---
name: "Etymologue"
subtitle: "Word origins you can walk forwards as well as back"
date: 2026-07-28
shortlist: true
link: "https://etymologue.com/"
linkText: "etymologue.com"
source: "Hacker News — Show HN"
topics: [web-tools, words-and-humor, learning-and-reference]
tags: [etymology, dictionary, wiktionary]
description: "396,192 English words and 240,011 etymology links pulled out of Wiktionary and made walkable in both directions."
---

Wiktionary knows where words come from but buries it in prose. Etymologue pulls the graph out and lets you move around in it: 396,192 English words, 722,472 lexemes, 3,025 languages, 240,011 links between them. Pick an origin language and see everything English took from it; open a Latin root and walk forward to its descendants rather than backward to its parents. That reverse direction is the part no dictionary gives you.