Online Etymology Dictionary

feeding (n.): "act of taking food," Old English feding, verbal noun from feed (v.). Feeding frenzy is from 1989, metaphoric extension of a phrase that had been used of sharks since 1950s.
-xion: ending favored in British English for certain words that in U.S. typically end in -ction, such as connexion, complexion, inflexion, as being more true to the Latin rules.
fleam (n.): "sharp instrument for opening veins in bloodletting," late Old English, from Old French flieme (Modern French flamme), from Medieval Latin fletoma, from Late Latin flebotomus, from Greek phlebotomos "a lancet" (see phlebotomy).
eater (n.): Old English etere "one who eats," especially a servant or retainer, agent noun from eat (v.)). From 17c. in compounds with various objects or substances eaten.
mice (n.): plural of mouse (n.); Old English mys, shows effects of i-mutation.
A cube of cheese no larger than a die
May bait the trap to catch a nibbling mie.
[Bierce]
Ethelred: Anglo-Saxon masc. given name, Old English Æðelræd, literally "noble counsel," from æðele "noble" (see atheling) + ræd, red "advice" (see read (v.)).
warning (n.): "notice beforehand of the consequences that will probably follow continuance in some particular course" [Century Dictionary], Old English warnung, verbal noun from warnian (see warn (v.)).
washing (n.): Old English wæscing "action of washing clothes," verbal noun from wash (v.). Meaning "clothes washed at one time" is from 1854. Washing machine attested from 1754.
instance (v.): "cite as an instance" (in the logical sense), c. 1600, from instance (n.). Middle English had a verb instauncen "to plead with, urge, entreat." Related: Instanced; instancing.
individualization (n.): also individualisation, noun of action from individualize. Attested in 1746 but rare in English before 1820s, in which use probably it is a borrowing from French or German.
howe (n.): also how, "artificial burial mound," 1660s, from a local word in northern England for a hill or hillock, from a Middle English use of Old Norse haugr "mound; cairn," perhaps from the root of high (adj.).
hoya (n.): "honey-plant," climbing, flowering plant of southeast Asia, 1816, named in Modern Latin in honor of English gardener and botanist Thomas Hoy (c. 1750-1822).
-i (2): plural suffix sometimes preserved in English for words from Latin, it is the Latin plural of nouns of the second declension (such as focus/foci, radius/radii).
go down (v.): c. 1300, "droop, descend," from go (v.) + down (adv.). Meaning "decline, fail" is from 1590s. Sense of "to happen" is from 1946, American-English slang. Go down on "perform oral sex on" is from 1916.
go for (v.): 1550s, "be taken or regarded as," also "be in favor of," from go (v.) + for (adv.). Meaning "attack, assail" is from 1880. Go for broke is from 1951, American English colloquial.
gonoph (n.): also gonof, "thief, pickpocket," London slang, 1852, said to have been introduced by German Jews, from Hebrew gannabh "thief," with form altered in English as if from gone off.
goodman (n.): "man of the house, master, husband," late Old English, from good (adj.) + man (n.). In 17c.-18c. also a familiar form of address and nearly equivalent to mister.
graver (n.): "one who cuts (letters or figures) in stone, wood, etc.," Old English græfere, agent noun from grafan (see grave (v.)). As "tool for engraving" from 1540s.
graybeard (n.): also greybeard, "old man," 1570s, from gray (adj.) + beard (n.). Middle English had gray-hair (n.) "old man" (late 15c.), and simple gray in this sense is from late 14c.
growse (v.): "shiver, have a chill," Northern England dialect, probably from an unrecorded Old English equivalent to Old High German gruwison "be in terror, shudder," German grausen (see gruesome).
kowtow (v.): also kow-tow, 1826 in the figurative sense of "act in an obsequious manner," from kowtow (n.). Literal sense in English is from 1848. Related: Kowtowed; kowtowing.
la (2): fem. form of the French definite article, used in English in certain phrases and sometimes added ironically to a woman's name with a suggestion of "prima donna" (OED examples begin 1860s). See le.
last (adv.): c. 1200, "most recently;" early 13c., "finally, after all others" (contrasted to first), contraction of Old English lætest (adv.), superlative of late (see late).
harrow (v.2): "to ravage, despoil," especially in harrowing of Hell in Christian theology, early 14c., from Old English hergian "to ravage, plunder; seize, capture" (see harry (v.)). Related: Harrowed; harrowing.
haunting (adj.): late 14c., present participle adjective from haunt (v.). Middle English hauntingly meant "frequently" (mid-15c.); sense of "so as to haunt one's thoughts or memory" is from 1859.
heil (v.): "hail," German from Sieg Heil (q.v.). Middle English cognate heil was used as a salutation implying respect or reverence (c. 1200; see hail (interj.)).
herd (n.2): "keeper of a flock of domestic animals," Old English hierde, from the source of herd (v.). Now obsolete except in compounds. Compare Old Saxon hirdi, Middle Dutch hirde, German Hirte, Old Norse hirðir.
lek (v.): of certain animals, "to engage in courtship displays," 1871, probably from Swedish leka "to play," cognate of English dialectal verb lake (see lark (n.2)). Related: Lekking.
leathern (adj.): "of or like leather," Old English leðren, earlier liðerin; see leather + -en (2). Similar formation in Dutch lederen, Old High German lidirin, German ledern.
