Online Etymology Dictionary

identity (n.): c. 1600, "sameness, oneness, state of being the same," from Middle French identité (14c.), from Medieval Latin identitatem (nominative identitas) "sameness," ultimately from Latin idem (neuter) "the same" (see idem). [For discussion of Latin formation, see entry in OED.] Earlier form of the word in English was idemptitie (1560s), from Medieval Latin idemptitas. Term identity crisis first recorded 1954. Identity theft attested from 1995.
ides (n.): "middle day of a Roman month," early 14c., from Old French ides (12c.), from Latin idus (plural) "the ides," a word perhaps of Etruscan origin. In the Roman calendar the eighth day after the nones, corresponding to the 15th of March, May, July, and October; the 13th of other months. "Debts and interest were often payable on the ides" [Lewis].
ignore (v.): 1610s, "not to know, to be ignorant of," from French ignorer "be unaware of" (14c.), or directly from Latin ignorare "not to know, be unacquainted; take no notice of, disregard" (see ignorant). The original sense in English is obsolete. Sense of "pass over without notice, pay no attention to" in English first recorded 1801 (Barnhart says "probably a dictionary word"), and OED indicates it was uncommon before c. 1850. Related: Ignored; ignoring.
implore (v.): c. 1500, from Middle French implorer and directly from Latin implorare "call on for help, beseech, beg earnestly," with a literal sense probably of "plead tearfully, invoke with weeping," from assimilated form of in- "on, upon" (see in- (2)) + plorare "to weep, cry out," a word of unknown origin. Related: Implored; imploring; imploringly; imploration.
jagged (adj.): mid-15c., "having notches," from verb jaggen (c. 1400) "to pierce, slash, cut; to notch or nick; cut or tear unevenly," a Scottish and northern English word of unknown origin, related to jag (n.2). Originally of garments with regular "toothed" edges; meaning "with the edge irregularly cut" is from 1570s. Related: Jaggedly; jaggedness.
jar (v.): 1520s, "to make a brief, harsh, grating sound," often in reference to bird screeches; the word often is said to be echoic or imitative; compare jargon (n.), jay (n.), garrulous. Figurative sense of "have an unpleasant effect on" is from 1530s; that of "cause to vibrate or shake" is from 1560s. Related: Jarred; jarring. As a noun in this sense from 1540s.
jasper (n.): precious stone, c. 1300, from Anglo-French jaspre, Old French jaspre, with excrescent -r-, a variant of jaspe (12c.), from Latin iaspidem (nominative iaspis), from Greek iaspis "jasper," via an Oriental language (compare Hebrew yashpeh, Akkadian yashupu). The modern use of the word is more restricted than in ancient times. Hence, from French, jaspé (1851 in English) "mottled or variegated like jasper."
jaunty (adj.): also janty, jantee, etc., 1660s, "elegant, stylish," an imperfect or jocular attempt to render into English the contemporary pronunciation of French gentil "nice, pleasing," in Old French "noble" (see gentle). Meaning "easy and sprightly in manner" first attested 1670s. The same French word otherwise was Englished as genteel. Related: Jauntily; jauntiness.
javelin (n.): late 15c., from Middle French javeline (15c.), fem. diminutive of Old French javelot "a spear" (12c.), probably from Gaulish or another Celtic source (compare Old Irish gabul "fork;" Welsh gafl "fork," gaflach "feathered spear"), from Celtic *gablakko-, from PIE *ghabholo- "a fork, branch of a tree." Also found in Italian (giavelotto) and Middle High German (gabilot). Javelot itself was borrowed in Middle English (mid-15c.), but this is the form of the word that has endured.
jaw (n.): late 14c., jowe, joue, "the bones of the mouth," "A word of difficult etymology" [OED]. Probably from Old French joue "cheek," originally jode, from Gallo-Romance *gauta or directly from Gaulish *gabata, but there are phonetic problems; or perhaps a variant of Germanic words related to chew (v.); compare also the two nouns jowl. Replaced Old English ceace, ceafl. Jaws as "holding and gripping part of an appliance" is from mid-15c.; figuratively, of time, death, defeat, etc., from 1560s.
mace (n.1): "heavy metal weapon, often with a spiked head," late 13c., from Old French mace "a club, scepter" (Modern French masse), from Vulgar Latin *mattea (source also of Italian mazza, Spanish maza "mace"), from Latin mateola (in Late Latin also matteola) "a kind of mallet." The Latin word perhaps is cognate with Sanskrit matyam "harrow, club," Old Church Slavonic motyka "mattock," Old High German medela "plow" [Klein]. As a symbol of authority or office from mid-15c.
