वाला

vālā

Wallah — the person who does a thing, the one in…

Neo-Latin (coined from Greek)

Utopia

utopia

Thomas More built his perfect society from a Greek pun…

Hindi (via Persian, from Chinese)

चाय

chāy

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

Frankish1

war

War began as a word for confusion.

Taino/Arawak

tabaco

tabako

The Taino offered sacred leaves to their gods—and…

English place name

Chesterfield

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

Chinese (origin debated)

七巧板

qī qiǎo bǎn (Mandarin)

Seven flat shapes — five triangles, one square, one…

French (eponym)

jacquard

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

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

calypso

The music that became the sound of the Caribbean —…

Cornish / Brythonic substrate

noggin

NOG-in

A small wooden drinking cup with a Celtic name became…

Hindi / Malay

maina

The bird that talks back — the mynah has been the…

English from Malay/Kannada

bambu

bamboo

The fastest-growing plant on Earth grew its name…

Russian (from Turkic)

каракуль

karakul'

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

Old French from Latin/Greek

dolce melos

The hammered string instrument's name literally means…

Spanish (from duen de casa)

duende

The Spanish word for the uncanny spirit that makes a…

French from Latin

terrasse

The word for a raised outdoor platform comes from the…

Nigerian English

Afrobeat

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

French (from Swiss dialect)

sérac

Sérac — a Swiss cheese lent its name to the white ice…

English (from Irish surname)

Hooligan

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

English from Dutch

serif

SEHR-if

The tiny finishing strokes at the ends of letterforms…

Irish English

Blarney

Blarney — smooth, flattering, persuasive talk that is…

Lushootseed

geoduck

An enormous clam gave English a word people still…

Yiddish from German

קלאָץ

klots

The Yiddish word for a wooden block became American…

English via French

poplin

POP-lin

The name of the most common shirt fabric in the world…

Tigrinya / Amharic

ዓድዋ

Adwa

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

Spanish (Dominican)

merengue

meh-RENG-gay

The Dominican Republic's national dance shares its…

Turkish via Latin from Persian

tülbend

The flower that crashed the Dutch economy has a…

English from Ga (Ghana)

kwashiorkor

kwah-shee-OR-kor

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

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

jumbie

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

Russian / Caucasian

лезгинка

lezginka

Named for the Lezgin people of the Caucasus Mountains…

Occitan / French

mistral

mee-STRAL

The cold, violent wind that scours the Rhône Valley…

French (proper name)

Braille

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

Persian / Urdu

داستان

dastaan

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

Russian (from Slavic)

соболь

sobol'

A small Siberian weasel had fur so valuable it drove…

Modern English (coined from Greek)

petrichor

A word invented in 1964 by two Australian scientists —…

Persian/Tajik

سوزنی

sūzanī

The needle's answer to the loom — Central Asian brides…

Italian (surname)

Galvani

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

English (Caribbean colonial)

rum

The spirit that powered the triangular slave trade,…

Lithuanian (also Latvian: dziesma)

daina

The Baltic folk song tradition so ancient it preserves…

Old English (from Proto-Germanic)

book

The word for the bound volume that reshaped…

Anglo-French (from Latin)

tort

A tort is a civil wrong — not a crime, but a harm done…

Hindi (patti) via British India

puttees

The spiral leg-wrappings that British soldiers wore…

Middle English / Germanic

slēt

A word from the cold margins of Germanic Europe —…

Italian (brand name)

Jacuzzi

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

French (from German/Dutch)

Bollwerk

Every tree-lined Parisian boulevard was once a…

Cree

pimîhkân

The most calorie-dense portable food in human history…

Korean from Japanese

라면

ramyeon

Japan's ramen became Korea's ramyeon — spicier,…

Inuvialuktun

pingo

An Inuvialuit word for a mound of earth-covered ice…

Wiradjuri1

wilga

A desert tree kept its Aboriginal name because English…

Jamaican English1

ska

A word of mysterious origin — perhaps imitating a…

Aboriginal Australian

buma

boomer

A returning weapon named a generation by accident, not…

Latin (from Gaulish)

carrus

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

Vulgar Latin1

excappare

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

Latin / Etruscan

persōna

A persona was a mask worn by actors on the Roman stage…

Anglo-French/Latin

jettison

The maritime law term for throwing cargo overboard to…

Swiss German1

biwacht

Soldiers sleeping under the stars owe their word to…

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

corsaire

A word that sailed from Arabic merchant ships through…

Cree (Algonquian)

muskeg

The vast, waterlogged peat bogs that cover millions of…

Old Turkic / Mongolian

тэнгэр

tengri

The ancient Turkic and Mongolian word for the eternal…

Afrikaans (from Dutch)

