Apr 7, 2025 · The online etymology dictionary (etymonline) is the internet's go-to source for quick and reliable accounts of the origin and history of English words, phrases, and idioms.

This content is taken to have been put there by the ancient namegivers: giving an etymology is thus a matter of unwrapping or decoding a name to find the message the namegivers have …

Origin and history of online online (adj., adv.) also on-line, in reference to computers, "directly connected to a peripheral device," 1950; see on + line (n.).

Harper Douglas, "Etymology of search," Online Etymology Dictionary, accessed December 22, 2025, https://www.etymonline.com/word/search. Copy

Oct 25, 2017 · Etymonline is compiled from old dictionaries and researched from archives available online. The original core of print sources in 2001 was the Oxford English Dictionary …

Harper Douglas, "Etymology of origin," Online Etymology Dictionary, accessed December 21, 2025, https://www.etymonline.com/word/origin. Copy

"foolish, ignorant, frivolous, senseless," from Old French nice (12c.) "careless, clumsy;… See origin and meaning of nice.

Harper, Douglas. "Etymology of free." Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/word/free. Accessed 28 December, 2025. Copy

"an Israelite." Traditionally from an ancestral name Eber, but probably literally "one… See origin and meaning of hebrew.

However, popular etymology among the later ancients (Servius, Lactantius, Augustine) and the interpretation of many modern writers connects it with religare "to bind fast" (see rely), via the …