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1063 entries found
wound (n.)

Old English wund "hurt, injury, ulcer," from Proto-Germanic *wuntho (source also of Old Saxon wunda, Old Norse und, Old Frisian wunde, Old High German wunta, German wunde "wound"), perhaps from PIE root *wen- (2) "to beat, wound."

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wounder (n.)
late 15c., agent noun from wound (v.).
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woven (adj.)
late 15c., past-participle adjective from weave (v.) on analogy of stolen.
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wow (v.)
"overwhelm with delight or amazement," 1924, American English slang, from wow (interj.). Related: Wowed; wowing. Used as a noun meaning "unqualified success" since 1920.
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wow (interj.)
1510s, Scottish, a natural expression of amazement. "This old interjection had a new popularity in the early 1900s and again during the 1960s and later" [DAS].
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WPA 
1936, initialism (acronym) from Works Progress Administration, U.S. agency established 1935.
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wrack (v.)
"to ruin or wreck" (originally of ships), 1560s, from earlier intransitive sense "to be shipwrecked" (late 15c.), from wrack (n.). Often confused in this sense since 16c. with rack (v.) in the sense of "torture on the rack;" to wrack one's brains is thus erroneous. Related: Wracked; wracking.
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wrack (n.)
late 14c., "wrecked ship, shipwreck," probably from Middle Dutch wrak "wreck," from Proto-Germanic *wrakaz-, from root *wreg- "to push, shove, drive" (see wreak). The root sense perhaps is "that which is cast ashore." Sense perhaps influenced by Old English wræc "misery, punishment," and wrecan "to punish, drive out" (source of modern wreak). The meaning "damage, disaster, destruction" (in wrack and ruin) is from c. 1400, from the Old English word, but conformed in spelling to this one. Sense of "seaweed, etc., cast up on shore" is recorded from 1510s, probably an alteration of wreck (n.) in this sense (mid-15c.). Wrack, wreck, rack and wretch were utterly tangled in spelling and somewhat in sense in Middle and early modern English.
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wraith (n.)
1510s, "ghost," Scottish, of uncertain origin. Weekley and Century Dictionary suggest Old Norse vorðr "guardian" in the sense of "guardian angel." Klein points to Gaelic and Irish arrach "specter, apparition."
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wrangle (v.)
late 14c., from Low German wrangeln "to dispute, to wrestle," related to Middle Low German wringen, from Proto-Germanic *wrang-, from *wrengh-, nasalized variant of *wergh- "to turn," from PIE root *wer- (2) "to turn, bend." Meaning "take charge of horses" is by 1897, American English. Related: Wrangled; wrangling. The noun is recorded from 1540s.
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