transgender

→ Catalan: transgènere (calque)

→ Dutch: transgender

→ French: transgenre (calque)

→ German: transgender

→ Japanese: トランスジェンダー (toransujendā)

→ Korean: 트랜스젠더 (teuraenseujendeo)

/ˌtɹænzˈd͡ʒɛndɚ/

The adjective is derived from trans- (prefix meaning ‘extending across, through, or over’) + gender, modelled after transsexual (adjective) and probably modified from transgenderism which was coined by the American psychiatrist John F. Oliven (1915–1975) in 1965; the terms transgender, transgenderal, transgendered, transgenderist, and similar terms arose in the decades after this. By the 1990s, the word transgender had acquired its current senses, and had also largely displaced the earlier term transsexual: see the usage notes.
The noun and verb are derived from the adjective. Regarding noun sense 2 (“synonym of transgenderism”), compare transsex (noun).

transgenero

(broadly) of a person: having a gender (identity) which is different from one’s assigned sex; (strictly) Of a person: having a gender (identity) which is opposite from the sex one was assigned at birth

We have taken to the local radio station, to talk about transgender problems. Carol Fremont is working in this area, and by General Conference we should have some interesting insights and understandings to share regarding transgender persons.

1978 December – 1979 January, J. J., “The Fellowship Family: News and Notes of MCC People and Events around the World”, in F. Jay Deacon, editor, The Gay Christian: A Journal of Theological Reflection from Metropolitan Community Church, Santa Monica, Calif.: Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, →OCLC, page 23, column 2

Christine Jorgensen, the world's first highly publicized transsexual – or "trans-gender" patient – never planned to be famous because of her surgery.

1979 May 3, Pierre Bowman, “Back in showbiz Christine Jorgensen”, in George Chaplin, editor, The Honolulu Advertiser (People Report Section), Honolulu, Hi.: Thurston Twigg-Smith, →ISSN, →OCLC, page B-1, column 3

When Kim Petras teamed up with English singer Sam Smith on "Unholy," a song about male infidelity and betrayal of the ideal of marriage, she may not have expected to make history. But now, the German pop singer Petras is the first transgender woman to win a coveted Grammy in the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category. At the Grammy Awards on February 5, 2023, Petras thanked "transgender legends before me who kicked these doors open for me so that I could be here tonight." […] Back in October 2022, the duo Petras and Smith had already become the first publicly transgender and nonbinary solo artists, respectively, to have reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts with their single.

2023 February 6, Stefan Dege, Louisa Schaefer, “Kim Petras: How the trans artist made history”, in Deutsche Welle, archived from the original on 2023-03-30

(broadly) Of a person: having a gender (identity) which is different from one's assigned sex; that is, the identity of a trans man, trans woman, or someone non-binary, for example, agender, bigender, or third-gender.

Gender identity is whether or not a person perceives him/herself to be a man or woman (see ‘man’ and ‘woman’). The problem arises when a male perceives himself to be a woman, and vise versa. Notice I said man or woman, and not male or female. The difference is important. Male and female are biological terms, while man and woman as they are used here are modes of being, ways to be, which are based on psychology and sociology rather than biology. (see ‘gender dysphoria’) Sexual identity is a ‘transsexual’ issue and may involve sexual re-assignment surgery, but may not involve cross-dressing. Gender identity is a ‘transgender’ issue and does not involve surgery, but almost always involves cross-dressing.

1988, Merissa Sherrill Lynn, “Definitions of Terms Commonly Used in the Transvestite–Transsexual Community”, in Diane Dixon, Jan Dixon, Veronica Brown, editors, The TV–TS Tapestry: The Journal for Persons Interested in Crossdressing & Transsexualism, number 51, Wayland, Mass.: International Foundation for Gender Education, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 22

What is happening in the world at the time, restrictions or freedom in sex-role choices, or in access to clothing fabrics and styles—none of these have much influence on the transgender person’s desire to be the opposite sex.

1990, Louis Sullivan, “Epilogue”, in From Female to Male: The Life of Jack Bee Garland, Boston, Mass.: Alyson Publications, page 174

Biology has a strong effect on whether people identify as female, male, or transgender. A transgender person was born as one biological sex but feels that her true gender identity is that of the other sex. One theory of why gender and biological sex differ for those who are transgender has to do with timing of hormonal events during pregnancy.

2018, Michael S. Gazzaniga, “Human Development”, in Psychological Science, 6th edition, New York, N.Y: W[illiam] W[arder] Norton & Company, page 367

Transgender people, who identify as the opposite gender to the one they were born with, should no longer be considered mentally ill, according to a new UN categorisation. The World Health Organization issued a new catalogue Monday covering 55,000 diseases, injuries and causes of death, in which it discreetly recategorised transgenderism. […] Several countries have already taken steps to reclassify transgenderism and take it off the list of mental disorders, including France and Denmark. Say said she thought the text, which is the result of years of discussion among experts, would easily win approval, despite widespread lack of acceptance of transgender people in many parts of the world.

2018 June 19, “Transgenderism no longer a mental illness: WHO”, in France 24, archived from the original on 2018-06-19

Transgender people report discomfort with their birth sex and a strong identification with the opposite sex. The current study was designed to shed further light on the question of whether the brains of transgender people resemble their birth sex or their gender identity. For this purpose, we analyzed a sample of 24 cisgender men, 24 cisgender women, and 24 transgender women before gender-affirming hormone therapy. We employed a recently developed multivariate classifier that yields a continuous probabilistic (rather than a binary) estimate for brains to be male or female. The brains of transgender women ranged between cisgender men and cisgender women (albeit still closer to cisgender men), and the differences to both cisgender men and to cisgender women were significant (p#x3D;0.016 and p#x3C;0.001, respectively). These findings add support to the notion that the underlying brain anatomy in transgender people is shifted away from their biological sex towards their gender identity.

2022 March, Florian Kurth, Christian Gaser, Francisco J. Sánchez, Eileen Luders, “Brain Sex in Transgender Women Is Shifted towards Gender Identity”, in Journal of Clinical Medicine, volume 11, number 6, Basel, Basel-Stadt: MPDI, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, →PMID, abstract

(strictly) Of a person: having a gender (identity) which is opposite from the sex one was assigned at birth: being assigned male but having a female gender, or vice versa (that is, not including a non-binary identity).

I think the new punk rockers are going to be more androgynous, more bisexual, more transgender, more ethnically diverse and less willing to take shit than before, as well as less homophobic, racist, and sexist, not because it's politically correct, man, but because all of those things stink of a parent's world of authoritarian bullshit that want to deprive people of their individuality.

1992 June, Howlin’ Mad Johann [pseudonym], “[Letter]”, in Maximum Rocknroll, number 109, San Francisco, Calif.: Maximum Rock’n’Roll, →ISSN, →OCLC, page [10], column 2

(loosely) Of a person: transgressing or not identifying with culturally conventional gender roles and categories of male or female.

مُتَحَوِّل جِنْس

of a person: transgressing or not identifying with culturally conventional gender roles and categories of male or female


transgender

en-verb

transgender (third-person singular simple present transgenders, present participle transgendering, simple past and past participle transgendered)

transgenders (present singular third-person)
transgendering (participle present)
transgendered (participle past)
transgendered (past)

/ˌtɹænzˈd͡ʒɛndɚ/

(loosely) To change the sex of (someone).


icon

From Latin īcōn, from Ancient Greek εἰκών (eikṓn, “likeness, image, portrait”). Eastern Orthodox Church sense is attested from 1833. Computing sense first recorded in 1982.

der

That man is an icon in the business; he personifies loyalty and good business sense.

Only a handful of rock musicians have become genuine icons - larger-than-life symbolic figures whose personal triumphs and vicissitudes seem to mirror the ups and downs of rock as a whole, and sometimes of the society that nurtures it. Often, rock icons become the objects of personality cults that tend to overshadow their musical accomplishments.

1981 May 31, Robert Palmer, “Two Icons of Rock Music”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

Barbie is viewed as an icon of American culture in her new biography, Barbie: Her Life and Times (Crown, $25), written by Billy Boy, a clothing and jewelry designer in Paris.

1987 December 23, “Barbie: Doll, Icon Or Sexist Symbol?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

(by extension) A person or thing that is the best example of a certain profession or some doing.


heel

From Middle English hele, from Old English hēla, from Proto-West Germanic *hą̄hilō, from Proto-Germanic *hanhilaz, diminutive of Proto-Germanic *hanhaz (“heel, hock”), equivalent to hock + -le. More at hock.
Compare North Frisian haiel, West Frisian hyl, Dutch hiel, German Low German Hiel, Danish and Norwegian hæl, Swedish häl.

couldn't pour water out of a boot with the instructions on the heel

Freedman began his analysis by noting two important facts about professional wrestling: First, that heels triumph considerably more often than do babyfaces[…]

1992, Bruce Lincoln, Discourse and the Construction of Society, page 158

professional wrestling
professional wrestling

(by extension, slang, professional wrestling) A headlining wrestler regarded as a "bad guy," whose ring persona embodies villainous or reprehensible traits and demonstrates characteristics of a braggart and a bully.


capital

en-noun

capital (countable and uncountable, plural capitals)

From Middle English capital, borrowed partly from Old French capital and partly from Latin capitālis (“of the head”) (in sense “head of cattle”), from caput (“head”) (English cap) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives). Use in trade and finance originated in Medieval economies when a common but expensive transaction involved trading heads of cattle. The noun is from the adjective.
Compare chattel and kith and kine (“all one’s possessions”), which also use “cow” to mean “property”.
Doublet of cattle and chattel.

[ˈkʰæp.ɪ.ɾɫ̩]

(countable, by extension) The chief or most important thing.


cry

The verb is from Middle English crien (13th century), from Old French crier, from Vulgar Latin *crītāre, generally thought to derive from Classical Latin quirītāre (Proto-West Germanic *krītan has also been suggested as a source). The noun corresponds to Middle English cry, crie, from Old French cri, a deverbal of crier.
etymology note
Middle English crien eventually displaced native Middle English galen (“to cry out”) (from Old English galan), Middle English greden (“to cry out”) (from Old English grǣdan), Middle English yermen (“to bellow, mourn, lament”) (from Old English ġierman), Middle English hooen, hoen (“to cry out”) (from Old Norse hóa), Middle English remen (“to cry, shout”) (from Old English hrīeman, compare Old English hrēam (“noise, outcry, lamentation, alarm”)), Middle English greten, graten (“to weep, cry, lament”) (from Old English grǣtan and Old Norse gráta). More at greet, regret.
Already in the 13th century, the meaning was extended to include the sense "to shed tears" (natively weep); cry used in this sense had mostly replaced weep by the 16th century.

cog

(by extension, obsolete, derogatory) A pack or company of people.


awake

From Middle English awake, a shortened form of awaken (“awakened, awake”), past participle of Middle English awaken (“to awaken”). See verb below. Compare Saterland Frisian woak (“awake”), German Low German waak (“awake”), German wach (“awake”).

They were awake to the possibility of a decline in sales.

The Baker was a two-handed hitter, and seemed perfectly awake to the business before him.

1845, The Sportsman's Magazine of Life in London and the Country, page 355

And so we see in our own world a revolution of rising expectations. The great challenge facing every individual graduating today is to remain awake through this social revolution.

