Etymology — The Origins of English Words

Learned borrowing from Latin crepusculum. Doublet of crepuscle and crepuscule.

From Middle English fysshewyfe; equivalent to fish + wife (“(obsolete) woman”) (see also midwife).

From bate + -less.

From Middle English atteinte, from Old French ateint, past participle of ateindre; in some senses influenced by taint.

From Middle English electour (“one with a right to vote in electing some office, elector”), borrowed from Late Latin ēlēctor (“chooser, selector; voter, elector”), from Latin ēligere (“to elect”) + -tor (suffix forming masculine agent nouns), equivalent to elect + -or. Ēligere is the present active infinitive of ēligō (“to extract, pluck or root out; (figurative) to choose, elect, pick out”), from ē- (variant of ex- (prefix meaning ‘away; out’)) + legō (“to appoint, choose, select”) (from Proto-Italic *legō (“to gather, collect”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to collect, gather”)).

From chuckle + -head, from chuckle (“clumsy”).

Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin discalceātus (“barefoot”) + -ed, rendering French déchaussé. By surface analysis, dis- + calced.

From Italian al fresco. Compare Spanish al fresco.

From uproar + -ious (a variant of -ous (“suffix forming adjectives from nouns, to denote possession or presence of a quality in any degree, commonly in abundance”)).

Coined by Milton, originally meaning "unfading", as amaranth + -ine, from Ancient Greek ἀμάραντος (amárantos, “unfading”). Later used for color. First attested in the 1660s.

First attested in 1521. Borrowed from French abstention, from Late Latin abstēntiō from Latin abstinēō (“withhold, to abstain”)

From Middle French antériorité, from Late Latin anteriōritās, corresponding to anterior + -ity.

Imitative. Compare wang.

A variant of errant, from Middle English erraunt [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman erraunt, from Old French errant, the present participle of errer (“to walk (to); to wander (to); (figuratively) to travel, voyage”), and then: * from Vulgar Latin iterō (compare Late Latin itinerō, itineror (“to travel, voyage”)), from Latin iter (“a route (including a journey, trip; a course; a path; a road)”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ey- (“to go”); and * from Latin errāns (“straying, errant; wandering”), the present active participle of errō (“to rove, wander; to get lost, go astray; to err, wander from the truth”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ers- (“to flow”). The original sense was sense 3 (“roving around, wandering”). Due to the word being used to describe disreputable persons who wandered about (for example, arrant knave and arrant thief), it came to be used as an intensifier (sense 1: “complete; downright; utter”) and to have a negative meaning (sense 2: “very bad; despicable”).

From Middle English wagelen (attested in wagelyng), possibly a borrowing of Middle Low German wagelen; equivalent to wag + -le (“(frequentative)”). Compare continental equivalents Middle High German wacken ( > Danish vakle, German wackeln), Swedish vagla, West Frisian waggelje, Low German wackeln, Dutch waggelen.

Back-formation from abeyance + -ant.

Variant spelling of Amir.

From Middle English vaunten, from Anglo-Norman vaunter, variant of Old French vanter, from Latin vānus (“vain, boastful”).

From yester- + tide (“time, season, period”).

From un- + resisting.

PIE word *dwís From ante- (prefix meaning ‘prior to in time’) + Latin dīluvium (“a flood”) + -an (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives; and forming agent nouns), referring the story of Noah’s Ark, through which God rescues Noah, his family, and examples of all the world’s animals from the great flood, which is related in Genesis 6–9 of the Bible. Dīluvium is derived from dīluō (“to wash away”) (from dis- (prefix meaning ‘apart, asunder, in two’) + lavō (“to wash”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewh₃- (“to wash”))) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns). The English word is analyzable as ante- + diluvian. Adjective sense 2 (“long extinct”) is from the fact that such animals and plants were originally believed to have perished in the biblical flood referred to above.

From French embuscade, from Italian imboscata from the past participle of imboscare (“to ambush”), from Vulgar Latin *imbosco (“I hide, ambush”) (see there for more), from Frankish *busk (“bush”), from Proto-Germanic *buskaz (“bush, heavy stick”). Compare ambush. More at bush.

First attested in mid 15th century. From Middle English acrewen, borrowed from Old French acreüe, past participle of accreistre (“to increase”), from Latin accrēsco (“increase”), from ad (“in addition”) + crēscō (“to grow”). Compare accrete.

From aero- + -naut, from the French aéronaute; compare the Italian aeronauta.