Fabian

en-adj

Fabian (comparative more Fabian, superlative most Fabian)

more Fabian (comparative)
most Fabian (superlative)

From Latin Fabiānus (“belonging to Fabius”), derived from Fabius + -ānus.

(by extension) cautious; dilatory; avoiding a decisive contest.


substantive

substantive (comparative more substantive, superlative most substantive)

more substantive (comparative)
most substantive (superlative)

From Middle English substantif, from Old French substantif.

съществен

of the essence or essential element of a thing

Substantive editing is never trivial, whereas some aspects of copyediting are trivial.

substantive changes made by the lawyers

Of the essence or essential element of a thing.

(by extension) Constituting the substance of content rather than its style, and thus always nontrivial.


aberration

en-noun

aberration (countable and uncountable, plural aberrations)

/ˌæb.əˈɹeɪ.ʃn̩/

A learned borrowing from Latin aberrātiō (“relief, diversion”), first attested in 1594, from aberrō (“wander away, go astray”), from ab (“away”) + errō (“wander”). Compare French aberration. Equivalent to aberrate + -ion.

абера́ция

astronomy: small periodical change of position of heavenly bodies

(astronomy) A small periodical change of the apparent positions of the stars and other heavenly bodies, due to the combined effect of the motion of light and the motion of the observer.

(astronomy, by extension) The tendency of light rays to preferentially strike the leading face of a moving object (the effect underlying the above phenomenon).


abject

en-adj

abject (comparative abjecter or more abject, superlative abjectest or most abject)

abjecter (comparative)
more abject (comparative)
abjectest (superlative)
most abject (superlative)

/ˈæbˌd͡ʒɛkt/

PIE word
 *h₂epó
The adjective is derived from Late Middle English abiect, abject (“expelled, outcast, rejected, wretched”, adjective) [and other forms], from Middle French abject (“worthy of utmost contempt or disgust, despicable, vile; of a person: brought low, cast down; of low social position”) (modern French abject, abjet (obsolete)), and from its etymon Latin abiectus (“abandoned; cast or thrown aside; dejected, downcast; ordinary, undistinguished, unimportant; (by extension) base, sordid; despicable, vile; humble, low; subservient”), an adjective use of the perfect passive participle of abiciō (“to discard, throw away or down; to cast or push away or aside; to abandon, give up; to belittle, degrade, humble; to lower, reduce; to overthrow, vanquish; to undervalue; to waste”), from ab- (prefix meaning ‘away; away from; from’) + iaciō (“to cast, hurl, throw, throw away”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(H)yeh₁- (“to throw”)).
The noun is derived from the adjective.
cognates
* Italian abiecto (obsolete), abietto
* Late Latin abiectus (“humble or poor person”, noun)
* Spanish abjecto (obsolete), abyecto

cog

abject failure   abject nonsense   abject terror

(chiefly with a negative connotation) Complete; downright; utter.

(rare) Lower than nearby areas; low-lying.


oxymoron

/ɒksɪˈmɔːɹɒn/

/ɑksɪˈmɔɹɑn/

First attested in the 17th century, noun use of 5th century Latin oxymōrum (adj), neut. nom. form of oxymōrus (adj), from Ancient Greek ὀξύμωρος (oxúmōros), compound of ὀξύς (oxús, “sharp, keen, pointed”) (English oxy-, as in oxygen) + μωρός (mōrós, “dull, stupid, foolish”) (English moron (“stupid person”)). Literally "sharp-dull", "keen-stupid", or "pointed-foolish" – itself an oxymoron, hence autological; compare sophomore (literally “wise fool”), influenced by similar analysis. The compound form ὀξύμωρον (oxúmōron) is not found in the extant Ancient Greek sources.

contradiction in terms
contradiction in terms

(loosely, sometimes proscribed) A contradiction in terms.


synonym

From Middle English sinonyme, from Latin synōnymum, from Ancient Greek συνώνυμον (sunṓnumon), neuter singular form of συνώνυμος (sunṓnumos, “synonymous”), from σύν (sún, “with”) + ὄνομα (ónoma, “name”). By surface analysis, syn- + -onym.

“Happy” is a synonym of “glad”.

The proportion of English words that have an exact synonym is small.

1991, William T. Parry, Edward A. Hacker, Aristotelian Logic

(semantics, loosely) A word or phrase with a meaning that is the same as, or very similar to, another word or phrase.


google

en-verb

google (third-person singular simple present googles, present participle googling, simple past and past participle googled)

googles (present singular third-person)
googling (participle present)
googled (participle past)
googled (past)

From Google (“search engine operated by Google LLC”).

I googled him but there were no references to him on the Internet.

(by extension) To search for (something) on the Internet using any comprehensive search engine.

hakea

to search for (something) on the Internet using any comprehensive search engine


dialect

From Middle French dialecte, from Latin dialectos, dialectus, from Ancient Greek διάλεκτος (diálektos, “conversation, the language of a country or a place or a nation, the local idiom which derives from a dominant language”), from διαλέγομαι (dialégomai, “I participate in a dialogue”), from διά (diá, “inter, through”) + λέγω (légō, “I speak”).

der

And in addition, many dialects of English make no morphological distinction between Adjectives and Adverbs, and thus use Adjectives in contexts where the standard language requires -ly Adverbs

1988, Andrew Radford, Transformational Grammar: A First Course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 139

(linguistics, broad sense) A variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular area, community, or social group, differing from other varieties of the same language in relatively minor ways as regards grammar, phonology, and lexicon.


safety valve

purkautumiskeino

mechanism offering relief from physical or emotional pressure or tension

(by extension) A valve set to close a container holding a gas or vapour to prevent excessive loss of pressure.


embellish

en-verb

embellish (third-person singular simple present embellishes, present participle embellishing, simple past and past participle embellished)

embellishes (present singular third-person)
embellishing (participle present)
embellished (participle past)
embellished (past)

From Middle English embelishen, from Old French embellir, from em- + bel.

Podolski gave Walcott a chance to further embellish Arsenal's first-half performance when he eluded James Perch and slipped the ball through to the striker.

2012 December 29, Paul Doyle, “Arsenal's Theo Walcott hits hat-trick in thrilling victory over Newcastle”, in The Guardian, London

(by extension) To enhance by adding something not strictly integral or necessary.


noun

From Middle English noun, from Anglo-Norman noun, non, nom, from Latin nōmen (“name; noun”). The grammatical sense in Latin was a semantic loan from Koine Greek ὄνομα (ónoma). Doublet of name and nomen.

Q. What is a Noun? A. The Name of a Thing. Q. How many Sorts of Nouns are there? [...] A. A Noun Substantive, and a Noun Adjective.

1753, Thomas Martin, An Explanation of the Accidence and Grammar To the End of the Syntax in which The Grounds of each Rule in the Syntax are laid down in the plainest Manner. Compiled By way of Question and Answer, For the Use of Schools., London, page 1

A Noun is a word which serves to name and distinguish some thing; [...]. There are two sorts of nouns; one is called a noun substantive, and the other a noun adjective.

1786, Signor Veneroni, The Complete Italian Master; Containing The best and easiest Rules for attaining that Language, London, page 6

The first part of a compound word is either a noun (substantive, adjective, or numeral), an adverb, or a preposition, and in a very few cases a verb.

1852, Leonhard Schmitz, Elementary Latin grammar, Edinburgh, page 123

Finally, there are many who limit the parts of speech to the noun, the verb, and the particle; referring to the first, the substantive, the adjective, and the pronoun (including the article), to the second the participle, to the third the remainder.

1856, R. G. Latham, Logic in its application to language, London, page 224

Greek has the following parts of speech: substantives, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and particles. In this Grammar noun is used to include both the substantive and the adjective.

1956, Herbert Weir Smyth, Gordon M. Messing, “189. Parts of Speech”, in Greek Grammar, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, page 44

The Parts of Speech are the Noun (Substantive and Adjective), the Pronoun, the Verb, and the Particles (Adverb, Preposition, and Conjunction)[.]

1894, B. L. Gildersleeve, G. Lodge, Gildersleeve's Latin Grammar, Dover, published 2008, page 9

The parts of which the sentence may consist are either inflected words: the noun (substantive and adjective) and the verb, the participle which shares the nature of both, and the pronoun; or uninflected words: prepositions, adverbs, and conjunctions.

1993, Arthur Anthony Macdonell, A Vedic Grammar For Students, 1st Indian edition, Delhi, page 283

(grammar, now rare, loosely) Either a word that can be used to refer to a person, animal, place, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality or idea, or a word that modifies or describes a previous word or its referent; a substantive or adjective, sometimes also including other parts of speech such as numeral or pronoun.


Yugoslavia

Borrowed from Serbo-Croatian Jugoslavija, in turn from jug (“south”) and slavija (“Slavia, the land of the Slavs”). Literally, the land of the South Slavs.

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

Serbia and Montenegro
Serbia and Montenegro

(historical) The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, a rump state formed by Serbia and Montenegro after 1992.

(historical, nonstandard, by extension) Serbia and Montenegro, after 2003 until 2006, when it disintegrated.


lens

en-noun

lens (plural lenses or (obsolete) lens or (rare) lentes)

lenses (plural)
lens (obsolete plural)
lentes (plural rare)

→ Bengali: লেন্স (lenś)

→ Turkish: lens

Borrowed from Latin lēns (“lentil”), with Medieval Latin later taking on the sense of “lens”, a semantic loan from Arabic عَدْسَة (ʕadsa, “lentil; optic lens”).

semantic loan

If "the public looks at the condition of America's children largely through a negative lens," worries Child Trends[…], "it may be more difficult to […] promote child well-being."

2004 April 11, Ann Hulbert, “Are the Kids All Right?”, in The New York Times Magazine, page 11

No film should be revised based on the lenses we now are, either voluntarily, or being forced to peer through.

2023 April 26, Benjamin Lee, quoting Steven Spielberg, “Steven Spielberg: ‘No film should be revised’ based on modern sensitivity”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

(by extension, figuratively) A way of looking, literally or figuratively, at something.


medicine

en-noun

medicine (countable and uncountable, plural medicines)

From Middle English medicin, from Middle French medicine, from Old French medecine, from Latin medicīna (“the healing art, medicine, a physician's shop, a remedy, medicine”), feminine of medicīnus (“of or belonging to physic or surgery, or to a physician or surgeon”), from medicus (“a physician, surgeon”).
The extended sense of "Indigenous magic" is a calque of Ojibwe mashkiki (“medicine”) or mide (or cognates in related languages) when used in compounds such as Grand Medicine Society, medicine lodge, medicine dance, medicine bag, medicine wheel, medicine man, Medicine Line, and bad medicine or place names such as Medicine Hat, Medicine Creek, etc.

academic medicine

which entails clinical medicine, medical education, biomedical basic science, and biomedical applied science

laboratory medicine

which entails many lab tests, such as most serology and most NAATs (e.g., most PCRs)

a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down

a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down

A legislative remedy might be some harsh medicine; is that cure worse than the ill?