veld

The open grassland that shaped South African identity…

English from Nahuatl

chocolate

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

Urdu / Persian

kamarband

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

Turkic/Mongol via Russian

орда

orda

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

Yuwaalaraay (Aboriginal Australian)

galah

The pink-and-grey cockatoo that gathers in noisy,…

Italian / French

neroli

An Italian princess brought orange blossom perfume to…

Modern scientific Latin

Bohrium

bohrium

A disputed element name settled a Cold War naming…

Tupi-Guaraní

jaguara

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

Celtic / Old French

cé / kai

quay

The waterfront platform where ships tie up to load and…

Greek (coined 1789)

panorama

An Irish painter invented both the immersive painting…

Arabic from Greek from Akkadian

drachma

dir-ham

The currency still used across the Arab world carries…

Classical Nahuatl1

calpolli

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

Sanskrit/Persian

کشمیر

Kashmīr

A valley in the Himalayas gave its name to the…

Swahili (from English)

simu

The Swahili word for telephone is simu — a borrowing…

Tibetan (via Balti)

པུ་ལུ

pulu

A Tibetan word for a willow root ball became the name…

Dutch (from Old Norse)

hvalros

Vikings called it 'whale-horse' - and that strange…

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

duppy

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

Latin/English

coronation

A flower whose name may descend from the Latin word…

Russian (from Greek name)

александрит

aleksandrit

A gemstone discovered on the birthday of a future tsar…

Latin via English

vaccīnus

A country doctor noticed milkmaids didn't get…

English from Japanese/Chinese

大君

taikun

The word for a Japanese warlord became Wall Street's…

Modern Latin (scientific)

supernova

Supernova — Latin for 'new star above' — is the name…

Scottish English (possibly Old French)

tartan

The crisscrossed woolen pattern that identifies…

Portuguese/Latin

binnacle

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

Chukchi

яранга

yaranga

Siberia built a house that walked with the reindeer.

Fula / West African Creole

mojo

A West African charm word that became the soul of…

English (Latin/scientific coinage)

quasi-stellar radio source

A quasar is among the most luminous objects in the…

Spanish from indigenous (Cumanagoto / Timoto-Cuica)

arepa

Venezuela and Colombia have been fighting over this…

Dutch (via Spanish and French)

vrijbuiter

A Dutch word for pirate sailed through Spanish and…

Spanish (from Caribbean origin, possibly Arawakan)

baracuda

The torpedo-shaped predator of tropical reefs carries…

Ojibwe1

kinkajou

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

Spanish (tele + novela)

telenovela

The Spanish word for a serialized television drama is…

New Latin (named for Pierre Magnol, 1703)

Magnolia

Magnolia is named after a French botanist who never…

Rumsen Ohlone

aulon

The iridescent shellfish prized by sushi chefs and…

French (from Savoyard dialect)

moraine

A moraine is the rubble a glacier leaves behind — the…

Greek (coined 1817)

καλός + εἶδος + σκοπέω

kalos + eidos + skopeō

A Scottish physicist fused three Greek words into one…

English from Latin from Proto-Indo-European

oraculum

oracle

The Latin word for 'divine utterance' comes from…

Old English from Proto-Germanic

crane

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

Yuwaalaraay1

gulabaa

coolabah

The tree under which Banjo Paterson's swagman camped…

Greek/Italian

μελόδραμα

melodrama

A word combining 'song' and 'action' — music plus…

Hokkien (Min Nan Chinese)

先生

sinseh

In the shophouses of Southeast Asia, a word for…

Armenian

դուդուկ

doo-DOOK

The Armenian double-reed instrument carved from…

English from Afrikaans

wildebeest

WIL-duh-beest

Dutch settlers arriving in southern Africa named this…

Guaraní

coatí

coati

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

Old French (from Germanic)

herbergeor

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

Nyulnyul / Gangulu (Australian Aboriginal)

barramundi

A fish so prized it was given a name meaning…

Dhivehi (Maldivian)

atholhu

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

English from French and Arabic

mameluke

A word for a slave became a title of military power.

Romanian1

horă

hora

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

Kimbundu (Angola)

kingombo

A Bantu word for okra became Louisiana's signature…

English (origin disputed)

poker

Poker is a word whose own etymology is a bluff — its…

Ghanaian English

highlife

A word that originally described the elite social…

Australian Aboriginal

willy-willy

A dust devil learned to whirl in English twice.

