Online Etymology Dictionary

green: O.E. grene, earlier groeni, related to O.E. growan "to grow," from W.Gmc. *gronja- (cf. O.Fris. grene, O.N. grænn, Dan. grøn, Du. groen, Ger. grün), from PIE base *gro- "grow," through sense of "color of living plants." The color of jealousy at least since Shakespeare (1596); "Greensleeves," ballad of an inconstant lady-love, is from 1580. Meaning of "a field, grassy place" was in O.E. Sense of "of tender age, youthful" is from 1412; hence "gullible" (1605). Greenhorn (containing the sense of "new, fresh, recent") was first "young horned animal" (1455), then "recently enlisted soldier" (1650), then "any inexperienced person" (1682). Green light in figurative sense of "permission" is from 1937. Green and red as signals on railways first attested 1883, as nighttime substitutes for semaphore flags. Green beret originally "British commando" is from 1949. Green room "room for actors when not on stage" is from 1701; presumably a well-known one was painted green.
greenback: "U.S. dollar bill," 1862, so called from the time of their introduction; bank paper money printed in green ink had been called this since 1778 (as opposed to redbacks, etc.).
greens: "vegetables," 1725, from green. Greens "ecology political party," first recorded 1978, from Ger. die Grünen (West Germany), an outgrowth of Grüne Aktion Zukunft "Green Campaign for the Future," a mainly anti-nuclear power movement, and/or grüne Listen "green lists" (of environmental candidates). Green (adj.) in the sense of "environmental" is attested from 1972; Greenpeace, the international conservation and environmental protection group, is from 1971.
Greenwich: "town on the south bank of the Thames adjoining London," O.E. Grenewic (964), lit. "Green Harbor." The Royal Observatory there founded June 22, 1675, by King Charles II specifically to solve the problem of finding longitude while at sea. In October 1884, at the behest of the President of the U.S.A., 41 delegates from 25 nations met in Washington, D.C., for the International Meridian Conference. They decided to adopt a single world meridian, passing through the principal Transit Instrument at the observatory at Greenwich, as the basis of calculation for all longitude and a worldwide 24-hour clock. The Greenwich motion passed 22-1; San Domingo voted against it; France and Brazil abstained. Greenwich Village quarter of New York City has been symbolic of "American bohemia" since 1924.
gall (1): "bile," O.E. galla (Anglian), gealla (W. Saxon), from P.Gmc. *gallon- (cf. O.N. gall, O.H.G. galla), from PIE base *ghol-/*ghel- "gold, yellow, yellowish-green" (cf. Gk. khole, see cholera; L. fel; perhaps also O.E. geolo "yellow," Gk. khloros). Informal sense of "impudence, boldness" first recorded Amer.Eng. 1882; but meaning "embittered spirit, rancor" is from c.1200. Gall bladder recorded from 1670s.
galoot: "awkward or boorish man," 1812, nautical, "raw recruit, green hand," originally a sailor's contemptuous word for soldiers or marines, of uncertain origin. "Dictionary of American Slang" proposes galut, Sierra Leone creole form of Sp. galeoto "galley slave." Perhaps rather Du. slang kloot "testicle," klootzak "scrotum," used figuratively as an insult.
gaudy: 1520s, from M.E. gaud "deception, trick," also "ornamental bead, rosary" (c.1300), possibly from Anglo-Fr. gaudir "be merry, scoff," from L. gaudere "rejoice." Alternative (less likely) etymology is from M.E. gaudy-green "yellowish-green," originally "green dye" obtained from a plant formerly known as weld, from a Gmc. source (see weld (n.)), which became gaude in Old French. The English term supposedly shifted sense from "weld-dye" to "bright." Related: Gaudily; gaudiness.
jaundice: c.1300, from O.Fr. jaunisse "yellowness" (12c.), from jaune "yellow," from L. galbinus "greenish yellow," probably from PIE *ghel- "yellow, green" (see Chloe). With intrusive -d- (cf. gender, astound, thunder). Meaning "feeling in which views are colored or distorted" first recorded 1629, from yellow's association with bitterness and envy (see yellow).
