Etymology — The Origins of English Words

From crook + back.

From Old French deformation, see deform. Morphologically deform + -ation.

From dense + -en.

Borrowed from Scottish Gaelic Cuimeinich, presumably from Anglo-Norman de Comyn, which was a surname of toponymic origin, either from Commin near Rouen or Comines near Lille.

From Latin decenarius (“containing 10 items; related to the number 10”), from decem (“ten”) + -ārius (“-ary”) Doublet of decener.

Compare cruddle, crudle.

From Mandarin 大樹 (Dàshù).

Learned borrowing from Latin crocus, from Ancient Greek κρόκος (krókos, “crocus”), from an ancient Semitic language.

From de- + charm. Compare French décharmer.

Late 15th century, from Medieval Latin dēfalcātiōnem, accusative singular of dēfalcātiō (literally “cutting off, lopping off with a sickle”), nominalization of dēfalcō, from Latin dē (“off”) + falx (“sickle, scythe, pruning hook”), from which also English falcate (“sickle-shaped”). By surface analysis, defalcate + -ion (“the act of”).

Blend of cuckold + quean (“disreputable woman”). The verb sense is derived from the noun sense.

Borrowed from Latin dēsūmō, dēsūmere, from dē- + sūmere (“to take”).

From dick + breath.

Learned borrowing from Latin dēlīrātio.

From crocodile + -ian; compare translingual Crocodilia.

Variant of Daly.

From French diatonique or Late Latin diatonicus, ultimately from Ancient Greek διατονικός (diatonikós), in the phrase [γένος (génos, “type, genus”)] διατονικός (diatonikós) (in reference to the diatonic tetrachord, and in contrast to the chromatic and enharmonic tetrachords), from διάτονος (diátonos) (διά (diá) + τόνος (tónos)), of disputed etymology, as both components are ambiguous. Most plausibly, διάτονος (diátonos) refers to “stretched intervals”, as the intervals of the diatonic tetrachord are the most evenly distributed or “stretched out”, compared to the chromatic and enharmonic tetrads, which use smaller, more crowded together intervals. Compare pyknon, from πυκνός (puknós, “dense, compressed”), referring to the lower part of the non-diatonic tetrachords: the diatonic tetrachord has widely spaced notes (“stretched out”), while the other tetrachords have a closely spaced notes (“compressed”).

From cyber- + self.

From dearth + -ful.

From Anglo-Norman demurrer, form of Old French demourer (“to demur”), infinitive used as noun.

From Latin decennium, from decennis (“10-year”) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns), from deciēs (“ten times”) + annus (“year”) + -is (suffix forming compound adjectives). Equivalent to decennial + -ium.

From de- + hex.

From Cummings + -esque.

From Middle English cutte-purs; equivalent to cut + purse: originally, purses were worn by a strap at the girdle, which the thief would cut.