1965 June, Martin Luther King, Jr., Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution

(figurative, by extension) Alert, aware.


nose

Sranan Tongo: noso

Aukan: nosu

Saramaccan: núsu

Audio (London, UK)

Audio (UK)

From Middle English nose, from Old English nosu, from Proto-West Germanic *nosu, variant of *nasō, old dual from Proto-Indo-European *néh₂s- ~ *nh₂es- (“nose, nostril”).
See also Saterland Frisian Noose, West Frisian noas, Dutch neus, Swedish nos, Norwegian nos (“snout”), German Low German Nees, Nes, Näs, German Nase, Swedish näsa, Norwegian nese, Danish næse (“nose”); also Latin nāris (“nostril”), nāsus (“nose”), Lithuanian nósis, Russian нос (nos), Sanskrit नासा (nā́sā, “nostrils”).

A successful reporter has a nose for news.

(by extension) Skill at finding information.


sandbox

en-verb

sandbox (third-person singular simple present sandboxes, present participle sandboxing, simple past and past participle sandboxed)

sandboxes (present singular third-person)
sandboxing (participle present)
sandboxed (participle past)
sandboxed (past)

Their team has been sandboxing some ideas recently.

(by extension, transitive, intransitive) To brainstorm; to prototype.


graham cracker

Eponymously from Sylvester Graham, a lecturer on dietetics.

גראם קרקר

sweet cracker made with graham flour and honey

(US, by extension) A sweet rectangular cracker, usually made of graham flour and sweetened with honey (and often spiced with cinnamon) and perforated down the middle.


chat

chat (third-person singular simple present chats, present participle chatting, simple past and past participle chatted)

chat Two people chatting. (canonical)
chats (present singular third-person)
chatting (participle present)
chatted (participle past)
chatted (past)

Abbreviation of chatter. The bird sense refers to the sound of its call.

To exchange text or voice messages in real time through a computer network, as if having a face-to-face conversation.

(by extension, Philippines) To send a text message via Facebook Messenger instead of via SMS.


chat

en-noun

chat (countable and uncountable, plural chats)

(Internet, uncountable, with or without "the") A chat room, especially (in later use) one accompanying a videoconference or live stream.

(by extension, nonstandard, humorous) Familiar term of address for users on social media other than a chat room, as in "guys."


contraction

contraction (countable and uncountable, plural contractions)

PIE word
 *ḱóm
From Late Middle English contraccioun, contraxion (“spasm, contraction; constriction, shrinking; act of pressing together”), from Old French contraction (modern French contraction), from Latin contractiōnem, the accusative singular of contractiō (“a drawing together, contraction; abridgement, shortening; dejection, despondency”), from contrahō (“to draw things together, assemble, collect, gather; to enter into a contract”) + -tiō (suffix forming nouns relating to actions or their results); contrahō is derived from con- (prefix denoting a bringing together of objects) + trahō (“to drag, pull”) (probably from Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- (“to drag, pull; to run”)). The English word is analysable as contract + -ion (suffix denoting actions or processes, or their results).

verkleining

Senses relating to pulling together or shortening.

A (sometimes reversible) contracting or reduction in length, scope, size, or volume; a narrowing, a shortening, a shrinking.

(by extension) A shorthand symbol indicating an omission for the purpose of brevity.

en:reduction in size
en:shorthand symbol


flesh

en-noun

flesh (usually uncountable, plural fleshes)

From Middle English flesh, flesch, flæsch, from Old English flǣsċ, from Proto-West Germanic *flaiski, from Proto-Germanic *flaiski, from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁ḱ- (“to tear, peel off”).

der

(by extension) Bare arms, bare legs, bare torso.


claque

Borrowed from French claque (“group of people hired to applaud or boo, claque”, literally “a slap; a clap”).

clique

another type of ingroup with biased interests

The most obvious gay connection to opera is the cult of the diva. Stauncher even than the fans of Garland of Striesand, the claques of Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland (among others) have been fanatical in their devotion. Going beyond the usual "appreciation stage" the fans glorify and deify their stars: Callas was "La Divina," Sutherland "La Stupenda."

1981 December 5, Michael Bronski, “Coming (Out) to Opera”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 20, page 6

(by extension)
A group of fawning admirers.

A group of people who pre-arrange among themselves to express strong support for an idea, so as to give the false impression of a wider consensus.


figure of speech

en-noun

figure of speech (plural figures of speech)

I hope you didn't take it the wrong way, that was a figure of speech.

(loosely) A turn of phrase that ought not to be taken literally, but rather as employed for convenience of expression only.


palm

From Middle English palme, from Old English palm, palma (“palm-tree, palm-branch”), from Latin palma (“palm-tree, palm-branch, palm of the hand”), from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₂meh₂, *pl̥h₂emeh₂ (“palm of the hand”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat”). Cognate with Dutch palm, German Palme, Danish palme, Icelandic pálmur (“palm”).

der

(figurative, by extension) Triumph; victory.


zenith

From Middle English cenyth, from Medieval Latin cenit, from Arabic سَمْت (samt, “direction, path”), from the fuller form سَمْت اَلرَّأْس (samt ar-raʔs, “direction of the head”). The -ni- for -m- is sometimes thought to be due to a misreading of the three strokes, which is plausible, though it could be a mere phonetic approximation.

Winning the continental championship was the zenith of my career.

There for a while I enjoyed myself in the zenith of glory and pleasure.

1900, William Beckford, The History of the Caliph Vathek, page 173

(by extension) Highest point or state; peak.


continent

Borrowed from Latin continens, noun use of present participle of continēre (“to contain”).

(obsolete in general sense) A large contiguous landmass as opposed to its islands, peninsulas, and so forth; mainland. Also specifically, the Old World continent of Europe–Asia–Africa: see the Continent.


forget

en-verb

forget (third-person singular simple present forgets, present participle forgetting, simple past forgot or (obsolete) forgat, past participle forgotten or (archaic or colloquial) forgot)

forgets (present singular third-person)
forgetting (participle present)
forgot (past)
forgat (obsolete past)
forgotten (participle past)
forgot (colloquial participle past)

From Middle English forgeten, forgiten, foryeten, forȝiten, from Old English forġietan (“to forget”) [influenced by Old Norse geta ("to get, to guess")], from Proto-West Germanic *fragetan (“to give up, forget”). Equivalent to for- + get.
Cognate with :
* Scots forget, forȝet (“to forget”),
* West Frisian fergette, ferjitte, forjitte (“to forget”),
* Dutch vergeten (“to forget”),
* German vergessen (“to forget”).

inh

forget to take one's medication this morning

People forget how much work goes into what we do.

(transitive, loosely, informal) To not realize something (regardless of whether one has ever known it).


headbanger

(by extension) One who enjoys heavy metal (rock) music, to which this sort of dance is usually performed.


human

From Late Middle English humayne, humain, from Middle French humain, from Old French humain, umain, from Latin hūmānus m (“of or belonging to a man, human, humane”, adjective), from homo, with unclear ū. Spelling human has been predominant since the early 18th century. Not etymologically related to man.

der

(broadly) Any hominid of the genus Homo.


keep

en-verb

keep (third-person singular simple present keeps, present participle keeping, simple past and past participle kept)

keeps (present singular third-person)
keeping (participle present)
kept (participle past)
kept (past)

From Middle English kepen (“to keep, guard, look after, watch”), from Old English cēpan (“to seize, hold, observe”), from Proto-West Germanic *kōpijan, from Proto-Germanic *kōpijaną (“to look, heed, watch, observe”) (compare West Frisian kypje (“to look”)), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵab-, *ǵāb- (“to look after”) (compare Lithuanian žẽbti (“to eat reluctantly”), Russian забо́та (zabóta, “care, worry”)).

inh

keep one's breath to cool one's porridge

the family that sleeps together keeps together

who keeps company with the wolf will learn to howl

[…] 'tis hallowed ground;
No Maid seeks here her strayed Cow, or Sheep,
Fairies, and fawns, and satyrs do it keep:

c. 1608, John Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess, Act III, Scene 1

(transitive, dated, by extension) To visit (a place) often; to frequent.


bet

From 16th-century criminal slang, likely from abet or Old English bætan (“to make better”); or from Old French abeter (“to entice”), from a- (“to”) + beter (“hound on, urge, to bait”); but in either case ultimately from Proto-Germanic. More at abet.

(Philippines, figuratively, informal, by extension) A candidate (for elections and pageants) or competitor (in multinational sports).


race

en-noun

race (countable and uncountable, plural races)

1560s, via Middle French race from Italian razza (early 14th century), of uncertain origin.
theories
* Diez and some other scholars suggest derivation from Proto-Germanic *raitō (whence Old High German reiza (“line”) and Old Norse ríta (“to score, log, outline”)), perhaps via Lombardic *raiza (“line”), which Körting notes is a literal rendering of Latin linea sanguinis (“bloodline of descent”). Anatoly Liberman says "the semantic fit is good" but the chronology falters; he says the Germanic word went out of use before the Italian word arose, and he says the intermediary is not attested.
* Some scholars suggest derivation from Old Spanish raza, rasa, from earlier ras, res (“head of cattle”), from Arabic رَأْس (raʔs, “head”), but Italian razza predates the Spanish word according to Diez and Meyer-Lübke.
* Meyer-Lübke suggested Latin generatio as the root; Körting says "the disappearance of two initial syllables hardly seems credible", but Meyer-Lübke notes the Venetian form narazza and the Old Bellunesian form naraccia, positing that after the first syllable ge- was lost, the remaining (una) narazza came to be reanalysed as una razza.
* Gianfranco Contini suggests the Italian word comes from Old French haraz (“troop of horses”), whence Modern French haras (“breeding farm for horses; stud farm”), from Old Norse hárr (“grey-haired; hoary”). Liberman considers this derivation the most likely.
* Other suggested Latin etyma:
** radius (perhaps via Vulgar Latin *radia) (per Baist).
** radix (“root”) (per Ulrich); Liberman says "the semantic match is excellent", and race (“rhizome of ginger”) (which definitely derives from radix) shows that the phonology is plausible.
** *raptiare (“breed falcons”) (per Körting).
** The nominative of ratio (perhaps via an unattested intermediate form *razzo), as opposed to ragione which derives from the accusative rationem.
* Other implausible suggestions include Slavic raz and Basque arraca, supposedly meaning "stud animal" (Basque arrazza, "race", derives from Spanish).

raça

a group of sentient beings distinguished by common characteristics

عِرْق

a large group of people distinguished from others on the basis of physical characteristics

raça

a group of organisms distinguished by common characteristics

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, / Great chieftain o the puddin'-race!

1786, Robert Burns, Address to the Haggis

(by extension) A category or kind of thing distinguished by common characteristics.


catch

en-noun

catch (countable and uncountable, plural catches)

From Middle English cacchen, from Anglo-Norman cachier, variant of Old French chacier, from Late Latin captiāre, from Latin captāre, frequentative of capere. Akin to Modern French chasser (from Old French chacier) and Spanish cazar, and thus a doublet of chase. Compare ketch. Displaced Middle English fangen ("to catch"; > Modern English fang (verb)), from Old English fōn (“to seize, take”); Middle English lacchen ("to catch" and heavily displaced Modern English latch), from Old English læċċan.
The verb became irregular, possibly under the influence of the semantically similar latch (from Old English læċċan), whose past tense was lahte, lauhte, laught (Old English læhte), until becoming regularised in Modern English.

gloss

Did you see his latest catch?

