Online Etymology Dictionary

syne: as in Burns' poem "Auld Lang Syne" (1788) is recorded from c.1300, Scot. form of since (q.v.), without the adverbial genitive inflection.
caper (n.): 1382, from L. capparis, from Gk. kapparis, of uncertain origin. The final -s was mistaken for pl. inflection in Eng. and dropped.
browse: 1523, "feed on buds," from M.Fr. brouster, from O.Fr. broster "to sprout, bud," from brost "young shoot, twig," probably from P.Gmc. *brustjan "to bud." Lost its final -t in Eng. on the mistaken notion that it was a pp. inflection. Figurative extension to "peruse" (books) is 1870s, Amer.Eng.
accidence: "part of grammar dealing with inflection," c.1500, from misspelling of accidents, from L. accidentia (used as a term in grammar by Quintilian), neut. pl. of accidens, prp. of accidere (see accident). So called because they change in accordance with use.
currant: c.1500, from raysyn of Curans (mid-14c.) "raisins of Corinth," with the -s- mistaken for a pl. inflection. From Anglo-Fr. reisin de Corauntz. The small, seedless raisins were exported from southern Greece. Then in 1570s the word was applied to an unrelated N. European berry (genus Ribes), recently introduced in England, on its resemblance to the raisins.
awoken: pp. of awake (v.); also see awaken. The tendency has been to restrict the strong p.p. (awoken) to the original intransitive sense of awake and the weak inflection (awakened) to the transitive, but this never has been complete.
awoke: p.t. of awake (v.), from O.E. awoc; also see awaken. The tendency has been to restrict the strong past tense (awoke) to the original intransitive sense of awake and the weak inflection (awakened) to the transitive, but this never has been complete.
inflect: c.1425, "to bend inward," from L. inflectere (pp. inflexus) "to bend in, change," from in- "in" + flectere "to bend." Grammatical sense is attested 1668; pronunciation sense (in inflection) is c.1600.
Ottoman: 1585, from Fr., from It. Ottomano, from Ar. 'Uthmani "of or belonging to Arabic masc. proper name 'Uthman," which in Turk. is pronounced Othman (see Osmanli), name of the founder of the dynasty and empire. Ending alt. in It. by formation of a new false singular, because -i was a pl. inflection in It. Byron used the more correct form Othman, and a few writers have followed him. The type of couch so called (1806) because one reclined on it, which was associated with Eastern customs (see couch).
-some: as a suffix forming adjectives, it represents O.E. -sum (see some; cf. O.Fris. -sum, Ger. -sam, O.N. -samr), related to sama "same." As a suffix added to numerals meaning "a group of that number" (cf. twosome) it represents O.E. sum "some," used after the genitive plural (cf. sixa sum "six-some"), the inflection disappearing in M.E. Use of some with a number meaning "approximately" also was in O.E.
-'s: suffix forming the possessive case of most Mod.Eng. nouns, was gradually extended in M.E. from O.E. -es, the most common genitive inflection of masc. and neut. nouns (cf. dæg "day," gen. dæges "day's"). But O.E. also had genitives in -e, -re, -an as well as "mutation-genitives" (cf. boc "book," plural bec), and the -es form was never used in plural (where -a, -ra, -na prevailed), thus avoiding the ambiguity of words like kings'. As a suffix forming some adverbs, it represents the gen. sing. ending of O.E. masc. and neuter nouns and some adjectives.
awake (v.): a merger of two M.E. verbs: 1. awaken, from O.E. awæcnan (earlier onwæcnan; strong, past tense awoc, pp. awacen) "to awake, arise," from a "on" + wacan "to arise, become awake" (see wake (v.)); and 2. awakien, from O.E. awacian (weak, p.p. awacode), from a "on" + wacian "to be awake, remain awake, watch" (see watch (v.)). Both were originally intrans. only; the trans. sense being expressed by M.E. awecchen (from O.E. aweccan) until later M.E. In Mod.Eng., the tendency has been to restrict the strong past tense and pp. (awoke, awoken) to the original intransitive sense and the weak inflection (awakened) to the transitive, but this never has been complete (see wake; also cf. awaken).