Spanish (from Chincha, Quechua)

chinchilla

chin·CHIL·la

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

Dutch / Middle Dutch

wafel

The grid-patterned cake came to English with its Dutch…

Greek (via Latin and French)

tome

A tome — a large, imposing volume — takes its name…

Kimbundu / Haitian Creole

mambo

A Kimbundu word for a voodoo priestess crossed the…

Algonquian (Powhatan/Renápe)

tamahak

The Virginia Algonquian word for a stone-headed…

Venetian / Greek

bora

BO-rah

The violent cold wind of the Adriatic coast carries…

Middle English from Latin

finial

The ornamental point crowning a spire or gable gets…

Hausa / Twi

harmattan

har-muh-TAN

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

Narragansett Algonquian (New England)

sachem

The word for a paramount chief of the Algonquian…

English (brand name)

SPAM

spam

Canned meat became unwanted email—because of a Monty…

Italian/Spanish

pavana

pa-VAH-na

The stateliest dance of the Renaissance has two…

English from Latin from Etruscan

haruspex

The Etruscan specialists who read the future in animal…

Malay (via Persian)

achar

acar

The tangy, spiced pickle served alongside rice and…

Middle English / Old French

dresser

A kitchen sideboard for dressing food — arranging,…

Latin from Greek

hypocaustum

hypocaust

Two thousand years before underfloor heating became a…

Muscogee (Creek)

catalpa

The ornamental tree planted across American streets…

Chinook Jargon / English

chinook

shi-NOOK

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

Greek via Modern Latin

Spore

SPOR

Long before the flower evolved, the spore was the only…

English (from Madras, India)

madras

MAD-rəs

A lightweight cotton fabric of bright plaid and check…

Tibetan / Dzongkha

རྫོང

dzong

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

Nuu-chah-nulth (Wakashan)

p'ácʼaɬ

p'acal

Potlatch named a ceremony in which the host gave…

French/Italian (origin debated)

domino

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

English from Old Norse / Proto-Germanic

rūna

rune

Before it named an alphabet, 'rune' meant a secret or…

Ukrainian/Turkic

козак

kozak

Cossack names the free horsemen of the Ukrainian and…

Valencian/Catalan

paella

The pan that named the dish — and sparked eternal…

Old Provençal / Old French

cabestan

The rotating barrel that sailors walked in circles to…

Low German1

kontor

Oddly, kontor began as a place for counting.

Algonquian (Illinois/Miami)

pakan

pakani

The nut that required a stone tool to crack — and…

Spanish/Portuguese from Provençal/Germanic

flamenco

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

English (from a surname)

Boycott

boycott

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

Vietnamese (from French)

xích lô

SIK loh

The three-wheeled pedal rickshaw of Vietnam carries a…

Romani (from Ossetic/Iranian)

vardo

vardo / vordon

The iconic painted wagon of the Romani traveler—the…

Spanish (from Latin)

caldera

A caldera is the vast circular depression left after a…

Latvian and Lithuanian

Laima

The Baltic goddess of fate who lives in the linden…

Temne / Mandinka

kola

A bitter nut chewed for centuries across West Africa…

Bantu1

nyama

The Bantu word for meat, game, and animal — nyama — is…

Medieval Italian

mala aria

Bad air — the wrong theory that accidentally gave the…

English from French, possibly from Spanish or Arabic

fanfare

A fanfare is a trumpet flourish that says: pay…

Russian/Latin

номенклатура

nomenklatura

Nomenklatura — 'list of names' in Latin — was the…

English from Mahlemut (Inupiaq people name)

malamute

The large working sled dog of the Arctic carries the…

Persian (via Latin)

هلو

holu

The Romans called it the Persian apple — malum…

Czech/Slovak

koláč

A round Czech pastry named for the wheel became the…

Abkhazian

аджика

ad-ZHEE-ka

A chili paste from the subtropical coast of the Black…

Arabic (for Egyptian structure)

serdab

Inside certain Old Kingdom mastabas, Egyptian builders…

Chinese

絲

sī

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

Maguindanaon

kulintang

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

Nahuatl (Aztec)

āhuacatl

ahuacatl

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

Old Welsh / Common Brythonic

broc

BROK

Every English speaker who has ever seen a…

Modern Latin (from Greek)

antisepticus

Before antisepsis, hospitals killed more patients than…

Scandinavian / Middle English

fog

A word of murky origin — possibly Scandinavian,…

English from Chinese

工合

gōng hé

A Chinese industrial slogan became the English word…

Rapa Nui

moʻai

moai

The stone figures of Easter Island are not anonymous…

English from Spanish or French

rapier

RAY-pee-ər

The thrusting sword that redefined honor, masculinity,…

Greek (via Latin/French)