Kelly: common Irish surname, from O.Ir. ceallach "war." As a type of pool played with 15 balls, it is attested from 1898. Kelly green first recorded 1936.
pulsar: 1968, from pulse, the form on analogy of quasar. When discovered in 1967, they were thought perhaps to be signals from alien civilizations and astronomers informally dubbed them LGM for "Little Green Men."
squash (n.): "gourd fruit," 1643, shortened borrowing from Narraganset (Algonquian) askutasquash, lit. "the green things that may be eaten raw," from askut "green, raw" + asquash "eaten," in which the -ash is a plural affix (cf. succotash).
vegetable (n.): 1582, originally any plant, from vegetable (adj.); specific sense of "plant cultivated for food, edible herb or root" is first recorded 1767. Slang shortening veggie first recorded 1955. The O.E. word was wyrte. Meaning "person who leads a monotonous life" is recorded from 1921. The commonest source of words for vegetables in IE languages are derivatives of words for "green" or "growing" (cf. It., Sp. verdura, Ir. glasraidh, Dan. grøntsager). For a different association, cf. Gk. lakhana, related to lakhaino "to dig."
verdant: 1581, "green," from M.Fr. virdeant "becoming green," prp. of O.Fr. verdeiier "become green," from V.L. *viridiare "grow green, make green," from L. viridis "green" (see verdure).
verdigris: 1300, from O.Fr. verte grez (13c.), verte de Grece (c.1170), lit. "green of Greece," from obs. Fr. verd, from L. viridis (see verdure). The reason for it being called that is not known.
verdure: c.1300, "fresh green color," from O.Fr. verdure "greenness," from verd, variant of vert "green," from L. viridis (cf. Sp., It. verde), related to virere "be green," of unknown origin. Perhaps ult. from a root meaning "growing plant" and cognate with Lith. veisti "propagate," O.N. visir "bud, sprout," O.E. wise "sprout, stalk, etc." Meaning "green plants, vegetation" is attested from c.1400.
yellow: O.E. geolu, geolwe, from P.Gmc. *gelwaz (cf. O.S., O.H.G. gelo, M.Du. ghele, Du. geel, M.H.G. gel, Ger. gelb, O.N. gulr, Swed. gul "yellow"), from PIE *ghel-/*ghol- "yellow, green" (see Chloe). The verb meaning "to become yellow" is O.E. geoluwian. Adj. meaning "light-skinned" (of blacks) first recorded 1808. Applied to Asiatics since 1787, though the first recorded reference is to Turkish words for inhabitants of India. Yellow peril translates Ger. die gelbe gefahr. Sense of "cowardly" is 1856, of unknown origin; the color was traditionally associated rather with treachery. Yellow-bellied "cowardly" is from 1924, probably a rhyming reduplication of yellow; earlier yellow-belly was a sailor's name for a half-caste (1867) and a Texas term for Mexican soldiers (1842, based on the color of their uniforms). Yellow dog "mongrel" is attested from c.1770; slang sense of "contemptible person" first recorded 1881.
emerald: c.1300, from O.Fr. emeraude, from M.L. esmaraldus, from L. smaragdus, from Gk. smaragdos "green gem," from Sem. baraq "shine" (cf. Heb. bareqeth "emerald," Arabic barq "lightning"). Skt. maragdam "emerald" is from the same source, as is Pers. zumurrud, whence Turk. zümrüd, source of Rus. izumrud "emerald."
