Word histories can be revealing — consider that the word "mortgage" comes from the Latin for "dead pledge." By presenting these etymologies in a clear, accessible form, we can help users better understand the words they look up on Google.

"Mellifluous," of course, means to speak in honeyed tones:

The simple branching flow chart to traces back the origins of words. There's a saying that language is "fossilized poetry" and the diagrams make the fossils easy to see. Some words are surprising, but some are quite logical.

We also added graphs of use over time, showing how a word's popularity has waxed and waned in books. For instance, "tsunami" has experienced a wave of mentions:

Meanwhile, mustaches came into style, fell back, and now are coming back into style:

Check out each of these examples — mortgage, mellifluous, logic, tsunami, and mustache — or other word histories by searching on Google for "define:" plus your favorite word.