Words from Anglo-Norman

The words, A to Z

• armor

  The gear that protects a body traces back to the joints that hold one together.

• arraign

  That silent-ish 'g' in the middle? It's a 500-year-old typo that stuck.

• barrel

  A round wooden container that may have started out as something you simply carried.

• bill

  The slip of paper demanding your money once started life as a wax seal stamped on official documents.

• broker

  The person who arranges your deal was once just the person who used to trade.

• bullion

  Before it meant gold bars, this word may have described something bubbling away in a pot.

• burgeon

  The word for sudden, thriving growth once meant nothing grander than a little bud pushing itself into the light.

• buzzard

  A scavenging hawk got its English name by way of a chain of French tinkering.

• causeway

  A raised road across water or marsh got its name from the very stuff it was paved with — or possibly the feet that tramped it down.

• cherry

  This small, sweet fruit's name got doubled up by a mistake in translation.

• chronicle

  A record that keeps time honest, one event after another.

• client

  The person leaning on you for help was, quite literally, named for the leaning.

• cottage

  A small, humble home may carry a word that traveled from Norse huts all the way to Finnish tents.

• county

  This word for a chunk of local government was once literally the turf a count ruled over.

• creditor

  The person waiting on the other end of a loan carries a name rooted in trust itself.

• curiosity

  The urge to know traveled through three languages before it landed in English.

• deceive

  To trick someone is, at its root, to catch them off guard.

• discipline

  The order we impose on ourselves was once simply what a pupil received from a teacher.

• doily

  This dainty table mat is named after a shopkeeper, not a stitch pattern.

• dungeon

  The word for a castle's darkest cell once meant the exact opposite: its tallest, proudest tower.

• eagle

  A grand bird carried into English on the back of a borrowed word, edging out a homegrown one along the way.

• enamel

  That glassy shine on your teeth or your grandmother's saucepan traces back to a word for melting metal.

• engine

  The machine in your car once meant sheer cleverness before it meant moving parts.

• famous

  This word simply means 'full of fame' — nothing fancier than that.

• fig

  This small sweet fruit carries a name that may stretch back to a Phoenician word for ripeness itself.

• fork

  The utensil on your table shares a name with a device once used for something far grimmer.

• fraction

  A piece of a whole carries, in its bones, the memory of something being broken apart.

• heron

  This tall wading bird was named for the sound it makes, not the way it looks.

• hut

  A tiny shelter's name traces back to the idea of covering yourself from the world.

• impeach

  To formally accuse someone of wrongdoing once meant simply to trip them up.

• jail

  A tiny cage grew, through layers of borrowing, into a word for a locked-up life.

• January

  This month is named for a god with two faces, one looking back and one looking ahead.

• journal

  Every time you write today's date, you're echoing this word's oldest meaning.

• jury

  A word built on the idea of swearing an oath, long before it named a group of decision-makers.

• liquor

  This word for a strong drink once simply meant anything wet enough to flow.

• mansion

  A grand house's name secretly means nothing more than a place to stop and stay.

• meridian

  The line that splits the day at its highest, brightest point.

• mummy

  One little word hides two completely unrelated stories — one about preserved bodies, the other about the first word many of us ever say.

• mushroom

  This fungus got its name from the damp, mossy ground it liked to grow on.

• mute

  The word for silence itself had to borrow a letter to sound the part.

• orthography

  The rules for getting your letters straight, literally.

• peace

  The calm we call peace was once just a deal that had been nailed down tight.

• pencil

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

• pocket

  The little bag sewn into your clothes started out as a tiny swelling word for something that puffs up.

• primer

  Before it meant a beginner's textbook, this word meant a book you prayed from.

• pulse

  The beat in your wrist and the beans in your soup share a surprising ancestor.

• quaint

  This word for old-fashioned charm once meant sharp and knowing, not sweetly outdated.

• quarter

  A word for one-fourth that started life meaning simply 'a fourth part' — and never really let go of that math.

• quilt

  The thing on your bed shares a hidden family tree with a game played on a lawn.

• rage

  This word for boiling fury once shared a den with rabies.

• raisin

  A dried grape carries a name that once just meant 'grape' at all, before it shrank in size and meaning.

• recover

  To get something back is, in a sense, to cover it again with your own hands.

• regent

  Someone who holds the reins of power for a throne that isn't quite theirs.

• rehearse

  Long before it meant running lines in a theater, this word meant simply saying something back, word for word.

• reprisal

  A word for striking back, built from a much older idea of simply taking something back.

• reverse

  There's a whole family of words built from the simple idea of turning something back.

• rhubarb

  A garden vegetable's name once meant nothing more than "foreign plant" — and later became actors' code for background noise.

• salamander

  A small amphibian carrying a name that slipped through Greek without ever explaining itself.

• scrivener

  Before typewriters, there were people whose entire job was the careful shaping of letters by hand.

• soil

  This word for earth actually grew out of a scribe's mix-up between two similar-looking Latin words.

• surrender

  To give something up, you literally have to hand it back.

• syllable

  The word for a beat of speech literally means 'holding together.'

• temperance

  The word for holding yourself in check has roots that literally mean 'to moderate.'

• tenement

  Behind this word for a crowded city building is the simple idea of holding something.

• trance

  A word that once meant the fear of dying now describes drifting somewhere far from your own body.

• translate

  Every time you move meaning from one language into another, you're literally carrying something across a border.

• valley

  This word for low ground between hills has quietly pushed a couple of old English words toward the edges.

• vengeance

  This word carries the weight of a debt someone intends to collect in full.

• vine

  The plant that gave wine its name is the same word that climbs your trellis.

• wage

  Your paycheck's ancestor was really just a promise someone had to keep.

• warrant

  Before it meant legal permission, this word meant someone standing guard over you.