Word origins

• madefyTo make wet or moist.
• magnificMagnificent, splendid; illustrious.
• malapertA cheeky, impudent, or saucy person.
• mammillaryResembling a breast or nipple in shape or form.
• mammillo-Nipple, breast.
• mandilionA loose outer garment resembling a cassock or coat, often sleeveless, worn by soldiers over armour or by menservants as a type of overcoat.
• mansuetudeGentleness, tameness.
• marquisateThe territory held by a marquis, margrave or marchioness.
• martagonThe Turk's cap lily (Lilium martagon).
• matelotA sailor.
• matitudinalOf, occurring in, or relating to the morning, especially the early morning upon waking up.
• matutinalOf, occurring in, or relating to the morning, especially the early morning upon waking up.
• megrimA headache; a migraine.
• mesteeA mixed race person, especially if mostly white in ancestry, appearance and culture.
• metagrobolismConcealment, mystification, obfuscation.
• metagrobolizeTo puzzle, mystify.
• metoposcopyThe practice of judging someone's character, or telling their fortune, from studying their face or forehead.
• minatoryThreatening, menacing.
• minorativeThat diminishes or attenuates
• misprizeTo despise or hold in contempt; to undervalue.
• mixtionThe act or process of mixing; the state of being mixed or becoming mixed; a mixture.
• momentanyMomentary, transient.
• monarchicOf, or relating to monarchy or to a monarch.
• monomachyA fight or other contest between two people or forces; a duel; single combat.
• morbificThat causes disease; sickening, pathogenic.
• mordacityThe quality of being mordacious; biting severity, or sarcastic quality.
• mousquetaireA musketeer, especially one of the French royal musketeers of the 17th and 18th centuries, famed for their daring and their fine clothing.
• mulctA fine or penalty, especially a pecuniary one.
• muletA male mule.
• muschetorA black spot like an ermine spot, but without its three specks.
• musculousMade up of muscle or muscle tissue; muscular.
• musetA small hole or gap through which a wild animal passes; a muse.
• mutenTo make or become mute or muted.
• mutineMutiny, rebellion.
• mythologizeTo interpret (a story etc.) as mythological; to explain the symbolic meaning of.
• naiantDepicted swimming horizontally.
• naissantHaving only its forepart shown, especially if because it is issuing from an ordinary or division of the field. (Compare issuant.)
• narcissNarcissus.
• naumachyA place built to stage a mock sea-battle, or the show performed therein.
• navewA kind of small turnip, a variety of Brassica napus.
• necessitousNeedy, indigent, destitute, poor.
• NicodemiteSomeone who hides their faith or belief in something; a secret adherent.
• nombrilA point halfway between the fess point (centre of the shield) and the middle base (bottom) point of an escutcheon.
• numblesThe entrails of a deer or other animal, used for food.
• nuqueThe nape of the neck.
• obeliscolychnyA lighthouse.
• observatorAn observer.
• obtrectationDisparagement, the belittling of someone or something; slander.
• occurrentCurrent, actual, occurring.
• ochlocracyMob rule; government by the masses; mobocracy.
• olibanOlibanum.
• Olympic GamesAn international multi-sport event (inspired by the ancient festival) taking place every fourth year.
• opinativeConjectural; expressing an opinion rather than a fact.
• oppugnTo contradict or controvert; to oppose; to challenge or question the truth or validity of a given statement.
• optativeExpressing a wish or a choice.
• opusculeA small or petty work.
• ossiconeEither of the horn-like protuberances on the heads of giraffes and male okapi. Some extinct species in the family bore antler-like ossicones.
• ossifrageGypaetus barbatus, the bearded vulture, the diet of which is almost exclusively bone marrow.
• ostensionThe act of presenting an ostensive definition.
• ostensiveApparently true, but not necessarily; ostensible
• ostentTo make an ambitious display of; to exhibit or show boastingly; to ostentate.
• otiosityThe state or quality of being otiose.
• Ottoman EmpireA large former Turkish empire which began as a sultanate centered in modern Turkey and at its height ruled over much of Southeastern Europe, West Asia and North Africa; founded in the late 13th century, it lasted until the 1920s.
• palinodeAn ode or other poem in which the author retracts something said in an earlier poem; (loosely) a recantation.
• palliardiseFornication, lechery.
• pall mallA cigarette of the British Pall Mall brand.
• pannicleA membrane of tissue in the body of a human or animal.
• paralogismA fallacious argument or illogical conclusion, especially one committed by mistake, or believed by the speaker to be logical.
• paranymphA friend of the bridegroom; a best man; a bridesmaid.
• paraphernalsSynonym of paraphernalia (“married woman’s property besides her dowry”).
• paravantPre-eminently; first.
• parbreakTo vomit, spew out.
• patricideThe murder of one's father.
• -pauseIndicative of a pause or discontinuance.
• pavéA paved surface, a pavement (now only in French contexts).
• peccantOf a person, etc.: that commits or has committed an offence or a sin; blameworthy, culpable, offending, sinful, sinning.
• peine forte et dureCrushing, an old form of punishment (torture) in which the prisoner's body was pressed with heavy weights.
• peisantHeavy, massive, forcible
• pensionnaireSomeone receiving a pension.
• perceantPiercing, sharp.
• perfectionateTo make perfect or complete; to perfect.
• periaptA charm worn on a necklace; an amulet.
• periwigA wig, especially any kind of stylized wig as formerly worn by men and women.
• perpendTo ponder, consider.
• petalismA form of ostracism among the ancient Syracusans by which they temporarily banished a citizen suspected of having dangerous influence or ambition.
• petit pâtéA small pie or pasty.
• petronelA short but large-caliber, heavy 16th- and 17th-century firearm that used a matchlock or wheellock mechanism, intermediate between the arquebuse and pistol.
• philodoxA person with an excessive interest in his/her own opinions.
• philologueA philologist.
• philterA kind of potion, charm, or drug; especially a love potion intended to make the drinker fall in love with the giver.
• pistoleerA person, especially a soldier, armed with a pistol
• planchA plank.
• poitrinalSynonym of poitrel (“chest-armor for a horse”).
• pole arcticThe pole star.
• poltroonAn ignoble or total coward; a dastard; a mean-spirited wretch.
• poniardA dagger typically having a slender square or triangular blade.
• portativePortable.
• potencePower or strength; potency.
• practicianA practitioner; someone who practises a particular profession, especially medicine.
• pravityPerversion, depravity; wickedness.