About Wordwyrt

Wordwyrt takes English words apart. Each word is split into the pieces it was built from, each piece is given its original meaning, and the word’s history is traced back through the languages it passed through.

What we are trying to do

Most English words are small stories: persist is “to stand through”, philosophy is “the love of wisdom”. Knowing the parts makes words easier to remember, easier to spell and easier to guess when you meet a new one. We want every page to be quick to read, free to use and honest about how sure we are.

Where the information comes from

We only build on sources that are in the public domain or released under CC0. The main ones are Skeat’s Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (1898), Lewis & Short’s Latin Dictionary (1879), Liddell & Scott’s Greek lexicons (1883 and 1889) and Bosworth & Toller’s Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (1898). Pronunciations come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, with a few from Wikidata (CC0).

Wherever we can, a claim links straight to the page of the scanned book it came from, hosted by the Internet Archive, so you can check it yourself. The full list, with licences, is on Sources & credits. Every meaning, summary and note on the site is written by us; nothing is copied from modern dictionaries.

How a breakdown is made

• Parts. The word is split into its building blocks: prefixes, roots, bases, suffixes and endings, each coloured by its kind.
• Root meanings. Each root gets the meaning its source dictionary gives, in our own words, with a link to the dictionary page.
• Meaning. “Meaning” is the sense that comes out of the parts put together; “Common meaning” is how the word is used today.
• Journey through time. The forms the word took on its way into English, language by language. A stage is only shown when a source supports it, and each stage carries the meaning it had at that point. Meaning shifts are marked only where the sense really changed.
• Did you know? Short notes on word families and surprising histories, each based on a named dictionary entry with a link to its scan.
• Origin confidence. Every word is rated High, Medium or Low, depending on how directly our sources back it up. The reasons are listed under “Sources & notes” on each page.
• Inferred words. When no source has an entry for the exact word, we work out its history from closely related words in the same family and say so clearly on the page.

Get in touch

Spotted a mistake, or know a better source? Email [email protected]. You can also browse every word A–Z.