late 14c., "innocence, blamelessness," also "unity, wholeness," also "absence of pride," from simple (adj.) + -ness. From late 14c. as "absence of duplicity; ignorance; absence of complexity."
Middle English also had simplesse "innocence, blamelessness; lack of pride or ostentation," from the Old French compound. Simplesse is attested in English by late 14c. as "wholeness, unity," by c. 1400 as "ignorance."
late 14c., "pandering, business of a procuress," probably from Old French bauderie "boldness, ardor, elation, pride," from baud (see bawd). From 1580s as "obscenity, smuttiness, lewd language."
"overgrown, unwieldy," especially from excessive eating and drinking, 1660s, past-participle adjective from bloat (v.). The figurative sense "puffed up" with pride, wealth, etc., is by 1711.
late 14c., "pomp; arrogance, pride;" see brag (v.); the exact relationship of the noun and verb is uncertain. The meaning "that which is boasted" is from 1530s. As a once-popular poker-like card game, from 1734.
mid-15c., "full of pride," from Latin fastidiosus "disdainful, squeamish, exacting," from fastidium "loathing, squeamishness; dislike, aversion; excessive nicety," which is of uncertain origin; perhaps from *fastu-taidiom, a compound of fastus "contempt, arrogance, pride," and taedium "aversion, disgust." Fastus is possibly from PIE *bhars- (1) "projection, bristle, point," on the notion of "prickliness" (Watkins) or "a semantic shift from 'top' to 'haughtiness' which is conceivable, but the u-stem is not attested independently" [de Vaan], who adds that "fastidium would be a tautology." Early use in English was both in passive and active senses. Meaning "squeamish, over-nice" in English emerged 1610s. Related: Fastidiously; fastidiousness.
mid-14c., "to brag, speak arrogantly," from Anglo-French, from the same source as boast (n.). The meaning "speak with pride" is late 14c. The sense of "glory or exult in possessing" (something) is from 1540s; that of "possess something remarkable or admirable" is from 1690s. Related: Boasted; boasting.
mid-13c., "arrogance, presumption, pride, vanity;" c. 1300, "a brag, boastful speech," from Anglo-French bost "ostentation," probably from a Scandinavian source (compare Norwegian baus "proud, bold, daring"), from Proto-Germanic *bausia "to blow up, puff up, swell" (source also of Middle High German bus "swelling," dialectal German baustern "to swell;" Middle Dutch bose, Dutch boos "evil, wicked, angry," Old High German bosi "worthless, slanderous," German böse "evil, bad, angry"), from PIE *bhou-, variant of root *beu-, *bheu-, a root supposed to have formed words associated with swelling (see bull (n.2)).
The notion apparently is of being "puffed up" with pride; compare Old English belgan "to become angry, offend, provoke," belg "anger, arrogance," from the same root as bellows and belly (n.). The meaning "a cause of boasting, occasion of pride" is from 1590s. Related: Boasted; boasting. An Old English word for "boasting" was micelsprecende, literally "big talk."
1570s, literal, "to raise, elevate," probably from Latin elatus "uplifted, exalted," past participle of effere "carry out, bring forth" (see elation), or else a back-formation from elation. Figurative use, "to raise or swell the mind or spirit with satisfaction and pride," is from 1610s. Related: Elated; elating.
