Online Etymology Dictionary

book (v.): Old English bocian "to grant or assign by charter," from book (n.). Meaning "to enter into a book, record" is early 13c. Meaning "to enter for a seat or place, issue (railway) tickets" is from 1841; "to engage a performer as a guest" is from 1872. U.S. student slang meaning "to depart hastily, go fast" is by early 1980s, of uncertain signification. Related: Booked; booking.
book (n.): Old English boc "book, writing, written document," traditionally from Proto-Germanic *bokiz "beech" (source also of German Buch "book" Buche "beech;" see beech), the notion being of beechwood tablets on which runes were inscribed, but it may be from the tree itself (people still carve initials in them). The Old English word originally meant any written document. Latin and Sanskrit also have words for "writing" that are based on tree names ("birch" and "ash," respectively). And compare French livre "book," from Latin librum, originally "the inner bark of trees" (see library). Meaning "libretto of an opera" is from 1768. A betting book is from 1856.
school-book (n.): also schoolbook, 1745, from school (n.1) + book (n.).
story-book (n.): 1711, from story (n.1) + book (n.). As an adjective from 1844.
field-book (n.): naturalist's notebook for observations in the field, 1848, from field (n.) + book (n.).
horn-book (n.): also hornbook, 1580s, teaching tool consisting of a page with the alphabet, numerals, etc. written on it, fixed to a frame, and covered with transparent horn;" from horn (n.) + book (n.).
Domesday book: 1178, popular name of Great Inquisition or Survey (1086), William the Conqueror's inventory of his new domain, from Middle English domes, genitive of dom "day of judgment" (see doom). "The booke ... to be called Domesday, bicause (as Mathew Parise saith) it spared no man, but iudged all men indifferently." [William Lambarde, "A Perambulation of Kent," 1570]
bookmaker (n.): also book-maker, 1510s, "printer and binder of books," from book (n.) + agent noun from make (v.). The wagering sense is from 1862. Related: Book-making (late 15c., betting sense 1824).
bookkeeper (n.): also book-keeper, 1550s, from book (n.) + keeper. A rare English word with three consecutive double letters. Related: Bookkeeping, which is from 1680s in the sense "the work of keeping account books;" book-keep (v.) is a back-formation from 1886.
bookmark (n.): also book-mark, 1840, from book (n.) + mark (n.1). Bookmarker is older (1838). As a verb, by 1900. Related: Bookmarked; bookmarking.
bookstore (n.): 1763, from book (n.) + store (n.).
booklet (n.): 1859, from book (n.) + diminutive ending -let.
bookbinder (n.): late 14c, from book (n.) + binder. Related: Bookbindery.
bookworm (n.): 1590s (of people), 1855 of insects or maggots; there is no single species known by this name, which is applied to the anolium beetle, silverfishes, and book lice. See book (n.) + worm (n.).
bookcase (n.): 1726, from book (n.) + case (n.2). An Old English word for this was bocfodder.
bookish (adj.): 1560s, "literary," from book (n.) + -ish. In sense of "overly studious" it is recorded from 1590s. Related: Bookishly; bookishness.
cookbook (n.): 1809, from cook + book (n.). Earlier was cookery book (1630s).
playbook (n.): also play-book, 1530s, "book of stage plays," from play (n.) + book (n.). Meaning "Book of football plays" recorded from 1965.
passbook (n.): also pass-book, 1828, from pass (v.) + book (n.); apparently the notion is of the document "passing" between bank and customer.
matchbook (n.): also match-book, in reference to a folder holding fire-starting devices, 1913, from match (n.1) + book (n.).
yearbook (n.): also year-book, 1580s, "book of reports of cases in law-courts for that year," from year + book (n.). Meaning "book of events and statistics of the previous year" is recorded from 1710. Sense of "graduating class album" is attested from 1926, American English.
pocketbook (n.): also pocket-book, 1610s, originally a small book meant to be carried in one's pocket, from pocket (n.) + book (n.). Meaning "a booklike leather folder for papers, bills, etc." is from 1722. Meaning "a woman's purse" is from 1816.
scrapbook (n.): also scrap-book, 1821, from scrap (n.1) + book (n.). As a verb, by 1879. Related: Scrapbooked; scrapbooking.
textbook (n.): also text-book, "book used by students," 1779, from text (n.) + book (n.). Earlier (1730) it meant "book printed with wide spaces between the lines" for notes or translation (such a book would have been used by students), from the notion of the text of a book being more open than the close notes. As an adjective from 1916.
notebook (n.): 1570s, from note + book (n.).
workbook (n.): 1910, from work (n.) + book (n.).
songbook (n.): Old English sangboc "church service book;" see song (n.) + book (n.). Meaning "collection of songs bound in a book" is from late 15c.
chapbook (n.): also chap-book, 1824, shortened from chap(man) book, so called because chapmen (see cheap) once sold such books on the street. A modern word for a type of old book.
overbook (v.): "to sell more tickets than there are seats," 1903, from over- + book (v.); originally in reference to theaters. Related: Overbooked; overbooking.
facebook (n.): directory listing names and headshots, by 1983, originally among U.S. college students, from face (n.) + book (n.). The social networking Web site of that name (with capital F-) dates from 2004.
log (n.2): "record of observations, readings, etc.," 1842, sailor's shortening of log-book "daily record of a ship's speed, progress, etc." (1670s), from log (n.1). The book so called because a wooden float at the end of a line was cast out to measure a ship's speed. General sense by 1913.
beech (n.): Old English bece "beech," from Proto-Germanic *bokjon (source also of Old Norse bok, Dutch beuk, Flemish boek, Old High German buohha, German Buche, Middle Dutch boeke "beech"), from PIE root *bhagos "beech tree" (cognate with Greek phegos "oak," Latin fagus "beech;" see fagus).