Leeds: city in England, 16c., earlier Ledes (1086), from Old English Loidis (8c.) "(district of) the people beside the river Lat'" (perhaps an earlier name of the river Aire.
blood-letting (n.): also bloodletting, early 13c., blod letunge, from blood (n.) + letting. Hyphenated from 17c., one word from mid-19c. Old English had blodlæte "blood-letting."
letting (n.): "action of allowing movement or passage of something," early 15c., verbal noun from let (v.). Archaic or legalese meaning "delay, hindrance" is late Old English, from let (n.).
met (v.): past tense and past participle of meet (v.). Old English long vowels tended to shorten before many consonant clusters. Hence meet/met (earlier mette), five/fifteen, house/husband, break/breakfast.
forefinger (n.): mid-15c., from fore- + finger (n.). So called because it is considered the first next to the thumb. A Middle English name for it was lickpot (late 14c.).
liftoff (n.): also lift-off, "vertical take-off of a rocket, etc.," 1956, American English, from the verbal phrase, from lift (v.) + off (adv.). Earlier, of aircraft, simply lift (1879). Figurative use from 1967.
lifetime (n.): also life-time, "duration of one's life," early 13c., from life (n.) + time (n.). One word from 19c. Old English had lifdæg in same sense, literally "life day."
latke (n.): "pancake made with grated potatoes," 1925, American English, from Yiddish, from Russian latka "pastry," said to mean literally "a patch," but by Watkins traced to Greek elaia "olive."
limitary (adj.): 1610s, from Latin limitaris, from limes (genitive limitis) "boundary, limit" (see limit (n.)). Other adjectives in English included limital (1877), limitaneous (1721), limitative (1520s). Related: Limitarian.
talkative (adj.): early 15c.; see talk (v.) + -ative. An early hybrid word in English. Originally especially "boastful," but now considered less pejorative than loquacious or garrulous. Related: Talkatively; talkativeness.
listless (adj.): "languid and unresponsive, slothful," mid-15c., from Middle English liste "pleasure, joy, delight" (see list (v.4)) + -less. Spenser, if no one else, tried listful (1590s). Related: Listlessly; listlessness.
list (n.1): "catalogue consisting of names in a row or series," c. 1600, from Middle English liste "border, edging, stripe" (late 13c.), from Old French liste "border, band, row, group," also "strip of paper," or from Old Italian lista "border, strip of paper, list," both from Germanic sources (compare Old High German lista "strip, border, list," Old Norse lista "border, selvage," Old English liste "border of cloth, fringe"), from Proto-Germanic *liston, from PIE *leizd- "border, band."

The original Middle English sense is now obsolete. The sense of "enumeration" is from strips of paper used as a sort of catalogue. The native Old English form of the word lingered as list in a few specialized senses. List price is from 1871.
list (n.4): c. 1200, "pleasure, enjoyment;" mid-13c., "desire, wish, will, choice," from list (v.4). Somehow English has lost listy (adj.) "pleasant, willing (to do something); ready, quick" (mid-15c.).
lithe (adj.): Old English liðe "soft, mild, gentle, calm, meek," also, of persons, "gracious, kind, agreeable," from Proto-Germanic *linthja- (source also of Old Saxon lithi "soft, mild, gentle," Old High German lindi, German lind, Old Norse linr "soft to the touch, gentle, mild, agreeable," with characteristic loss of "n" before "th" in English), from PIE root *lento- "flexible" (source also of Latin lentus "flexible, pliant, slow," Sanskrit lithi).

In Middle English, used of the weather. Current sense of "easily flexible" is from c. 1300. Related: Litheness. Old and Middle English had the related verb lin "to cease doing (something)," also used of the wind dying down.
