English words first recorded in the 14th century

It is partly borrowed from Late Latin omega and partly its source, Ancient Greek ὦ μέγα (ô méga, “great O”), made of ὦ (ô), the letter, and μέγα (méga), the neuter of μέγας (mégas, “great”), from…

It is borrowed from Latin opalus, a word found in Pliny, used in its Latin form in Middle English from the late 14th century; the later forms were partly shaped by Middle French opalle and opale…

It is formed from English over- + grown, after the verb overgrow or the phrase “grow over”. Merriam-Webster takes it as overgrowen, the past participle of the Middle English verb, which is formed…

It is formed from English pack + saddle, and Middle English had it as pakke sadil. The first element is apparently from Middle Dutch pac (“bundle”), of unknown further origin, and the second is from…

It is inherited from Middle English parcial, borrowed from Old French parcial and directly borrowed from Medieval Latin partialis (“divisible; partial”), from Late Latin partialis, incomplete, from…

It is inherited from Middle English percepcioun, borrowed from Old French percepcion and directly borrowed from Latin perceptio (“perception, apprehension, a taking”), from the past participle stem…

It is inherited from Middle English pimple, also pimpel and pinple, of uncertain origin. The OED thinks it probably continues an unattested noun corresponding to Old English pipeliende (“pimply…

It is borrowed from French pivot (“pivot, hinge”), recorded in Old French from the 12th century, also in the sense "penis"; the OED dates the sense "pivot, hinge" in French to 1338 and a figurative…

It is inherited from Middle English pleit, also plait and plet, borrowed from Anglo-Norman pleit (“fold, twisting”), a variant of ploit, which is recorded in Old French as pleit about 1165. The…

It is borrowed from Latin plēctrum (“instrument for striking the lyre”), from Ancient Greek πλῆκτρον (plêktron, “anything to strike with”), which also meant a spear point and a cock's spur. The…

It is inherited from Middle English pluralite, borrowed from Anglo-Norman pluralité and pluralité, and partly directly borrowed from Late Latin plūrālitās (“the plural number”). Etymonline and…

It is inherited from Middle English polyt, borrowed from Latin polītus (“polished, refined, elegant”), the past participle of poliō (“to polish, make smooth”) (see polish).

It is inherited from Middle English potencial, borrowed from Old French potenciel and directly borrowed from Late Latin potentiālis (“potential, powerful”), from Latin potentia (“power, might…

It is inherited from Middle English presumptuous, also presomptuos and presumtuous, borrowed from Anglo-Norman presumtuous and Middle French presumptueux, and directly borrowed from Late Latin…

It is inherited from Middle English prevailen, also prevalen, borrowed from Middle French prévaloir (“to have the advantage, dominate”) and directly borrowed from Latin praevaleō (“to have superior…

It is inherited from Middle English primordial, borrowed from Late Latin prīmōrdiālis (“first of all, original”), from Latin prīmōrdium (“a beginning, origin”), the noun use of the neuter of…

It is a verbal noun formed from English print + -ing, recorded in Middle English as printing and prenting. The verb, prenten in Middle English, comes from the noun, although the OED thinks its…

It is inherited from Middle English purgatif, also purgative, borrowed from Middle French purgatif (“that causes purgation, laxative”) and directly borrowed from Late Latin purgātīvus (“that causes…

It is borrowed from Latin pȳramis (“pyramid”) (stem pȳramid-), partly through pyramide, recorded in Old French about 1160. The Latin word is from Ancient Greek πυραμίς (pūramís), whose further…

It is borrowed from Anglo-Norman quadrant, also quadran and cadran, and directly borrowed from Latin quadrāns (“a fourth part, quarter”), stem quadrant-. Etymonline traces it through Old French…

It is inherited from Middle English rabet, rabbete, probably from a dialectal French source, compare modern French dialect rabotte, young rabbit, and Walloon robète, a diminutive of Flemish or…

It is borrowed from Late Latin rādīcālis (“of or having roots”), from rādīx (“root”) (genitive rādīcis), which is related to English root and is the source of eradicate and radish.

It is first inherited from Middle English raptour, borrowed from Latin raptor (“plunderer, robber, ravisher, abductor”), an agent noun formed with -or from raptus, the past participle of rapiō (“to…

It is inherited from Middle English racional, borrowed from Old French racionel and directly from Latin ratiōnālis, of or belonging to reason, reasonable, from ratiō, ratiōnis, reckoning…

It is inherited from Middle English rebaten, borrowed from Anglo-Norman rebatre, also rebattre, and Old French rabatre or rebatre, to beat down, drive back, also to deduct, the source of French…

It is inherited from Middle English receptacle, borrowed from Anglo-Norman receptacle and directly borrowed from Latin receptāculum (“place for storing things, container; shelter, refuge”), and the…

It is inherited from Middle English reformacioun, also reformation, partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman reformacioun, also refourmacion and refurmacion, and Middle French reformacion, and partly…

It is inherited from Middle English relaxen, borrowed from Old French relaxer and directly borrowed from Latin relaxō (“to loosen, open, stretch out”), from re- (“back”) and laxō (“to loosen”), from…

It is inherited from Middle English retina, also rethina, borrowed from Medieval Latin rētina, formed from Latin rēte (“net”) with the suffix -īna, because the membrane's fine texture or its network…

It is inherited from Middle English scannen, earlier scanden, borrowed from Latin scandō (“to scan verse”), which in Classical Latin meant to climb or mount, from PIE Proto-Indo-European *skand-…

