English words first recorded in the 13th century

It is a compound from English horse + man, first written horsman in Middle English, from hors and man. In the sense "knight" it is partly modelled on Latin eques and partly on Ancient Greek ἱππεύς…

It is inherited from Middle English ostage, borrowed from Old French ostage (“kindness, lodging, pledge, a person given as security”) (modern French otage), of uncertain origin. Barnhart, Watkins…

It developed from two Middle English forms: inherited from Middle English jaiole, jaile, borrowed from Old French jaiole (“a cage; a prison”), and gaiol, gaole, from Old North French and…

It is inherited from Middle English kitt, kyt, probably borrowed from Middle Dutch kitte (“jug, tankard, wooden container”), a word of unknown origin.

It is inherited from Middle English leg, legge, borrowed from Old Norse leggr (“leg, bone of the arm or leg”), from Proto-Germanic *lagjaz, the source also of Danish læg and Swedish lägg “the calf…

It is inherited from Middle English lire, borrowed from Old French lire, now lyre, and directly borrowed from Latin lyra, from Ancient Greek λύρα (lúrā), a word of foreign and uncertain origin. The…

It is inherited from Middle English moven (also meven), borrowed from Anglo-Norman mover, Old French movoir, from Latin moveō (“to move, set in motion; to remove, disturb”), from Proto-Indo-European…

It is inherited from Middle English multiplien, also multeplien and molteplien, borrowed from Old French multiplier, also multeplier and mouteplier, from Latin multiplicō (“to increase, multiply”)…

It is inherited from Middle English nature, borrowed from Old French nature (“nature, being, principle of life; character, essence”) and directly borrowed from Latin nātūra (“birth; natural…

It is inherited from Middle English palesie, also palasie and parlesie, borrowed from Anglo-Norman parlesie, also parleisie (1212 or earlier) and palesie, variants of Old French paralisie, from a…

It is inherited from Middle English parable, also parabol and parabil, partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman parable, also parabole, and partly borrowed from Latin parabola (“comparison”), which in…

It is inherited from Middle English perissen, later perishen, borrowed from Old French periss-, the extended stem of perir (“to perish, be lost, be shipwrecked”), from Latin pereō (“to be lost, to…

It is inherited from Middle English pilgrimage, earlier pelrimage, borrowed from Anglo-Norman pilgrimage, also pilrimage and pelrimage, variants of Old French pelerinage, formed from pelerin…

It is inherited from Middle English pleden, also plaiden, borrowed from Anglo-Norman pleder and Old French plaidier, also pleidier, from plaid (“lawsuit, plea”), the source of plea. The Anglo-Norman…

It is inherited from Middle English primat, borrowed from Old French primat (“chief bishop of a province”) and directly borrowed from Medieval Latin prīmās (“chief bishop, church primate”), a noun…

It is inherited from Middle English riches, originally a spelling of richesse, borrowed from Old French richesse (“wealth, opulence, splendour”), also Anglo-Norman richesce and richeise, recorded…

It is inherited from Middle English sacrefise, sacrifice, borrowed from Old French sacrifise, sacrefise, and directly borrowed from Latin sacrificium, from sacrificus (“performing priestly functions…

It is a compound from English sea + side, Middle English seeside. Some early forms are from the genitive of sea and side. Etymonline lists other Middle English words for the seashore, among them…

It is inherited from Middle English signifien, also signefien, borrowed from Old French signifier, with the Anglo-Norman forms senifier and singnifier, and partly directly borrowed from Latin…

It is inherited from Middle English somnen, also sumunen and somonen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman sumundre and directly borrowed from Old French somondre, through the present stem of the French verb…

It is inherited from Middle English unwinden, also onwinden, inherited from Old English unwindan (“to unwind, unwrap”), a rare verb, also onwindan; the MED takes it partly from winden (“to wind”)…

It is inherited from Middle English wassail, also wæshail, wæshæil and wesseil, borrowed from Old Norse ves heill (“be in good health”), a phrase made of ves, the imperative singular of vesa (“to…

It is inherited from Middle English whinen, inherited from Old English hwīnan (“to whiz, whistle through the air”), recorded once in Old English, of a whizzing arrow. The Old English verb continues…

It is inherited from Middle English colier, also colyer and collere, formed from Middle English col (“coal, charcoal”) + -ere, with the ending apparently modelled on words from French in -ier. The…

1. The joint is inherited from Middle English scarf, also skarf, first recorded in the compound scarfneil, a nail for fastening such a joint. It is probably borrowed from Old Norse skarfr, the…

It is inherited from Middle English fraude, borrowed from Old French fraude (“deception, fraud”), from Latin fraus (“deceit, injury”), of uncertain origin. Etymonline and MWU compare Sanskrit धूर्त…

It is inherited from Middle English presentacioun, borrowed from Old French presentacion and directly borrowed from Late Latin praesentātiō (“a placing before, an exhibition”) (accusative…

It is inherited from Middle English a, ah, perhaps borrowed from Old French a (“ah!, oh!, woe!”) (later and modern French ah), compare Italian and Spanish ah, Latin a, ah, and Greek a; such an…

It is inherited from Middle English brennere, formed from Middle English brennen (“to burn”) + -ere, that is burn and -er. The verb burn comes chiefly from Old Norse brenna (“to burn, light”).

