Modern English Etymology

This app offers a dictionary of modern English etymology.

The classic dictionary contains most of the more common words, plus slang, archaic words and phrases, and common foreign words. Roots are identified, cross-references to words with similar roots are listed and colloquial usages and alternate spellings are given.

In each entry, roots in Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse, Greek or Latin, Old and modern French, Anglo-Indian, German, African, Spanish, etc., are identified; in hundreds of cases, especially odd or amusing listings, earliest known usage is mentioned and sense is indicated in quotations from Dickens, Shakespeare, Chaucer, "Piers Plowman," Defoe, O. Henry, Spenser, Byron, Kipling, and so on, and from contemporary newspapers, translations of the Bible, and dozens of foreign-language authors.

● Topics:

• Over 100 topics
• Discover words in the same topic

● Other features

• Save an entry
• Search an entry
• Words of the day
• Advanced search

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