Online Etymology Dictionary

suavity (n.): c. 1400, "pleasantness, delightfulness; kindness, gentleness," from Latin suavitatem (nominative suavitas) "sweetness, agreeableness," from suavis (see suave). Some later senses are from French suavité, from Old French soavite "gentleness, sweetness, softness," from the Latin word.
ticklish (adj.): "easily tickled," 1590s, from tickle + -ish. Literal sense is attested later than the figurative sense "easy to upset" (1580s). An earlier word for this was tickly (1520s). Meaning "difficult to do, dubious, requiring great care" is from 1590s. Related: Ticklishly; ticklishness.
Syracuse: city in Sicily, founded as a Corinthian colony, and with a name traceable to 8c. B.C.E., from a pre-Hellenic word, perhaps Phoenician serah "to feel ill," in reference to its location near a swamp. The city in New York, U.S., was named 1825 for the classical city.
spoony (adj.): 1812, "soft, silly, weak-minded;" by 1836 as "foolishly sentimental," with -y (2) + spoon (n.) in a slang sense "silly person, simpleton" (1799), a figurative use of the eating utensil word, perhaps based on the notion of shallowness. Related: Spoonily; spooniness.
limaceous (adj.): "pertaining to slugs," 1650s, with -ous + Latin limax (genitive limacis) "snail, slug," from Greek leimax, from PIE root *(s)lei- "slime" (see slime (n.)). The Greek word is cognate with Russian slimák "snail," Lithuanian slíekas "earthworm," and the first element in Old English slaw-wyrm "slow-worm."
lovesome (adj.): Old English lufsum "worthy of love," from love (v.) + -some (1). Early 13c. as "lovely," 1720 as "amorous." An old word that might be useful in its original sense. Related: Lovesomely; lovesomeness.
lob (n.): a word of widespread application to lumpish things, probably in Old English. Compare Middle Dutch, Middle Low German lobbe, Old Norse lubba. From late 13c. as a surname; meaning "pollack" is from early 14c.; that of "lazy lout" is from late 14c.
Luxembourg: European state, from Germanic lutilla "little" + burg "fort, castle." Related: Luxembourgeois; Luxembourger. Hence also lushburg (mid-14c.), Middle English word for "a base coin made in imitation of the sterling or silver penny and imported from Luxemburg in the reign of Edward III" [OED].
masto-: before vowels mast-, word-forming element meaning "breast," from comb. form of Greek mastos "woman's breast," from madan "to be wet, to flow," from PIE *mad- "wet, moist, dripping" (source also of Latin madere "be moist;" Albanian mend "suckle;" see mast (n.2)).
Manes (pl.): "Gods of the Lower World," in Roman religion, from Latin manes "departed spirit, ghost, shade of the dead, deified spirits of the underworld," usually said to be from Latin manus "good," thus properly "the good gods," a euphemistic word, but Tucker suggests a possible connection instead to macer, thus "the thin or unsubstantial ones."
gangsta: rap style generally credited to West Philly hip hop artist Schoolly D, but as for the word itself, his "Gangster Boogie" (1984) used the conventional spelling; NWA was spelling it gangsta by 1988.
-al (3): word-forming element in chemistry to indicate "presence of an aldehyde group" (from aldehyde). The suffix also is commonly used in forming the names of drugs, often narcotics (such as barbital), a tendency that apparently began in German and might have been suggested by chloral (n.).
Miami: place name in U.S.; the one in Florida is of unknown origin, attested in Spanish as Maymi (1566), Mayaimi (1575). The one in Ohio is from the Miami, native people there, attested from 18c., apparently from a native word /myaamiwa "downstream person."
quarter (v.): "to cut in quarters, divide into four parts," mid-14c., from quarter (n.). Specifically as the word for a form of criminal punishment from late 14c. (Old English had slitcwealm "death by rending"). Related: Quartered; quartering. The meaning "to put up soldiers" is recorded from 1590s (see quarters).
wind (n.2): "an act of winding round," 1825, from wind (v.1) . Earlier, "an apparatus for winding," late 14c., in which use perhaps from a North Sea Germanic word, such as Middle Dutch, Middle Low German winde "windlass."
