Online Etymology Dictionary

prose: early 14c., from O.Fr. prose (13c.), from L. prosa oratio "straightforward or direct speech" (without the ornaments of verse), from prosa, fem. of prosus, earlier prorsus "straightforward, direct," from Old L. provorsus "(moving) straight ahead," from pro- "forward" + vorsus "turned," pp. of vertere "to turn" (see verse).
prosaic: 1656, "having to do with prose," from Fr. prosaique, from M.L. prosaicus "in prose" (16c.), from L. prosa "prose" (see prose). Meaning "having the character of prose (in contrast to the feeling of poetry)" is 1746; extended sense of "ordinary" is 1813, both from Fr.
sillabub: c.1537, of unknown origin. Drink or dish of milk and wine or cider, often sweetened. Figurative sense of "floridly vapid prose" is from 1706.
scape (v.): c.1275, aphetic form of escape; frequent in prose till late 17c.
turgid: 1620, from L. turgidus "swollen, inflated," from turgere "to swell," of unknown origin. Fig. use in reference to prose is from 1725.
tumid: "morbidly swollen," 1541, from L. tumidus, from tumere "to swell" (see thigh). Fig. sense (in ref. to prose, etc.) is attested from 1648.
jingle: late 14c., gingeln, of imitative origin (cf. Du. jengelen, Ger. klingeln). Meaning "song in an advertisement" first attested 1930, from earlier sense of "catchy array of words in prose or verse" (1645).
Ossianic: 1808, in ref. to Oisin, name of a legendary Gaelic bard, lit. "little fawn;" James Macpherson claimed to have collected and translated his works (1760-63) under the name Ossian, and the poetic prose sparked a Celtic revival and fascination with the glamour of the lost world of the bards. But the work turned out to be Macpherson's forgery, and the style later was regarded as bombastic.
saga: 1709, an antiquarians' revival to describe the medieval prose narratives of Iceland and Norway, from O.N. saga "saga, story," cognate with O.E. sagu "a saying" (see saw (2)). Prop., a narrative composition of Iceland or Norway in the Middle Ages, or one that has their characteristics.
anthem: O.E. ontemn, antefn, "a composition (in prose or verse) sung antiphonally," from L.L. antefana, from Gk. antiphona "verse response" (see antiphon). Sense evolved to "a composition set to sacred music" (late 14c.), then "song of praise or gladness" (1590s). Used in ref. to the English national song (technically a hymn) and extended to those of other nations.
Asiatic: 1630s, from L. Asiaticus (surname of L. Corn. Scipio), from Gk. Asiatikos, from Asia (see Asia; also cf. Asian). In ancient Rome, Asiatici oratores was florid and overly ornate prose.
pabulum: "food," 1678, from L. pabulum "fodder, food," from PIE base *pa- "to protect, feed" (see food) + instrumentive suffix *-dhlom. Pablum (1932), derived from this, is a trademark (Mead Johnson & Co.) for a soft, bland cereal used as a food for weak and invalid people, hence fig. use (attested from 1970, first by U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew) in ref. to "mushy" political prose.
Edda: 1771, by some identified with the name of the old woman in the O.N. poem "Rigsþul," by others derived from O.N. oðr "spirit, mind, passion, song, poetry" (cognate with O.Ir. faith "poet," L. vates "seer, soothsayer;" see wood (adj.)). It is the name given to two Icelandic books, the first a miscellany of poetry, mythology, and grammar by Snorri Sturluson (d.1241), since 1642 called the Younger or Prose Edda; and a c.1200 collection of ancient Gmc. poetry and religious tales, called the Elder or Poetic Edda.
bloviate (v.): 1857, Amer.Eng., a Midwestern word for "to talk aimlessly and boastingly; to indulge in 'high falutin'," according to Farmer (1890), who seems to have been the only British lexicographer to notice it. He says it was based on blow (v.) on the model of deviate, etc. It seems to have been felt as outdated slang already by late 19c. ("It was a leasure for him to hear the Doctor talk, or, as it was inelegantly expressed in the phrase of the period, 'bloviate....' " ["Overland Monthly," San Francisco, 1872, describing a scene from 1860]), but it enjoyed a revival early 1920s in the presidency of Warren G. Harding, who wrote a notoriously ornate and incomprehensible prose (e.e. cummings eulogized him as "The only man, woman or child who wrote a simple declarative sentence with seven grammatical errors") at which time the word took on its connection with political speech; it faded again thereafter, but, with its derivative, bloviation, it enjoyed a revival in the 2000 U.S. election season that continued through the era of blogging.
purple: O.E. purpul, dissimilation (first recorded in Northumbrian, in Lindisfarne gospel) from purpure "purple garment," purpuren "purple," from L. purpura "purple-dyed cloak, purple dye," also "shellfish from which purple was made," from Gk. porphyra (see porphyry), of Semitic origin, originally the name for the shellfish (murex) from which it was obtained. Tyrian purple, produced around Tyre, was prized as dye for royal garments. As a color name, attested from late 14c. Also the color of mourning or penitence (especially in royalty or clergy). Rhetorical for "splendid, gaudy" (of prose) from 1590s. Purpur continued as a parallel form until 15c., and through 19c. in heraldry. Purple Heart, U.S. decoration for service members wounded in combat, instituted 1932; originally a cloth decoration begun by George Washington in 1782. Hendrix' Purple Haze (1967) is slang for "LSD."