English words first recorded in the 16th century

It is borrowed from Middle French confronter, recorded in French from the 15th century, from Medieval Latin cōnfrontō (“to assign limits; to border on”), attested from the 12th century. That verb…

It is borrowed from Latin decōrum (“that which is seemly, propriety”), the noun use of the neuter singular of decōrus (“seemly, fitting, proper”), from decor (“grace, beauty, seemliness”), related…

Its origin is unknown or uncertain. Barnhart and Etymonline suggest a link with dodd, to jog (1570s), a dialect verb of Scotland and northern England.

It is formed from English dodge + -er, an agent noun from the verb. The verb itself is known only from the 16th century and its origin is uncertain; Etymonline suggests a link with a Scottish and…

It is borrowed from Latin eliminatus, the past participle of ēlīmināre (“to thrust out of doors, expel”), from the phrase ex līmine, off the threshold, from ex (“out”) and limen (“threshold”) (see…

It is a compound, from English hard + wood.

It is a shortening of New Latin per centum (“by the hundred”), from per (“by, through”) and centum (“hundred”), compare Italian per cento. Barnhart says the English form was perhaps also influenced…

The verb is of obscure origin, first recorded late in the 16th century. The OED compares the dialect words scramb and scrame, to pull or take together with the hands, and also scrawm, scamble and…

It is borrowed from Latin trānslūcēns (“shining through”), the present participle of trānslūceō (“to shine through”), formed from trāns- (“through”) and lūceō (“to shine”), which Etymonline traces…

It is formed from English dumb + -y, originally a Scottish word, also spelled “dumbie”. The base dumb is from Old English dumb (“mute, silent”), from Proto-Germanic *dumbaz (“dumb, dull”). Klein…

It is formed from English empiric + -al, or, as the OED puts it, from Late Latin empiricus and the English suffix. The Latin adjective, in classical Latin chiefly a noun for a physician guided by…

It is formed from English grand- + child. The first part goes back to Anglo-Norman graunt, graund, from the use of Old French grant in French kinship nouns for the second degree of relationship, and…

It is formed from English grit + -y. Grit is from Old English grēot (“sand, dust, gravel”), from Proto-Germanic *greutą, and is related to Old Saxon griot, Old High German grioz and Old Norse grjót.

It is borrowed from Late Latin inaugurātiō (“consecration, installation under good omens”), partly also borrowed from Middle French inauguration, recorded in French from the 14th century. The Latin…

It is borrowed from Late Latin longaevitās (“long duration, long life, old age”), recorded from the 4th century, from Latin longaevus (“of great age, long-lived”), formed from longus (“long”) and…

It is borrowed from Middle French modal and directly borrowed from Medieval Latin modālis (“of or relating to a mode”), from Latin modus (“measure, manner, way”) and -ālis. Most dictionaries give…

It is formed from rely and the suffix -able.

It is borrowed from Latin sēpia (“cuttlefish; ink”), in the sense of the pigment probably by way of Italian seppia (“cuttlefish”), from Ancient Greek σηπία (sēpía, “cuttlefish”), a word of uncertain…

1. It is of uncertain origin. Barnhart notes that the word was apparently brought by the sailors of John Hawkins' 1567 expedition to Africa and the West Indies, who exhibited a specimen in London in…

It is formed partly from English character + -ization and partly, especially in later use, from English characterize + -ation. Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com instead take it from Medieval Latin…

It is borrowed from Middle French clientele (“state of being a client; clients collectively”), now clientèle, and directly borrowed from Latin clientēla (“clientship, the relation of a client to a…

It is a later variant of clench, perhaps only a change of sound, but more probably, the OED thinks, an assimilation to the northern form clink, recorded a century earlier. Merriam-Webster calls it…

It is formed from English conic + -al; the OED and Merriam-Webster describe it as Ancient Greek κωνικός (kōnikós, “cone-shaped”) with the English suffix -al. Conic is from New Latin conicus, from…

It is borrowed from Latin cōnsistentem, the present participle of cōnsistō “to stand firm, take a position, stop”, from con- “together” and sistō “to place”, a causative of stō “to stand”, from…

It is borrowed from Latin contrādictus, the past participle of contrādīcō (“to speak against”), which in classical Latin was the phrase contrā (“against”) dīcō (“to say, speak”). Dīcō comes from…

It is formed from English craze + -y, and the verb craze originally meant “to break in pieces, shatter”, so a crazy person has had their sanity shattered.

It is borrowed from Latin cylindrus (“roller, cylinder”), probably through Middle French cylindre, from Greek κύλινδρος (kúlindros, “roller, roll”), from κυλίνδω (kulíndō), to roll, of uncertain…

It is borrowed from Middle French event, a learned borrowing from Latin ēventus (“occurrence, accident, issue, fortune”), from the past participle stem of ēveniō (“to come out, happen, result”)…

It is borrowed from Middle French exulter, which the OED, Etymonline, Klein and Weekley simply call French, from Latin exsultō (“to leap up, leap for joy; to rejoice, triumph”), also spelled exultō…

It is borrowed from Latin grānārium, usually found in the plural grānāria, from grānum (“grain”) with the suffix that gave English -ary. Etymonline traces the Latin noun to Proto-Indo-European…

It is borrowed from Latin harmonicus, from Ancient Greek ἁρμονικός (harmonikós, “skilled in music, musical”), from ἁρμονία (harmonía), the source of harmony. In Greek the neuter plural ἁρμονικά…