He's a good catch.

Aaaugh! Just once, I wish I could be considered a catch by men younger than fifty...

2014 July 10, Jocelyn Samara D., Rain (webcomic), Comic 561 - A Catch

(countable, colloquial, by extension) A find, in particular a boyfriend or girlfriend or prospective spouse.

хващане

a find, in particular a boyfriend/girlfriend


law

en-noun

law (countable and uncountable, plural laws)

From Middle English lawe, laȝe, from Old English lagu (“law”), borrowed from Old Norse lǫg (“law”, literally “things laid down or firmly established”), originally the plural of lag (“layer, stratum, a laying in order, measure, stroke”), from Proto-Germanic *lagą (“that which is laid down”), from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie”). Cognate with Scots law (“law”), Icelandic lög (“things laid down, law”), Faroese lóg (“law”), Norwegian lov (“law”), Swedish lag (“law”), Danish lov (“law”), Finnish laki (“law”). Replaced Old English ǣ and ġesetnes. More at lay.
Not related to legal, nor to French loi, Spanish ley, all of which ultimately derive from Latin lēx, from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to gather”).

азакуан

body of rules established in a community by its authorities

"Do unto others as you wish them to do unto you" is a good law to follow.

the law of self-preservation

Any rule that must or should be obeyed, concerning behaviours and their consequences. (Compare mores.)

the laws of playwriting and poetry

The normal pronoun to use with "spirit" would be "it." But Jesus breaks the law of grammar and says not "when it," but "when he."

1997, Derek Prince, If you Want God's Best

A rule or principle regarding the construction of language or art.

Observing pi is easier than studying physical phenomena, because you can prove things in mathematics, whereas you can't prove anything in physics. And, unfortunately, the laws of physics change once every generation.

1992 March 2, Richard Preston, “The Mountains of Pi”, in The New Yorker

the laws of thermodynamics

Newton's third law of motion states that to every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction.

This is one of several laws derived from his general theory expounded in the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica.

A statement (in physics, etc) of an (observed, established) order or sequence or relationship of phenomena which is invariable under certain conditions. (Compare theory.)

قَانُون

statement of (observed, established) order, sequence or relationship of phenomena

Mathematical laws can be proved purely through mathematics, without scientific experimentation.

(mathematics, logic) A statement (of relation) that is true under specified conditions; a mathematical or logical rule.

օրենք

mathematics: statement that is true under specified conditions

the law of scarcity

the law of supply and demand

Any statement of the relation of acts and conditions to their consequences.

Grimm's law

Dahl's law

(linguistics) A sound law; a regular change in the pronunciation of a language.

(cricket) One of the official rules of cricket as codified by the its (former) governing body, the MCC.


ponderous

en-adj

ponderous (comparative more ponderous, superlative most ponderous)

more ponderous (comparative)
most ponderous (superlative)

Ultimately from Latin ponderōsus (“weighty”).

It was Dryden's opinion . . . that the drama required an alternation of comick and tragick scenes; and that it is necessary to mitigate, by alleviations of merriment, the pressure of ponderous events, and the fatigue of toilsome passions.

1781, Samuel Johnson, “Dryden”, in Lives of the Poets

In its court-yard—worthy of the Castle of Otranto in its ponderous gloom—is a massive staircase.

1845, Charles Dickens, chapter 11, in Pictures From Italy

For the time, her own body was the source of all the life in the world, which tried to burst forth here—there—and was repressed now by Mr. Bax, now by Evelyn, now by the imposition of ponderous stupidity.

1915, Virginia Woolf, chapter 19, in The Voyage Out

(figuratively, by extension) Serious, onerous, oppressive.


iconoclast

Borrowed from French iconoclaste, from Byzantine Greek εἰκονοκλάστης (eikonoklástēs, literally “image breaker”). By surface analysis, icon + -clast.

der

εἰκονοκλάστης

After all, the fact that any discussion of the possibility is greeted with hysterical revulsion guarantees that only two types of people will take the "pro" side in public: fearless iconoclasts who do not care what anyone thinks of them; and racists.

2007 November 29, Megan McArdle, “Ugly questions”, in The Atlantic

Coming so soon after the death of David Bowie, it’s a moment to consider how deeply important iconoclasts are to the evolution of a culture. Do they change the world by trying to change it, or do they change the world through the radical act of simply being themselves?

2016 April 21, Spencer Kornhaber, “Prince the Immortal”, in The Atlantic

Relishing the role of iconoclast, he confounded the scientific establishment by dismissing the consensus about the perils of man-made climate change as “tribal group-thinking.”

2020 February 28, George Johnson, “Freeman Dyson, Math Genius Turned Technological Visionary, Dies at 96”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

(by extension) One who attacks cherished beliefs; a maverick.


brief

From Middle English breef, breve, bref, from Old French brief, bref, from Latin brevis (“short”), from Proto-Indo-European *mréǵʰus (“short, brief”). Doublet of merry.

Mrs. Hope was, we believe, a convert to the Roman Catholic Church, and neither she nor her editor conceals the fact that they hold a brief for the Pope and for Catharine against Henry VIII.

1894 August 18, “The First Divorce of Henry VIII [book review]”, in The Speaker, volume 10, page 192

(by extension, figurative) A position of interest or advocacy.


weather

en-verb

weather (third-person singular simple present weathers, present participle weathering, simple past and past participle weathered)

weathers (present singular third-person)
weathering (participle present)
weathered (participle past)
weathered (past)

From Middle English weder, wedir, from Old English weder, from Proto-West Germanic *wedr, from Proto-Germanic *wedrą, from Proto-Indo-European *wedʰrom (=*we-dʰrom), from *h₂weh₁- (“to blow”).
Cognates
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Weeder, West Frisian waar, Dutch weer, Low German Weder, German Wetter, Danish vejr, Swedish väder, Norwegian Bokmål vær, Norwegian Nynorsk vêr, Icelandic veður; also more distantly related to Russian вёдро (vjódro, “fair weather”) and perhaps Albanian vrëndë (“light rain”).
Other cognates include Sanskrit निर्वाण (nirvāṇa, “blown or put out, extinguished”).

cog

April 18, 1850, Frederick William Robertson, An Address Delivered to the Members of the Working Man's Institute
You will weather the difficulties yet.

Some observers have contrasted China with the US, whose economy has weathered the post-Covid recovery better. Until recently, Americans may have feared the day China would overtake them as the world's largest economy, but now analysts doubt if this will happen.

2023 November 15, Tessa Wong, “Xi Jinping arrives in US as his Chinese Dream sputters”, in BBC

(by extension) To sustain the trying effect of; to bear up against and overcome; to endure; to resist.


slay

en-verb

slay (third-person singular simple present slays, present participle slaying, simple past slew or slayed, past participle slain or slayed or (obsolete) yslain)

slays (present singular third-person)
slaying (participle present)
slew (past)
slayed (past)
slain (participle past)
slayed (participle past)
yslain (obsolete participle past)

From Middle English sleen, slayn, from Old English slēan (“to strike, beat, smite, stamp, forge, sting, slay, kill, impact”), from Proto-West Germanic *slahan, from Proto-Germanic *slahaną (“to fight, strike, kill”), from Proto-Indo-European *slak- (“to hit, strike, throw”).
Cognate with Dutch slaan (“to beat, hit, strike”), Low German slaan (“hit, strike”), German schlagen (“to beat, hit, strike”), Danish, Norwegian and Swedish slå (“to knock, beat, strike”), Icelandic slá (“to strike”). Related to slaughter, onslaught.

cog

1956 December 31, “Giants Slay Bears in Pro Title Battle”, in Lodi News-Sentinel, page 8:

1985 November 19, “Redskins slay Giants; Thiesmann shatters leg”, in The Gadsden Times, pages D1-5:

The Yankees were actually slayed by two former Yankees because Rich Gossage pitched one scoreless inning in relief of Eckersley to notch his first victory.

1993 April 21, Jack Curry, “Yanks’ Bullpen Falls Short Again”, in The New York Times

(transitive, by extension, hyperbolic, informal) To defeat; to overcome (in a competition or contest).


freight

en-verb

freight (third-person singular simple present freights, present participle freighting, simple past and past participle freighted)

freights (present singular third-person)
freighting (participle present)
freighted (participle past)
freighted (past)
freight (infinitive)

The verb is derived from Late Middle English freighten, freghten, a variant of fraughten, fraghten (“to load (a ship with cargo or passengers); to hire (a ship) for transporting goods; to provide fully (with goods, money, etc.); to stow away”), and then either:
* from fraught, fraght (noun) (see etymology 1) + -en (suffix forming the infinitive form of verbs); or
* from Middle Dutch vrachten, vrechten (“to load (a ship with cargo or passengers); to hire (a ship) for transporting goods, to fraught”), from vracht, vrecht (noun) (see etymology 1) + -en (suffix forming the infinitive form of verbs).
The adjective is:
* derived from Middle English freght, freight, freyght, the past participle of fraughten (verb) (see above); and/or
* a contraction of freighted, the past participle of the verb.

[W]hat though it is thou [i.e., sensibility] that rendereſt anguiſh more frequent, that filleſt the eye with the ſympathetic tear! yet is it not thou that ſwelleſt it with the tear of joy, and freighteſt the heart beyond the power of utterance,— […]

1783 October, Castalic [pseudonym], “The Essayist. Number XVI. Sensibility, a Rhapsody.”, in The Lady’s Magazine; or Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex. Appropriated Solely to Their Use and Amusement, volume XIV, London: […] G[eorge] Robinson, […], →OCLC, page 546, column 1

Love, that fulfilleth his heart with glee,
Love, that freighteth his breast with sighs,
Love that must madden both you and me:— […]

1883 December, [Henry] Austin Dobson, “The Ballad of the Judgment of Paris”, in [W. H. Forman], editor, The Manhattan: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine, volume II, number VI, New York, N.Y.: The Manhattan Magazine Company, →OCLC, stanza 3, page 539

(by extension) To load or store (goods, etc.).


dupe

The dupe lived up to expectation in our head-to-head review, where we concluded that Revolution’s affordable formula is a “perfectly worthy alternative that won’t see you digging too deep into your pocket.”

