English words first recorded in the 13th century

It is inherited from Middle English not, also nat (1303 in Barnhart), an unstressed, reduced form of noht or naht, in no way, the adverb now written nought and naught, inherited from Old English…

It is inherited from Middle English pouche, also puche and poche, borrowed from Anglo-Norman puche, also Old Northern French pouche, a variant of Old French poche (“bag, purse”), now French poche…

It is inherited from Middle English abaten, borrowed from Anglo-Norman abatre, also abater, and abatre, abattre (modern French abattre), formed from a- (from Latin ad- (“to”)) and batre (“to beat”)…

It is inherited from Middle English able, borrowed from Old French able or hable (“capable, fitting, nimble”), from Latin habilis (“easily handled, apt”), from habeō (“to have, hold”), from…

It is inherited from Middle English acces, borrowed from Old French acces (“onslaught; onset of an illness”), from Latin accessus (“a coming to, an approach; entrance”), the noun use of the past…

It is inherited from Middle English acount (also accompt), borrowed from Anglo-Norman acunte and acont (“account, reckoning”), from the verb aconter (“to reckon, render account”), formed from a…

It is inherited from Middle English aouren, also auren, and later adouren, borrowed from Old French aorer, also aourer and aurer, and later adourer and adorer, partly also borrowed directly from…

It is inherited from Middle English avauntage, borrowed from Old French avantage (“advantage, profit, superiority”), from avant (“before”) and the suffix -age, probably through an unrecorded Late…

It is inherited from Middle English afere, borrowed from Anglo-Norman afere, from Old French afaire (“business, event; rank”) (modern French affaire), from the phrase à faire (“to do”), from Latin…

It is inherited from Middle English afternone, a compound from Middle English after + noon; compare Late Latin post meridiem and French après-midi.

It is afterward with the adverbial genitive ending -s, on the pattern of words in -wards. Afterward goes back to Old English æfteweard, from æftan “behind”, the source of aft, and -ward, influenced…

It is borrowed from Old French alien (“strange, foreign”) and directly borrowed from Latin aliēnus (“belonging to another, foreign”), from alius (“other, another”) (see else), from PIE…

It is inherited from Middle English alleggen, also aleggen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman aleger (“to allege, claim, cite”), also allegger. Etymonline says it has the form of one French verb and the…

It comes from the Middle English phrase al redy “fully ready, prepared”, formed from Middle English al (“all, fully”) + redy (“ready”), that is, all used as an adverb and ready. Compare Norwegian…

It is inherited from Middle English amiddes, also spelled amyddes, formed from Middle English amidde + -es, that is amid with the adverbial genitive ending -s or -es; the OED derives it partly from…

It is inherited from Middle English ancestre, also auncestre and ancessour, borrowed from Old French ancestre (modern ancêtre), together with auncestour and ancessour. The French ancestre continues…

It is a compound of any and body “person”, at first written as two parts, ani bodi.

It is inherited from Middle English anywhere, a compound from English any + where, at first written separately. Earlier words in this sense were owhere, oughwhere and aywhere, literally “aught…

It is inherited from Middle English approchen, aprochen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman approcher, Old French aprochier “to come closer” (modern approcher), from Late Latin appropiō (“to go nearer to”)…

It is inherited from Middle English approven, apreven, borrowed from Old French aprover (“to approve, agree to”), from Latin approbāre (“to assent to as good”), from ad-, to, and probō, to test (see…

1. The bower is inherited from Middle English herber, also erber, borrowed from Anglo-Norman erber, also herber, from Old French erbier, herbier (“field, meadow; kitchen garden”), formed from erbe…

1. It is inherited from Middle English arche, borrowed from Old French arche (“arch of a bridge, arcade”), from Gallo-Romance *arca, a feminine form from the neuter plural of Latin arcus, a bow…

It is borrowed from Old French armure, armeüre, weapons, armour, from Latin armātūra, arms, equipment, from armō, to arm, from arma, weapons, gear (see arm). armature is a doublet.

It is inherited from Middle English around, from the phrase on round, probably formed from Middle English a- (“on, in”) + round (“circle”). Hoad suggests that in its earliest use it may have…

It is a Middle English compound, first on side, of a- “on” and side.

The verb is inherited from Middle English assaien, borrowed from Anglo-Norman assaier, a variant of Old French essaier, now essayer. The noun is inherited from Middle English assai, borrowed from…

It is inherited from Middle English assemblee, borrowed from Old French asemblee (“gathering; union, marriage”), assemblee, the noun use of the feminine past participle of asembler “to assemble”…

It is inherited from Middle English astrai, also o stray and astrayey, probably borrowed from Old French estraié (“strayed”), the past participle of estraier (“to stray, roam about without a…

It is inherited from Middle English atteinen, also atteignen and attainen, borrowed from Old French ataindre (“to come up to, reach, attain”), through its stem ataign-, with the Anglo-Norman stem…

It is inherited from Middle English attenden, atenden, borrowed from Old French atendre (“to expect, wait for, pay attention”) (12th century, modern attendre “to wait for”), and directly from Latin…

It is inherited from Middle English autour, auctour, borrowed from Anglo-Norman auctour, autour, Old French autor, auctor (modern auteur), from Latin auctor (“promoter, producer, father; founder…

