English words first recorded in the 13th century

The verb is Middle English spien, borrowed from Old French espier (“to observe, watch closely”) (see espy) with its first syllable lost, and the noun is likewise from espie (“spy, look-out”), from…

The noun is inherited from Middle English squire, square, borrowed from Old French esquire (“a square, squareness”), also esquarre, from Vulgar Latin *exquadra, a back-formation from *exquadrō (“to…

It is inherited from Middle English stage, borrowed from Old French estage (“dwelling, stay; storey; stage for performance”) with the first vowel lost by aphesis, modern French étage (“storey”)…

It is inherited from Middle English stelthe, also stalthe, probably inherited from Old English *stǣlþ, a form not recorded in Old English. The OED takes the changing vowel as the sign of this Old…

1. The tree stump is inherited from Middle English stumpe, also stompe, borrowed from Middle Low German stump, or Middle Dutch stomp, or a native word cognate with them; the Low German and Dutch…

It is formed from sun and shine. Old English had sunnanscīma, sunshine, while sunscīn meant a mirror.

It is inherited from Middle English soper, borrowed from Anglo-Norman super and soper (modern souper), the infinitive soper (“to eat the evening meal”) used as a noun, as dinner is from the French…

It is inherited from Middle English seur, sure, borrowed from Old French seür (“safe, secure; dependable”), sur (modern French sûr), from Latin sēcūrus (“free from care, untroubled; safe”), formed…

It is inherited from Middle English takel, borrowed from Middle Dutch takel (“the rigging of a ship”) or Middle Low German takel, perhaps related to Middle Dutch taken, to grasp, seize (see take)…

It is inherited from Middle English tidi, formed from English tide + -y, from tide in its old sense "time, season". That noun is from Old English tīd (“time”). Similar adjectives are Old High German…

It is inherited from Middle English topace, borrowed from Old French topace, topaze, from Latin topazus, from Ancient Greek τόπαζος (tópazos), τοπάζιον (topázion), of obscure origin. Pliny says it…

It is inherited from Middle English tort (“wrong, injury”), borrowed from Old French tort (“wrong, injustice”), and directly borrowed from Medieval Latin tortum (“injustice, a wrong”), the noun use…

It is inherited from Middle English towaille, borrowed from Old French toaille (modern French touaille), from Frankish *thwahlja or another Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *thwahlijan, related…

It is inherited from Middle English tribu, later tribe, borrowed from Old French tribu or directly Latin tribus (“one of the three divisions of the Roman people”), a word of unknown origin…

It is inherited from Middle English trufle, later trifle, borrowed from Old French trufle (“mockery, deceit”), a parallel form or diminutive of trufe (“deceit, gibe”). The Anglo-Norman noun is…

It is inherited from Middle English uglike, ugli, borrowed from Old Norse uggligr (“dreadful, to be feared”), from uggr (“fear, dread”), perhaps related to agg “strife, hate”, and -ligr (“-like”)…

It is formed from un-, up to, as far as, the first element of until, which is of Scandinavian origin, and to, with southern to replacing northern till. Etymonline also allows a contraction of a…

It is inherited from Middle English verrei, also verray and verrai, borrowed from Anglo-Norman verrai, also verai, and verai, vrai (modern French vrai), meaning true, truthful, genuine or rightful…

It is inherited from Middle English vigile, borrowed from Anglo-Norman vigile and Old French vigile, also vigille, from Latin vigilia (“a watch, watchfulness, wakefulness”), in Late Latin also the…

It is inherited from Middle English welthe, formed from Middle English wele “well-being”, the source of weal, or from well, with the noun suffix -th, on the pattern of health.

It is apparently whatso, whatever (about 1200, a contraction of Old English hwæt swā), with ever added, or perhaps from what and soever, “at all” (by the late 12th century); either way it is a…

Middle English wippen, whippen is not found in Old English; it is probably, like Middle Low German wippen, borrowed from Middle Dutch wippen (“to swing, leap”), from a Germanic base meaning “to move…

It is formed from English worse + -en, first as inherited from Middle English wersnen, which the Middle English Dictionary takes from the older verb wersen. Worse is from Old English wyrsa, also…

It is inherited from Middle English wurþi, worþi, formed from the noun worth and the suffix -y, replacing Old English wurþe, weorþ (“worth, worthy”).

It is formed from English skin + -er, at first from the noun skin and in later use partly from the verb; Merriam-Webster gives the Middle English form as skynner. The noun skin is from Old Norse…

It is inherited from Middle English mareschal, borrowed from Old French mareschal (“stable officer, groom; commander”), from Medieval Latin mariscalcus, from Frankish *marhskalk (“horse servant”)…

It is inherited from Middle English perle, borrowed from Old French perle and Medieval Latin perla, of unknown origin, perhaps from Vulgar Latin *pernula, a diminutive of Latin perna (“ham, haunch…

It is inherited from Middle English abrod, a contraction of on brode, formed from a- “on” and broad. Hoad suggests it was modelled on Middle English a brede, on brede, from Old English brǣdu…

It is borrowed from Anglo-Norman canevaz, Old Northern French canevach, Old French chenevas, from Vulgar Latin *cannapāceus, made of hemp, from cannapus, a variant of Latin cannabis, hemp, from…

It is inherited from Middle English profit, borrowed from Old French profit (“advantage, profit”) (also prufit, porfit), from Latin prōfectus (“growth, advance, success, progress”), a noun use of…

