"W" Word Origins

woodhouse

Origin

A straightforward compound of wood and house.

woodland

Old English

From Old English wuduland, a straightforward compound of "wood" and "land."

Woodley

Old English

From Old English wudu (“wood”) + lēah (“woodland clearing, glade”). Equivalent to wood + -ley (“lea”).

woodlouse

Origin

From wood + louse.

woodman

Old English

From Old English wudumann, literally "wood" plus "man."

woodpecker

Origin

A compound of "wood" and "pecker," describing its habit of pecking into wood.

Woodrow

Origin

From wood + row.

woodruff

Old English

From Old English wudurofe, "wood" plus an element of uncertain meaning.

woods

Origin

The plural of "wood," used in the same sense of a tree-covered area.

woodshed

Origin

The noun is a compound of "wood" and "shed." The verb sense grew out of the idea of retreating somewhere private to practice, away from an audience.

woodsman

Origin

From "woods" plus "-man," an extension of the older word "woodman."

woodsmanship

Origin

From woodsman + -ship.

woodsy

Origin

From woods + -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of’ forming adjectives), to distinguish the word from woody (“made of wood, or having wood-like properties, etc.”).

woodward

Old English

From Old English wuduweard, "warden of the wood," combining "wood" and "ward" (guardian).

woodwork

Middle English

From Middle English woodewerk, "carpentry" — a compound of "wood" and "work."

woodworker

Origin

From wood + worker.

woodworking

Origin

From wood + working.

woody

Origin

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

wooer

Origin

From woo + -er; from Middle English wowere, from Old English wōgere, from wōgian (“to woo”).

woof

Old English

The weaving sense comes from Old English owef, related to "weave." The barking sense simply imitates the sound dogs make.

woofer

Origin

From woof + -er.

woohoo

Origin

A playful extension of "hoo," used purely for its expressive sound.

wooing

Origin

From "woo" plus "-ing," forming the noun from the verb.

wook

Origin

A clipped, altered form of "Wookiee," the shaggy Star Wars species, applied jokingly to unkempt jam-band festival followers.

wool

Latin

From Old English wull, from a very old Germanic and Indo-European root shared with Latin lana and Welsh gwlân.

woolen

Old English

From Old English wyllen, "made of wool," from the same root as "wool."

Wooley

Origin

Heterographic variant of Woolley.

woolgathering

Origin

From wool + gathering.

woolly

Origin

From "wool" plus "-y," describing something with a wool-like texture.

woolsey

Origin

A variant of "linsey-woolsey," the traditional name for this wool-and-linen blend fabric.

woomera

Origin

Borrowed from Dharug wumara.

woon

Origin

Borrowed from Burmese wan, meaning "burden, responsibility, or administrative officer."

Wooster

Origin

From Worcester in England.

woozy

Origin

From an older word "wosy," describing something muddy or slimy — the feeling of being woozy is a bit like your head turning to mud. It was likely also nudged along by "boozy."

wop

Spanish · 1906

Believed to come from a Neapolitan greeting meaning roughly "dude" or "handsome," itself borrowed from Spanish. First recorded in New York City around 1906. Despite popular myth, it is not an acronym for "without papers."

wor

Old English

Borrowed into Northumbrian Old English from Old Norse várr ("our"), sharing the same Proto-Germanic root as standard English "our."

word

Old English

From Old English "word," tracing back to a very old Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to speak." It's a distant relative of "verb" and "verve."

wordbook

Origin

1590, from word + book. Compare West Frisian wurdboek (“dictionary”), German Low German Woordenbook, Wöörbook (“dictionary”), Dutch woordenboek (“dictionary”), German Wörterbuch (“dictionary”), Danish ordbog (“dictionary”), Swedish ordbok (“dictionary”).

wordcraft

Origin

From word + -craft.

wordmeal

Origin

From word + -meal (suffix denoting an amount, fixed number, or measure at a time).

wordplay

Origin

A straightforward combination of "word" and "play."

wordsmith

Origin

The noun is derived from word + smith (“craftsperson who works metal into desired forms; (by extension) one who makes anything”). The verb is derived from the noun.

wordstock

Origin

From word + stock, probably influenced by German Wortschatz or Danish ordforråd, among others.

Wordsworth

Origin

Variant of Wadsworth.

wordy

Old English

From Old English "wordig," simply "word" plus the adjective ending "-y."

work

Old English

From Old English "weorc," from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to make" — the same root that gives us "energy" and "organ."

workable

Origin

From "work" plus the suffix "-able," meaning able to be worked or made to function.

workaday

Origin

Middle English werkedei, from Old Norse virkr dagr (“working day”). Cognate to later workday; see work and day. Used in adjective sense from 16th century. By surface analysis, work + -a- + day. First attested in c. 1200.