Etymology — The origins of English words

From Old English dol, "foolish, stupid" — related to German toll ("crazy, wild") and ultimately from a root meaning "to dim or make obscure."

From Old English scearp, going back to a Germanic root meaning "to cut" — the same ancient root that gave us "shear" and "scrape."

From Old English nēar, originally the comparative of "nigh" ("close"). Over time "near" took over as the plain adjective, while "nigh" became old-fashioned.

From Old English feor, "far, distant," from a Proto-Germanic root.

From Old English lifer, an old Germanic word for the organ, related to German Leber.

From Old English hefiġ, related to "heave" — something that requires effort to lift.

From Middle English bras, bres, from Old English bræs (“brass, bronze”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps representing a backformation from Proto-Germanic *brasnaz (“brazen”), from or related to *brasō (“fire, pyre”). Compare Old Norse and Icelandic bras (“solder”), Icelandic brasa (“to harden in the fire”), Swedish brasa (“a small controlled fire”), Danish brase (“to fry”); French braser ("to solder"; > English braise) from the same Germanic root. Compare also Middle Dutch braspenninc ("a silver coin", literally, "silver-penny"; > Dutch braspenning), Old Frisian bress (“copper”), Middle Low German bras (“metal, ore”). In the military sense an ellipsis of the brass hats.

From boil plus the suffix -ing.

From Old English sweord, going back to a very old Germanic root for "sword," related to words like Schwert in German and zwaard in Dutch.

From Old English blæd, originally meaning "leaf" — the flat shape of a leaf and a cutting blade were seen as similar.

From Middle English whippen, "to move suddenly", related to Dutch wippen ("to swing or bounce") — the political sense comes from "whipper-in", the huntsman who kept hounds from straying, borrowed into parliamentary slang in the 1700s.

From Old English tægl ("tail"), going back to a Proto-Germanic root meaning "hair" or "hair of the tail."

Traced back through Old French çucre and Old Italian zucchero to Arabic sukkar, itself borrowed from Persian and ultimately Sanskrit sharkara. The same root gives us the word "jaggery."

From Old English sealt, tracing back to a very old Proto-Indo-European root for salt shared across most European languages — also the source of "salary" (Roman soldiers were once paid partly in salt).

From Anglo-Norman muntaine, ultimately from Latin mōns ("mountain") — the same root as "mount."

From Old French metal, from Latin metallum ("metal, mine"), from Ancient Greek metallon ("mine, quarry").

From Old Norse knífr, related to a Germanic root meaning "to pinch."

From Latin doctor, "teacher," from docere, "to teach."

From Old French hospital, from Latin hospitalis, "hospitable" — the same root gave us "hostel" and "hotel."

From Old English hūs ("dwelling, shelter"), from a Proto-Germanic root possibly meaning "to cover or hide" — related distantly to the word "hose."

From Medieval Latin importans, related to import ("to be important").

From Middle English knowleche, built from know plus an old suffix meaning roughly "practice" or "action."

From Old English los, meaning damage or destruction, tracing back to a Proto-Germanic root shared with the word "loose."

From Latin fluidus, "flowing," from fluere ("to flow"). Despite the resemblance, it is not directly related to the native English word "flow."