Etymology — The Origins of English Words

strangulate

Origin

From Latin strangulō.

burdensome

Origin

From burden + -some.

conurbation

Origin

From Latin con- (“together”) + urbs (“city”) + -ation. Coined by Scottish biologist, sociologist, and geographer Patrick Geddes in 1915.

worrywart

Origin

From worry + wart, apparently chosen for alliteration. Presumably related to earlier worryguts. Attested 1956, but earlier examples are found in newspapers of the 1930s and 1940s.

salientian

Origin

From Salientia + -an.

unbending

Origin

From un- + bending.

traduce

Origin

From Latin trādūcō (“carry over; lead as a spectacle, dishonor”), from trāns + dūcō (“to lead”). Doublet of transduce, from Latin trānsdūcō.

tattler

Origin

From tattle + -er.

uncultivated

Origin

From un- + cultivated.

tillage

Origin

From Middle English tillage; by surface analysis, till + -age.

piteous

Origin

From Middle English pitous, from Old French piteus, pitus.

erenow

Origin

Univerbation of ere + now.

colliery

Origin

From collier + -y.

sonsy

Origin

From Scots, from Scottish Gaelic sonasach.

truculent

Origin

First attested circa 1540, from Middle French, from Latin truculentus (“fierce, savage”), from trux (“fierce, wild”).

consequential

Origin

From consequent + -ial.

imperativeness

Origin

From imperative + -ness.

evenness

Origin

From Middle English evennesse, from Old English efennes, equivalent to even + -ness.

squiffy

Origin

Unknown; possibly coined in the 19th century.

avocation

Origin

From Latin āvocātiō (“a distraction”), from āvocō (“to call off, distract”).

toughie

Origin

From tough + -ie.

easement

Origin

From Anglo-Norman aisement, easement, eisement, esament, esement, and Middle French aisement (“comfort, convenience, ease, facility, opportunity; a benefit, relief; a right to use land, a thing, etc.; a privy”), from aisier (“to put at ease; to facilitate”) + -ment (“-ment, suffix forming nouns, usually the action or state resulting from verbs”).

burgle

Origin

Back-formation from burglar (1867).

strew

Origin

From Middle English strewen, strawen, streowen, from Old English strewian, strēawian, strēowian (“to strew, scatter”), from Proto-West Germanic *strauwjan, from Proto-Germanic *strawjaną (“to strew”), from Proto-Indo-European *strew- (“to spread, scatter”). Cognate with Scots strow, straw (“to strew”), West Frisian streauwe (“to strew”), Dutch strooien (“to strew, scatter, sprinkle”), German streuen (“to strew, scatter”), Swedish strö (“to strew”), Icelandic strá (“to strew”), Norwegian Nynorsk strå (“to strew”).