English words first recorded in the 14th century

It is inherited from Middle English mistaken, borrowed from Old Norse mistaka (“to take in error; to miscarry”), from mis- “wrongly” and taka “to take”, or formed in English from mis- and take…

It is inherited from Middle English moisture, borrowed from Old French moistour (“moisture, dampness, wetness”), with the ending changed under the influence of -ure, from moiste (“moist”) (see…

It is inherited from Middle English mortalite, borrowed from Old French mortalite (“massacre, slaughter; fatal illness”) and directly Latin mortālitās (“state of being mortal”), from mortālis…

It is inherited from Middle English navie, borrowed from Old French navie (“fleet; ship”), from Latin nāvigia, plural of nāvigium “vessel, boat”, or from a popular Latin collective navia “ship”…

It is inherited from Middle English overte, borrowed from Anglo-Norman overt and overt, now ouvert, the past participle of ovrir (“to open”), from Vulgar Latin *ōperiō, an alteration of Latin aperiō…

It is inherited from Middle English overthrouen, formed from Middle English over- + throuen (“to throw”), the ancestors of over- and throw. Earlier, the same senses were expressed by overwerpen…

It is inherited from Middle English parchemin, also perchemin and parchement, borrowed from Old French parchemin, also Anglo-Norman parchemin, recorded from 1120–40 for animal skin prepared for…

It is inherited from Middle English pawe, earlier powe, borrowed from Anglo-Norman powe, also poue, beside Old French poe (12th century). The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1121–25 for the foot…

It is inherited from Middle English perceiven, borrowed from Anglo-Norman perceivre, also parceivre, a variant of Old French perçoivre, now percevoir, from Latin percipiō (“to take possession of…

It is inherited from Middle English presens, borrowed from Old French presence and directly from Latin praesentia (“a being present, being at hand”), from praesēns (“present”) (accusative…

It is inherited from Middle English proces, borrowed from Old French proces (“journey; development; legal trial”), and directly from Latin prōcessus (“a going forward, advance, progress”), from the…

It is inherited from Middle English province, borrowed from Old French province and directly from Latin prōvincia (“territory outside Italy under Roman rule; an official charge”), of uncertain…

It is inherited from Middle English publishen, an alteration of earlier publicen (before 1338) under the influence of verbs such as banish, finish and accomplish, borrowed from Old French publier…

1. It is inherited from Middle English pous, later puls, borrowed from Old French pous (“pulse”), Latinized pouls (modern French pouls), and directly from Latin pulsus, beating (pulsus venārum, the…

1. The floating platform is inherited from Middle English rafte (“rafter, beam”), borrowed from Old Norse raptr (“rafter, log”), with the Old Norse “-pt-” pronounced “-ft-”. The OED takes it from an…

It is inherited from Middle English ratelen, also rattelen and ratlen, probably borrowed from Middle Dutch ratelen (“to rattle”), which has a Middle Low German counterpart ratelen. Barnhart and…

It is inherited from Middle English rebuken, also rebouken, borrowed from Anglo-Norman rebuker (“to repel, beat back”), a northern French variant of rebuchier, formed from re- (“back”) and buschier…

It is inherited from Middle English receyvour, receivere, an agent noun from receive, or from Old Northern French *receivour, Old French recevere (modern receveur), from receivre, to receive, and…

It is borrowed from Anglo-Norman recoverie (about 1300), Old French recovree “remedy, cure, recovery”, from the past participle stem of recovrer “to get back”, the source of recover.

1. It is inherited from Middle English releve, relefe, borrowed from Anglo-Norman relif, Old French relief “assistance”, literally “that which is lifted”, from the stressed stem of relever “to raise…

It is inherited from Middle English reles (“odour, scent, taste, aftertaste”), with the stress shifted and the ending made like the suffix -ish, borrowed from Old French reles, a variant of relais…

It is inherited from Middle English relien, borrowed from Old French relier (“to fasten, attach, rally, bind together”), from Latin religō (“to fasten, bind fast”), from re-, here perhaps intensive…

It is inherited from Middle English remembraunce, borrowed from Anglo-Norman remembraunce and remembrance, from remembrer (“to remember”) and the suffix -ance; in later use it was also felt as…

It is inherited from Middle English renoun, borrowed from Anglo-Norman renoun, a variant of renon and renom, from renomer (“to make famous”), formed from re- and nomer (“to name”), from Latin nōminō…

It is inherited from Middle English requeste, borrowed from Old French requeste (“a request”), from Vulgar Latin *requaesita, replacing Latin requīsīta (“a thing asked for”), the feminine of…

It is inherited from Middle English resistence, borrowed from Old French resistance, earlier resistence, and directly from Medieval Latin resistentia, from the present participle stem of Latin…

It is inherited from Middle English rethorike, borrowed from Old French rethorique (modern French rhétorique) and directly Latin rhētoricē, from Ancient Greek ῥητορική (rhētorikḗ), short for “the…

It is inherited from Middle English romen, of uncertain origin. The Middle English Dictionary takes it as probably inherited from Old English *rāmian, and Barnhart as probably an alteration of the…

It is inherited from Middle English rugged, also rogged and rogget, probably of Scandinavian origin, although the OED calls the origin uncertain. Barnhart and Etymonline compare Old Norse rǫgg…

It is from Middle English reuthe (“pity, compassion”) + -les, recorded as reutheles and rewtheles, that is, ruth and -less. That noun was formed from the verb rue with the suffix -th, perhaps after…

