drop dead | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

318 entries found.

"drop-shot," in lawn tennis, 1939, probably somehow imitative. As a verb by 1942. Related: Dinked; dinking.

late 14c., "that which is dropped," verbal noun from drop (v.). Specifically "dung" (especially of fowls) from 1590s. Related: Droppings.

feuillemorte (adj.)

"of the color of a dead leaf," 1640s, fieulamort, from French feuille morte, literally "dead leaf" (see folio + mortal (adj.)). A word of loose spelling, variants include phyllamort, filemot, philomot.

undead (adj.)

"neither dead nor alive," c. 1400, from un- (1) "not" + dead. As a noun meaning "vampires and such," from 1904. Old English undeadlic (adv.) meant "immortal, for all eternity."

cadaver (n.)

"a dead body, a corpse," late 14c., from Latin cadaver "dead body (of men or animals)," probably from a perfective participle of cadere "to fall, sink, settle down, decline, perish," from PIE root *kad- "to fall." Compare Greek ptoma "dead body," literally "a fall" (see ptomaine); poetic English the fallen "those who have died in battle."

tear (n.1)

"fluid drop from the eye," Old English tear "tear, drop, nectar, what is distilled in drops," from earlier teahor, tæhher, from Proto-Germanic *tahr-, *tagr- (source also of Old Norse, Old Frisian tar, Old High German zahar, German Zähre, Gothic tagr "tear"), from PIE *dakru- (source also of Latin lacrima, Old Latin dacrima, Irish der, Welsh deigr, Greek dakryma). To be in tears "weeping" is from 1550s. Tear gas first recorded 1917.

deadpan (adj.)

also dead-pan, 1928, of the face, "expressionless, impassive," from dead (adj.) + pan (n.) in the slang sense of "face." As a noun by 1933, "expressionless face." As a verb by 1934. Related: Deadpanned.

gutter (n.)

late 13c., "watercourse, water drainage channel along the side of a street," from Anglo-French gotere, Old French guitere, goutiere "gutter, spout" of water (12c., Modern French gouttière), from goute "a drop," from Latin gutta "a drop" (see gout). Meaning "furrow made by running water" is from 1580s. Meaning "trough under the eaves of a roof to carry off rainwater" is from mid-14c. Figurative sense of "low, profane" is from 1818. In printers' slang, from 1841.

DOA

also d.o.a., 1929, police slang abbreviation of dead on arrival.

gutta-percha (n.)

1845, from Malay (Austronesian) getah percha, literally "the gum of percha," the name of the tree; the form of the word was influenced by Latin gutta "drop." As the name of the tree itself, from 1860.

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