English words first recorded in the 12th century

The verb in it is inherited from Middle English eggen (“to urge on, incite”), borrowed from Old Norse eggja (“to goad on, incite”), from egg (“edge”), and so related to edge. The OED gives the…

It is inherited from Middle English eie-sight, also eiesight and early ehsihþe, formed from Middle English eie (“eye”) + sight (“sight”). Some Middle English forms seem to have the first element in…

It is inherited from Middle English feble, also fieble, borrowed from Old French feble, also fieble and foible (modern French faible), later forms of fleible, from Latin flēbilis (“lamentable, to be…

It is inherited from Middle English fortitude, borrowed from Latin fortitūdō (“strength, firmness, courage”), partly through Middle French fortitude, which the OED and Barnhart allow for, from…

It is inherited from Middle English fro, in the North and in Scotland fra, borrowed from Old Norse frá (“from”). Fro and the native word from are thus doublets. Gersum notes that attempts to derive…

It is inherited from Middle English frut, fruit, borrowed from Old French fruit (“fruit, dessert; harvest; virtuous action”) (12th century), from Latin frūctus (“enjoyment; produce, fruit, crops…

The noun is inherited from Middle English gerner, also garner, borrowed from Anglo-Norman gerner, beside Old French gernier, a variant with the r moved of grenier (“storehouse, loft for grain”), now…

1. The trap or machine is inherited from Middle English gin, also gyn, probably borrowed from Anglo-Norman gin, also ginne, a variant with the prefix lost of engin, which is also Old French engin…

It is inherited from Middle English hardnen, formed from Middle English hard + -nen, from the adjective hard, which is from Old English heard (“solid, firm; severe”). The OED and the Shorter Oxford…

It is inherited from Middle English hop, also hoop and hope, inherited from Old English hōp, a late Old English word; Etymonline and Barnhart take the Old English form as unrecorded. It comes from…

1. To set fire to is inherited from Middle English kindlen, probably from Old Norse kynda (“to light a fire, ignite”) with the frequentative suffix -le. Barnhart and the OED compare kyndill (“a…

It is inherited from Middle English large, borrowed from Old French large (“broad, wide; generous”), from Latin largus (“abundant, copious; generous”), through its feminine form larga. The Latin…

It is inherited from Middle English leste, inherited from Old English þē lǣste, a shortening of the older phrase þȳ lǣs þe (“whereby less that”). In the phrase, þȳ is the instrumental of the…

It is Middle English leon, lyon, borrowed from Old French lion, also directly leo (“lion”) (accusative leōnem), from Ancient Greek λέων (léōn) (genitive léontos), a word of unknown, perhaps…

It is inherited from Middle English lan, later lon, loan, borrowed from Old Norse lán (“loan”), from Proto-Germanic *laihwniz, from a suffixed form of Proto-Indo-European *leikw- (“to leave”), the…

1. The adjective is inherited from Middle English lah (later low), borrowed from Old Norse lágr (“low, short; humble”), which Etymonline takes as the source because the word is not found in Old…

It is inherited from Middle English meke, also mek and, chiefly in the south-west and west midlands, meok, borrowed from Old Norse mjúkr (“soft, pliant, gentle”). The OED compares Old Swedish…

It is inherited from Middle English merci, borrowed from Old French merci (“reward, gift; kindness, pity; thanks”), earlier mercit, from Latin merces (“reward, wages, pay”) (genitive mercēdis), from…

It is inherited from Middle English nai, also nei, borrowed from Old Norse nei (“no”), a compound of ne (“not”) and ei (“ever”). The OED takes it from early Scandinavian, comparing Old Swedish næi…

1. The conjunction is inherited from Middle English or, a reduced form of other, like e'er from ever, which is inherited from Old English oþþe (“either, or”) with an added -r. The ending was…

1. The word for the breast or nipple is inherited from Middle English pappe, of uncertain origin. The OED, the American Heritage Dictionary and the MED take it as perhaps or probably borrowed from…

It is inherited from Middle English passiun, passioun, borrowed from Old French passion and directly from Late Latin passiō (“suffering, enduring”), from passus, the past participle of Latin patior…

It is inherited from Middle English poverte, borrowed from Old French poverte, poverté, from Latin paupertās, from pauper “poor”, so that it is related to poor and pauper.

It is borrowed from Old French prophete and directly from Latin prophēta, from Greek προφήτης (prophḗtēs, “interpreter, spokesman of the gods”), from pro-, before, for, and the root of phánai, to…

It is inherited from Middle English rekenen (also recenen, rikenen), inherited from Old English gerecenian (“to recount, relate, explain; to arrange in order”), a West Germanic verb. Its cognates…

It is inherited from Middle English robbere, also robbour, borrowed from Anglo-Norman robbere and robeor, an agent noun from rober (“to rob, steal, pillage”), the source of rob. The OED explains the…

It is inherited from Middle English sacrement, later sacrament, borrowed from Old French sacrement, also sacrament, and directly borrowed from Latin sacrāmentum (“solemn oath, obligation”); Hoad…

1. It is inherited from Middle English sake (“strife, guilt”), inherited from Old English sacu (“a cause at law, crime, dispute”), from Proto-Germanic *sakō (“affair, thing, charge”), also the…

It is inherited from Middle English screamen, earlier scræmen (about 1175) and shreamen, a word of uncertain origin. It may continue an unrecorded Old English verb, or come from a related Middle…

It is inherited from Middle English serven, borrowed from Old French servir (“to do duty toward; to serve at table; to provide”), from Latin serviō (“to be a slave, serve, be of use”), from servus…

