Etymology — The Origins of English Words

Borrowed from Middle French dormition, from Latin dormītiōnem.

From Latin cataplasma, from Ancient Greek κατάπλασμα (katáplasma).

From Middle English commoeven, from Old French commovoir.

From Latin fungōsus. Equivalent to fungus + -ous.

Inherited from Middle English birlen.

From Middle English estimable, estymable, from Old French estimable, from Latin aestimābilis. Equivalent to esteem + -able and estimate + -able.

From French dormitif, from the verb dormir (“to sleep”)

After Boniface, the innkeeper in George Farquhar's 1707 comedic play The Beaux' Stratagem.

From Middle English augmentation, augmentacion, augmentacioun, from Old French augmentacion, from Latin augmentātiō, verbal noun from augmentō (“increase”, verb).

From Latin chele, from Ancient Greek χηλή (khēlḗ).

From Middle English glasehows, glashous, glashows; equivalent to glass + house.

Clipping of catamountain (“leopard, panther; ocelot; man living in the mountains”), from Late Middle English catamountain, from Middle English catte of the mountayne, cate of þe mounttaynne (“leopard, panther”).

From a- + symmetric, as Ancient Greek ἀσυμμετρία (asummetría, “disproportion, deformity”).

From en- + trench. First attested in the 1550s.

From Medieval Latin castellātus (“fortified, castellate”) + -ed (forming past participles). Equivalent to the past participle of castellate but attested earlier than other uses of the verb.

From geometric + -al.

From global + -isation or globalise + -ation. Popularized by German-American economist and professor at Harvard Business School Theodore Levitt.

From oblique stem of Latin germen, germinis (“shoot, sprout, bud”) + -ation, from Latin germinātiō, germinātiōnem (“sprouting, budding, growing”), from germinātus (“sprouted, budded, grown”), past participle of germinō (“to sprout, bud, grow”), from germen, germinis (“shoot, sprout, bud”). By surface analysis, germinate + -ion.

From New Latin centripetālis coined by Sir Isaac Newton, from Latin centrum (“center”) + petō (“to seek, aim”) + -al. Analysable as centri- + -petal.

Derived from Latin clīvus (“slope, hill”).

From Latin empȳreus, from Ancient Greek ἐμπύριος (empúrios), from ἐν (en, “in”) + πῦρ (pûr, “fire”) (whence English pyre).

Related to Spanish boga (“a ray-finned fish; Leporinus obtusidens”), from Late Latin bōca, bōx; Box vulgaris is an older name for Boops boops. Compare the obsolete term boce for this fish.

From evolution + -al.

The verb is derived from Middle English burnishen, burnysshen (“to polish, burnish; (figuratively) to brighten, give lustre to; to clean (something) until shiny; to decorate (with something shiny), adorn”) [and other forms], from burniss-, a stem of Old French burnir (compare, for example, the first-person present singular indicative form burnis), a variant of brunir (“to make clean and shiny, polish; to make brown”) (modern French brunir), from Frankish *brūnijan (“to polish, make resplendent”), from Proto-Germanic *brūnijaną (“to decorate; tan”), from Proto-Germanic *brūnaz (“brown”, adjective), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“brown”, adjective). Unrelated to burn. The noun is derived from the verb.