late 14c., seccioun, in astronomy, "the intersection of two straight lines; a division of a scale;" from Old French section and directly from Latin sectionem (nominative sectio) "a cutting, cutting off, division," noun of action from past-participle stem of secare "to cut" (from PIE root *sek- "to cut").

 The meaning "a part cut off or separated from the rest" is from early 15c. That of "a drawing representing something as if cut through" is from 1660s. From 1550s in English in the meaning "act of cutting or dividing," a sense now rare or archaic and preserved in some medical phrases, most notably Caesarian section. The meaning "a subdivision of a written work, statute, etc." is from 1570s.

Books are commonly divided into Chapters, Chapters into Sections, and Sections into Paragraphs or Breaks, as Printers call them .... [Blount, "Glossigraphia," 1656]

In music, "a group of similar instruments in a band or orchestra" (1880). In U.S. history, a square of 640 acres into which public lands were divided (1785). In World War II U.S. military slang, section eight was a reference to the passage in an Army Regulations act that referred to discharge on grounds of insanity.

late 13c., "forehead," from Old French front "forehead, brow" (12c.), from Latin frontem (nominative frons) "forehead, brow, front; countenance, expression (especially as an indicator of truthfulness or shame); facade of a building, forepart; external appearance; vanguard, front rank," a word of "no plausible etymology" (de Vaan). Perhaps literally "that which projects," from PIE *bhront-, from root *bhren- "to project, stand out" (see brink). Or from PIE *ser- (4), "base of prepositions and preverbs with the basic meaning 'above, over, up, upper'" [Watkins, not in Pokorny].

Sense "foremost part of anything" emerged in the English word mid-14c.; sense of "the face as expressive of temper or character" is from late 14c. (hence frontless "shameless," c. 1600). The military sense of "foremost part of an army" (mid-14c.) led to the meaning "field of operations in contact with the enemy" (1660s); home front is from 1919. Meaning "organized body of political forces" is from 1926. Sense of "public facade" is from 1891; that of "something serving as a cover for illegal activities" is from 1905. Adverbial phrase in front is from 1610s. Meteorological sense first recorded 1921.

1796 in reference to members of a secret politico-religious society founded 1795 in Belfast to promote Protestant power in Northern Ireland, named for William of Orange (who became King William III of England and triumphed in Ireland at the head of a Protestant army at the Battle of the Boyne), of the German House of Nassau. His cousins and their descendants constitute the royal line of Holland.

The name is from the town of Orange on the Rhone in France, which became part of the Nassau principality in 1530. Its Roman name was Arausio, which is said in 19c. sources to be from aura "a breeze" and a reference to the north winds which rush down the valley, but perhaps this is folk etymology of a Celtic word. The name subsequently was corrupted to Auranche, then Orange.

The town has no obvious association with the fruit other than being on the road from Marseilles to Paris, along which masses of oranges were transported to northern France and beyond. In this roundabout way the political/religious movement of Northern Irish Protestantism acquired an association with the color orange, the Irish national flag acquired its orange band, and Syracuse University in New York state acquired its "Otto the Orange" mascot.

also sometimes hubba-hubba-hubba, a U.S. slang cry of excitement or enthusiasm, noted in early 1946 as a vogue phrase among teenagers and "one of the most widely used expressions emerging from the war" [The Y News, March 21, 1946]. It served as "a refined wolf call, or merely to express approval, approbation, or exultation" [Twin Falls, Idaho, Times News, May 5, 1946, quoting Hartford Courant].

Contemporary sources traced it variously to the U.S. Army Air Forces and the phrase sometimes is said to be from an Asian language. Another suggested origin is the drill instructor's repeated hup! to keep his soldiers marching in rhythm. Hubba and hubba-hubba appear in an armed forces publication from 1944 over photographs of soldiers marching or drilling. A column in the official service journal "Air Force" for September 1943 mentions "the old cadet war-cry, 'Habba Habba.' "

Hubba! also is noted by 1905 as a call used at sea by Cornish fishermen when sighting a school of pilchard, and haba-haba is attested as circus term for a sort of side-man for an artist working a crowd (1924). Haba Haba also figures in a 1925 poem-chorus of suggestive nonsense phrases.

1764, "the act or practice of visiting shops for the purpose of examining and purchasing goods," a verbal noun from shop (v.). The meaning "goods that have been purchased" is attested by 1934.

Shopping bag is attested from 1864; shopping cart by 1929. Shopping list, of purchases to be made or stores to be visited, is by 1874; transferred and figurative use is by 1959. The modern shopping center is attested by 1922 in reference to the shopping district in a city (New York's upper Fifth Avenue); by 1926 in reference to planned outlying commercial developments. Shopping day "day in which stores are open" is by 1859; specifically in advertisements announcing the time remaining to purchase Christmas gifts, by 1881.

Twenty-One Days Only and Christmas will be here. Deduct Three (Sundays) leaves Eighteen Shopping Days. Again deduct Six Days (the last) monopolized by the Grand Army of Put-Offs, leaves but 12 DAYS in which Common-Sense Customers may buy their Holiday Gifts in Comfort, Convenience and Pleasure. [from an advertisement for Rosenbaum's store, Philadelphia Times, Dec. 4, 1881]

c. 1600, "group of students," in U.S. especially "number of pupils in a school or college of the same grade," from French classe (14c.), from Latin classis "a class, a division; army, fleet," especially "any one of the six orders into which Servius Tullius divided the Roman people for the purpose of taxation;" traditionally originally "the people of Rome under arms" (a sense attested in English from 1650s), and thus akin to calare "to call (to arms)," from PIE root *kele- (2) "to shout." In early use in English also in Latin form classis.