χάρτης + γραφία

chartēs + graphia

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

English (origin uncertain)

cantilever

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

Sicilian/Italian

omertà

The Mafia's code of silence — a word that forbids its…

Old Norse/Icelandic

saga

The medieval Icelandic word for 'story' became…

English from Italian / Latin

incarnadine

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

Sanskrit (via Portuguese and Persian)

lākshā

A hundred thousand tiny insects gave their lives to…

Spanish from a Philippine place name

capiz

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

Greek (from Hebrew qanna'im)

ζηλωτής

zelotes

Jewish resistance fighters who chose death over Roman…

Ottoman Turkish / Arabic

باقلوا

bāqlawā

Layers of buttered pastry soaked in honey and studded…

Dutch/Middle Dutch

vracht

Dutch merchants loading their ships called the cargo…

Arabic / Persian / Turkish (via French)

قهوه‌خانه

qahwa-khāneh

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

Turkic (via Russian)

yurt

Portable homes that crossed continents—the…

Italian (from a place name)

Magenta

The vivid pinkish-purple color is named after a bloody…

English from Greek via Latin

ladanon

labdanum

The resin that ancient Greeks collected from goat…

Romani (via Persian)

kushto

kushto / kushti

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

American English (from a surname)

Maverick

maverick

A Texas rancher who refused to brand his cattle gave…

Norwegian (surname)

Quisling

The word for a traitor who collaborates with an…

Welsh / Celtic

craig

crag

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

English from Old French / Latin

russet

The coarse reddish-brown cloth that clothed the…

Arabic (possibly from Greek)

فلوكة

falūka

The lateen-rigged sailing vessel that has plied the…

French (possibly Frankish)

guêtre

The protective ankle and leg coverings worn by…

Wemba Wemba1

mallee

A whole Australian landscape is named after a tree…

Hokkien Chinese

烏龍

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

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

Latin from Greek (Phasis, Colchis)

phasianus

The game bird on English country estates carries the…

Lao1

ບາສີ

baci

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

Ancient Egyptian/Greek

Φάρος

Pharos

A small island off the coast of Alexandria gave its…

Spanish (diminutive)

machete

The 'little mallet' that became the essential tool —…

Sumerian / Akkadian

𒂗𒆠𒆕

Enkidu

Enkidu was created from clay and divine spittle to…

English from Japanese from Chinese

ginkgo

GING-koh

The last surviving member of an ancient plant lineage…

Okinawan / Japanese

ヌンチャク

nunchaku

Two sticks connected by a cord — a weapon born from…

English from Quechua/Mapudungun

punchu

poncho

A simple hole in a blanket became the most practical…

Latin from Mesopotamian technology

culina

kiln

The oven that fires pottery and bricks carries a Latin…

Nenets (via Russian)

парка

parka

An Inuit and Yupik word for a hooded animal-skin…

English via Spanish

gabardine

GAB-ər-deen

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

Late Greek / Medieval French

katastichon

A cadastre is a map that answers the question every…

Greek + Latin

αὐτόματος + mobilis

automatos + mobilis

Engineers in the 1880s bolted together a Greek word…

Portuguese (from Kimbundu/Bantu)

berimbau

A single-string bow that survived the Middle Passage…

French (from Greek)

hélicoptère

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

English from Quechua

ch'arki

charki

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

Urdu / Hindi (from Persian, from Arabic)

نواب

navāb (Urdu) / navāb (Hindi)

The Mughal Empire's provincial governors were called…

Turkish/Arabic

قفطان

qafṭān

From the Ottoman palace to African royalty to Moroccan…

Rioplatense Spanish

tuco-tuco

tucutuco

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

Italian (from Langobardic)

grappa

Grappa—the Italian pomace spirit distilled from grape…

Latin via Old French

inquisita

The Norman king's mechanism for cataloguing his…

Middle Dutch / Middle English

legger

The accounting book that records every transaction in…

Irish (place name)

Donnybrook

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

English from Dharug (Aboriginal Australian)

boomerang

The weapon that comes back was named by people the…

English (surname blend)

Gerry + salamander

The political practice of drawing electoral districts…

Hindi / Punjabi

दुपट्टा

dupatta

The long scarf that covers shoulders, drapes over…

English from French, from Italian

Arlecchino

harlequin

Harlequin — the masked, diamond-patched trickster of…

Middle Low German / Scots

tram

A coal mine rail word that became the name of the…

English (RAF slang, origin unknown)

gremlin

Invisible saboteurs that RAF pilots blamed for…

Latin from Italian

antenna

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

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

ibex

The mountain goat that ancient Romans drove nearly to…

English from Persian/Arabic

شاه مات

shāh māt

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

Hindi/Urdu

खुशी

khushi

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

Georgian (from Arabic)

სუფრა

SUP-ra

The Georgian word for feast entered the language from…

Hungarian (personal name)

