English words first recorded in the 14th century

It is inherited from Middle English agrement, borrowed from Old French agrement, agreement, a noun of action from agreer “to please, make agreeable”, the source of agree, with the suffix -ment. Old…

It is formed from English air + -y. The Middle English adjective is airī, also spelled eiri, aiery and aery. The OED compares aery and airly, and the similar adjectives Middle Dutch luchtich, now…

It is inherited from Middle English ele, also ile, borrowed from Anglo-Norman ele (“wing of a church”), a specific use of the Anglo-Norman word for a wing, recorded from the early 12th century, from…

It is inherited from Middle English alteracioun, borrowed from Anglo-Norman alteracion and alteration, and directly borrowed from Medieval Latin alterātiō (“change”), from alterō (“to change”), a…

1. The mineral salt is inherited from Middle English alum, also alom and alim, borrowed from Anglo-Norman alum, also alume, and Old French alum, alun, now alun, from Latin alūmen (“alum”). The…

It is inherited from Middle English anatomie, borrowed from Old French anatomie and directly Late Latin anatomia, from Ancient Greek ἀνατομή (anatomḗ, “dissection”), literally “a cutting up”, from…

It is borrowed from Latin angulāris (“placed at the corners; having angles or corners”), perhaps influenced by Old French angulaire. The Latin adjective is formed from angulus (“angle, corner”) and…

The adjective is inherited from Middle English animat, borrowed from Latin animātus (“animated, spirited, living, alive”), the past participle of animō (“to give breath to, quicken, enliven”), from…

It is first recorded as inherited from Middle English antrax, also antrace, borrowed from Late Latin anthrax (“carbuncle, pustule”), used in medical writers from the 5th century, and partly borrowed…

It is inherited from Middle English aunteler, also auntelere, borrowed from Anglo-Norman antiler, also auntiller and auntilor, a variant of Old French antoillier, now andouiller; the OED thinks the…

It is inherited from Middle English applicacioun, borrowed from Old French aplicacion, from Latin applicātiō (“a joining to, attaching oneself to; the relation of a client to a patron”) (accusative…

It is inherited from Middle English apprehenden, borrowed from Latin apprehendō (“to take hold of, grasp”), with some dictionaries allowing a route through French: the American Heritage Dictionary…

It is inherited from Middle English apprehensioun, borrowed from Late Latin apprehēnsiō (“a seizing, laying hold; understanding”), either directly or through Old French apreension (“comprehension…

It is inherited from Middle English aqua, borrowed from Latin aqua (“water; the sea; rain”), from Proto-Indo-European *akwa- (“water”). Partridge compares Gothic 𐌰𐍈𐌰 (aƕa, “river”) and Old High…

It is inherited from Middle English arterie, borrowed from Latin artēria (“windpipe; artery”), partly through Anglo-Norman arterie and Old French artaire, recorded from 1213. The Latin noun is from…

It is inherited from Middle English aspiracioun, borrowed from Latin aspīrātiō (“a breathing on, blowing; rough breathing”), partly also through Middle French aspiration, a noun of action from…

It is inherited from Middle English assistence, assistance, borrowed from Old French assistance, or from Medieval Latin assistentia, from Latin assistō “to stand by”, the source of assist.

It is inherited from Middle English associat, borrowed from Latin associātus, the past participle of associō (“to join with”), from ad- (“to”) and sociō (“to unite with”), from socius (“companion…

It is inherited from Middle English asma, borrowed from Medieval Latin asma, from Ancient Greek ἆσθμα (âsthma, “shortness of breath, panting”), from ἄζω (ázō, “to breathe hard”). Barnhart thinks the…

It is inherited from Middle English augmentacioun, borrowed from Anglo-Norman augmentacioun and Middle French augmentation, and partly directly borrowed from Late Latin augmentātiō (“increase”)…

It is inherited from Middle English aura, borrowed from Latin aura (“breeze, wind, the upper air”), from Ancient Greek αὔρα (aúra, “breath, breeze, air in motion”), which Klein and Ayto relate to…

It is inherited from Middle English avoidaunce, formed from English avoid + -ance. The OED thinks that, to judge from its date, the noun probably also existed in Anglo-Norman, and the MED and…

It is borrowed from Latin axis (“axle, pivot; axis of the earth or sky”), from Proto-Indo-European *aks-, axis, source also of Old English eax, axle, German Achse, Greek ἄξων (áxōn, “axle”) and…

It is borrowed from Latin boa (“a large snake; a water snake”), a word Pliny uses in his “Natural History”, of unknown origin. Pliny and St Jerome connected it, for different reasons, with bos…

It is inherited from Middle English boni, formed from English bone + -y. The noun bone is from Old English bān, from Proto-Germanic *bainą, the source also of Old Frisian bēn, Old Norse bein and…

It is inherited from Middle English budde, bodde, of unknown or uncertain origin. Possible cognates include Dutch bot, bud, Middle Low German buddich, swollen, and Old High German būtil, German…

It is inherited from Middle English cane, borrowed from Old French cane (“reed, cane, spear”) (Modern French canne), through Old Occitan cana, from Latin canna (“reed, cane; tube”), from Ancient…

It is inherited from Middle English cariere, formed from carien, to carry, and the agent suffix -er.

