Online Etymology Dictionary

-machy: suffix meaning "battle, war, contest," from Gk. -makhia, from makhe "battle, fight," related to makhesthai "to fight," of unknown origin.
-mancy: combining form meaning "divination by means of," from O.Fr. -mancie, from L.L. -mantia, from Gk. manteia "oracle, divination," from mantis "seer, prophet, soothsayer," related to mania "madness, frenzy" (see mania).
-ment: suffix forming nouns, originally from Fr. and representing L. -mentum, which was added to verb stems sometimes to represent the result or product of the action. Used with English verb stems from 16c. (e.g. merriment, which also illustrates the habit of turning -y to -i- before this suffix).
M: from Gk. mu, from Semitic mem. The Roman symbol for 1,000; sometimes used in this sense in English 15c.-16c.; but in modern newspaper headlines it stands for million.
M.A.S.H.: 1950, U.S. military acronym for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital.
M.D.: 1755, abbreviation of L. Medicinæ Doctor "doctor of medicine."
M.F.N.: acronym of most favored nation, attested from 1942.
M.I.A.: acronym of missing in action, attested from 1946.
ma: 1823, childish or colloquial shortening of mamma.
ma'am: also maam, 1660s, colloquial shortening of madam (q.v.). Formerly the ordinary respectful form of address to a married woman; later restricted to the queen, royal princesses, or by servants to their mistresses.
Mabel: fem. proper name, shortening of Amabel. Enjoyed its greatest popularity as a given name for girl babies in U.S. from c.1884-1895.
Mac: casual, generic term of address for a man, 1928, from Ir. & Gaelic mac, from O.Celt. *makko-s "son;" a common prefix in Scottish and Irish names, hence, used generally from early 19c. for a Celtic Irishman. Cognate root *makwos "son" produced O.Welsh map, Welsh mab, ap "son;" also probably cognate with O.E. mago "son, attendant, servant," O.N. mögr "son," Goth. magus "boy, servant," O.E. mægð "maid" (see maiden).
macabre: c.1430, from O.Fr. (danse) Macabré "(dance) of Death" (1376), probably a translation of M.L. (Chorea) Machabæorum, lit. "dance of the Maccabees" (leaders of the Jewish revolt against Syro-Hellenes, see Maccabees). The association with the dance of death seems to be via vivid descriptions of the martyrdom of the Maccabees in the Apocryphal books. The abstracted sense of "gruesome" is first attested 1842 in Fr., 1889 in Eng.
macadam: 1824, named for inventor, Scot. civil engineer John L. McAdam (1756-1836), who developed a method of leveling roads and paving them with gravel and outlined the process in his pamphlet "Remarks on the Present System of Road-Making" (1822). Originally, road material consisting of a solid mass of stones of nearly uniform size laid down in layers; he did not approve of the use of binding materials or rollers. The idea of mixing tar with the gravel began 1880s. Verb macadamize is first recorded 1826.
macadamia: "Australian evergreen tree," 1904, from Mod.L. (1858), named for Scot.-born chemist Dr. John Macadam (1827-1865), secretary of the Victoria Philosophical Institute, Australia.
macaque: E. Indian monkey, 1757, from Fr., from Port. macaco "monkey," a Bantu word brought from Africa to Brazil (where it was applied 17c. to a type of monkey there). Introduced as a genus name 1840.
macaroni: 1599, from southern It. dialect maccaroni (It. maccheroni), pl. of *maccarone, possibly from maccare "bruise, batter, crush," of unknown origin, or from late Gk. makaria "food made from barley." Used after c.1764 to mean "fop, dandy" (the "Yankee Doodle" reference) because it was an exotic dish at a time when certain young men who had traveled the continent were affecting Fr. and It. fashions and accents. There is said to have been a Macaroni Club in Britain, which was the immediate source of the term.