Machiavellian (adj.): "cunning, deceitful, unscrupulous," 1570s, from Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), Florentine statesman and author of "Il Principe," a work advising rulers to place advantage above morality. A word of abuse in English well before his works were translated ("The Discourses" 1636, "The Prince" 1640), in part because his books were Indexed by the Church, in part because of French attacks on him (such as Gentillet's, translated into English 1602).
mackerel (n.): edible fish, c. 1300, from Old French maquerel "mackerel" (Modern French maquereau), of unknown origin but apparently identical with Old French maquerel "pimp, procurer, broker, agent, intermediary," a word from a Germanic source (compare Middle Dutch makelaer "broker," from Old Frisian mek "marriage," from maken "to make"). The connection is obscure, but medieval people had imaginative notions about the erotic habits of beasts. The fish approach the shore in shoals in summertime to spawn. Exclamation holy mackerel is attested from 1876.
macro-: word-forming element meaning "long, abnormally large, on a large scale," taken into English via Middle French and Medieval Latin from Greek makros "long, large," from PIE root *mak- "long, thin" (source also of Latin macer "lean, thin;" Old Norse magr, Old English mæger "lean, thin;" Greek mekos "length").
made (adj.): late 14c., from Middle English maked, from Old English macod "made," past participle of macian "to make" (see make). Made up "invented" is from 1789; of minds, "settled, decided," from 1873. To be a made man is in Marlowe's "Faust" (1590). To have it made (1955) is American English colloquial. Grose's dictionary of slang and cant (1785) has for this word what might be the shortest and most cynical definition ever penned: "MADE. Stolen. Cant."
maffick (v.): "to celebrate boisterously," 1900, from Mafficking, a nonce-verb formed punningly from Mafeking, British garrison town in South Africa whose relief on May 17, 1900, during the Boer War, was celebrated wildly in London. OED reports the word "confined to journalistic use." By now it might as well write, "confined to dictionaries." The place name (properly Mafikeng) is from Tswana and is said to mean "place of rocks," from mafika, plural of lefika "rock, cliff" + -eng "place of."
magi (n.): c. 1200, "skilled magicians, astrologers," from Latin magi, plural of magus "magician, learned magician," from Greek magos, a word used for the Persian learned and priestly class as portrayed in the Bible (said by ancient historians to have been originally the name of a Median tribe), from Old Persian magush "magician" (see magic). Related: Magian.
lacrosse (n.): 1850, American English, from Canadian French jeu de la crosse (18c.), literally "game of the hooked sticks," from crosse "hooked stick," such as that used in the game to throw the ball. This French word is, perhaps via a Gallo-Romance *croccia, from Proto-Germanic *kruk- (see crook (n.)). Originally a North American Indian game; the native name is represented by the Ojibwa (Algonquian) verb baaga'adowe "to play lacrosse." Modern form and rules of the game were laid down 1860 in Canada.
lam (n.): "flight, escape," as in on the lam, 1928, in pickpocket slang, (according to OED attested from 1897 in do a lam), from a U.S. slang verb meaning "to run off" (1886), of uncertain origin, but perhaps from lam (v.), which was used in British student slang for "to beat" since 1590s (compare lambaste); if so, the word has the same etymological sense as the slang expression beat it.
laminate (v.): 1660s, "to beat or roll into thin plates," from Latin lamina "thin piece of metal or wood, thin slice, plate, leaf, layer," a word of unknown origin; de Vaan writes that "The only serious etymology offered is a connection with latus 'wide' ...." Many modern senses in English are from the noun meaning "an artificial thin layer" (1939), especially a type of plastic adhesive. Related: Laminated; laminating; laminable.
lampoon (n.): "A personal satire; abuse; censure written not to reform but to vex" [Johnson], 1640s, from French lampon (17c.), a word of unknown origin, said by French etymologists to be from lampons "let us drink," which is said to have been a popular refrain for scurrilous songs, in which case it would be originally a drinking song. French lampons is from lamper "to drink, guzzle," a nasalized form of laper "to lap," from a Germanic source akin to lap (v.). Also see -oon.
lamprey (n.): c. 1300 (perhaps c. 1200 as a surname), from Old French lamproie "lamprey" (12c.), from Medieval Latin lampreda, from Late Latin lampetra "lamprey," a word of uncertain origin, usually explained as literally "lick-rock," from Latin lambere "to lick" (see lap (v.1)) + petra "rock" (see petrous), but this might be folk etymology. The animals attach themselves with sucker-like mouths.
