"A" Word Origins

amaru

Origin

Borrowed from Quechua amaru.

amass

Latin

From Anglo-Norman amasser, ultimately from Latin ad- ("to") plus massa ("lump, mass") — the same root as "mass".

amastia

Origin

From a- (“without”) + -mastia (“breast”).

amata

Origin

From Latin amāta (“loved, beloved”); feminine perfect passive participle of amāre (“love”). It can also be interpreted as the feminine form of the saint's name Amātus.

amateur

Latin

From French amateur, "lover [of something]", from Latin amare, "to love".

amateurish

Origin

From amateur plus the suffix -ish, which here means "resembling" or "having the qualities of".

amati

Origin

Borrowed from Italian Amati.

Amaya

Spanish · 1877

From the heroine of the Spanish novel Amaya o los vascos del siglo VIII (1877), explained as Basque amai ("the end").

amaze

Old English

From Old English amasian, "to confuse or astonish" — related to the older sense of "maze" meaning to bewilder.

amazement

Origin

From amaze plus the noun-forming suffix -ment.

amazing

Origin

From the verb amaze plus -ing.

amazingly

Origin

From amazing plus the adverb-forming suffix -ly.

Amazon

Ancient Greek

From Ancient Greek Amazon, the name of the legendary warrior women; a popular but unproven folk story claims it comes from Greek for "without a breast", referring to a myth that they removed one breast to draw a bow more easily.

Amazonian

Origin

From Amazon plus the adjective-forming suffix -ian.

ambassador

Italian

From Old Italian ambassadore, ultimately traced back through Old Occitan and Proto-Celtic to a root meaning "to drive around" — the original sense being a servant or messenger sent on an errand.

amber

Old French

From Old French ambre, from Arabic anbar ("ambergris") — originally referring to a waxy whale product before the name shifted to the fossil resin.

ambergris

Origin

From Old French ambre gris (“grey amber”). Though the term was initially spaced as two words, single-word forms predominated by the 19th century. In the 17th century, folk etymologies interpreting the term as amber grease or amber [of] Greece enjoyed some popularity.

Amberson

Origin

Patronymic surname from Ambrose + -son.

ambiance

French

Borrowed directly from French ambiance, from ambiant, "surrounding".

ambience

French

From French ambiance, from ambiant 'surrounding', ultimately from Latin ambire 'to go around'.

ambient

Latin

From Latin ambiens, "going around", from ambire, "to go around".

ambiguity

Latin

From Old French ambiguite, from Latin ambiguitas, from ambiguus — see "ambiguous".

ambiguous

Latin

From Latin ambiguus, "moving both ways, uncertain", from ambigere, "to wander about, be uncertain".

ambisextrous

Origin

Blend of ambidextrous + sex.

ambisexual

Origin

From ambi- + -sexual; in modern senses relating to human sexuality, influenced by bisexual.

ambit

Origin

From Late Middle English ambyte, borrowed from Latin ambitus (“circuit; circumference, perimeter; area within a perimeter; ground around a building; cycle, orbit, revolution”) (compare Late Latin ambitus (“neighbourhood; wall of a castle, monastery, or town; cloister; parish boundary”)), from ambīre + -tus (suffix forming verbal nouns from verbs). Ambīre is the present active infinitive of ambiō (“to go around, to skirt; to encircle, surround”), from ambi- (“prefix meaning ‘both, on both sides’”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ent- (“front; face; forehead”)) + eō (“to go, move”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ey- (“to go”)). The English word is a doublet of ambitus.

ambition

Latin

From Latin ambitio, literally "a going around" — originally describing candidates in Rome canvassing for votes.

ambitious

Latin

From Latin ambitiosus, from ambitio — see "ambition".

ambivalence

Origin

Borrowed from German Ambivalenz (“simultaneous conflicting feelings”), from Latin ambi- (“both”) and valentia (“strength”), from the verb valere (“to be strong”) (see valiant); spelled on the model of French-origin words ending in -ence. The German term was coined by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in 1910; by 1929, it had taken on a broader literary and general sense. Equivalent to ambi- + valence.

ambivalent

Latin

A back-formation from "ambivalence", from German Ambivalenz, built from Latin ambi- ("both ways") plus valere ("to be strong").

ambivert

Latin

From Latin "ambi-" (both) plus "vertere" (to turn), formed on the pattern of introvert and extrovert.

amble

Latin

From Old French "ambler," from Latin "ambulare" (to walk) — the same root as ambulance and perambulator.

ambler

Origin

From Middle English amblere; equivalent to amble + -er.

ambo

Ancient Greek

From Late Latin ambo, from Ancient Greek ambon.

ambon

Origin

Ultimately from Old Javanese Ambwan (“Ambon”), attested in the Nagarakṛtāgama, likely through Classical Malay and reinforced by modern Indonesian. Compare nearby names such as Fordata Yabun. See also Amboyna, ultimately from Portuguese, and likely from a similar source.

Ambrose

Ancient Greek

From Latin Ambrosius, from Ancient Greek ambrosios, "immortal, divine".

ambrosia

Ancient Greek

From Ancient Greek ambrosia, "immortality", from ambrotos, "immortal" — a- ("not") plus brotos ("mortal").

ambrosial

Origin

Partly from ambrosia and partly from Latin ambrosius, + -al.

ambulance

Latin

Borrowed from French ambulance, shortened from hopital ambulant ("mobile hospital"), from Latin ambulare, "to walk about".

ambulant

Origin

Learned borrowing from Latin ambulans, present participle of ambulare (“to walk”).

ambulate

Origin

From Latin ambulatus, past participle of ambulō (“to walk, go about”). Doublet of amble.

ambulatory

Latin

From Latin "ambulare," to walk.

ambuscade

Origin

From French embuscade, from Italian imboscata from the past participle of imboscare (“to ambush”), from Vulgar Latin *imbosco (“I hide, ambush”) (see there for more), from Frankish *busk (“bush”), from Proto-Germanic *buskaz (“bush, heavy stick”). Compare ambush. More at bush.

ambush

Old French

From Old French embuschier, "to hide in a wood," built from the Frankish word for bush — the same root that gives us "bouquet."

ameen

Origin

From Arabic أمين (ʔamīn, “loyal, reliable, trustworthy”).

ameer

Origin

Variant spelling of Amir.

Amelia

Latin

A variant of Amalia, from a Germanic root meaning "vigor" or "bravery." Over time the name blended in people's minds with the unrelated Latin name Aemilia, which gave English "Emily," and the French "Aimée," which gave English "Amy."

ameliorate

Latin

From Latin melior 'better', via French améliorer.