Old English word "speech, talk, utterance, sentence, statement, news, report, word," from Proto-Germanic *wurda- (source also of Old Saxon, Old Frisian word, Dutch woord, Old High German, German wort, Old Norse orð, Gothic waurd), from PIE *were- (3) "speak, say" (see verb).
The meaning "promise" was in Old English, as was the theological sense. In the plural, the meaning "verbal altercation" (as in have words with someone) dates from mid-15c. Word-processor first recorded 1971; word-processing is from 1972; word-wrap is from 1977. A word to the wise is from Latin phrase verbum sapienti satis est "a word to the wise is enough." Word-for-word "in the exact word or terms" is late 14c. Word of mouth "spoken words, oral communication" (as distinguished from written words) is by 1550s.
It is dangerous to leave written that which is badly written. A chance word, upon paper, may destroy the world. Watch carefully and erase, while the power is still yours, I say to myself, for all that is put down, once it escapes, may rot its way into a thousand minds, the corn become a black smut, and all libraries, of necessity, be burned to the ground as a consequence. [William Carlos Williams, "Paterson"]
also reentry, mid-15c., reentre, "act of entering again," from re- "again" + entry; probably on model of Old French rentree. Originally especially of the right to resume possession of lands or estates; specifically of spacecraft returning through the atmosphere from 1948. Re-entering as a noun is from 1630s; re-entrance (1901) was introduced as a technical term.
"person who disregards laws," 1924, from scoff (v.) + law (n.). The winning entry (from among more than 25,000) in a national contest during Prohibition to coin a word to characterize a person who drinks illegally. The $200 prize was shared by two contestants who sent in the word separately: Henry Irving Dale and Miss Kate L. Butler.
Similar attempts did not stick, such as pitilacker (1926), winning entry in a contest by the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to establish a scolding word for one who deliberately mistreats animals (submitted by Mrs. M. McIlvaine Bready of Mickleton, N.J.).
