flood | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

79 entries found.

"devastate, lay waste, despoil," 1610s, from French ravager "lay waste, devastate," from Old French ravage "destruction," especially by flood (14c.), from ravir "to take away hastily" (see ravish). Related: Ravaged; ravaging.

cytosine (n.)

crystalline base which is one of the constituents of nucleic acids, 1894, from German cytosin (1894), from cyto- "cell" + -ose + chemical suffix -ine (2). "The name cytosine (due to Kossel and Neumann) is misleading. Cytosine is not, like adenosine and guanosine, a nucleoside but the sugar-free base." [Flood]

flash (n.2)

"sudden rush of water," 1660s, earlier "watery place or marsh, a swamp" (c. 1400; in place names from c. 1300), of uncertain origin or connection to flash (n.1); perhaps from Old French flache, from Middle Dutch vlacke. Flash flood is from 1940.

flume (n.)

late 12c., "stream," from Old French flum "running water, stream, river; dysentery," from Latin flumen "flood, stream, running water," from fluere "to flow" (see fluent). In U.S., used especially of artificial streams channeled for some industrial purpose.

Luminal (n.)

trade name of phenobarbitone, used as a sedative and hypnotic, coined 1912 in German from Latin lumen "light" (from suffixed form of PIE root *leuk- "light, brightness") + -al (3), "the root here being used, very irregularly, as an equivalent of pheno-" [Flood].

irrigation (n.)

1610s, "a supplying of water to land," also in medical use, "supply of a liquid to some part of the body," from Latin irrigationem (nominative irrigatio) "a watering, irrigation," noun of action from past participle stem of irrigare "lead water to, irrigate, flood" (see irrigate).

calomel (n.)

old name for mercurous chloride, 1670s, from French calomel, supposedly (Littré) from Greek kalos "beautiful" (see Callisto) + melas "black;" but as the powder is yellowish-white this seems difficult. "It is perhaps of significance that the salt is blackened by ammonia and alkalis" [Flood].

overflow (v.)

Middle English overflouen, from Old English oferfleow "to flow across, flood, inundate," also "to flow over (a brim or bank);" see over- + flow (v.). Common Germanic (Old High German ubarfliozan, German überfliessen, etc.). Related: Overflowed; overflowing.

inundation (n.)

"an overflowing, a flood," early 15c., from Latin inundationem (nominative inundatio) "an overflowing," noun of action from past-participle stem of inundare "to overflow," from in- "onto" (from PIE root *en "in") + undare "to flow," from unda "a wave," from PIE *unda-, nasalized form of root *wed- (1) "water; wet."

gust (n.)

1580s, "sudden squall of wind," possibly a dialectal survival from Old Norse gustr "a cold blast of wind" (related to gusa "to gush, spurt") or Old High German gussa "flood," both from Proto-Germanic *gustiz, from PIE *gheus-, from root *gheu- "to pour." Probably originally in English as a nautical word.

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