"O" Word Origins

offering

Origin

From offer plus the suffix -ing.

offertory

Origin

From Late Latin offertorium, from the participle stem of offere (“to offer”).

offhand

Origin

From an old sense of "off hand" meaning done immediately, without planning ahead — as if the answer came straight off the hand rather than being carefully worked out.

office

Latin

From Latin officium, "duty, service, official position" — originally built from the words for "work" and "to do/make".

officer

Latin

From Old French officier, from Latin officium, "office, duty" — literally, someone who carries out an office.

official

Latin

From Latin officialis, "relating to an office or duty" — built from officium, "duty, service".

officiate

Late Latin

From Late Latin officiare, "to perform a function", from officium, "duty, service".

offing

Origin

From off plus -ing; originally a nautical term for the distant sea, later extended to mean "on the horizon" in a figurative sense.

offline

Origin

From off plus line, contrasted with "online".

offload

Origin

From off plus load.

offscouring

Origin

From off- + scouring.

offscreen

Origin

From off plus screen.

offset

Origin

From off plus set, built to form the noun version of the phrase "to set off" (in the sense of counterbalancing).

offsetting

Origin

By surface analysis, offset + -ing.

offshore

Origin

From off plus shore.

offside

Origin

From off plus side.

offsite

Origin

From off- + site.

offspring

Old English

From Old English ofspring, formed from off- plus spring, in the sense of something that "springs from" a parent.

offstage

Origin

From off plus stage.

offstand

Origin

From Middle English ofstonden, from Old English ofstandan (“to remain, persist, continue; restore, make restitution”), from Proto-Germanic *afstandaną, *afstāną, equivalent to off- + stand. Cognate with Dutch afstaan (“to cede, yield, relinquish”), German abstehen (“to project, stick out, stand away”), Swedish avstå (“to refrain, desist, give up, relinquish”).

oft

Old English

From Old English oft, "often" — the older, shorter ancestor of the modern word "often".

often

Middle English

From Middle English ofte, with an added "n" by analogy with "seldom" — both ultimately from an old Germanic root meaning "often".

oftentimes

Middle English

From Middle English oftentymes, built from "often" plus "time" plus the adverbial "-s" ending.

ofttimes

Origin

From oft + times.

Ogata

Japanese

Borrowed from Japanese 緒方 or 尾形 (Ogata).

Ogawa

Japanese

From Japanese 小川 (Ogawa), literally "small river."

Ogden

Old English

From Old English āc ("oak") + denu ("valley").

ogdoad

Origin

From Ancient Greek ὀγδοάς (ogdoás, “eight, a group of eight”). By surface analysis, ogdo- + -ad.

ogle

German

Likely from a Low German word meaning "to flirt with the eyes" — related to an old word for "eye".

ogre

Latin

Borrowed into English from French ogre, ultimately from Latin Orcus, the Roman god of the underworld and punisher of broken oaths.

ogress

Origin

Borrowed in the early 1700s from French ogresse, equivalent to ogre + -ess. Piecewise doublet of orcess.

OH

Middle English

From Middle English o, oo, from Old English ō, from Latin ō.

ohana

Hawaiian

Hawaiian ʻohana, from ʻohā, the shoot that grows from the taro root — a family understood as growth from a common stock.

ohm

German

Named after the German physicist Georg Ohm, who described the relationship between voltage, current, and resistance.

Ohm's law

German

Named after Georg Simon Ohm, the German physicist who established the relationship; the unit of resistance, the ohm, is named after him as well.

oho

Middle English

From Middle English o ho; o, ho; equivalent to o + ho.

OHS

English

An initialism of occupational health and safety.

oi

Origin

Likely a variant of "hoy", with the "h" dropped, common in working-class and Cockney British speech.

oil

Latin

From Old French olie, ultimately from Latin oleum, "olive oil" — from the Greek word for "olive".

oiler

Origin

From Middle English oyler, equivalent to oil + -er.

oilfish

Origin

From oil + fish.

oilseed

Origin

From oil + seed.

oily

Middle English

From Middle English oylei, equivalent to oil + -y. Compare German ölig (“oily”), Swedish oljig (“oily”).

oink

Origin

An imitative word that copies the sound itself.

oinker

Origin

From oink + -er.

ointment

Latin

From Old French oignement, "an anointing", from a Latin verb meaning "to smear or anoint" — the same root as the word "anoint".

Oishi

Japanese

From Japanese 大石 (Ōishi), literally "big stone."

oitava

Origin

From Portuguese oitava, from Old Galician-Portuguese oitavo, from Latin octāvus (“eighth”), q.v., in reference to it making up one-eighth of the alqueire (Portuguese bushel) or onça (Portuguese ounce). Doublet of octave, octavo, and ochava.