Word origins

• braccaeShapeless trousers of wool or skin tied at the waist and ankles by cords, worn chiefly by the ancient Gauls.
• brachialisA muscle in the upper arm that flexes the elbow joint, in conjunction with the biceps brachii.
• brachiateHaving decussate branches.
• brachiumThe upper arm.
• brachyurousbrachyural
• branchiaA gill or other organ having the same function.
• breviateA short account, brief statement; a summary, abridgement or precis
• brevis in longoThe situation where a short syllable at the end of a line can be counted as long.
• BrigantiaA Celtic goddess of victory.
• BruttiumA former district of southern Italy in the time of the Roman Empire.
• bubaleAny of several North African antelopes of the genus Alcelaphus.
• BubastisA city of ancient Egypt, noted as a centre of worship of the goddess Bastet.
• buccinaA curved brass instrument used by the Ancient Roman army.
• buccinatorA thin broad muscle forming the wall of the cheek.
• bucellariusA formation of escort troops used in the Roman Empire in Late Antiquity.
• BucephalusAny horse used for riding.
• bulbaceousbulbous
• bulbus glandisAn erectile tissue structure on the penis of canid mammals and some pinnipeds, which swells up and locks inside the female during sexual intercourse.
• burgeryThe governing body of a burgh or borough; burgage.
• burttinolAny of a class of isoflav-3-enes found in the flowering plant Erythrina burttii.
• byssusThe long fine silky filaments excreted by several mollusks (particularly Pinna nobilis) by which they attach themselves to the sea bed, and from which sea silk is manufactured.
• caballineOf, or pertaining to, a horse.
• cachecticHaving cachexia; wasting away from a disease or chronic illness.
• cacoethesCompulsion; mania.
• cacophemismdysphemism
• cacozeliaA stylistic affectation of diction, such as throwing in foreign words to appear learned.
• cacumenThe smallest possible piece of matter, making up part of an atom.
• cadmiaSynonym of calamine, a pink form of zinc oxide.
• caducecaducous.
• caeremoniariusAn official in charge of religious ceremonies.
• CaesaraugustaAn ancient city in Roman Spain, now Zaragoza.
• caetraA short Spanish shield.
• cainitoSynonym of star apple.
• CaireneOf or pertaining to Cairo, the capital of Egypt.
• calamistrateTo curl (the hair).
• calamistrumA comb-like structure on the metatarsus of the hind legs of cribellate spiders (Ciniflonidae), used to comb out fine bands of silk in the construction of their webs.
• calathusA vase-shaped basket made from reeds or twigs, used in Ancient Greece.
• calcaneumThe calcaneus.
• calcarA small oven or furnace, used for the calcination of sand and potash, and converting them into frit.
• calcateSynonym of trample: to crush or stomp underfoot.
• calceamentumA red silk embroidered sandal forming part of the insignia of the Holy Roman Empire.
• calceusA kind of low leather Roman boot or hightop shoe.
• caldariumIn Roman baths, the hottest room, with a plunge-pool. It preceded the tepidarium and frigidarium.
• calefactionThe act of warming or heating.
• calefactorywarming
• calendariumA calendar or timeline or events.
• calidariumSynonym of caldarium.
• calidityHeat.
• caligaA heavy ancient Roman military sandal.
• caligateWearing caligae or military boots.
• caligationdimness; cloudiness
• caligodimness or obscurity of sight, caused by a speck on the cornea
• CallinicumAn ancient city in Syria, corresponding to modern-day Raqqa
• CallipolisSynonym of Kallipolis in its various senses.
• CallisthenesAn ancient Greek historian
• calumniateTo make hurtful untrue comments about.
• calumniatorA person who calumniates (slanders, or makes personal attacks upon, others).
• calvitiesBaldness, the condition of being bald.
• calvousLacking most or all of one's hair; bald, hairless.
• calxThe substance which remains after a metal or mineral has been thoroughly burnt, once seen as being the essential substance left after the expulsion of phlogiston, but now recognised as being the metallic oxide (or, in some cases, the metal in a state of sublimation).
• CamenaeA group of prophetic goddesses associated with childbirth, wells, and fountains.
• camisiaAn ancient kind of shirt or nightgown.
• campagusA Roman military boot.
• campestralRelating to open fields or uncultivated land.
• CamulodunumAn ancient city in Britannia, Roman Empire; modern Colchester.
• cancellusA barrier, balustrade or railing, or screen, dividing the main body of a church from the chancel.
• cancrineOf or pertaining to crabs.
• canine toothSynonym of cuspid, one of the pointed teeth behind the incisors and in front of the premolars.
• cantho-Canthus, corner of the eye where the upper and lower lids meet.
• canthusEither corner of the eye, where the eyelids meet.
• cantillateTo chant, or to recite musically (especially in a synagogue).
• cantorisOf the side of the chancel, apse, altar or choir on which the cantor's (later precentor's) stall is placed (the left hand side to a person facing the altar);
• cantrixA female singer.
• cantus firmusA preexisting melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition.
• CapaneusOne of the seven warriors who marched from Argos against Thebes
• capiatAn instrument for removing foreign bodies from a cavity, such as placental remnants from the uterus.
• capistrateHooded, cowled.
• capistrumSynonym of phorbeia.
• capitatimper head
• capitellumSynonym of capitulum.
• CapitoliumSynonym of capitol, similar citadels in ancient Italian and Roman towns.
• capreolateHaving a tendril or tendrils.
• caprifigA hermaphrodite fruit, inedible to humans, of certain usually uncultivated species of Ficus, which is the source of the pollen with which fig wasps pollinate edible female fruit in both cultivated and uncultivated Ficus trees.
• capripedHaving or relating to feet like those of a goat.
• captationA courting of favor or applause, by flattery or address; a captivating quality; an attraction
• caput mortuumWorthless residue of sublimation or distillation.
• CaratacusA 1st-century-CE British chieftain of the Catuvellauni tribe, who resisted the Roman conquest of Britain.
• carbuncularOf, pertaining to, or resembling a carbuncle.
• cardiophylaxA piece of body armour—originally a metal breastplate or pair of plates—worn in classical antiquity to protect the region of the heart. Typically circular or square discs, fastened by leather straps, used in Italy from the Villanovan and Etruscan periods (7th century BCE) and later by Roman Republican legionaries and gladiators such as provocatores.
• carditisinflammation of the heart (any or all parts of it).
• carenumA reduction of must or sweet wine produced by boiling it in large kettles until it was reduced by half or two-thirds in volume.
• carinateShaped like a boat's keel.
• carinate abdomenSynonym of scaphoid abdomen.
• caritiveOf or relating to the caritive case.
• carmen figuratumA visual poem in the shape of an object.
• CarniaA region in the northeastern Italian area of Friuli.
• carunculaSynonym of caruncle.
• caseumCasein.
• CasmenaeAn ancient city in Sicily, founded as a colony by Syracusans in 644 BC, located on the Hyblaean Mountains, near modern Buscemi
• CaspianeThe land at the southwestern shore of the Caspian Sea populated by the ancient tribe of Caspians.