It is borrowed from Late Latin causālis (“relating to a cause”), from causa (“cause, reason”), the source of cause, and the suffix -ālis. The OED, revising the entry in 2025, takes the noun from…

It is borrowed from Latin centuria (“a group of a hundred; a company of a hundred men”), irregularly from centum (“hundred”), formed on the analogy of decuria (“a company of ten”). Latin centum goes…

It is inherited from Middle English chesy, formed from chese (“cheese”) and the suffix -y, the Middle English form of cheese, from Old English cēse, from Latin cāseus. The slang sense "cheap…

It is inherited from Middle English clod, also clodde and cludde, probably inherited from Old English clod-, recorded in the compound clodhamer (“fieldfare”) and the place name “Clodhangra”, from…

It is inherited from Middle English cors, also course, probably an adjectival use of the noun from Middle English cours (“course; ordinary run of things”), the source of course, perhaps in the…

It is borrowed from Latin colossus (“a statue larger than life”), from Ancient Greek κολοσσός (kolossós, “gigantic statue”), a word of unknown origin, probably borrowed from a pre-Greek Aegean or…

It is inherited from Middle English combustioun, borrowed from Old French combustion, and directly borrowed from Late Latin combustiō (“a burning”), a noun of action from combustus, the past…

It is borrowed from Late Latin commentātor (“interpreter”), in classical Latin "deviser, inventor, author", the agent noun of commentor (“to think over, discuss, write about”), a frequentative of…

1. It is Middle English, through Old French compact or directly borrowed from Latin compāctus (“concentrated”), the past participle of compingō, to fasten together, from com-, together, and pangō…

It is inherited from Middle English competent, borrowed from Old French competent (“sufficient, appropriate, suitable”) and directly Latin competēns, the present participle of competō (“to coincide…

It is borrowed from Latin complēmentum (“that which fills up or completes”), formed on compleō (“to fill up, complete”) with the suffix -mentum (-ment). The American Heritage Dictionary, Barnhart…

It is inherited from Middle English concave, borrowed from Old French concave or directly borrowed from Latin concavus (“hollow, arched, vaulted, curved”), the Latin adjective being formed from…

It is inherited from Middle English concret, from Latin concrētus (“grown together, hardened, congealed”) (perhaps through French concret), the past participle of concrēscere “to grow together”…

It is inherited from Middle English concurrent, also concurrant, borrowed from Latin concurrēns (“running together, meeting”), and partly borrowed from Middle French concurrent. The Latin is the…

It is inherited from Middle English consumpcioun, probably borrowed from Old French consumpcion and directly borrowed from Latin cōnsūmptiō (“a using up, wasting”), from the past participle stem of…

It is inherited from Middle English corporat, borrowed from Latin corporātus, the past participle of corporō (“to make or fashion into a body; to furnish with a body; to make into a corpse, kill”)…

It is inherited from Middle English corpulent, also corpolent, borrowed from Old French corpulent (“stout, fat”) and directly borrowed from Latin corpulentus (“fleshy, fat, large”), formed from…

1. The spasm is inherited from Middle English crampe, also craumpe and crompe, borrowed from Anglo-Norman crampe and Old French crampe, which the OED dates to the 11th century and Etymonline to the…

It is formed from English crisp + -y, and was first written as crispi, also cripsi.

It is inherited from Middle English cristallin, borrowed from Anglo-Norman cristallin and Middle French cristallin, and directly borrowed from Latin crystallinus (“made of crystal, resembling…

The noun is borrowed from Latin dēfectus (“failure, absence, deficiency, shortcoming”), the noun use of the past participle of dēficiō (“to fail, desert, be wanting, revolt”), from dē- (“down…

It is inherited from Middle English defectif, partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman defectif, also deffectif (in Old French from 1314, now défectif), and partly borrowed from Late Latin dēfectīvus…

It is inherited from Middle English denominacioun, borrowed from Old French denominacion and directly borrowed from Latin dēnōminātiō (“a calling by another name, metonymy”), a noun of action from…

The verb is inherited from Middle English designen, borrowed from Latin dēsignō (“to mark out, trace out, denote, devise”), partly through French désigner, formed from dē- (“out”) and signō (“to…

It is borrowed from Latin dēsignātiō (“a marking out, specification; appointment”), partly through designacion, and partly, especially in the obsolete sense "purpose", formed in English on design…

It is inherited from Middle English diafragma, borrowed from Late Latin diaphragma (“midriff”), from Ancient Greek διάφραγμα (diáphragma, “partition, barrier; the midriff”), from διαφράσσω…

It is inherited from Middle English diaria, also diarie, borrowed from Old French diarrie and Medieval Latin diaria, from Late Latin diarrhoea, from Ancient Greek διάρροια (diárrhoia, “a flowing…

It is inherited from Middle English dimencioun, from Middle French dimension or directly borrowed from Latin dīmēnsiō (“a measuring”), dīmēnsiōnem, from dīmētior, to measure out, from dis-, apart…

It is inherited from Middle English diminutif, borrowed from Old French diminutif, and directly borrowed from Latin dīminūtīvus, an altered form of earlier dēminūtīvus, from dēminūtus (“lessened”)…

It is inherited from Middle English discontinuen, borrowed partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman discontinuer, also descontinuer, and partly borrowed from Medieval Latin discontinuō (“to stop…

It is inherited from Middle English dissolucioun, partly borrowed from Old French dissolution, recorded from the 12th century, and partly taken directly from Latin dissolūtiō (“a dissolving…

It is a compound from English down + hill, in the adverb from down as a preposition and in the noun mainly from down as an adverb, according to the OED. The OED compares uphill.