"D" Word Origins

duffer

Origin

Cognate with duff, which see (origin is uncertain).

Duffy

Irish

From Irish Ó Dubhthaigh, from dubh ("black").

dug

Origin

From earlier dugge ("pap, teat"; compare also English dialectal ducky, dukky (“the female breast”)), apparently connected to Danish dægge (“to suckle”), Swedish dägga (“to suck”), Old English dēon (“to suckle”). More at doe. Compare also doug.

Dugan

Irish

Reduced Anglicized form of Irish Ó Dubhagáin, from dubh ("black").

Duggan

Origin

Variant of Dugan.

dugout

Origin

From the verb phrase dug out.

duh

Origin

Imitative, indicating stupidity by mocking the speech of an intellectually disabled person.

duke

Latin

From Old French duc, from Latin dux, "leader." The slang sense meaning "fist" is thought to come from Cockney rhyming slang: "Duke of York" for "fork," itself old slang for "hand."

dukedom

Origin

From late Middle English dukdom, dukedom; equivalent to duke + -dom.

dulaney

Origin

A variant of Delaney.

dulce

Latin

From Latin dulcis, "sweet" — the same root behind "dulcet" and the Spanish word for candy.

dulcify

Origin

From Latin dulcificō.

dulcinea

Latin

From Dulcinea, the name of the noblewoman Don Quixote idolizes (though he barely knows her) in Cervantes' novel Don Quixote — itself derived from Latin dulcis, "sweet."

dulcorate

Origin

First attested in the beginning of the 15th century, in Middle English; inherited from Middle English dulcoraten, from dulcorat(e) (“sweetened”, used as the past participle of dulcoraten) + -en (verb-forming suffix), borrowed from Latin dulcōrātus, perfect passive participle of dulcōrō (“to sweeten”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix).

dull

Old English

From Old English dol, "foolish, stupid" — related to German toll ("crazy, wild") and ultimately from a root meaning "to dim or make obscure."

dullen

Origin

From dull + -en.

dullwittedness

Origin

From dull-witted + -ness.

Duluth

French

After French soldier and explorer Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut.

duly

Origin

From "due" plus the adverb-forming suffix "-ly," so literally "in a due manner."

dum

Hindi

The cooking sense is from Hindi दम (dam), meaning "breath" or "steam."

duma

Russian

From Russian dúma, originally meaning "thought" or "counsel," later applied to elected legislative councils.

Dumas

French

Borrowed from French Dumas, meaning "from the farmstead", especially one in the south of France.

dumb

Old English · 1800

From Old English dumb, "unable to speak." The modern "stupid" sense spread widely in the 19th century, likely influenced by the similar-sounding German dumm and Dutch dom, which already meant "stupid."

dumbass

Origin

From dumb + ass. It is likely that ¹ass (= donkey), not ²ass (= buttocks), was the original sense within this compound noun (solid compound or open compound), but neither sense is precluded, and many people today may uncritically parse the term in the latter way, even if it is misapprehensive. Apparent analogy with forms such as hard-ass and big-ass would naturally lend support to the second parsing. A similar synergy can be seen in the fact that the terms buttload and assload originated as literally meaning a cartload and the load transportable by a single donkey (respectively), but probably most English speakers today would assume that their derivation involves the buttocks.

dumbbell

Origin · 1500

Coined in 16th-century England for a device used to silently practice the motion of ringing a church bell — literally a "dumb" (silent) version of a bell-pull. The exercise weight later took the same name because of its similar shape and motion.

dumbfound

Origin

Blend of dumb + confound.

dumble

Origin

Probable variant of dimble.

dumbledore

Origin

A compound of dialect dumble (similar to "bumble") and dor, an old word for a buzzing flying insect.

dumbling

Origin

From dumb + -ling.

dumbness

Origin

From Middle English dombenesse, from Old English dumbnes; equivalent to dumb + -ness. Cognate with Old Frisian dumbnisse (“folly, dumbness”).

dumbo

Origin

From "dumb" plus the informal suffix "-o," used to form casual or mocking nicknames (compare "weirdo," "wino").

dumminess

Origin

From dummy + -ness.

dummkopf

Origin

Borrowed from German Dummkopf.

dummy

Origin

From "dumb" (originally meaning "silent, unable to speak") plus the suffix "-y" — the "silent" sense extended to anything nonfunctional or lifeless, like a mock-up or a mute stand-in.

dump

Middle English

From Middle English dumpen, likely from Old Norse dumpa, "to thump" — originally suggesting the sound of something being dropped heavily.

dumpcart

Origin

From dump + cart.

dumpling

Origin

A folk word, first attested in c. 1600s, apparently from a Norfolk (East Anglian) dialect, of uncertain origin: * perhaps from some Low German word (compare dümpeln (“bobbing up and down”)), * or from the rare dialectal adjective dump (“lump, of the consistency of dough”) (first attested in the late 1800s), + -ling (diminutive suffix), although dumpling is recorded much earlier. However, compare dumpy (“short and stout”).

dumpster

Origin

Originally a trademarked brand name, blending "dump" with the surname "Dempster" (the company that made the bins); the trademark has since lapsed and the word is now used generically.

dumpy

Origin

First attested in 1750; exact origin unknown. Perhaps derived from, or cognate with, dumpling, or from the noun sense of dump.

dun

Old English

From Old English dunn, "dingy brown" — an ancient Germanic colour word related to "dusk."

Dunbar

Origin

Historically Dynbaer, from Cumbric *dyn ("fort") + *barr ("hill-crest, summit").

Duncan

Scottish Gaelic

From Scottish Gaelic Donnchadh, composed of donn ("brown") + cath ("battle").

dunce

Origin

From the name of the medieval philosopher John Duns Scotus — ironically a brilliant scholar. When Renaissance thinkers mocked his followers as old-fashioned, "dunce" shifted from meaning "stubborn traditionalist" to simply "stupid person."

duncedom

Origin

From dunce + -dom.

duncehood

Origin

From dunce + -hood.

duncical

Origin

From dunce + -ical.

Dundee

Scottish Gaelic

Borrowed from Scottish Gaelic Dùn Dè ("good fort").

dunder

Spanish

Possibly related to Spanish redundar, "to overflow" — describing the leftover liquid that spills from the process.