Etymology — The Origins of English Words

Inherited from late (1400–1450) Middle English beldame, beldam, from Middle English bel (“attractive, fine, good”) (from Old French bel (“beautiful”), from Latin bellus) + dame, dam (“a mother, lady”), itself ultimately from Latin domina (“a mistress, lady”).

From snip + -et. Compare snippock.

From Middle English laththe, laþþe, earlier lathe, laþe, altered from Old English lætt (“lath”), from Proto-West Germanic *lattu, from Proto-Germanic *laþô (compare Dutch lat, German Latte) from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lat- (compare Welsh llath (“rod, wand, yard”)).

From remit + -er (agent noun suffix), or in the legal sense + -er (action noun suffix).

From cultivate + -or, partly after French cultivateur.

From Old French danzel and Italian donzello, both ultimately from Medieval Latin domicellus (“young nobleman, squire”), a diminutive of Latin dominus (“master, lord”). Compare donzella.

From shin (noun) + -y.

From schmucky + -ness. First use appears c. 1961 as shmuckiness.

First attested in the beginning of the 17ᵗʰ century; borrowed from Latin castīgātus, perfect passive participle of castīgō (“to reprove”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from castus (“pure, chaste”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱes- (“to cut”). Doublet of chastise and chasten, taken through Old French. See also chaste.

From Middle English gridirne, gredirne, gredyron, gredeyron, grydern, grydyryne, girdirin, girderen, variants of Middle English gredire, gredyre, itself an alteration of Middle English gridel (“griddle”). The ending was assimilated to iron, as if from grid + iron, whence grid was later derived.

From toss + pot.

From Middle English unhalowyd; equivalent to un- + hallowed.

Borrowed from Latin summersio, summersionem.

Borrowed from French platitude, from plat (“flat”).

From candle + power.

Borrowed from Middle French piquant (“pricking, stimulating, irritating”), present participle of piquer, possibly from Old French pikier (“to prick, sting, nettle”). Doublet of picong. Related to pike.

Facetious play on overwhelm, with under.

Presumably a blend of roll + frolic; appeared 1811 as rollicking, 1826 as rollick.

From manipulate + -or.

From Middle English eldern, eldrin, elderne, equivalent to elder + -en.

From Middle English praten; either inherited from Old English prætt or borrowed via Middle Dutch or Middle Low German praten (from Old Saxon *pratt), all from Proto-West Germanic *prattu, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *prattuz (“idle or boastful talk, deceit”), from Proto-Indo-European *bred- (“to wander, rove”). Related to Dutch praten (“to talk, chat”), Low German praten, dated German pfrassen, Danish prate, Swedish prata (“to talk, prate”), Faroese práta (“to talk, gossip”), Icelandic prata;; also cognate with Polish bredzić (“to rave, jabber”), Latvian bradāt (“to talk nonsense”).

From Scots scrimp (“meager”), from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German schrimpen (“to shrivel up, wrinkle”), from Old Dutch *scrimpan, from Frankish *skrimpan, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *skrimpaną (“to shrink”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”), related to Old English sċrimman (“to shrink”) and sċrincan (“to shrivel up”). Doublet of shrink, shrimp, and shrim.

Borrowed from Latin scaber (“scabrous, rough; scabby, mangy, itchy”) (from scabō (“to scratch, scrape, abrade”), from Proto-Indo-European *skabʰ- (“to scratch”)) + English -ous; compare French scabreux, Late Latin scabrōsus.

Probably from Low German and Dutch snuffelen (“to snuffle”), equivalent to snuff + -le. Compare also Old English snofl (“snot, nasal mucus”), which might not have survived into Middle English.