Etymology — The Origins of English Words

From trail + blazing.

From scrub + land.

From boot + lick.

From Middle English flytteren, frequentative form of flitten, flytten, flütten, possibly from Old Norse flytja (“to carry about, convey”), equivalent to flit + -er (frequentative suffix).

Borrowed from Latin eccentricitās. By surface analysis, eccentric + -ity.

From casual, from Middle French casuel, from Medieval Latin casualitas and Late Latin cāsuālis (“happening by chance”), from Latin cāsus (“event”) (English case), from cadere (“to fall”). Originally meaning “a chance event” (compare casual, as in “casual encounter”), it developed a negative meaning as “an unfortunate event”, especially the loss of a person.

* First attested in the 1610s. * From French accréditer, from à (“to”) + to credit, from crédit (“credit”). * See credit.

Learned borrowing from Latin vacuus (“empty, vacant”) + -ous.

Borrowed from Latin scintillātus, past participle of scintillāre (“to sparkle, glitter, gleam, flash”), from scintilla (“a spark”).

Uncertain. The adjective is first attested circa 1550 though the first element is already attested in dapple-grey as early as 1386, in Middle English, and later as dappled circa 1400; the OED suggests either: * a back-formation from dapple-grey, itself a variant of apple-grey, compare possible cognates all said of horses: Old Norse apalgrár (whence Norwegian abildgrå and Swedish apel-grå), German apfelgrau. Compare also French pommelé (“dappled”), from pomme (“an apple”); or, * a relation with Icelandic depill (“a dot, spot”). The noun and verb are both later attested likely as back-formations.

From Middle English forsweren, from Old English forswerian (“to swear falsely”). Cognate with Old Saxon farswerian, Old High German farsweren, German verschwören. More at for- + swear.

From Italian decetto, from dieci (“ten”).

Borrowed from French chicane.

Borrowed from Latin septentriōnālis, from septentriōnēs (“seven plow oxen”), a name for the constellations now known as Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, which appear in the northern sky.

Borrowed from Latin strātum (“a spread for a bed, coverlet, quilt, blanket; a pillow, bolster; a bed”), neuter singular of strātus, perfect passive participle of sternō (“spread”). Doublet of estrade and street.

From gad (“sharp point, spike; (dialectal) sharp-pointed rod for driving cattle, horses, etc., goad”) + fly, in the sense of a fly which irritates cattle, etc., by biting them, similar to the prodding of a goad. Gad is derived from Middle English gad, gadde (“metal spike with a sharp point; stick with a sharp point for driving animals, goad; metal bar or rod, ingot; (by extension) lump of material; metal rod for measuring land; (by extension) unit of linear measure equal to about 10 to 16 feet”), borrowed from Old Norse gaddr (“spike; goad”), from Proto-Germanic *gazdaz (“spike; goad”), further etymology uncertain. Displaced native Old English bēaw. Sense 2.1.1 (“person who upsets the status quo”) may allude to the Apology by the Greek philosopher Plato (428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 B.C.E.), where he describes Socrates (c. 470 – 399 B.C.E.) acting as a goad to the Athenian political scene like a gadfly (Ancient Greek μῠ́ωψ (mŭ́ōps)) arousing a sluggish horse.

From Latin propitiāt-, the past participial stem of propitiāre (“make favourable”), from propitius (“favourable, gracious”).

First attested in 1545, from Latin extantem, extāns, present participle of extō (“to stand out, exist, be extant”), from ex- (“out”) + stō (“stand”).

From Late Latin inculpo.

From side + track.

From tooth + -some.

From alteration of whirl (verb).

Borrowed from Latin sonōrus, from sonor (“sound”), early 17th century.

From Old French fraudulence, from Latin fraudulentia (“deceitfulness, disposition to defraud; fraudulence”), from fraudulentus (“deceitful, fraudulent”) + -ia (suffix forming abstract nouns). Fraudulentus is derived from fraus (“deceit, fraud”) (from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrew- (“to mislead”)) + -ulentus (“abounding in, full of”).