"In early examples the word, like most other names of precious stones, is of vague meaning; the mediæval references to the stone are often based upon the descriptions given by classical writers of the smaragdus, the identity of which with our emerald is doubtful." [OED]
glass: O.E. glæs, from W.Gmc. *glasam (cf. M.Du. glas, Ger. Glas), from P.Gmc. base *gla-/*gle-, from PIE *gel-/*ghel- "to shine, glitter, be green or yellow," a color word that is the root of words for grey, blue, green, and yellow (cf. O.E. glær "amber," L. glaesum "amber," O.Ir. glass "green, blue, gray," Welsh glas "blue"). Sense of "drinking glass" is early 13c.; glasses for "spectacles" is 1660s. The glass slipper in "Cinderella" is probably an error by Charles Perrault, translating in 1697, mistaking O.Fr. voir "ermine, fur" for verre "glass." In other versions of the tale it is a fur slipper. Glass ceiling first recorded 1990.
glaucoma: 1640s, from Gk. glaukoma "cataract, opacity of the lens" (cataracts and glaucoma not distinguished until c.1705), from -oma + glaukos, an adj. of uncertain origin, used in Homer of the sea as "gleaming, silvery" (apparently without a color connotation); used later with a sense of "bluish-green, gray," of olive leaves and eyes. Homer's glauk-opis Athene could be a "bright-eyed" or a "gray-eyed" goddess. Gk. for "owl" was glauk- from its bright, staring eyes.
vireo: 1834, from L. vireo, a word Pliny uses for some kind of bird, perhaps the greenfinch, from virere "be green" (see verdure). Applied in modern times to an Amer. bird.
wig: 1675, shortened form of periwig. Meaning "person who wears a wig (professionally)" is from 1828. The verb meaning "to behave hysterically" (usually with out) is attested from 1955, from notion in to flip one's wig. Cf. dash my wig!, a former mild imprecation (1797), also wigs on the green (1856), Ir. colloquial for "a fight or rumble" (since wigs are likely to get detached from owners in such an event).
celadon: "pale grayish-green," 1768, from Fr. Céladon, name of a character in the romance of "l'Astrée" by Honoré d'Urfé (1610), a sentimental lover who wore bright green clothes, after Gk. Keladon, a character in Ovid's "Metamorphoses."
cerulean: 1667, from L. cæruleus "blue, dark blue, blue-green," probably from cælulum dim. of cælum "heaven, sky," of uncertain origin (see celestial). The L. word was applied by Roman authors to the sky, the Mediterranean, and occasionally to leaves or fields.
chartreuse: type of liqueur, 1866, from monastery of Carthusian order, which was founded 11c. and named for the massif de la Chartreuse (M.L. Carthusianus) mountain group in the Fr. Alps, where its first monastery was built. The liqueur recipe dates from early 17c.; the original now marketed as Les Pères Chartreux. The color (1884) is so called from resemblance to the pale apple-green hue of the best type of the liqueur.
gold: O.E. gold, from P.Gmc. *gulth- (cf. O.S., O.Fris., O.H.G. gold, Ger. Gold, M.Du. gout, Du. goud, O.N. gull, Dan. guld, Goth. gulþ), from PIE base *ghel-/*ghol- "yellow, green," possibly ult. "bright" (cf. O.C.S. zlato, Rus. zoloto, Skt. hiranyam, O.Pers. daraniya-, Avestan zaranya- "gold;" see Chloe). In reference to the color of the metal, it is recorded from c.1400. Golden replaced M.E. gilden, from O.E. gyldan. Gold is one of the few Mod.Eng. nouns that form adjs. meaning "made of ______" by adding -en (e.g. wooden, leaden, waxen, olden); O.E. also had silfren "made of silver," stænen "made of stone." Goldenrod is 1568; goldfinch is from O.E. goldfinc; goldfish is from 1698, introduced into England from China, where they are native. Gold-digger "woman who pursues men for their money," first recorded 1915. Goldbrick (n.) "shirker" (1914) is World War I armed forces slang, from earlier verb meaning "to swindle, cheat" (1902) from the old con game of selling spurious "gold" bricks. Golden mean "avoidance of excess" translates L. aurea mediocritas (Horace). Golden rule (originally Golden law) so called from 1674.
"Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same." [George Bernard Shaw, 1898]
patchouli: perfume made from an Indian plant of the mint family, 1845, from the native name for the plant in Madras, said to be from Tamil pachchai "green" + ilai "leaf." The form of the word appears Fr., but this has not been explained and the record of it in Eng. predates that in Fr.