It is inherited from Middle English scripture, borrowed from Latin scrīptūra, which in classical Latin meant the act of writing, written characters, a text or written record, and in Late Latin the…

It is formed from English seek + -er, first as inherited from Middle English secher, also seker, from sechen (“to seek”). The verb seek is from Old English sēcan (“to search for, pursue, long for”)…

It is inherited from Middle English schateren (“to scatter, disperse”), of obscure origin. The MED treats it as a form of scateren, the source of scatter. Etymonline takes it as probably a variant…

It is inherited from Middle English soket, borrowed from Anglo-Norman soket (“spearhead, ploughshare”), a diminutive of Old French soc (“ploughshare”), which is from Vulgar Latin *soccus, probably…

The verb is inherited from Middle English spoilen, borrowed from Old French espoillier (“to strip, plunder”), also espoiller, from Latin spoliō (“to strip, rob, plunder”), from spolium (“skin…

It is inherited from Middle English stoffe, borrowed from Old French estoffe (“quilted material; furniture, provisions”), from estoffer (“to equip, stock”), which is of obscure origin. It is usually…

1. It is inherited from Middle English tenden, borrowed from Old French tendre (“to stretch, hold forth, offer”), from Latin tendō (“to stretch, extend; aim, direct oneself”), from…

It is inherited from Middle English thrillen (“to pierce, penetrate”), a form of thirlen, earlier thurlen, with the i and r swapped (metathesis), inherited from Old English þyrlian, also þyrelian…

It is inherited from Middle English tikelen, first recorded soon after 1300, beside the adjective tikel. Its origin is uncertain. The MED, Hoad and Barnhart take it as probably a frequentative…

It is inherited from Middle English trayne, borrowed from Old French train (“tracks, path, trail of a robe; act of dragging”) (feminine traïne), from traïner (“to pull, drag, draw”) (modern…

It is inherited from Middle English trecherous, also tricherous, borrowed from Anglo-Norman tricherus, also trecherus, and in turn Old French trecheros (“deceitful”), also tricheros, recorded from…

It is inherited from Middle English turet, also toret and tourette, borrowed from Old French torete, also tourete, a diminutive of tor or tour (“tower”), from Latin turris (“tower”), the source of…

It is borrowed from Anglo-Norman vigrus, also vigerous, and Old French vigoros, vigourous, modern vigoureux, from Medieval Latin vigōrōsus, from Latin vigor (“liveliness, activity, force”), from…

It is inherited from Middle English violet, borrowed from Old French violete, a diminutive of viole (“violet”), from Latin viola (“violet; violet colour”). The Latin word was itself borrowed…

It is inherited from Middle English virginite, borrowed from Anglo-Norman virginité, in Middle French also virginité, from Latin virginitās (“maidenhood, virginity”), formed from virgō (“maiden”)…

It is inherited from Middle English vertuous, also virtuous, borrowed from Anglo-Norman vertuous, also verteus and virtueus, and Old French vertuos, from Late Latin virtuōsus (“good, full of…

It is formed from English whom + ever, and the OED notes that it was at first written apart, as the pronoun followed by the adverb. Merriam-Webster gives the Middle English form as whom ever. It is…

It is inherited from Middle English werker, worcher, an agent noun from Middle English werken + -er, from the verb work. Old English had wyrcend “worker, labourer”.

It is inherited from Middle English bondell, probably borrowed from Middle Dutch bondel, a diminutive of bond, from binden (“to bind”), or else partly from Old English byndele (“a binding”), from…

It is inherited from Middle English creyme, creem, creme, borrowed from Old French cresme (“chrism, holy oil”), craime, creme (modern French crème), a blend of Late Latin chrisma (“ointment”), from…

It is inherited from Middle English auditour, borrowed from Anglo-Norman auditour, which is from Latin audītor (“a hearer”), from audiō (“to hear”). Merriam-Webster also points to Medieval Latin…

It is inherited from Middle English caracter, borrowed from Old French caractere, from Latin charactēr (“mark, distinctive quality”), from Ancient Greek χαρακτήρ (kharaktḗr, “instrument for marking…

It is inherited from Middle English complien, to fulfil, carry out, probably from Old French compli, past participle of complir, to accomplish, from Vulgar Latin *compliō, from Latin compleō, to…

The noun is inherited from Middle English contract, borrowed from Old French contract (modern contrat), a learned borrowing from Latin contractus (“a drawing together; a contract, agreement”), from…

1. It is inherited from Middle English dompen, perhaps from a Scandinavian source, compare Danish dumpe (“to fall hard”), Norwegian dumpa, to fall suddenly, and Swedish dimpa, though an independent…

It is inherited from Middle English femele, borrowed from Old French femelle (“woman, female”), from Medieval Latin femella (“a female”), from Latin fēmella (“young female, girl”), a diminutive of…

It is of uncertain origin. An isolated Middle English gol “boundary, limit” appears once in the early 14th century, and it may be inherited from Old English *gāl (“obstacle, barrier”), implied by…

It is inherited from Middle English encresen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman encress-, a variant of Old French encreiss-, the stem of encreistre, from Latin incrēscō (“to grow, increase”), from in-…

It is inherited from Middle English losnen, also lousnen and lesnen, formed from Middle English loos + -nen. The OED derives it from the adjective loose and the suffix -en, Etymonline from the verb…

1. The word for the fuel is inherited from Middle English pete, which most dictionaries take as borrowed from Medieval Latin peta, the form used in the Latin of Scottish documents from about 1200…