"C" Word Origins

chilling

Middle English

The -ing form of "chill", used from Middle English onward.

chillout

Origin

Deverbal from chill out.

chilly

Origin

Formed from "chill" plus the adjective suffix -y.

chimaera

Origin

A variant of chimera under influence from Latin Chimaera.

chime

Latin

From Middle English chymbe, likely traced back to Latin cymbalum, "cymbal".

Chimera

Greek

From the Chimera of Greek myth, a fire-breathing monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail.

chimere

Origin

From Middle French chimarre, from Spanish zamarra. Cognate with French chamarre, simarre, Italian zimarra, of same origin. Doublet of simar, sable, and zimarra.

chimney

Latin

From Old French cheminee, ultimately from Latin camīnus, itself from Greek kámīnos meaning "furnace".

chimp

Origin

Clipping of chimpanzee.

chimpanzee

French · 1738

First recorded in English in 1738, borrowed via French from a Bantu-language word from Angola.

chin

Latin

From Old English ċinn, related to Latin gena and Greek génus, all ultimately meaning "jaw" or "chin".

China

Chinese

The tableware sense comes from the country name China, since fine porcelain was long associated with Chinese manufacture.

chinaman

Origin

From china (“porcelain”) + -man.

Chinatown

Origin

A straightforward compound of China and town.

chinchilla

Spanish

Borrowed directly from Spanish chinchilla.

chine

Origin

From Middle English chyne, from Old French eschine, from Frankish *skinu, from Proto-Germanic *skinō. Doublet of shin.

Chinese

Origin

Formed from China plus the adjective suffix -ese.

chinesian

Origin

From Chinese + -ian, q.v.

ching

Origin

An onomatopoeic word imitating a bright, ringing sound.

chingadera

Origin

Mexican Spanish chingadera.

chink

Old English

From Old English ċine ("crack"), with the diminutive suffix -k added later.

chinkland

Origin

From Chink + -land.

chino

Spanish

Adopted by American soldiers during the Spanish-American War; possibly linked to Spanish chino ("toasted"), describing the fabric's tan color.

chinook

Origin

Borrowed from a Chehalis word naming a Chinook village on the Columbia River.

chinookan

Origin

From Chinook + -an.

chinquapin

Origin

Like its cognate / alternative form chinkapin, chinquapin is an alteration of chechinquamin / chincomen (the form found in early records), from an Algonquian language (sometimes said specifically to be from Powhatan). The final element is *mini (“berry, fruit”). Hewitt suggested that the first element was a word meaning "large, great" cognate to xinkw- (“big, large, great”).

chintzy

Origin

From chintz + -y, from Hindi छींट (chī̃ṭ).

chinwag

Origin

From chin + wag.

chiong

Origin

From Hokkien 衝／冲 (chhiong, “to rush or charge”).

chionodoxa

Origin

From the genus name.

chip

Old English

From Old English ċipp, meaning a small piece of wood or shaving, related to a Germanic root for cutting or chopping.

chip on your shoulder

English

From an American practice of placing a wood chip on one's shoulder and daring another person to knock it off as a challenge to fight; the phrase is recorded in this literal sense before becoming figurative.

chipmunk

Origin

Originally chitmunk, from an Ojibwe word meaning roughly "those who descend headlong", later reshaped by influence from "chip".

chipotle

Spanish

From Spanish chipotle, from Nahuatl chīlpōctli, a combination of "pepper" and "smoke".

chipper

Origin

From an English dialect word "kipper" meaning nimble or frisky, of uncertain deeper origin.

chipping

Origin

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

chippy

Origin

Derived from "chip" plus the suffix -y.

Chirag

Persian

Borrowed from Persian چراغ (čirāġ), meaning "lamp, lightsource."

chirl

Origin

Imitative; compare chirr.

chirography

Origin

From chirograph + -y under influence from geography &c., from French chirographe, from Latin chirographus and chirographum, from Ancient Greek χειρόγραφος (kheirógraphos) and χειρόγραφον (kheirógraphon), from χειρο- (kheiro-, “hand-”) + γραφος (graphos, “writing, written thing”). Equivalent to chiro- (“hand”) + -graphy (“writing”) and handwriting.

chiropodist

Origin

From chiropody + -ist.

chiropractor

Greek

From Greek kheír ("hand") and prâxis ("action, practice") — literally "hand practice".

chirp

Middle English

From an unattested Middle English verb *chirpen, related to other words for bird sounds like "chirk" and "chirm".

chirpy

Origin

From "chirp" plus the adjective suffix -y, comparing a cheerful mood to a bird's chirping.

chirr

Origin

Imitative, ca. 1600. More at churr.

chirrup

Origin

Variant of chirp.

chisel

Latin

From Old Northern French chisel, ultimately from Latin caedō, meaning "to cut" — making it a doublet of "scissors".

chiseler

Origin

From chisel + -er.