Etymology — The Origins of English Words

phlebotomy

Greek

From Greek phleps, phlebos 'vein' and -tomia 'cutting'.

phishing

English

A respelling of 'fishing', on the model of earlier hacker slang such as 'phreaking'; the idea is of baiting a hook and waiting for someone to bite.

phenotype

Greek

From Greek phainein 'to show' and typos 'type, impression', so literally 'the shown type'.

PhD

Latin

An abbreviation of Latin philosophiae doctor, 'teacher of philosophy', where philosophy carries its old broad sense of learning in general.

PFT

English

An initialism of the underlying phrase.

pervade

Latin

From Latin pervadere, from per- 'through' and vadere 'to go'.

peristalsis

Greek

From Greek peristaltikos, from peristellein 'to wrap around', from peri- 'around' and stellein 'to place, send'.

Pentecostal

Greek

From Pentecost, via Latin from Greek pentēkostē (hēmera) 'fiftieth (day)', the festival falling fifty days after Passover or Easter.

PDR

English

An initialism with several unrelated expansions.

PD

English

An initialism, standing for different phrases depending on context.

pasteurized

French

Named after the French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur, who developed the heating process in the nineteenth century.

parer

Latin

From pare plus the agent suffix -er; pare comes via Old French parer from Latin parare 'to prepare, make ready'.

pareidolia

Greek

Formed from Greek para- 'beside, faulty' and eidōlon 'image, form'.

parallels

Greek

From Greek parallēlos, from para- 'beside' and allēlois 'one another', so literally 'beside each other'.

paradigm shift

Greek

Paradigm comes via Latin from Greek paradeigma, meaning pattern or example. The phrase is associated with the philosophy of science, where paradigm means the whole framework of assumptions a scientific community works within.

paleo

Greek

From Greek palaios, meaning ancient or old — the same root as in palaeolithic and palaeontology. British English spells the prefix palaeo-, American English paleo-.

oy vey

Yiddish

From Yiddish oy vey, literally 'oh, woe', where vey is related to German Weh, meaning pain or woe. The fuller form oy vey iz mir means 'oh, woe is me'.

overindulge

English

From over- plus indulge, which comes via Latin indulgere, meaning to be lenient or to give free rein to.

overarching

English

From over- plus arching, from arch: originally describing something that curves over the top of something else, later used figuratively of ideas that span everything below them.

over the top

English

From the First World War phrase 'to go over the top', meaning to climb out of a trench parapet to attack; the sense of reckless excess developed from it.

over the counter

English

From the literal image of goods handed across a shop counter, as opposed to being kept back and dispensed only on authority.

outsource

English

A compound of out- and source, on the model of sourcing goods or services from outside the organisation.

OTG

English

An initialism of on the go; in the hardware sense, of USB On-The-Go.

OTD

English

An initialism, of out the door or on this day depending on context.