Etymology — The origins of English words

womanhater

Origin

From woman + hater.

zomg

Origin

A variant of OMG, presumably from excited users accidentally hitting the Z key while attempting to press shift, or from conscious imitation of such excitement. The term is said to have been coined (likely in the early 2000s) by a Something Awful user named “Rick_Feynman”, in an ICQ chat between him and fellow user “Hannibal” (see also his Usenet message quoted below), though it was already in use before that. Usage of the term on the boards of Something Awful and 4chan has greatly contributed to its popularization.

wonderworking

Origin

From wonder + working.

yassuh

Origin

From yes sir.

wone

Origin

From Middle English wone, variant of wane, from Old Norse ván (“hope, expectation”). The senses relating to dwelling-places apparently derive from the sense relating to expectation, i.e. the home as the place one is expected to be; cf. von (“place where one expects to find fish”).

womxn

Origin

From women + -x-. Respelled both to avoid containing men (compare English womyn), and to use x (compare English Latinx), intended to convey that the word has a broad scope.

wildland

Origin

From wild + land.

yourselves

Origin

Morphologically your + -selves.

wispy

Origin

From wisp + -y.

withsake

Origin

From Middle English withsaken, from Old English wiþsacan (“to forsake, abandon, renounce, refuse, deny, oppose, drive against”); equivalent to with- + sake. Compare Middle High German widersachen.

zubenelgenubi

Origin

From Arabic الزُّبَانَى الْجَنُوبِيّ (az-zubānā l-janūbiyy, “the Southern Claw”).

zodiacal

Origin

From Latin zōdiacus + -al. By surface analysis, zodiac + -al.

wilfully

Origin

From Old English wilfullīċe, corresponding to wilful + -ly.

wyvern

Origin

Alteration of Middle English wyver (“viper”), from Old Northern French wivre, from Vulgar Latin *vivra, *vibra, from Latin vīpera (“viper; snake, serpent”). Doublet of weever and viper. Related to viviparous.

yobo

Origin

Borrowed from Korean 여보 (yeobo, “darling, sweetheart”).

wifelet

Origin

From wife + -let (diminutive suffix). Sense 3 (“long-term girlfriend; mistress”) is said to have been coined in the 1960s by Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath (1932–2020) in reference to his numerous mistresses.

workwoman

Origin

From work + -woman.

zibeline

Origin

Borrowed from French zibeline (“sable”).

worseness

Origin

From worse + -ness.

winy

Origin

From Middle English wyny; equivalent to wine + -y.

wingnut

Origin

From wing + nut. The political sense is a shortening of "right-wing nut".

womon

Origin

From woman; respelled so as not to contain the word man.

willson

Origin

From Will (short form of the given name William) + -son. A less common variant of Wilson.

withersake

Origin

From Middle English withersake, from Old English wiþersaca (“adversary, enemy; betrayer; apostate”), from Proto-West Germanic *wiþrasakō, equivalent to wither- (“against”) + sake. Cognate with Middle High German widersache, Modern German Widersacher (“adversary, opponent, antagonist, foe”).