Bíró

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

Urdu/Hindi from Persian

پردہ

pardah

Purdah — the practice of female seclusion, and the…

Greek / Latin

magma

Magma is molten rock inside the Earth — and the word,…

Hindi/Marathi

डुंगरी

Dungri

A coarse cloth named for a neighborhood in Bombay —…

Northern Sami1

lávvu

lavvu

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

Twi

fufu

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

Low German / Scandinavian

oegla

ögla

From a Low German or Scandinavian word related to…

English from Swahili from Arabic from Akkadian

duka

DOO-kah

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

English (coined 1977)

limerence

When a psychologist needed a word for the obsessive,…

Portuguese, from Sanskrit/Gujarati tānkī

tanque

The armored vehicle that changed warfare in the First…

Portuguese / Spanish

brisa

The word for a gentle wind came to English through…

Greek (place name)

Μαραθών

Marathon

A Greek soldier ran 26 miles to deliver news of…

Hindi/Sanskrit1

चीता

cītā

The fastest land animal on Earth has a Sanskrit name…

Urdu / Persian (from Arabic)

هودج

hawdaj (Arabic) / haudah (Urdu/Persian)

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

Hebrew via Medieval Latin

qabbālāh

Jewish mysticism became English for a secret political…

English from Latin via French

Martin

martin

A bird christened after a soldier-saint whose feast…

Spanish (from Quechua or Mapuche; origin disputed)

gaucho

The mounted herder of the South American pampas — the…

New Latin (from Greek)

neurosis

A word coined to describe disorders of the nerves that…

English (origin obscure)

syllabub

SIL-uh-bub

An Elizabethan dessert of cream whipped with wine or…

Gascon French

béret

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

English (disputed: possibly from Hungarian bocskai)

busby

The tall fur cap worn by British Household Cavalry…

Chinese Pidgin English

pidgin

The word for a simplified contact language between…

Latin (from Semitic)

tunica

The simple T-shaped garment worn by Roman slaves and…

Italian (from Celtic/Gaulish)

brio

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

Spanish (correr + de + toro)

corrida de toros

The Spanish term for the bullfight translates…

Old French (possibly Greek)

galoche

The rubber overshoe that keeps your dress shoes dry…

English (from Inuit/Cree contact)

husky

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

French from Croatian

Hrvat

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

English (technical portmanteau)

modulator-demodulator

The device that once connected you to the internet…

Italian from Germanic

balcone

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

Hawaiian / Proto-Polynesian

moana

A word shared across every Polynesian language meaning…

English from Tamil via French

vettiver

vetiver

A grass root so tenacious it holds riverbanks together…

Gujarati via Portuguese and English

বানিয়া

banian

A caste label became a tree name through colonial…

Yupik / Inupiaq

mukluk

The tall, soft boot worn across the Arctic tundra…

Bantu (Kongo)

kivili-chimpenze

A word from a Bantu language of Central Africa —…

English from French, ultimately Arabic

zabad

civet

The most scandalous ingredient in classical perfumery:…

Tswana

tsessebe

One of Africa's fastest antelopes entered English…

Chinook Jargon (from Native American sources)

wapato

A wetland tuber named a place before maps named the…

English from Arabic/Persian

algorithm

A Persian mathematician's name became the invisible…

English dialectal

troll

A word that may have meant to roll or to stroll was…

Old French via medieval Latin via Byzantine Greek

samite

The 'mystic samite' of Arthurian legend -- the cloth…

Arabic / French place name

Tanger

The small, easy-peel citrus fruit takes its name from…

Portuguese (from Fiot/Bantu)

macaco

A Bantu word for monkey passed through Portuguese…

Spanish / Portuguese

rumbo

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

Italian (from Medieval Latin)

credenza

The low sideboard in every modern office and dining…

Turkic / Mongolian

тамга

tamga

The ancient Turkic-Mongolian word for a clan's…

French (surname)

Ampère

The unit measuring electrical current—every amp on…

Algonquian (Abenaki/Powhatan)

musquash

The semiaquatic rodent of North American marshes was…

Spanish (from Carib/Taino)

Caníbal

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

Lenape (Munsee Delaware)

tuksit

A Lenape word for a crooked river became a lake, then…

Swahili from Arabic

safari

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

Sinhalese

තුරමලි

turamali

Sri Lankan gem traders called it turamali —…

Persian (via Greek and Latin)

تیگر

tigra

The Persian word for arrow — tigra — became the name…

Papuan Malay (via Malay)

kèsuari

cassowary

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

Ancient Egyptian (via Latin)

ꜣmn

AH-men

The pungent gas that smells of cleaning fluid and…

German (from Czech)

Taler

A silver coin minted in a Bohemian valley gave its…

English (from Latin)

subliminal

The word for perception below the threshold of…

Swedish (surname)

Celsius

The temperature scale that most of the world uses…

Middle Low German

slag

The glassy waste left when ore surrenders its metal —…

English (early modern, from Dutch or Low German)

wolvering

The most ferocious mustelid in the world — pound for…

English from Swahili from Arabic

askari

ah-SKAH-ree

A single Arabic word for soldier traveled from the…

English from Yiddish/Polish

שמאק

schmuck

A word for "jewel" became the perfect American insult.

