Etymology — The origins of English words

newsgathering

Origin

From news + gathering.

mcphearson

Origin

Variant of McPherson.

maximalist

Origin

From maximal + -ist, by analogy with minimalist.

metamorphism

Origin

From metamorphosis + -ism, after French métamorphisme.

myosin

Origin

From myo- (“relating to muscle”), and Ancient Greek μυός (muós), genitive of μῦς (mûs, “muscle”) + -in.

medireview

Origin

Modification of medieval by automated string substitution of review for eval, a JavaScript function short for evaluate (to avoid the risk of unintended code execution). Coined accidentally by Yahoo! Mail in 2001.

myopia

Origin

Borrowed from Ancient Greek μυωπία (muōpía, “shortsightedness”), from μύω (múō, “to shut, close”) + ὤψ (ṓps, “eye”) + -ία (-ía).

micronesia

Origin

From Ancient Greek μικρόνησος (mikrónēsos, “small island”, from μικρός (mikrós, “small, minimum”) + νῆσος (nêsos, “island”)) + -ia.

meetup

Origin

Deverbal from meet up.

materiel

Origin

Borrowed from French matériel. Doublet of material.

musquash

Origin

From Abenaki moskwas (or its Massachusett equivalent). Compare musquaw.

neptunian

Origin

From Latin Neptūnius (“of or pertaining to the Roman god Neptune”), from Neptūnus (“the Roman god Neptune”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *nebʰ- (“to become damp, cloudy”)) + -ius (suffix forming adjectives from nouns); analysable as Neptune + -ian. The English word is cognate with French neptunien (“pertaining to the Roman god Neptune, pertaining to the sea, pertaining to Neptunism, Neptunian; proponent of Neptunism, Neptunist”), German Neptunier (“proponent of Neptunism, Neptunist”).

mujahid

Origin

Borrowed from Arabic مُجَاهِد (mujāhid), derived from the active participle of جَاهَدَ (jāhada, “to strive in the cause of God”) (verbal noun: جِهَاد (jihād, “to strive in the cause of God as a religious duty”)), from the root ج ه د (j h d).

mimmerkin

Origin

From mimmer + -kin. Cognate with Scots mimmerkin, memmerkin (“a dwarf, dwarfish creature”). Compare also mimmering (“doting, dreaming”).

meandom

Origin

From mean + -dom.

mcgavin

Origin

Possibly a variant of McGowan.

microbrewery

Origin

From micro- + brewery.

mathom

Origin

Learned borrowing from Old English māþum (“treasure, object of value, jewel, ornament, gift”), from Proto-Germanic *maiþmaz (“present, gift”); introduced by J. R. R. Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings with the conceit that it was a translation of his invented language Adûni's kast, a word used by Hobbits as a generic name for items which they were unwilling to throw away, but for which they had no use.

mirrory

Origin

From mirror + -y.

naturism

Origin

Borrowed from French naturisme. By surface analysis, natur(e) + -ism.

newsprint

Origin

From news + print.

multisecular

Origin

From multi- (“many”) + secular (“of or related to centuries”).

nattersome

Origin

From natter + -some.

narcoterrorism

Origin

From narco- + terrorism; coined by President of Peru from 1963 to 1968 and from 1980 to 1985 Fernando Belaúnde in 1983 when describing terrorist-type attacks against his nation's anti-narcotics police.