Etymology — The Origins of English Words

Probably from Latin burgāria. By surface analysis, burg + -ery.

Uncertain. Perhaps a blend of blot + botch.

From bio- + -ome.

Old form of burden. Compare similar development in murder.

Learned borrowing from Latin brassica.

Borrowed from French canard (“duck, hoax”). etymology note The primary English meaning of canard comes from the Medieval French expression “vendre un canard à moitié”, which literally means “to sell half a duck” or “to half-sell a duck”. This was perhaps the punch line to a joke. Eventually the punch line came to stand for the joke and then finally the word alone stood for the whole concept. The story may perhaps have gone like this: A duck seller is successful and content as the only duck seller on a street, selling his ducks for eight francs each. A new duck seller moves in across the street who steals all the business by offering his ducks for seven francs each. Then a price war ensues, back and forth, until the new duck seller is down to three francs for a duck. The original duck seller is beside himself with worry and frustration, but finally he puts up a big sign that says, “Two francs” and then in small print at the bottom “for half a duck.” In this way, to half-sell ducks may have come to mean tricking people with something that is literally true but misleading. It has this same metaphorical meaning in French. Now in English, it simply means anything that is deliberately mi

Abbreviation of brane oscillation.

From Irish bacaidí, from bacach (“lame”).

From blunt + -en (verbal suffix).

From bond + holder.

Variant of Cantrell.

From box + wood; box from Latin buxus (“box-tree, object made of boxwood”), of uncertain origin; compare Ancient Greek πύξος (púxos).

From blow + ball.

From black + -wash or black + wash (depending on sense).

From cannula + -ate (suffix forming verbs).

First attested in 1581; borrowed from Latin breviātum, from the perfect passive participle of breviō (“shorten, abridge”), see -ate (noun-forming suffix).

From Middle English brewhous, brouhous, brewehous, equivalent to brew + house. Compare Dutch brouwhuis (“brewhouse”).

From care + taking.

From earlier blackmoor + -a-. By surface analysis, black + -a- + Moor.

Borrowed from French carbonnade. Doublet of carbonado.

From bridge + -work.

Old French broez, brouez, brouets plural of broet, brouet (French brouet ‘gruel’), from breu, from *brodittum, a diminutive of vulgar Latin *brodum, from Germanic *brod ‘sauce’ (English broth).

From Middle English cankered, y-cancred, past participle of Middle English cankren, equivalent to canker + -ed.

Inherited from Middle English *borstile, *borghstile, from Old English beorh (“a hill”) + stigel (“a stile”). The institutions are named after Borstal Prison in Borstal, Rochester, Kent, England.