"S" Word Origins

stylish

Origin

From style plus the adjective-forming suffix -ish.

stylist

Origin

From style plus the agent suffix -ist.

styll

Origin

Modern usage seems to have originated in Canadian slang, compare other modern respellings of i with y like whyte (which also coincides with an older spelling variant).

stylus

Origin

Borrowed from Latin stylus (“a stake or pale”). Probably not directly related to Ancient Greek στῦλος (stûlos, “a pillar”). Doublet of style.

stymie

Origin

From the meaning in golf (where the stymie ball blocks the other ball from "seeing" the hole), perhaps from Scots stymie, stimie (“person with poor eyesight”), from Scots stime (“the least bit”). Or from Scots styme (“tiny bit, glimmer”) as in se nocht ane styme (“not to see a glimmer (of something)”). If so, it is a doublet of stime.

styptic

Origin

Learned borrowing from Latin stypticus, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek στυπτικός (stuptikós), from στύφω (stúphō, “to contract”).

styrofoam

Origin

Originally a trademarked brand name for expanded polystyrene foam, now used generically for the material.

Styx

Ancient Greek

From Ancient Greek "Styx," meaning "hatred" or "detestation."

Su

Origin

From Mandarin 蘇／苏 (sū).

Suarez

Spanish

Borrowed from Spanish Suárez.

suasion

Origin

From Middle English suasion, from Latin suāsiō (“counselling, advice, persuasion”).

suave

Latin · 1400

From Latin suavis ("sweet, pleasant"), the same root that gives English "sweet" — first used in English in the early 1400s.

sub

Origin

A shortened form of various words beginning with "sub-," such as submarine, substitute, and subscription.

subangular

Origin

From New Latin subangulāris. By surface analysis, sub- + angular.

Subaru

Japanese

From Japanese "subaru," meaning "unite," also the traditional name for the Pleiades star cluster.

subatomic

Origin

Built from sub- ("below, under") plus atomic — literally "smaller than the atom."

subclavian

Latin

From Latin sub- ("under") plus clavicula ("little key," the source of "clavicle" — the collarbone).

subcommittee

Origin

Simply sub- ("under") added to committee.

subconscious

Origin

From sub- ("below") plus conscious.

subconsciously

Origin

Subconscious plus the adverb-forming suffix -ly.

subcutaneous

Latin

From Latin sub- ("under") plus cutis ("skin").

subdetectable

Origin

From sub- + detectable.

subdivision

Origin

From sub- ("further, additionally") plus division.

subduable

Origin

From subdue + -able.

subduct

Origin

From Latin subductus.

subduction

Origin

From Latin subductiō, from subdūcere (“to draw from under or below”). Equivalent to subduct + -ion or subduce + -tion.

subdue

Latin

From Old French souduire, ultimately from Latin subdūcō ("to draw away, withdraw"), likely blended in meaning with subdō ("to subject, subdue").

subdural

Latin

From sub- ("under") plus dural, relating to the dura mater, the brain's outer protective layer.

subglacial

Origin

PIE word *upó From sub- (prefix meaning ‘beneath, under’) + glacial (“of or relating to glaciers; cold and icy; (figurative) very slow”).

subimago

Origin

From sub- + imago, after German Subimago.

subitaneous

Origin

From Latin subitaneus. Doublet of sudden.

subject

Latin

From Latin subiectus, "lying under, placed beneath" — from sub ("under") plus iaciō ("to throw"), so literally "thrown under."

subjection

Origin

From Middle English subjectioun, from Anglo-Norman subjectioun, Old French subjection (Modern French sujétion), and their etymon Latin subjectiō. By surface analysis, subject + -ion.

subjective

Latin

From Latin subiectīvus, built from subject plus the adjective-forming -ive.

subjectivity

Origin

From French subjectivité, equivalent to subjective + -ity.

subjugate

Latin

From Latin subiugō, "to make subject" — from sub- ("under") plus iugum ("a yoke"), the same root that gives us "yoke."

subjugation

Origin

From Latin subiugātiō, from Latin subiugō (“to subjugate”). By surface analysis, subjugate + -ion.

sublanguage

Origin

From sub- + language.

sublation

Origin

From Latin sublātiō (“removal”).

sublet

Origin

From sub- ("under, secondary") plus let, in the sense of "to rent out."

sublimation

Latin

From Latin sublimare "to raise up, elevate", from sublimis "lofty, uplifted".

sublime

Latin

From Latin sublīmis, "elevated, lofty" — from sub- ("up to") plus a root meaning roughly "raised."

subliminal

Latin

From sub- ("below") plus liminal ("relating to a threshold"), from Latin līmen, "threshold."

sublimity

Origin

From Middle English sublimite, sublimitee, from Middle French sublimité and/or Latin sublīmitās. By surface analysis, sublime + -ity.

submarine

Origin

From sub- ("under") plus marine ("of the sea").

submerge

Latin

From Latin submergere, from sub- ("under") plus mergere ("to plunge, dip").

submerse

Origin

From Latin submersus, past participle of submergo.

submersible

Origin

From submerse plus the suffix -ible ("able to be").