nag (v.): "annoy by scolding," 1828, originally a dialectal word meaning "to gnaw" (1825), probably ultimately from a Scandinavian source (compare Old Norse gnaga "to complain," literally "to bite, gnaw," dialectal Swedish and Norwegian nagga "to gnaw"), from Proto-Germanic *gnagan, related to Old English gnagan "to gnaw" (see gnaw). Related: Nagged; nagger; nagging.
narthex (n.): "porch at the west end of early churches" (used by penitents not admitted to the body of the church), 1670s, from Late Greek narthex, in classical Greek "giant fennel," of unknown origin. The architectural feature allegedly so called from fancied resemblance of porch to a hollow stem. The word also was used in Greek to mean "a small case for unguents, etc." According to Hesiod ("Theogeny"), Prometheus conveyed fire from Heaven to Earth in hollow fennel stalks. Related: Narthecal.
natatorium (n.): 1890, New Englandish word for "swimming pool," from Latin natator "swimmer" (from nare "to swim") + -ium, neuter suffix. Latin nare is from PIE root *sna- "to swim" (source also of Sanskrit snati "bathes;" Avestan snayeite "washes, cleans;" Armenian nay "wet, liquid," Greek notios "wet, damp," nekhein "to swim;" Middle Irish snaim "I swim," snam "a swimming"). Middle English had natatorie "a pool, bath," early 14c., from Latin.
naval (adj.): early 15c., from Old French naval (14c.) and directly from Latin navalis "pertaining to a ship or ships," from navis "ship," from PIE *nau- (2) "boat" (source also of Sanskrit nauh, accusative navam "ship, boat;" Armenian nav "ship;" Greek naus "ship," nautes "sailor;" Old Irish nau "ship;" Welsh noe "a flat vessel;" Old Norse nor "ship"). An Old English word for "naval" was scipherelic.
proprietary (adj.): mid-15c., "possessing worldly goods in excess of a cleric's needs," from Medieval Latin proprietarius "owner of property," noun use of Late Latin adjective proprietarius "of a property holder," from Latin proprietas "owner" (see property). Meaning "held in private ownership" is first attested 1580s. The word was used earlier in English as a noun meaning "proprietor," also "worldly person" (c. 1400), from a noun use in French and Medieval Latin.
prosthesis (n.): 1550s, "addition of a letter or syllable to a word," from Late Latin, from Greek prosthesis "addition," from prostithenai "add to," from pros "to" + tithenai "to put, place" (see theme). Meaning "artificial body part" is first recorded c. 1900, from earlier use to describe the medical art of making artificial limbs (1706), on notion of "that which is added to" the injured body.
proton (n.): 1920 in physics, coined by English physicist Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) from noun use of Greek proton, neuter of protos "first" (see proto-), on analogy of electron; supposedly because hydrogen was hypothesized as a constituent of all the elements. The word was used earlier in embryology (1893) as a translation of German anlage ("fundamental thing") based on Aristotle's phrase he prote ousia to proton.
proverb (n.): c. 1300, in boke of Prouerbyys, the Old Testament work, from Old French proverbe (12c.) and directly from Latin proverbium "a common saying, old adage, maxim," literally "words put forward," from pro- "forth" (see pro-) + verbum "word" (see verb). Used generally from late 14c. The Book of Proverbs in Old English was cwidboc, from cwide "speech, saying, proverb, homily," related to cwiddian "to talk, speak, say, discuss;" cwiddung "speech, saying, report."
providence (n.): late 14c., "foresight, prudent anticipation," from Old French providence "divine providence, foresight" (12c.) and directly from Latin providentia "foresight, precaution, foreknowledge," from providentem (nominative providens), present participle of providere (see provide).

Providence (usually capitalized) "God as beneficent caretaker," first recorded c. 1600, from earlier use of the word for "God's beneficient care or guidance" (14c.), short for divine providence, etc. The noun in Latin occasionally had a similar sense.
pudgy (adj.): also podgy, 1824, from colloquial pudge "anything short and thick" + -y (2). Perhaps related to pudsy "plump" (1754), possibly a diminutive of nursery word pud "hand, forepaw" (from 17c.). A connection with pudding also has been conjectured. In late 19c. often on lists of English local or dialectal words; sources also mention puddy, punchy, pluggy, pudget as relatives or variants. Related: Pudginess.
pug (n.): 1560s, general term of endearment (also puggy), probably related to puck (n.2); one of the earliest senses is "sprite, imp" (1610s). The sense of "miniature dog" is from 1749 (pug-dog); that of "monkey" is 1660s. The word at various times meant "a bargeman" (1590s), "a harlot" (c. 1600), and "an upper servant in a great house" (1847).
