English words first recorded in the 12th century

It is inherited from Middle English nativite, borrowed from Anglo-Norman nativite and Old French nativité, and partly directly borrowed from Latin nātīvitās (“birth, origin”), from nātīvus (“born…

It is borrowed from Latin Iūnius, short for mēnsis Iūnius (“month of June”), the Latin name used in Old English and early Middle English; the later forms are partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman juin…

It is late inherited from Old English prisun, borrowed from Old French prisun, prison “captivity; a prison; a prisoner”, altered under the influence of pris “taken” from earlier preson, from Latin…

1. It is inherited from Middle English lac, later lake, partly inherited from Old English lacu (“stream, pool, pond”) and partly borrowed from Old French lac, and directly from Latin lacus (“pond…

It is inherited from Middle English markete, borrowed from Old Northern French market (“marketplace, trade”), a form of Old French marchiet (modern French marché), from Latin mercātus (“trading…

The modern verb merges two related verbs, in both of which the first two sounds were often transposed. The intransitive one is inherited from Middle English rinnen or irnen, inherited from Old…

It is inherited from Middle English werre, inherited from Old English wyrre or werre, recorded late in the Old English period, borrowed from Old Northern French werre, a variant of guerre, from…

It is inherited from Middle English seinte, sainte, borrowed from Old French saint, seinte (“holy, pious”), from Latin sānctus (“holy, consecrated”), the past participle of sanciō (“to consecrate”)…

It is inherited from Middle English uplond, also uppelande, inherited from Old English upland (“the country, as opposed to the town”), formed from Old English up + land. The OED takes the Old…

It is inherited from Middle English bothe, bathe, probably borrowed from Old Norse báðir (“both”), formed from the base of Proto-Germanic *ba- (“both”) and the definite article (see the). The native…

It is inherited from Middle English coste, cost, borrowed from Old French coste (“rib, side, flank; slope; coast, shore”) (modern côte), from Latin costa (“rib, side”), which in Medieval Latin also…

It is inherited from Middle English concilie, later counseil and councel, borrowed from Anglo-Norman cuncile and Old Northern French concilie, from Latin concilium (“a gathering, meeting…

It is inherited from Middle English graunt (“large, big”), borrowed from Anglo-Norman graunt, graund, and directly borrowed from Old French grand, grant “large, tall; grown-up; great, powerful”…

It is inherited from Middle English herberwe, herberge, from Old English *herebeorg, here-beorg, lodgings, quarters, from Proto-Germanic *harja-bergaz, shelter for an army, from *harjaz, army (see…

1. The strip or tie is inherited from Middle English band, also bond, borrowed from Old Norse band (“cord that binds”), from Proto-Germanic *bandą, from *bindaną (“to bind”), from…

It is inherited from Old English cardinal, borrowed from Medieval Latin cardinālis, short for phrases such as episcopus cardinālis (“chief bishop”), from Late Latin cardinālis (“principal, chief…

It is inherited from Middle English former, formed from forme (“first”) with the comparative suffix -er, probably on the model of formest (“foremost”). Middle English forme continues Old English…

It is inherited from Middle English tenthe, formed from ten and -th, replacing Old English tēoþa, which survives in tithe. Similar older formations are Old Saxon tehando, Old Frisian tegotha, Dutch…

It is inherited from Middle English celle, from Old English cell, borrowed from Latin cella (“small room, storeroom, hut”), later reinforced by Old French celle. Latin cella is related to cēlō (“to…

It is inherited from Middle English ones, earlier anes (1131, in the Peterborough Chronicle), the genitive of on or an (“one”) used as an adverb. RHWU and Chambers trace this genitive back to Old…

1. The verb is inherited from Middle English dien, also deien, probably borrowed from Old Norse deyja (“to die”), or Old Danish døja, from Proto-Germanic *dawjanan, the source also of Old Saxon…

It is inherited from Middle English charite, borrowed from Old French charité, earlier Old Northern French carité, from Latin cāritās (“costliness; esteem, affection”), from cārus “dear, valued”…

It is inherited from Middle English justice, justise, late inherited from Old English iustise (“administration of the law”), borrowed from Old French justise (“justice, legal rights, jurisdiction”)…

It is borrowed from Old French miracle (“miracle, story of a miracle, miracle play”), from Latin mīrāculum (“object of wonder”), in Church Latin a marvellous event caused by God, from mīrārī (“to…

It is borrowed from Old French privilege (“right, priority, privilege”) and directly borrowed from Latin prīvilēgium (“a law applying to one person; prerogative”), from privus (“individual…

1. It is inherited from Middle English rente, borrowed from Old French rente (“payment due; profit, income”), and Medieval Latin renta, both from Vulgar Latin *rendita, the noun use of the feminine…

It is inherited from Middle English tresor, borrowed from Old French tresor (“treasury, hoard, treasure”), from Gallo-Roman *tresaurus, an unexplained alteration of Latin thesaurus (“treasury…

It is inherited from Middle English standard, borrowed from Old French estandart (“military standard, banner; rallying place”) in a shortened form, also Anglo-Norman estandard, and in part from…

It is inherited from Middle English emperice, borrowed from Anglo-Norman emperice, also emprice and empereis, from Latin imperātrīx, the feminine of imperātor (“emperor”). The Anglo-Norman word is…

It is inherited from Middle English pais, later pes, borrowed from Anglo-Norman pes, Old French pais (modern French paix), from Latin pāx (“compact, agreement, treaty of peace, absence of war”)…

It is inherited from Middle English altogeder, from the phrase al togedere, all together, a strengthened form of all with together.