It is borrowed from French hospitable, a French adjective now obsolete, recorded by Cotgrave in 1611. Barnhart calls the source Middle French, and explains its suffix as a change from the older…

It is a shortening of the greeting how do ye, that is, how do you do. Merriam-Webster calls it an alteration of “how do”. Etymonline traces it to a dialect contraction of a phrase asking after…

It is borrowed from French hygiène, and partly New Latin hygieina, from Ancient Greek ὑγιεινή (hugieinḗ), short for ὑγιεινὴ τέχνη (hugieinḗ tékhnē, “the healthful art”), the feminine of ὑγιεινός…

It is borrowed from Middle French indécent or directly borrowed from Latin indecēns (“unseemly, unfitting”), formed from in- (“not”) and decēns (“fitting, seemly, proper”), the present participle of…

It is formed from Medieval Latin influentia, influence, and -al, perhaps after a Medieval Latin influentialis.

It is probably borrowed from Middle French insulter, a learned borrowing of Latin īnsultō (“to assail, leap upon”), a frequentative of īnsiliō, to leap at or upon, from in-, on, and saliō, to leap…

It is formed from English lecture + -er. The verb lecture comes from the noun, from Medieval Latin lēctūra (“a reading”), from lēctus, the past participle of legō (“to read”), originally "to gather…

It is borrowed from Late Latin mediālis (“of the middle, situated in the middle”), from Latin medius (“middle”) and the suffix -ālis, from Proto-Indo-European *medhyo- (“middle”). The OED finds the…

It is formed from English meteorology + -ical, or, according to Merriam-Webster and Barnhart, from Middle French meteorologique or from Ancient Greek μετεωρολογικός (meteōrologikós) with the English…

It is optic with the suffix -al.

It is borrowed from Latin pēnis (“tail; penis”), earlier *pesnis, perhaps through French pénis, from Proto-Indo-European *pes-, usually said to have meant penis originally, source also of Greek πέος…

It is borrowed from Late Latin perpetrātor (“one who carries out something, especially a crime”), recorded in the 4th century, an agent noun formed with -or from the past participle of perpetrō (“to…

It is borrowed from Middle French pistole (“short firearm”), from German Pistole, from Czech píšťala (“pipe, whistle, firearm”), from pištěti (“to squeak, whistle”), of imitative origin. The word…

It is borrowed from Late Latin prisma (“a prism”), recorded in Latin as a geometrical term from the 5th century, from Ancient Greek πρῖσμα (prîsma, “something sawn; sawdust”), used in Hellenistic…

It is borrowed from Latin prōmiscuus (“common, shared; indiscriminate, mixed”), with the ending -ous. The Latin adjective is formed from prō- (“forward”) and misceō (“to mix”), from…

It is borrowed from Late Latin ratiōnālitās (“faculty of reasoning”), used by Tertullian in the early 3rd century and, in mathematics, for the property of a quantity of being rational in a British…

It is borrowed from French ritual (1564, in Rabelais) or directly from Latin rītuālis (“relating to rites”), from rītus, a religious observance, ceremony, custom (see rite).

It is borrowed from Late Latin sector (“section of a circle”), in classical Latin “a cutter, one who cuts”, from sectus, the past participle of secō (“to cut”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to…

It is borrowed from Latin segmentum (“a strip or piece cut off”), from secāre (“to cut”) (see section), from PIE Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”), with -c- changed to -g- before -m-. Medieval…

It is probably borrowed from Middle French souiller (“to soil, make dirty”), from Old French soillier (“to make dirty”), the source of soil in the sense "to make dirty". Etymonline thinks it was…

It is formed from Greek from Ancient Greek τακτικός (taktikós, “fit for arranging”) (see tactic) and -al, or from New Latin tactica (see tactics).

It is formed from English un- + disputed, the past participle of dispute. The verb is from Old French desputer and directly from Latin disputō (“to weigh, examine, discuss, argue”), from dis-…

It is an alteration of unity, or a back-formation from it, on the pattern of digit; Hoad and the SOED form it from Latin ūnus (“one”). It was popularized by John Dee's English translation of Euclid…

It is formed from English admire + -er, an agent noun from the verb. The OED compares the earlier admirator, which Etymonline notes was also the form of the Latin agent noun. The verb admire came…

It is partly borrowed from Middle French anomalie (“irregularity”), recorded from 1570, and partly borrowed from Latin anōmalia, the source the other dictionaries give alone. The Latin noun, used by…

It is borrowed from Late Latin bovīnus (“of or relating to oxen or cows”), recorded from the 4th century, from Latin bōs (“ox, cow”), stem bov-, and the suffix -īnus. Barnhart and Etymonline instead…

It is borrowed from Middle French charte (“card, map”), from Latin charta (“paper, card, map”), from Ancient Greek χάρτης (chártēs, “leaf of paper, roll of papyrus”), perhaps of Egyptian origin. It…

It is borrowed from Latin convexus (“vaulted, arched, rounded”), which Barnhart, Etymonline and Klein see as coming through Middle French convexe; Merriam-Webster gives the source as either. The…

Its origin is uncertain. The OED suggests that it is an extended form of lunch in its old sense "thick piece, hunk", made on the pattern of punch beside puncheon or after truncheon or nuncheon…