Etymology — The Origins of English Words

From Scottish Gaelic gall (“foreigner or stranger”), meaning: * (Ireland) a person from Wales or England who immigrated after the Norman invasion, or * (Scotland) a person from Scandinavia or the English-speaking lowlands.

From Middle French palpitation, from Latin palpitatio.

PIE word *né From Late Middle English imperturbable (“undisturbed; impossible to disturb”), borrowed from Late Latin imperturbābilis, from Latin im- (variant of in- (prefix meaning ‘not’)) + Late Latin perturbabilis (“perturbable”) (from Latin perturbō (“to confuse; to alarm, disturb, trouble, perturb”) + -bilis (suffix forming adjectives denoting a capacity or worth of being acted upon)). Perturbō is derived from per- (intensifying prefix) + turbō (“to agitate, disturb, unsettle, perturb; to upset”) (from turba (“disorder, disturbance, turmoil”) (possibly from Ancient Greek τῠ́ρβη (tŭ́rbē, “confusion, disorder, tumult”), either from Pre-Greek, or Proto-Indo-European *(s)twerH- (“to agitate, stir up; to urge on, propel”)) + -ō (suffix forming infinitives of regular first-conjugation verbs)). By surface analysis, im- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + perturbable.

From Middle French exigence, from Late Latin exigentia (“urgency”) (from exigēns + -ia), from exigere (“to demand”).

Uncertain; perhaps an alteration of queme. The English Dialect Dictionary has a citation of "quim and cosh" from 1723 which it glosses as "intimate and familiar". Compare also quaint, cunt. Derivation from Welsh cwm (“hollow”) is sometimes suggested, but the OED notes that this is "unlikely on both semantic and phonological grounds".

From Late Middle English penuri, penurie (“destitution, need, poverty; dearth, lack, scarcity”), borrowed from Latin pēnūria (“need, scarcity, want”) + Middle English -i, -ie (suffix forming abstract and collective nouns); further etymology uncertain, possibly related to paene (“almost, nearly; barely, hardly, scarcely”, adverb), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *peh₁- (“to hate; to hurt”).

From Middle English adel (“rotten”), from Old English adel, adela (“mire, pool, liquid excrement”), from Proto-West Germanic *adal, from Proto-Germanic *adalaz, *adalô (“cattle urine, liquid manure”). Akin to Scots adill, North Frisian ethel (“urine”), Saterland Frisian adel (“dung”), Middle Low German adele (“mud, liquid manure”) (Dutch aal (“liquid manure”)), Old Swedish adel (“urine”), Danish ajle (“liquid manure”), Bavarian Adel (“liquid manure”).

From Anglo-Norman cotidian, cotidien, Middle French cotidian, cotidien, and their source, Latin cottīdiānus, quōtīdiānus (“happening every day”), from adverb cottīdiē, quōtīdiē (“every day, daily”), from an unattested adjective derived from quot (“how many”) + locative form of diēs (“day”).

From Middle English thōle, from tholen, tholien, from Old English þolian, from Proto-West Germanic *þolēn, from Proto-Germanic *þulāną (“to suffer”), from Proto-Indo-European *telh₂- (“to bear, suffer; to support”), compare Norwegian Bokmål tåle.

Borrowed from Arabic شَيْطَان (šayṭān, “satan, devil”). Doublet of shetani and Satan.

Borrowed from Latin praevāricātiō (“collusion with an opponent; duplicity, deceit; violation of duty, transgression”, literally “stepping out of line”), from praevāricor (“to walk crookedly; go astray; transgress”) + -tās. The virtually obsolete sense of deviation or transgression may have been influenced by an earlier stage of borrowing via Middle English prevaricacioun, prevaricacion (“deviation from the law; transgression”) from Anglo-Norman prevaricaciun (“transgression, violation of correct conduct”).

Learned borrowing from Latin rotundus (“round”), from Latin rota (“wheel”), from Proto-Indo-European *Hreth₂- (“to run, to roll”). Doublet of round.

From stable + -ise.

See appraise.

From stumble + bum.

From Middle English inexpert, inexperte, from in- (“not”) + expert, experte, or else from Middle French inexpert or its etymon Latin inexpertus. By surface analysis, in- (“not”) + expert.

From predominant + -ance. By surface analysis, pre- + dominance.

1940s, originally service slang. Perhaps from obsolete sprag (“lively young man”), of unknown origin.

From Old French reverberation, from Medieval Latin reverberatio. Morphologically reverberate + -ion.

From Latin scandalizō, from Ancient Greek σκανδαλίζω (skandalízō). By surface analysis, scandal + -ize.

From French guillemet, diminutive form of the name Guillaume (“William”), named after French typecutter Guillaume Le Bé (1525–1598) who supposedly invented the marks.

From Middle English fallible, from Medieval Latin fallibilis (“liable to err, also deceitful”), from Latin fallere (“to deceive”).

From non- + standard.

From Latin refractārius (“obstinate”), from refrāctus, past participle of refringere (“to break up”). Originally refractary, refractarie, but reanalysed after other adjectives in -ory.