Formerly with adjectival form beechen. Also see book (n.).
coloring (n.): late 14c., "action of applying color," noun of action from color (v.). Figurative use by 1540s. Meaning "way something is colored" is early 15c. Coloring book is from 1931.
ISBN: 1969, acronym for International Standard Book Number.
handbook (n.): Old English handboc "handbook, manual;" see hand (n.) + book (n.). It translates Latin manualis, and was displaced in Middle English by manual (from French), and later in part by enchiridion (from Greek). Reintroduced 1814 in imitation of German Handbuch, but execrated through much of 19c. as "that very ugly and very unnecessary word" [Richard Chenevix Trench, "English Past and Present," 1905].
phone (n.1): 1884, shortening of telephone (n.). Phone book first recorded 1925; phone booth 1927; phone bill 1901.
jest (n.): early 13c., geste, "narrative of exploits," from Old French geste "action, exploit," from Latin gesta "deeds," neuter plural of gestus, past participle of gerere "to carry, behave, act, perform" (see gest, which preserves the original sense). Sense descended through "idle tale" (late 15c.) to "mocking speech, raillery" (1540s) to "joke" (1550s). Also "a laughing-stock" (1590s). Jest-book is from 1690s.
nines (n.): in phrase to the nines "to perfection" (1787) first attested in Burns, apparently preserves the ancient notion of the perfection of the number as three times three (such as the nine Muses).
[T]he Book of St. Albans, in the sections on blasonry, lays great stress on the nines in which all perfect things (orders of angels, virtues, articles of chivalry, differences of coat armour, etc.) occur. [Weekley]
No one seems to consider that it might be a corruption and misdivision of to then anes, literally "for the one (purpose or occasion)," a similar construction to the one that yielded nonce (q.v.).
reference (n.): 1580s, "act of referring," from refer + -ance, or else from French référence, from Medieval Latin *referentia, from Latin referentem (nominative referens), present participle of referre (see refer). Meaning "direction to a book or passage" is recorded from 1610s. Meaning "testimonial" is from 1895. Reference book dates from 1808. Phrase in reference to is attested from 1590s.
comic (n.): "a comedian," 1580s, from comic (adj.). Latin adjective comicus also meant "a comic poet, writer of comedies." Meaning "a comic book or comic strip" is from 1889; comics for these collectively is from 1890. Comic strip first attested 1920; comic book is from 1941. Comic relief is attested from 1825.
spae (v.): c. 1300, "foretell, devine, predict from signs," Scottish, from Old Norse spa, cognate with Danish spaa "prophesy;" related to Old Saxon spahi, Old High German spahi "wise, skillful," Old High German spehon "to spy" (see spy (v.)). Related: Spae-book "book containing directions for telling fortunes;" spaeman; spaewife.
ledger (n.): c. 1400, " a book that lies permanently in some specified place" (especially a large copy of a breviary in a church), noun from leggen "to place, lay" (see lay (v.)). Perhaps formed on the model of a Dutch word; the -er seems to indicate "that which has been." Commercial sense of "book of accounts" is first attested 1580s, short for ledger-book (1550s). Ledger (adj.) "remaining in a place, permanent, stationary" is attested from 1540s; compare ledger-bait "fishing bait made to stay in one place" (1650s).