2023 February 21, Daisy Lester, “Revolution has launched a £10 alternative to Charlotte Tilbury’s £65 magic serum”, in The Independent

(informal, by extension) A cheap consumer product intended to imitate a more expensive product.


bug

First attested in this form around 1620 (referring to a bedbug), from earlier bugge (“beetle”), a conflation of two words:
# Middle English bugge (“scarecrow, hobgoblin”), perhaps from obsolete Welsh bwg ("ghost, hobgoblin"; compare Welsh bwgwl ("threat", older "fear")) or from Proto-Germanic *bugja- (“swollen up, thick”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew-, *bu- (“to swell”) (compare Norwegian bugge (“big man”), dialectal Low German Bögge (“goblin”, “snot”)). Or, from a word related to buck and originally referring to a goat-shaped spectre.
# Middle English budde (“beetle”), from Old English budda (see sċearnbudda (“dung beetle”)), from Proto-Germanic *buddô, *buzdô, from the same ultimate source as above (compare Low German Budde (“louse, grub”), Norwegian budda (“newborn domestic animal”)). More at bud.
The term is used to refer to technical errors and problems at least as early as the 19th century, predating the commonly known story of a moth being caught in a computer.

cog

given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow

(slang, US, horse-racing, by extension) A young apprentice jockey.


behemoth

/ˈbiː.əˌməθ/

From Middle English behemoth, bemoth, from Late Latin behemoth, from Hebrew בְּהֵמוֹת (behemót). Most likely, the Hebrew word is an intensive plural of בְּהֵמָה (behemá, “beast”), from Proto-Semitic (compare Ge'ez ብህመ (bəhmä, “to be dumb, to be speechless”), Arabic ب ه م (b-h-m)). Some have instead suggested a borrowing from a hypothetical Egyptian pA-i-H-E1-mw (*pꜣ-jḥ-mw, “hippopotamus”, literally “the ox of the water”), from pꜣ (“definite article”) + jḥ (“ox, cattle”) + mw (“water”) in a direct genitive construction (for the pronunciation, compare the later Coptic descendants ⲡ- (p-) + ⲉϩⲉ (ehe) + ⲙⲟⲟⲩ (moou)); this, however, suffers from problems such as the lack of attestation of the supposed etymon, and there seems little reason to prefer it to the intensive plural explanation.

der

<i class="Latn mention" lang="egy">*pꜣ-jḥ-mw</i>

Next she doused the smouldering troll with the contents of the restaurant's fire extinguisher, hoping the icy powder wouldn't revive the sleeping behemoth.

2001, Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl, page 58

(by extension) Any great and mighty monster.


arcane

en-adj

arcane (comparative more arcane, superlative most arcane)

more arcane (comparative)
most arcane (superlative)

Borrowed from Latin arcānus (“hidden, secret”), from arceō (“to shut up, enclose”); cognate with Latin arca (“a chest”).

arcane origins

arcane details


card

en-noun

card (countable and uncountable, plural cards)

→ Bengali: কার্ড (karḍo)

→ Burmese: ကတ် (kat)

→ Chinese: 卡 (kǎ)

→ Gujarati: કાર્ડ (kārḍ)

→ Hausa: kati

→ Hindi: कार्ड (kārḍ)

→ Italian: card

→ Japanese: カード (kādo)

→ Korean: 카드 (kadeu)

→ Malay: kad

→ Pashto: کارډ (kārḍ)

Pitcairn-Norfolk: kaad

→ Sinhalese: කාඩ් (kāḍ)

→ Swahili: kadi

→ Tagalog: kard

→ Urdu: کارڈ (kārḍ)

From Middle English carde (“playing card”), from Old French carte, from Latin charta, from Ancient Greek χάρτης (khártēs, “paper, papyrus”). Doublet of chart.

der

This will be a good card for the last day of the fair.

(dated, figurative, by extension) An attraction or inducement.


woke

en-adj

woke (not generally comparable, comparative more woke or woker, superlative most woke or wokest)

more woke (comparative)
woker (comparative)
most woke (superlative)
wokest (superlative)

→ Dutch: woke

→ German: woke

→ Swedish: woke

Shortened from woken or woke(n) up, or dialectal use of woke (past participle of wake, see Etymology 2 below). The sense of being aware of social injustice dates to at least the 1930s.

But the cultural conflict between these two post-revolutionary styles — between frat guys and feminist bluestockings, Gamergaters and the diversity police, alt-right provocateurs and “woke” dudebros, the mouthbreathers who poured hate on the all-female “Ghostbusters” and the tastemakers who pretended it was good — is likely here to stay.

2016 August 14, Ross Douthat, “A Playboy for President”, in The New York Times

Like, if I tweet or hashtag about how you didn’t do something right or used the wrong verb, then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself, cause, "Man, you see how woke I was, I called you out." That’s not activism. That’s not bringing about change.

2019 October 29, Emily S. Rueb, Derrick Bryson Taylor, quoting Barack Obama, “Obama on Call-Out Culture: ‘That’s Not Activism’”, in The New York Times

If this were actually true, you would expect real traction for the wokest candidates in the Democratic presidential race. But it’s been just the opposite. The woke candidates have been the weakest, electorally speaking, and the defining attribute of the Democratic primary has been a preoccupation with the voters that put Trump in the White House.

2019 December 6, Jamelle Bouie, “Why the ‘Wokest’ Candidates Are the Weakest”, in The New York Times

[Kevin Smith is] also baffled by some of the accusations that he tried to make the franchise “woke” by focusing on Teela.

2021 July 26, Lauren Sarner, “Kevin Smith on ‘Masters of the Universe’ and fan backlash”, in New York Post

Rightwing Tory MPs should stop portraying concerns over the climate and nature as “woke”, and understand that voters are deeply concerned about the crisis, the Conservative minister Zac Goldsmith has warned.

2022 November 15, Fiona Harvey, quoting Zac Goldsmith, “‘Stupid’ to equate climate concerns with being woke, says Zac Goldsmith”, in The Guardian

(by extension, politics, slang, often derogatory) Holding progressive views or attitudes, principally with regard to social justice.

politisk korrekt

politically correct; stereotypically leftist


stank

en-verb

stank (third-person singular simple present stanks, present participle stanking, simple past and past participle stanked)

stanks (present singular third-person)
stanking (participle present)
stanked (participle past)
stanked (past)

From Old French estanc, (French étang), from Latin stagnum (“a pool”). Compare stagnant, stagnate.

They never dreamed of using a float; I doubt if there was such a thing in the whole valley; but they “stanked' their rods in the bank, with the line heavily shotted and arranged so that the hook was just clear of the bottom, the line being at right angles to the point of the rod.

1895, G. Christopher Davies, “The Dee”, in The Badminton Magazine of Sports & Pastimes, volume 1, page 251

Should the depth of water on a vessel's deck be considered too deep for this method, the ship has to be stanked, or raised upon–that is to say, balks of timber have to be bolted or secured to her waterways; thick planks have to be fastened to the balks, so that they come above water, and then they are decked across, and the whole is made watertight with canvas or oakum.

1898, Captain James Bell, “Raising Sunken Vessels”, in Cassier's Magazine: An Engineering Monthly, volume 14, page 331

I see your little desert-busted ankle boots and holy kid blankets, winter uniforms all stanked in must and I can't sleep here and I love your crap and I can't make a bed without you— the fitted sheet is a one-person nightmare.

2018, Derrick C. Brown, Hello. It Doesn't Matter.

The writer was obliged, a few months ago, to open out a whole district which had been "stanked off " ( as the phrase of the district is ) for over a year, and on approaching the old air-way the heat became intolerable and the fire was burning as badly as ever.

1884, North of England Institute of Mining Engineers, Transactions - Volume 33, page 155

From your experience then, taking into account the fact that you have a fiery and dusty mine to deal with, would you prefer to stank off as soon as there is the slightest evidence of any natural heating, either by smell or vapour or anything else, or would you prefer to run the risk of having to cope with filling out a large quantity of debris to get at the fire?

1916, Great Britain. Home Office, First Report of the Departmental Committee on Spontaneous Combustion of Coal in Mines, page 176

If a gob-fire were more or less effectively stanked off, so that they had plenty of time for the work, he could quite see what a very useful adjunct cementation would be in that case.

1917, Institution of Mining Engineers (Great Britain), Transactions - Volume 53, page 32

The process of methane removal at the pretreatment or exploitation stage, or methane outlets from the stanked areas, are carried out in about half of them.

1996, T.S. Golosinski, Guo Yuguang, Mining Science and Technology, page 19

(by extension, mining) To seal off an area of the mine in which a fire has started.


curtain

Inherited from Middle English curtine, from Old French cortine, from Late Latin cōrtīna (“curtain”), a calque from Ancient Greek.

He took so long to shave his head that we arrived 45 minutes after curtain and were denied late entry.

(theater, by extension) The beginning of a show; the moment the curtain rises.


complex

From French complexe, from Latin complexus, past participle of complector (“I entwine, encircle, compass, infold”), from com- (“together”) and plectere (“to weave, braid”). May be analyzed as com- + -plex. See complect. Doublet of complexus.

համալիր

assemblage of related things, collection

coordination complex

coordinated complex, metal complex, Werner complex

Jim has a real complex about working for a woman boss.

(informal, by extension) A vehement, often excessive psychological dislike or fear of a particular thing.


rake

From Middle English rake [and other forms], from Old English raca, racu, ræce (“tool with a row of pointed teeth, rake”), from Proto-Germanic *rakō, *rekô (“tool with a row of pointed teeth, rake”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to straighten, right oneself”).
cognates
The English word is cognate with Danish rage (chiefly regional), Middle Dutch rāke, rēke (modern Dutch raak, reek (both regional), riek (“pitchfork, rake”)), Middle Low German rāke, racke (modern German Low German Raak (“rake; poker”)), Old High German rehho, rech (Middle High German reche, modern German Rechen (“rake”)), Old Norse reka (“shovel”) (modern Icelandic reka (“shovel”)), Old Saxon recho, Old Swedish raka (modern Swedish raka (“rake; (long) straight section of a road”)).

cog

(by extension) A similarly shaped tool used for other purposes.

(gambling) A tool with a straight edge at the end used by a croupier to move chips or money across a gaming table.

A type of lockpick that has a ridged or notched blade that moves across the pins in a pin tumbler lock, causing them to settle into a shear line.


burn

en-verb

burn (third-person singular simple present burns, present participle burning, simple past and past participle burned or (mostly Commonwealth) burnt or (obsolete) brent)

burns (present singular third-person)
burning (participle present)
burned (participle past)
burned (past)
burnt (Commonwealth participle past)
burnt (Commonwealth past)
brent (obsolete participle past)
brent (obsolete past)
burn (infinitive)

Sranan Tongo: bron

Aukan: boon

From Middle English bernen, birnen, from Old English birnan (“to burn”), metathesis from Proto-West Germanic *brinnan, from Proto-Germanic *brinnaną (“to burn”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrenw-, present stem from *bʰrewh₁-. Doublet of brew.
See also Middle Irish brennim (“drink up”), bruinnim (“bubble up”); also Middle Irish bréo (“flame”), Albanian burth (“Cyclamen hederifolium, mouth burning”), Sanskrit भुरति (bhurati, “moves quickly, twitches, fidgets”). More at brew.

verbranden

chemistry: to cause to combine with oxygen or other active agent

My old DVD player could play DivX files but didn't recognize the subtitle file, so I had to burn them in.

(transitive, computing, by extension) To render subtitles into a video's content while transcoding it, making the subtitles part of the image.


bubble

Partly imitative, also influenced by burble. Compare Middle Dutch bobbe (“bubble”) > Dutch bubbel (“bubble”), Low German bubbel (“bubble”), Danish boble (“bubble”), Swedish bubbla (“bubble”). The word was first used in its economic sense in association with the collapse of the South Sea Company in 1720, based on the metaphor of an inflated soap bubble bursting.

onom

imitative

(by extension) Anything resembling a hollow sphere.


bull

en-noun

bull (countable and uncountable, plural bulls)

bear

investor who sells in anticipation of a fall in prices

From Middle English bole, bul, bule, from a conflation of Old English bula (“bull, steer”) and Old Norse boli, both from Proto-Germanic *bulô (“bull”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰl̥no-, from *bʰel- (“to blow, swell up”). Cognate with West Frisian bolle, Dutch bul, German Low German Bull, German Bulle, Swedish bulla; also Old Irish ball (“limb”), Latin follis (“bellows, leather bag”), Thracian βόλινθος (vólinthos, “wild bull”), Macedonian вол (vol, "ox"), Slovene vol ("ox"), Albanian buall (“buffalo”) or related bolle (“testicles”), Ancient Greek φαλλός (phallós, “penis”).

cog

rozzer. See also Thesaurus:police officer

An adult male of domesticated cattle or oxen.