The verb is inherited from Middle English senten, borrowed from Old French sentir (“to feel, perceive, smell”), from Latin sentiō (“to feel, perceive by the senses”), the verb behind sense…

It is inherited from Middle English sclirosis, borrowed from Medieval Latin sclerosis (“a hardness, hard tumour”), from Ancient Greek σκλήρωσις (sklḗrōsis, “hardening”), from σκληρόω (sklēróō, “to…

1. The stunted tree is a variant of shrub, inherited from Middle English shrobbe, also schrobbe, inherited from Old English scrybb (“brushwood, underwood, shrubbery”). Etymonline thinks the spelling…

It is inherited from Middle English semen, borrowed from Latin sēmen (“seed”), from the base of serō (“to sow”). In Latin it meant the seed of plants, animals or people, and also race, offspring…

It is borrowed from Old French seminal and directly borrowed from Latin sēminālis (“of or belonging to seed”), from sēmen (“seed”), with the adjective suffix that gives -al. The OED takes it from…

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin sequentia (“a following, succession”), perhaps partly through Old French sequence “answering verses”, from Latin sequēns (“following”), the present participle of…

It is formed from English smell + -y, in Middle English smelli, from smel (“smell, odour”). The noun is not found in Old English, where the usual word was Old English stenc, the source of stench.

It is borrowed from Latin speciēs (“appearance, form; kind, sort”), from speciō (“to look at, behold”), from Proto-Indo-European *spek- (“to observe”). It is a doublet of spice.

It is inherited from Middle English squirten, also squyrten, an earlier form being swirten. Its origin is uncertain: the OED calls it obscure, and compares Low German swirtjen, swürtjen and East…

It is inherited from Middle English student, an alteration, under the influence of Latin studeō (“to be eager, apply oneself, study”), of earlier studient, borrowed from Old French estudiant…

It is inherited from Middle English stupor, borrowed from Latin stupor (“numbness, insensibility, dullness, amazement”), from stupeō (“to be stunned, be dazed”) and the suffix -or. Etymonline traces…

It is inherited from Middle English somer tyme, also somertime, a compound from Middle English somer + time, that is, summer and time. Earlier words for the season were summertide, recorded from the…

It is borrowed from Middle French superficial, also superficiel (“located at the surface”), and its source borrowed from Late Latin superficiālis (“of or relating to a surface”), formed from…

It is inherited from Middle English sinthoma, borrowed from Medieval Latin sinthoma (“symptom of a disease”), a corrupt form of Late Latin symptōma, from Ancient Greek σύμπτωμα (súmptōma, “chance…

It is inherited from Middle English siringe, also siryng, and earlier suringa, borrowed from Medieval Latin siringa, also syringa, from Late Latin syringa (“injection”), an alteration of sȳrinx…

It is inherited from Middle English temperament, also temprament, borrowed from Latin temperāmentum (“due mixture, a mixing in due proportion”), from temperō (“to mix in due proportion, blend…

It is inherited from Middle English territorie, borrowed from Latin territōrium (“land around a town, domain, district”), from terra (“earth, land”) and the place suffix -orium, perhaps on the model…

It is borrowed from Latin thesis (“unaccented syllable in poetry”), from Greek θέσις (thésis, “a setting down, placing; a proposition; the downbeat in music”), from the root of τιθέναι (tithénai…

It is borrowed from Old French toster (“to roast, grill”), from Vulgar Latin *tostō, a frequentative of Latin torreō, to parch (past participle tostus; see thirst and torrid).

It is inherited from Middle English tortuce, also tortu and tortuse, partly borrowed from Medieval Latin tortūca and partly borrowed from Old French tortue; the American Heritage Dictionary names…

1. The stretch of land is borrowed from Latin tractus (“a drawing out, course, extent, region, space of time”), a noun formed from the past participial stem of trahō (“to draw, pull, drag”), with…

It is inherited from Middle English turkeis, also turkois and torcas, borrowed from Old French turqueise, short for pierre turqueise (“Turkish stone”), the feminine of turqueis (“Turkish”), from…

It is borrowed from Latin uterus (“womb, belly”). Etymonline and Barnhart trace it to Proto-Indo-European *udero- (“abdomen, womb, stomach”), the source also of Sanskrit उदर (udára, “belly”)…

It is borrowed from Old French vegetable (“living, fit to live”) and directly Medieval Latin vegetābilis (“growing, flourishing”), in Late Latin “animating, enlivening”, from Latin vegetō (“to…

It is inherited from Middle English vertual, borrowed from Medieval Latin virtuālis, from virtūs (“excellence, potency, efficacy”), literally “manliness” (see virtue), suggested by Late Latin…

It is inherited from Middle English weghti, also spelled weighti and wighti, formed from English weight + -y. The noun goes back to Old English wiht, from Proto-Germanic *wihti-, and is from the…

It is inherited from Middle English adherent, also aderent, adherand and aherdaunt, borrowed from Middle French adherent, modern adhérent, which is from Latin adhaerēns (“sticking to”), the present…

It is inherited from Middle English alligeaunce, also aligeaunce and alegeaunce, borrowed from Anglo-Norman alleggeance, also aligeance and alegaunce, an alteration of ligeance, from Old French lige…

It is inherited from Middle English cancellen, from Anglo-Norman canceler, borrowed from Old French canceller (“to cross out”), or directly borrowed from Latin cancellāre (“to make like a lattice…

The noun is inherited from Middle English cressaunt, also cressant, borrowed from Anglo-Norman cressaunt, a variant of Old French creissant (modern French croissant), the noun use of the present…