English words first recorded in the 20th century

It is formed from English hospitalize + -ation. The verb is formed in turn from English hospital + -ize, and the noun is from Old French hospital (“hostel, shelter, lodging”), from Late Latin…

It is borrowed from Yiddish לאַטקע (latke), from an East Slavic language: compare Russian латка (latka, “pastry”), regional Russian also “ladka”, and Ukrainian оладка (oladka, “pancake, fritter”)…

It is a noun use of the phrasal verb take over, recorded from 1884 in the sense to assume ownership or control, itself from English take + over. The OED compares the earlier noun “taking over”. It…

It is a noun use of the phrasal verb back up.

It is borrowed from French gaga (“senile; a senile person, an old fool”), which most dictionaries call imitative in origin. Barnhart takes it as imitating the mumbling of a person sunk into dotage…

It is borrowed from German Phänotypus, first spelled Phaenotypus, a term coined by Wilhelm Johannsen in 1909; the OED takes the English word as formed from pheno- and -type after the German model…

It is formed from English super- + star.

It is borrowed from German autistisch, coined in 1910 by the Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler, from Ancient Greek αὐτός (autós, “self”) and the German suffix -istisch, after Autismus, the source of…

It is imitative, of meaningless chatter, probably from blah-blah, a derisive interjection.

It is borrowed from German Gen, coined in 1909 by the Danish botanist Wilhelm Johannsen, who also proposed the English form gene; Etymonline dates the coinage to 1905. German Gen is a shortening of…

It is borrowed from Yiddish מענטש (mentsh, “person, human being”), from Middle High German mensch (“person”), also mensche, from Old High German mennisco (“human being”), from Proto-Germanic…

It is borrowed from Italian mozzarella, recorded in Italian from 1570, a diminutive with the suffix -ella of mozza, a kind of cheese, recorded before 1481, literally "a cut" or "a slice", from…

It is borrowed from Yiddish שלעפּן (shlepn, “to haul, drag; to toil”), and partly also borrowed from German schleppen (“to haul, drag”), the Yiddish verb's own source. The German verb, sleppen in…

It is a compound of teen, the years from thirteen to nineteen, and age, also written “teen age” and “teen-age”.

It is borrowed from German Autismus, coined in 1912 by the Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler, from New Latin autismus, from Greek αὐτός (autós, “self”) (see auto-) and -ism. The idea was of morbid…

It is formed from English cinema + -ic, using the stem seen in cinematograph. Merriam-Webster derives it directly from the noun cinematograph, while Etymonline takes it from French cinématique…

It is formed from English cover + -age. A Middle English coverage, a charge for a booth at a fair (mid-15th century), fell out of use, and the word is not in the Century Dictionary (1902); it was…

It is American English, of unknown origin. It may come from the earlier slang jasm (“energy, vitality, spirit”) (1860), itself perhaps from gism in the same sense (1842); Barnhart also compares…

It is a shortened and altered form of moving picture, with the suffix -ie. Moving picture in the cinematographic sense is from 1896.

It is formed from English schizophrenia + -ic, after German schizophren. Schizophrenia is from German Schizophrenie, a word coined by the Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler, in 1908 according to the…

It was coined as vitamine in 1912 by the Polish biochemist Casimir Funk, from vīta (“life”) (see vital) and amine, because these substances were thought to be amines or to contain amino acids…

It is borrowed from Chinese 元 (yuán), a writing of 圓 (yuán, “round, circular; a round object, a dollar coin”), in the older spelling yüan. Wiktionary connects the name with the round silver coin…

It was coined in 1913 by the British chemist Frederick Soddy, at the suggestion of his friend, the Scottish doctor and writer Margaret Todd. It is formed from English iso- + -tope, the first element…

It is formed from English screen + play, with screen in its cinema sense. That sense, a flat surface on which images are projected, goes back to 1810 and the magic lantern, and the word stood for…

It is formed from English screen + writer, the first part in its cinema sense. The noun had meant a surface for projected pictures since 1810, at first in magic-lantern shows, and the world of…

It is formed from English teenage + -er, also written teen ager and teen-ager.

It is a compound of bull and shit, first recorded in American slang, probably because the thing smells. The shorter bull “trivial or false statements” is recorded from the same year, and it may…

It is formed from English dys- + function, and Merriam-Webster also allows dis- as the prefix, with the less common spelling “disfunction”. The prefix comes from Ancient Greek δυσ- (dus-, “bad, ill…

It is formed from English endo- (“within”) + -crine, from Ancient Greek ἔνδον (éndon, “within”) and κρίνω (krī́nō, “to separate, sift”), from Proto-Indo-European *krei- (“to sieve”). The OED…

It was formed from Latin īnsula (“island”) and the chemical suffix -in, because the hormone is secreted by the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. The physiologist J. de Meyer proposed insuline in…

It is a compound from English pay + load, and the OED compares the earlier paying load.

