Etymology — The origins of English words

stimulation

Latin

From Latin stimulatio, built on the verb "stimulate".

birk

Old English

A Northern English and Scots form of "birch", from Old English/Old Norse roots for the birch tree.

wearer

Middle English

From Middle English werer, werere, equivalent to wear + -er.

howling

Origin

From howl + the suffix -ing.

predominantly

Origin

From predominant plus the adverb-forming suffix -ly.

Tiffany

Old French

From Old French Tifinie/Tiphanie, ultimately from Greek theophania ("appearance of god," the root of "Epiphany") — the fabric name and the girl's name Tiffany share this same origin, since children born around the feast of Epiphany were often given the name.

structured

Origin

From structure + the adjective-forming suffix -ed.

wading

Old English

From wade plus the suffix -ing; wade itself traces back through Old English to a very old Germanic root meaning "to go" or "to advance".

spanking

Origin

From spank (“to punish by swatting”) + -ing (participial suffix) and -ing (gerundial suffix).

glitz

German

A back-formation from the adjective glitzy, itself from a German word meaning "to glint" or "to sparkle."

Morrison

Origin

From the given name Maurice or Morris, plus -son.

loafer

German

Perhaps short for landloafer, possibly a partial translation of German Landläufer (compare dialectal German loofen (“to run”), and English landlouper); or more likely connected to Middle English love, loove, loffinge, looffinge (“a remnant, the rest, that which remains or lingers”), from Old English lāf (“remainder, residue, what is left”) (more at lave), which is akin to Scots lave (“the rest, remainder”), Old English lǣfan (“to let remain, leave behind”) (more at leave).

Milos

Greek

From Greek Μήλος (Mílos).

gogo

Origin

The "grandmother" sense comes from Zulu ugogo, meaning grandmother; the hair-band sense is a separate, unrelated use of the same spelling.

shish

Turkish

Borrowed as part of the phrase "shish kebab" from Turkish şiş, meaning "skewer."

weeny

Origin

Likely from a blend of "teeny weeny," or from wee plus the -y ending.

astound

Middle English

From Middle English astouned, the past participle of a verb related to "astonish" — the two words share the same root and once meant essentially the same thing.

barman

Origin

From "bar" plus "-man" — a man who works at a bar.

barmaid

Origin

Simply "bar" plus "maid" — a woman who works at a bar.

canasta

Spanish

From Spanish canasta, "basket"; the game originated in Uruguay.

canteen

French

Borrowed from French cantine, itself from Italian cantina, "cellar" or "wine store."

Chianti

Origin

Named after Chianti, the hilly wine-producing region of Tuscany; the place name itself likely traces back to an ancient Etruscan word.

fatten

Origin

From "fat" plus the verb-forming suffix "-en".

foothold

Origin

From foot + hold.