Meaning "an order or rank of persons, a number of persons having certain characteristics in common" is from 1660s. School and university sense of "course, lecture" (1650s) is from the notion of a form or lecture reserved to scholars who had attained a certain level. Natural history sense "group of related plants or animals" is from 1753. Meaning "high quality" is from 1874. Meaning "a division of society according to status" (with upper, lower, etc.) is from 1763. Class-consciousness (1903) is from German Klassenbewusst.

The fault, the evil, in a class society is when privilege exists without responsibility and duty. The evil of the classless society is that it tends to equalize the responsibility, to atomize it into responsibility of the whole population—and therefore everyone becomes equally irresponsible. [T.S. Eliot, BBC interview with Leslie Paul, 1958]

"part or member," Old English lim "limb of the body; any part of an animal body, distinct from the head and trunk;" main branch of a tree," from Proto-Germanic *limu- (source also of Old Norse limr "limb," lim "small branch of a tree"), a variant of *lithu- (source of Old English liþ, Old Frisian lith, Old Norse liðr, Gothic liþus "a limb;" and with prefix ga-, source of German Glied "limb, member").

The unetymological -b began to appear late 1500s for no etymological reason (perhaps by influence of limb (n.2)). The Old English plural was often limu; limen and other plural forms in -n lasted into Middle English. Since c. 1400 especially of a leg; in Victorian English this usage was somewhat euphemistic, "out of affected or prudish unwillingness to use the word leg" [Century Dictionary]. However in Old and Middle English, and until lately in dialects, it could mean "any visible body part":

The lymmes of generacion were shewed manyfestly. [Caxton, "The subtyl historyes and fables of Esope, Auyan, Alfonce, and Poge," 1484]

Hence, limb-lifter "fornicator" (1570s). Limb of the law was 18c. derisive slang for a lawyer or police officer. To go out on a limb in figurative sense "enter a risky situation" is from 1897. Alliterative life and limb in reference to the body inclusively is from c. 1200. Obsolete limb-meal (adv.) "limb-from-limb, piecemeal" is from late Old English lim-mælum.

c. 1400, reguler, "belonging to or subject to a religious or monastic rule," from Old French reguler "ecclesiastical" (Modern French régulier) and directly from Late Latin regularis "containing rules for guidance," from Latin regula "rule, straight piece of wood" (from PIE root *reg- "move in a straight line"). The classical -a- was restored 16c.

In earliest use, the opposite of secular. Extended from late 16c. to shapes, verbs, etc., that followed predictable, proper, or uniform patterns. From 1590s as "marked or distinguished by steadiness or uniformity in action or practice;" hence, of persons, "pursuing a definite course, observing a universal principle in action or conduct" (c. 1600).

The sense of "normal, conformed or conforming to established customs" is from 1630s. The meaning "orderly, well-behaved" is from 1705. By 1756 as "recurring at repeated or fixed times," especially at short, uniform intervals. The military sense of "properly and permanently organized, constituting part of a standing army" is by 1706. The colloquial meaning "real, genuine, thorough" is from 1821.

Old English borrowed Latin regula and nativized it as regol "rule, regulation, canon, law, standard, pattern;" hence regolsticca "ruler" (instrument); regollic (adj.) "canonical, regular."

mountainous district in central Peloponnesus, a Latinized form of Greek Arkadia, which is traditionally from Arkas (genitive Arkadas), son of Zeus, name of the founder and first ruler of Arcadia.

The idealized Arcadia of later pastoral romance, "the home of piping shepherds and coy shepherdesses, where rustic simplicity and plenty satisfied the ambition of untutored hearts, and where ambition and its crimes were unknown" [John Mahaffy, "History of Classical Greek Literature," 1880] seems to have been inspired by "Arcadia," a description of shepherd life in prose and verse by Italian Renaissance poet Iacopo Sannazaro, published in 1502, which went through 60 editions in the century. It is exemplified in English by Sir Philip Sidney's poem, published in 1590, and in Spanish by Lope de Vega's, printed in 1598. Classical Arcadia, Mahaffy writes:

was only famed for the marketable valour of its hardy mountaineers, of whom the Tegeans had held their own even against the power of Sparta, and obtained an honourable place in her army. It was also noted for rude and primitive cults, of which later men praised the simplicity and homely piety—at times also, the stern gloominess, which did not shrink from the offering of human blood. ["Rambles and Studies in Greece," 1887]

Poetic Arcady is from 1580s.

"run away, betake oneself hastily to flight," American Civil War military slang noted and popularized in newspapers from the summer of 1861, originally often skadaddle, a word of unknown origin. There is an earlier use in a piece reprinted in Northern newspapers in 1859, representing Hoosier speech. Perhaps it is connected to earlier use in northern England dialect with a meaning "to spill, scatter." Liberman says it "has no connection with any word of Greek, Irish, or Swedish, and it is not a blend" [contra De Vere]. He calls it instead an "enlargement of dial. scaddle 'scare, frighten.'" Related: Skedaddled; skedaddling. As a noun from 1862, "a hasty flight."

For the benefit of future etymologists who may have a dictionary to make out when the English language shall have adopted "skadaddle" into familiar use by the side of "employee" and "telegram," we here define the new term. It is at least an error of judgment, if not an intentional unkindness, to foist "skadaddle" on our Teutonic soldiers. The word is used throughout the whole Army of the Potomac, and means "to cut stick, "vamose the ranche," "slope," "cut your lucky," or "clear out." [New York Post, October 1861]