Etymology — The Origins of English Words

First attested in c. 1520. From French filiation

From flask + -ful.

From frangible + -ness.

From late Middle English [Term?] first attested 1549 probably imitative of nonsense uttered by gossips. Usage as an imp or fiend and name of the Devil from around 1603. Alternatively (but far less likely), an alteration of flibbergib (“toady, sycophant”), derived potentially from an Old Norse *fleipra-geipa(re) (“babbler of nonsense”). The hypothetical Old Norse term would have been a compound of fleipra (a variant of fleipa (“to babble, tattle”)), and geipa (“to talk nonsense, to boast”) or geipare (“one who speaks nonsense, braggart”). fleipa is notably the ancestor to the flip- part of the English word flippant. It is of note that the original meaning of flibbergib was “chatterer”.

From Middle English forbarren (“to bar, bar up, block”), equivalent to for- + bar. Compare Middle High German verbarren (“to forbar”).

From formulate + -ive.

Borrowed from Latin fibrilla, diminutive of Latin fibra. Doublet of fibrilla. Compare fibre.

Borrowed from Welsh llymru (“a sour jelly derived from boiled oatmeal”), of uncertain origin, perhaps related to llymrig (“slippery”). For phonetic development, compare origin of Floyd.

From fore- + run. Piecewise cognate of Swedish förrinna.

From Middle English vorloken, forluken, equivalent to fore- + look.

Borrowed from Renaissance Latin flōrilegium, calque of Ancient Greek ἀνθολογία (anthología, “flower-gathering”) (compare English anthology), so called because flowers were used as symbols of the finer sensibility of literature.

From flog + -er. Compare Low German flogger (“a flail”).

From Middle English forthinken, forthynken (“to displease, cause to regret”), corresponding to for- (“mis-”) + think (“to seem, appear”), from Old English þyncan (“to seem, appear”); see methinks. Cognate with Middle High German verdunken (“to displease”), Icelandic forþykkja (“to displease”). Compare also Old English forþencan (“to mistrust, despise, despair”), Dutch verdenken (“to suspect”), German verdenken (“to blame”).

From fire + box. In the sense of a redheaded woman, from box (“vagina”).

From Old French freschete, a diminutive of fres (“fresh”) via its feminine form fresche.

From field + -able.

From Portuguese Formosa, as in Ilha Formosa (literally “Beautiful Island”) and Vila Formosa da Imperatriz (literally “Beautiful Town of the Empress”), from formosa (“beautiful, shapely”), from Latin fōrmōsus (“beautiful, well-formed”), from fōrma (“shape”) + -ōsus (“-ful”), literally “shapeful”. The Brazilian city was named in honor of Empress Teresa Cristina, in the 1840s.

From fly + past.

Possibly a blend of finicky + pernickety

From Middle English fraisen, from Old English frāsian (“to ask, try, tempt”), from Proto-Germanic *fraisōną (“to attempt, try”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to attempt, try; risk, peril”). Cognate with West Frisian freezje (“to fear”), Dutch vrezen (“to fear, dread, be afraid”), German freisen (“to put at risk, endanger, terrify”). Alternatively the Middle English fraisen was borrowed from Middle Dutch vreisen, vresen (“to be afraid; to endanger, threaten, frighten”), from Old Dutch *freisōn, *frēsōn, from the same Proto-West Germanic source above.

From Middle English fore-top, for-top, equivalent to fore- + top.

From Fratercula + -ine.

From Middle English forstage, equivalent to fore- + stage.

From fore- + story.