(loosely) Any bovine of an aggressive or long-horned breed regardless of age and sex.


sell

From Middle English sellen, from Old English sellan (“give; give up for money”), from Proto-West Germanic *salljan, from Proto-Germanic *saljaną, from Proto-Indo-European *selh₁-. Compare Danish sælge, Swedish sälja, Icelandic selja.

inh

This is going to be a tough sell.

(figurative, by extension) The promotion of an idea for acceptance.


attack

Borrowed from French attaque, derived from the verb attaquer, from Italian attaccare (“to join, attach”) (used in attaccare battaglia (“to join battle”)), from Frankish *stakka (“stick”). Doublet of attach. Displaced native Old English on rǣsan (“to attack”) and onrǣs (“an attack”).

Having washed the plates from dinner, I made an attack on the laundry.

(informal, by extension) The beginning of active operations on anything.


stiff

en-noun

stiff (countable and uncountable, plural stiffs)

From Middle English stiff, stiffe, stif, from Old English stīf, from Proto-West Germanic *stīf, from Proto-Germanic *stīfaz, from Proto-Indo-European *steypós.
See also West Frisian stiif, Dutch stijf, Norwegian Bokmål stiv, German steif; also Latin stīpes, stīpō, from which English stevedore.
The expected Modern English form would be /staɪf/; /stɪf/ is probably originally from compounds such as stiffly, where the vowel was shortened before a consonant cluster.

(US, slang, by extension) A customer who does not leave a tip.


slide

→ Czech: slajd

→ Japanese: スライド (suraido)

→ Persian: اسلاید (eslâyd)

→ Polish: slajd

→ Portuguese: slide

From Middle English sliden, from Old English slīdan (“to slide”), from Proto-West Germanic *slīdan, from Proto-Germanic *slīdaną (“to slide, glide”), from Proto-Indo-European *sléydʰ-e-ti, from *sleydʰ- (“slippery”). Cognate with Old High German slītan (“to slide”) (whence German schlittern), Middle Low German slīden (“to slide”), Middle Dutch slīden (“to slide”) (whence Dutch slijderen, frequentative of now obsolete slijden), Vedic Sanskrit स्रेधति (srédhati, “to err, blunder”).

cog

I still need to prepare some slides for my presentation tomorrow.

(by extension, computing) A page of a computer presentation package such as PowerPoint.


sovereignty

en-noun

sovereignty (countable and uncountable, plural sovereignties)

PIE word
 *upér
From Late Middle English sovereynte, souvereynte [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman sovereyneté, soverentee, and Old French soveraineté, souveraineté (modern French souveraineté), from soverain + -té (suffix forming nouns, often denoting a property or quality). Soverain is derived from Vulgar Latin *superānus (“chief; sovereign”), from Latin super (“above; on top of”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *upér (“above, over”)) + -ānus (“suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’, usually denoting a relationship of origin, position, or possession”)). The English word is analysable as sovereign + -ty (suffix forming abstract nouns from adjectives).

nb...

soueraynete, soueraynte, souereynte, sovereinete, soverente, sufferaigntie, suffranti, suffrauntè, suffreinte

suffix

On the other hand, the nationalitarian phenomenon is one in which 'the struggle against the imperialist powers of occupation has as its object, beyond the clearing of the national territory, the independence and sovereignty of the national State, uprooting in depth the positions of the ex-colonial power – the reconquest of the power of decision in all domains of national life, the prelude to that reconquest of identity which is at the heart of the renaissance undertaken on the basis of fundamental national demands, and ceaselessly contested, by every means available, on every level, and notably on the internal level'.

1981, Anouar Abdel-Malek, “Sociology of National Development: Problems of Conceptualisation”, in Nation and Revolution (Social Dialectics; 2), Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, part I (The Nation as Crucible), page 13

(chiefly uncountable) The quality or state of being sovereign.

(by extension) Of a nation or other polity: the state of being able to control resources, make laws independently, and otherwise govern itself without the coercion or concurrence of other polities.

soewereiniteit

of a nation or other polity: the state of being able to control resources, make laws independently, and otherwise govern itself without the coercion or concurrence of other polities

(by extension) Of a person: the liberty to decide one's actions and thoughts.

soewereiniteit

of a person: the liberty to decide one’s actions and thoughts


shoe

en-noun

shoe (plural shoes or (archaic, dialectal) shoon or (obsolete) shoen)

shoes (plural)
shoon (archaic dialectal plural)
shoen (obsolete plural)

From Middle English scho, sho, from Old English sċōh (“shoe”), from Proto-West Germanic *skōh, from Proto-Germanic *skōhaz (“shoe”), of unclear etymology; possibly a derivation from *skehaną (“to move quickly”), from Proto-Indo-European *skek- (“to move quickly, jump”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English sabatine, sabatoun (“shoe”) from Medieval Latin sabatēnum, sabatum (“shoe, slipper”) (compare Old Occitan sabatō, Spanish zapato (“shoe”), French sabot (“wooden shoe, clog”), Italian ciabatta). The archaic plural shoon is from Middle English shon, from Old English scōn, scōum (“shoes”, dative plural) and scōna (“shoes'”, genitive plural); it is cognate with Scots shuin (“shoes”).
Cognates:
 See also Scots shae, West Frisian skoech, Low German Schoh, Dutch schoen, German Schuh, Bavarian Schuach, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish sko, Tocharian B skāk (“balcony”).
.

skoen

something resembling a shoe (e.g. brake shoe)

you cannot put the same shoe on every foot

(by extension, slang) A pneumatic tire, especially for an automobile.


string

en-noun

string (countable and uncountable, plural strings)

Tok Pisin: string

→ Dutch: string

→ Finnish: stringit

→ French: string

→ German: String

desc

מחרוז//מַחְרֹזֶת

→ Hebrew: מחרוז／מַחְרֹזֶת (makhrózet) (semantic loan)

→ Japanese: ストリング (sutoringu)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: streng (semantic loan)

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: streng (semantic loan)

→ Polish: stringi

→ Portuguese: estrém; string

→ Swedish: string

From Middle English string, streng, strynge, from Old English strenġ, from Proto-West Germanic *strangi, from Proto-Germanic *strangiz (“string”), from Proto-Indo-European *strengʰ- (“rope, cord, strand; to tighten”).
Cognate with Scots string (“string”), Dutch streng (“cord, strand”), Low German strenge (“strand, cord, rope”), German Strang (“strand, cord, rope”), Danish streng (“string”), Swedish sträng (“string, cord, wire”), Icelandic strengur (“string”), Latvian stringt (“to be tight, wither”), Latin stringō (“I tighten”), Ancient Greek στραγγαλόομαι (strangalóomai, “to strangle”), from στραγγάλη (strangálē, “halter”), Ancient Greek στραγγός (strangós, “tied together, entangled, twisted”).

cog

στραγγαλόομαι

弦

any similar long, thin and flexible object

弓弦

ゆづる, yuzuru, ゆみづる, yumizuru, ゆんづる, yunzuru

(billiards, by extension) The points made in a game of billiards.


crush

en-noun

crush (countable and uncountable, plural crushes)

From Middle English cruschen (“to crush, smash, squeeze, squash”), from Old French croissir (“to crush”), from Late Latin *crusciō (“to brush”), from Frankish *krustijan (“to crush, squeeze, squash”), from Proto-Germanic *kreustaną (“to crush, grind, strike, smash”).
Akin to Middle Dutch crosen (“to bruise, crush”), Middle Low German krossen, krȫsen (“to break, shatter”), Old Swedish krusa (“to crush”), Swedish krysta (“to squeeze”), Danish kryste (“to squash”), Icelandic kreista (“to squeeze, squash”), Faroese kroysta (“to squeeze”), Gothic 𐌺𐍂𐌹𐌿𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌽 (kriustan, “to gnash”).

cog

It had taken nine years from the evening that Truman first showed up with a pie plate at her mother's door, but his dogged perseverance eventually won him the hand of his boyhood Sunday school crush.

2004, Chris Wallace, Character: Profiles in Presidential Courage

(informal) An infatuation with somebody one is not dating.

(informal, by extension) The human object of such infatuation or affection.

увлечение

love or infatuation or its object (often short-lived or unrequited)


lark

From Middle English larke, laverke, from Old English lāwerce, lǣwerce, lāuricæ, from Proto-West Germanic *laiwarikā, from Proto-Germanic *laiwarikǭ, *laiwazikǭ (compare dialectal West Frisian larts, Dutch leeuwerik, German Lerche), from *laiwaz (borrowed into Finnish leivo, Estonian lõo), of unknown ultimate origin with no definitive cognates outside of Germanic.

(by extension) One who wakes early; one who is up with the larks.


basket

en-noun

basket (countable and uncountable, plural baskets)

From Middle English basket, from Anglo-Norman bascat, of obscure origin.
One theory is that it derives from Late Latin bascauda (“kettle, table-vessel”), from Proto-Brythonic (in Breton baskodenn), from Proto-Celtic *baskis (“bundle, load”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰask- (“bundle”). Related to Latin fascis (“bundle, package, load”). Doublet of fasces.

unk

obscure

buslo

a large, deep basket used especially in marketing

pangnan

a small basket used by fishermen or to hold flowers or fruit

A lightweight container, generally round, open at the top, and tapering toward the bottom.


decline

en-verb

decline (third-person singular simple present declines, present participle declining, simple past and past participle declined)

declines (present singular third-person)
declining (participle present)
declined (participle past)
declined (past)
decline (infinitive)

From Middle English declinen, and ultimately Latin declīnō (“to bend, turn aside, deflect, inflect, decline”, from de (“down”) + clīnō (“I bend, I incline”)), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (English lean). The senses arrived from two separate pathways in Middle English:
* The grammatical sense came from Old English declīnian, which was borrowed directly from the Latin etymon.
* All senses except the grammatical sense were derived from those of Old French decliner. Old French itself borrowed the verb from Latin.

der

(by extension) To run through from first to last; to recite in order as though declining a noun.


simple

From Middle English symple, simple, from Old French and French simple, from Latin simplex (“simple”, literally “onefold”) (as opposed to duplex (“double”, literally “twofold”)), from semel (“the same”) + plicō (“I fold”). See same and fold. Compare single, singular, simultaneous, etc.
Partially displaced native English onefold.


ferret

en-verb

ferret (third-person singular simple present ferrets, present participle ferreting, simple past and past participle ferreted)

ferrets (present singular third-person)
ferreting (participle present)
ferreted (participle past)
ferreted (past)

From Middle English furet, ferret, from Old French furet, from Vulgar Latin *furittum (“weasel, ferret”), diminutive of Latin fūr (“thief”).

der

I confess that we were so unpopular with the outrageous mob, that I only got away from England at the risk of being ducked to death, and that Cly was so ferreted up and down, that he never would have got away at all but for that sham.

1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

He had been piqued by the failure of all his endeavors to ferret out the assassins.

1842, Edgar Alan Poe, The Mistery of Marie Roget

She ferreted in her bag; then held it up mouth downwards; then fumbled in her lap, all so vigorously that Charles Steele in the Panama hat suspended his paint-brush.