Livonia: former name of the region around northern Latvia and southern Estonia, also a former Baltic province of Russia, Modern Latin, ultimately from Estonian liiv "sand." Related: Livonian (1650s). The native name in English was Livland.
pussy (n.2): slang for "female pudenda," 1879, but probably older; perhaps from Old Norse puss "pocket, pouch" (compare Low German puse "vulva"), but perhaps instead from the cat word (see pussy (n.1)) on notion of "soft, warm, furry thing;" compare French le chat, which also has a double meaning, feline and genital. Earlier uses are difficult to distinguish from pussy (n.1), as in:
The word pussie is now used of a woman [Philip Stubbes, "The Anatomie of Abuses," 1583]
But the absence of pussy in Grose and other early slang works argues against the vaginal sense being generally known before late 19c., as does its frequent use as a term of endearment in mainstream literature, as in:
"What do you think, pussy?" said her father to Eva. [Harriet Beecher Stowe, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," 1852]
Pussy-whipped first attested 1956.
velocipede (n.): 1819, "wheeled vehicle propelled by alternate thrusts of each foot on the ground," 1819, from French vélocipède (19c.), from Latin velox (genitive velocis) "swift, speedy" (see velocity) + pedem, accusative of pes "foot," from PIE root *ped- (1) "a foot" (see foot (n.)). The mechanical ancestor of the bicycle, it was tinkered with and improved; the name continued for some time and was applied to an early kind of modern bicycle or tricycle from 1849. See bicycle (n.).
The Velocipede has been introduced into England, under letters patent, by Mr. Johnson, a coachmaker in Long-Acre, by whom it has been greatly improved, both in lightness and strength. "The road from Ipswich to Whitton," says the Bury paper, "is travelled every evening by several pedestrian hobby-horses; no less than six are seen at a time, and the distance, which is 3 miles, is performed in 15 minutes." ["The Athenaeum," May 1, 1819]
nineties (n.): 1857 as the years of someone's life between 90 and 99; from 1848 as the tenth decade of years in a given century; 1849 with reference to Fahrenheit temperature. See ninety.
Many still live who remember those days; if the old men cannot tell you the exact date, they will say: 'It were in the nineties;' (etc.) ["Chambers's Journal," Nov. 1, 1856]
In Britain, the naughty nineties was a popular name 1920s-30s for the 1890s, based on the notion of a relaxing of morality and mood in contrast to earlier Victorian times. In U.S., gay nineties in reference to the same decade is attested from 1927, and was the title of a regular nostalgia feature in "Life" magazine about that time.
The long, dreary blue-law Sunday afternoons were periods of the Nineties which no amount of rosy retrospect will ever be able to recall as gay, especially to a normal healthy boy to whom all activities were taboo except G. A. Henty and the bound volumes of Leslie's Weekly of the Civil War. [Life, Sept. 1, 1927]
bully (n.): 1530s, originally "sweetheart," applied to either sex, from Dutch boel "lover; brother," probably a diminutive of Middle Dutch broeder "brother" (compare Middle High German buole "brother," source of German Buhle "lover;" see brother (n.)).

Meaning deteriorated 17c. through "fine fellow" and "blusterer" to "harasser of the weak" (1680s, from bully-ruffian, 1650s). Perhaps this was by influence of bull (n.1), but a connecting sense between "lover" and "ruffian" may be in "protector of a prostitute," which was one sense of bully (though not specifically attested until 1706). "Sweetheart" words often go bad in this way; compare leman, also ladybird, which in Farmer & Henley is "1. A whore; and (2) a term of endearment." The expression meaning "worthy, jolly, admirable" (especially in 1864 U.S. slang bully for you!) is first attested 1680s, and preserves an earlier, positive sense of the word.
ballistics (n.): 1753, "art of throwing; science of projectiles," with -ics + Latin ballista "ancient military machine for hurling stones," from Greek ballistes, from ballein "to throw, to throw so as to hit," also in a looser sense, "to put, place, lay;" from PIE root *gwele- (1) "to throw, reach," in extended senses "to pierce" (source also of Sanskrit apa-gurya "swinging," balbaliti "whirls, twirls;" Greek bole "a throw, beam, ray," belemnon "dart, javelin," belone "needle"). Here, too, probably belongs Greek ballizein "to dance," literally "to throw one's body," ancient Greek dancing being highly athletic.
garland (n.): c. 1300 (mid-13c. in Anglo-Latin), "wreath of flowers," also "crown of gold or silver," from Old French garlande "garland," probably from a Frankish frequentative form of *weron "adorn, bedeck," from *wiara-, *weara- "wire" (on the notion of "ornament of refined gold," properly "of twisted gold wire"), from Proto-Germanic *wira-, *wera-, suffixed form of PIE *wei- (1) "to turn, twist" (see wire (n.)). Compare Middle High German wieren "adorn, bedeck." The word is found in many forms in the Romanic language, such as Old Spanish guarlanda, French guirlande, Italian ghirlanda, Portuguese guirnalda.