The verb is inherited from Middle English storen (“to supply, stock”), an aphetic form borrowed from Old French estorer (“to build, furnish, restore”), from Latin īnstaurō (“to set up, renew…

1. The word for bragging is inherited from Middle English bost, also boost, with the verb bosten, probably borrowed from Anglo-Norman bost (“boasting, ostentation”), which is recorded from 1235–55…

It is inherited from Middle English camomille, also camemille and camamille, borrowed from Old French camomille, also camemile, or directly borrowed from Late Latin camomilla, also chamomilla, an…

It is from English draw + -er, formed in Middle English. The sense of a sliding box may be modelled on French tiroir (“drawer”), recorded from 1530 and formed on tirer (“to draw, pull”). Agent nouns…

It is inherited from Middle English jurediccioun, borrowed from Old French juridiction (“administration of justice”), jurediction, and directly Latin jūrisdictiō (“administration of justice”), from…

It is inherited from Middle English muk, also muc, mok, probably borrowed from Old Norse myki (“dung”), with a rare variant mykr. Gersum notes that before Middle English the word occurs outside…

It is inherited from Middle English bilder, an agent noun from bilden (“to build”) (see build) and -er.

It is inherited from Middle English dampnen, borrowed from Old French dampner, from Latin damnō (“to condemn; to inflict loss upon”), from damnum (“damage, loss, fine”). Barnhart and Klein relate…

It is inherited from Middle English erthequake, formed from earth and quake.

It is inherited from Middle English eleccioun, borrowed from Anglo-Norman eleccioun and Old French elecion “choice, selection”, from Latin ēlēctiō (“a choice, selection”), from ēlēctus, the past…

1. Fry, to cook in hot fat, is inherited from Middle English frien, borrowed from Old French frire (“to fry”), from Latin frīgō (“to roast or fry”), cognate with Ancient Greek φρύγω (phrúgō, “to…

It is inherited from Middle English gardin, borrowed from Old Northern French gardin (“kitchen garden, orchard”), a variant of Old French jardin, from Vulgar Latin *hortus gardinus (“enclosed…

It is Middle English, borrowed from Anglo-Norman glorious, Old French glorieus, glorious, blessed, from Latin glōriōsus (“full of glory, famous; boastful”), from glōria (see glory).

It is an agent noun from the verb roll and -er.

It is inherited from Middle English vois, borrowed from Anglo-Norman voiz and Old French vois, voiz “voice, speech; word, rumour”, from Latin vōx (“voice, sound, utterance; word”), accusative vōcem…

It is borrowed through Anglo-Norman *cotage and directly from Old French cotage, from cote, a hut or cottage (see cot and cote), and the suffix -age. Cote is probably from Old Norse kot, hut…

It is inherited from Middle English legge (“a crossbar, a bar fixed across a door”), probably formed from Middle English leggen (“to lay, place”), a form of lay, from Old English lecgan. The OED…

It is short for sugar candy, Middle English sugre candy, borrowed from Old French sucre candi (“crystallized sugar”), and partly from Anglo-Latin candi. The French is a partial translation of Old…

It is inherited from Middle English age, borrowed from Old French aage (“age; life, lifetime; maturity”) (earlier eage, edage), from Vulgar Latin *aetāticum, an extension of Latin aetās (“period of…

It is inherited from Middle English beaute, also bealte, borrowed from Anglo-Norman beute, Old French biauté, earlier beltet, from Vulgar Latin *bellitātem (“the state of being handsome”), from…

It is a compound from English bed + time, recorded in Middle English as bed-time. The OED compares the isolated Old English beddtīd, formed with tīd, the ancestor of tide.

It is inherited from Middle English brimme, also brymme, a word of uncertain origin with no known Old English ancestor. Most dictionaries compare Old Norse barmr (“rim, edge”) and Middle High German…

It is inherited from Middle English cutten (also kitten, kette), of uncertain origin. Hoad and the Middle English Dictionary infer from the regional variants an unrecorded Old English *cyttan, and…

It is inherited from Middle English egre, borrowed from Old French aigre (“sour, sharp, keen, eager”), Anglo-Norman egre, from Vulgar Latin *ācrus (source also of Italian agro and Spanish agrio)…

It is inherited from Middle English entren, borrowed from Old French entrer (“to enter, go in; to begin”), from Latin intrō (“to go into, enter”), the source also of Spanish entrar and Italian…

It is inherited from Middle English golden, formed from English gold + -en, replacing Middle English gilden, from Old English gylden. Gold is one of the few modern English nouns that form adjectives…

It is inherited from Middle English gise, also guise and gyse, borrowed from Old French guise (“manner, fashion, way”), which is from Frankish *wīsa (“manner, way”), from Proto-Germanic *wīsǭ, from…

1. The opening is inherited from Middle English hacche, inherited from Old English hæc (“fence, grating, gate”), with the genitive hæcce, from Proto-Germanic *hak-, a base of uncertain origin. It is…

It is inherited from Middle English eir, borrowed from Anglo-Norman heir, from hoir, from Late Latin hērem, for earlier Latin hērēs (“heir, heiress”) (stem hērēd-; see heredity). The Latin root has…

It is inherited from Middle English hennes, formed from henne “hence” and the adverbial genitive -s, from Old English heonan (“away, hence”), from Proto-West Germanic *hin-, also the source of Old…