Surely every medicine is an innovation; and he that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils […]

(broadly, countable) Any treatment or cure.

izārstēšana

treatment with a supposed successful outcome


acacia

en-noun

acacia (countable and uncountable, plural acacias or acaciae)

From Latin acacia, from Ancient Greek ἀκακία (akakía, “shittah tree”), either from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”) (compare ἀκή (akḗ, “point”)) or more likely a Pre-Greek word. First attested before 1398. Doublet of cassie.

der

(loosely) Any of several related trees, such as a locust tree.


tao

Daoism–Taoism romanization issue
Encyclopædia Britannica
Tao
circuit (administrative division)

From the Wade–Giles romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 道 (tao⁴).

the tao of sex... the tao of the heart... the tao of integuments...

(by extension) The art or skill of doing something in harmony with the essential nature of the thing.


deal

→ French: deal

→ German: Deal

→ Lithuanian: dylas

From Middle English delen, from Old English dǣlan (“to divide, part”), from Proto-West Germanic *dailijan, from Proto-Germanic *dailijaną (“to divide, part, deal”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰail- (“part, watershed”).
Cognates
Cognate with West Frisian diele (“to divide, separate”), Dutch delen, German teilen, Swedish dela; and with Lithuanian dalinti (“divide”), Russian дели́ть (delítʹ).

cog

(archaic in general sense) An act of dealing or sharing out.


quarter

en-noun

quarter (countable and uncountable, plural quarters)

From Middle English quarter, from Anglo-Norman quarter, from Latin quartarius, from quartus. Compare Spanish cuarto (“room, quarters; quarter”). Doublet of quartier.

cog

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-quarter.wav

çerek

one of four equal parts — see also one-fourth

I ate a quarter of the pizza.

For companies such as Trans Pennine Express, it will be even harder. It has the unwelcome claim to being Britain's worst train operator, with recent statistics from the Office of Rail and Road showing it cancelled nearly a quarter of its services in February, with lack of available train crew a real problem.

2023 April 5, Philip Haigh, “Comment: Pay deal a positive result”, in RAIL, number 980, page 3

(in general sense) Each of four equal parts into which something can be divided; a fourth part.


season

en-verb

season (third-person singular simple present seasons, present participle seasoning, simple past and past participle seasoned)

seasons (present singular third-person)
seasoning (participle present)
seasoned (participle past)
seasoned (past)

From Middle English sesoun, seson (“time of the year”), from Old French seson, saison (“time of sowing, seeding”), from Latin satiō (“act of sowing, planting”) from satum, past participle of serō (“to sow, plant”) from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- (“to sow, plant”). Akin to Old English sāwan (“to sow”), sǣd (“seed”). Displaced native Middle English sele (“season”) (from Old English sǣl (“season, time, occasion”)), Middle English tide (“season, time of year”) (from Old English tīd (“time, period, yeartide, season”)).

cog

The timber needs to be seasoned.

(transitive, by extension) To prepare by drying or hardening, or removal of natural juices.


stock

en-noun

stock (countable and uncountable, plural stocks or (obsolete) stocken)

stocks (plural)
stocken (obsolete plural)

→ Dutch: stock

desctree

→ French: stock
→ Romanian: stoc
→ Turkish: stok

→ Italian: stock

→ Portuguese: estoque

→ Spanish: stock

From Middle English stok, from Old English stocc, from Proto-West Germanic *stokk, from Proto-Germanic *stukkaz (“tree-trunk”), with modern senses mostly referring either to the trunk from which the tree grows (figuratively, its origin and/or support/foundation), or to a piece of wood, stick, or rod. The senses of "supply" and "raw material" arose from a probable conflation with steck (“an item of goods, merchandise”) or the use of split tally sticks consisting of foil or counterfoil and stock to capture paid taxes, debts or exchanges. Doublet of chock.

stark (non-rhotic, father-bother merger)

His hatred is not based upon whom these people are (like many rightwing Republicans, Gallo comes from immigrant stock), but how easily these people have come by success in America.

2003 November 14, Jacques Peretti, “You are a bad man trying to do bad things to Vincent”, in The Guardian

We may also conclude that as it was the Ionic γένη of the Attic tetrapolis who in the main achieved the Ionization of Athens, so it was a branch of this same stock that settled at Delos […]

2010, Lewis Richard Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, page 108

The trunk and woody main stems of a tree. The base from which something grows or branches.

(by extension) Lineage, family, ancestry.

(linguistics) A larger grouping of language families: a superfamily or macrofamily.

(by extension, obsolete) A person who is as dull and lifeless as a stock or post; one who has little sense.


book

Sranan Tongo: buku

Tok Pisin: buk
→ Rotokas: vuku

→ Chichewa: buku

→ Hawaiian: puke

→ Malagasy: boky

→ Maori: pukapuka (with reduplication)

→ Marshallese: bok

→ Motu: buka

→ Malagasy: boky

→ Shona: bhuku

→ Somali: buugga

i

possibly also from Afrikaans <i class="Latn mention" lang="af">boek</i>

→ Sotho: buka (possibly also from Afrikaans boek)

→ Zulu: ibhuku (possibly also from Afrikaans boek)

From Middle English bok, book, from Old English bōc, from Proto-West Germanic *bōk, from Proto-Germanic *bōks. Eclipsed non-native Middle English livret, lyveret (“book, booklet”) from Old French livret (“book, booklet”). Bookmaker sense by clipping.

buck (without the foot-strut split, most accents)

have more chins than a Chinese phone book

why buy a book when you can join a library

why buy a book when you can join the library

Celtic captain Scott Brown joined team-mate Majstorovic in the book and Rangers' John Fleck was also shown a yellow card as an ill-tempered half drew to a close.

2011 March 2, Andy Campbell, “Celtic 1 - 0 Rangers”, in BBC

(sports, by extension) A list of all players who have been booked (received a warning) in a game.


autumn

en-noun

autumn (countable and uncountable, plural autumns)

Autumn Harvest Uprising
Autumnfest
German Autumn
Hot Autumn
Lacus Autumni
autumn

Inherited from Middle English autumpne, from Middle French automne, from Old French automne, autonne, from Latin autumnus.
Some verb senses are from Latin autumnāre.

She has beauty still, and if it be not in its heyday, it is not yet in its autumn.

It has been portrayed as the well-intended yet wrongly directed reaction to latter-day scholasticism, or as the harvest of medieval theology in its autumn years, as a revolution that is theological, political, economic, cultural—or all of the above.

2014, Robert Kolb, Irene Dingel, Lubomír Batka, The Oxford Handbook of Martin Luther's Theology

Unlike the decline of British hegemony, in the current world-system no military or economic contender has emerged to replace US hegemony. Even though the US SCA has entered its autumn with the Vietname War and the economic crisis of the mid-1970s, there has been no legitimate hegemonic contender capable of instituting a new global regime to resolve both social and economic contradictions of global capitalism.

2014, Berch Berberoglu, The Global Capitalist Crisis and Its Aftermath

The autumn of life is also a matter of saying farewell, but the strange thing is that I do not feel it is autumn.

(by extension) The time period when someone or something is past its prime.


epidemic

/ˌɛpɪˈdɛmɪk/

From French épidémique, from épidémie, from Medieval Latin epidēmia, reanalysis of plural Late Latin epidēmia, from Ancient Greek ἐπιδήμιος (epidḗmios), from ἐπί (epí, “upon”) + δῆμος (dêmos, “people”). By surface analysis, epi- (“on”) + demic (“of the people”).

surf

Even before the pandemic, the United States surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, said the country was experiencing an “epidemic of loneliness,” driven by the accelerated pace of life and the spread of technology into all of our social interactions.

2022 April 20, John Leland, quoting Vivek Murthy, “How Loneliness Is Damaging Our Health”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

People are holding coordinated protests across UK towns and cities this weekend against what they call a “climate of fear” on the roads, and an “epidemic” of careless and dangerous driving that is curbing children’s freedoms and putting lives at risk.

2023 September 29, Laura Laker, “UK protests planned amid ‘epidemic’ of dangerous driving”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

(by extension, colloquial) A heightened occurrence of anything harmful.


dictionary

/ˈdɪkʃənəɹi/

/ˈdɪkʃəˌnɛɹi/

From Middle English dixionare, learned borrowing from Medieval Latin dictiōnārium, from Latin dictiōnārius, from dictiō (“a speaking”), from dictus, perfect past participle of dīcō (“to speak”) + -ārium (“room, place”). By surface analysis, diction + -ary.

(by extension) Any work that has a list of material organized alphabetically; e.g., biographical dictionary, encyclopedic dictionary.


year

en-noun

year (plural years or (UK colloquial) year)

years (plural)
year (UK colloquial plural)

Jamaican Creole: ier

Tok Pisin: yia

→ Chuukese: ier

→ Japanese: イヤー (iyā)

→ Volapük: yel

From Middle English yeer, yere, from Old English ġēar (“year”), from Proto-West Germanic *jār, from Proto-Germanic *jērą (“year”), from Proto-Indo-European *yóh₁r̥ (“year, spring”). Doublet of hora and hour.

ашқәс

time it takes for the Earth to complete one revolution around the Sun

ле́то

poetic or with certain numerals and cases

йыл

a scheduled part of a calendar year spent in a specific activity

triennium

A period of time akin to the time taken for the Earth to undergo a full cycle of seasons.; The length of twelve lunations; the time taken for any moon phase to happen twelve times; a lunar year.

olympiad

A period of time akin to the time taken for the Earth to undergo a full cycle of seasons.; The length of a year as marked by a calendar, 365 or 366 days in the Gregorian calendar; a calendar year.

pentad

A period of time akin to the time taken for the Earth to undergo a full cycle of seasons.; The mean length of a calendar year in the Julian calendar, that is, 365.25 solar days; a Julian year.

decade

A scheduled part of a calendar year spent in a specific activity.; A level or grade in school or college.

Mars goes around the sun once in a Martian year, or 1.88 Earth years.

Shepard: What can you tell me about the Citadel Council?
Avina: Originally, the Council consisted of representatives from the asari and salarians, the two dominant species in Citadel space.
Roughly 1,304 galactic standard years ago, turians were invited to join the Council in recognition of the role they played during the Krogan Rebellion.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Citdael

small Solar System body
small Solar System body

(by extension) The time it takes for any astronomical object (such as a planet, dwarf planet, small Solar System body, or comet) in direct orbit around a star (such as the Sun) to make one revolution around the star.