1922, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob's Room

(by extension, transitive, intransitive) To uncover and bring to light by searching; usually to ferret out.


sublimate

en-verb

sublimate (third-person singular simple present sublimates, present participle sublimating, simple past and past participle sublimated)

sublimates (present singular third-person)
sublimating (participle present)
sublimated (participle past)
sublimated (past)

From Middle English sublymate, from Latin sublīmātus, past participle of sublīmāre (“to raise, elevate”).

sublimovat

to modify (the natural expression of a sexual or primitive instinct) in a socially acceptable manner

(figurative) To refine (something) until it disappears or loses all meaning.

Foreigners extol the American "energy" […] Basically it is the energy of violence, of free-floating resentment and anxiety unleashed by chronic cultural dislocations which must be, for the most part, ferociously sublimated. This energy has mainly been sublimated into crude materialism and acquisitiveness.

1969, Susan Sontag, “What’s Happening in America”, in Styles of Radical Will, Kindle edition, Penguin Modern Classics, published 2009, page 194

(figurative, psychoanalysis) To modify (the natural expression of a sexual or primitive instinct) in a socially acceptable manner; to divert the energy of (such an instinct) into some acceptable activity.

(chiefly figurative, archaic) To obtain (something) through, or as if through, sublimation.

(chiefly figurative, archaic) To purify or refine (a substance).

(also figurative) To raise (someone) to a high office or status; to dignify, to elevate, to exalt.

sublimar

to raise (someone) to a high office or status

(figurative) To raise something to a state of excellence; to improve.


street

street (third-person singular simple present streets, present participle streeting, simple past and past participle streeted)

streets (present singular third-person)
streeting (participle present)
streeted (participle past)
streeted (past)

From Anglian Old English strēt (“street”) (cognate West Saxon form strǣt) from Proto-West Germanic *strātu (“street”), an early borrowing from Late Latin (via) strāta (“paved (road)”), from Latin strātus, past participle of sternō (“stretch out, spread, bestrew with, cover, pave”), from Proto-Indo-European *sterh₃- (“to stretch out, extend, spread”).
Cognate with Scots stret, strete, streit (“street”), Saterland Frisian Sträite (“street”), West Frisian strjitte (“street”), Dutch straat (“street”), German Low German Straat (“street”), German Straße (“street”), Swedish stråt (“way, path”), Icelandic stræti (“street”) (Scandinavian forms are borrowed from Old English), Portuguese estrada (“road, way, drive”), Italian strada (“road, street”). Related to Old English strēowian, strewian (“to strew, scatter”), Latin sternō, Ancient Greek στορνύναι (stornýnai). More at strew.
The /aː/ vowel of the Latin form shifted by Anglo-Frisian brightening to /æː/ in West Saxon and /eː/ in Anglian Old English; these developed respectively to /ɛː/ and /eː/ in Middle English, /eː/ and /iː/ in Early Modern English, and finally /iː/ in Modern English by the Great Vowel Shift. The modern spelling reflects the Anglian form, as in sleep, greedy, sheep.

der

Wearing his custom-made silks, McCarthy duly rode the horse a treat as they streeted the opposition and helped connections clean up the bookies.

2002, John Maynard, Aborigines and the ‘Sport of Kings’: Aboriginal Jockeys in Australian Racing History, Aboriginal Studies Press, published 2013, part II, 96

But when I came back in Round 14, the team had lost only two of those previous 13 games, we were sitting with Melbourne at the top of the premiership table and the two clubs had virtually streeted the rest of the competition.

2008, Steve Menzies, Norman Tasker, chapter 1, in Beaver: The Steve Menzies Story, Allen & Unwin, page 5

Pennant winners Kansas City and nearest rivals St. Paul had streeted the Western League in 1901, but were brought back to the field in 1902 by a powerful Omaha outfit who just missed out on the pennant, their .600 win-loss percentage just outdone by Kansas City's .603.

2014, Rochelle Llewelyn Nicholls, Joe Quinn Among the Rowdies: The Life of Baseball's Honest Australian, McFarland & Company, Inc., part VI, chapter 14, 205

(sports, by extension) To heavily defeat.


care

en-verb

care (third-person singular simple present cares, present participle caring, simple past and past participle cared)

cares (present singular third-person)
caring (participle present)
cared (participle past)
cared (past)
care (infinitive)

From Middle English caren, carien, from Old English carian (“to sorrow, grieve, be troubled, be anxious, to care for, heed”), from Proto-West Germanic *karōn (“to care”), from Proto-Germanic *karōną (“to care”).
Cognate with Old Saxon karōn (“to lament”), Middle High German karen, karn (“to complain, lament, grieve, mourn”), archaic German karen (“to groan, gasp”), Alemannic German karen, kären (“to groan, gasp”), Swedish kära (“to fall in love”), Icelandic kæra (“to care, like”), Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐍂𐍉𐌽 (karōn, “to be concerned”).

inh

An event aggregator facilitates a fire-and-forget model of communication. The object triggering the event doesn't care if there are any subscribers. It just fires the event and moves on.

2013, Addy Osmani, Developing Backbone.js Applications, page 175

(intransitive, informal, by extension) For it to matter to, or make any difference to.


strike

en-verb

strike (third-person singular simple present strikes, present participle striking, simple past struck or (see usage notes) striked or (all obsolete) strook or stroke or strake, past participle struck or (see usage notes) stricken or (both obsolete) strucken or strook)

strikes (present singular third-person)
striking (participle present)
struck (past)
striked (past)
strook (obsolete past)
stroke (obsolete past)
strake (obsolete past)
struck (obsolete participle past)
stricken (obsolete participle past)
strucken (obsolete participle past)
strook (obsolete participle past)

→ German: streiken

From Middle English stryken, from Old English strīcan, from Proto-West Germanic *strīkan, from Proto-Germanic *strīkaną, from Proto-Indo-European *streyg- (“to stroke, rub, press”).
Cognate with Dutch strijken, German streichen, Danish stryge, Icelandic strýkja, strýkva.

der

lightning does not strike twice in the same place

lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place

lightning never strikes twice in the same place

The frigate has struck, sir! We've beaten them, the lily-livers!

(transitive) To take down, especially in the following contexts.

(by extension) To capitulate; to signal a surrender by hauling down the colours.

Two men were put to work who could not set their looms; a third man was taken on who helped the inefficients to set the looms. The other weavers thought this was a breach of their union rules and 18 of them struck […]

1889, New York (State). Dept. of Labor. Bureau of Statistics, Annual Report (part 2, page 127)

(intransitive, by extension) To stop working as a protest to achieve better working conditions.

It appears that a compositor had been engaged for the Northem Territory Times, and for a considerable time the editor seems to have led a comparatively unruffled existence; till in an evil hour the compositor was smitten with gold fever, and struck work.

1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 227

(transitive, dated, by extension) To quit (one's job).


strike

→ Danish: strike

→ Dutch: strike

→ French: strike

→ German: Strike

→ Italian: strike

→ Japanese: ストライク (sutoraiku)

→ Korean: 스트라이크 (seuteuraikeu)

→ Portuguese: strike

→ Russian: страйк (strajk)

→ Spanish: strike

→ Swedish: strike

→ Danish: strejke

→ Esperanto: striko

→ Hungarian: sztrájk

→ Japanese: ストライキ (sutoraiki)

desctree

→ German: Streik
→ Kashubian: sztrajk
→ Macedonian: штрајк (štrajk)
→ Serbo-Croatian: štrȁjk／штра̏јк
→ Slovak: štrajk

→ Polish: strajk
→ Belarusian: страйк (strajk)
→ Ukrainian: страйк (strajk)

→ Swedish: strejk

→ Welsh: streic

air strike; first strike

(military, by extension) An attack, not necessarily physical.

(obsolete, by extension) Excellence; quality.


octopus

en-verb

octopus (third-person singular simple present octopusses or octopuses, present participle octopussing or octopusing, simple past and past participle octopussed or octopused)

octopusses (present singular third-person)
octopuses (present singular third-person)
octopussing (participle present)
octopusing (participle present)
octopussed (participle past)
octopussed (past)
octopused (participle past)
octopused (past)

From Latin octōpūs, from Ancient Greek ὀκτώπους (oktṓpous), from ὀκτώ (oktṓ, “eight”) + πούς (poús, “foot”).

Singapore
octopus
southern blue-ringed octopus

The interlocking business organizations have octopussed beyond all imagining in recent years; they are intermingled with citizens' union-smashing committees and women's strikebreaking “patriotic” groups, such as Neutral Thousands and Women of the Pacific.

1937, Fight Against War and Fascism - Volumes 5-6, page 34

The busy man will do two things at once in his office; and with a little forethought he can practise what psychologist Freeman calls "brain octopussing" at home, too.

1953, Dun's Review and Modern Industry, volume 62, August-December 1953, page 256

The course of study should be rooted in a survey of the needs of the community and not "octopussed" from swivel chair courses of study prepared for other areas.

1978, William Edward Field, A Review of the Undergraduate Program in Agricultural Education at the University of Minnesota, 1977, page 349

The performance of it, however, did not improve, being octopussed by centuries-old not-to-move bureaucracy.

1993, Mohammad Abdul Mannan, Growth and development of small enterprise, page 92

Judging by the way that Boots was octopussing himself into the world of the stud farm and mastering the intricacies of thoroughbred financing, he was well on his way to raping Sport of Kings.

2000, Murray Bromberg, The Wagers of Sin, page 102

(by extension) To grow in use vastly beyond what was originally intended.


ermine

en-noun

ermine (countable and uncountable, plural ermines or ermine)

From Middle English ermine, ermin, ermyn, from Old French ermin, ermine, hermine.
There are two main theories for the origin of Old French ermine. Germanic origin is suggested via Old Dutch *harmino (“stoat skin”), from *harmo (“stoat, weasel”) (compare Dutch hermelijn and dialectal herm), from Proto-Germanic *harmǭ, *harmô (compare Old English hearma, Old High German harmo (harmin (adjective), obsolete German Harm), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱormō (compare Romansch carmun, obsolete Lithuanian šarmuõ). Romance sources identify the animal with the corresponding word for Armenian, possibly from Medieval Latin mūs Armenius (“Armenian mouse”) or a posterior compound.

der

(by extension, figuratively) The office of a judge.


speak

en-verb

speak (third-person singular simple present speaks, present participle speaking, simple past spoke or (archaic) spake, past participle spoken or (colloquial, nonstandard) spoke)

speaks (present singular third-person)
speaking (participle present)
spoke (past)
spake (archaic past)
or (colloquial, nonstandard) spoke (colloquial participle past)
speak (infinitive)

From Middle English speken (“to speak”), from Old English specan (“to speak”). This is usually taken to be an irregular alteration of earlier sprecan (“to speak”), from Proto-West Germanic *sprekan, from Proto-Germanic *sprekaną (“to speak, make a sound”), from Proto-Indo-European *spreg- (“to make a sound, utter, speak”). Finding this proposed loss of r from the stable cluster spr unparalleled, Hill instead sets up a different root, Proto-West Germanic *spekan (“to negotiate”) from Proto-Indo-European *bʰégʾ-e- (“to distribute”) with *s-mobile, which collapsed in meaning with *sprekan ("to speak" < "to crackle, prattle") and so came to be seen as a free variant thereof.
Cognates:
Cognate with West Frisian sprekke, Low German spreken (“to speak”), Dutch spreken (“to speak”), German sprechen (“to speak”), and also with Albanian shpreh (“to utter, voice, express”) through Indo-European.

cog

He spoke of it in his diary.

