"F" Word Origins

flypast

Origin

From fly + past.

flyspeck

Origin

From fly + speck.

FML

English

An initialism of fuck my life.

Fo

Origin

Clipping of folio.

foal

Latin

From Old English fola, an ancient Germanic word for the young of a horse, related to Latin pullus ("young animal") and to the English word "filly."

foam

Latin

From Old English fām, an old Germanic word related to German Feim and distantly to Latin spuma ("foam").

fob

Germanic

Probably from an old Germanic word for "pocket," related to Swedish ficka and German dialect forms.

focal

New Latin

From New Latin focalis, built on Latin focus ("hearth, fire") plus the adjective ending "-al."

focus

Latin · 1600

Borrowed directly from Latin focus ("hearth, fireplace"). The astronomer Kepler introduced the scientific sense in the 1600s, using it for the points where light converges in an ellipse — the same idea a fireplace evokes as a gathering point.

fodder

Old English

From Old English fōdor, related to the word "food" and going back to an ancient root meaning "to feed" or "to graze."

foe

Old English

From Old English fāh ("hostile"), from a Proto-Germanic root meaning "to hate" — the same root that gave us words for feuding.

foehn

Origin

Borrowed from German Föhn, from Old High German phonno, from Vulgar Latin faōnius, an alteration of Latin favōnius (“west wind”), from Favōnius (“Roman wind god”).

foeman

Origin

From Middle English foman (“an enemy, devil, demon”), from Old English fāhman (“enemy”), equivalent to foe + man.

foeship

Origin

From Middle English foschip, equivalent to foe + -ship.

fog

Germanic

Origin uncertain, but probably linked to old North Germanic words for a squall or drifting spray, possibly related to a separate older English "fog" meaning tall marsh grass.

Fogarty

Irish

Anglicized form of Irish Ó Fógartaigh (“descendant of Fógartach”), a personal name from fógartha (“proclaimed; banished, outlawed”).

fogey

Origin

Borrowed from Scots foggie, fogie (noun), perhaps derived from Scots foggie (“covered with moss or lichen; mossy", hence "old, antiquated, decrepit”, adjective), from Scots fog (“moss; lichen”), equivalent to fog (“moss”) + -y. Further origin uncertain. More at fog.

foggy

Origin

From "fog" plus the adjective ending "-y."

foghorn

Origin

A compound of "fog" and "horn."

foible

Origin

1640–50, from Early Modern French foible (“feeble”) (contemporary French faible). Doublet of feeble.

FOIL

Old French

The "prevent" and "thin metal sheet" senses come from separate Old French roots meaning "to trample" and "leaf" respectively — both eventually collapsed into the single English spelling "foil."

foin

Origin

From Old French foene (“harpoon, fizgig”), from Latin fuscina (“trident”).

foison

Origin

From Middle English foisoun, from Old French foison, from Latin fūsiōnem. Doublet of fusion.

foist

Origin

Probably from archaic Dutch vuisten (“to take into one’s hand”), from Middle Dutch vuysten, from vuyst (“fist”); akin to Old English fyst (“fist”).

Fok

Origin

* As a Dutch surname, spelling variant of Focke, itself from Volk. * As a Cantonese surname, from Cantonese 霍 (fok3).

fold

Old English

The verb comes from Old English fealdan, an ancient Germanic word for bending something over on itself; the noun meaning "sheep pen" is a separate, older English word that happens to share the same spelling.

foldaway

Origin

From fold + away.

folder

Origin

From "fold" plus the agent suffix "-er," originally meaning something that folds.

folderol

Origin

Originally a nonsense refrain in songs, since circa 1701, as "fal, al, deral!", and 1820, used to make the song longer without adding more meaningful content (see non-lexical vocables in music). Compare falleri, fallera, extended as falleralla or fallerallera, in Swedish and German songs.

folding

Origin

By surface analysis, fold + -ing.

foley

Origin · 1900

Named after Jack Foley, a sound effects pioneer at Universal Studios in the early 20th century.

foliage

Latin

From Middle French feuillage, ultimately from Latin folium ("leaf").

foliate

Origin

Learned borrowing from Latin foliātus (“having leaves, leafy, leaved”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), a participial adjective derived from folium (“leaf; (Late Latin) leaf or sheet of paper”) + -ātus (participial adjective-forming suffix) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃- (“blossom, flower”) or *dʰelh₁- (“to be green”)).

foliation

Origin

From French foliation, from Latin folium (“leaf”).

folio

Origin

From Middle English folio (“leaf of a book”), borrowed from Medieval Latin foliō, Late Latin foliō, Latin foliō, the ablative singular form of Late Latin folium (“leaf or sheet of paper”), Latin folium (“leaf of a plant”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃- (“bloom, flower”). Doublet of foil and folium, and distantly related to phyllo and phyllon. Senses 1, 2, 3.1, 5, and 6 relating to a leaf or page are derived from Medieval Latin foliō in references; sense 5 (“page in an account book”) may be derived from Italian foglio (“rectangular sheet of paper”), from Latin folium. Senses 3.2 and 3.3 relating to a paper size are from Italian in foglio or its etymon Latin in foliō.

folivore

Origin

From Latin folium (“a leaf”) + -vore, Latin vorō (“to devour”).

folk

Old English

From Old English folc ("people, nation"), an ancient Germanic word related to German Volk and Dutch volk.

folkish

Origin

From folk + -ish. (Compare Old English folcisc, and German völkisch.)

folkishness

Origin

From folkish + -ness.

folklore

Origin · 1846

Coined in 1846 by British writer William Thoms, joining "folk" and "lore" to replace the older phrase "popular antiquities."

folks

Origin

Coined by California historian Kevin Starr.

folksy

Origin

From "folks" plus the adjective ending "-y."

folkway

Origin

From folk + way.

follow

Old English

From Old English folgian ("to follow, pursue"), an old Germanic verb.

follower

Old English

From Old English folgere, built from "follow" plus the agent suffix "-er."

following

Origin

Formed from "follow" plus the "-ing" ending.

followingly

Origin

From Middle English folowyngly, folewyngli, folwyngliche, equivalent to following + -ly.

folly

Old French

From Old French folie ("madness"), from the adjective fol ("mad, foolish") — the same root that gives us "fool."