йыл

time it takes for any planetary body to make one revolution around another body


accost

en-verb

accost (third-person singular simple present accosts, present participle accosting, simple past and past participle accosted)

accosts (present singular third-person)
accosting (participle present)
accosted (participle past)
accosted (past)

First attested in the 1570s. From Old French accoster, from Vulgar Latin accosto (“to come alongside someone”), from ad (“near”) + costa (“rib, side”). Cognate with Spanish acostar (“to lie down, go to bed”).

cog

(by extension, transitive, obsolete) To sail along the coast or side of.

aborder

archaic or obsolete: to sail along the coast or side of


point

→ Cantonese: point

→ Indonesian: poin

→ Japanese: ポイント (pointo)

→ Korean: 포인트 (pointeu)

From Middle English poynt, from Old French point m (“dot; minute amount”), from Latin pūnctum (“a hole punched in; a point, puncture”), substantive use of pūnctus m, perfect passive participle of pungō (“I prick, punch”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pewǵ- (“prick, punch”)); alternatively, from Old French pointe f (“sharp tip”), from Latin pūncta f (past participle). Displaced native Middle English ord (“point”), from Old English ord (“point”). Doublet of pointe, punctum, punt, and punto.

decimal point

not used when reading decimal fractions aloud

A small dot or mark.
(by extension) A note; a tune.

"When do we pull the trigger?" he asked. I was quick to respond, "If Tammy get's Mrs. Wellington to agree, she'll call you in a couple hours. Then just pull out all stops. Tammy has point on this, I don't want to hear from you unless it's an all clear."

2013, Erik Schubach, Music of the Soul, volume 1

The president’s senior policy adviser, Stephen Miller, has been point on immigration policy.

2018 July 2, Paul Winfree, “Trump’s economic agenda is unfocused. Here’s how to fix it.”, in Washington Post

He captained Regis High School’s 1958 squad, but now runs point on infectious diseases.

2020 July 23, Gabe Lacques, “Dr. Anthony Fauci throws first pitch at Nationals-Yankees MLB opener”, in USA TODAY

Instead of one point-person taking all the parents’ questions, WPSD has “put together coaches and ambassadors to handle calls so one person doesn’t have to handle 2,500 calls,” Woolf said.

2020 August 11, Michelle Karas, “Woodland Park School District plans for Aug. 25 reopening with multiple learning options”, in Pikes Peak Courier

The position at the front or vanguard of an advancing force.

(by extension) An operational or public leadership position in a risky endeavor.

The point, according to Edmondson, (meaning the point pointed,) is an ordinary somewhat resembling the pile, issuing from the base, as in Plate VII. fig. 24, and is sometimes termed a base point pointed, but the word base is superfluous, as that is the proper place of the point;[…]

1828, William Berry, Encyclopaedia Heraldica Or Complete Dictionary of Heraldry

(heraldry, by extension) An ordinary similar to a pile (but sometimes shorter), extending upward from the base. (Often termed a point pointed.)


affix

Borrowed from Latin affixus, perfect passive participle of affigere (from ad- + figere), equivalent to ad- + fix.

affiks

linguistics: a bound morpheme added to a word’s stem

(linguistic morphology, broadly) A bound morpheme added to a word’s stem; a prefix, suffix, etc.


Cayman Islands

From Spanish Caymanes, variant of earlier Spanish Lagartos in reference to the early prevalence of marine and freshwater crocodiles on the islands. Spanish caimán and Portuguese caimão are of uncertain etymology, being variously attributed to Taíno kaimán, Kari'na acayouman, and Kongo.


free

en-adj

free (comparative freer or more free, superlative freest or most free)

freer (comparative)
more free (comparative)
freest (superlative)
most free (superlative)

From Middle English free, fre, freo, from Old English frēo (“free”), from Proto-West Germanic *frī, from Proto-Germanic *frijaz (“beloved, not in bondage”), from Proto-Indo-European *priHós (“dear, beloved”), from *preyH- (“to love, please”). Related to friend.
cognates, etc
Germanic cognates include West Frisian frij (“free”), Dutch vrij (“free”), Low German free (“free”), German frei (“free”), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian fri (“free”).
Other cognates include Russian приятель (prijatelʹ, “friend”) and Sanskrit प्रिय (priyá-, “beloved”).
Germanic and Celtic are the only Indo-European language branches in which the PIE word with the meaning of "dear, beloved" acquired the additional meaning of "free" in the sense of "not in bondage". This was an extension of the idea of "characteristic of those who are dear and beloved", in other words friends and tribe members (in contrast to unfree inhabitants from other tribes and prisoners of war, many of which were among the slaves – compare the Latin use of liberi to mean both "free persons" and "children of a family").
The verb comes from Middle English freen, freoȝen, from Old English frēon, frēoġan (“to free; make free”), from Proto-West Germanic *frijōn, from Proto-Germanic *frijōną, from Proto-Indo-European *preyH-.

inh

there ain't no such thing as a free lunch

why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free

Buy a TV to get a free DVD player!

(by extension, chiefly used in advertising) Complimentary.

Obtainable without any payment.
Complimentary.


skirmish

From Middle English skirmish (as a verb), from Old French escarmouche (“skirmish”), from Italian scaramuccia, earlier schermugio. Doublet of escarmouche and Scaramouche.

Three people were arrested after a skirmish in a bar.

(figuratively, by extension) Any minor dispute.


Vietnam

/ˌvjɛʔˈnɑːm/

US, rare, perhaps modeled on piece etc, or the South Vietnamese pronunciation

Borrowed from Vietnamese Việt Nam. Extended senses come from the Vietnam War.

Everyone was miserable, including Coppola. "It was my Vietnam," he moaned a few months later.

1989, Michael Goodwin, Naomi Wise, On the Edge: The Life and Times of Francis Coppola, page 195

Judy is the great deceiver / Judy is your Viet Nam

2011, “Judy is your Viet Nam”, performed by They Might Be Giants

(US, slang, by extension) A situation in which one cannot win.


DNA

en-noun

DNA (countable and uncountable, plural DNAs)

The noun is an initialism of deoxyribonucleic acid. The verb is derived from the noun.

(informal, loosely) The part of a living thing that carries genetic information.

DNA

(informal, loosely) part of a living thing that carries genetic information


morph

en-verb

morph (third-person singular simple present morphs, present participle morphing, simple past and past participle morphed)

morphs (present singular third-person)
morphing (participle present)
morphed (participle past)
morphed (past)

By the time politicians in several cities backed down on Tuesday and announced that they would cut or consider reducing fares, the demonstrations had already morphed into a more sweeping social protest, with marchers waving banners carrying slogans like “The people have awakened.”

June 18 2013, Simon Romero, “Protests Widen as Brazilians Chide Leaders”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-06-21

“Highbrow and lowbrow, alternative and mainstream, work and play, CEO and hipster are all morphing together today,” [Richard] Florida enthuses.

2014, Astra Taylor, quoting Richard Florida, chapter 2, in The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, Henry Holt and Company

(by extension) To undergo dramatic change in a seamless and barely noticeable fashion.


Indo-European

/ˌɪndəʊˌjʊəɹəˈpiːən/

Coined by English polymath Thomas Young in 1813, from Indo- + European, relating to the geographical extremes in India and Europe (which was valid before the discovery of Tocharian languages in the early 20th century).

coin

(loosely, uncommon) A person of mixed European and Indian or Indonesian ancestry.


Indo-European

en-adj

Indo-European (comparative more Indo-European, superlative most Indo-European)

more Indo-European (comparative)
most Indo-European (superlative)

/ˌɪndəʊˌjʊəɹəˈpiːən/

(loosely, uncommon) Of or relating to persons of mixed European and Indian or Indonesian ancestry.


metaphysics

en-noun

metaphysics (countable and uncountable, plural metaphysics)

1560s; plural of metaphysic, from Middle English methaphesik, methaphisik, methaphisique, metaphesyk, methafisik, metaphesyk, methephysyk, from Old French metafisique, methaphisique and Medieval Latin metaphysica, methephisica, from Byzantine Greek μεταφυσικά (metaphusiká), from the title of the collection by Aristotle μετὰ τὰ φυσικά (metà tà phusiká, “Following The Natural World”), a collection that comes after (μετά (metá)) Aristotle's collection entitled τὰ φυσικά (tà phusiká, “The Natural World”), from φυσικός (phusikós, “natural”).

der

Even other universes should be a result of different physics. Without rules, these universes wouldn't exist, because they will have an undefined, thus impossible, nature. We will never understand or guess all possible forms of physics. That's why we have to understand the generic metaphysics.

(logic, uncountable, by extension from the philosophical sense) The metalogic of physics; the logical framework of physics.

The metaphysics of global power has changed. Markets are now more valuable than territory.

1990 January 1, Lance Morrow, “Gorbachev: The Unlikely Patron of Change”, in Time

(uncountable, by extension from the philosophical sense) Any fundamental principles or rules.


leap year

PIE word
 *yóh₁r̥
From Late Middle English lepe-yer, lep-yer (“year with 366 days, leap year”), from lep, lepe (“act of jumping, jump, leap”) (from Old English hlīep, hlȳp, probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *klewp- (“to spring; to stumble”)) + yer (“calendrical unit based on a complete revolution of the Earth around the Sun, year”) (from Old English ġēar, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *yóh₁r̥ (“year”)). The English term is analysable as leap (noun) + year, and possibly relates to the phenomenon that any fixed date of a 365-day calendar advances one weekday each year but every date of a 366-day year after February 29 (often seen as the leap day) advances by two weekdays instead. For example, Christmas (December 25) fell on a Saturday in 2004, a Sunday in 2005, a Monday in 2006, and a Tuesday in 2007 but then “leapt” over Wednesday to fall on a Thursday in 2008 which was a leap year.
Compare also Old English mōnan hlȳp (“moon’s leap”) and Medieval Latin saltus lūnae (literally “leap moon”), an additional day added every 19 years (a Metonic cycle) to bring the lunar and solar calendars into alignment.
cognates
* Old Norse hlaup-ár (“leap year”)

noncog

(loosely) Any other year featuring intercalation, such as a year in a lunisolar calendar with 13 months instead of 12, used to maintain its alignment with the seasons of the solar year.


duel

Borrowed from Middle French duel, from Medieval Latin duellum (“fight between two men”), under influence from Latin duo, from Old Latin duellum (whence Latin bellum (“war”)).

der

a sniper duel

But it leaves them with a few destroyers, the American destroyer force is falling back, and then you have the two cruiser lines with their respective battleships coming in for the big duel.

