etym-a-day

[etym-a-day]

enough, adj. and adv.

Native to English. In Old English the word was genog, from Proto-Germanic *ganog, which means "sufficient". The Proto-Germanic is a compound of two elements:

The first is Proto-Germanic *ga-, "with, together", which is derived from Proto-Indo-European *kom-, "with, beside, near".

The second is PG *-nog, from PIE *nok-, an inflection of PIE *nek-, meaning "to reach, to attain".

[etym-a-day]

dainty, adj.

Used as an adjective from ca. 1300 to mean "delightful or pleasing", this word was originally borrowed from Old French deintie, "price, value; pleasure, delicacy", in the mid 13th century as a noun meaning "regard or affection", later "excellence, elegance; a luxury, a fine or precious thing". The adjective gained the sense of "choice, excellent" in the late 14th century, and that of "delicate, exquisite" by ca. 1400. The connotation of "weak or effeminate" is from the 1570s.

Old French deintie is from Latin dignitas, "worth, beauty, greatness", which is a nominalization of the Latin adjective dignus, "proper, fitting, worthy, acceptable", which is ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dek-, "to take, to accept".

[etym-a-day]

party, n.

Entered English ca. 1300 from Old French partie, "part, portion, or division", from Latin pars (genitive partis), "part, piece, or share", which in turn is from Proto-Indo-European *pere-, "to allot, to grant".

This word originally had the same meaning as its Old French counterpart, which is preserved now in the legal sense as "one side or entity in a contract or legal proceeding", in the political sense as "a faction united by similar views and values, as opposed to other factions", and in the military sense as "a detachment of soldiers from a larger company". The two former senses are attested from the word's inception, but the military sense is not attested until the 1640s.

The general sense of "a group or gathering of people" is from the early 14th century, as in hunting party. From this sense, the most common modern meaning of "a social gathering for fun or celebration" arises, first attested in 1716. It is also likely this sense, perhaps directly from the notion of a hunting party, that the use of the word in roleplaying and video games derived.

[etym-a-day]

peek, v.

Entered English in the late 14th century from an uncertain source. Variants include piken, peep (which is still in use today), and keek, the latter of which has led some etymologists to theorize that Middle Dutch kieken, "to look, to peep", may be the ultimate source of the word.

[etym-a-day]

yellow, adj.

Native to English. In Middle English the word was yelwe, and in Old English it was geolu or geolwe, from Proto-Germanic *gelwaz of the same meaning, which itsef is ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ghel-, "to shine", which should look familiar to regular readers from gloss on May 22 (see also glitch from April 9).

[etym-a-day]

shack, n.

This word is a very late addition to English, originating in the American and Canadian dialects in the mid to late 1800s, with the first recorded instance appearing in 1878 to mean "a very roughly built house or cabin". The word is uncertain in origin; several theories have been put forward.

One theory is that the word is a borrowing of Mexican Spanish jacal (from Nahuatl xacalli meaning "wooden hut"). Another theory proposes that the word is derived from English ramshackle, which itself is derived from the English word ransack. Yet another theory claims that the word is simply an extension of the earlier verb shack, a variant of shake, or perhaps a backformation from the adjective shackly, meaning "rickety or shoddy", which is a derivative of the verb shack.

[etym-a-day]

medicine, n.

Entered English ca. 1200 from Old French medecine and directly from Latin medicina (from which the Old French is also derived), both meaning "cure or treatment; the art of healing". The Latin was originally the adjective portion of the phrasal noun ars medicina, "the art of medicine", which over time was reduced to simply medicina.

Latin medicina is formed from the Latin adjectivizing suffix -inus (from Proto-Indo-European *-iHnos of the same usage), and the Latin noun medicus, meaning "a physician". Latin medicus is a combination of the PIE root *med-, "to take appropriate measures", and the Latin agentive suffix -icus (ultimately from PIE *-ko-, "characteristic of"), meaning "one who [does something]".

Thus, etymologically, a medicus is "one who takes appropriate measures", and medicine is therefore "that which pertains to taking appropriate measures".

[etym-a-day]

black, adj.

Native to English and originally meaning specifically "the color of soot or coal", this word is from Proto-Germanic *blakaz, an adjective meaning "burned". The Proto-Germanic is from Proto-Indo-European *bhleg-, "to burn, gleam, shine, or glow", which itself is from the PIE root *bhel-, "to flash or shine; to burn".

In Old English, this word was written as blæc, and it had a twin with the exact same etymology and the opposite meaning, written blac (which meant "pale, bright, glittering, shining"). The descendent of the latter is Middle English blake, from which the surname Blake (meaning either "pale or whitish" or "of dark complexion") is drawn. Because of the lack of standardized spelling in the Middle English period, it is difficult to know which meaning an author intended in any given instance.

The distinction is clearer in Old English, because blæc meaning "coal-colored" was rarely used. The preferred word for the color was sweart, from which derives the Modern English adjective swarthy.

[etym-a-day]

creep, v.

Native to English, from Proto-Germanic *kreupanan, "to crawl along the ground like a snake or insect", which is probably from the Proto-Indo-European root *ger-, meaning "crooked".

[etym-a-day]

fear, n.

Native to English, originally meaning "sudden danger, calamity, or peril", from Proto-Germanic *feraz, "danger", itself from the Proto-Indo-European root verb *per-, meaning "to risk; to try". This word gained its modern sense of "the feeling of being afraid or in danger" by the late 12th century.

