English words first recorded in the 14th century

It is inherited from Middle English obstacle, also obstakel and obstakle, borrowed from Anglo-Norman obstacle, also obstakel, and Old French obstacle, earlier ostacle, and partly directly from Latin…

It is inherited from Middle English ownere, an agent noun formed from own and the suffix -er. Middle English ownen, “to possess”, is from āgnian (“to take or assign possession of”). The Old English…

It is inherited from Middle English perseveraunce, borrowed from Anglo-Norman parseverance and Middle French perseverance, now persévérance, and partly directly borrowed from Latin persevērantia…

It is inherited from Middle English pollucioun, borrowed from Middle French pollution, and Late Latin pollutio (“defilement”), from the past participle stem of polluere (“to soil, defile…

It is inherited from Middle English possessioun, borrowed from Old French possession and directly from Latin possessiō (“a seizing, possession”), a noun of action from the past participle of…

It is formed from English profitable + -ity, probably first after Middle French profitableté (“usefulness”), recorded in Old French from the 13th century. The adjective profitable is from…

The verb is inherited from Middle English prompten (“to urge, incite”), perhaps from Medieval Latin *promptō, and the adjective is borrowed from Old French prompt or directly Latin prōmptus…

It is borrowed from Old French proposer (“to propose, suggest”) (12th century), from pro-, forth, and poser, to put, place (see pose), a French formation replacing Latin prōpōnō, to put forward…

It is inherited from Middle English proposicioun, borrowed from Old French proposicion (“proposal, philosophical proposition”), from Latin prōpositiō (“a setting forth, statement; premise”), from…

It is inherited from Middle English prudence, borrowed from Old French prudence, and directly borrowed from Latin prūdentia (“foresight, sagacity, practical judgment”), from prūdēns (“prudent”), a…

It is inherited from Middle English rebellioun, borrowed from Old French rebellion and directly Latin rebelliō (“rebellion, revolt, renewal of war”), from rebellis (“insurgent, rebellious”) (see…

It is inherited from Middle English reformen, borrowed from Old French reformer (“to rebuild, reconstruct”), and directly from Latin refōrmō (“to form again, change, transform”), from re- “again…

It is inherited from Middle English resemblen, borrowed from Old French resembler (“to be like”) (12th century; modern ressembler), also Anglo-Norman, from re- and sembler (“to seem, appear, be…

It is inherited from Middle English reserven, borrowed from Old French reserver (“to set aside, withhold”) (12th century), and directly from Latin reservō (“to keep back, save up”), from re- “back”…

It is inherited from Middle English sause, sauce, borrowed from Old French sauce, sausse, earlier saulse, from Vulgar Latin *salsa, a noun use of Latin salsa, feminine or neuter plural of salsus…

It is inherited from Middle English scarsete, also scarsite and skarste, borrowed from Old French escarceté, the Old Northern French form of Central Old French escharseté; the MED also gives…

It is inherited from Middle English science, borrowed from Old French science (“knowledge, learning”), from Latin scientia (“knowledge, expertness”), from sciēns (“knowing, skilled”), present…

It is inherited from Middle English simulacioun, borrowed from Old French simulation (“pretence”) and directly Latin simulātiō (“an imitating, feigning, hypocrisy”), from the past participle stem of…

It is inherited from Middle English singuler, also syngulere, borrowed from Old French singuler (“personal, particular; single in number”) (modern singulier), or taken directly from singulāris…

1. The fish is inherited from Middle English scate, borrowed from Old Norse skata, a word that survives in Norwegian and Icelandic. Barnhart and Etymonline compare Danish skade and Faroese skøta…

1. The rock is inherited from Middle English sclate (also slate), borrowed from Old French esclate, the feminine of esclat (“split piece, splinter”), whose masculine form gave slat. It was so called…

It is inherited from Middle English sniffen, usually explained as imitative of the sound. The OED compares sniffle and snuff, and Weekley snivel; Barnhart and Merriam-Webster think it possibly…

It is inherited from Middle English solitarie, borrowed from Latin sōlitārius (“alone, lonely, isolated”), partly through Anglo-Norman solitarye and solitaire. The Latin adjective is formed on…

It is inherited from Middle English soverainte, borrowed from Anglo-Norman sovereynete (Old French souverainete), from soverain (“sovereign”) (see sovereign) and -té, ultimately from Latin super…

1. The pole is inherited from Middle English sparre (“rafter, beam”), a word of Continental Germanic origin. Etymonline takes it as borrowed from, or cognate with, Middle Dutch sparre or sparre, and…

It is inherited from Middle English spectacle, also spectakil and spektacle, borrowed from Old French spectacle (“sight, spectacle, Roman games”), and perhaps partly directly from Latin spectāculum…

It is inherited from Middle English spithre, spyder, inherited from Old English spīþra, earlier *spinþra, from Proto-Germanic *spinþrō, literally “spinner”, from the source of spin, from PIE…

It is inherited from Middle English substancial, borrowed from Old French substantiel and directly from Latin substantiālis “having substance or reality, material”, in Christian Latin “of the…

It is inherited from Middle English suggestioun, borrowed from Anglo-Norman suggestioun (“hint; temptation”) and directly suggestio (“an addition, intimation”), from suggerere (“to bring up, supply…

It is inherited from Middle English suspect, borrowed from Old French suspect (“suspicious”), and directly from Latin suspectus (“suspected, regarded with mistrust”), the past participle of suspiciō…