Chloe: fem. proper name, from Gk. Khloe, lit. "young green shoot;" related to khloros "greenish-yellow," from PIE *ghlo- var. of base *ghel-, a color word that has yielded words for both "yellow" (cf. L. helvus "yellowish, bay," Gallo-L. gilvus "light bay;" Lith. geltonas "yellow;" O.C.S. zlutu, Pol. zolty, Rus. zeltyj "yellow;" Skt. harih "yellow, tawny yellow," hiranyam "gold;" Avestan zari "yellow;" O.E. geolu, geolwe, Mod. Eng. yellow, Ger. gelb "yellow") and "green" (cf. L. galbus "greenish-yellow;" Gk. khloros "greenish-yellow color," kholos "bile;" Lith. zalias "green," zelvas "greenish;" O.C.S. zelenu, Pol. zielony, Rus. zelenyj "green;" O.Ir. glass, Welsh, Breton glas "green," also "grey, blue"). Buck says the interchange of words for yellow and green is "perhaps because they were applied to vegetation like grass, cereals, etc., which changed from green to yellow." It is possible that this whole group of yellow-green words is related to PIE base *ghlei- "to shine, glitter, glow, be warm" (see gleam).
chlorine: coined 1810 by Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829) from Gk. khloros "pale green" (see Chloe). Named for its color. Discovered 1774, but known at first as oxymuriatic acid gas.
chlorophyll: 1819, from Fr. chlorophyle (1818), coined by Fr. chemists Pierre-Joseph Pelletier (1788-1842) and Joseph Bienaimé Caventou (1795-1877) from Gk. khloros "pale green" (see Chloe) + phyllon "a leaf" (see folio).
cholera: late 14c., "choler, bile, melancholy," from L. cholera, from Gk. kholera "a type of disease characterized by diarrhea, supposedly caused by choler" (Celsus), from khole "gall, bile," from khloazein "to be green," from khloros (see Chloe). But another sense of khole was "drainpipe, gutter." Revived 1565 as a name for a severe digestive disorder (rarely fatal to adults); and 1704 (especially as cholera morbus), for a highly lethal disease endemic in India, periodically breaking out in global epidemics.
folic: in ref. to type of acid, 1941, coined from L. folium "leaf" (see folio); so called for its abundance in green leaves, such as those of spinach.
fool (n.): late 13c., from O.Fr. fol "madman, insane person," also an adj. meaning "mad, insane," from L. follis "bellows, leather bag," in V.L. used with a sense of "windbag, empty-headed person" (see follicle). Cf. also Skt. vatula- "insane," lit. "windy, inflated with wind."
"The word has in mod.Eng. a much stronger sense than it had at an earlier period; it has now an implication of insulting contempt which does not in the same degree belong to any of its synonyms, or to the derivative foolish." [OED]
Meaning "jester, court clown" first attested late 14c., though it is not always possible to tell whether the reference is to a professional entertainer or an amusing lunatic on the payroll. As the name of a kind of custard dish, it is attested from 1590s (the food was also called trifle, which may be the source of the name). The verb meaning "to make a fool of" is recorded from 1590s. Related: Fooled; fooling. As an adjective, fool “foolish, silly” is considered modern U.S. colloquial, but it is attested from early 13c. Feast of Fools (early 14c.), from M.L. festum stultorum) refers to the burlesque festival celebrated in some churches on New Year's Day in medieval times. Fool's gold "iron pyrite" is from 1882. Fool's paradise "state of illusory happiness" is from mid-15c. Fool around is 1875 in the sense of "pass time idly," 1970s in sense of "have sexual adventures." Foolosopher, a most useful insult, turns up in a 1549 translation of Erasmus. Fool’s ballocks is described in OED as “an old name” for the green-winged orchid.
foyer: 1859, from Fr. foyer "green room, room for actors when not on stage," lit. "fireplace," from O.Fr. foyer, from L. focarius "having to do with the hearth," from focus "hearth, fireplace."
grass: O.E. græs, gærs "herb, plant, grass," from P.Gmc. grasan (cf. O.N., Ger., Goth. gras), from PIE *ghros- "young shoot, sprout," from base *gro-/*gre- "that which grows" (cf. L. gramen "grass"); related to grow and green. Sense of "marijuana" is first recorded 1938, Amer.Eng. Grasshopper is O.E. gærshoppa (cf. M.Swed. gräshoppare, Ger. Grashüpfer); as a term of reproach, from Eccl. xii.5. Grass widow (1528) was originally "discarded mistress" (cf. Ger. Strohwitwe, lit. "straw-widow"), probably in allusion to casual bedding. Sense of "married woman whose husband is absent" is from 1846.
