About Etymology Map
What this is
Etymology Map shows where English words came from, stage by stage, on a real world map. Type a word and follow the languages it passed through on its way here, in the order it traveled, with its form and meaning at every step. We built it because we are amazed by the journeys words take across languages and centuries, and we wanted to make that journey something you can trace with your eyes.
How entries are made
Each entry is researched and drafted with the help of AI, then structured stage by stage into the language, era, and approximate location you see plotted on the map. Every entry is then checked against reference works such as the Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com) and the Oxford English Dictionary, and corrected where a source showed the recorded chain was wrong, incomplete, or repeated a popular but debunked folk etymology.
Etymology is a field with genuine scholarly debate in places, so read each entry as a reasonable, well-sourced account rather than the final word. If you spot a mistake, we want to hear about it.
The collection currently contains a number of words spanning dozens of source languages.
Built with
Etymology Map is built with plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript and is hosted on Cloudflare Pages. Each word has its own page, generated ahead of time from the collection, and there are no accounts or sign-ins. A small Cloudflare function adds up the anonymous daily counts described in the Privacy Policy. The world map is rendered using:
- d3-geo: map projections and path generation
- topojson-client: decoding the world's coastline data
- world-atlas: the underlying land/coastline geometry
The typeface is Inter by Rasmus Andersson and the Inter Project Authors, used under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 and hosted on this site.
Thanks to their maintainers for making these freely available.
Design
This website was designed by Ecem Akbulut, whose creativity and attention to detail brought our vision to life. See more of her work on Behance.
How we choose new words
The site keeps anonymous counts of which words people look at and which searches come up empty. These totals aren't tied to anyone; they simply show us the popular words that are still missing, so we can add them next and keep improving the site. See the Privacy Policy for exactly what is counted.
Feedback and corrections
Spotted an inaccurate etymology, a typo, or a word you'd like to see added? Reach out at etymologymap@gmail.com.