English words first recorded in the 17th century

1. The word for the plant part is borrowed from Latin tūber (“lump, swelling, hump; truffle”). The plural of the Latin noun, through Vulgar Latin *tūfera, is also the source of truffle. Most English…

It is from Latin atrōx (“fierce, cruel, gloomy”), in its stem form, with the suffix -ous. Dictionary.com instead derives it from the stem of atrocity. The Latin adjective is compounded of āter…

1. The adjective "infested with bugs" is formed from English bug + -y. 2. The carriage is of unknown origin. The OED finds none of the suggested etymologies convincing: a link with bogie has been…

1. It is probably the same as northern English dialect colk, a core, Middle English colke, the core of an apple, the heart of an onion (about 1400), also charcoal (early 15th century), a word of…

It is borrowed from French détachement, recorded in French from 1642, formed from détacher (“to detach, untie”) with -ment. The French verb, earlier Old French destachier, is formed from des-…

It is borrowed from French fatigue (“weariness”), from fatiguer (“to tire”), from Latin fatīgō (“to tire out”), originally to cause to break down, from a pre-Latin *fatiagos (“driving to breaking…

It is borrowed from French impromptu, from the phrase Latin in prōmptū (“in readiness, at hand”) in Latin, with prōmptū, the ablative of prōmptus (“readiness”), from the past participle of prōmō…

It is a compound from English off + side. The OED takes the noun meaning the far side from the adjective off, and the sporting adverb and adjective from the preposition, as Etymonline and the…

It is a noun use of the phrasal verb set back, formed from English set + back. The verbal phrase is recorded from the mid-15th century, first in the sense "to withhold". Backset (1721) was used in…

It is formed from English shab + -y, the noun meaning a scab, later (1630s) also a low fellow. That noun comes from Middle English shabbe (“a skin disease, scabies”), from Old English sceabb (“scab…

It is a variant or alteration of cacao, probably at least partly by confusion with coco, the coconut palm, although the OED compares the ending with the older spelling cacoa. In Merriam-Webster's…

It imitates the soft murmuring call of doves and pigeons. Skeat and Weekley note an earlier spelling croo, and Weekley compares French roucouler, with the same double form as French verbs for the…

It is a shortening from English pohickory, the colonists' name for a milky liquid made from ground hickory nuts and later for the tree itself. That word is from Powhatan pawcohiccora, also…

It is probably inherited from Middle English hurtilbery (“whortleberry”) (1452–54), altered in form, from hurtil, probably a diminutive of Old English horte (“whortleberry”), and berry. The origin…

It is an alteration of within-door, from the phrase within door, in a building, under the influence of in; it is formed with door.

It is formed from English in- (“not”) + expensive. Expensive, recorded from the 1620s, is formed from expense and -ive according to Etymonline; the Oxford dictionaries trace it to the stem Latin…

1. The adjective is formed from English jerk + -y, from the noun jerk, a sudden sharp pull or movement. The noun comes from the verb jerk, recorded from the 16th century and of uncertain origin…

It was originally slang, probably borrowed from Latin iocus (“joke, jest, sport, pastime”), from Proto-Italic *joko-, from Proto-Indo-European *yek- (“to speak”), the source also of Welsh iaith…

It is formed from English library + -an, or, as the OED and the Oxford Dictionary of English analyse it, from Latin librārius (“concerned with books; as a noun, a bookseller or scribe”) and the same…

The OED takes it as borrowed from Medieval Latin muscularis, recorded from 1545 or earlier, from mūsculus (“muscle”) and the suffix -āris; Etymonline and Merriam-Webster form it from the Latin noun…

It is borrowed from New Latin neurologia, which the OED takes from Ancient Greek νευρολογία (neurología), used by Thomas Willis in a Latin context in his “Cerebri Anatome” (1664); Klein thinks…

It is a compound from English pin + point. The verb is a conversion of the noun.

It is borrowed from French systématique or directly Late Latin systēmaticus, from Ancient Greek συστηματικός (sustēmatikós, “combined in a whole”), from σύστημα (sústēma) (see system).

It is borrowed from Italian violinista, formed from violino (“violin”) and -ista (“-ist”). The OED also names Spanish violinista as a source and compares French violoniste. Klein instead treats it…

It is borrowed from French carton (“pasteboard”) or directly Italian cartone (“strong, heavy paper, pasteboard”), an augmentative of carta, paper (see card, carton), with the suffix -oon.

It is borrowed from Latin corōlla (“small garland, little crown”), a diminutive of corōna (“crown, garland, wreath”), the source of crown. Dictionary.com analyses it as the stem of the Latin noun…

It is borrowed from New Latin orgasmus (“excitement or violent action in a bodily organ”), or, according to several dictionaries, also French orgasme. The OED finds the Latin word from 1652, and the…

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek πρωταγωνιστής (prōtagōnistḗs, “actor who plays the first part; leader”), formed from πρῶτος (prôtos, “first”) and ἀγωνιστής (agōnistḗs, “competitor, combatant…

It is borrowed from Latin status (“condition, position, state, manner”), from the past participle stem of stō (“to stand”), from Proto-Indo-European *sta- (“to stand, make or be firm”). It is a…

It is formed from English un- + leash, with the prefix in its sense of reversing an action, attached to the verb leash, to tie with a leash, which is recorded from the 1590s. The noun leash, a thong…

It is borrowed from Chinese 陽 (yáng), said to mean bright, male, daylight or the sun, as well as positive and the male genitals.

