Where does “corvette” come from?

Corvette is borrowed from Middle French corvette (“small, fast warship”), probably from Middle Dutch corf “basket; a kind of small ship”, or Middle Dutch corver “fishing boat; privateer”.

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The thing you write with started out as a tiny little tail.

pencil · Latin → Old French → Anglo-Norman → English

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Where does “incendiary” come from?

Incendiary is borrowed from Latin incendiārius (“causing a fire; an incendiary”), from incendium “fire, conflagration”, from incendere “to set on fire”, from in- and candere “to shine, glow”.

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"Noon" comes from the Latin for "ninth" and used to mean 3pm.

No one really knows why it changed, but there are theories.

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Where does “mercantile” come from?

Mercantile is borrowed from French mercantile, from Italian mercantile, from mercante “merchant”, from Latin mercāns “merchant; trading”, present participle of mercārī “to trade”, from merx “goods, merchandise” (see…

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Where does “almond” come from?

Almond is inherited from Middle English almande, borrowed from Old French almande, alemande, amande, from Late Latin amandula, an alteration of Latin amygdala, from Ancient Greek ἀμυγδάλη (amugdálē), a word of unknown…

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Happy Free Day!

#TGIF #Friday #Friyay #etymology #linguistics

Catoptrophobia - Fear of mirrors, reflections, or breaking mirrors. Comes from the Ancient Greek word kátoptron (κάτοπτρον, meaning "mirror") combined with -phobia (from phobos, meaning "fear"). #phobia #Halloween #words #grammar #etymology #wordoftheday #grammardiva

Black Death

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Where does “beleaguer” come from?

Beleaguer is probably borrowed from Dutch belegeren (“to besiege”), from Dutch be- (“around”) + leger (“camp”). Barnhart prefers Low German belegeren, a word of the same form.

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This metal's name began as a swindler's joke about worthless ore that looked like silver.

nickel · Ancient Greek → Proto-Hellenic → Latin → German → English

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Wordle 1,938 6/6

⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜
🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩c.1300 from Latin, via Old French.

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Where does “aplomb” come from?

Aplomb is borrowed from French aplomb (“self-possession, perpendicularity”), from Middle French à plomb (“according to the plummet”), that is, standing upright.

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"Punch" the drink is related to the Hindi for "five". Maybe.

This proposed origin has problems in both timing and pronunciation but it is punchy.

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Where does “accolade” come from?

Accolade is borrowed from French accolade (“an embrace”), from French accoler (“to embrace”), from Old French acoler (“to embrace round the neck”), from Vulgar Latin *accollāre, from Latin ad- (“to”) + collum (“neck”).

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Review of a terrific new play at Tarragon Theatre.

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barczablog.com/2026/10/08/m...

Phrase: From Greek phrasis (“speech, expression”).

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Where does “tuxedo” come from?

Tuxedo is short for Tuxedo coat, named after Tuxedo Park, New York, where the jacket was first worn at a country club, supposedly in 1886.

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Prophetess: the physical triumphing over the intellectual drewrowsome.blogspot.com/2026/10/prop... #theaTO #theatre #TarragonTheatre #comedy #tragedy #etymology #spiders

Where does “rehearse” come from?

Rehearse is inherited from Middle English rehersen (“to repeat”), borrowed from Anglo-Norman rehearser and Old French rehercier (“to go over again; to rake over”), from re- “again” and hercier “to harrow”, from herce…

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