macaronic: 1611, form of verse consisting of vernacular words in a Latin context with Latin endings; applied loosely to verse in which two or more languages are jumbled together; from Mod.L. macaronicus (coined 1517 by Teofilo Folengo), from It. dial. maccarone (see macaroni), in allusion to the mixture of words in the verse: "quoddam pulmentum farina, caseo, botiro compaginatum, grossum, rude, et rusticanum" [Folengo].
macaroon: 1611, "small sweet cake consisting largely of ground almonds," from Fr. macaron (16c.), from It. dial. maccarone (see macaroni). Fr. meaning said to have been invented 1552 by Rabelais. The -oon ending was conventional in 15c.-17c. Eng. to add emphasis to borrowings of Fr. nouns ending in stressed -on.
Macassar oil: 1809, hair tonic originally advertised as made from materials obtained from Macassar, name of a district on the island of Celebes (modern Sulawesi).
Macau: from Port. corruption of southern Chinese ama (name of a patron goddess of sailors) + ngao "bay, port."
macaw: "species of large, long-tailed birds," 1668, from Port. macau, from a word in a Brazilian language, perhaps Tupi macavuana, which may be the name of a type of palm tree the fruit of which the birds eat.
Macbeth: Gaelic, lit. "son of life," an old personal name. The first ref. to bad luck associated with Shakespeare's "Macbeth," and to avoidance of naming it, is from 1910 and alludes to "old" actors, so presumably it was current late 19c.
Maccabees: late 14c., from L.L. Maccabæus, surname given to Judas, third son of Mattathias the Hasmonean, leader of the religious revolt against Antiochus IV, 175-166 B.C.E., usually connected with Heb. maqqabh "hammer," but Klein thinks it an inexact transliteration of Heb. matzbi "general, commander of an army."
Macduff: Gael. Mac Dhuibh "son of Dubh," lit. "black."
mace (1): "heavy metal weapon with a spiked head," c.1300, from O.Fr. mace "a club, scepter," from V.L. *mattea (cf. It. mazza, Sp. maza "mace"), from L. mateola "a kind of mallet." The L. word probably is cognate with Skt. matyam "harrow, club," O.C.S. motyka "mattock," O.H.G. medela "plow."
mace (2): "spice made from dry outer husk of nutmeg," late 14c., from O.Fr. macis (in Eng. taken as a plural), sometimes said to be a scribal error for L. macir, a red spicy bark from India, but OED finds this etymology unlikely.
Mace (3): chemical spray originally used in riot control, 1966, technically Chemical Mace, a proprietary name (General Ordnance Equipment Corp, Pittsburgh, Pa.), probably so called for its use as a weapon, in ref. to mace (1). The verb is first attested 1968.
Macedonia: from L. Macedonius "Macedonian," from Gk. Makedones, lit. "highlanders" or "the tall ones," related to makednos "long, tall," makros "long, large" (see macro-).
macerate: late 15c., from L. maceratus, pp. of macerare "soften," related to maceria "garden wall," originally "of kneaded clay," from PIE base *mag-/*meg- "to knead" (cf. Gk. magis "kneaded mass, cake," mageus "one who kneads, baker;" O.C.S. mazo "to anoint, smear;" Bret. meza "to knead;" M.Ir. maistir "to churn"). Related: Macerated; macerating.
maceration: late 15c., from L. macerationem, noun of action from macerare (see macerate).
Mach: measure of speed relative to the speed of sound (technically Mach number), 1937, named in honor of Austrian physicist Ernst Mach (1838-1916).
machete: 1598 (in pseudo-Sp. form macheto), from Sp. machete, probably a dim. of macho "sledge hammer," alt. of mazo "club," probably a dial. variant of maza "mallet," from V.L. *mattea "war club" (see mace (1)). Alternative explanation traces macho to L. marculus "a small hammer," dim. of marcus "hammer," from a base parallel to that of L. malleus (see mallet).
