English words first recorded in the 14th century

It is inherited from Middle English crowsen, cruschen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman crussir, from Old French cruissir (“to gnash the teeth, crash, smash”), croissir, which is perhaps from Frankish…

1. The tool is borrowed from Old French plane, earlier plaine, and perhaps directly from Late Latin plāna (“a planing tool”), a back-formation from plānō (“to make level”), from Latin plānus…

It is Middle English, borrowed from Anglo-Norman purseute (“following after”), pursuite, Old French poursieute, poursuite, a search, from poursivre, porsuir, to pursue, prosecute (see pursue).

It is inherited from Middle English rasen, also racen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman raser (“to scrape, shave”), as in Old French raser. The French verb comes through Medieval Latin rāsō (“to level…

It is inherited from Middle English receite, borrowed from Anglo-Norman receite, an alteration, after a form meaning “he receives”, of Old French recete, from Medieval Latin recepta (“thing…

It is inherited from Middle English stabylte, stabilite, borrowed from Old French stableté (“firmness, solidity, durability”), also estableté, from Latin stabilitās (“a standing fast, firmness”)…

It is inherited from Middle English valet, also valette and vadlet, borrowed from Old French valet, a variant of vaslet, which meant a squire or young man of noble birth in the 12th century and…

It is inherited from Middle English warehous, a compound of ware, goods, and house; compare Dutch warenhuis and German Warenhaus.

It is inherited from Middle English abhominacioun, borrowed from Anglo-Norman abhominacion and Middle French abomination (“horror, disgust”), and directly borrowed from Late Latin abōminātiō…

It is inherited from Middle English abounden, also abunden and habounden, borrowed from Anglo-Norman abunder, also abounder and habunder, and Old French abonder, from Latin abundō (“to overflow, be…

The revised OED takes it as formed from English accuse + -er, recorded later than the separate Middle English noun accusour, which it derives from Anglo-Norman accusour, from Latin accūsātor…

It is inherited from Middle English administracioun, borrowed from Anglo-Norman administracioun or amynistraciun, from Latin administrātiō (“aid, help; direction, management”), from administrō (“to…

It is borrowed from Old French ambre, a learned borrowing of Medieval Latin ambar, ambra, from Arabic ʿanbar, ambergris (see ambergris).

It is inherited from Middle English apt, borrowed from Latin aptus (“fitted, suited, appropriate”), perhaps through Old French apte (“fitting, suitable”). The Latin word is the past participle of…

It is inherited from Middle English bage, bagge, perhaps from Anglo-Norman bage (1334) or Anglo-Latin bagis, the plural of bagia, both meaning emblem, all of unknown origin.

It is inherited from Middle English bordure, borrowed from Old French bordeure (“seam, edge of a shield, border”), from bord, bort “side, boundary”, from Frankish *bord or a similar Germanic source…

1. The verb to be busy is inherited from Middle English bustelen (“to thrash about, move vigorously but blunderingly”), whose origin is disputed. The OED takes it as probably of two sources: partly…

It is inherited from Middle English catholik, borrowed from Middle French catholique, and directly from Late Latin catholicus (“universal, general”), from Ancient Greek καθολικός (katholikós…

It is inherited from Middle English concepcioun, borrowed from Anglo-Norman concepcioun or concepcion, and partly directly from Latin conceptiō (“a comprehending; conception”). The Latin noun was…

It is inherited from Middle English dank, also danke, an adjective and noun, with the verb danken (“to moisten”), also donken, recorded earlier. Most dictionaries take it as probably of Scandinavian…

It is inherited from Middle English depriven, also depreven and deprifen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman depriver and Middle French depriver (“to take something away from a person; to divest of…

It is inherited from Middle English determinen, borrowed from Old French determiner, 12th century, and directly from Latin dēterminō (“to enclose, bound, set limits to”), from dē- “off”, or…

It is inherited from Middle English dispensen, also dispencen, borrowed from Old French dispenser (“to give out”), from Latin dispēnsō (“to distribute by weight, pay out, administer”). In Medieval…

It is inherited from Middle English devisioun, borrowed from Old French division, devisiun, and directly from Latin dīvīsiō (“a dividing, division”) (accusative dīvīsiōnem), a noun of action from…

It is inherited from Middle English dolfin, also dolphin, borrowed from Old French daulphin, also dalphin and daufin, from Old Occitan dalfin, from Medieval Latin dalfinus, an alteration of Latin…

It is inherited from Middle English dewe, borrowed from Old French deü (“owed”), the past participle of devoir (“to owe”), from a Romance form of Latin dēbitus, past participle of dēbeō (“to owe”)…

It is inherited from Middle English deier, also spelled dyere, degher and dighere, formed from Middle English deien (“to dye”) + -ere, the agent noun of dye; the OED posits an Old English type…

It is inherited from Middle English effect, borrowed from Old French effect (also efet, modern French effet) and directly borrowed from Latin effectus (“accomplishment, performance”), from the past…

It is inherited from Middle English enbracen, borrowed from Old French embracier (“to clasp in the arms, enclose”), from en- (“in”) and brace, braz, the arms (see brace), from Latin bracchium (“arm”).