It is inherited from Middle English availen, also availlen and aveilen, probably formed from Middle English a- + vailen (“to be of use”), as if vailen (the obsolete vail) were a shortened form…

It is inherited from Middle English avarice, borrowed from Old French avarice (“greed, covetousness”), from Latin avāritia (“greed”), from avārus (“greedy”), from aveō (“to crave, long for”) (see…

It is inherited from Middle English bakbon, also spelled bacbon, formed from Middle English bak (“back”) + bon (“bone”). Back is from Old English bæc, a word with no known relatives outside…

It is inherited from Middle English bakward, an aphetic form of abakward, formed from Middle English abak + -ward, on the model of hindeward and foreward. Abakward continues Old English on bæc…

It is Middle English bail(l)y, baylle, a variant of bail in the sense of an outer wall, probably from Old French baile, bail(l)e, a palisade, enclosure, enclosed court, which is of unknown origin…

It is inherited from Middle English balled (also ballede), of uncertain origin. Most dictionaries take it as a formation with the adjective suffix -ed on a base meaning a white patch or blaze on an…

It is inherited from Middle English barayl, barel, borrowed from Old French baril (“barrel, cask”) (Anglo-Norman barel), with cognates in all the Romance languages, as Italian barile and Spanish…

1. The foundation is inherited from Middle English bas, borrowed from Old French base (“pedestal, foundation”), perhaps confused with the Old French adjective bas “low”, and directly borrowed from…

1. The barking is inherited from Middle English bay, partly a shortening of earlier abay, borrowed from Old French abai (“barking”), from abaier (“to bark”) or baier, probably imitative of the…

The noun is borrowed from French beau (“fine, handsome”), a noun use of the adjective, from Old French bel, also biau, from Latin bellus (“handsome, fine, pretty”), which Barnhart describes as…

It is inherited from Middle English bef, borrowed from Anglo-Norman boef, from Old French buef (“ox; beef”) (modern French bœuf), from Latin bovem, accusative of bōs (“ox, cow”), itself an Umbrian…

It is borrowed from Latin bēta, from Ancient Greek βῆτα (bêta), of Semitic origin, akin to Hebrew בית (bēth, “the second letter; house”), a letter first drawn as a house.

It is inherited from Middle English big, bigge, a word of obscure origin first found chiefly in texts from northern England and the north Midlands. It is perhaps from a Scandinavian source; the…

It is inherited from Middle English blaunket, borrowed from Old French blanchet (“light wool or flannel cloth”), blanquet, a diminutive of blanc, white (see blank), which also meant a white cloth.

It is inherited from Middle English bleik, also blaik and bleke, most likely borrowed from Old Norse bleikr (“pale, whitish, blond”), from Proto-Germanic *blaikaz (“shining, white”), the source also…

It is inherited from Middle English bleu, borrowed from Old French bleu, blo (“pale, pallid; blue-grey”), from Frankish *blāo or another Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *blēwaz, the source also…

It is shortened from English boulder-stone, from Middle English bulder, short for bulder ston. The Middle English compound is generally taken to be of Scandinavian origin, and is compared with…

1. It is a shortening of bounden, the past participle of bind. 2. It is inherited from Middle English boun (“ready”), borrowed from Old Norse búinn, the past participle of búa “to prepare, dwell”…

It is inherited from Middle English bouel, also buel and bowel, borrowed from Anglo-Norman buel and Old French boel, also bouel and the feminine boele, now boyau. The French word is from Latin…

1. The verb meaning to cry out is inherited from Middle English braien, borrowed from Old French braire (“to cry out, roar”), a verb recorded in Anglo-Norman from 1121–25 for the roaring, howling…

It is formed from English brew + -er, in Middle English brewere. brew is from Old English brēowan, from Proto-Germanic *breuwaną (“to brew”), which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bhreu- (“to…

It is inherited from Middle English bref, borrowed from Old French bref, brief, and directly from Latin brevis (“short, low, little”), from Proto-Indo-European *mregh-u- (“short”), the source also…

It is inherited from Middle English brotherhod, altered under the influence of -hood from brotherhede (about 1300), which was in turn altered from Old English brōþorrǣden, with the ending seen in…

It is inherited from Middle English bukel, later bokel, borrowed from Old French bocle (“boss of a shield; buckle, metal ring”), also bucle and Anglo-Norman bucle, now French boucle. The French word…

It is inherited from Middle English boton, borrowed from Old French boton (“a button; originally a bud”) (12th century, modern French bouton), from bouter, boter “to thrust, strike, push”, of…

It is Middle English carl, borrowed from Old Norse karl (“man, male; freeman”), from Proto-Germanic *karlaz, cognate with Old High German karl (“man, husband”) and Dutch karel (“fellow”). The same…

It is Middle English, borrowed from Old French carole (“a round dance accompanied by singers”), of uncertain or unknown origin. It is perhaps an alteration of Latin choraula, one who accompanies a…

It is inherited from Middle English cesen, cessen, borrowed from Old French cesser (“to come to an end, stop”), from Latin cessō, to cease, go slowly, be idle, a frequentative of cēdō, to go away…

It is inherited from Middle English siment, borrowed from Old French ciment (“cement, mortar, pitch”), from Latin caementum (“rough unhewn stone, quarry stone”), in the plural chips of stone for…