It is inherited from Middle English skil, borrowed from Old Norse skil (“distinction, discernment, knowledge”), related to the verb skilja (“to separate, distinguish”), from Proto-Germanic *skaljo-…

It is inherited from Middle English slouthe, slauthe, formed from slou, slowe (“slow”) (see slow) and the abstract noun suffix -th. It replaced the earlier sleuthe, from Old English slǣwþ (“sloth…

It is inherited from Middle English sleigh, also sleh, sli and sly, borrowed from Old Norse slœgr (“clever, cunning”). The OED notes that the northern form slee and the midland and southern sligh…

It is inherited from Middle English smellen, smullen, smillen, not found in Old English. It is perhaps related to Middle Dutch smölen and Low German smelen “to smoulder”, compare the link between…

It is inherited from Middle English spenden (“to pay out”), from Old English -spendan, as in forspendan “to use up”, borrowed from Medieval Latin spendere, a shortening of Latin expendō (“to weigh…

1. The verb is inherited from Middle English stinten (“to cease, to cause to stop”), also stenten and stunten, inherited from Old English styntan (“to blunt, make dull”). The simple Old English verb…

It is inherited from Middle English therfore, from Old English þǣr + fore, from þærfore, from the sources of there and fore, a collateral Old English and Middle English form of for. Dutch daarvoor…

It is inherited from Middle English thei, also thai and in the “Ormulum” þeȝȝ, borrowed from Old Norse þeir, the masculine plural of the demonstrative sá, sú, þat. The OED compares the same form in…

It is inherited from Middle English thries, also þriȝes and þryës, formed from Middle English thrie (“three times”) + -es, with the ending of the adverbial genitive, after ones, modern once; compare…

It is inherited from Middle English thriven, first as þrifenn in the Ormulum, borrowed from Old Norse þrífask (“to thrive”), originally "to grasp for oneself", the reflexive form of þrífa (“to…

It is inherited from Middle English thrusten, borrowed from Old Norse þrýsta (“to thrust, force, press”), from Proto-Germanic *þrūstijaną, perhaps cognate with Latin trūdō (“to push, shove”), from…

It is inherited from Middle English thi, a reduced form of þin, thine, from Old English þīn, the genitive of þū, thou.

It is inherited from Middle English undertaken, formed from Middle English under- + taken (“to take”), modelled on underniman (“to receive, undertake”). It replaced that verb and underfōn in the…

It is inherited from Middle English vipere, borrowed from Middle French vipere, and directly borrowed from Latin vīpera (“viper, snake, serpent”); the Latin form was used in Middle English first, as…

It is inherited from Middle English wand, also wond and wande, borrowed from Old Norse vǫndr (“rod, switch”), from Proto-Germanic *wanduz (“rod”). Its Scandinavian relatives include Swedish vand and…

It is inherited from Middle English wermth (also warmeth), unrecorded inherited from Old English *wiermþu or *wærmþu, inherited from Proto-Germanic *warmiþō, formed on the adjective that gave warm…

It is a compound of who and ever, from late Old English hwā ǣfre, introducing clauses.

It is inherited from Middle English holsom, also hoolsom, formed from Middle English hol (“healthy, entire, whole”) + -som, the second part being the adjective suffix that is now -some. The OED…

It is inherited from Middle English wenge, at first in the plural, borrowed from Old Norse vængr (“wing of a bird; aisle”), plural vængir, cognate with Danish and Swedish vinge. The Norse word is of…

1. The ship's captain is inherited from Middle English skypper, also skippere and scippere, borrowed from Middle Dutch schipper (“owner or commander of a ship; sailor”), also scipper, and partly its…

It is inherited from Middle English piler, later pillar, borrowed from Anglo-Norman piler and Old French piler, pilier, and partly directly borrowed from Medieval Latin pīlāre, formed from Latin…

It is inherited from Middle English stagge, probably inherited from Old English stagga, a weak masculine noun that the OED reconstructs as *stacga, comparing other animal names in “-gga” such as…

It is inherited from Middle English curtine, borrowed from Old French cortine (“curtain, tapestry”), from Late Latin cortīna (“curtain”), in classical Latin a round vessel or cauldron, which in the…

It is formed from English on + -ward, after inward, forward and similar words. The Middle English adverb was onward, also oneward, and the MED compares Old English onweard; Johnson likewise derived…

It is inherited from Middle English acros (earlier a-croiz, o cros), borrowed from Anglo-Norman an cros (“in the form of a cross”) or en croiz, formed from en (“in, on”) and croiz (“cross”), from…

It is inherited from Middle English aventure, borrowed from Old French aventure (“chance, occurrence”), from Vulgar Latin *adventūra “a thing about to happen”, from adventūrus, the future participle…

It is inherited from Middle English affeccioun, borrowed from Old French afection (“emotion, inclination, love”) (modern French affection), from Latin affectiō (“disposition, relation, frame”), from…

Barnhart and Hoad describe air as a combination of three senses of different origin. The main one, the gas, is inherited from Middle English air (also eir), borrowed from Old French air…

It is a compound, Middle English al one or al ane, from all and one, continuing Old English all āna “all by oneself”, in which āna, “by oneself”, is from ān (“one”). It preserves the old…

It is borrowed from Latin alpha, from Ancient Greek ἄλφα (álpha), from a Phoenician word akin to Biblical Hebrew אָלֶף (ʾālep̄, “ox”), the name of the first letter (see aleph). The Greeks added -a…