onion: 1130, from Anglo-Fr. union, from O.Fr. oignon (formerly also oingnon), from L. unionem (nom. unio), colloquial rustic Roman for "a kind of onion," also "pearl," lit. "one, unity;" sense connection is the successive layers of an onion, in contrast with garlic or cloves. O.E. had ynne (in ynne-leac), from the same L. source, which also produced Ir. inniun, Welsh wynwyn and similar words in Gmc. In Du., the ending in -n was mistaken for a plural inflection and new sing. ui formed. The usual I.E. name is represented by Gk. kromion, Ir. crem, Welsh craf, O.E. hramsa, Lith. kremuse. The usual L. word was cepa, a loan from an unknown language; cf. O.Fr. cive, O.E. cipe, and, via L.L. dim. cepulla, It. cipolla, Sp. cebolla, Pol. cebula. Ger zweibel also is from this source, but altered by folk etymology in O.H.G. (zwibolla) from words for "two" and "ball." Onion ring is attested from 1952. Onions, the surname, is attested from 1159 (Ennian), from O.Wesh Enniaun, ult. from L. Annianus, which was associated with Welsh einion "anvil."
-s (1): suffix forming almost all Mod.Eng. plural nouns, was gradually extended in M.E. from O.E. -as, the nom. plural and acc. plural ending of certain "strong" masc. nouns (cf. dæg "day," nom./acc. pl. dagas "days"). The commonest Gmc. declension, traceable back to the original PIE inflection system, it is also the source of the Du. -s plurals and (by rhotacism) Scand. -r plurals (e.g. Swed. dagar). Much more uniform today than originally; O.E. also had a numerous category of "weak" nouns that formed their plurals in -an, and other strong nouns that formed plurals with -u. Quirk and Wrenn, in their O.E. grammar, estimate that 45 percent of the nouns a student will encounter will be masc., nearly four-fifths of them with gen. sing. -es and nom./acc. pl. in -as. Less than half, but still the largest chunk. The triumphs of -'s possessives and -s plurals represent common patterns in language: using only a handful of suffixes to do many jobs (cf. -ing), and the most common variant squeezing out the competition. To further muddy the waters, it's been extended in slang since 1936 to singulars (e.g. ducks, sweets, babes) as an affectionate or dim. suffix. O.E. single-syllable collectives (sheep, folk) as well as weights, measures, and units of time did not use -s. The use of it in these cases began in M.E., but the older custom is preserved in many traditional dialects (ten pound of butter; more than seven year ago).
brow: words for "eyelid," "eyelash," and "eyebrow" changed about maddeningly in O.E. and M.E. (and in all the W.Gmc. languages). Linguists have untangled the knot into two strands: 1. O.E. bræw (Anglian *brew) "eyelid," from P.Gmc. *bræwi- "blinker, twinkler" (related to Goth. brahw "twinkle, blink," in phrase in brahwa augins "in the twinkling of an eye"); the sense must have shifted before the earliest recorded O.E. usage from "eyelash" to "eyelid." 2. O.E. bru "eyelash," from P.Gmc. *brus "eyebrow," from PIE base *bhrus (cf. Skt. bhrus "eyebrow," Gk. ophrys, O.C.S. bruvi, Lith. bruvis "brow," O.Ir. bru "edge"). The sense must have been transferred in O.E. at an early date from "eyebrow" to "eyelash." Lacking a distinctive word for it, the Anglo-Saxons called an eyebrow ofer-bru, and in early M.E. they were known as uvere breyhes or briges aboue þe eiges. By c.1200, everything had moved "up." Bru/brouw (from bræw) became "eyelid;" and brew/breow (from O.E. bru) became "eyebrow." It remained the word for "eyebrow" in Scot. and northern Eng., where it naturally evolved into colloquial bree. In southern Eng., however, M.E. bru/brouw took over the sense of "eyebrows," in the form brues, and yielded the usual modern form of the word. To make matters worse, if possible, some southern writers 15c.-17c. used bree for "eyelashes," in what OED calls "a curious reversion to what had been the original OE. sense of bru." By 1535, brow had been given an extended sense of "forehead," especially with ref. to movements and expressions that showed emotion or attitude. The -n- in the O.N. (brun) and Ger. (braune) forms of the word are from a gen. pl. inflection.