-phobia: word-forming element meaning "excessive or irrational fear of," from Latin -phobia and directly from Greek -phobia "panic fear of," from phobos "fear" (see phobia). In widespread popular use with native words from c. 1800. Related: -phobic.
myco-: before vowels myc-, word-forming element meaning "mushroom, fungus," formed irregularly from Greek mykes "fungus, mushroom, anything shaped like a mushroom," from PIE root *meug- "slimy, slippery" (see mucus). The correct form is myceto- (mycet-).
omo-: before vowels om-, word-forming element meaning "raw, unripe," from Greek omo-, comb. form of omos "raw," from PIE root *om- "raw, sharp-tasting" (source also of Sanskrit amah "raw, uncooked, unripe," Old Irish om, Welsh of).
chisel (v.): c. 1500, "to break with a chisel," from chisel (n.). Slang sense of "to cheat, defraud" is first recorded in 1808 as chizzel; origin and connection to the older word are obscure (compare slang sense of gouge); chiseler in this sense is from 1918. Related: Chiseled; chiseling.
phylo-: before vowels phyl-, word-forming element from comb. form of Greek phylon, phyle "a tribe," also "a political subdivision in ancient Athens," from base of phyein "to bring forth, produce, make to grow," whence also physis "nature" (see physic).
bum (v.): 1863, "to loaf and beg," American English, a word from the Civil War, perhaps a back-formation from bummer "loafer," or from bum (n.). Meaning "to feel depressed" is from 1973, perhaps from bummer in the "bad experience" sense. Related: Bummed; bumming.
chaeto-: before vowels chaet-, word-forming element meaning "hair," also, in scientific use, "spine, bristle," from Latinized form of Greek khaite "long, flowing hair" (of persons, also of horses, lions), related to Avestan gaesa- "curly hair."
somato-: before vowels somat-, word-forming element meaning "the body of an organism," from comb. form of Greek soma (genitive somatos) "the body, a human body dead or living, body as opposed to spirit; material substance; mass; a person, human being; the whole body or mass of anything," of uncertain origin.
fleck (n.): 1590s, "a mark on skin, a freckle," of uncertain origin; perhaps from fleck (v.) or else from a related word elsewhere in Germanic, such as Middle Dutch vlecke or Old Norse flekkr "a fleck, spot." From 1750 as "small particle," 1804 as "a patch, a spot" of any kind.
provection (n.): 1650s, "advancement" (obs.); 1868 in the sense "carrying of the final letter of a word into the next one" (as in newt), from Late Latin provectionem (nominative provectio) "advancement," noun of action from past participle stem provehere "to carry forward," from pro- "toward, ahead" (see pro-) + vehere "to carry" (see vehicle).
psilo-: before vowels psil-, word-forming element meaning "stripped, bare," from Greek psilos "bare, naked; mere," perhaps akin to psen "to rub," and both or either perhaps from PIE root *bhes- "to rub" (source also of Greek psamathos "sand;" see sand (n.)).
chop-chop (adv.): "quickly," Pidgin English, from Chinese k'wa-k'wa (see chopstick).
CHOP. A Chinese word signifying quality; first introduced by mariners in the Chinese trade, but which has now become common in all our seaports. [Bartlett, "Dictionary of Americanisms," 1848]
pre-atomic (adj.): "before the atomic age," 1914, in "World Set Free" -- H.G. Wells anticipating the word the future would use to look back at a time defined by events that hadn't yet happened in his day; from pre- + atomic.
pudeur (n.): "modesty," especially in sexual matters, 1937, from French pudeur "modesty," from Latin pudor "shame, modesty," from pudere "make ashamed" (see pudendum). The same word had been borrowed into English directly from Latin as pudor (1620s), but this became obsolete.
clout (v.): "to beat, strike," early 14c., from clout (n.), perhaps on the notion of hitting someone with a lump of something, or from the "patch of cloth" sense of that word (compare clout (v.) "to patch, mend," mid-14c.). Related: Clouted; clouting.
schizo-: word-forming element meaning "division; split, cleavage," from Latinized form of Greek skhizo-, comb. form of skhizein "to split, cleave, part, separate," from PIE root *skei- "to cut, separate, divide, part, split" (see shed (v.)).
se-: word-forming element, from Latin se-, collateral form of sed- "without, apart, aside, on one's own," related to sed, Latin reflexive pronoun (accusative and ablative), from PIE *sed-, extended form of root *s(w)e-, pronoun of the third person and reflexive (source also of German sich; see idiom).