It is inherited from Middle English encompassen (“to surround; engulf or overwhelm”), formed from English en- + compass. Barnhart takes the base to be the Middle English verb compassen (“to…

It is inherited from Middle English enlargen, borrowed from Old French enlargier, also enlargir, formed from en- (“make, put in”) and large (“broad, wide; generous”), which is from Latin largus…

It is inherited from Middle English entērtē, also enterete, borrowed from Anglo-Norman entiertie, and Old French entiereté (“totality, entirety; integrity, purity”), from Latin integritās…

It is inherited from Middle English eukarist, borrowed from Old French eucariste, now French eucharistie, from Late Latin eucharistia, from Ancient Greek εὐχαριστία (eukharistía, “thanksgiving…

It is inherited from Middle English femynyn, borrowed from Old French feminin, from Latin fēminīnus (“feminine, at first in the grammatical sense”), from fēmina (“woman, female”), literally “she who…

It is inherited from Middle English finisshen, borrowed from Old French feniss-, finiss-, the lengthened stem of fenir “to stop, finish, come to an end; to die” (modern finir), from Latin fīniō (“to…

1. The word for a brawl is inherited from Middle English frai, a shortening of affray, and the verb meaning to frighten is fraien, shortened from afraien or affraien. The Shorter Oxford derives the…

Middle English graspen is of uncertain origin, possibly by metathesis from grapsen, from Old English *grǣpsan (“to touch, feel”), parallel to the base of grope and related to grab; compare East…

It is inherited from Middle English heri, formed from her (“hair”); that is, hair and -y. There were also native adjectives meaning hairy, Old English hǣriht and hǣre.

It is formed from English hill + side, first as inherited from Middle English hulle syde. Dictionary.com takes the compound back to Old English. Hill is from Old English hyll, and side is from Old…

It is Middle English, formed from holden, to hold, and -er. Similar formations are Old Frisian haldere, Dutch houder and German Halter; the Old English agent noun was healdend (“protector, guardian…

It is inherited from Middle English imagerie, borrowed from Anglo-Norman imagerie (also ymagerye), work representing objects, recorded in Anglo-Norman from the late 12th century, formed from image…

It is inherited from Middle English invencioun, from Old French invencion and directly borrowed from Latin inventiō (“faculty of invention”), inventiōnem, from inventus, past participle of inveniō…

It is inherited from Middle English masculin, borrowed from Old French masculin (“of the male sex”), and also directly borrowed from Latin masculīnus (“male; of masculine gender”), from masculus…

1. It is inherited from Middle English mate, borrowed from Middle Low German māte (“one eating at the same table, messmate”), gemate, from Proto-Germanic *ga-matjōn (“(one) having food together”)…

1. The grinding tooth is first inherited from Middle English molāres (“molar teeth”), a plural, borrowed from Latin molāris (“grinding tooth”), the noun use of the adjective meaning "belonging to a…

It is inherited from Middle English monarchie, borrowed from Middle French monarchie (“rule by a single sovereign”), recorded in Old French from about 1270, from Late Latin monarchia (“government by…

It is inherited from Middle English multitude, borrowed from Anglo-Norman multitude and multitude (in Old French from 1155), and their source, Latin multitūdō (“a great number, a crowd; the common…

It is inherited from Middle English mistik, partly borrowed from Latin mysticus (“relating to sacred mysteries”) and partly borrowed from Old French mistique, from Ancient Greek μυστικός (mustikós…

It is inherited from Middle English nobilite, also nobelte, borrowed from Anglo-Norman nobilité and Middle French nobilité (“valour, merit, renown”), in Old French nobilitet from the mid-11th…

It is formed from English pack + -er, first as pakker, recorded as a surname from the mid-13th century. The OED compares Medieval Latin paccator (“a person who packs”), recorded in British sources…

1. The verb meaning to breathe hard is inherited from Middle English panten, apparently shortened borrowed from Anglo-Norman pantiser, also panteiser and pantoiser, and of Old French pantaisier (“to…

1. The adjective meaning pointed is formed from English peak + -ed, although the OED notes that the noun peak is recorded only later than the adjective, and compares the earlier piked…

It is inherited from Middle English persecucioun, borrowed from Anglo-Norman persecucion, also persecuciun, and Middle French persecution, and also directly from Latin persecūtiō (“chase, pursuit…

It is inherited from Middle English piete, partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman pieté and Middle French piété, and partly borrowed from Latin pietās (“dutifulness, piety”), from pius (“dutiful, kind…

It is inherited from Middle English possybil, borrowed from Old French possible and directly borrowed from Latin possibilis (“that can be done”), from possum (“to be able”) and the suffix -ibilis…

It is borrowed from Old French prisonier (“captive, hostage”) (Anglo-Norman prisoner), from prisoun (see prison) and -ier, as well as Medieval Latin prisonarius.

It is inherited from Middle English professen, which the dictionaries explain in several ways. The revised OED takes it as borrowed from Anglo-Norman professer, recorded as a past participle…

It is inherited from Middle English prosperen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman prosperer and Middle French prosperer, and directly borrowed from Latin prosperō (“to cause to succeed, render happy”), from…

It is inherited from Middle English provisioun, borrowed from Middle French provision and directly borrowed from Latin provisio (“foresight, preparation”), from the past participle stem of prōvidēre…

It is inherited from Middle English reprochen, also reprocen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman reprocher and reprochier (modern French reprocher), meaning to recall something disagreeable to someone, to…