Etymology — The Origins of English Words

From danger + -some.

Borrowed from Latin decimātiō, a punishment where every 10th man in a unit would be stoned to death by the men who were spared. Used by the Romans to keep order in their military. Compare septimation and vicesimation.

From dead + head. Some senses are derived from theater jargon (originally spelled dead head) for audience members admitted without paying, which probably arose in analogy to dead weight or deadwood in reference to their lack of contribution to revenue or in reference to their unenthusiastic (dead) response to performances. Perhaps even from Latin caput mortuum, alchemy term for distillation residue. As Paul Quinion writes: Similarly, the term was applied to a dull or lazy person, one who contributes nothing to an enterprise, only in the early years of the twentieth century, well after the theatrical and transport senses had become well established.

Borrowed from Welsh crempog.

From Middle French déprédation, from Latin depraedatio.

From de- + compactify.

From Middle French déifique, from Latin deificus, from deus (“god”) + facio (“to make”).

Borrowed from Middle French dévolution, from Medieval Latin devolutio, devolutionis, from Latin devolvo.

From Latin defoedatio, from Late Latin defoedare (“to defile”), from de- with foedare, present tense verb of foedo, from foedus (“foul”).

From Darwin + -ism (suffix forming names of schools of thought, systems, or theories), from the surname of the English natural philosopher, physician, and poet Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802), and his grandson the biologist, geologist, and naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882). The word was apparently first applied in noun sense 1 (“Charles Darwin’s theory regarding the evolution of living organisms through natural selection”) by the English anthropologist and biologist Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) in 1860: see the quotation.

From delighted + -ness.

Borrowed from Ancient Greek δαιμόνιον (daimónion, “of a demon”).

From defalcate + -or.

From crypto- + -graphy.

From demi- + boy.

From Middle English develrye; equivalent to devil + -ry.

From cry + -ey.

From German Dasein (“there-to be”), from da (“there”) + sein (“to be”).

Onomatopoeic, from the sound made when a person runs while wearing daps.

From French décanal.

Learned borrowing from Latin dactylus, from Ancient Greek δάκτυλος (dáktulos, “finger”), from the three bones of the finger corresponding to three syllables. Doublet of dactylus, date, and (possibly) digit.

Compare French décorer. See decorate.

From derelict.

From cross + beam.