Rosinante (n.): Don Quixote's horse, from Spanish Rocinante, from rocin "worn-out horse" + antes "before," "so called in allusion to the circumstance that Don Quixote's charger was formerly a wretched hack" [Klein]. Rocin is cognate with Old French rancin "draft horse, hack," but the word is of unknown origin.
radio-: word-forming element meaning 1. "ray, ray-like" (see radius); 2. "radial, radially" (see radial (adj.)); 3. "by means of radiant energy" (see radiate (v.)); 4. "radioactive" (see radioactive); 5. "by radio" (see radio (n.)).
slowpoke (n.): also slow poke, 1848, American English from slow (adj.) + poke (n.3), the name of a device, like a yoke with a pole, attached to domestic animals such as pigs and sheep to keep them from escaping enclosures. Bartlett (1859) calls it "a woman's word."
steno-: before vowels sten-, word-forming element meaning "narrow," from comb. form of Greek stenos "narrow, strait," as a noun "straits of the sea, narrow strip of land," also metaphorically, "close, confined; scanty, petty," from PIE *sten- "narrow."
strepto-: word-forming element used in science to mean "twisted," from Latinized comb. form of Greek streptos "twisted, easy to bend, pliant," verbal adjective of strephein "to turn, twist," from PIE *streb(h)- "to wind, turn" (see strophe).
sporo-: before vowels spor-, word-forming element meaning "spore," from comb. form of Greek spora "a seed, a sowing," related to sporas "scattered, dispersed," sporos "sowing," and speirein "to sow," from PIE *spor-, variant of root *sper- (4) "to strew" (see sprout (v.)).
theo-: word-forming element meaning "god, gods, God," from comb. form of Greek theos "god," from PIE root *dhes-, root of words applied to various religious concepts, such as Latin feriae "holidays," festus "festive," fanum "temple."
targe (n.): "shield, buckler," late Old English, from Old French targe, from Frankish *targa, from Germanic (see target (n.)). Old English had a native form targe, but the soft -g- in the later word indicates it came from French.
thanato-: before vowels thanat-, word-forming element meaning "death," from Greek thanatos "death," from PIE *dhwene- "to disappear, die," perhaps from a root meaning "dark, cloudy" (compare Sanskrit dhvantah "dark"). Hence Bryant's "Thanatopsis", with Greek opsis "a sight, view."
fig (n.2): "dress, equipment," 1823, in phrase in full fig; hence "condition, state of preparedness" (1883). Said to be an abbreviation of figure (n.), perhaps from the abbreviation of that word in plate illustrations in books, etc. According to others, from the fig leaves of Adam and Eve. Related: Figgery.
xylo-: before vowels xyl-, word forming element meaning "wood," from comb. form of Greek xylon "wood cut and ready for use, firewood, timber; piece of wood; stocks, a plank, beam, or bench," in New Testament, "the Cross," of unknown origin.
zoo-: word-forming element meaning "animal, living being," from comb. form of Greek zoion "an animal," literally "a living being," from PIE root *gwei- "to live, life" (source also of Greek bios "life," Old English cwicu "living;" see bio-).
encephalo-: before vowels encephal-, word-forming element meaning "brain, of the brain," from comb. form of medical Latin encephalon, from Greek enkephalos "the brain," literally "within the head," from en "in" (see en- (2)) + kephale "head;" see cephalo-.
Ingvaeonic (n.): hypothetical ancestral North Sea Germanic language, 1933, from Latin Ingaeuones, name of a Germanic tribe in Tacitus, literally "people of Yngve," god, demigod, or eponymous ancestor. Earlier the word was used in English in reference to North Sea Germanic tribes (1904).
Italic (adj.): "of or pertaining to ancient Italy," 1680s, from Latin Italicus, from Italia (see Italy). A word of historians and antiquarians. Earlier in the sense "pertaining to the Greek colonies in southern Italy" (1660s) and as the name of one of the orders of classical architecture (1560s).
jigger (n.2): "1.5-ounce shot glass," 1836, American English, in early use also of the drink itself, from jigger "illicit distillery" (1824), of unknown origin; or else perhaps from jigger, a 1756 alteration of chigger "tiny mite or flea." As a name for various appliances, the word is attested by 1825, from jig.
heteroclite (adj.): in reference to a word (especially a noun) irregularly inflected, 1570s, from French hétéroclite, from Late Latin heteroclitus, from Greek heteroklitos "irregularly inflected," from hetero- "different" (see hetero-) + verbal adjective from klinein "to lean" (see lean (v.)). Figuratively, of persons, "deviating from the ordinary," from 1590s.
hyponymy (n.): 1955, a linguist's word, from hypo- + second element from Greek onyma "name" (see name (n.)), with abstract noun ending. The relationship between two words where one may invariably be replaced by the other without changing the sense but not vice versa.