2019 March 6, Drachinifel, 25:33 from the start, in The Battle of Samar (Alternate History) - Bring on the Battleships!, archived from the original on 2022-07-20

Apple comes out swinging in the duel of the data titans [title]

2021 May 1, John Naughton, “Apple comes out swinging in the duel of the data titans”, in The Guardian

(by extension) Any battle or struggle between two contending persons, forces, groups, or ideas.


gas

en-noun

gas (countable and uncountable, plural gases or gasses)

New York City, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Baltimore

(uncountable, by extension) Ellipsis of gas pedal; accelerator.


polygon

From Ancient Greek πολύγωνον (polúgōnon), from πολύς (polús, “many”) + γωνία (gōnía, “angle”).

(geometry, more generally) A figure comprising vertices and (not necessarily straight) edges, alternatingly.


date

en-verb

date (third-person singular simple present dates, present participle dating, simple past and past participle dated)

dates (present singular third-person)
dating (participle present)
dated (participle past)
dated (past)

From Middle English date, from Old French date, from Late Latin data, from Latin datus (“given”), past participle of dare (“to give”); from Proto-Indo-European *deh₃- (“to give”). Doublet of data.

Jessica Simpson reportedly went on a drinking binge after discovering ex-boyfriend John Mayer is dating Jennifer Aniston.

2008 May 15, “Jessica Simpson upset John Mayer dating Jennifer Aniston”, in NEWS.com.au

(transitive, by extension) To have a steady relationship with; to be romantically involved with.

They met a couple of years ago, but have been dating for about five months.

(reciprocal, by extension) To have a steady relationship with each other; to be romantically involved with each other.


dollar

→ Burmese: ဒေါ်လာ (daula)

→ Catalan: dòlar

→ Chinese: 刀 (dāo) (colloquial)

→ Czech: dolar

→ Danish: dollar

desctree

→ Dutch: dollar
→ Indonesian: dolar
→ Japanese: ドル (doru)

→ Faroese: dollari

→ French: dollar
→ Romanian: dolar (along with English dollar)

→ German: Dollar

→ Greek: δολάριο (dolário)

→ Hausa: dala

→ Hawaiian: kālā

→ Hebrew: דולר (dolar)

→ Irish: dollar

→ Italian: dollaro

→ Khmer: ដុល្លារ (dŏlléar)

→ Korean: 달러 (dalleo)

→ Latvian: dolārs

→ Lithuanian: doleris

→ Macedonian: долар (dolar)

→ Maori: tāra

→ Nepali: डलर (ḍalar)

→ Norwegian: dollar

→ Papiamentu: dòlò

→ Persian: دلار (dolâr)

→ Polish: dolar
→ Kashubian: dolar

→ Portuguese: dólar

→ Romanian: dolar (along with French dollar)

→ Russian: доллар (dollar)

→ Samoan: tālā
→ English: tala

→ Spanish: dólar

→ Sranan Tongo: dala

→ Swahili: dola

→ Swedish: dollar

→ Thai: ดอลลาร์ (dɔn-lâa)

→ Tokelauan: tālā

→ Ukrainian: долар (dolar)

→ Yiddish: דאָלאַר (dolar)

→ Yoruba: dọ́là

Attested since the mid-16th century, from early Dutch daler, daalder, from German Taler, Thaler (“dollar”), from Sankt Joachimsthaler, literally “of Joachimstal”, the name for coins minted in German Sankt Joachimsthal (“St. Joachim's Valley”) (now Jáchymov, Czech Republic). Ultimately from Joachim + Tal (“valley”). Possibly reinforced by the Dutch leeuwendaalder, which was also used in the American colonies. Cognate to Danish daler. Doublet of taler.

cog

that and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee

Television, a favored source of news and information, pulls the largest share of advertising monies. In 1935, newspapers received 45 percent of the advertising dollar, magazines 8 percent, and radio 7 percent.

2002, Marcella Ridlen Ray, Changing and Unchanging Face of United States Civil Society


war

en-noun

war (countable and uncountable, plural wars)

From Middle English werre, from Late Old English werre, wyrre (“armed conflict”), from Old Northern French werre (compare modern French guerre), from Medieval Latin werra, from Frankish *werru (“confusion; quarrel”), from Proto-Indo-European *wers- (“to mix up, confuse, beat, thresh”). Gradually displaced native Old English beadu, hild, ġewinn, orleġe, wīġ, and many others as the general term for "war" during the Middle English period.
Related to Old High German werra (“confusion, strife, quarrel”) and German verwirren (“to confuse”), but not to Wehr (“defense”). Also related to Old Saxon werran (“to confuse, perplex”), Dutch war (“confusion, disarray”), West Frisian war (“confusion”),
Old English wyrsa, wiersa (“worse”), Old Norse verri (“worse, orig. confounded, mixed up”), Italian guerra (“war”). There may be a connection with worse and wurst.

cog

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River

Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851 painting)

The war against war is going to be no holiday excursion or camping party... Ask all our millions, north and south, whether they would vote now (were such a thing possible) to have our war for the Union expunged from history... and probably hardly a handful of eccentrics would say yes. Those ancestors, those efforts, those memories and legends, ar the most ideal part of what we now own together, a sacred spiritual possession worth more than all the blood poured out. Yet ask those same people whether they would be willing, in cold blood, to start another civil war now to gain another similar possession, and not one man or woman would vote for the proposition.

1906, William James, The Moral Equivalent of War

the War on Poverty... the War on Drugs... the War on Christmas...

(countable, by extension) Any protracted conflict, particularly

(chiefly US) Campaigns against various social problems.

price wars... Cola Wars... format wars...

(business) A protracted instance of fierce competition in trade.

turf war... gang war... Castellammarese War...

(crime) A prolonged conflict between two groups of organized criminals, usually over organizational or territorial control.

flame war... edit war...

(Internet) An argument between two or more people with opposing opinions on a topic or issue.


world

whirled (with both the wine–whine merger and fern–fir–fur merger)

whorled (with both mergers, Received Pronunciation only)

From Middle English world, weoreld, from Old English weorold (“world”), from Proto-West Germanic *weraldi, from Proto-Germanic *weraldiz (“lifetime, human existence, world”, literally “age/era of man”), equivalent to wer (“man”) + eld (“age”).
Cognate with Scots warld (“world”), Saterland Frisian Waareld (“world”), West Frisian wrâld (“world”), Afrikaans wêreld (“world”), Dutch wereld (“world”), Low German Werld (“world”), German Welt (“world”), Norwegian Bokmål verden (“(the) world”), Norwegian Nynorsk verd (“world”), Swedish värld (“world”), Icelandic veröld (“world”).

inh

an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind

have the world by the tail on a downhill pull

the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world

the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world

(countable) A planet, especially one which is inhabited or inhabitable.

(by extension) Any other astronomical body which may be inhabitable, such as a natural satellite.


Unicode

Published as a draft proposal in 1988, “intended to suggest a unique, unified, universal encoding”. From uni- + code.

Since most users on the site are westerners, we have banned Unicode in all text input boxes.

(computing, by extension, informal) Characters from a contextually different script, often used in a nonstandard fashion. Sometimes used as an antonym to the characters of the Latin alphabet.


ground

en-noun

ground (countable and uncountable, plural grounds)

From Middle English grounde, from Old English grund, from Proto-Germanic *grunduz. Cognate with West Frisian grûn, Dutch grond and German Grund.

cut the ground from under someone's feet

know one's ass from a hole in the ground

know one's head from a hole in the ground

know the difference between one's ass and a hole in the ground

(figurative, by extension) Advantage given or gained in any contest; e.g. in football, chess, debate or academic discourse.

syy

advantage given or gained in any contest


raccoon

From arocoun (1608), from Powhatan ärähkun, from ärähkuněm (“he scratches with his hands”).

(loosely, proscribed) Any mammal superficially resembling a raccoon, such as a raccoon dog.


nickel

nickel (countable and uncountable, plural nickels)

Borrowed from German Nickel, first used in a text by the Swedish mineralogist Axel F. Cronstedt as an abbreviation of Kupfernickel (“a mineral containing copper and nickel”), from Kupfer (“copper”) + Nickel (“insignificant person, goblin”), originally nickname of Nikolaus (“Nicholas”), due to the deceptive silver colour of the relatively valueless ore. Compare cobalt as related to kobolds.

that and a nickel will buy you a cup of coffee

that and a nickel will get you on the subway

you pays your nickel and you takes your chances

you pays your nickel and you takes your choice

(US, slang, by extension) Five hundred dollars.


cow

cow (countable and uncountable, plural cows or cattle or kine)

cows (plural)
cattle (plural)
kine (plural)

bull

antonym(s) of “female domesticated ox or other bovine”

Sranan Tongo: kaw

Tok Pisin: kau

q

from <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">cows</i>

→ Abenaki: kaoz (from cows)

→ Maori: kau

From Middle English cou, cu, from Old English cū (“cow”), from Proto-West Germanic *kō, from Proto-Germanic *kōz (“cow”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws (“cow”).
Cognate with Sanskrit गौ (gow), Ancient Greek βοῦς (boûs), Persian گاو (gâv)), Latvian govs (“cow”), Proto-Slavic *govędo (Serbo-Croatian govedo, Russian говядина (govjadina) ("beef")), Scots coo (“cow”), North Frisian ko, kø (“cow”), West Frisian ko (“cow”), Dutch koe (“cow”), Low German Koh, Koo, Kau (“cow”), German Kuh (“cow”), Swedish ko (“cow”), Norwegian ku (“cow”), Icelandic kýr (“cow”), Latin bōs (“ox, bull, cow”), Armenian կով (kov, “cow”). Doublet of beef.
The plural kine is from Middle English kyne, kyn, kuin, kiin, kien (“cows”), either a double plural of Middle English ky, kye (“cows”), equivalent to modern kye + -en, or inherited from Old English cȳna (“cows', of cows”), genitive plural of cū (“cow”).

the cow knows not the worth of its tail till it loses it

We saw lots of cows at the farm show, including some surprisingly gigantic bulls.

(loosely or informal) Any member of the species Bos taurus regardless of sex or age, including bulls and calves.

𐕖𐕒𐕡𐕙

any domestic bovine regardless of sex or age


storm

→ Esperanto: ŝtormo

→ Irish: stoirm

→ Scottish Gaelic: stoirm

From Middle English storm (“disturbed state of the atmosphere; heavy precipitation; battle, conflict; attack”) [and other forms], from Old English storm (“tempest, storm; attack; storm of arrows; disquiet, disturbance, tumult, uproar; onrush, rush”) [and other forms], from Proto-West Germanic *sturm (“storm”), from Proto-Germanic *sturmaz (“storm”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)twerH- (“to agitate, stir up; to propel; to urge on”). Related to stir.
cognates
* Danish storm (“storm”)
* Dutch storm (“storm”)
* German Sturm (“storm”)
* Icelandic stormur (“storm”)
* Low German storm (“storm”)
* Norwegian Bokmål storm (“storm”)
* Norwegian Nynorsk storm (“storm”)
* Scots storm (“storm”)
* Swedish storm (“storm”)
* West Frisian stoarm (“storm”)

nb...

starme, steorm, storem, storme, stourme, strom

storm

Any disturbed state of the atmosphere causing destructive or unpleasant weather, especially one affecting the earth's surface involving strong winds (leading to high waves at sea) and usually lightning, thunder, and precipitation; a tempest.

