Etymology — The origins of English words

woodcutting

Origin

From wood + cutting.

yellowish

Origin

From Middle English ȝelowisch; equivalent to yellow + -ish.

yisrael

Origin

Variant of Israel.

wotsit

Origin

From wotsit, a variant of whatsit.

zipola

Origin

From zip + -ola.

zygote

Origin

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ζῠγωτός (zŭgōtós, “yoked”) + English -ote (suffix meaning ‘having [the thing to which it is attached]’). Ζῠγωτός (Zŭgōtós) is derived from ζῠγόω (zŭgóō, “to join or yoke together”) + -τός (-tós, suffix forming adjectives of possibility); and ζῠγόω (zŭgóō) from ζῠγόν (zŭgón, “yoke for joining animals; anything which joins two things together”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *yewg- (“to tie together, join, yoke”)) + -όω (-óō, suffix forming causative or factitive verbs). By surface analysis, zygo- + -ote.

zhongguo

Origin

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 中國 /中国 (Zhōngguó).

zohra

Origin

Borrowed from Arabic زُهْرَة (zuhra, “Venus”).

yestertime

Origin

From yester- + time.

yappy

Origin

From yap + -y.

wizened

Origin

From wizen + -ed. Inherited from Middle English wisenen, from Old English wisnian, weosnian, from Proto-Germanic *wisnōjaną. Cognate with Icelandic visna.

windthrow

Origin

From wind + throw.

wujiang

Origin

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin 吳江 /吴江 (Wújiāng, “Wu River”), after the once major Wusong River nearby.

wimmin

Origin

Eye dialect, also used as a feminist spelling of the word women in order to deliberately exclude the word men.

wommon

Origin

Respelling to avoid the presence of man in the word.

workbench

Origin

From work + bench.

wraithy

Origin

From wraith + -y.

wrest

Origin

From Middle English wresten, wrasten, wræsten, from Old English wrǣstan (“to twist forcibly, wrench”), from Proto-Germanic *wraistijaną, (compare Proto-Germanic *wrīhaną (“to turn, wind; to cover, envelop”), *wrīþaną (“to weave, twist”), Old Norse reista (“to bend, twist”)), from a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *wreiḱ-, *wreyḱ- (“to bend, twist”), *wreyt- (“to bend”). See also writhe, wry. The noun is derived from the verb.

yodelayheehoo

Origin

Imitative.

wilks

Origin

From Wilk, a back-formation from Wilkin + the patronymic suffix -s.

winningest

Origin

From winning + -est.

wiffleball

Origin

From (onomatopoeia) whiff (“to strike, to strikeout”) + ball. Not derived from whiffle, though both derive from same onomatopoeic sources, namely a sound of wind.

yestersol

Origin

From yester- + sol (“Martian day”), by analogy with yesterday.

yeomanry

Origin

From Middle English ȝemanry, yemandry, yema[n]ri, yemanrye, yomandrye, yomanry; equivalent to yeoman + -ry.