"[G]rasse wydowes ... be yet as seuerall as a barbours chayre and neuer take but one at onys." [More, 1528]
Hobbit: 1937, coined in the fantasy tales of J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973).
"Hobbit is an invention. In the Westron the word used, when the people was referred to at all, was banakil 'halfling.' But ... the folk of the Shire and of Bree used the word kuduk .... It seems likely that kuduk was a worn-down form of kûd-dûkan [='hole-dweller']. The latter I have translated ... by holbytla ['hole-builder']; and hobbit provides a word that might well be a worn-down form of holbytla, if the name had occurred in our ancient language." [Tolkien, "Return of the King," 1955, p.416]

"On a blank leaf I scrawled: 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.' I did not and do not know why." [Tolkien, letter to W.H. Auden, dated 1955]
The word also turns up in a very long list of folkloric supernatural creatures in the writings of Michael Aislabie Denham (d.1859), printed in volume 2 of "The Denham Tracts" [ed. James Hardy, London: Folklore Society, 1895], a compilation of Denham's scattered publications. Denham was an early folklorist who concentrated on Northumberland, Durham, Westmoreland, Cumberland, the Isle of Man, and Scotland.
"What a happiness this must have been seventy or eighty years ago and upwards, to those chosen few who had the good luck to be born on the eve of this festival of all festivals; when the whole earth was so overrun with ghosts, boggles, bloody-bones, spirits, demons, ignis fatui, brownies, bugbears, black dogs, specters, shellycoats, scarecrows, witches, wizards, barguests, Robin-Goodfellows, hags, night-bats, scrags, breaknecks, fantasms, hobgoblins, hobhoulards, boggy-boes, dobbies, hob-thrusts, fetches, kelpies, warlocks, mock-beggars, mum-pokers, Jemmy-burties, urchins, satyrs, pans, fauns, sirens, tritons, centaurs, calcars, nymphs, imps, incubuses, spoorns, men-in-the-oak, hell-wains, fire-drakes, kit-a-can-sticks, Tom-tumblers, melch-dicks, larrs, kitty-witches, hobby-lanthorns, Dick-a-Tuesdays, Elf-fires, Gyl-burnt-tales, knockers, elves, rawheads, Meg-with-the-wads, old-shocks, ouphs, pad-foots, pixies, pictrees, giants, dwarfs, Tom-pokers, tutgots, snapdragons, sprets, spunks, conjurers, thurses, spurns, tantarrabobs, swaithes, tints, tod-lowries, Jack-in-the-Wads, mormos, changelings, redcaps, yeth-hounds, colt-pixies, Tom-thumbs, black-bugs, boggarts, scar-bugs, shag-foals, hodge-pochers, hob-thrushes, bugs, bull-beggars, bygorns, bolls, caddies, bomen, brags, wraiths, waffs, flay-boggarts, fiends, gallytrots, imps, gytrashes, patches, hob-and-lanthorns, gringes, boguests, bonelesses, Peg-powlers, pucks, fays, kidnappers, gallybeggars, hudskins, nickers, madcaps, trolls, robinets, friars' lanthorns, silkies, cauld-lads, death-hearses, goblins, hob-headlesses, bugaboos, kows, or cowes, nickies, nacks necks, waiths, miffies, buckies, ghouls, sylphs, guests, swarths, freiths, freits, gy-carlins Gyre-carling, pigmies, chittifaces, nixies, Jinny-burnt-tails, dudmen, hell-hounds, dopple-gangers, boggleboes, bogies, redmen, portunes, grants, hobbits, hobgoblins, brown-men, cowies, dunnies, wirrikows, alholdes, mannikins, follets, korreds, lubberkins, cluricauns, kobolds, leprechauns, kors, mares, korreds, puckles korigans, sylvans, succubuses, blackmen, shadows, banshees, lian-hanshees, clabbernappers, Gabriel-hounds, mawkins, doubles, corpse lights or candles, scrats, mahounds, trows, gnomes, sprites, fates, fiends, sibyls, nicknevins, whitewomen, fairies, thrummy-caps, cutties, and nisses, and apparitions of every shape, make, form, fashion, kind and description, that there was not a village in England that had not its own peculiar ghost. Nay, every lone tenement, castle, or mansion-house, which could boast of any antiquity had its bogle, its specter, or its knocker. The churches, churchyards, and crossroads were all haunted. Every green lane had its boulder-stone on which an apparition kept watch at night. Every common had its circle of fairies belonging to it. And there was scarcely a shepherd to be met with who had not seen a spirit!"