(by extension) A heavy fall of precipitation (hail, rain, or snow) or bout of lightning and thunder without strong winds; a hail storm, rainstorm, snowstorm, or thunderstorm.

atmospheric pressure
atmospheric pressure

(by extension) Synonym of cyclone (“a weather phenomenon consisting of a system of winds rotating around a centre of low atmospheric pressure”)

cyclone

(by extension, Canada, Scotland, US, dated) A period of frosty and/or snowy weather.


storm

en-verb

storm (third-person singular simple present storms, present participle storming, simple past and past participle stormed)

storms (present singular third-person)
storming (participle present)
stormed (participle past)
stormed (past)
storm (infinitive)

The verb is derived from Middle English stormen (“of the wind: to blow violently; to cause to roll or toss”), from storm (noun) (see etymology 1) + -en (suffix forming the infinitives of verbs).
Compare Middle English sturmen (“to attack (someone) with great force”), from Old English styrman (“to rage, storm; to make a great noise, cry aloud, shout, storm”), from Proto-West Germanic *sturmijan (“to storm”), from Proto-Germanic *sturmijaną (“to storm”), from *sturmaz (“a storm”) (see etymology 1) + *-janą (suffix forming causatives from strong verbs, with a sense of ‘to cause to do [the action of the verb]’). The Middle English word did not survive into modern English.
The noun is derived from verb sense 2.3 (“to violently assault (a fortified position or stronghold, a building, etc.) with the aim of gaining control of it”).
cognates
* Dutch stormen (“to bluster, storm”)
* German stürmen (“to rage, storm; to assault, attack”)
* Icelandic storma (“to storm”)
* Low German stormen (“to storm”)
* Swedish storma (“to bluster, storm”)

ŝtormi

to have strong winds and usually lightning and thunder, and/or hail, rain, or snow

щурмува́м

They were storming near the end of the month to salvage some goodwill.

(by extension, especially in command economies) To catch up (on production output) by making frenzied or herculean efforts.

(by extension, chiefly military) To move quickly in the course of an assault on a fortified position or stronghold, a building, etc.

rynnätä

to move quickly in the course of an assault on a fortified position or stronghold, a building, etc.


MIA

My friends have been MIA today.

(by extension) To be absent for a long time.


knight

From Middle English knight, knyght, kniht, from Old English cniht (“boy; servant, knight”), from Proto-West Germanic *kneht.

inh

King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table

(by extension) An armored and mounted warrior of the Middle Ages.


head

en-verb

head (third-person singular simple present heads, present participle heading, simple past and past participle headed)

heads (present singular third-person)
heading (participle present)
headed (participle past)
headed (past)

From Middle English hed, heed, heved, heaved, from Old English hēafd-, hēafod (“head; top; source, origin; chief, leader; capital”), from Proto-West Germanic *haubud, from Proto-Germanic *haubudą (“head”), from Proto-Indo-European *káput-. The modern word comes from Old English oblique stem hēafd-, the expected Modern English outcome for hēafod would be *heaved (similar to the Middle English word). Doublet of cape, capo, caput, chef, chief, and Howth.
cognates
Cognate with Scots heid, hede, hevid, heved (“head”), Old English hafola (“head”), North Frisian hood (“head”), Dutch hoofd (“head”), German Haupt (“head”), Swedish huvud (“head”), Danish hoved (“head”), Icelandic höfuð (“head”), Latin caput (“head”), Sanskrit कपाल (kapāla, “skull”), Hindi कपाल (kapāl, “skull”).


Russia

en-proper noun

Russia (countable and uncountable, plural Russias)

→ Hindi: रशिया (raśiyā)

→ Malay: Rusia

→ Maori: Rūhia

→ Russian: Ра́ша (Ráša)

→ Thai: รัสเซีย (rát-siia)

→ Ukrainian: Ра́ша (Ráša)

1530s, from Medieval Latin Russi (“the people of Russia”), from Old East Slavic Русь (Rusĭ, “Rus”) (whence Arabic رُوس (rūs) and Byzantine Greek Ῥῶς (Rhôs)), which originally referred to a group of Varangians who established themselves near Kiev in the 9th century and ruled Kievan Rus; probably from Proto-Finnic *roocci, from Old East Norse *roþs- (“related to rowing”); related to Old Norse Roþrslandi (“the land of rowing”), an older name of Roslagen, where the Finns first encountered the Swedes. Ultimately from Old Norse róðr (“steering oar”), from Proto-Germanic *rōþrą (“rudder”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reh₁- (“to row”).

der

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

(historical, loosely) The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (a very common name, although more formally Russia, the RSFSR, was one of several constituent republics of the USSR).


purple

From Middle English purple, purpel, from Old English purpul (“purple”, adjective), taken from Old English purpure (“purple colour”, noun), from Latin purpura (“purple dye, shellfish”), from Ancient Greek πορφύρα (porphúra, “purple fish”), perhaps of Semitic origin. Doublet of purpura and purpure.
The sense of "imperial power" is from the wearing of the color purple by emperors and kings.

der

1776-1788, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
He was born in the purple.

When we picture to ourselves his [Napoleon’s] dawning military genius at Toulon—his daring and decided politics in the storms of the Revolution—his Cæsarian ambition in assuming the purple—[…]

1829 March, “Napoleon a Sainte Helene. Opinion d’un Medecin sur la Maladie de l’Empereur Napoleon, et sur la Cause de sa Mort; offerte a son Fils, au Jour de sa Majorite. Par S. Hereau, […]”, in James Johnson, editor, The Medico-Chirurgical Review, and Journal of Practical Medicine, volume X, number XX, London: […] S. Highley, […], page 434

The immediate successors of Augustus indulged in appalling cruelties towards senators and towards possible competitors for the purple.

1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.29


work

en-noun

work (countable and uncountable, plural works)

Pijin: waka

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *werǵ-
Proto-Indo-European *-om
Proto-Indo-European *wérǵom
Proto-Germanic *werką
Proto-West Germanic *werk
Old English weorc
Middle English werk
English work
From Middle English work, werk, from Old English weorc, from Proto-West Germanic *werk, from Proto-Germanic *werką, from Proto-Indo-European *wérǵom.
Akin to Scots wark, Saterland Frisian Wierk, West Frisian wurk, Dutch werk, German Werk, German Low German Wark, Danish værk, Norwegian Bokmål verk, Norwegian Nynorsk verk, Swedish verk and yrke, Icelandic verk, Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌺𐌹 (gawaurki), Ancient Greek ἔργον (érgon, “work”) (from ϝέργον (wérgon)), Avestan 𐬬𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬰 (vər^əz, “to work, to perform”), Armenian գործ (gorc, “work”), Albanian argëtoj (“entertain, reward, please”). English cognates include bulwark, boulevard, energy, erg, georgic, liturgy, metallurgy, organ, surgeon, wright. Doublet of erg and ergon.

աշխատանք

thermodynamics: energy in transit between one form or repository and another

all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

I want to go to the reunion concert, but I'm not sure if my work will give me the time off.

(uncountable) Employment.
(by extension) One's employer.

Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo, meaning "vortex", and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.

2013 July-August, Lee S. Langston, “The Adaptable Gas Turbine”, in American Scientist

(physics, more generally) A measure of energy that is usefully extracted from a process.


coin

en-verb

coin (third-person singular simple present coins, present participle coining, simple past and past participle coined)

coins (present singular third-person)
coining (participle present)
coined (participle past)
coined (past)

From Middle English coyn, from Old French coigne (“wedge, cornerstone, die for stamping”), from Latin cuneus (“wedge”). Doublet of coign and cuneus. See also quoin (“cornerstone”). Displaced Middle English mynt, from Old English mynet (whence modern English mint), which was derived from Latin monēta.

der

Over the last century the advance in science has led to many new words being coined.

(by extension) To make or fabricate (especially a word or phrase).


zebra

1600; borrowed from Italian zebra, from Portuguese zebra, zebro (“zebra”), from Old Galician-Portuguese enzebro, ezebra, azebra (“wild ass”), from earlier cebrario (882), ezebrario (897), from Vulgar Latin *eciferus, from Latin equiferus (“wild horse”) (Pliny), from equus (“horse”) + ferus (“wild”).
While the word was traditionally pronounced with a long vowel in the first syllable in standard English, during the twentieth century a vowel shift occurred in regions of England, with the shortening of the first vowel. This pronunciation is now used throughout the UK and most Commonwealth nations. The long-vowel pronunciation remains standard in Canadian and American English.
(referee): In reference to the black and white striped shirts they wear.

EDS charities around the world use a zebra logo to promote the idea that sometimes it really is that ‘rare’ condition.

“I was told in medical school, ‘when you hear hoofbeats think horses, not zebras,’” she says. Many trainee doctors receive the same advice – when a patient presents with symptoms, “look for the common thing.” That’s why EDS patients commonly refer to themselves as zebras – and also use the fabulous collective noun “dazzle.” The name represents rarity and evokes the stripy stretch marks that are a common feature on EDS skin.

(medicine, by extension) Someone who has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome or hypermobility spectrum disorder


homonym

en:word with same spelling or same sound or both

en:word with both same spelling and same sound

(broadly) A word that sounds or is spelled the same as another word (but not necessarily both).

(semantics, strictly) A word that both sounds and is spelled the same as another word.

(taxonomy) A name for a taxon that is identical in spelling to another name that belongs to a different taxon.


rite

Via Middle English and Old French, from Latin ritus.

But he had to perform the rites of hospitality, had to behave politely to his ally.

1989, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, translated by H. T. Willetts, August 1914, Farrar, Straus and Giroux


argument

en-noun

argument (countable and uncountable, plural arguments)

From Middle English argument, from Anglo-Norman and Old French arguement, from Latin argūmentum (“argument (for a position); evidence, proof; point, theme; thesis, topic; plot (in theatre)”), from arguere + -mentum (suffix indicating the instrument, medium, or result of something). Arguere is the present active infinitive of arguō (“to argue, assert, declare; to make clear, prove, show; to accuse, charge with, reprove; to blame, censure; to denounce as false”), either ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂erǵ- (“silver, white; glittering”), or from Hittite [script needed] (arkuwā(i)-, “to make a plea, state one’s case”). The English word is analysable as argue + -ment. Doublet of argumentum.
Displaced native Old English racu and ġeflit.

der

/ˈɑːɡjʊmənt/

/ˈɑɹɡjʊmənt/

argument

fact or statement used to support a proposition; a reason

وَسِيط

variable that is being passed to a function

Steve got in a physical argument with his neighbor and came away with a black eye.

