English words first recorded in the 14th century

It is inherited from Middle English extollen, borrowed from Latin extollō (“to place on high, raise; to exalt, praise”), formed from ex- (“up”) and tollō (“to lift, raise”), from Proto-Indo-European…

It is inherited from Middle English extremite, borrowed from Old French extremite, also estremite, from Latin extrēmitās (“the end of a thing”), from extrēmus (“outermost, utmost”), the superlative…

It is borrowed from Middle French facilité (“easiness, ease”), or directly from Latin facilitatem (“easiness, fluency, willingness”), from facilis (“easy to do”), from faciō “to do”, from…

It is inherited from Middle English familie, borrowed from Latin familia (“the servants of a household; the household”), a noun formed from famulus (“servant, slave”), from Old Latin famul. Barnhart…

It is inherited from Middle English fece, plural fecis, fecez, also singular fex, borrowed from Latin faecēs (“sediment, dregs”), the plural of faex, which meant grounds, sediment and the lees of…

It is formed from English feed + -er. Middle English had feder and federe, from feden (“to feed”). feed is from Old English fēdan (“to nourish, give food to”), from Proto-Germanic *fōdijaną (“to…

It is inherited from Middle English filtre, borrowed from Old French filtre, a variant of feltre, felt, and directly filtrum (“felt used to strain liquids”), from a West Germanic word related to…

It is inherited from Middle English finaunce, fynaunce, borrowed from Old French finance (“end; payment, expense; settlement of a debt”), 13th century, a noun of action from finer (“to end, settle a…

It is inherited from Middle English finial, also fenial, a variant of final. The OED thinks this variant arose in English, since it finds no similar form in Old English or Medieval Latin, and…

It is inherited from Middle English fissure (“cut, crack”), borrowed from Old French fissure, recorded from the 13th century, and directly borrowed from Latin fissūra (“a cleft”), from fissus…

It is inherited from Middle English forcasten, formed from fore-, before, and casten, to contrive, plan (see cast).

It is borrowed from Old French frontiere (“boundary of a country, front rank of an army”), from front, brow, front (see front), from Latin frōns.

The verb is inherited from Middle English gloumen, also gloumben and glomen, and its origin is unknown. According to the OED it is inherited from Old English *glūmian, an unrecorded verb, and it…

It is inherited from Middle English gratifien, borrowed from Latin grātificor (“to do a favour to, oblige”), also grātificō. The OED, Hoad and the Shorter Oxford give French gratifier, recorded from…

It is inherited from Middle English grinde (“groin”), also grynde, perhaps inherited from Old English grynde (“abyss”), which Etymonline and Ayto take to have meant also "depression, hollow". The…

It is inherited from Middle English grofe, borrowed from Middle Dutch groeve (“furrow, ditch, pit”) (now groef), from Proto-Germanic *grōbō (“cavity, pit”). Etymonline also allows a Scandinavian…

It is formed from English ground + work, with work in its older sense of a structure or building. Similar compounds are Middle Dutch grontwerck, Dutch grondwerk and German Grundwerk.

It is formed from English gun + powder, first as Middle English gonne-poudre. The OED compares the earlier use of the second element alone for gunpowder, the Anglo-Norman phrase poudre pur gunnes…

It is inherited from Middle English gushen, also goshen and gusche, but sources dispute its origin. The OED thinks it was probably formed in Middle English as an imitation of the sound, since the…

It is formed from English hand + -some; MWU suggests it may be from an assumed Middle Dutch handsaem, compare Dutch handzaam (“tractable”).

It is inherited from Middle English herdman, also hirdman, inherited from Old English hyrdeman, which Etymonline spells heordman. The present form arose by alteration of herdman, with an -s-…

It is borrowed from Latin haesitātiō (“hesitation, stammering; irresolution, uncertainty”), the noun of action from haesitō (“to stick fast; to stammer; to be undecided”), a frequentative of haereō…

It is formed from English hill + top. Both parts are native: the first goes back to Old English hyll and the second to top (“summit”).

It is inherited from Middle English hostilite, borrowed from Middle French hostilité (“enmity”), or directly borrowed from Late Latin hostīlitās (“enmity”); the OED takes the Late Latin word as the…

It is inherited from Middle English hoveren, a frequentative from Middle English hoven (“to hover, tarry, linger”) + -er, which it replaced. The OED calls the origin uncertain: the word is not known…

It is borrowed from Old French humide (“damp, wet”), or directly borrowed from Latin hūmidus (“moist, wet”), a variant of ūmidus, probably spelled with h- under the influence of humus (“earth”)…

It is inherited from Middle English humidite, borrowed from Old French humidité (“dampness”), from Latin hūmiditās (“moisture”), from hūmidus (“moist, wet”). The AHD calls the Latin noun Medieval…

It is inherited from Middle English huske, of uncertain origin. Most dictionaries take it as probably borrowed from Middle Dutch huuskijn (“little house, core of a fruit, case”), a diminutive of…

The OED takes it partly as borrowed from Middle French imaginable, also ymaginable, recorded in Old French from about 1298, and partly as borrowed from Late Latin imāginābilis (“capable of being…

It is inherited from Middle English imitacioun, also spelled ymytacyoun, borrowed from Old French imitacion, from Latin imitātiō (“a copying, imitation”), a noun of action from imitor (“to copy…

