Etymology — The origins of English words

From a medieval variant of the given name William.

Probably a contraction of late Middle English frumpylle (“wrinkle”), from Middle Dutch verrompelen, originally equivalent to for- + rump + -le.

From Middle English glenar, glenere, equivalent to glean + -er.

From glomerulus + -ar. By surface analysis, glomerul- + -ar.

From Middle French fulmination, from Latin fulminātiō; equivalent to fulmine + -ation.

From German Glockenspiel (literally “bells-set”).

Borrowed from Brazilian Portuguese jenipapo, from Old Tupi îanypaba. The Tupi meaning of the word is variously given as yandi-pawa or yandi-pab (“fruit for painting”), yandi-ibá-pab (“fruit of the extremities for painting”), and without citation or explanation, “breast of an old woman”.

French gerbille. Compare jerboa.

From GAMP (“gynandromorphophilia”).

From George + -son. Doublet of Göransson, Jørgensen, and Jorissen.

Corruption of give us it. Compare gissa, gizza.

From Middle Dutch Ghent (modern spelling: Gent), from Latin Ganda, itself probably of Celtic origin.

? + -ite

From Latin germen (“germ, seed”). Doublet of germ.

From dialectal ginn (“a road or passage down to the sea”) + -el (diminutive suffix), ultimately from Old English gin (“an opening, gap, abyss”) or Old Norse gin (“throat, gullet, maw”), both from Proto-Germanic *giną (“throat, gullet”).

From gallery + -ist, possibly by analogy with artist, or influenced by French galeriste; compare German Galerist. Attested since 1962, popular in US since 2000s.

From uncertain first element + pot.

From garnish + -ee.

From frighten + -some.

From geo- + locate.

From game + breaking.

Blend of gay + atheist.

From god- + child.

From Middle English geld (and reinforced by Medieval Latin geldum), both from Old English ġeld, ġield (“payment, tribute”) (which regularly yield yield), from Proto-West Germanic *geld, from Proto-Germanic *geldą (“reward, gift, money”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeldʰ- (“to pay”). Probably reinforced by gelt (which see), see Norwegian Bokmål gjeld (“debt”), Danish gæld (“debt”) (whence apparently the otherwise irregular hard g in Middle English geld and perhaps also in Medieval Latin geldum, as opposed to the regular continuation yield from Old English). Geld is also written gelt or gild, and as such found in wergild, Danegeld, etc. Doublet of yield. Cognates Cognate with North Frisian jild (“money”), Saterland Frisian Jield, Jäild (“money”), Dutch geld (“money”), German Geld (“money”), Old Norse gjald (“payment”), Gothic 𐌲𐌹𐌻𐌳 (gild, “tribute”). Also related to English yield.