It is borrowed from Chinese 陰 (yīn, “shade, feminine; the moon”), which Merriam-Webster glosses as the dark, feminine principle. Wiktionary notes that the character was first used of shaded places…

It is formed from English aunt + -ie, as a familiar diminutive, and is also spelled aunty. Aunt is from Anglo-Norman aunte, from amita (“paternal aunt”).

1. It was formed from English box + -er, from the verb box, to fight with the fists, whose own origin is unknown. The dog breed was named in German: Boxer (by 1895) is short for Boxerhund (1842)…

It is borrowed from New Latin corticālis (“of or like bark or rind”), from Latin cortex (“bark of a tree”), stem cortic-, and the suffix -ālis. The Shorter Oxford calls the adjective Medieval Latin…

1. The word for father is probably imitative, from the doubled syllable /da/ that is typical of a baby's first sounds, formed like dad; the OED compares the earlier dad and daddy. 2. The art…

It is formed from English dis- + belief, a hybrid of a prefix of Latin origin and a native Germanic word. It follows the verb disbelieve, recorded from the 1640s, from which Johnson (1755) derived it.

It was formed from English flag + ship in English. Etymonline notes that at sea a flag is properly the banner that marks an admiral's ship among the others of the squadron, the rest being ensigns…

It is borrowed from French héroïsme (“heroic action or conduct”), recorded in French from 1658, from héros (“hero”) and -isme. Hero is from Latin hērōs, from Ancient Greek ἥρως (hḗrōs), of unknown…

1. The reception is borrowed from French lever (“a rising from bed”), the infinitive used as a noun, or the variant French levé, from lever (“to raise; to rise”), from Latin levō (“to raise”). The…

It is borrowed from Latin migrāns (“moving, changing one's home”), the present participle of migrō (“to move from one place to another”), with the ending that became -ant. The same verb gave migrate…

It is formed from English regulate + -ation.

It is borrowed from Latin serum (“whey, watery fluid”). Etymonline, Barnhart and Klein connect the Latin noun with Ancient Greek ὀρός (orós, “whey”) and Sanskrit सरस् (sará-, “flowing”), and…

1. It is probably from a Scandinavian source, compare dialectal Swedish slämma, to slam, bang, Norwegian slamre and Icelandic slæma, perhaps related to Old Norse slam(b)ra, and of imitative origin…

It is imitative, a natural utterance first recorded in English in the early 17th century in NODE.

It is borrowed from New Latin vāsculāris (“of or relating to vessels or tubes”), from Latin vāsculum (“a small vessel”), a diminutive of vās (“vessel”), with the suffix -āris. It is related to vase…

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin coincidō (“to fall together”), a verb of astrology, and in part borrowed from French coïncider, which the OED and Barnhart give as the immediate source. The…

1. It is borrowed from French consoler (“to comfort”), from Latin cōnsōlārī (“to offer solace, comfort”), from com-, intensive, and sōlor, to soothe (see solace). It may instead be a back-formation…

It is a compound from English mouth + piece. Mouth is from Old English mūþ, and piece is from Old French piece (“piece, bit, portion”).

Most dictionaries take it as borrowed from French observatoire, from observer (“to observe”), from Latin observō (“to watch over, heed”). The American Heritage Dictionary thinks the French form was…

It is borrowed from Italian pasta (“paste, dough”), from Late Latin pasta (“dough, pastry cake, paste”) (see paste), from Ancient Greek παστά (pastá, “barley porridge”), probably first a salted mess…

It is borrowed from Spanish plaza (“square, place”), from Vulgar Latin *plattea, from Latin platea (“courtyard, broad street”), from Ancient Greek πλατεῖα (plateîa). It is a doublet of place.

It is borrowed from French suite, from Old French suite, earlier sieute, siute, the act of following, attendance, a later borrowing of the word that gave suit. The pronunciation is French.

1. The modern word is from -teen, the ending of the numbers thirteen to nineteen, later felt as a shortening of teenager, which is a younger word. 2. The old word is Middle English tene, inherited…

It is formed from English tone + -er. The verb tone is from the noun, which is from Middle English ton, from Latin tonus (“sound, tone”), possibly through Old French ton, from Ancient Greek τόνος…

It is formed from English experiment + -ation, a noun of action from the verb experiment. The verb comes from the noun, which goes back through Old French esperment to Latin experīmentum (“a trial…

Its origin is uncertain. The OED, noting that it was mentioned in 1676 as a cant word, takes it as presumably onomatopoeic, comparing flack and flap, and Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of English…

It is formed from English in- + destructible, and the OED compares French indestructible, in use in the 17th and 18th centuries. The American Heritage Dictionary and Dictionary.com take it instead…

It is formed from English poly- + -nomial, after binomial, whose stem Etymonline calls irregularly reused here. The Oxford Dictionary of English names multinomial as the pattern instead, and the OED…

It is borrowed from French zeste (“orange or lemon peel”), formerly zest, recorded in French from 1645 for the outer coloured part of citrus peel used as flavouring. The OED explains this as an…