The verb is borrowed from French implanter (“to insert, engraft”), from im- (“in”) and planter (“to plant”); the OED and Etymonline note the older Old French emplanter (“to plant”). The American…

It is borrowed from Latin implicātus, the past participle of implicō (“to entangle, involve, connect closely”), formed from im- (“in”) and plicō (“to fold”), from Proto-Indo-European *plek- (“to…

It is inherited from Middle English impulsif, borrowed from Medieval Latin impulsīvus, from impulsus (“driven onwards”), the past participle of impellō (“to strike against, push against”), with the…

It is inherited from Middle English inhabilite, borrowed from Middle French inhabilité, from in- and habilité (“ability”), or formed from in- and ability. Earlier English had unability, incapability…

It is inherited from Middle English incurren, also encurren, borrowed from Latin incurrō (“to run into or against, rush at”), and partly borrowed from Old French encorir (“to run, flee; commit…

It is inherited from Middle English indigent, also indegent, borrowed from Anglo-Norman indigent and Old French indigent, from Latin indigēns (“poor, needy”), the present participle of indigeō (“to…

It is inherited from Middle English infamie, also infamye, borrowed from Old French infamie (“dishonour, infamous person”) and directly borrowed from Latin īnfāmia (“ill fame, bad repute…

It is inherited from Middle English infusioun, also infucioun, borrowed from Old French infusion, recorded in French from the 13th century, or directly borrowed from Latin infūsiō (“a pouring in, a…

It is inherited from Middle English enquery, probably from an Anglo-French noun formed from enqueren, to inquire, or formed in English from inquire and -y. It was respelled with in- from the…

It is inherited from Middle English inquisitour, borrowed from Old French inquisiteur, recorded in French from 1404, in Anglo-Norman inquisitour, or directly borrowed from Latin inquīsītor…

It is inherited from Middle English integrite, borrowed from Old French integrité and directly integritās (“soundness, wholeness; chastity”), from integer (“whole, untouched”) (see integer).

It is borrowed from Middle French intense and directly from Latin intēnsus (“stretched, strained, tight”), the past participle of intendō (“to stretch out, strain”). See intend. The OED notes that…

It is inherited from Middle English intervencioun, borrowed from Late Latin interventio (“an interposing; a giving security”), a noun of action from intervenīre (“to come between, interrupt”) (see…

It is first inherited from Middle English introductorie (“introductory treatise”), a noun, and is borrowed from Late Latin intrōductōrius, which Cassiodorus used of introductory books; the MED takes…

It is partly borrowed from French -isme and partly borrowed from Latin -ismus, with some influence from -isma, both from Ancient Greek -ισμός (-ismós), -ισμα (-isma), which formed nouns of action…

1. The word for a sharp point or a cut edge is inherited from Middle English jagge (noun) and jaggen (verb), of uncertain origin. The OED thinks the formation is probably imitative, and notes that…

It is formed from English joust + -le (“frequentative suffix”), the base being Middle English justen, also jousten. The American Heritage Dictionary enters the verb itself in that period as…

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κάππα (káppa), which is of Semitic origin, akin to Biblical Hebrew כַּף (kaf, “palm, hollow of the hand”), the name of the Hebrew letter kaph. Klein explains the…

It is inherited from Middle English caan, borrowed from Old French chan, can and Medieval Latin caanus, from Turkic han (“lord, prince”), a contraction of Old Turkic qaɣan (“ruler, sovereign”)…

The OED takes it borrowed from Late Latin lambda, a 4th-century variant of labda, the classical Latin name of the letter, from Ancient Greek λάβδα (lábda), also λάμβδα (lámbda); Barnhart…

It is inherited from Middle English ladde-bord, also lade-bord, latheborde and latebord, altered in the 16th century under the influence of starboard. The second element is board in the sense…

It is inherited from Middle English lymon, borrowed from Old French limon (“citrus fruit”), probably through Old Occitan or Italian limone, from Arabic لَيْمُون (laymūn), līmūn, a collective term…

It is formed from English lend + -er. Old English had an agent noun lǣnere (“creditor, lender”), from lǣnan (“to lend”) and -ere; the Old English verb comes from lǣn (“loan, gift”), the source of…

It is inherited from Middle English ligature, borrowed from Late Latin ligātūra (“a band, tie, bond”), which the OED calls simply Latin, formed from ligātus, the past participle of ligō (“to bind…

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin linguālis (“of the tongue”), from Latin lingua (“tongue, speech, language”) and the suffix -ālis. In medieval Latin the adjective meant "of the tongue" from the…

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin logicalis, from Late Latin logica (“logic”) (see logic); Etymonline describes it as logic plus -al.

It is inherited from Middle English locion, also spelt loscion, borrowed from Old French lotion, or directly borrowed from Latin lōtiō (“a washing”); the OED, in its 2015 revision, takes it as…

It was formed from Middle English loven (“to love”) + -able, and is the verb love with the suffix -able. Early spellings include lufabul, lufabyll and luffable. The OED compares the earlier loveful…

It is inherited from Middle English loyaltee, borrowed from Old French loialté (“loyalty, fidelity; legitimacy; honesty”), lealté, from loial (see loyal), from Latin legalis. The earlier Middle…

1. The verb meaning to mutilate is inherited from Middle English manglen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman mangler (“to mutilate, maim”), also mahangler, recorded from the late 13th century. Hoad, Weekley…