While biking home, he got in an argument with the pavement.

D5131 has received extensive cab damage, having been in an argument with Class 37 D6855 at Inverness in August 1971 - one of two accidents that occurred there on August 20.

2022 January 26, John Crosse, “When the tide turned to a safer railway...”, in RAIL, number 949, page 52, photo caption

(by extension, humorous or euphemistic) Any dispute, altercation, or collision.


concrete

en-adj

concrete (comparative concreter, superlative concretest)

concreter (comparative)
concretest (superlative)

Borrowed from Latin concrētus, past participle of concrescō (to curdle) from con- (with, together) + crescō (to grow, rise).

(by extension, topos theory, of a category C with respect to another category X) Equipped with a faithful functor to X (called a base category), in which case C is called a concrete category over X.


boom

Borrowed from Dutch boom (“tree; pole”). Doublet of beam.

(by extension) A microphone supported on such a pole.


see

en-verb

see (third-person singular simple present sees, present participle seeing, simple past saw or (dialectal) seen or (dialectal) seent or (dialectal) seed, past participle seen or (dialectal) seent or (dialectal) seed or (dialectal) saw)

sees (present singular third-person)
seeing (participle present)
saw (past)
seen (dialectal past)
seent (dialectal past)
seed (dialectal past)
seen (participle past)
seent (dialectal participle past)
seed (dialectal participle past)
saw (dialectal participle past)
see (infinitive)

From Middle English seen, from Old English sēon (“to see, look, behold, perceive, observe, discern, understand, know”), from Proto-West Germanic *sehwan, from Proto-Germanic *sehwaną (“to see”), from Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ- (“to see, notice”).
Cognates
Cognate with West Frisian sjen (“to see”), Dutch zien (“to see”), Low German sehn, German sehen (“to see”), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian Bokmål se (“to see”), Norwegian Nynorsk sjå (“to see”), and more distantly with Latin sīgnum (“sign, token”), Albanian shih (“look at, see”) imperative of shoh (“to see”).

der

is that a gun in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me

send it up the flagpole and see who salutes

that which has been seen cannot be unseen

there are none so blind as those who will not see

there's none so blind as those who will not see

throw things at the wall and see what sticks

I'll see you hang for this

I saw that they didn't make any more trouble.

'Don't worry. You won't lose out. I'll see you get your share of the action. If not now, later.'

2001, Joan Lock, Death in Perspective, London: Robert Hale, page 52

(by extension) Chiefly followed by that: to ensure that something happens, especially by personally witnessing it.


tadpole

From Middle English tadpolle, taddepol, equivalent to toad + poll (“head”).

salamander tadpole

(by extension) The aquatic larva of any amphibian.


hack

en-verb

hack (third-person singular simple present hacks, present participle hacking, simple past and past participle hacked)

hacks (present singular third-person)
hacking (participle present)
hacked (participle past)
hacked (past)

Spanish: jaquear

From Middle English hacken, hakken, from Old English *haccian (“to hack”), from Proto-West Germanic *hakkōn, from Proto-Germanic *hakkōną (“to chop; hoe; hew”), from Proto-Indo-European *keg-, *keng- (“to be sharp; peg; hook; handle”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian häkje (“to hack”), West Frisian hakje (“to hack”), Dutch hakken (“to chop up; hack”), German hacken (“to chop; hack; hoe”), Danish hakke (“to chop”), Swedish hacka (“to hack; chop”), French hacher (“to chop”).
The computer senses date back to at least 1955 when it initially referred to creative problem solving. By 1963, the negative connotations of “black hat” or malicious hacking had become associated with telephone hacking (cf. phreaking).

اِخْتَرَقَ

to gain illegal access to a computer network

I read up on dating tips so I can hack my sex life.

(transitive, colloquial, by extension) To apply a trick, shortcut, skill, or novelty method to something to increase productivity, efficiency or ease.

parantaa

to apply a trick, shortcut, skill, or novelty method

When I logged into the social network, I discovered I'd been hacked.

(transitive, slang, computing, by extension) To gain unauthorised access to a computer or online account belonging to (a person or organisation).

اِخْتَرَقَ

to gain unauthorised access to a computer or online account


fascism

en-noun

fascism (usually uncountable, plural fascisms)

Axis Powers
Benito Mussolini
Fascism
Fascist Italy
World War II
fasci di combattimento
fascist (pejorative)

From Italian fascismo, from fascio (“fasces, bundle, group”) + -ismo (“-ism”) with direct reference to Benito Mussolini's fasci di combattimento ("fight clubs"), from Latin fasces, bundles of axes and rods carried before the magistrates of the ancient Roman Republic as representative of their power of life and death. Originally with exclusive reference to Fascist Italy which used the fasces as an emblem, later broadened to describe all of the Axis Powers of World War II, and subsequently used as a general term of opprobrium in English and international political discourse.
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *bʰask-
Latin fascis
Italian fascio
Ancient Greek -ίζω (-ízō)
Proto-Indo-European *-mos
Proto-Indo-European *-mós
Ancient Greek -μός (-mós)
Ancient Greek -ισμός (-ismós)der.
Latin -ismus
Italian -ismo
Italian fascismolbor.
English fascism

etymon

...even the people who recklessly fling the word ‘Fascist’ in every direction attach at any rate an emotional significance to it. By ‘Fascism’ they mean, roughly speaking, something cruel, unscrupulous, arrogant, obscurantist, anti-liberal and anti-working-class. Except for the relatively small number of Fascist sympathizers, almost any English person would accept ‘bully’ as a synonym for ‘Fascist’. That is about as near to a definition as this much-abused word has come.

For Argentine fascists and nacionalistas, fascism was not a theory but a mold for Catholic thinking. For instance, one of the most significant nacionalista intellectuals, César Pico, argued that fascism was a "reaction against the calamities ascribed to liberal democracy, socialism, and capitalism. It's a reaction that, although instinctive in its origins, is searching for a doctrine that could justify it."

2009, Federico Finchelstein, Transatlantic Fascism: Ideology, Violence, and the Sacred in Argentina and Italy, 1919-1945

(by extension, derogatory) Any system of strong autocracy or oligarchy usually to the extent of bending and breaking the law, race-baiting, and/or violence against largely unarmed populations.


martyr

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-martyr.wav

From Middle English martir, from Old English martyr, itself a borrowing from Ecclesiastical Latin martyr, from Ancient Greek μάρτυρ (mártur), later form of μάρτυς (mártus, “witness”).

(by extension) One who sacrifices their life, station, or something of great personal value, for the sake of principle or to sustain a cause.

նահատակ

one who sacrifices their life for an important cause


grandfather

The noun is derived from Middle English grandfadre, graundfadir, graunfadir, grauntfader, and other forms, from graunt (“big, large; great, important”) + fā̆der (“male parent, father; remoter male ancestor”), probably modelled after Middle French grandpere, grant pere (“male parent; remoter male ancestor”) (whence French grand-père); the English word is analysable as grand- + father. Superseded earlier eldfather, elderfather.
The verb is derived from the noun.

/ˈɡɹændˌfɑːðə/

/ˈɡɹæn(d)ˌfɑðɚ/

[ˈɡɹ̠(ʷ)ẽˑə̯̃n(d)ˌfɑˑðɚ]

Brethren: Here is the pipe which your grandfathers used to smoke with when they met together in councils of peace. And here is some of that good tobacco, prepared for our grandfathers from God:—When you shall taste of it, you shall feel it through all your body; and it will put you in remembrance of the good councils your grandfathers used to hold with the English, your brethren, and that ancient friendship they had together.

1758 November 25, [Israel Daniel Rupp], “[No. XI.] Post’s Second Journal, 1758. The Second Journal of Christian Frederick Post, on a Message from the Governor of Pennsylvania, to the Indians of the Ohio, in the Latter Part of the Same Year.”, in Early History of Western Pennsylvania, and of the West, […], Pittsburgh, Pa.: Published by A. P. Ingram, […]; Harrisburg, Pa.: Published by W. O. Hickok, published 1848, →OCLC, page 111


hundred

From Middle English hundred, from Old English hundred, from Proto-Germanic *hundaradą, from *hundą (from Proto-Indo-European *ḱm̥tóm) + *radą (“count”), a neuter variant of *radō (“row, line, series”). Compare West Frisian hûndert, Dutch honderd, Low German hunnert, hunnerd, German Hundert, Danish hundred.

see for numerical forms in other scripts

(by extension, historical) Similar divisions in other areas, particularly in other areas of Britain or the British Empire


case

From Middle English case, from Old Northern French casse, (compare Old French chasse (“box, chest, case”)), from Latin capsa (“box, bookcase”), from capiō (“to take, seize, hold”). Doublet of cash, chase, and chasse. Compare Spanish caja, Asturian caxa.

(typography, by extension) The nature of a piece of alphabetic type, whether a “capital” (upper case) or “small” (lower case) letter.

դուրճ

typography: the nature of a piece of alphabetic type


sepia

en-noun

sepia (countable and uncountable, plural sepias)

From Latin sēpia, from Ancient Greek σηπία (sēpía, “cuttlefish”), from σήψ (sḗps, “a kind of lizard, also a kind of serpent whose bite was alleged to cause putrefaction”). Compare Italian seppia.

der

(by extension, countable) A sepia-coloured drawing or photograph.


daughter

en-noun

daughter (plural daughters or (archaic) daughtren)

daughters (plural)
daughtren (archaic plural)

Australian Kriol: doda

From Middle English doughter, doghter, from Old English dohtor (“daughter”), from Proto-West Germanic *dohter, from Proto-Germanic *duhtēr, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰugh₂tḗr.

devil is beating his wife and marrying his daughter

(by extension) A female character of a creator.


handout

→ German: Handout

كُرَّاسَة

printed sheet given out free of charge (usually by hand) for a certain use

hand-out

(racquets, real tennis, squash) player to whom a ball is served

(often derogatory) A gift of money or material assistance to the needy or poor.