English (from Labrador, Canada)

labradorite

Named for the frozen coast of Labrador, where Moravian…

English from Russian (proper name)

theremin

The only instrument you play without touching is named…

Tamil / Sanskrit

பரதநாட்டியம்

bharatanatyam

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

Mongolic/Turkic

хаан

khaan

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

Hawaiian / Polynesian

noni

A fruit so pungent it was called the 'vomit fruit' by…

Trinidadian English1

steelpan

The only acoustic instrument invented in the 20th…

Javanese / Malay

tempeh

tempe

A cake of soybeans bound by white fungal threads,…

Classical Chinese (strategic/aesthetic)

勢

shì

The Chinese strategic concept that gave rise to Sun…

English from Italian

montimbanco

mountebank

A mountebank was literally a man who climbed onto a…

Russian (from Turkic/Mongolian)

тайга

taiga

The world's largest forest biome got its name from…

English (from Irish/Joycean)

Three quarks for Muster Mark!

quark

Murray Gell-Mann named an elementary particle after a…

Filipino English

jeepney

JEEP-nee

After World War II, Filipinos took the American…

New Latin (named 1753, for Georg Josef Kamel)

Camellia

Camellia is named for a Jesuit brother who never…

French from Latin and Greek

monocle

The single eyeglass worn by Edwardian aristocrats and…

Biblical Hebrew

דְּבַשׁ

devash

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

English from Old French from Medieval Latin

galley

GAL-ee

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

Kikongo / Kimbundu

nguba

A Bantu word for peanut survived the Middle Passage,…

Powhatan Algonquian (Virginia)

hominy

The swollen white corn kernels eaten across the…

New Latin (named 1821, for Stamford Raffles)

Rafflesia

Rafflesia arnoldii is the world's largest individual…

Dutch/Norse

malström

A real whirlpool off the coast of Norway became a word…

Mande (West African)

bamanankan

The language of thirteen million people gave its name…

Mandarin1

風水

fēng shuǐ

Ancient geomancy that moved from Chinese graves to…

English via Arabic

gauze

gawz

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

Lakota (Siouan)

thípi

The conical hide dwelling that defines visual…

Arabic (via Malay/Tamil)

عرق

arak / arrack

Arrack is a word that traveled the entire Indian Ocean…

Yagara (Australian Aboriginal)

yakka

The Australian word for hard work — 'hard yakka' — is…

Thai from Malay

กะปิ

gà-pì

The pungent fermented shrimp paste that underlies…

English (from Hindi/Persian)

seersucker

The puckered striped cloth that became the uniform of…

Mexican Spanish1

mariachi

A word of disputed origin — possibly from a French…

French (personal name)

leotard

The tight-fitting garment worn by gymnasts, dancers,…

Latin / Old French

inodia

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

Italian (from Arabic lisān al-Faranī)

lingua franca

The phrase we use for any common language between…

Hindi / Urdu (hybrid of English + Arabic)

मेमसाहिब

memsāhib (Hindi/Urdu)

Half English, half Arabic, born in colonial India —…

Spanish (Colombian)

cumbia

KOOM-bya

Colombia's national rhythm was named by the enslaved…

German / Latin

Föhn

FERN (approximately) / FOEHN

The warm Alpine wind that melts winter snow overnight,…

French (place name)

Camembert

camembert

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

Persian / Old Iranian

شاه

shāh

The Persian word for king — shāh — is hiding in plain…

Yoruba (via Hausa)

danshiki

The dashiki began as a West African work garment worn…

Afrikaans from Dutch

trek

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

Russian (from Sami)

тундра

tundra

The treeless frozen plains needed a name—Siberian…

Chinese (Cantonese/Pidgin English)