Speak to me only with your eyes.

Actions speak louder than words.

(by extension) To communicate or converse by some means other than orally, such as writing or facial expressions.

puhua

to communicate or converse by some means other than orally

Even those who did 'speak computer' did so sometimes in a less than fluent way which required a jump to be made from a press-the-right-button stage to having the confidence to experiment.

1998, Nigel G Fielding, Raymond M Lee, Computer Analysis and Qualitative Research, page 4

(transitive, stative) To be able to communicate in a language.

(by extension) To be able to communicate in the manner of specialists in a field.


bible

From Middle English bible, from Middle Latin biblia (“book”) (misinterpreted as a feminine from earlier Latin neuter plural biblia (“books”)), from Ancient Greek βιβλία (biblía, “books”), plural of βιβλίον (biblíon, “small book”), originally a diminutive of βίβλος (bíblos, “book”), from βύβλος (búblos, “papyrus”) (from the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos which exported this writing material).
Old English used biblioþēce (from βιβλιοθήκη) and ġewritu (> English writs) for "the Scriptures".

handyman’s bible

Computer Lib was written as a popular primer, but its most profound effect was on computer programmers, who needed little persuasion about the value of computers. […] Having set out to appeal to the general public, Nelson managed to publish an insider's bible and highly intimate guide to hacker culture.

1995 June, Gary Wolf, “The Curse of Xanadu”, in Wired Magazine

For example, Wired—the monthly bible of the ‘virtual class’—has uncritically reproduced the views of Newt Gingrich, […]

1995 September, Richard Barbrook, Andy Cameron, “The Californian Ideology”, in Mute, volume 1, number 3, →ISSN

(by extension) A comprehensive manual that describes something, or a publication with a loyal readership.


body

en-verb

body (third-person singular simple present bodies, present participle bodying, simple past and past participle bodied)

bodies (present singular third-person)
bodying (participle present)
bodied (participle past)
bodied (past)

From Middle English bodi, bodiȝ, from Old English bodiġ (“body, trunk, chest, torso, height, stature”), from Proto-West Germanic *bodag (“body, trunk”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewdʰ- (“to be awake, observe”). Cognate with Old High German botah (whence Swabian Bottich (“body, torso”)).

der

I keep getting bodied by kids half my age.

(transitive, slang, African-American Vernacular) To murder someone.

(by extension) To utterly defeat someone.

To murder someone.
To utterly defeat someone.


guts

It must have taken some guts to speak in front of that audience.

She doesn't take any nonsense from anyone—she's got guts.

(by extension, informal) Courage; determination.


comb

From Middle English comb, from Old English camb (“comb”), from Proto-West Germanic *kamb, from Proto-Germanic *kambaz (“comb”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵómbʰos (“tooth”), a doublet of cam. The verb is derived from the noun and displaced the older verb kemb.
Cognates
Compare Saterland Frisian Koum, Swedish/Dutch kam, Norwegian kam, German Kamm); also Tocharian B keme, Lithuanian žam̃bas (“sharp edge”), Old Church Slavonic зѫбъ (zǫbŭ), Albanian dhëmb, Ancient Greek γομφίος (gomphíos, “backtooth, molar”), Sanskrit जम्भ (jambha)).

cog

The head-dress of the Horse Grenadiers consists of a peculiar leather helmet with a comb of bear's skin passing over it from ear to ear and a long scarlet […]

1888, “Journal of the United Service Institution of India”, in United Service Institution of India, page 197

The armet has usually a low central cabled comb with parallel flutes on either side, occasionally there are three or five combs.

1898, John Starkie Gardner, Armour in England from the Earliest Times to the Seventeenth Century, page 44

The combs or elbow pieces are beautifully made, and over the right armpit is […]

1909, Albert Frederick Calvert, Madrid: An Historical Description and Handbook of the Spanish Capital, page 82

Charles I. (Edinburgh Castle) The Pikeman of the time of James I. was accoutred in a morion-shaped helmet with a comb of moderate size and a flat brim, […]

2021, Charles Henry Ashdown, British and Foreign Arms & Armour, Good Press

(by extension) A crest (of metal, leather, etc) on a piece of armor, especially on a helmet.


ether

en-noun

ether (countable and uncountable, plural ethers)

→ Korean: 에테르 (etereu)

→ Chinese: 以太 (yǐtài)

From Middle English ēther (“the caelum aetherum of ancient cosmology in which the planets orbit; a shining, fluid substance described as a form of air or fire; air”), borrowed from Anglo-Norman ether and Middle French ether, ethere, aether, from Old French aether (“highest and purest part of the atmosphere; medium supposedly filling the upper regions of space”) (modern French éther), or directly from its etymon Latin aethēr (“highest and purest part of the atmosphere; air; heavens, sky; light of day; ethereal matter surrounding a deity”) (note also New Latin aethēr (“chemical compound analogous to diethyl ether”)), from Ancient Greek αἰθήρ (aithḗr, “purer upper air of the atmosphere; heaven, sky; theoretical medium supposed to fill unoccupied space and transmit heat and light”), from αἴθω (aíthō, “to burn, ignite; to blaze, shine”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eydʰ- (“to burn; fire”).
The English word is cognate with Italian ether, ethera (both obsolete), etere, Middle Dutch ether (modern Dutch aether (obsolete), ether), German Äther, Ether, Portuguese éter, Spanish éter.

أَثِير

substance supposed to fill the upper regions of the atmosphere

firmament

sky; atmosphere; upper atmosphere; heaven

with multiple senses ranging from to to to

On Wings the Birds through Æther glide, / And Fiſhes cut with Fins the Tide.

1746 February 28, Criticus [pseudonym], “Dialogue on Women”, in [Mark Akenside], editor, The Museum: Or, The Literary and Historical Register, volume II, number XXV, London: Printed for R[obert] Dodsley […], →OCLC, page 389

(uncountable, literary or poetic) The substance formerly supposed to fill the upper regions of the atmosphere above the clouds, in particular as a medium breathed by deities.

(by extension) The medium breathed by human beings; the air.

Take a snapshot of the conflicts around the world: Sunnis vs. Shiites, Israelis vs. Palestinians, Serbs vs. Kosovars, Indians vs. Pakistanis. They seem to be driven by religious hatred. It’s enough to make you wonder if the animosity would melt away if all religions were suddenly, somehow, to vanish into the ether. But James Carse doesn’t see them as religious conflicts at all. To him, they are battles over rival belief systems, which may or may not have religious overtones.

2008 July 21, Steve Paulson, “Religion is Poetry”, in Salon, archived from the original on 2017-08-30

In barely the blink of an eye, the perfectly healthy Judy entered a permanent vegetative state. […] What haunted me was the idea that one moment you’re gazing at your 2-year-old in her playroom and the next, you, the mother, have been whisked off into the ether forever.

2009 December, Sandra Tsing Loh, “On Being a Bad Mother: True Confessions”, in The Atlantic, →ISSN, archived from the original on 2018-07-25

There’s a very real chance that, rather than crumbling into the dust and floating off into the ether, Thanos’s victims [in the film Avengers: Infinity War] were actually sucked up into the Soul Stone.

2018 May 7, Meg Downey, “Marvel’s Comic Soul Stone could Explain the Jump from Infinity War’s Ending to Avengers 4: A Brief History of Crazy Multidimensional Power”, in Polygon, archived from the original on 2018-06-24

(by extension) The sky, the heavens; the void, nothingness.


checkmate

From Middle English chekmat, from Old French eschec mat, from Arabic شَاه مَاتَ (šāh māta), from Classical Persian شاه مات (šāh māt, “the king [is] amazed”).

Arabic شَاه مَاتَ (šāh māta)

shah mat

said when making the conclusive move in chess

(by extension) Said when one has placed a person in a losing situation with no escape.


checkmate

en-noun

checkmate (countable and uncountable, plural checkmates)

der

Arabic شَاه مَاتَ (šāh māta)

(figuratively, by extension) Any losing situation with no escape; utter defeat.


checkmate

en-verb

checkmate (third-person singular simple present checkmates, present participle checkmating, simple past and past participle checkmated)

checkmates (present singular third-person)
checkmating (participle present)
checkmated (participle past)
checkmated (past)

der

Arabic شَاه مَاتَ (šāh māta)

(transitive, by extension) To place in a losing situation that has no escape.


lie

From Middle English lie, from Old English lyġe (“lie, falsehood”), from Proto-Germanic *lugiz (“lie, falsehood”), from Proto-Indo-European *lewgʰ- (“to tell lies, swear, complain”). Cognate with Old Saxon luggi (“a lie”), Old High German lugī, lugin (“a lie”) (German Lüge), Danish løgn (“a lie”), Bulgarian лъжа́ (lǎžá, “а lie”), Russian ложь (ložʹ, “а lie”), Czech lež (“a lie”), Middle Polish łeż (“a lie”), Serbo-Croatian laž (“a lie”).

der

Wishing this lie of life was o'er.

1835, Richard Chenevix Trench, the Story of Justin Martyr

The cake is a lie.

2007, Erik Wolpaw, Chet Faliszek, Portal

(by extension) Anything that misleads or disappoints.


gaggle

From Middle English gagelen (“to cackle; cackle like a goose”). Compare Dutch gaggelen (“to cackle”), Icelandic gagl (“small goose; gosling”).

inh

There were no signs and no one quite knew how to navigate the museum, including, as it was Fleet Week, gaggles of boyish sailors all in their summer whites. It looked like a Frank Sinatra movie.

2014 June 7, Vicki Woods, “Sadness, and a surprise, at the 9/11 Museum”, in The Daily Telegraph, page 24

The crow’s name was Betty. And she was on her way to stardom. A gaggle of Oxford University scientists watched in wonder as she casually picked up a piece of wire in her cage and then used a nearby object to bend it at one end, transforming the wire into a hooked tool.

2019 December 12, Chris Baraniuk, “Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates”, in BBC Future

The party level ramps up at Thornaby, where a gaggle of women on a 50th birthday bash join us.

2022 November 30, Paul Bigland, “Destination Oban: a Sunday in Scotland”, in RAIL, number 971, page 74

(by extension) Any group or gathering of related things.


end

beginning

antonym(s) of “final point of something”

→ Japanese: エンド

From Middle English ende, from Old English ende, from Proto-West Germanic *andī, from Proto-Germanic *andijaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂entíos, from *h₂ent- (“front, forehead”).
See also Dutch einde, German Ende, Norwegian ende, Swedish ände; also Old Irish ét (“end, point”), Latin antiae (“forelock”), Albanian anë (“side”), Ancient Greek ἀντίος (antíos, “opposite”), Sanskrit अन्त्य (antya, “last”). More at and and anti-.
The verb is from Middle English enden, endien, from Old English endian (“to end, to make an end of, complete, finish, abolish, destroy, come to an end, die”), from Proto-Germanic *andijōną (“to finish, end”), denominative from *andijaz.

der

snitches get stitches and end up in ditches

Is there no end to this madness?

(by extension) The cessation of an effort, activity, state, or motion.

He met a terrible end in the jungle.

I hope the end comes quickly.

A safe companion and an easy friend / Unblamed through life, lamented in thy end.

