Etymology — The Origins of English Words

Variant of Britain; habitational surname from Anglo-Norman Bretaigne (“Brittany”), from Latin Britannia.

From Middle English bylawe, bilawe, partly from Old English bīlage (“bylaw”) and partly from a variant of Middle English byrelawe, birlawe, from Old Norse býjar (“town's; settlement's”) + lǫg (“laws; jurisdiction”). Byrlaw is attested earlier in English but is unattested in Old Norse and the cognates in Scandinavian languages follow the development of bylaw: Danish bylov (“municipal law”), Swedish bylag and byalag.

Adapted borrowing of Ancient Greek κακόφωνος (kakóphōnos) + -ous, from κακός (kakós, “bad”) + -φωνος (-phōnos, “sounding”). By surface analysis, caco- + -phonous.

From Middle English breydynge; equivalent to braid + -ing.

From Bridewell (named after a well dedicated to St Bride), an area of London that once had a "house of correction".

Borrowed from Russian большеви́зм (bolʹševízm, “Bolshevism”), from большинство (bolʹšinstvo, “majority, most”) (referring to the fact that the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party won on the majority of the important issues at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1903) + -и́зм (-ízm, “-ism”, suffix forming the names of systems, schools of thought or theories based on the names of their subjects or objects). большинство is derived from большо́й (bolʹšój, “great, large”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bel-) + -ство (-stvo, suffix forming a neuter noun, usually an abstract noun denoting a relation, social status, scientific discipline, quality or state) (from Proto-Slavic *-ьstvo (suffix forming nouns denoting a condition or state)).

From a variation of blurt.

From breed + bate.

From blood + soaked.

From cabinet + maker.

From blag + -er.

From Middle English carbuncle, charbocle, from Old French carbuncle, charbuncle, from Latin carbunculus (“a small coal; a reddish kind of precious stone; a kind of tumor”), diminutive of carbō (“a coal, charcoal”). Doublet of Garfinkel and Garfunkel.

From blirt + -y.

Inherited from Middle English Canut, from Anglo-Norman *Canut, Kenut (compare Medieval Latin Canūtus), from Old Norse Knútr, possibly originally a byname meaning "knot".

Blend of bovine + Vril.

From boiler + plate. First use appears c. 1793 in the periodical Star.

From Latin bibulus from bibō (“drink”) + -ulus from Proto-Italic *pibō, from Proto-Indo-European *píph₃eti, from root *peh₃- (“drink”); whence also imbibe and beverage via Old French beivre.

Borrowed from French bourgeoise.

Habitational surname from several minor places in England, from Old English blæc (“black”) + lēah (“woodland clearing”). Equivalent to black + -ley (“lea”).

From book + binding.

From Latin calyx, from Ancient Greek κάλυξ (kálux, “case of a bud, husk”). Doublet of chalice and kelch.

From breast + pin.

From bodg(er) + -ie.

Borrowed from Scots buirdly, alteration of earlier buirly (“burly”), of uncertain origin.