Etymology — The origins of English words

sensitive

Medieval Latin

From Middle French sensitif, from Medieval Latin sensitivus, ultimately from Latin sentiō, "to feel."

surgery

Ancient Greek

From Old French surgerie, tracing back to Ancient Greek kheirourgia ("hand-work"), the same root as "surgeon".

anti

Origin

The prefix anti- (meaning "against") used on its own as a standalone word.

township

Old English

From Old English tunscipe, "the people of a town," built from town plus the suffix -ship (meaning "state" or "condition").

yessir

Origin

A contraction of "yes" and "sir".

youthful

Origin

Formed from youth plus -ful.

catchy

Origin

From catch plus the adjective suffix -y.

setting

Origin

From set + -ing.

outer

Old English

From Old English ūtera, built from "out" plus the comparative ending "-er"; a distant relative of the word "utter."

session

Latin

From Latin sessio ("a sitting"), from sedere ("to sit").

bona

Latin

From Mediterranean Lingua Franca (Sabir) bona ("good"), ultimately from Latin bonus, the same root that gives English "bonus" and "bon" in "bon voyage."

torture

Late Latin

From Old French torture, from Late Latin tortura ("a twisting, writhing"), from Latin tortus, past participle of torquere, "to twist."

tilly

Irish

The "free extra" sense comes from Irish tuilleadh, meaning "more" or "addition".

smashing

Origin · 1900

From smash plus -ing. The "wonderful" sense arose in early-20th-century American English, likely linked to the phrase "smash hit" rather than to any Gaelic phrase, despite a popular but unsupported folk theory.

Colleen

Irish

From Irish cailín, meaning "girl" — the word itself, though widely used as a given name, isn't traditionally used as a first name in Ireland.

boycott

Origin · 1880

From the surname of Charles Boycott, an English land agent in Ireland who was shunned by his community in an organized protest in 1880.

badass

Origin

A slang compound of bad and ass, using "bad" in its informal sense of "impressively tough" rather than its usual negative meaning.

pinochle

French

Possibly from an Austro-Bavarian pronunciation of the German Binokel, itself from French binocle ("pince-nez"), the name of a related card game.

longer

Middle English

From Middle English longer, longere, normalisation of Middle English lenger, lengere (“longer”), from Old English lengra (“longer”), from Proto-Germanic *langizô (“longer”), comparative of Proto-Germanic *langaz (“long”), equivalent to long + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian laanger (“longer”), West Frisian langer (“longer”), Dutch langer (“longer”), German länger (“longer”), Danish længere (“longer”), Swedish längre (“longer”), Icelandic lengri (“longer”).

dismantle

Middle French

From Middle French desmanteler, literally "to strip off a cloak" (des- + mantel, "coat"), later broadened to mean taking anything apart.

virulent

Latin

From Latin virulentus, "full of poison," from virus ("poison").

borg

Origin

A clipped form of "cyborg," itself a blend of "cybernetic" and "organism."

tung

Chinese

Borrowed from the Chinese word for the tree.

impudent

Latin

From Latin impudens ("shameless"), from in- + pudere ("to feel shame").