炒

chǎo

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

Serbian/South Slavic

вампир

vampir

A Serbian word for the undead travelled from Balkan…

Pali1

සති

sati

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

Amharic / Ge'ez

ጥምቀት

TIM-kat

The Ethiopian celebration of the Baptism of Christ…

Portuguese (from Malay)

junco

The great flat-bottomed trading vessels of China and…

French from Franco-Provençal

chalet

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

Catalan / Occitan

espadrille

The flat canvas shoes with braided rope soles that…

Ancient Greek (from Egyptian)

alabaster

alabastron

The ancient Egyptians carved their most precious…

Romani-influenced English

dukkering

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

Persian / Hindustani

پای‌جامه

pāy-jāma

The Persian phrase for 'leg garment' — pāy-jāma —…

Massachusett / Narragansett (Algonquian)

pauwau

Powwow entered English as a word for an Indigenous…

Old French (from Medieval Latin)

acquiter

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

Afrikaans from Portuguese

kraal

A Portuguese word for a livestock pen traveled to…

Taíno/Arawakan

canaoua

The first American word to enter European languages —…

Persian (via Old French)

پرّه‌کت

parrah-kat

A small parrot whose name likely descends from a…

English from Dutch/German via French

arquebus

AR-kwi-bus

The first firearm light enough to carry on a shoulder…

French (from Turkish)

gilet

The sleeveless padded vest worn by hikers and…

Yiddish from Hebrew

חוצפה

chutzpah

The audacity to sue your parents for giving birth to…

Turkish (from Persian)

zurna

The reed flute that has called people to weddings,…

Mandinka / Dyula (West Africa)

balafon

The xylophone of West African griots — the instrument…

English (nautical)

dead reckoning

For centuries, sailors crossing featureless ocean…

French / Italian

accollata

accollāta

Before it meant praise, an accolade was a literal…

English naval slang

grog

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

Russian (from Old Norse)

кнут

knut

A Norse whip became a Russian instrument of state…

Latin (via Vatican usage)

propaganda

The Catholic Church coined a word for spreading the…

Arabic / Persian / Turkish

کباب

kabāb

An Arabic and Persian word for roasted or grilled meat…

English from Old Norse

berserkr

berserk

Viking warriors wore bear skins into battle—and gave…

Norman French

brioche

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

English from Quechua/Aymara

allpaqa

alpaca

The Andean camelid with the softest fiber in the…

Dutch/Greek

de affodil

A flower whose English name is a beautiful accident —…

Arabic via Italian

دار الصناعة

dār aṣ-ṣināʿa

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

Akkadian / Sumerian tradition

sīrum

SEE-rum

The tower that stores grain on every farm and the…

New Latin (from German)

Fuchsia

fuchsia

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

Punjabi/Sanskrit

ਸੇਵਾ

sēvā

A Punjabi word for "service" became the core of Sikh…

English from Latin tuberosa

polyanthes tuberosa

tuberose

The flower they called the queen of the night — so…

Gaulish via Latin

carrus

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

Algonquian (Mi'kmaq/Abenaki)

toboggan

The sled that taught Europeans how to play in winter.

Purépecha1

huarache

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

Greek (medical Latin coinage)

nostalgia

A 17th-century doctor invented a disease for homesick…

Yuwaalaraay (Australian Aboriginal)

budgerigar

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

Polynesian (Oceanic)

mana

Spiritual power became a video game stat—but it meant…

Medieval Greek1

búfalos

A Greek word for a kind of ox, borrowed by Latin,…

English (New Zealand marketing)

kiwifruit

kiwi

A Chinese gooseberry got renamed after a flightless…

Italian (from Germanic)

stucco

A Germanic word for crust went to Italy, became art,…

Italian / Latin

altrui

Altruism — the concern for others' welfare at the…

English (from German surname Kunz)

kunzite

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

Shona

mbira

The mbira is a thumb piano of extraordinary antiquity…

Uncertain (possibly Mayan/Arawak)

mahogany

The word that became synonymous with luxury furniture…

Pali / Sanskrit

སྟུ་པ

stupa

The stupa is a mound of earth over relics that became…

Akkadian / Hebrew place name

Bāb-el

The English word for incomprehensible noise and…

Filipino

arnis

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

Danish

hygge

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

Old English via Old Norse

gafol

The triangular wall at the end of a pitched roof…

English (from Hebrew via place name)

Bethlehem

A hospital named after the birthplace of Christ became…

English (calque from multiple indigenous languages)

longhouse

Across three continents and thousands of years, human…

Nguni1

donga

A ravine in South Africa became an English geology…

American English (coined)

boondoggle

A Boy Scout craft project became the American word for…

Ottoman Turkish / Persian

bahşiş

The word a traveler hears most insistently across the…

Samoan / Proto-Polynesian

talo

taro

Taro is not just a crop — it is, in Hawaiian…

Dutch / German

wagen

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

Gaulish1

carnyx

It was a trumpet with an animal's scream.

Urdu/Persian

खाकी

khākī

The color of dust became the color of empire.

