Etymology — The Origins of English Words

From sloth + -ful.

From felony + -ize.

From Middle French accoster, acoster, from Old French acoster (“to stand beside”) (whence Medieval Latin accostare), from Old French a- + coste (“side, flank”).

From Old French ars bouterez (noun, literally “supporting arcs”), from bouterez (adjective), oblique plural of bouteret (rare in the singular), from Frankish *bôtan, from Proto-Germanic *bautaną (“to push”). Ultimately cognate with beat.

From Middle English forethouht, forethoght, from Old English *foreþōht (“forethought”); equivalent to fore- + thought. See also forethink.

From Middle English liquefien, from Anglo-Norman liquefier, from Latin liquefacere.

From Middle English sculke, skulke, skulken, of North Germanic origin; compare Danish skulke (“shirk”), Swedish skolka (“play truant”).

From Middle English welteren, equivalent to welt + -er (frequentative suffix). Cognates include German Low German weltern (“to wallow; roll”), Old Norse velta (Danish vælte), German wälzen, Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌻𐍄𐌾𐌰𐌽 (waltjan). Akin to wallow and Latin volvō.

From Latin reprehendō (“I hold back, check, blame”), from re- (“back”) + prehendō (“I hold, seize”). Compare French reprendre (“to reprove”).

Borrowed from Latin portendere (“to foretell”), from por- (“forward”) + tendere (“to stretch”).

From French cantonnement.

Partly: * from Late Middle English lumprissh, lumpryssh (“of a somewhat lumpy consistency”), from lumpe (“mass of material; excrescence, swelling; mass of people, crowd; useless person”) or lumpred (“piled up or twisted into lumps”) (both possibly related to Proto-Germanic *limpaną (“to glide; to go; to hang limply”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lembʰ- (“to hang limply”)) + -ish (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘of the nature of; similar to; somewhat’); and * from lump (noun, verb) + -ish. Compare English lumber.

From addle + head.

From Middle French plicacion, and its source, Latin plicatio.

From Middle English afflicten (attested in past participle afflicte), from Latin afflīctō (“to damage, harass, torment”), from ad- + flīctus, past participle of afflīgō (“strike, beat”), from ad- + flīgō (“strike”) (whence af-).

The verb is either: * a back-formation from drowsy, which is attested earlier; or * possibly from Middle English *drousen (no known attestations), from Old English drūsan, drūsian (“to droop, sink; to become feeble, inactive, low, or slow, drowse”), from Proto-Germanic *drūsijaną (“to look down; mourn”) (possibly merged with *dreusaną (“to fall”)), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewHs- (“to break off; to fall down”). The noun is derived from the verb. cognates * Danish drøse (“to be negligent; to slow down”) * Dutch drozen (“to doze; muse”) * German trauern (“to mourn, be sad”) * Gothic 𐌳𐍂𐌹𐌿𐍃𐌰𐌽 (driusan, “to fall; to fall down”) * Norwegian døse (“to drowse”) * Old English drēosan (“to fall; to perish; to rush”) (whence Middle English dresen (“to fall down”)) * Swedish drösa (“to be slow”)

From Latin dis- (“apart”) + vergere (“to turn”) + the adjectival suffix -ent.

From an aphetic form of Middle English acloyen, from Old French enclouer, encloer, from Vulgar Latin *inclāvāre, from Late Latin clāvāre, from Latin clāvus.

From Late Middle English abaishen, abashen, abaisse, abassen, abesse, abessen (“to be upset; to embarrass; to surprise; to confound; to bend down, stoop; to abase, degrade, disgrace”), from Middle French abaisser, from Old French abaissier, abessier (“to prostrate oneself; to lower, reduce”) (also compare Old French esbahir (“to amaze”), Vulgar Latin abbassiāre (“to lower”)), from a- (prefix indicating movement towards something) (from Latin ad (“toward, to”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd (“at, to”)) + baissier (“to lower”) (from Medieval Latin bassus (“short of stature, low; base”), possibly from Ancient Greek βᾰ́σῐς (bắsĭs, “foot; base, foundation”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷem- (“to step”)). The spelling of the English word has been influenced by base, thus ostensibly analyzable as a- (“towards”) + base. There exist verb cognates in Gallo-Romance languages such as Catalan abaixar (“lower; abase”) and Occitan abaissar, and similar word construction in other romance languages as Spanish abajo (“down, downstairs; below”).

From Late Latin ūnivocus + -al. By surface analysis, uni- + vocal.

From regulate + -or.

From ranty and pole, poll (“head”).

Deverbal from tear down.

Pig Latin version of nix; possibly the only Pig Latin word to enter common American English besides amscray and igpay. Ixnay and amscray were used widely in The Three Stooges shorts and The Flintstones episodes, possibly the main sources of popularity for the words.