[Emphasis added] It is curious that the name occurs nowhere else in folklore, and there is no evidence that Tolkien ever saw this.
blue (1): c.1300, bleu, blwe, etc., from O.Fr. blo "pale, pallid, wan, light-colored; blond; discolored; blue, blue-gray," from Frankish *blao, from P.Gmc. *blæwaz (cf. O.E. blaw, O.S., O.H.G. blao, Dan. blaa, Swed. blå, O.Fris. blau, M.Du. bla, Du. blauw, Ger. blau "blue"), from PIE *bhle-was "light-colored, blue, blond, yellow." "The exact color to which the Gmc. term applies varies in the older dialects; M.H.G. bla is also "yellow," whereas the Scandinavian words may refer esp. to a deep, swarthy black, e.g. O.N. blamaðr, N.Icel. blamaður 'Negro' " [Buck]. Replaced O.E. blaw, from the same PIE root, which also yielded L. flavus "yellow," O.Sp. blavo "yellowish-gray," Gk. phalos "white," Welsh blawr "gray," O.N. bla "livid" (the meaning in black and blue), showing the usual slippery definition of color words in I.E. The present spelling is since 16c., from French influence (Mod.Fr. bleu).
"Few words enter more largely into the composition of slang, and colloquialisms bordering on slang, than does the word BLUE. Expressive alike of the utmost contempt, as of all that men hold dearest and love best, its manifold combinations, in ever varying shades of meaning, greet the philologist at every turn." [John S. Farmer, "Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present," 1890, p.252]
The color of constancy since Chaucer at least, but apparently for no deeper reason than the rhyme in true blue (c.1500). From early times blue was the distinctive color of the dress of servants, which may be the reason police uniforms are blue, a tradition Farmer dates to Elizabethan times. For blue ribbon see cordon bleu under cordon. Many IE languages seem to have had a word to describe the color of the sea, encompasing blue and green and gray; e.g. Ir. glass (see Chloe); O.E. hæwen "blue, gray," related to har (see hoar); Serbo-Cr. sinji "gray-blue, sea-green;" Lith. šyvas, Rus. sivyj "gray."