1732, Alexander Pope, (epitaph) On Mr. Gay, in Westminster Abbey


baron

head

baron (plural barons, feminine baroness)

From Middle English baroun, from Old French baron, from Latin barōnem, from Proto-West Germanic *barō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to bear”). Cognate with Old High German baro (“human being, man, freeman”), Old English bora (“a man who bears responsibility, one who is in charge, a ruler”), and perhaps to Old English beorn (“man, warrior”). Used in early Germanic law in the sense of "man, human being".
A Celtic origin has also been suggested; see the quote under sense 3 of Latin barō. However, the OED takes the hypothetical Proto-Celtic *bar- (“hero”) to be a figment.

cog

There were a few exotics among them — some South American boys, sons of Argentine beef barons, one or two Russians, and even a Siamese prince, or someone who was described as a prince.

c. 1948, George Orwell, Such, Such Were the Joys

British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far.

2013 August 10, Lexington, “Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848

(by extension) A person of great power in society, especially in business and politics.


volume

en-noun

volume (countable and uncountable, plural volumes)

From Middle English volume, from Old French volume, from Latin volūmen (“book, roll”), from volvō (“roll, turn about”).

(in the plural, by extension) A great amount (of meaning) about something.


Antarctica

/ˌænˈɑːtɪkə/

[ɛəˈɾ̃ɑɹɾɪkə]

From New Latin Antarctica, from Ancient Greek ἀνταρκτικός (antarktikós), from ἀντι- (anti-, “anti-, against, opposed”) + ἀρκτικός (arktikós, “Arctic”), from ἄρκτος (árktos, “bear”).


homebrewed

It is somewhat characteristic of this aircraft's designer that he found a homebrewed solution to the high cost of fabricating this curved boom section.

1985, Jim Richard Campbell, Flyer's guide to ultralights

Bob concocts his own homebrewed version of the fuel by mixing old cooking oil, a small amount of gasoline, methanol from an antifreeze called Heet (found at the auto parts store), and a few gallons of Drano (which contains sodium hydroxide).

2014, Jay Bonansinga, Robert Kirkman, Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead: Descent, Macmillan

Her tribal doctor also gave her some homebrewed powdered medicine, which he mixed in water.

2016, Dr. Richard Evans, My Summers in West Africa: The Account of a Medical Missionary, Xlibris Corporation


light

light (countable and uncountable, plural lights)

→ Gulf Arabic: ليت (lēt)

→ Farefare: laatɩ

Sranan Tongo: leti

Etymology tree
Proto-Germanic *leuhtaz
Proto-West Germanic *leuht
Old English lēoht
Middle English light
English light
From Middle English light, liht, leoht, from Old English lēoht, from Proto-West Germanic *leuht, from Proto-Germanic *leuhtą, from Proto-Indo-European *lewktom, from the root *lewk- (“light”).
cognates
*Scots licht (“light”)
*West Frisian ljocht (“light”)
*Dutch licht (“light”)
*Low German licht (“light”)
*German Licht (“light”)
*Swedish ljus (“light”)
*Icelandic ljós (“light”)
*Latin lūx (“light”)
*Russian луч (luč, “beam of light”)
*Armenian լույս (luys, “light”)
*Ancient Greek λευκός (leukós, “white”)
*Persian رُخش (roxš).

visible light

electromagnetic wave perceived by the eye

black light

Electromagnetic radiation
electromagnetic radiation#Noun

(physics, uncountable) Electromagnetic radiation in the wavelength range visible to the human eye (about 400–750 nanometers); visible light.

(by extension) Infrared or ultraviolet radiation.


whip

→ Irish: fuip

⇒ Jamaican Creole: wip

From Middle English whippen, wippen (“to flap violently”), from Middle Dutch wippen (“to swing, leap, dance, oscillate”) and Middle Low German wippen (“to move quickly”), from Proto-Germanic *wipjaną (“to move back and forth”). Some similarity to Sanskrit root वेप् (vep, “shake, flourish”), Latin vibrō (“I shake”). (See Swedish vippa and Danish vippe (“to shake”)).
The unetymological wh- is probably expressive of the sound of a whip; compare the same development in whisk and onomatopoeias such as whack and whoosh.
The political senses are from whipper-in (“huntsman who keeps the hounds from wandering”), 18th century hunting terminology.

der

to withdraw the whip

As a result, he was stripped of the whip on Tuesday, preventing him from voting in the fourth ballot to narrow down candidates to be the next party leader.

2022 July 20, Heather Stewart, “Tobias Ellwood temporarily given back Tory whip to vote in leadership contest”, in The Guardian

In the letter, Hancock said he had spoken to the Conservatives’ chief whip, Simon Hart, last week, and been told the whip would be restored in time, “but that is now not necessary” – meaning he will sit as an independent until the next election.

2022 December 7, Peter Walker, “Row grows over Matt Hancock’s announcement he is quitting as MP”, in The Guardian

(UK politics, by extension) The regular status of an MP within a parliamentary party, which can be revoked by the party as a disciplinary measure.


whip

en-verb

whip (third-person singular simple present whips, present participle whipping, simple past and past participle whipped)

whips (present singular third-person)
whipping (participle present)
whipped (participle past)
whipped (past)

I whipped her with a newspaper.

(transitive, by extension) To hit with any flexible object.

бия

by extension, to hit with any flexible object


continuous

From Latin continuus, from contineō (“hold together”). Displaced native Old English singal.

continuous erythropoietin receptor activator

Each continuous function from the real line to the rationals is constant, since the rationals are totally disconnected.

(mathematics, more generally, of a function between two topological spaces) Such that each open set in the target space has an open preimage (in the domain space, with respect to the given function).


batch

From Middle English bach, bache, bahche, from Old English *bæċċ (“something baked”), of uncertain origin, but possibly from Proto-West Germanic *bakku, from Proto-Germanic *bakkuz (“baking, baked goods”), cognate with Middle High German becke (“something baked, pastry, baking, bakery”). Related also to Old English bacan (“to bake”), Old English ġebæc (“something baked”), Dutch gebak, German Gebäck, Dutch baksel.

խմբաքանակ

quantity of baked goods made at one time

We poured a bucket of water in at the top, and the ice-maker dispensed a batch of ice-cubes at the bottom.

(by extension) A quantity of anything produced at one operation.

խմբաքանակ

quantity of anything produced in one operation


organ

→ Korean: 오르간 (oreugan)

→ Maori: ōkana

→ Vietnamese: oóc-gan

From Middle English organe, from Old French organe, from Latin organum, from Ancient Greek ὄργανον (órganon, “an instrument, implement, tool, also an organ of sense or apprehension, an organ of the body, also a musical instrument, an organ”), from Proto-Indo-European *werǵ-. Doublet of organon, organum, and orgue.

der

(by extension) A body of an organization dedicated to the performing of certain functions.


correct

en-verb

correct (third-person singular simple present corrects, present participle correcting, simple past and past participle corrected)

corrects (present singular third-person)
correcting (participle present)
corrected (participle past)
corrected (past)

From Middle English correcten, borrowed from Anglo-Norman correcter, from Latin correctus.

The teacher stayed up all night correcting exams.

(by extension, transitive) To grade (examination papers).


dojo

Borrowed from Japanese 道場 (dōjō, literally “place of the ways”). Doublet of dojang.

bor

[ˈdəʊ̯d͡ʒəʊ̯]

/ˈdoʊˌd͡ʒoʊ/

[ˈdoʊ̯ˌd͡ʒoʊ̯]

Earlier dojos were known as homebrew clubs. [...] In Silicon Valley, a dojo is defined as a do-ocracy where people come together based on shared interests and passions, such as coding and robotics. [...] David Crawley, a semiconductor physicist and founder of Hacker Dojo Robotics, shared with me that it had been a passion of his to pull robotics hobbyists together with 12 challenges in mind: drive around three cones, deliver a pizza from the front door of the dojo to a predetermined location inside, [...]

2014, Deborah Perry Piscione, “Improvisational Innovation: Two Words that Will Turn Employee Ideas into Execution”, in The Risk Factor: Why Every Organization Needs Big Bets, Bold Characters, and the Occasional Spectacular Failure, New York, N.Y.: Palgrave Macmillan, part II (The DNA of a Bold Risk-taker), page 117

By bringing the people across their value streams closer together, physically, and by using the dojo environment to experiment with new ways of working, [Aimee] Bechtle and [John] Schmidt claimed they have achieved a state of "no fear change". [...] Both times they set up the dojo, Schmidt said, "This is going to be messy"; they were creating a psychologically safe environment in which the team could experiment.

2018 August 23, Helen Beal, “The State of DevOps in Banking – Report from DOES London 2018”, in InfoQ, archived from the original on 2019-05-15

We first see [Shōji] Segawa as a shy boy good at shogi, which makes him a nerd in the eyes of some [...] Then, at the urging of his kindly father (Jun Kunimura), Segawa tests himself against adult opponents at a shogi dojo – a smoke-filled lair presided over by a grizzled master (Issey Ogata) who recognizes the [boy's] ability and urges them to apply to the Shogi Federation’s training academy for future pros.

2018 August 29, Mark Schilling, “‘The Miracle of Crybaby Shottan’: It’s never too late to make your move [film review]”, in The Japan Times, Tokyo: News2u Holdings, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2018-08-30

(by extension) A room or other facility used for other activities, such as meditation or software development.


wedge

en-noun

wedge (countable and uncountable, plural wedges)

From Middle English wegge (“wedge”), from Old English weċġ (“wedge”), from Proto-West Germanic *wagi, from Proto-Germanic *wagjaz.

(obsolete, slang, uncountable, by extension) Silver or items made of silver collectively.

He's got some decent wedge. (uncountable)

I made a big fat wedge from that job. (countable)

(colloquial, British, countable, uncountable, by extension) A quantity of money.


tangled

en-adj

tangled (comparative more tangled, superlative most tangled)

more tangled (comparative)
most tangled (superlative)

what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive

what tangled webs we weave when first we practice to deceive


owl

From Middle English oule, owle, from Old English ūle, from Proto-West Germanic *uwwilā, from Proto-Germanic *uwwalǭ (compare West Frisian ûle, Dutch uil, Danish and Norwegian ugle, German Eule), diminutive of *uwwǭ (“eagle-owl”) (compare German Uhu), of imitative origin or a variant of *ūfaz, *ūfǭ (compare Old English ūf or hūf, Swedish uv (“horned owl”), Bavarian Auf), from Proto-Indo-European *up- (compare Latvian ũpis (“eagle-owl”), Czech úpět (“to wail, howl”), Avestan 𐬎𐬟𐬌𐬌𐬈𐬌𐬨𐬌 (ufiieimi, “to call out”). A Germanic variant *uwwilǭ was the source of Old High German ūwila (German Eule).

cog

(by extension) A person seen as having owl-like characteristics, especially appearing wise or serious, or being nocturnally active.


shock

shark (non-rhotic, father-bother merger)

His head boasted a shock of sandy hair.

Every now and then I’m startled at how good-looking John is, but he glared at me from under the shock of hair that fell across his brow and scared me a little.

1968 October 12, Paul Zindel, chapter 12, in The Pigman

On day three I pointed at the edge of an intricate pentagram peeking above her shock of oily black hair.

2019, Hal Y. Zhang, Hard Mother, Spider Mother, Soft Mother, Brooklyn, NY: Radix Media, page 2

(by extension) A tuft or bunch of something, such as hair or grass.