verb | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

1998 entries found.

"a word that asserts or declares; that part of speech of which the office is predication, and which, either alone or with various modifiers or adjuncts, combines with a subject to make a sentence" [Century Dictionary], late 14c., from Old French verbe "word; word of God; saying; part of speech that expresses action or being" (12c.) and directly from Latin verbum "verb," originally "a word," from PIE root *were- (3) "to speak" (source also of Avestan urvata- "command;" Sanskrit vrata- "command, vow;" Greek rhētōr "public speaker," rhetra "agreement, covenant," eirein "to speak, say;" Hittite weriga- "call, summon;" Lithuanian vardas "name;" Gothic waurd, Old English word "word").

verbatim (adv.)

late 15c., from Medieval Latin verbatim "word for word," from Latin verbum "word" (see verb). As an adjective from 1737.

verbicide (n.)

"the killing of a word" by perversion from its original meaning, 1836, from Latin verbum "word" (see verb) + -cide "a killing."

verbose (adj.)

"wordy," 1670s, from Latin verbosus "full of words, wordy," from verbum "word" (see verb). Related: Verbosely (c. 1400); verboseness.

verbiculture (n.)

"the production of words," 1873, from Latin verbum "word" (see verb) + ending from agriculture, etc. Coined by Fitzedward Hall, in "Modern English." He was scolded for it in the "Edinburgh Review."

in totidem verbis

Latin phrase, "in just so many words," that is, "in these very words," from demonstrative of Latin totus "whole, entire" (see total (adj.)) + ablative plural of verbum "word" (see verb).

verbiage (n.)

"abundance of words," 1721, from French verbiage "wordiness" (17c.), from verbier "to chatter," from Old French verbe "word," from Latin verbum "word" (see verb).

verbigeration (n.)

"the continual utterance of certain words or phrases, repeated at short intervals, without any reference to their meanings" [Century Dictionary], 1877, earlier in German, noun of action from Late Latin verbigere "to talk, chat, dispute," from Latin verbum (see verb).

cruciverbalist (n.)

"maker of crossword puzzles," by 1977, mock-Latin, coined in English from Latin cruci-, combining form of crux "cross" (see crux) + verbum "word" (see verb).

verbarian (n.)

"word-coiner," 1873, from Latin verbum "word" (see verb) + -arian. Coleridge (or the friend he was quoting) had used it earlier as an adjective, and with a different sense, in wishing for: "a verbarian Attorney-General, authorised to bring informations ex officio against the writer or editor of any work in extensive circulation, who, after due notice issued, should persevere in misusing a word" (1830).

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