(by extension) Something obtained without effort; a gift, a present.


animal

Bislama: anamol

Tok Pisin: animal

→ Esperanto: animalo

→ Ido: animalo

→ Volapük: nim

From Middle English animal, from Old French animal, from Latin animal, a nominal use of an adjective from animale, neuter of animālis, from anima (“breath, spirit”). Displaced native Middle English deor, der (“animal”) (from Old English dēor (“animal”)), Middle English reother (“animal, neat”) (from Old English hrīþer, hrȳþer (“neat, ox”)).

en:any nonhuman member of the kingdom Animalia

(loosely) Any member of the kingdom Animalia other than a human.

Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.

2013 July-August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4

(loosely) A higher animal; an animal related to humans.

(colloquial) A tetrapod; a land-dwelling nonhuman vertebrate.

A warm-blooded animal; a mammal or bird.

Birds are as popular as animals in the toy kingdom, especially pigeons, owls and domestic hens.

1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 54

I spent my summer studying the animals and birds of the two islands.

When he's hungry my toddler opens his mouth like an animal instead of asking us to feed him.


safari

From Swahili safari (“journey”), from Arabic سَفَر (safar).

An ardent junker herself, Mrs. Egge tells how to conduct a fascinating junk safari into the attic or antique and secondhand shops and what to do with the trophies you bring home.

1968, Ruth Stearns Egge, How to Make Something from Nothing

Come on, boy, move that body/ 'Cause tonight I'm naughty, naughty/ Dance with me like it's my party/ We go wild, we're in safari

2017, Serena (lyrics and music), “Safari”

(by extension) Any trip for the purpose of discovering something new or acquiring prizes or trophies.


AC

alternating current
alternating current#English

electricity grid
grid electricity#English

(electricity) Initialism of alternating current (often used to indicate an alternating potential rather than a current).

(electricity, informal, by extension) supply of electric energy via a public electricity grid


hallelujah

From Hebrew הַלְלוּיָהּ (hal'luyáh, “Praise Yah”).

bor

Hallelujah! It’s finally the weekend!

(by extension) A general expression of gratitude or adoration.


air

en-noun

air (countable and uncountable, plural airs)

→ Jersey Dutch: êr

From Middle English aire, from Old French air, from Latin āēr, from Ancient Greek ἀήρ (aḗr). Displaced native Old English lyft. More at lift, loft.

хӏауа

mixture of gases making up the atmosphere of the Earth

ayr

especially when referring to the form of music

The air on Mars is very thin and consists mostly of carbon dioxide.

(uncountable, loosely) The substance of the atmosphere on a planet other than Earth.


chain

From Middle English cheyne, chaine, from Old French chaine, chaene (“chain”), from Latin catēna (“chain”), from Proto-Indo-European *kat- (“to braid, twist; hut, shed”). Doublet of catena.

der

a chain is only as strong as its weakest link

(algebraic topology, homological algebra, more generally) An element of a group (or module) in a chain complex.


child

en-noun

child (plural children or (dialectal or archaic) childer)

children (plural)
childer (archaic dialectal plural)

adult

antonym(s) of “person below the age of adulthood”

parent

antonym(s) of “data item, process or object in a subordinate role”

From Middle English child, from Old English ċild, from Proto-West Germanic *kilþ, *kelþ, from Proto-Germanic *kelþaz (“womb; fetus”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵelt- (“womb”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to ball up, amass”).
Cognate with Danish kuld (“brood, litter”), Swedish kull (“brood, litter”), Icelandic kelta, kjalta (“lap”), Gothic 𐌺𐌹𐌻𐌸𐌴𐌹 (kilþei, “womb”), Sanskrit जर्त (jarta), जर्तु (jártu, “vulva”).

der

[ˈt͡ʃaɪ̯.ɫ̩d]

offspring and Thesaurus:son and Thesaurus:daughter

call someone everything but a child of God

it is a wise child that knows his own father

Go easy on him: he is but a child.

And not just the children, teenagers too. Chuck wants a football, Kathleen a tattoo.

2003 Powerpuff Girls: 'Twas the Fight Before Christmas (narration)

It is time the international community faced the reality: we have an unmanageable, unfair, distortionary global tax regime. […] It is the starving of the public sector which has been pivotal in America no longer being the land of opportunity – with a child's life prospects more dependent on the income and education of its parents than in other advanced countries.

2013 June 7, Joseph Stiglitz, “Globalisation is about taxes too”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 19

(broadly) A person who has not yet reached adulthood, whether natural (puberty), cultural (initiation), or legal (majority).

Regular chores can be appropriate for both children and adolescents, given age-appropriate limits on difficulty level and time on task.

en:kid aged 0 to 18 years
en:kid aged 1 to 11 years

(pediatrics, sometimes, in a stricter sense) A youth aged 1 to 9 years, whereas neonates are aged 0 to 1 month, infants are aged 1 to 12 months, and adolescents are aged 10 to 20 years.


hole

en-verb

hole (third-person singular simple present holes, present participle holing, simple past and past participle holed)

holes (present singular third-person)
holing (participle present)
holed (participle past)
holed (past)

Inherited from Middle English hole, hol, from Old English hol (“orifice, hollow place, cavity”), from Proto-West Germanic *hol, from Proto-Germanic *hulą (“hollow space, cavity”), noun derivative of Proto-Germanic *hulaz (“hollow”), which is of uncertain ultimate origin. Related to hollow.

inh

She completely holed the argument.


moon

Sranan Tongo: mun

Tok Pisin: mun

Torres Strait Creole: mun

From Middle English mone, from Old English mōna (“moon”), from Proto-West Germanic *mānō, from Proto-Germanic *mēnô (“moon”), from Proto-Indo-European *mḗh₁n̥s (“moon, month”), probably from *meh₁- (“to measure”).
cognates and doublets
Cognate with Scots mone, mune, muin (“moon”), North Frisian muun (“moon”), West Frisian moanne (“moon”), Dutch maan (“moon”), German Mond (“moon”), Danish måne (“moon”), Norwegian Bokmål måne (“moon”), Norwegian Nynorsk måne (“moon”), Swedish måne (“moon”), Icelandic máni (“moon”), Latin mēnsis (“month”). See also month, a related term within Indo-European.

The stargazer observed the moons of Jupiter for over a year.

That's no moon, you idiot... it's a space station!

(informal, by extension of Moon) Any natural satellite of a planet.

амза

largest natural satellite of planet Earth

tugidax

any substantially sized natural satellite of a planet


mine

en-verb

mine (third-person singular simple present mines, present participle mining, simple past and past participle mined)

mines (present singular third-person)
mining (participle present)
mined (participle past)
mined (past)

From Middle English, from Old French mine, from Late Latin mina, from Gaulish (compare to Welsh mwyn, Irish mianach (“ore”)), from Proto-Celtic *mēnis (“ore, metal”).

(by extension, figurative) To ruin or destroy by slow degrees or secret means.

nakertaa

to ruin or destroy by slow degrees or secret means


handicap

handicap (third-person singular simple present handicaps, present participle handicapping, simple past and past participle handicapped)

handicaps (present singular third-person)
handicapping (participle present)
handicapped (participle past)
handicapped (past)

From hand-in-cap, in reference to holding the game stakes in a cap.

The candidate was handicapped by her lack of experience.

(transitive, figurative, by extension) To place at disadvantage.


superhighway

We cannot and should not be rebuilding old "two lane" sections of the air transport system with segments having "eight lane superhighway" capacity without knowing the full economic, safety, and environmental impacts of the entire air traffic superhighway.

1996, United States Congress House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Subcommittee on Aviation, Computer outages at the Federal Aviation Administration's Air Traffic Control Center in Aurora, Illinois

By 1400, however, Western Europeans had developed their own versions of oceangoing ships, and these transformed the much narrower Atlantic Ocean from a barrier into a superhighway.

2015, Ian Morris, Stephen Macedo, Foragers, Farmers, and Fossil Fuels: How Human Values Evolve

One of them was exploring the possibility of a bicycle superhighway along the River Dodder.

2018, Mikael Colville-Andersen, Copenhagenize: The Definitive Guide to Global Bicycle Urbanism

(by extension) A major route that carries most of the traffic going in a given direction by a specified mode of transportation.


roach

roach (third-person singular simple present roaches, present participle roaching, simple past and past participle roached)

roaches (present singular third-person)
roaching (participle present)
roached (participle past)
roached (past)

Apparently from extended or figurative use of roach (“Cyprinidae”), above. Compare the adjective roached (“styled so that the mane stands up from the neck”).

(transitive, by extension) To cut a person's hair so that it stands straight up.


precise

en-adj

precise (comparative more precise or preciser, superlative most precise or precisest)

more precise (comparative)
preciser (comparative)
most precise (superlative)
precisest (superlative)

From Middle French précis, from Latin praecisus, perfect passive participle of praecīdere, from prae- (“before, in front”) + caedere (“cut; strike”), cognate with English hit. Related to English incise. Doublet of précis.

affix

A memory is "precise" when the occurrences that would verify it are narrowly circumscribed: for instance, "I met Jones" is precise as compared to "I met a man." A memory is "accurate" when it is both precise and true, i.e. in the above instance, if it was Jones I met.

1921, Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind

Individually, some of these definitions fall into the common definitional trap of being overly precise.

2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 7


island

From earlier iland, from Middle English iland, yland, ylond, from Old English īeġland, from Proto-West Germanic *auwjuland, from Proto-Germanic *awjōlandą (from Proto-Germanic *awjō (“island, waterland, meadow”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ekʷeh₂) + *landą (“land”), equivalent to ey + land.
Doublet of Öland. Cognate with Scots island, iland, yland (“island”), West Frisian eilân (“island”), Saterland Frisian Ailound (“island”), Dutch eiland (“island”), Low German Eiland (“island”), German Eiland (“island”), Swedish ö (“island”), Öland (“Sweden's second largest island”), Danish ø (“island”), Norwegian øy (“island”), øyland (“large island”), Icelandic eyland (“island”).
The insertion of ⟨s⟩—a 16th century spelling modification—is due to a change in spelling to the unrelated term isle, which previously lacked s (cf. Middle English ile, yle). The re-addition was mistakenly carried over to include iland as well. Related also to German Aue (“water-meadow”), Latin aqua (“water”). More at ea.

адгьылбжьаха

area of land completely surrounded by water

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

Despite its name, Barry Island is actually a peninsula

(by extension, in place names) A contiguous area of land, smaller than a continent, partially surrounded by water; A peninsula; A half-island.

Dunton island, near Birmingham, is one of the most confusingly labelled islands in the U.K.

In Coventry, you will often hear people say: “Turn right at the island”.