It is inherited from Middle English sider, also sidre, cidre and sither, borrowed from Old French sidre (“pear or apple cider”), earlier cisdre, now cidre. Merriam-Webster gives the Anglo-French…

It is inherited from Middle English cler, borrowed from Old French cler (“clear, bright, shining”) (modern French clair), from Latin clārus (“clear, loud; bright, distinct; illustrious”), which is…

It is inherited from Middle English conceiven, borrowed from Old French conceveir, also conceivre, taken from its stressed stem conceiv-, modern concevoir. The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from…

It is inherited from Middle English corner, borrowed from Anglo-Norman corner, a variant of Old French cornere, from corne (“horn, corner”), from Vulgar Latin *corna, from Latin cornua, plural of…

It is inherited from Middle English cornerston, also corner-stōn, kerner-ston and quarner-ston, formed from Middle English corner + ston. The first part, corner, came through Anglo-Norman cornere…

The noun is inherited from Middle English demaunde, borrowed from Old French demande, from demander (“to request; to demand”). The verb, Middle English demaunden, is borrowed from Old French…

It is borrowed from Old French destresse (“constraint, affliction”) (modern détresse), from Gallo-Romance *districtia, restraint, narrowness, from Latin districtus, past participle of distringō (“to…

It is inherited from Middle English anhaunsen, enhauncen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman enhauncer, probably an alteration of Old French enhaucier, to make greater, higher or louder, from Vulgar Latin…

It is inherited from Middle English enticen, also inticen, borrowed from Old French enticier (“to stir up (a fire), excite, incite”), in Old Northern French enticher. Anglo-Norman enticer is…

It is inherited from Middle English envie, borrowed from Old French envie (“envy, jealousy, rivalry”), from Latin invidia (“envy, ill will”), from invidus (“envious”), from invideō (“to look at with…

It is inherited from Middle English faute, faulte, borrowed from Old French faute (“opening, gap; failure, flaw; lack, deficiency”), earlier falte, from Vulgar Latin *fallita (“a shortcoming…

It is inherited from Middle English langage, borrowed from Old French langage (“speech, words; a people, nation”), from Vulgar Latin *linguāticum, from Latin lingua (“tongue; speech, language”)…

It is a specialized use of lightening, the verbal noun of Middle English lightnen, to make light (see lighten), with the spelling differentiated; Etymonline also allows an extended form of Old…

It is borrowed from Old French monument (“grave, tomb, monument”) and directly Latin monumentum (“something that reminds; memorial, tomb”), from moneō (“to remind, warn”) (see monitor) and -mentum…

1. It is inherited from Middle English pas, borrowed from Old French pas (“step, pace”) and directly from Latin passus (“step, stride”), literally “a stretch of the leg”, a noun use of the past…

It is inherited from Middle English peyne, borrowed from Old French peine (“difficulty, woe, suffering; punishment”), from Latin poena (“punishment, penalty”), in Late Latin also “torment…

1. The unit of dry measure is inherited from Middle English pek, also pekke, borrowed from Anglo-Norman pek (“peck, a dry measure”), which the OED records from about 1240 and the Anglo-Norman…

1. The writing instrument is inherited from Middle English penne, borrowed from Old French penne (“quill pen, feather”) and directly from Latin penna (“feather; in Late Latin, a pen”), from Old…

It is inherited from Middle English peple, also poeple, borrowed from Anglo-Norman pople (“nation, common people, crowd”), also people and peple, and pueple, also pople, from Latin populus (“a…

It is inherited from Middle English pokete, borrowed from Anglo-Norman pokete, a diminutive of Old Northern French poke, poque “bag”, from a Germanic source akin to Frankish *pokka “bag”, and…

It is inherited from Middle English pursiwen, pursuen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman pursuer and directly poursuir, a variant of porsivre (“to chase, pursue, carry on”), from Vulgar Latin *prōsequō…

It is inherited from Middle English rosten, borrowed from Old French rostir (“to roast, burn”), from Frankish *hraustjan, of West Germanic origin, cognate with Old High German rōsten, Middle Dutch…

It is inherited from Middle English reud, rude, borrowed from Old French rude and directly borrowed from Latin rudis (“rough, crude, unwrought, uncultivated”), of uncertain origin, related to rūdus…

It is inherited from Middle English sauf, also saf, borrowed from Old French sauf (“protected; assured of salvation”), also salf, from Latin salvus (“uninjured, healthy, safe”), related to salūs…

1. The noise is inherited from Middle English soun, borrowed from Old French son (“sound, musical note, voice”), from Latin sonus (“sound, noise”), from Proto-Indo-European *swen- (“to sound”), the…

It is inherited from Middle English soverain, borrowed from Old French soverain (“highest, supreme, ruler”) (modern French souverain), from Vulgar Latin *superānus (“chief, principal”), from Latin…

It is inherited from Middle English stacioun, borrowed from Old French station, stacion, estacion “site, location; station of the Cross; standstill”, from Latin statiō (“a standing; a post…

It is inherited from Middle English straunge, strounge, borrowed from Old French estrange (“foreign, alien, unusual, unfamiliar; distant; estranged”) (modern French étrange), with loss of the first…

It is inherited from Middle English usher, also ussher and uschere, borrowed from Anglo-Norman usser, a form of ussier, uissier (“porter, doorman”), modern huissier. The Anglo-Norman word is…

It is formed from English plant + -er, and appears first as Middle English plaunter, also plonter; the OED notes that it is attested earliest as a surname. The OED compares Middle Dutch planter…

It is formed from lay and -er, first as Middle English legger and leyer, from leggen, leien “to lay”. Hoad suggests mixed sources for the senses: the stratum sense first appeared as lear, which may…