Machiavelli: see Machiavellian. His name was Anglicized 16c.-18c. as Machiavel.
Machiavellian: 1560s, "cunning, deceitful, unscrupulous," from Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), Florentine statesman and author of "Del Principe," a work advising rulers to place advantage above morality. A word of abuse in English well before his works were translated ("The Discourses" 1636, "The Prince" 1640), in part because his books were Indexed by the Church, in part because of French attacks on him (e.g. Gentillet's, translated into English 1602).
machinate: c.1600, from L. machinat-, pp. stem of machinari (see machination). Related: Machinating.
machination: late 15c., "a plotting, intrigue," from L. machinationem (nom. machinatio) "device, contrivance, machination," from machinatus, pp. of machinari "contrive, plot," from machina (see machine). Related: Machinations.
machine: 1540s, "structure of any kind," from M.Fr. machine "device, contrivance," from L. machina "machine, engine, fabric, frame, device, trick" (cf. Sp. maquina, It. macchina), from Gk. makhana, Doric variant of mekhane "device, means," related to mekhos "means, expedient, contrivance," from PIE *maghana- "that which enables," from base *magh- "to be able, have power" (cf. O.C.S. mogo "be able," O.E. mæg "I can;" see might). Main modern sense of "device made of moving parts for applying mechanical power" (1670s) probably grew out of mid-17c. senses of "apparatus, appliance" and "military siege-tower." In late 19c. slang the word was used for both "penis" and "vagina," one of the very few to be so honored. Political sense is U.S. slang, first recorded 1876. Machine Age (1922) was coined by Lewis Mumford. Machine-gun is first attested 1870; the verb is from 1915. Machine for living (in) "house" translates Le Corbusier's machine à habiter (1923).
machinery: 1680s; from machine + -ery. Originally theatrical, "devices for creating stage effects;" meaning "machines collectively" is attested from 1731.
machinist: 1706, "engineer, mechanical inventor," from machine (q.v.). Meaning "machine operator" is attested from 1879.
machismo: 1940, from Amer.Sp. machismo, from Sp. macho "male" (see macho) + ismo "-ism."
macho: 1928 (n.) "tough guy," from Sp. macho "male animal," as an adj., "masculine, virile," from L. masculus (see masculine). First attested in Eng. as an adj. 1959.
machree: Ir. expression, 1829, from Ir.-Gaelic mo chroidhe "(of) my heart," hence "my dear!"
Machu Picchu: from Quechua (Inca) machu "old man" + pikchu "peak."
Mack: proprietary name for a brand of heavy automobile trucks, 1921 by International Motor Co., N.Y., N.Y., claiming use from 1911.
Mackenzie: river in Canada, named for Scottish fur trader and explorer Sir Alexander Mackenzie (1764-1820) who discovered and explored it 1789.
mackerel: c.1300, from O.Fr. maquerel (Fr. maquereau), of unknown origin but apparently identical with O.Fr. maquerel "pimp, procurer," from a Gmc. source (cf. M.Du. makelaer "broker," from O.Fris. mek "marriage," from maken "to make"). Connection is obscure but medieval people had imaginative notions of the sex lives of animals. The fish approach the shore in shoals in summertime to spawn. Exclamation holy mackerel is attested from 1899.
Mackinaw: "type of boat used on the Great Lakes," 1812, from Mackinac, port and island in Michigan, from Ojibway (Algonquian) mitchimakinak "many turtles," from mishiin- "be many" + mikinaak "snapping turtle." As a type of heavy blanket given to the Indians by the U.S. government, it is attested from 1822.
mackintosh: "waterproof outer coat," 1836, named for Charles Macintosh (1766-1843), inventor of a waterproofing process (patent #4804, June 17, 1823). The surname is from Gael. Mac an toisich "Son of the chieftain."
macramé: 1869, from Fr., from Turk. maqrama "towel, napkin," from Arabic miqramah "embroidered veil."