Etymology — The Origins of English Words

From Middle English mickle, michel, mikel, mochel, muchel, mukel (“much; many; large, tall; great”), from Old English miċel, myċel (“big, large; great; much”), from Proto-Germanic *mikilaz (“great, large; many, much”), from Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂s (“big, great”). The word is cognate with Faroese mikil (“large, great, much”), Icelandic mikill (“large in quantity or number; much; great”), Middle High German michel (“large, much”). Doublet of much and muckle. For the adverb and noun forms, compare Middle English muchel (“extensively, greatly, much”, adverb) and Middle English muchel (“large amount”, noun). The noun sense “a small amount” was due to the proverb many a little makes a mickle being incorrectly rendered as many a mickle makes a muckle, leading to mickle being thought to mean “a small quantity” and muckle to mean “a large quantity”, even though muckle is a variant of mickle and both mean “a large quantity”.

Dated from the 14th century as Middle English contynence, from Old French continence, from Latin continentia (“a repression”). See also countenance.

From mainstream + -er.

From jeopardy + -ise.

From grunt + -le (early modern English frequentative suffix).

From Latin aspersiōnem, from aspersiō (“sprinkling”).

Back formation from Middle English gurguling (“a rumbling in the belly”). Akin to Middle Dutch gorgelen (“to gurgle”), Middle Low German gorgelen (“to gurgle”), German gurgeln (“to gargle”), and perhaps to Latin gurguliō (“throat”).

Borrowed from Late Latin situātus, past participle of Medieval Latin situō (“to locate, place”), from Latin situs (“a site”).

Inherited from Middle English wynsom, winsom, winsome, winsum, wunsum (“beautiful; agreeable, gracious, pleasant; generous; of situations: favourable, propitious”), from Old English wynsum (“joyful, merry, pleasant; winsome”), from Proto-West Germanic *wunnjusam (“joyful”). By surface analysis, winne (“delight, joy, pleasure”) + -some.

From a variant of neb, perhaps due to association with nibble.

Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin superintendō.

From Middle English riven (“to rive”), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse rífa (“to rend, tear apart”), from Proto-Germanic *rīfaną (“to tear, scratch”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reyp- (“to crumble, tear”). Cognate with Danish rive (“to tear”), Old Frisian rīva (“to tear”), Old English ārǣfan (“to let loose, unwrap”), Old Norse ript (“breach of contract, rift”), Norwegian Bokmål rive (“to tear”), Swedish riva (”to tear”) and Albanian rrip (“belt, rope”). More at rift.

From Middle French ramification, or its source, Medieval Latin rāmificātiō. By surface analysis, ramify + -ication.

From Late Middle English adjuren (“to bind (oneself or someone) by oath to do something; to entreat or implore (someone); to question (someone) under oath”), from Anglo-Norman adjurer, Middle French adjurer, and Old French ajurer (“to bind (oneself or someone) under oath; to entreat or implore (someone)”) (modern French adjurer), and from their etymon Latin adiūrāre, the present active infinitive of adiūrō (“to take an oath”) (whence Late Latin adiūrō (“to entreat or implore (someone); to conjure; to exorcize”)), from ad- (prefix meaning ‘to, towards’, or having an intensifying effect) + iūrō (“to confirm formally; to take an oath”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂yew- (“(adjective) straight; upright; (noun) justice, right; law”)). cognates * Italian adiurare * Old Occitan ajurar * Spanish ajurar (archaic), adjurar

From hay + seed.

From Latin sōlicitus, sollicitus (“thoroughly disturbed, anxious”), from sollus (“whole, entire”) + cieō (“move, disturb”). By surface analysis, solicit + -ous.

From Ancient Greek σφάκελος (sphákelos).

Borrowed from Middle French turpitude, from Latin turpitūdō (“baseness, infamy”), from turpis (“foul, base”).

From Middle English rejoinder, rejonder, rejoynder, from Middle French rejoindre, with infinitive used as noun frequent in Law French. Doublet of rejoin.

Gerund of lade (verb). Cognate with Dutch lading (“cargo, charge”), German Ladung (“cargo, charge”), Polish ładunek (“cargo, charge”), Swedish laddning (“charge”). Doublet of loading.

From Middle English becrien, equivalent to be- (“about, at, over, upon”) + cry.

Borrowed from Latin inculcātus, perfect passive participle of inculcō (“impress upon, force upon”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from in- (“in”) + calcō (“tread upon, trample”), from calx (“heel”). Participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.

From clank + -er, onomatopoeic. The sense meaning "robot" appears in science fiction at least as early as 1958. Its broader popular use increased on social media beginning around 2024, due to the AI boom. In this wave of usage, it was especially influenced by the word's appearance in the Star Wars franchise, particularly the 2005 video game Star Wars: Republic Commando. In Star Wars, the term was used towards B1-series battle droids, which were humanoid robots that were manufactured for the sole purpose of fighting in armed conflicts. Their nickname of "clanker" stems from the fact that they would frequently make clanking noises any time they moved around due to being cheaply mass-produced.

Uncertain; perhaps an extended use of Juggins, originally a plebian surname.