fuck: a difficult word to trace, in part because it was taboo to the editors of the original OED when the "F" volume was compiled, 1893-97. Written form only attested from early 16c. OED 2nd edition cites 1503, in the form fukkit; earliest appearance of current spelling is 1535 -- "Bischops ... may fuck thair fill and be vnmaryit" [Sir David Lyndesay, "Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits"], but presumably it is a much more ancient word than that, simply one that wasn't likely to be written in the kind of texts that have survived from O.E. and M.E. Buck cites proper name John le Fucker from 1278. The word apparently is hinted at in a scurrilous 15c. poem, titled "Flen flyys," written in bastard L. and M.E. The relevant line reads:
Non sunt in celi
quia fuccant uuiuys of heli
"They [the monks] are not in heaven because they fuck the wives of Ely." Fuccant is pseudo-Latin, and in the original it is written in cipher. The earliest examples of the word otherwise are from Scottish, which suggests a Scandinavian origin, perhaps from a word akin to Norw. dial. fukka "copulate," or Swedish dial. focka "copulate, strike, push," and fock "penis." Another theory traces it to M.E. fkye, fike "move restlessly, fidget," which also meant "dally, flirt," and probably is from a general North Sea Gmc. word, cf. M.Du. fokken, Ger. ficken "fuck," earlier "make quick movements to and fro, flick," still earlier "itch, scratch;" the vulgar sense attested from 16c. This would parallel in sense the usual M.E. slang term for "have sexual intercourse," swive, from O.E. swifan "to move lightly over, sweep" (see swivel). Chronology and phonology rule out Shipley's attempt to derive it from M.E. firk "to press hard, beat." As a noun, it dates from 1680. French foutre and Italian fottere look like the English word but are unrelated, derived rather from L. futuere, which is perhaps from PIE base *bhau(t)- "knock, strike off," extended via a figurative use "from the sexual application of violent action" [Shipley; cf. the sexual slang use of bang, etc.]. Popular and Internet derivations from acronyms (and the "pluck yew" fable) are merely ingenious trifling. The O.E. word was hæman, from ham "dwelling, home," with a sense of "take home, co-habit." Fuck was outlawed in print in England (by the Obscene Publications Act, 1857) and the U.S. (by the Comstock Act, 1873). The word may have been shunned in print, but it continued in conversation, especially among soldiers during WWI.
"It became so common that an effective way for the soldier to express this emotion was to omit this word. Thus if a sergeant said, 'Get your ----ing rifles!' it was understood as a matter of routine. But if he said 'Get your rifles!' there was an immediate implication of urgency and danger." [John Brophy, "Songs and Slang of the British Soldier: 1914-1918," pub. 1930]
The legal barriers broke down in the 20th century, with the "Ulysses" decision (U.S., 1933) and "Lady Chatterley's Lover" (U.S., 1959; U.K., 1960). Johnson excluded the word, and fuck wasn't in a single English language dictionary from 1795 to 1965. "The Penguin Dictionary" broke the taboo in the latter year. Houghton Mifflin followed, in 1969, with "The American Heritage Dictionary," but it also published a "Clean Green" edition without the word, to assure itself access to the lucrative public high school market. The abbreviation F (or eff) probably began as euphemistic, but by 1943 it was being used as a cuss word, too. In 1948, the publishers of "The Naked and the Dead" persuaded Norman Mailer to use the euphemism fug instead. When Mailer later was introduced to Dorothy Parker, she greeted him with, "So you're the man who can't spell 'fuck' " [The quip sometimes is attributed to Tallulah Bankhead]. Hemingway used muck in "For whom the Bell Tolls" (1940). The major breakthrough in publication was James Jones' "From Here to Eternity" (1950), with 50 fucks (down from 258 in the original manuscript). Egyptian legal agreements from the 23rd Dynasty (749-21 B.C.E.) frequently include the phrase, "If you do not obey this decree, may a donkey copulate with you!" [Reinhold Aman, "Maledicta," Summer 1977]. Fuck-all "nothing" first recorded 1960. Verbal phrase fuck up "to ruin, spoil, destroy" first attested c.1916. A widespread group of Slavic words (cf. Pol. pierdolić) can mean both "fornicate" and "make a mistake." Fuck off attested from 1929; as a command to depart, by 1944. Flying fuck originally meant "have sex on horseback" and is first attested c.1800 in broadside ballad "New Feats of Horsemanship." For the unkillable urban legend that this word is an acronym of some sort (a fiction traceable on the Internet to 1995 but probably predating that) see here, and also here. Related: Fucked; fucking. Agent noun fucker attested from 1590s in literal sense; by 1893 as a term of abuse (or admiration).
pimento: 1690, from Sp. pimiento "green or red pepper," also pimienta "black pepper," from L.L. pigmenta, pl. of pigmentum "vegetable juice," from L. pigmentum "pigment," from stem of pingere "to paint" (see paint). So called because it added a dash of color to food or drink.
