Etymology — The Origins of English Words

challengeable

Origin

From Middle English chalengeable; equivalent to challenge + -able.

chancel

Origin

From Old French chancel. Doublet of cancellus.

chirl

Origin

Imitative; compare chirr.

cesarean

Origin

From Caesar + -ean, but see also Caesarean section § Etymology.

clubgoer

Origin

From club + goer.

chlorpromazine

Origin

Borrowed from French chloropromazine. By surface analysis, chlor- + promazine. First attested in the 1950s.

charlady

Origin

From char (“chore”) + lady.

chequers

Origin

From the surname of a family that owned the house, whereas the surname was derived from reference to the Exchequer; more in Wikipedia at Chequers § Origin of the name.

cloture

Origin

Borrowed from French clôture (“closure”). Doublet of closure and clausure.

chronologist

Origin

From French chronologiste. By surface analysis, chronology + -ist.

citerior

Origin

Borrowed from Latin citerior (“(particularly in province names) nearer”), comparative of citer (“on this side; near”) (from cis (“on or to this or the near side of; short of; before”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe (“here”)) + -ior (suffix forming comparatives). The English word is cognate with French citérieur, Italian citeriore, Portuguese and Spanish citerior.

castanet

Origin

From Spanish castañeta, diminutive form of castaña, from Latin castanea, from Ancient Greek καστάνεια (kastáneia, “chestnut”), possibly of Pre-Greek origin. Related to the chest in chestnut, formerly chesten.

cathay

Origin

From Latin Cathaya, variant of Cataya, from Old Turkic 𐰶𐰃𐱃𐰪 (Qïtań), and ultimately from Khitan 𘱿𘲫 (*qid ún); the Khitan people who conquered northern China as the Liao dynasty in the 10th century and ruled the central Asian Qara Khitai Khanate in the 12th, just prior to the overland European missions to China occasioned by the Pax Mongolica. Most likely cognate with Mongolian хутга (xutga, “knife”) from Proto-Mongolic *kïtuga. Doublet of Khitan. Cognate with Russian Кита́й (Kitáj, “China”). See Names of China.

chava

Origin

From Hebrew חַוָּה (khavá, “Eve”).

chatbot

Origin

From chat + -bot, from earlier chatterbot.

catechesis

Origin

Learned borrowing from Latin catēchēsis, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek κατήχησις (katḗkhēsis), from κατηχέω (katēkhéō, “sound through, instruct orally, catechise”).

carls

Origin

Shortening of Carly + -s (hypocoristic suffix).

cistron

Origin

Coined by American molecular biologist Seymour Benzer in 1957, from cis + trans + -on. Named in the context of using a "cis-trans comparison" for identifying " […] whether two mutants, having similar defects, are indeed defective in the same way."

cherubical

Origin

From cherub + -ical.

catchword

Origin

From catch + word.

churchman

Origin

From church + man. Compare kirkman and German Kirchmann.

cashpoint

Origin

A genericization of Cashpoint, originally a registered trademark of Lloyds Bank introduced in 1972, from cash + point.

carlsen

Origin

Borrowed from Danish and Norwegian Carlsen.

carnaptious

Origin

Borrowed from Scots carnaptious.