It is inherited from Middle English suspecious, borrowed from Anglo-Norman suspecious, Old French suspicios, from Latin suspiciosus (“causing mistrust; ready to suspect”), from suspicio, suspicion…

1. The verb is inherited from Middle English tanglen, also tangilen, which the OED and Barnhart explain as a nasalized variant of tagilen (“to entangle, involve in difficulties”), the form in the…

It is formed from English tell + -er, an agent noun from the verb. Dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster date it to Middle English, in the first half of the 14th century. The verb tell is from Old…

It is inherited from Middle English temperaunce, borrowed from Anglo-Norman temperaunce, from Latin temperantia (“moderation, self-control”), from temperāns, the present participle of temperō (“to…

1. The adjective of time is inherited from Middle English temporal, also temporalle, borrowed from Old French temporel and directly borrowed from Latin temporālis (“of time; lasting only a time”)…

It is inherited from Middle English traunce, also trance and transe, borrowed from Old French transe (“passage, passage from life to death; dread of coming evil”), with the Anglo-Norman forms trauns…

It is inherited from Middle English transcenden, also transcende, borrowed from Latin trānscendō (“to climb over or beyond, surmount”), partly through Old French transcendre, also transcender. The…

It is inherited from Middle English transformen, borrowed from Old French transformer and directly from Latin trānsfōrmō, to change in shape, metamorphose, from trāns-, across, beyond (see trans-)…

It is inherited from Middle English translacioun, borrowed from Old French translacion or directly from Latin trānslātiō (“a carrying across, transfer”), a noun of action from trānslātus, used as…

It is formed from English un- + harmed, the negative prefix and the past participle of the verb harm. Merriam-Webster places the formation in Middle English, from the past participle of harmen (“to…

It is inherited from Middle English variaunce, borrowed from Old French variance and directly borrowed from Latin variantia (“difference, diversity”), from variāns, the present participle of variō…

It is inherited from Middle English vicious (earlier vecious), borrowed from Anglo-Norman vicious and Old French vicieus, and directly borrowed from Latin vitiōsus (“faulty, defective, corrupt”)…

It is inherited from Middle English victour, borrowed from Anglo-Norman victor, victour (Old French victeur), and directly Latin victor (“a conqueror”), an agent noun from vict-, the past participle…

It is formed from English vine + yard, replacing the earlier Middle English winyard, from Old English wīngeard, which was formed from wīn (“wine”) and geard (“enclosure, yard”). The MED derives the…

It is inherited from Middle English violent, borrowed from Old French violent and directly from Latin violentus (“vehement, forcible”), related to violāre “to violate”. It is related to violate and…

It is inherited from Middle English visible, borrowed from Old French visible and directly from Late Latin vīsibilis (“that may be seen”), from vīsus, the past participle of videō (“to see”), and…

It is inherited from Middle English whirlwind, also whirlewind and qwhirlewinde, formed from Middle English whirlen (“to whirl”) + wind (“wind”), probably modelled on Old Norse hvirfilvindr, from…

It is inherited from Middle English paper, also papir, borrowed from Anglo-Norman papir and Old French papier “paper, document”, from Latin papȳrus (“papyrus plant; paper made from it”), from…

It is borrowed from Old French enforcier (“to exert force”) and enforcir, to strengthen, from Late Latin *infortiō, *infortīre, from in-, in, and fortis, strong (see force).

1. The dish is inherited from Middle English chargeour, also chariour and charchour, borrowed from Anglo-Norman chargeour (“large flat dish”), apparently a specific use of Old French chargeor…

It is inherited from Middle English commissioun, borrowed from Old French commission, and directly borrowed from Latin commissiō (“the act of committing, of bringing together”), in Medieval Latin…

It is inherited from Middle English carpete, borrowed from Old French carpite (“heavy decorated cloth”) and Medieval Latin carpita, from Old Italian carpita, a thick woollen cloth or counterpane…

It is inherited from Middle English pultrie, also poultre and pulletrie, borrowed from Anglo-Norman poletrie, also pulletrie and pultrie, and Middle French poulleterie of Normandy, recorded as Old…

1. The dried plum is inherited from Middle English prune, borrowed from Old French prune (“plum”) (also pronne), from Vulgar Latin *prūna, a feminine singular taken from Latin prūna, the plural of…

1. It is probably borrowed from a Scandinavian source: compare borrowed from Old Norse spík (“splinter”), spíkr, nail, and Middle Swedish spijk, nail, from *spīkaz; Merriam-Webster and the NODE…

It is inherited from Middle English tenetz, tenyes, tenis, most often explained as borrowed from Anglo-Norman tenetz (“hold! take!”), from Old French tenez, the imperative of tenir (“to hold…

It is inherited from Middle English caban, cabane, borrowed from Old French cabane (“hut, cottage”), from Old Occitan cabana, from Late Latin capanna (“hut”), cavanna, a word of uncertain origin…

It is inherited from Middle English sours, borrowed from Old French sourse (“a rising, beginning, spring”), a feminine noun use of the past participle of sourdre (“to rise, spring up”), from Latin…

It is inherited from Middle English celynge, from the verb ceil, to cover or panel, and -ing. Ceil is from Middle French celer, cieler, which Etymonline takes from Latin cēlāre (“to hide”), probably…

It is inherited from Middle English grosse (“large”), borrowed from Old French gros (“big, thick, coarse”), from Late Latin grossus (“thick, coarse”), a word not found in Classical Latin and of…