The surname, however, is via the Normans, from St. Leger, a 7c. bishop whose memory was popular in France and Normandy. The name is Germanic, *Leodegar, literally "people-spear."
blacklist (n.): also black-list, black list, "list of persons who have incurred suspicion," 1610s, from black (adj.), here indicative of disgrace, censure, punishment (attested from 1590s, in black book) + list (n.1). Specifically of employers' list of workers considered troublesome (usually for union activity) is from 1888. As a verb, from 1718. Related: Blacklisted; blacklisting.
judge (n.): mid-14c., "public officer appointed to administer the law" (early 13c. as a surname), also judge-man; from Old French juge, from Latin iudex "one who declares the law" (source also of Spanish juez, Italian giudice; see judge (v.). Extended from late 14c. to persons to decide any sort of contest; from 1550s as "one qualified to pronounce opinion." In Jewish history, it refers to a war leader vested with temporary power (as in Book of Judges), from Latin iudex being used to translate Hebrew shophet.
prayer (n.): c. 1300, from Old French prier "prayer, petition, request" (12c., Modern French prière), from Medieval Latin precaria "petition, prayer," noun use of Latin adjective precaria, fem. of precarius "obtained by prayer, given as a favor," from precari "to ask, beg, pray" (see pray). Related: Prayers.

Prayer-book attested from 1590s; prayer-meeting from 1780. To not have a prayer "have no chance" is from 1941.
people (n.): late 13c., "humans, persons in general," from Anglo-French people, Old French peupel "people, population, crowd; mankind, humanity," from Latin populus "a people, nation; body of citizens; a multitude, crowd, throng," of unknown origin, possibly from Etruscan. The Latin word also is the source of Spanish pueblo, Italian popolo. In English, it displaced native folk.

Meaning "body of persons comprising a community" first recorded late 13c. in Anglo-French; meaning "common people, masses" (as distinguished from the nobility) first recorded c. 1300 in Anglo-French. Meaning "one's own tribe, group, etc." is from late 14c. The word was adopted after c. 1920 by Communist totalitarian states to give a spurious sense of populism to their governments. Legal phrase The People vs., in U.S. cases of prosecution under certain laws, dates from 1801. People of the Book "those whose religion entails adherence to a book of divine revelation (1834) translates Arabic Ahl al-Kitab.
bell (n.): Old English belle, common North Sea Germanic (cognates: Middle Dutch belle, Middle Low German belle) but not found elsewhere in Germanic (except as a borrowing), from PIE root *bhel- (4) "to sound, roar." Statistical bell curve was coined 1870s in French. Of glasses in the shape of a bell from 1640s. Bell pepper is from 1707, so called for its shape. Bell, book, and candle is a reference to a form of excommunication. To ring a bell "awaken a memory" (1934) is perhaps a reference to Pavlovian experiments.
bookie (n.): 1885, colloquial shortening of bookmaker in the wagering sense.
fake: of unknown origin; attested in London criminal slang as adjective (1775 "a counterfeit"), verb (1812 "to rob"), and noun (1851, "a swindle;" of persons 1888, "a swindler"), but probably older. A likely source is feague "to spruce up by artificial means," from German fegen "polish, sweep," also "to clear out, plunder" in colloquial use. "Much of our early thieves' slang is Ger. or Du., and dates from the Thirty Years' War" [Weekley]. Or it may be from Latin facere "to do." Century Dictionary notes that "thieves' slang is shifting and has no history."

The nautical word meaning "one of the windings of a cable or hawser in a coil" probably is unrelated, from Swedish veck "a fold." As a verb, "to feign, simulate" from 1941. To fake it is from 1915, jazz slang; to fake (someone) out is from 1940s, originally in sports. Related: Faked; fakes; faking. The jazz musician's fake book is attested from 1951.
sketch (n.): "rough drawing intended to serve as the basis for a finished picture," 1660s, from Dutch schets or Low German skizze, both apparently 17c. artists' borrowings from Italian schizzo "sketch, drawing," which is commonly said to be from Latin *schedius (OED compares schedia "raft," schedium "an extemporaneous poem"), from or related to Greek skhedios "temporary, extemporaneous, done or made off-hand," related to skhema "form, shape, appearance" (see scheme (n.)). But according to Barnhart Italian schizzo is a special use of schizzo "a splash, squirt," from schizzare "to splash or squirt," of uncertain origin.

Extended sense of "brief account" is from 1660s; meaning "short play or performance, usually comic" is from 1789. Sketch-book recorded from 1820. German Skizze, French esquisse, Spanish esquicio are likewise from Italian schizzo.