Online Etymology Dictionary

continent: late 14c., adj., "self-restraining," from L. continentem (nom. continens), prp. of continere "hold together" (see contain). Meaning moved from "exercising self-restraint" to "chaste" 14c., and to bowel and bladder control 19c. The houn in the geographical sense is from 1550s, from continent land (mid-15c.), translating L. terra continens "continuous land" (see continue).
continental: 1818 as a purely geographical term, from continent + adj. ending -al. In ref. to the European mainland (as opposed to Great Britain), recorded from 1760. Continental breakfast (the kind eaten on the continent as opposed to the kind eaten in Britain) is from 1911. The Continental Congress of the British American colonies is attested from 1775; continental divide is from 1869; continental rise in geology from 1959; continental slope from 1907.
continentality: 1897, a term in meteorology, from Ger. kontinentalität (1895), from L. continentem (see continent).
incontinent: c.1380, "wanting in self restraint," from O.Fr. incontinent, from L. incontinentem, from in- "not" + continent (see continent). Originally chiefly of sexual appetites; sense of "unable to control bowels or bladder" first attested 1828.
continence: mid-14c., "self-restraint," from Fr. continence (14c.), from L. continentia "a holding back, repression," from continent-, prp. stem of continere (see continent). Especially of sexual desire from late 14c.; of the body's eliminatory functions, from 1915. Related: Continency (mid-16c.).
Antarctica: continent name attributed to Scot. cartographer John George Bartholomew (1860-1920), who used it on a map published 1887. From Antarctic (q.v.). Hypothetical southern continents had been imagined since antiquity; first sighting of Antarctica by Europeans probably was 1820 (Lazarev and Bellingshausen).
Oceania: "southern Pacific island and Australia, conceived as a continent," 1849, Mod.L., from Fr. Océanie (c.1812). Apparently coined by Dan. geographer Conrad Malte-Brun (1755-1826). Earlier in Eng. as Oceanica (1832).
lemur: "nocturnal Madagascar mammal," 1795, coined by Linnaeus, from L. lemures (pl.) "spirits of the dead" in Roman mythology. So called for its nocturnal habits and ghostly stares. Lemuria (1864) was the name given by P.L. Sclater to a hypothetical ancient continent connecting Africa and Southeastern Asia (and including Madagascar), which was hypothesized to explain phenomena now accounted for by continental drift.
stroll (v.): c.1600, a cant word introduced from the Continent, probably from dialectal Ger. strollen, variant of Ger. strolchen "to stroll, loaf," from strolch "vagabond, vagrant," also "fortuneteller," perhaps from It. astrologo "astrologer." The noun is 1814, from the verb. Stroller "child's push-chair" is recorded from 1920.
Eurasian: 1844, from Eur(opean) + Asian. Originally of children of British-East Indian marriages; sense of "of Europe and Asia considered as one continent" is from 1868. Eurafrican, similarly formed, was coined 1890 by anthropologist D.G. Brinton to designate a "race" of dark-skinned people inhabiting both sides of the Mediterranean; it was used 1920s to describe the "colored" population of S.Africa, and 1960s with ref. to political situations involving both continents.
Africa: L. Africa (terra) "African land," fem. of Africus, from Afer "an African." Originally only in ref. to the region around Tunesia, it gradually was extended to the whole continent. Derivation from Arabic afar "dust, earth" is tempting, but the early date seems to argue against it. Africanas "Africans" was in O.E.
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.
narrow: O.E. nearu, from W.Gmc. *narwaz (cf. Fris. nar, O.S. naro, M.Du. nare), not found in other Gmc. languages and of unknown origin. The verb is O.E. nearwian, from the adj. Narrowly "only by a little" is attested from 1560. Narrow-minded first recorded 1625. Narrow-gauge railway is 4 feet 8.5 inches or less. The narrow seas (c.1400) were the waters between Great Britain and the continent and Ireland.
ye (article): old or quaintly archaic way of writing the, in which the -y- is a 16c. graphic alteration of þ, an O.E. character (generally called "thorn," originally a Gmc. rune; see th-) that represented the "hard" -th- sound at the beginning of the. Early printers, whose types were founded on the continent, did not have a þ, so they substituted y as the letter that looked most like it. But in such usages it was not pronounced "y." Ye for the (and yt for that) continued in manuscripts through 18c. Revived 19c. as a deliberate antiquarianism; the Ye Olde _____ construction was being mocked by 1896.
W: not in the Roman alphabet, but the Mod.Eng. sound it represents is close to the devocalized consonant expressed by Roman -U- or -V-. In O.E., this originally was written -uu-, but by 8c. began to be expressed by the runic character wyn (Kentish wen), which looked something like a cross between lower-case -p- and -y-. In 11c., Norman scribes introduced -w-, a ligatured doubling of Roman -u- which had been used on the continent for the Gmc. "w" sound, and wyn disappeared c.1300.
bison: c.1600, from L. bison "wild ox," borrowed from P.Gmc. *wisand- "aurochs" (cf. O.N. visundr, O.H.G. wisunt "bison," O.E./M.E. wesend, which is not attested after c.1400). Possibly ultimately of Baltic or Slavic origin, and meaning "the stinking animal," in reference to its scent while rutting (see weasel). A European wild ox formerly widespread on the continent, including the British Isles, now surviving on forest reserves in Lithuania. Applied 1690s to the N.Amer. species commonly mis-called a buffalo.
