"I" Word Origins

i

Old English

From Old English "ic," which traces back through Germanic languages to a very old Indo-European word for "I."

I owe you

English

The noun IOU is a spelling of the spoken phrase I owe you using the sounds of the three letters.

I plead the Fifth

English

From the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which protects a person from being forced to give evidence against themselves.

i.e.

Latin

An abbreviation of Latin id est, meaning 'that is'.

Iago

Latin

From Welsh, Spanish, and Portuguese Iago, ultimately from Hebrew Jacob via Greek and Latin; a doublet of James and Jacob.

Iain

Origin

From Scottish Gaelic. Cognate of John; see there for more.

Ian

Origin

Borrowed from Scottish Gaelic Eòin.

IB

English

An initialism of International Baccalaureate.

ibadi

Origin

Borrowed from Arabic إِبَاضِيّ (ʔibāḍiyy), from إِبَاض (ʔibāḍ, part of the name of Abd Allah ibn Ibad) + ـِيّ (-iyy). By surface analysis, Ibad + -i.

ibis

Latin

From Latin ibis, from Greek ibis, ultimately from an ancient Egyptian word for the bird.

Ibiza

Spanish

Borrowed from Spanish Ibiza, from Catalan Eivissa, from Arabic يَابِسَة (yābisa), from Latin Ebusus, from Phoenician 𐤀𐤉𐤁𐤔𐤌 (ʾybšm).

ibn

Arabic

From Arabic ibn, "son."

Ibsen

Origin

Borrowed from Danish and Norwegian Ibsen.

ibuprofen

Origin

A blended name built from parts of its chemical structure: iso-butyl + propionic acid + phenyl.

Icarus

Latin

From Latin Icarus, from Greek Ikaros, the mythological son of Daedalus.

ice

Old English

From Old English is, going back to a very old Germanic root for "ice" or "frost."

iceberg

Dutch

Adapted from Dutch ijsberg, literally "ice mountain."

iceblock

Origin

From ice + block.

icebox

Origin

From ice + box — literally a box that held ice.

icebreaker

Origin

From ice + breaker; the social sense comes from the idiom "to break the ice."

iced

Origin

From ice + the suffix -ed.

icehouse

Origin

From ice + house.

Iceland

Old Norse

A translation of Old Norse Island, literally "ice" + "land."

Icelandic

Origin

From Iceland + the adjective-forming suffix -ic.

icelandish

Origin

From Middle English *Islandish, *Islondisch, equivalent to Iceland + -ish. Compare Dutch IJslands, German Isländisch, Danish islandsk, Icelandic íslenskur.

iceman

Origin

A straightforward compound of "ice" and "man" — someone whose job or personality centres on ice, literal or figurative.

ich

Old English

The pronoun comes from Old English "ic," an older ancestor of "I"; the fish-disease sense is simply a shortening of the parasite's scientific name, Ichthyophthirius.

Ichabod

Hebrew

From the Hebrew name meaning "no glory," given in the Bible to a child born just as Israel's ark was captured — a name forever tied to a sudden fall from greatness.

Ichikawa

Japanese

Borrowed from Japanese 市川 (Ichikawa).

Ichiro

Japanese

Borrowed from Japanese いちろう (Ichirō), a given name with numerous possible original kanji.

ichor

Origin

Sense 1 (“liquid said to flow in place of blood in the veins of the gods”) is borrowed from Medieval Latin ichor, from Ancient Greek ῑ̓χώρ (īkhṓr, “fluid running through the veins of gods, ichor; watery part of blood, lymph, serum; watery part of milk, whey; gravy; pus; naphtha”); further etymology unknown, probably from Pre-Greek. Sense 2.4 (“fetid, watery discharge from a sore”) is from Middle English icor, icore [and other forms], from Medieval Latin ichor; see further above.

icicle

Old English

From Old English is ("ice") plus ickle, an old word for a small point of ice — the two fused into one word over time.

icing

Origin

Formed from the verb "ice" (to cover with a sugar glaze) plus "-ing".

ick

Origin · 1940

An imitative word first recorded around the 1940s, echoing the sound of disgust; it has recently been revived in online dating slang for "the ick".

icky

Origin · 1930

From 1930s American slang, likely a baby-talk form of "sick" filtered through the earlier term "icky-boo".

ICL

English

An initialism of the phrase I can't lie.

icon

Ancient Greek · 1980

From Ancient Greek eikōn, meaning "likeness" or "image" — the religious sense came first, and the computing sense only arrived in the 1980s with graphical interfaces.

iconic

Ancient Greek

From Late Latin iconicus, going back to Ancient Greek eikōn ("image"); related to "icon".

ICT

English

An initialism of information and communications technology.

icterus

Origin

From the Latin icterus, from the Ancient Greek ἴκτερος (íkteros, “jaundice”).

ICU

English

An initialism of intensive care unit.

icy

Origin

From "ice" plus the adjective-forming suffix "-y".

ID

Latin

The psychology sense comes from Latin id ("it"), chosen by Freud's English translators to render his German term Es. The "identification" sense is simply short for "identification/identity".

Ida

Germanic

Short form of Germanic names beginning with "id" ("work"), later associated with Mount Ida of Greek mythology.

Idaho

Origin

Named after the U.S. state, whose own name has an uncertain origin despite various popular but unproven stories.

IDC

English

An initialism of the phrase I don't care.

ide

French

Borrowed from French, ultimately from a Swedish name for the fish.

idea

Ancient Greek

From Ancient Greek idea ("form" or "pattern"), rooted in eidō, "to see" — the same root gives us "idol" and "eidolon". Latin borrowed it as idea, and English took it from there.