Nazi: 1930, noun and adjective, from German Nazi, abbreviation of German pronunciation of Nationalsozialist (based on earlier German sozi, popular abbreviation of "socialist"), from Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei "National Socialist German Workers' Party," led by Hitler from 1920.

The 24th edition of Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache (2002) says the word Nazi was favored in southern Germany (supposedly from c. 1924) among opponents of National Socialism because the nickname Nazi, Naczi (from the masc. proper name Ignatz, German form of Ignatius) was used colloquially to mean "a foolish person, clumsy or awkward person." Ignatz was a popular name in Catholic Austria, and according to one source in World War I Nazi was a generic name in the German Empire for the soldiers of Austria-Hungary.

An older use of Nazi for national-sozial is attested in German from 1903, but EWdS does not think it contributed to the word as applied to Hitler and his followers. The NSDAP for a time attempted to adopt the Nazi designation as what the Germans call a "despite-word," but they gave this up, and the NSDAP is said to have generally avoided the term. Before 1930, party members had been called in English National Socialists, which dates from 1923. The use of Nazi Germany, Nazi regime, etc., was popularized by German exiles abroad. From them, it spread into other languages, and eventually was brought back to Germany, after the war. In the USSR, the terms national socialist and Nazi were said to have been forbidden after 1932, presumably to avoid any taint to the good word socialist. Soviet literature refers to fascists.
oleander (n.): "rose bay," a poisonous evergreen Mediterranean shrub, c. 1400, from Medieval Latin oleander, probably (by influence of Latin olea "olive tree") from Late Latin lorandrum, from Latin rhododendron (see rhododendron), itself altered by influence of Latin laurea "laurel," on resemblance of leaves. This round-about etymology is supported by the French word for it, laurier rose.
prodigy (n.): late 15c., "sign, portent, something extraordinary from which omens are drawn," from Latin prodigium "prophetic sign, omen, portent, prodigy," from pro- "forth" (see pro-) + -igium, a suffix or word of unknown origin, perhaps from *agi-, root of aio "I say" (see adage). Meaning "child with exceptional abilities" first recorded 1650s.
profound (adj.): c. 1300, "characterized by intellectual depth," from Old French profund (12c., Modern French profond), from Latin profundus "deep, bottomless, vast," also "obscure; profound; immoderate," from pro- "forth" (see pro-) + fundus "bottom" (see fund (n.)). The literal and figurative senses both were in Latin, but English, having already deep, employed this word primarily in its figurative sense. Related: Profoundly.
punk (adj.): "inferior, bad," 1896, also as a noun, "something worthless," earlier "rotten wood used as tinder" (1680s), "A word in common use in New England, as well as in the other Northern States and Canada" [Bartlett]; perhaps from Delaware (Algonquian) ponk, literally "dust, powder, ashes;" but Gaelic spong "tinder" also has been suggested (compare spunk "touchwood, tinder," 1580s).
purl (v.1): "knit with inverted stitches," 1825; earlier "embroider with gold or silver thread" (1520s), probably from Middle English pirlyng "revolving, twisting," of unknown origin. The two senses usually are taken as one word, but even this is not certain. Klein suggests a source in Italian pirolare "to twirl," from pirolo "top." As a noun, from late 14c. as "bordering, frills," 1530s as "twisted thread of gold and silver."
octopus (n.): 1758, genus name of a type of eight-armed cephalopod mollusks, from Greek oktopous, literally "eight-foot," from okto "eight" (see eight) + pous "foot," from PIE root *ped- (1) "a foot" (see foot (n.)). Proper plural is octopodes, though octopuses probably works better in English. Octopi (1817) is from mistaken assumption that -us in this word is the Latin noun ending that takes -i in plural.
offer (v.): Old English ofrian "to offer, show, exhibit, sacrifice, bring an oblation," from Latin offerre "to present, bestow, bring before" (in Late Latin "to present in worship"), from ob "to" (see ob-) + ferre "to bring, to carry" (see infer). The Latin word was borrowed elsewhere in Germanic: Old Frisian offria, Middle Dutch offeren, Old Norse offra. Non-religious sense reinforced by Old French offrir "to offer," from Latin offerre. Related: Offered; offering.
upbeat (adj.): "with a positive mood," 1947, apparently from on the upbeat "improving, getting better," attested from 1934 and a favorite of "Billboard" headline-writers in the early 1940s, from the musical noun upbeat (1869), referring to the beat of a bar at which the conductor's baton is in a raised position; from up (adv.) + beat (n.). The "optimistic" sense apparently for no other reason than that it sounds like a happy word (the musical upbeat is no more inherently "positive" than any other beat).
