Etymology — The origins of English words

gound

Origin

From Middle English gounde, gownde, from Old English gund (“matter, pus, poison”), from Proto-West Germanic *gund, from Proto-Germanic *gundaz (“sore, boil”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰendʰ- (“ulcer, sore, abscess, boil”). Cognate with Old High German gunt (“purulent matter”), dialectal Norwegian gund (“the scab of an ulcer”).

hellborn

Origin

From hell + born.

hackamore

Origin

Perhaps from Spanish jáquima (“halter”).

hake

Origin

From Middle English *hake, from Old English hæca, haca (“hook, bolt, door-fastening, bar”), from Proto-West Germanic *hakō, from Proto-Germanic *hakô (“hook”), from Proto-Indo-European *keg-, *keng- (“peg, hook”). Related to hook. Cognates Cognate with Dutch haak (“hook”), German Haken (“hook”), Danish hage (“hook”), Swedish hake (“hook”), Icelandic haki (“hook”), Hittite [Term?] (/⁠kagas⁠/, “tooth”), Middle Irish chaing (“weapons rack”), Lithuanian kéngė (“hook, latch”), Russian ко́готь (kógotʹ, “claw”).

hyperbolic

Origin

From Latin hyperbolic(us), from Ancient Greek ὑπερβολικός (huperbolikós). First attested in the 15th century. By surface analysis, hyperbol(e) + -ic.

hokiness

Origin

From hoky + -ness.

governless

Origin

From govern + -less.

idioticalness

Origin

From idiotical + -ness.

hmg

Origin

By initialism.

habitude

Origin

From Middle English habitude, from Middle French habitude, from Latin habitūdō (“condition, plight, habit, appearance”), from habeō (“to have, hold, keep”).

goshwow

Origin

From gosh + wow. Derived from a caption ("Gosh! Wow! Boyohboy! The mosta and the besta!") used in the July 10, 1939 issue of Time magazine, reprinted from a letter in the August 1939 issue of science fiction pulp magazine Thrilling Wonder Stories, in an article about the first World Science Fiction Convention, aka Nycon I, held in New York in July 1939.

hesternal

Origin

From Latin hesternus (“of or pertaining to yesterday; yesterday’s”) + English -al (suffix forming adjectives).

guiltiness

Origin

From Middle English giltines; equivalent to guilty + -ness.

hadassah

Origin

Borrowed from Hebrew הֲדַסָּה (“myrtle”), the Hebrew name of Esther in the Hebrew Bible.

hesperus

Origin

From Latin Hesperus, from Ancient Greek ἕσπερος (hésperos, “pertaining to the evening, western”).

handcart

Origin

From hand + cart.

hool

Origin

Clipping of hool(igan).

greedyguts

Origin

From greedy + guts.

hangworthy

Origin

From hang + -worthy.

hindsightly

Origin

From hindsight + -ly. Compare foresightly.

grieven

Origin

From grieve + -en, as though from grief + -en.

homunculine

Origin

From homunculus + -ine.

idlehood

Origin

From idle + -hood, possibly an alteration of obsolete English idlehead (“idleness”), possibly from Middle English idelhed (“vanity”). Compare also Scots ydilheid (“idleness”), Dutch ijdelheid (“vanity, vainglory”), Middle Low German îdelheit (“idleness”), and German Eitelkeit (“vanity, conceit, vainness, idleness”).

hornblende

Origin

From German Hornblende, from Horn (“horn”) + Blende (see blende).