pension: mid-14c., "payment for services," especially "reward, payment out of a benefice" (early 14c., in Anglo-L.), from O.Fr. pension "payment, rent," from L. pensionem (nom. pensio) "payment, rent," from pensus, pp. of pendere "pay, weigh" (see pendant). Meaning "regular payment in consideration of past service" first recorded 1520s. Meaning "boarding house, boarding school" first attested 1640s, from French, and usually in ref. to places in France or elsewhere on the Continent. Pensioner first recorded late 15c.
shilling: O.E. scilling, a coin consisting of a varying number of pence (on the continent, a common scale was 12 pennies to a shilling, 20 shillings to a pound), from P.Gmc. *skillingoz- (cf. O.S., Dan., Swed., O.Fris., O.H.G. skilling, O.N. skillingr, Du. schelling, Ger. Schilling, Goth. skilliggs), which some etymologists trace to the base *skell- "to resound, to ring," and others to the base *skel- "to split, to divide" (perhaps via sense of "shield;" see shield). The ending may represent the dim. suffix -ling. O.C.S. skulezi, Sp. escalin, Fr. schelling, It. scellino are Gmc. loan-words.
manifest (adj.): late 14c., "clearly revealed," from L. manifestus "caught in the act, plainly apprehensible, clear, evident," from manus "hand" (see manual) + -festus "struck" (cf. second element of infest). The noun sense of "ship's cargo" is from 1706. The verb sense of "to show plainly" is late 14c., from L. manifestare. In the spiritualism sense, manifestation is attested from 1853.
"Other nations have tried to check ... the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the Continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions." [John O'Sullivan (1813-1895), "U.S. Magazine & Democratic Review," July 1845]
America: 1507, in Cartographer Martin Waldseemüller's treatise "Cosmographiae Introductio," from Mod.L. Americanus, after Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512) who made two trips to the New World as a navigator and claimed to have discovered it. His published works put forward the idea that it was a new continent, and he was first to call it Novus Mundus "New World." Amerigo is more easily Latinized than Vespucci. The name Amerigo is Gmc., said to derive from Goth. Amalrich, lit. "work-ruler." The O.E. form of the name has come down as surnames Emmerich, Emery, etc. The It. fem. form merged into Amelia. Amerika "U.S. society viewed as racist, fascist, oppressive, etc." first attested 1969; the spelling is Ger., but may also suggest the KKK.
Anglo-Saxon: O.E. Angli Saxones, from L. Anglo-Saxones, in which anglo- is an adverb, thus lit. "English Saxons," as opposed to those of the Continent (now called "Old Saxons"). Properly in ref. to the Saxons of ancient Wessex, Essex, Middlesex, and Sussex. After the Norman-Fr. invasion of 1066, the peoples of the island were distinguished as English and French, but after a few generations all were English, and L. scribes, who knew and cared little about Gmc. history, began to use Anglo-Saxones to refer to the pre-1066 inhabitants and their descendants. When interest in O.E. writing revived c.1586, the word was extended to the language we now call Old English. It has been used rhetorically for "English" in an ethnological sense from 1832, and revisioned as Angle + Saxon.
shore (n.): c.1300, "land bordering a large body of water," perhaps from M.L.G. schor "shore, coast, headland," or M.Du. scorre "land washed by the sea," probably from P.Gmc. *skur- "cut" and according to etymologists originally with a sense of "division" between land and water, and thus related to O.E. sceran "shear, to cut" (see shear). But if the word originated on the North Sea coast of the continent, it may as well have meant "land 'cut off' from the mainland by tidal marshes" (cf. O.N. skerg "an isolated rock in the sea," related to sker "to cut, shear"). Few I.E. languages have such a single comprehensive word for "land bordering water" (Gk. had one word for sandy beaches, another for rocky headlands). General application to "country near a seacoast" is attested from 1611.
cat: O.E. (c.700), from W.Gmc. (c.400-450), from P.Gmc. *kattuz, from L.L. cattus. The near-universal European word now, it appeared in Europe as L. catta (Martial, c.75 C.E.), Byzantine Gk. katta (c.350) and was in general use on the continent by c. 700, replacing L. feles. Probably ult. Afro-Asiatic (cf. Nubian kadis, Berber kadiska, both meaning "cat"). Arabic qitt "tomcat" may be from the same source. Cats were domestic in Egypt from c.2000 B.C.E., but not a familiar household animal to classical Greeks and Romans. The nine lives have been proverbial since at least 1560s. Extended to lions, tigers, etc. c.1600. As a term of contempt for a woman, from early 13c. Slang sense of "prostitute" is from at least c.1400. Slang sense of "fellow, guy," is from 1920, originally in U.S. Black Eng.; narrower sense of "jazz enthusiast" is recorded from 1931. Catnap is from 1823; catfish is from c.1620. Cat's-cradle is from 1768. Cat-o'-nine-tails (1690s), probably so called in reference to its "claws," was legal instrument of punishment in British Navy until 1881. Cat's paw (1769, but cat's foot in the same sense, 1597) refers to old folk tale in which the monkey tricks the cat into pawing chestnuts from a fire; the monkey gets the nuts, the cat gets a burnt paw. To rain cats and dogs (c.1652) is probably an extension of cats and dogs as proverbial for "strife, enmity" (1570s). Cat-witted "small-minded, obstinate, and spiteful" (1670s) deserved to survive. For Cat's meow, cat's pajamas, see bee's knees.