"[I]n med.L. spiced drink, hence spice, pepper (generally), Sp. pimiento, Fr. piment are applied to Cayenne or Guinea pepper, capsicum; in Eng. the name has passed to allspice or Jamaica pepper. [OED]
The piece of red sweet pepper stuffed in a pitted olive so called from 1918, earlier pimiento (1901), from Sp.
aquamarine: 1590s, "bluish-green type of beryl," from Fr. or Prov., from L. aqua marina "sea water," from aqua "water" + marina, fem. of marinus "of the sea." Apparently first used as a description of a bluish-green color by John Ruskin, 1846. Abbreviation aqua is attested from 1936.
moist: late 14c., from O.Fr. moiste "damp," from V.L. *muscidus "moldy," also "wet," from L. mucidus "slimy, moldy, musty," from mucus "slime" (see mucus). Alternative etymology is from L. musteus "fresh, green, new," lit. "like new wine," from musteum "new wine" (see must (n.1)). If this wasn't the source, it influenced the form of the other word in Old French.
pooh: 1593, "a 'vocal gesture' expressing the action of puffing anything away" [OED], first attested in Hamlet Act I, Scene III, where Polonius addresses Ophelia with, "Affection! pooh! you speak like a green girl, / Unsifted in such perilous circumstance. / Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?" But the "vocal gesture" is perhaps ancient. Among the many 19th century theories of the origin of language was the Pooh-pooh theory (1860), which held that language grew from natural expressions of surprise, joy, pain, or grief. The slang reduplicated verb pooh-pooh "to dismiss lightly and contemptuously" is attested from 1827. Pooh as baby-talk for "excrement" is from 1950s (cf. poop (n.2)).
praseodymium: rare metallic element, 1885, coined in Mod.L. by discoverer Carl Auer von Welsbach (1858-1929) from Gk. prasios "leek-green" (from prason "leek") + L. (di)dymium "double." So called from the green color of the salts it forms.
costard: late 13c., coster, perhaps from Anglo-Fr. or O.Fr. coste "rib" (from L. costa "rib"). A kind of large apple with prominent "ribs," i.e. one having a shape more like a green pepper than a plain, round apple. Also applied derisively to "the head." Common 14c.-17c. but limited to fruit-growers afterward.
salad: 1390, from O.Fr. salade (14c.), from V.L. *salata, lit. "salted," short for herba salata "salted vegetables" (vegetables seasoned with brine, a popular Roman dish), from fem. pp. of *salare "to salt," from L. sal (gen. salis) "salt" (see salt). Du. salade, Ger. Salat, Swed. salat, Rus. salat are from Romanic languages. Salad days, "time of youthful inexperience" (on notion of "green") is first recorded 1606 in Shakespeare. Salad bar first attested 1976, Amer.Eng.
thallium: rare metallic element, 1861, Mod.L., from Gk. thallos "young shoot, green branch," so called by its discoverer, Sir William Crookes (1832-1919), from the green line in its spectrum. Gk. thallos is related to thalia "abundance," thalos "scion, child," ult. from PIE base *dhal- "to bloom" (cf. O.Ir. duilesc, a type of algae).
vervet: African monkey, 1884, from Fr., of unknown origin, perhaps short for vert grivet, lit. "a green grivet," indicating it was greener than the kind of monkey known as a grivet (itself a name of unknown origin).
Cloris: fem. proper name, from L. Chloris, L. form of Gk. Khloros, goddess of flowers, later identified with Roman Flora. The Gk. word is related to khloe "young green shoot" (see Chloe).
Glasgow: from Gael., lit. "green hollow," from gael "green" + cau "hollow."
Vermont: U.S. state, 1777, name is based on Fr. for "Green Mountain," but perhaps was formed by one with limited knowledge of Fr., where the correct form would be Mont Vert (as in the Fr. village of Pont-de-Montvert).
beryllium: metallic element, 1863, so called because it figures in the composition of beryl and was obtained by isolation from emerald (green beryl) in 1797 by Fr. chemist Louis Nicolas Vauquelin (1763-1829).