(by extension, West Midlands) A roundabout; a traffic circle.


slim

en-adj

slim (comparative slimmer, superlative slimmest)

slimmer (comparative)
slimmest (superlative)

Borrowing from Low German or Dutch slim (“bad, sly, clever”), from Middle Dutch slim (“bad, crooked”), from Old Dutch *slimb, from Proto-West Germanic *slimb, from Proto-Germanic *slimbaz (“oblique, crooked”). The sense development would have been "slanting, cunning" (Dutch) > "insignificant, slight" and then "thin, graceful" in English, a shift that Liberman calls an "incredible amelioration" of word meaning.
The pejorative sense found in Low German and Dutch is also found preserved in the archaic English noun slim (“worthless or lazy person”), also comparable to the South African use of the adjective as "crafty, sly."
Compare Dutch slim (“smart, clever, crafty”), Middle High German slimp (“slanting, awry”), German schlimm (“bad”), West Frisian slim (“bad, dire”).

cog

(by extension, of clothing) Designed to make the wearer appear slim.


loco

en-verb

loco (third-person singular simple present locos, present participle locoing, simple past and past participle locoed)

locos (present singular third-person)
locoing (participle present)
locoed (participle past)
locoed (past)

From Spanish loco (“insane, crazy; loose”).

They say that he is locoed. The insane asylums of California contain many shepherds.

1904, Charles Dudley Warner, “The Locoed Novelist”, in The Complete Essays of C. D. Warner

(transitive, colloquial, by extension) To render insane.


Bhopal

(by extension) The 1984 leak of toxic gas in this city, resulting in thousands of deaths and over half a million injuries.


sidewalk

→ Cebuano: saydwok

(US, by extension) Any paved footpath, even if not located at the side of a road


fish

en-noun

fish (countable and uncountable, plural fish or fishes)

Sranan Tongo: fisi

→ Chinook Jargon: pish

→ Finnish: fisu

→ Zulu: ufishi

From Middle English fisch, from Old English fisċ (“fish”), from Proto-West Germanic *fisk, from Proto-Germanic *fiskaz (“fish”) (compare West Frisian fisk, Dutch vis, German Fisch, Danish fisk, Norwegian fisk, Swedish fisk, Icelandic fiskur), from Proto-Indo-European *peysk- (“fish”) (compare Irish iasc, Latin piscis).

a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle

a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle

give a man a fish and you feed him for a day

teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime

neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring

neither fish nor flesh, nor good red herring

the cat would eat fish but would not wet her feet

what does that have to do with the price of fish

The whale, the limpet, the tortoise and the oyster… as men have been willing to give them all the name of fishes, it is wisest for us to conform.

1774, Oliver Goldsmith, History of the Earth and Animated Nature, volume IV

Be it known that, waiving all argument, I take the good old fashioned ground that the whale is a fish, and call upon holy Jonah to back me.

(archaic or loosely) Any animal (or any vertebrate) that lives exclusively in water.


beat

→ Pennsylvania German: biede

From Middle English beten, from Old English bēatan (“to beat, pound, strike, lash, dash, thrust, hurt, injure”), from Proto-West Germanic *bautan, from Proto-Germanic *bautaną (“to push, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewd- (“to hit, strike”).
Compare Old Irish fo·botha (“he threatened”), Latin confutō (“I strike down”), fūstis (“stick, club”), Albanian bahe (“sling”), Lithuanian baudžiù, Old Armenian բութ (butʻ)).

der

march to the beat of a different drummer

to walk the beat

There has been a bad business during the night at 3, Lauriston Gardens, off the Brixton Road. Our man on the beat saw a light there about two in the morning, and as the house was an empty one, suspected that something was amiss.

1886, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 3, in A Study in Scarlet

[…]the rise of embedding police into schools – so-called School Resource Officers (SROs), who are employed by the local police, but whose “beat” is a school. Those officers report to the local police department and not the school, and can, and frequently do, have different priorities.

2019 January 29, Mike Masnick, “How My High School Destroyed An Immigrant Kid's Life Because He Drew The School's Mascot”, in Techdirt

(by extension) An area of a person's responsibility, especially

The route patrolled by a police officer or a guard.

As an adult, I became a journalist whose beat is the environment. In a way, I’ve turned my youthful preoccupations into a profession.

2020 April, Elizabeth Kolbert, “Why we won't avoid a climate catastrophehttps://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2020/04/why-we-wont-avoid-a-climate-catastrophe-feature/”, in National Geographic

(journalism) The primary focus of a reporter's stories (such as police/courts, education, city government, business etc.).


song

en-noun

song (countable and uncountable, plural songs)

→ Polish: song

From Middle English song, sang, from Old English sang, from Proto-West Germanic *sangu, from Proto-Germanic *sangwaz (“singing, song”), from Proto-Indo-European *sengʷʰ- (“to sing”). Cognate with Scots sang, song (“singing, song”), Saterland Frisian Song (“song”), West Frisian sang (“song”), Dutch zang (“song”), Low German sang (“song”), German Sang (“singing, song”), Swedish sång (“song”), Norwegian Bokmål sang (“song”), Norwegian Nynorsk song (“song”), Icelandic söngur (“song”), Ancient Greek ὀμφή (omphḗ, “voice, oracle”). More at sing.


gravity

en-noun

gravity (countable and uncountable, plural gravities)

Learned borrowing from Latin gravitās (“weight”) (compare French gravité), from gravis (“heavy”). Doublet of gravitas. First attested in the 16th century.

lbor

Some of the most beautiful and thus appealing physical theories, including quantum electrodynamics and quantum gravity, have been dogged for decades by infinities that erupt when theorists try to prod their calculations into new domains. Getting rid of these nagging infinities has probably occupied far more effort than was spent in originating the theories.

2012 January, Michael Riordan, “Tackling Infinity”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 2012-01-26, page 86

(loosely, see usage notes) Gravitation, the universal force exercised by two bodies onto each other.

swaartekrag

gravitation, gravity force on two mass bodies


pretzel

[ˈpʰɹɛʔt͡sɫ̩]

From dialectal German Pretzel, a variant of standard Brezel, from Old High German brēzitella, from Vulgar Latin *brāchiātellus, diminutive of Latin brāchium, bracchium (“arm”); named for the appearance of folded arms.

(by extension) Anything that is knotted, twisted, or tangled.

solmu

anything that is knotted, twisted, or tangled


bird

→ Esperanto: birdo

From Middle English bird, brid, from Old English bridd (“chick, fledgling, chicken”), of uncertain origin (see Old English bridd for more). Originally from a term used of birds that could not fly (chicks, fledglings, chickens) as opposed to the general Old English term for flying birds, fugol (modern fowl). Gradually replaced fowl as the most common term starting in the 14th century.
The "booing/jeering" and "vulgar hand gesture" senses derived from the expression “to give the big bird”, as in “to hiss someone like a goose”, dated in the mid‐18th century.

inh

a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

it's an ill bird that fouls its own nest

Mike went out with his bird last night.

But all of a sudden though, just through the smoke / It's your bird laughing and joking with a bloke / Ain't just that either, as she moves closer / In a shape what looks like they're lovers, he's tonguing her!

2002, “Geezers need excitement”, in Mike Skinner (lyrics), Original Pirate Material, performed by The Streets

(UK, Ireland, colloquial) A girl or woman, especially one considered sexually attractive.

(UK, Ireland, colloquial, by extension) A girlfriend.


preposition

/ˌpɹɛpəˈzɪʃən/

From Middle English preposicioun, from Old French preposicion, from Latin praepositio, praepositionem, from praepono (“to place before”), equivalent to pre- + position. Compare French préposition. So called because it is placed before the word with which it is phrased, as in a bridge of iron, he comes from town, it is good for food, he escaped by running.

voorsetsel

grammar: a type of word like "of, from, for, by"

ဝိဘတ် (wi.bhat) (postpositional marker, equivalent of a preposition in Burmese)


drove

From Middle English drove, drof, draf, from Old English drāf (“action of driving; a driving out, expulsion; drove, herd, band; company, band; road along which cattle are driven”), from Proto-Germanic *draibō (“a drive, push, movement, drove”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreybʰ- (“to drive, push”). Cognate with Scots drave, dreef (“drove, crowd”), Dutch dreef (“a walkway, wide road with trees, drove”), Middle High German treip (“a drove”), Swedish drev (“a drive, drove”), Icelandic dreif (“a scattering, distribution”). More at drive.

cog

used in some regions of the US, particularly the Midwest

in droves

(figuratively, by extension, usually in the plural) A large number of people on the move.


snail

From the Middle English snaile, snayle, from the Old English sneġel, from Proto-Germanic *snagilaz. Cognate with Low German Snagel,
Snâel, Snâl (“snail”), German Schnegel (“slug”). Compare also Old Norse snigill, from Proto-Germanic *snigilaz.

(informal, by extension) A slow person; a sluggard.


elbow

From Middle English elbowe, from Old English elboga, elnboga (“elbow”), from Proto-Germanic *alinabugô (“elbow”), equivalent to ell + bow. Cognate with Scots elbuck (“elbow”), Saterland Frisian Älbooge (“elbow”), Dutch elleboog (“elbow”), Low German Ellebage (“elbow”), German Ellbogen, Ellenbogen (“elbow”), Danish albue (“elbow”), Icelandic olbogi, olnbogi (“elbow”).

know the difference between one's ass and one's elbow

the sides of windows, where the jamb makes an elbow with the window back

The water runs down with a strong, sharp stickle, and then has a sudden elbow in it, where the small brook trickles in; and on that side the bank is steep, four or it may be five feet high, overhanging loamily; […]

1869, Richard Doddridge Blackmore, Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor

(by extension) Any turn or bend like that of the elbow, in a wall, building, coastline, etc.; an angular or jointed part of any structure, such as the raised arm of a chair or sofa, or a short pipe fitting, turning at an angle or bent.


egg

en-noun

egg (countable and uncountable, plural eggs)

→⇒ German: not the yellow from the egg

Jamaican Creole: eg

Sranan Tongo: eksi

The noun is derived from Middle English eg, egg, egge (“egg of a domestic or wild fowl; egg of a snake”) [and other forms] (originally Northern England and Northeast Midlands), from Old Norse egg (“egg”), from Proto-Germanic *ajją (“egg”) (by Holtzmann’s law), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ōwyóm (“egg”), probably from *h₂éwis (“bird”), from *h₂ew- (“to clothe oneself, dress; to be dressed”) (in the sense of an animal clothed in feathers). Doublet of huevo, oeuf, and ovum.
The native English ey [and other forms] (plural eyren) (obsolete), from Old English ǣġ, is also derived from Proto-Germanic *ajją. It survived into the 16th century before being fully displaced by egg.
The verb is derived from the noun.

ou

thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg

kill the goose that lays the golden eggs

there's more than one way to cook an egg

there's more than one way to crack an egg

An approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, housing the embryo within a membrane or shell during its development.

(by extension, countable) A food item shaped to resemble an egg (sense 1.1.1), such as a chocolate egg.