junk heap | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

96 entries found.

late 15c., "that which is heaped up, an accumulated mass," from Latin accumulationem (nominative accumulatio) "a heaping up," noun of action from past-participle stem of accumulare "to heap up, amass," from ad "to," here perhaps emphatic (see ad-), + cumulare "heap up," from cumulus "heap" (from suffixed form of PIE root *keue- "to swell"). Meaning "act of heaping up" is from c. 1600.

howitzer (n.)

1690s, hauwitzer, 1680s howitts, via Dutch houwitser (1660s), an extended borrowing of German Haubitze, from Bohemian houfnice "a catapult," from houf "heap, crowd," a loan-word from Middle High German hufe "heap." Introduced to German during the Hussite wars, 14c.

tumulus (n.)

ancient burial mound, 1680s, from Latin tumulus "hillock, heap of earth, mound" (see tomb).

beaucoup

French, literally "a great heap" (13c.), from beau "fine, great" (see beau (n.)) + coup "a stroke," also "a throw," hence, "a heap" (see coup (n.)). Compare Spanish golpe "multitude," from the same Latin source.

midden (n.)

mid-14c., midding, "dunghill, muck heap," a word of Scandinavian origin; compare Danish mødding, from møg "muck" (see muck (n.)) + dynge "heap of dung" (see dung). Modern archaeological sense of "prehistoric place for disposing of kitchen refuse, ashes, etc." is 19c., from Danish excavations.

exaggerate (v.)

1530s, "to pile up, accumulate," from Latin exaggeratus, past participle of exaggerare "heighten, amplify, magnify," literally "to heap, pile, load, fill," from ex, here probably "thoroughly" (see ex-), + aggerare "heap up, accumulate," figuratively "amplify, magnify," from agger (genitive aggeris) "heap," from aggerere "bring together, carry toward," from assimilated form of ad "to, toward" (see ad-) + gerere "carry" (see gest). Sense of "overstate" first recorded in English 1560s. Related: Exaggerated; exaggerating.

tumulous (adj.)

1727, from Latin tumulosus "full of hills," from tumulus "hill, mound, heap of earth" (see tumulus).

cumulative (adj.)

c. 1600, "formed by adding to, increasing inorganically" (a sense now obsolete), from Latin cumulatus, past participle of cumulare "to heap," from cumulus "heap" (from suffixed form of PIE root *keue- "to swell") + -ive. Meaning "increasing by successive additions" is from 1640s (implied in cumulatively).

cumulation (n.)

1610s, "act of heaping together;" 1620s, "a heap, that which is piled up," noun of action from cumulate.

cumulus (n.)

1650s, "a heap," from Latin cumulus "a heap, pile, mass, surplus," from PIE *ku-m-olo-, suffixed shortened form of root *keue- "to swell." Meteorological use for "rounded mass of clouds, snowy white at the top with a darker, horizontal base" is attested by 1803.

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