world organisation | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

617 entries found.

"convict," 1956, from yard (n.1) + bird (n.1), from the notion of prison yards; earlier it meant "basic trainee" (World War II armed forces slang).

VIP (n.)

also V.I.P., 1933, initialism (acronym) for very important person or personage; not common until after World War II.

At most, the greatest persons, are but great wens, and excrescences; men of wit and delightfull conversation, but as moales for ornament, except they be so incorporated into the body of the world, that they contribute something to the sustentation of the whole. [John Donne, letter to Sir Henry Goodere, Sept. 1608]

inferno (n.)

1834, "Hell, the infernal regions," from Italian inferno, from Late Latin infernus "Hell," in classical Latin "the lower world" (see infernal). As "a large, raging fire" from 1928.

jerry-can (n.)

"5-gallon metal container," 1943, from Jerry "a German." It was first used by German troops in World War II and later adopted by the Allies.

Volapuk (n.)

artificial language invented 1879 by Johann Martin Schleyer (1831-1912) based on English, Latin, and German, Volapük volapük, literally "world-speech."

beach-head (n.)

also beachhead, 1940, in reference to German military tactics in World War II, from beach (n.) + head (n.), on the model of bridgehead, but the image doesn't quite work.

cosmo-

before a vowel cosm-, word-forming element from Latinized form of Greek kosmos (see cosmos). In older use, "the world, the universe;" since 1950s, especially of outer space. Also cosmico-.

rehab

by 1948 as a shortening of rehabilitation (originally of service members returning from World War II). As a verb, in reference to houses, by 1975, short for rehabilitate. Related: Rehabbed; rehabbing.

mock-up (n.)

also mockup, "model, simulation" 1919, perhaps World War I, from the verbal phrase mock up "make an experimental model" (1911), from mock (v.) + up (adv.).

cloister (v.)

"confine in a cloister or convent," c. 1400 (implied in cloistered), from cloister (n.). Figurative use, "shut up in retirement from the world," is from c. 1600. Related: Cloistered; cloistering.

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