Word origins

• Mecklenburg-VorpommernSynonym of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
• mercy seatThe lid of the Ark of the Covenant, on which God is said to have been enthroned; taken to represent the throne in heaven.
• minenwerferA type of trench mortar used by German forces especially during the First World War, or the shells fired by such a mortar.
• miserabilismA tendency to take a miserable or pessimistic view on life; a consistently miserable outlook, negativity.
• mixoscopicPertaining to mixoscopy; voyeuristic.
• MohlmanA surname from German.
• Moselle FranconianOne of two subgroups of the Central Franconian dialects; spoken in the north-western half of Rhineland-Palatinate, the Siegerland, and parts of eastern Belgium; distinguished from the northern Ripuarian by a number of fairly parallel isoglosses, especially the Dorf-Dorf-Linie and also the Moselle Franconian diphthongization of Germanic -ī-, -ū-.
• mottephobiaAn irrational fear of moths or butterflies.
• MuffleyA surname from German.
• MummeyA surname from German.
• mushroom bodyEither of a pair of structures in the brains of insects and some other arthropods thought to be involved in learning and memory.
• MussmanA surname from German.
• myrmecophyteA plant that lives in association with a colony of ants. The degree of association varies and is assumed to be symbiotic in some cases.
• nadingA surname from German.
• narcisticNarcissistic.
• NaussA surname from German.
• nebenionAny ion near another one that is involved in transport through a membrane, and that is influencing its transport properties (especially one that assists, rather than counters, the transport of another ion)
• nebenkernA mass or shred of chromatin-staining material outside of the nucleus in the cytoplasm.
• NeiswenderA surname from German.
• NemmersA surname from German.
• neogrammarianA member or follower of a 19th-century school of German linguists who first advanced the theory of regular sound change.
• NeumillerA surname from German.
• neunbeinSynonym of ennead.
• NewbauerA surname from German.
• NewhardA surname from German.
• NeyhartA surname from German.
• NidifferA surname from German.
• NiederkornA town in Luxembourg, in the commune of Differdange, in the canton of Esch-sur-Alzette.
• NiederwaldA village in Goms municipality, Valais canton, Switzerland.
• NifongTo make a self-serving, politically-motivated accusation or prosecution.
• NihartA surname from German.
• NinnemanA surname from German.
• NirostaA form of stainless steel typically used to make blades.
• NiswanderA surname.
• NorrodA surname from German.
• NostraticA conjectural and not widely accepted grouping of languages including the Indo-European, Uralic, Altaic, Chukchi-Kamchatkan, Eskimo-Aleut, Dravidian, Elamite, Sumerian, Kartvelian, and Afroasiatic languages, and less commonly including the Aegean and Ainu languages as well.
• NotestineA surname from German.
• nucleinA phosphorus-rich protein found in the nucleus of a cell, later specifically nucleohistone or nucleoprotamine; also, any similar compound present in the cell nucleus.
• Oberalp PassA mountain pass between Uri canton and Grisons canton, Switzerland.
• OberkornA town in Luxembourg, in the commune of Differdange, in the canton of Esch-sur-Alzette.
• obscurantActing or tending to confound, obfuscate, or obscure.
• odylicOf or pertaining to the od or odyle (“a hypothetical force or natural power, now proved not to exist, which was supposed by Carl Reichenbach and others to inhere in certain people and produce phenomena such as animal magnetism and mesmerism, and to be developed by various agencies, as by chemical or vital action, heat, light, magnets, etc.”).
• oliveniteAn orthorhombic copper arsenate mineral with the chemical formula Cu₂AsO₄OH.
• oophagyThe eating of eggs; (now especially) the cannibalization of subordinate eggs within a homogeneous population or the uterus; particularly as it relates to certain insect and aquatic species.
• OplingerA surname from German.
• OrebaughA surname from German.
• OrendorffA surname from German.
• OsnabrückAn independent city in Lower Saxony, Germany.
• overfoldA fold whereby the strata are forced through an angle of more than 90 degrees, so that younger strata lie below older ones.
• oversightlyOffering a clear and readily grasped overview (of something).
• OxnerA surname from German.
• Panzerschreka portable anti-tank rocket launcher developed by the Germans during WW2
• paragnathaParagnathi (lobes forming the lower lip, or metastome, of Crustacea).
• paramyotoniaA form of myotonia that worsens with exercise.
• PaulinianSynonym of Paulist (“a person who follows or is associated with Paul the Apostle or his doctrines.”).
• PeckinpaughA surname from German.
• PeffleyA surname from German.
• PeipusA large freshwater lake on the border between Estonia and Russia in Northern Europe. It is the fifth-largest lake in Europe, and the largest in Estonia. The lake consists of three parts: Peipsi (Chudskoe), Pihkva (Pskovskoe), Lämmijärv (Teploe).
• pendellösungbeating pattern seen in diffraction on crystals.
• pericambiumA pericycle.
• Pfaffenschlag bei Waidhofen an der ThayaA municipality of Waidhofen an der Thaya district, Lower Austria, Austria.
• pfeffernussA small gingerbread biscuit, flavoured with spices, eaten especially at Christmas.
• pfropfschizophrenieSchizophrenia in individuals with premorbid cognitive impairment.
• phyllophyteA plant characterized as structurally based upon or possessing true leaves.
• phytoequivalenceA physiological equivalence between the effects of two herbal extracts, the efficacy of one of which has been clinically demonstrated.
• PieechA surname.
• pietisticpertaining to pietism (Lutheran spiritual movement)
• pingleA small piece of enclosed ground.
• PinkstaffA surname from German.
• pitchblendeNaturally-occurring uranium oxide, a variety of the mineral uraninite.
• placodermA member of an extinct paraphyletic class (†Placodermi) of jawed fish with armored heads and thoraces; the group lived during the Silurian and Devonian periods.
• PlattdeutschLow German
• PlaugherA surname from German.
• plerocercoidAn unsegmented worm-like larval form of certain tapeworms which develops from the procercoid.
• PolonisticsPolish studies.
• PottebaumA surname from German.
• precursor tipThe reduced upper leaf zone found on many monocotyledons that usually takes the form of a cylindrical extension at the apex of the leaf.
• presentiationThe act of making something present to consciousness that is not originally given; a synonym of presentification; an intuitive consciousness that renders something co-present or represented.
• PrinkeyA surname.
• prinzregententorteA Bavarian torte having thin layers of sponge cake separated by chocolate buttercream, topped with apricot jam and covered in a dark chocolate glaze.
• privat-docentA lecturer who may teach without supervision by a professor
• ProppsA surname from German.
• protargolSilver proteinate, originally used as an antiseptic and later for staining in electron microscopy.
• ProtzmanA surname from German.
• pseudorationalismA school of thought that believes that all actions can be subject to rational analysis
• psychological momentThe best time to do something, when those involved are in the most workable state of mind.
• punctationA preliminary treaty or contract.
• punctiliarOccurring at a definite and particular point in time.
• pyramidonAn organ stop having wooden pipes in the form of an inverted pyramid, giving very deep notes somewhat like those of a stopped diapason.
• PysherA surname from German.
• quarlA medusa or jellyfish.
• Q-waveSynonym of Love wave.
• RadabaughA surname from German.
• RadebaughA surname from German.
• raftydamp; musty
• RampeyA surname from German.
• rappenA unit of currency in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, equal to one-hundredth of a Swiss franc.
• RaybuckA surname from German.
• RedcayA surname from German.
• RedenbaughA surname from German.