It is inherited from Middle English companie, compainie, borrowed from Anglo-Norman compaynie, Old French compaignie (“society, friendship; a body of soldiers”), from compain (“companion”), from…

It is inherited from Middle English coveren, borrowed from Old French covrir (“to cover, protect, conceal”), from Late Latin coperiō, from Latin cooperiō (“to cover completely”), from co-, an…

It is inherited from Middle English huge, also hoge, apparently borrowed from Old French ahuge (“extremely large, enormous; mighty”), also ahoge, in a shortened form, of unknown origin. Klein…

It is inherited from Middle English ille (“morally evil, malicious”), borrowed from Old Norse illr (“evil, bad; hard, difficult; mean”), a word of unknown origin. It is not considered related to evil.

It is inherited from Middle English lettre, borrowed from Old French lettre (“character, letter; missive; in the plural, literature, learning”), from Latin littera (“letter of the alphabet”), also…

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin mercurius, from Latin Mercurius, the Roman god Mercury, originally a god of tradesmen and thieves, from merx, merchandise (see market), or perhaps from Etruscan…

It is inherited from Middle English rodde, inherited from Old English rodd (“a rod, pole”), probably cognate with Old Norse rudda (“club”), from Proto-Germanic *rudd-, perhaps from PIE…

1. The part of a plant is inherited from Middle English rot, rote, inherited from Old English rōt, borrowed from Old Norse rót (“root; cause, origin”), from Proto-Germanic *wrot, the source also of…

It is inherited from Middle English aslepe, o slepe, from Old English on slǣpe “in sleep”, formed from English a- + sleep. The parallel form on sleep continued until about 1550.

It is inherited from Middle English boi (also boie), a word of unknown or uncertain origin. Several explanations have been proposed. It is compared with East Frisian boi, “young gentleman”, with…

It is inherited from Middle English muche, also miche, shortened from Middle English muchel (“large, great, much”), also michel, which continues from Old English micel (“great in amount or extent”)…

It is inherited from Middle English scateren, also skateren, first recorded in the Peterborough Chronicle in the sense "to squander". Its origin is uncertain. Most dictionaries take it as a variant…

It is inherited from Middle English agenes (“in opposition to”), againes, formed from Middle English agen (“again”) + -es (“adverbial genitive ending”) (see again), the first part being from Old…

1. It is inherited from Middle English brennen, later burnen, from two originally distinct Old English verbs: inherited from Old English beornan, byrnan (“to be on fire”) (intransitive) and Old…

It is inherited from Middle English countesse, also cuntesse and contesse, borrowed from Anglo-Norman cuntesse, also countesse and comitesse, and Old French contesse (modern French comtesse), formed…

1. The brook is inherited from Middle English bek, also bec, borrowed from Old Norse bekkr (“brook, rivulet”). The Old Norse noun goes back to Proto-Germanic *bakiz, the source also of Old English…

It is inherited from Middle English olie, later oile, borrowed from Anglo-Norman olie and oile (“oil”), modern French huile, and directly from Latin oleum (“oil, olive oil”), from Ancient Greek…

It is inherited from Middle English graunger, also grainger and grangier, borrowed from Anglo-Norman graunger, the Anglo-Norman form of Old French grangier (“sharecropper, market gardener”), from…

It is inherited from Middle English alive, on live, a reduced form of the Old English phrase on līfe (“in life”), from on (“in”) and līfe, dative of līf (“life”). See life and a-.

It is inherited from Middle English o loft, also alofte, borrowed from Old Norse á lopt (“up into the air”) (of motion) and á lopti (“up in the air”) (of position), a phrase of á (“in, on, to”) and…

It is a Middle English compound, from Middle English an (“one, a”) + other (“other”), written as two words until the 16th century and often divided a nother in Middle English. The first element is…

It is borrowed from Old Norse agi (“fright, terror, discipline”), a word borrowed in the areas of Scandinavian settlement that spread from there and displaced the native eie, from ege (“fear…

It is formed from Middle English beginnen (“to begin”) + -ing, the verbal noun of begin, in early Middle English also beginnung. The verb is from Old English beginnan (“to attempt, undertake”), a…

It is inherited from Middle English bileave, inherited from Old English geleafa (“belief, faith”), with be- put for ge- on the model of the verb belīfan “to believe”. The Old English word is from…

1. The favour is inherited from Middle English bone (“prayer, request”), borrowed from Old Norse bón (“petition, prayer”), a less common form beside bœn, from Proto-Germanic *bōniz. Its only other…

It is inherited from Middle English crok, also crouk and northern cruk, apparently borrowed from Old Norse krókr (“hook, barb, bend, corner”), whose descendants include krok and krog. The OED notes…

1. The word for the tree is inherited from Middle English cipres, also cypres, borrowed from Anglo-Norman ciprés and Old French cipres, now cyprès, from Late Latin cypressus, from Ancient Greek…

It is inherited from Middle English dounward, partly a shortened form of adounward, inherited from Old English adūnweard (“downward”), and partly, especially in later use, formed anew from down and…

It is inherited from Middle English dreden, which is not found in Old English; it is probably a shortened form of adreden, inherited from Old English ādrǣdan, a late form of ondrǣdan (“to fear…