vaccination (n.): 1800, used by British physician Edward Jenner (1749-1823) for the technique he devised of preventing smallpox by injecting people with the cowpox virus (variolae vaccinae), from vaccine (adj.) "pertaining to cows, from cows" (1798), from Latin vaccinus "from cows," from vacca "cow" (Latin bos "cow" being originally "ox," "a loan word from a rural dialect" according to Buck, who cites Umbrian bue). "The use of the term for diseases other than smallpox is due to Pasteur" [OED].
undertake (v.): c. 1200, "to entrap;" c. 1300, "to set about (to do)," from under + take (v.). Similar formation in French entreprendre "to undertake," from entre "between, among" + prendre "to take." The under in this word may be the same one that also may form the first element of understand. Old English had underniman "to trap, accept" (cognate with Dutch ondernemen, German unternehmen).
taffrail (n.): 1814, alteration of tafferel (1704) "upper panel on the stern of a ship (often ornamented)," earlier, "a carved panel" (1620s), from Dutch tafereel "panel for painting or carving," dissimulation from *tafeleel, diminutive of tafel "table," from the general West Germanic borrowing of Latin tabula "slab, board" (see table (n.)). The word developed in Dutch from the custom of ornamenting (by painting or carving) the high, flat stern of old sailing ships; spelling and sense altered in English by influence of rail (n.).
talisman (n.): 1630s, "magical figure cut or engraved under certain observances," from French talisman, in part via Arabic tilsam (plural tilsaman), from Byzantine Greek telesma "talisman, religious rite, payment," earlier "consecration, ceremony," originally in ancient Greek "completion," from telein "perform (religious rites), pay (tax), fulfill," from telos "end, fulfillment, completion" (see tele-). The Arabic word also was borrowed into Turkish, Persian, Hindi. Related: Talismanic; talismanical.
tallow (n.): hard animal fat, used to make soap, candles, etc., mid-14c., talwgh, from a source (perhaps an unrecorded Old English word) cognate with Middle Low German talg "tallow," Middle Dutch talch, from Proto-Germanic *talga-, meaning perhaps originally "firm, compact material" (compare Gothic tulgus "firm, solid"). OED says related Scandinavian words probably are from continental Germanic.
tank (n.): 1610s, "pool or lake for irrigation or drinking water," a word originally brought by the Portuguese from India, from a Hindi source, such as Gujarati tankh "cistern, underground reservoir for water," Marathi tanken, or tanka "reservoir of water, tank." Perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit tadaga-m "pond, lake pool," and reinforced in later sense of "large artificial container for liquid" (1680s) by Portuguese tanque "reservoir," from estancar "hold back a current of water," from Vulgar Latin *stanticare (see stanch). But other sources say the Portuguese word is the source of the Indian ones. Meaning "fuel container" is recorded from 1902. Slang meaning "detention cell" is from 1912. Railroad tank-car is from 1874.

In military use, "armored, gun-mounted vehicle moving on continuous articulated tracks," the word originated late 1915. In "Tanks in the Great War" [1920], Brevet Col. J.F.C. Fuller quotes a memorandum of the Committee of Imperial Defence dated Dec. 24, 1915, recommending the proposed "caterpillar machine-gun destroyer" machines be entrusted to an organization "which, for secrecy, shall be called the 'Tank Supply Committee,' ..." In a footnote, Fuller writes, "This is the first appearance of the word 'tank' in the history of the machine." He writes that "cistern" and "reservoir" also were put forth as possible cover names, "all of which were applicable to the steel-like structure of the machines in the early stages of manufacture. Because it was less clumsy and monosyllabic, the name 'tank' was decided on." They were first used in action at Pozieres ridge, on the Western Front, Sept. 15, 1916, and the name was quickly picked up by the soldiers. Tank-trap attested from 1920.
tankard (n.): late 14c., "large tub-like vessel," corresponding to Middle Dutch tanckaert, meaning the same thing, but both of unknown origin. A guess hazarded in OED is that it is a transposition of *kantard, from Latin cantharus. Klein suggests French tant quart "as much as a quarter." "The notion that the word is from tank 1 + -ard is wholly untenable" [Century Dictionary]. Meaning "drinking vessel" is first recorded late 15c.
tanner (n.2): "sixpence," slang word first recorded 1811, of unknown origin. J.C. Hotten, lexicographer of Victorian slang, thinks it may be from tanner and skin, rhyming slang for "thin," presumably in reference to the smallness of the coin. Not to be confused with tenner, slang for "ten-pound note," which dates from 1861.