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1872 entries found
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.
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eatery (n.)
"restaurant," 1901; see eat + -ery.
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eats (n.)
"food," in use by 1889 in U.S., considered colloquial, but the same construction with the same meaning was present in Old English.
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eau (n.)
French for "water," from Old French eue (12c.), from Latin aqua "water, rainwater" (from PIE root *akwa- "water"). Brought into English in combinations such as eau de vie "brandy" (1748), literally "water of life;" eau de toilette (1907). For eau de Cologne see cologne.
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eave (n.)
"lower part of a roof," especially that which projects beyond the wall, 1570s, alteration of southwest Midlands dialectal eovese (singular), from Old English efes "edge of a roof," also "edge of a forest," from Proto-Germanic *ubaswo-/*ubiswo "vestibule, porch, eaves" (source also of Old Frisian ose "eaves," Old High German obasa "porch, hall, roof," German Obsen, Old Norse ups, Gothic ubizwa "porch;" German oben "above"), from extended form of PIE root *upo "under," also "up from under," hence also "over." Regarded as plural and a new singular form eave emerged 16c.
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eaves (n.)
see eave.
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eavesdrop (v.)
"lurk near a place to hear what is said inside," c. 1600, probably a back-formation from eavesdropper. The original notion is listening from under the eaves of a house. Related: Eavesdropping.
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eavesdropper (n.)
mid-15c., with agent-noun ending + Middle English eavesdrop, from Old English yfesdrype "place around a house where the rainwater drips off the roof," from eave (q.v.) + drip (v.). Technically, "one who stands at walls or windows to overhear what's going on inside."
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ebb (n.)
Old English ebba "falling of the tide, low tide," perhaps from Proto-Germanic *af- (source also of Old Frisian ebba, Old Saxon ebbiunga, Middle Dutch ebbe, Dutch eb, German Ebbe), from PIE root *apo- "off, away." Figurative sense of "decline, decay, gradual diminution" is from late 14c. Ebb-tide is from 1776.
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ebb (v.)
Old English ebbian "flow back, subside," from the root of ebb (n.). Figurative use in late Old English. Related: Ebbed; ebbing.
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