[etym-a-day]

bath, n.

Native to English, from Proto-Germanic *baþą, "a quantity of water or other liquid for bathing; an immersing of the body in water, mud, or other liquid". The Proto-Germanic is from the Proto-Indo-European root *bhe-, "to heat or warm", suffixed with the Germanic nominalizer *-thuz, which indicates an act, condition, or process (also found in Modern English birth and death). Therefore, etymologically, a bath is "the process of warming".

[etym-a-day]

morose, adj.

Entered English in the 1530s as a direct borrowing from Latin morosus, "peevish, melancholy, sullen". The Latin is an adjectival formation from the noun mos (moris in the genitive, from which we get Modern English moral), meaning "habit, custom, manner".

The Latin noun mos is of uncertain origin; no clear Indo-European link has yet been found, although some scholars suggest it may be related to the Germanic root *mōda-, "mind, spirit, intent", from which we get Modern English mood. The Germanic root is also of unknown origin.

[etym-a-day]

wolf, n.

Native to English, from Proto-Germanic *wulfaz, in turn from Proto-Indo-European *wlkwo-, "wolf".

[etym-a-day]

cry, v.

Entered English in the mid 13th century as a borrowing of Old French crier, "to yell, to wail". The French is from Latin quiritare, "to wail or shriek", which is uncertain in origin, but is possibly from the Latin onomatopoeia quis, which was their word for the sound a pig makes.

Originally meaning only "to yell out, to shout", this word was extended very shortly after its borrowing to include the sense "to weep, to shed tears", through the Old French sense "to wail or lament loudly". Use of the word as a noun appeared shortly thereafter, in the late 13th century.

[etym-a-day]

blithering, adj.

First attested in the 1880s as the present participle of the verb blither, this word is now a fossil word, attested in Modern English usage only in the phrase blithering idiot, in which it has been consistently attested since its earliest documentation.

The verb blither from which it comes is first attested in 1868 and is a variant of the Scottish and Northern English dialects' word blether (first attested in the 1520s), both variants meaning "to talk nonsense". In other dialects of English, this same word was blather (also first attested in the 1520s), a form of the word which has survived into Modern English usage, even if somewhat rarely in the present time.

The verb blather (again, blether in certain Northern dialects) is likely from a Scandinavian source such as Old Norse blaðra, meaning "to mutter, to gossip", which itself is either imitative, or from Proto-Germanic *blodram, "something inflated" (from which we get Modern English bladder), which in turn is from Proto-Indo-European *bhle-, "to blow", which is itself almost certainly imitative in origin.

[etym-a-day]

rakish, adj.

First attested in 1706, from the noun rake, "a debauched person, a scoundrel", and the adjectivizing suffix -ish, which is native to English from Proto-Germanic *-iska of the same usage, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *-iskos, also an adjectivizing suffix.

The noun rake specifically in reference to a person (and not the gardening tool) is first attested in the 1650s as a shortening of the noun rakehell, of the same meaning. Originally an adjective first attested in the 1540s, and used as a noun by the 1550s, rakehell is a word of uncertain origin, specifically of two possible origins.

The first possibility is that the word is an alteration of the Middle English adjective rakel, meaning "rash, hasty, headstrong", by influence of the phrase rake Hell (attested by the 1540s). The word rakel is most likely from the Middle English verb raken, "to proceed," which is from Old English racian (see Note 1 below), "to hasten, to go forward", which is of unknown origin.

The second possibility is that the word is actually just a conjoining of the phrase rake Hell, which means "to go over Hell thoroughly, to search through Hell (for something or someone)". In this case, a rakehell would be "a person who can be found by raking through Hell for them", or more succinctly, "an evil person, a villain".

Etymologically, the verb rake is from Old English raca, "to scrape things up into a pile", which is from Proto-Germanic *rak-, "to gather; to heap up", which in turn is from the Proto-Indo-European root *reg- (see Note 2 below), "to move in a straight line". The word Hell is also native to English and Germanic in origin, from Proto-Germanic *haljō, "the underworld", literally "concealed place", from the Proto-Indo-European root *kel-, "to cover up, to conceal".

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Notes:

1) Old English racian may or may not be the source of the Modern English verb race, "to move swiftly, to hasten". Most etymologies give the source for race as a Scandinavian borrowing from a word or words relating to a rush of water. This may also be the as-yet unknown source of Old English racian, but no solid connection has been made to date.

2) PIE *reg- is also the ultimate source of a plethora of other Modern English words, including regular, rule, regent, right, erect, and many more.

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Sources:

https://www.etymonline.com/word/rakish

https://www.etymonline.com/word/rake

https://www.etymonline.com/word/rakehell

https://www.etymonline.com/word/hell

https://www.etymonline.com/word/-ish

https://www.oed.com/dictionary/race_n1

[etym-a-day]

flabbergasted, adj.

Now the only extant form of the word, this adjective is the past participle of the now-obsolete verb flabbergast, which is first attested in a 1772 magazine article as one of that year's vogue words (along with bored, apparently).

The origin of this word is entirely unknown. A source from 1823 claims that it arose out of the Sussex dialect of English, but this has never been verified. One theory is that the word is a creative invention intended to evoke the concepts of "flapping or flabby" and "aghast", perhaps in reference to the idea of one's mouth dropping open and hanging loose in astonishment, but again, this has never been verified.