It is formed from English socio- + -path, after psychopath. The first element goes back to Latin socius (“companion, associate”), and the second to Ancient Greek πάθος (páthos, “suffering”)…

It is formed from English column + -ist, from column in the sense of a regular article in a newspaper. Dictionary.com marks it as an Americanism. The newspaper sense of column, matter written for a…

It is formed from English cool + -ant, on the model of lubricant. The OED and the Shorter Oxford take the base as the verb cool, and Etymonline as the adjective.

It is formed from English dysfunction + -al. The noun combines dys-, from Ancient Greek δυσ- (dus-, “bad, ill, difficult”), with function, from Latin functiō (“a performance, an execution”).

It is formed from English narcissism + -istic, or, in the OED's analysis, from narcissus with the same suffix. Merriam-Webster takes it from German narzissistisch. The noun narcissism follows…

It is formed from English auto- + pilot, probably as a shortening of automatic pilot. The OED compares German Autopilot, recorded from 1934 or earlier and probably taken from English.

It is formed from English dealer + -ship. Dealer goes back to Old English dǣlere (“divider, distributor; agent”), an agent noun from the verb deal.

It is borrowed from Yiddish דריידל (dreydl), which the OED takes as probably a blend of טרענדל (trendl), an older name for the same toy, and דרייען (dreyen, “to turn”). The verb is from Middle High…

It is formed from English epi- + oxy-, the second element being the combining form of oxygen. Etymonline explains that the prefix has its chemical sense of a connection within a molecule: an epoxy…

It is formed from English goof + -y. The noun goof, a stupid person, recorded from 1916 in American English, is of uncertain origin: it may be a variant of English dialect goff, a foolish clown…

It is formed from English mal- + function, the noun from the noun function and the verb from the verb. The OED notes that the slightly earlier malfunctioning was formed at first from the prefix and…

It is from English mind + set, set in the sense of a habitual tendency, also written mind-set.

It is formed from English photo- + -on, the first part from Ancient Greek φῶς (phôs, “light”). The ending follows electron, or, in Barnhart's view, proton.

It is formed from English pony + tail, from the likeness of the gathered hair to a pony's tail. Pony is apparently from Scots powny, and tail is from Middle English tail, from Old English tægl…

It is borrowed from Pennsylvania German dunke (“to dip, immerse”), from German dunken, a former variant of tunken in the same sense, from Middle High German dunken and tunken, from Old High German…

It is borrowed from Russian совет (sovét, “council”), from Old East Slavic съвѣтъ (sŭvětŭ, “council, assembly”), from sŭ “with, together” and větŭ “counsel, agreement”. The Slavic word is a loan…

It is formed from English mother + fucker, after the adjective motherfucking, which is recorded earlier. Etymonline describes it as usually just an intensive form of fucker. Green's Dictionary of…

It is formed from English broad + band, band in its sense of a range of frequencies.

It is borrowed from French collage (“a pasting, gluing”), formed from coller (“to glue”) and the suffix -age, the verb coming from colle (“glue”), from Vulgar Latin *colla, from Ancient Greek κόλλα…

It is borrowed from Italian espresso, short for caffè espresso, from the adjective espresso, pressed out, the past participle of esprimere (“to press out”), from Latin exprimō (“to press out…

It is borrowed from Italian fascista, formed with the suffix -ista (“-ist”) on fascio (“group, association; literally, bundle”), from Latin fascis (“bundle”), the word behind the Roman fasces. The…

It is formed from English melt + down, a noun use of the phrasal verb melt down, which Etymonline records from the 1630s.

It is formed from English super- + sonic. Barnhart and Merriam-Webster take the second part directly from Latin sonus (“sound”) with the English suffix -ic. The OED and Klein compare ultrasonic.

It is formed from English custom + -ize. The OED takes it from the noun custom, and Etymonline from its adjective use, made to order for individual customers, recorded by 1830. The noun custom is…

It is a compound, from English feed + back, a noun from the verb with the adverb.

It is a compound from English swim + suit, a commercial word in which swim has the notion "worn while swimming".

It is formed from English bio- + medical. bio- is from Ancient Greek βίος (bíos, “life”), and medical is from French médical, from Late Latin medicālis (“of a physician”), from medicus…

It is formed from English bio- + technology, after German Biotechnologie, used by K. Ereky in 1919 or earlier. The OED compares the earlier biotechnics. The prefix bio- goes back to Ancient Greek…

It is a compound from English express + way, first American. The first element is the adjective meaning fast, used of trains from 1837 and generally from 1869; the slightly earlier phrase “express…