English (onomatopoeic, origin uncertain)

hurdy-gurdy

The droning wheel-bowed instrument of medieval Europe…

Latin from ancient Near Eastern trade

linum

linen

The fabric of pharaohs and priests takes its name from…

Latin (via English)

pedimentum

A pediment is the low triangular gable crowning the…

Scottish English1

glamer

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

Arabic via Medieval Latin

athanor

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

Serbian/Croatian

šljivovica

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

English from Tahitian/Samoan

tatau

tattoo

Captain Cook heard a sound—tap, tap, tap—and brought…

Proto-Indo-European

medu

Mead—honey fermented with water—is almost certainly…

Marshallese / French

Bikini

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

Cantonese/Mandarin Chinese

功夫

gōngfu

It never meant martial arts—it meant mastery of…

Louisiana Creole French

zarico

A word likely born from the Creole pronunciation of…

Greek (from Carian name)

Μαυσωλεῖον

Mausōleion

A grief-stricken queen built her husband's tomb so…

English (possibly from Wolof)

twerk

An ancient dance move emerged from West African…

English from Japanese

kudzu

KUD-zoo

A vine so aggressive in its American habitat that it…

Sanskrit/Pali

बोधि

bodhi

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

Welsh / Brythonic Celtic

pennant

PEN-ant

A triangular flag that flies from every yacht mast and…

Tswana (Bantu)

tsetse

The name of the fly that shaped the entire history of…

Latin (from Greek, possibly from Egyptian)

basaltes

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

Malay / Indonesian

sambal

The fiery chili paste that anchors Indonesian and…

Tupi (via Portuguese/French)

susuarana

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

Unami Delaware (Algonquian)

kinnikinnick

The longest common word of Native American origin in…

English from Portuguese from Khmer

gamboge

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

Mexican Spanish (from a name)

nacho

One man's improvised snack in 1943 became a…

Old Irish / Welsh

bard

Celtic poets held a rank equal to warriors — the…

Italian/French

glissando

The musical term for sliding between notes — borrowed…

Greek from Phoenician

kinnamomon

The spice that bankrolled empires—and whose origins…

Fon/Ewe (West African)

vodun

A sacred religion became a slur—then began reclaiming…

Flemish

Kamerijk

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

Estonian1

mets

The Estonian word for forest — and the interior…

Bugis

anoa

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

Sanskrit / Tibetan

ཌཱ་ཀི་ནི

dakini

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

Amharic (via Italian)

ማኪያቶ

mäkiyato

The word means 'stained' in Italian, but it was Addis…

Luganda

matoke

ma-TOH-kay

The Luganda word for unripe cooking bananas that are…

English from Middle High German via French

halberd

HAL-berd

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

English (from Crimean place name)

balaclava

A catastrophic military blunder in Crimea left…

Arabic (for Egyptian concept)

miqyas al-nil

For five thousand years, Egypt's prosperity was read…

Medieval Latin / Celtic

pett

Peat is fuel, archive, and landscape all at once — and…

Inuit (Kalaallisut)

qajaq

A boat so perfectly designed that four thousand years…

Latin from Greek (Troy)

Troia

The word for a hidden destructive program lurking…

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

Bougainvillea

Bougainvillea is named for the first French…

Algonquian (Eastern)

menhaden

A fertilizer fish gave English one of its strangest…

Afar / East African

dik-dik

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

Massachusett (Algonquian)

wampompeag

Wampum was not beads for decoration — it was a…

Jagera / Turrbal (Aboriginal Australian)

bunya

The immense conifer whose football-sized cones fed…

Jamaican Creole (from Igbo/Twi/West African, possibly from Hebrew via Arabic)

obeah

The Caribbean spiritual practice called obeah was…

French (from Cambrai)

chambray

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

Latin (humorous misuse)

tandem

A Latin word meaning 'at length' or 'finally' was…

Malay (place name)

Bantam

Bantam (place name, now Banten)

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

American English (origin unknown)

gimmick

A word that arrived from nowhere, possibly an anagram…

English from Middle Low German

dövel

dowel

The humble wooden peg that has reinforced joints,…

Abenaki

sôgemak

sagamore

Colonial English borrowed a title, then used it like a…

Brazilian Portuguese / Spanish

gringo

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

English (medieval coinage)

free lance

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

Arabic (place name)

mocha

al-Mukha

The word that names a flavor — the dark, chocolatey…

Latin / Hungarian military tradition

pellis

The fur-lined jacket that hussars wore hanging from…

Persian/Arabic

بلبل

bulbul

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

Scots1

tweel

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

Gaulish / Old Celtic

druides

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

Latin place name

Colonia Agrippina

The scented water you splash on in the morning is…

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…

Persian from Mongol

مغول

mogul

The Mongol emperors of India became Wall Street's word…

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