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Etymology — The Origins of English Words

Where do words come from? Trace the origin and history of any English word, from its Latin, Greek or Old English roots through to its modern meaning. Every etymology is sourced.

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A variant of nithing, resulting from the letter eth (ð) in Early Middle English niðing in the writings of the English historian William of Malmesbury (c. 1095 – c. 1143) being mistaken for a d followed by a mark of suspension representing a letter that had been omitted as an abbreviation. This led to niðing being wrongly spelled as nidering in early printed versions of his works. The word was later popularized by the Scottish novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832).

From Middle English mysse layen, equivalent to mis- + lay.

From mnemo- + technic.

From lamb + skin.

From Middle English nernes, equivalent to near + -ness. Cognate with West Frisian nearens (“nearness”).

17th c., perhaps from Low German or Dutch pal (“catch (mechanism)”), or from either French pal (“stake”) or épaule (“shoulder”).

From Old French lineal, from Latin līneālis, from līnea (“a line”) + -ālis (adjective-forming suffix). By surface analysis, line + -al. Doublet of linear.

From homo- + -phile.

From Middle English entrediten, from Old French entredire (“forbid”), from Latin interdīcō (“prohibit, forbid”), from inter- (“between”) + dīcō (“say”), from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ-.

From inhabit + -able.

Probably from public house (“(Britain) bar or tavern, often also selling food and sometimes lodging, pub”) or public (“open to all members of a community”) + -an (suffix forming agent nouns), apparently originally used humorously.

From Middle English rectitude, from Middle French rectitude, from Late Latin rectitūdō (“straightness, uprightness”), from Latin rectus (“straight”), perfect passive participle of regō (“regulate, guide”).

From French oblat and its source, Ecclesiastical Latin oblātus (“person dedicated to religious life”), nominalization of oblātus, perfect passive participle of offerō (“to offer”); see -ate (noun-forming suffix).

From Late Latin melancholia, which was in turn borrowed from the Ancient Greek medical term μελαγχολία (melankholía, “blackness of the bile”) (from μέλας (mélas), μελαν- (melan-, “black, dark, murky”) + χολή (kholḗ, “bile”)), referring to the humour which ancient Hippocratic and later Galenic medicine associated with sadness and despondency. Doublet of melancholy.

From Latin illūdō.

From piquant + -cy.

From Ancient Greek ὀρθοέπεια (orthoépeia), possibly via Latin orthoepia, from Ancient Greek ὀρθός (orthós, “correct”) + ἔπος (épos, “word”) + -ία (-ía, “-y”).

From Italian politico or Spanish político.

From more + -fold. Compare manifold, West Frisian mearfâld (“plural”), Dutch meervoud (“plural”), German Low German mehrfolig (“multiple, plural, repeated”).

From pine + cone.

From half + hearted.

From Middle English pren, from Old English prēon, from Proto-Germanic *preunaz (compare Icelandic prjónn (“pin, knitting-needle”), Danish pryne (“needle, eel-spear”)), of uncertain origin, but perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *brewn- (“protrusion, tip, edge”) (compare Lithuanian briaunà (“edge”), Albanian brez (“belt, girdle”)). Cognate with German Pfriem. The verb is from Middle English prenen, from pren (“a preen”), akin to German pfriemen.

Uncertain. First use appears c. 1588. Appears in publications in the 1600s (e.g. in The Tincker of Turvey) in several forms including the still-current Irish English form naggin, the rare older Irish, Scottish and Northern English form noggan, used by Jonathan Swift, and the Wexford form nuggeen. Tomás S. Ó Máille and some older dictionaries like Skeat's derive it from Irish naigín, cnaigín, from cnagaire, cnag, but the Oxford English Dictionary argues that Irish naigín and Scottish Gaelic noigean instead derive from English. Compare nog.