Category: vocabulary

late 12c., from Old French patriarche “one of the Old Testament fathers” (11c.) and directly from Late Latin patriarcha (Tertullian), from Greek patriarkhes “chief or head of a family,” from patria “family, clan,” from pater “father” (see father (n.)) + arkhein “to rule” (see archon). Also used as an honorific title of certain bishops in the early Church, notably those of Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome.

“mother or woman who heads a family or tribe,” c. 1600, from matri- “mother, woman” + -arch, abstracted from patriarch, ultimately from Greek arkhein “to rule” (see archon).

“of or pertaining to the local self-government or corporation of a city or town,” 1540s, from Middle French municipal, from Latin municipalis “pertaining to a citizen of a free town, of a free town,” also “of a petty town, provincial,” from municipium “community, municipality, free town, city whose citizens have the privileges of Roman citizens but are governed by their own laws,” from municeps “native, citizen, inhabitant of a free town.”

The second element is -cipere, combining form of capere “assume, take,” from PIE root *kap- “to grasp.” The first element is from munus (plural munia) “service performed for the community, duty, work,” also “public spectacle paid for by the magistrate, (gladiatorial) entertainment, gift,” from Old Latin moenus “service, duty, burden,” from Proto-Italic *moini-, *moinos- “duty, obligation, task,” from PIE root *mei- (1) “to change, go, move,” with derivatives referring to the exchange of goods and functions or obligations within a society as regulated by custom or law.

As cognates in related senses, de Vaan lists Sanskrit meni- “revenge,” Avestan maeini- “punishment, castigation,” Old Persian yau-maini- “power of revenge,” Middle Welsh tramwy, tremynu “to cross, pass,” Old Irish moin “value, treasure,” Welsh mwyn “value,” Lithuanian mainas “exchange,” Old Church Slavonic mena “exchange, substitution,” Gothic gamains, Old High German gimeins “common.” “A municeps is one who ‘takes an obligation,’ communis ‘who partakes in the duties'” [de Vaan]

“town or city having corporate privileges of local self-government,” 1789, from French municipalité, from municipal (see municipal)

1867, American English, originally Kuklux Klan, a made-up name, supposedly from Greek kuklos, kyklos “circle” (see cycle (n.)) + English clan. Originally an organization of former Confederate officers and soldiers, it was put down by the U.S. military in the 1870s. Revived 1915 as a national racist Protestant fraternal organization, it grew to prominence but fractured in the 1930s. It had a smaller national revival 1950s as an anti-civil rights group, later with anti-government leanings. In late 19c. often simply Kuklux.

“a family, a tribe,” especially, among the Highlanders of Scotland, a form of social organization consisting of a tribe holding land in common under leadership of a chieftain, early 15c., from Gaelic clann “family, stock, offspring,” akin to Old Irish cland “offspring, tribe,” both from Latin planta “offshoot” (see plant (n.)).

The Goidelic branch of Celtic (including Gaelic) had no initial p-, so it substituted k- or c- for Latin p-. The same Latin word in (non-Goidelic) Middle Welsh became plant “children.”

“characterized by extortion, oppressive, excessive,” 1711, from extortion + -ate. Extortious is from c. 1600.

in the Facebook sense, attested from 2005, from the noun. Friend occasionally has been used as a verb in English since c. 1200 (“to be friends”), though the more usual verb for “join in friendship, act as a friend” is befriend. Related: Friended; friending. Old English had freonsped “an abundance of friends” (see speed (n.)); freondleast “want of friends;” freondspedig “rich in friends.”

Old English freond “one attached to another by feelings of personal regard and preference,” from Proto-Germanic *frijōjands “lover, friend” (source also of Old Norse frændi, Old Danish frynt, Old Frisian friund, Dutch vriend, Middle High German friunt, German Freund, Gothic frijonds “friend”), from PIE *priy-ont-, “loving,” present-participle form of root *pri- “to love.”

Meaning “a Quaker” (a member of the Society of Friends) is from 1670s. Feond (“fiend,” originally “enemy”) and freond often were paired alliteratively in Old English; both are masculine agent nouns derived from present participle of verbs, but they are not directly related to one another (see fiend). Related: Friends.

late 14c., “an overflowing of water, a great flood, Noah’s Flood in Genesis,” from Old French deluge (12c.), earlier deluve, from Latin diluvium “flood, inundation,” from diluere “wash away,” from dis- “away” (see dis-) + -luere, combining form of lavere “to wash” (from PIE root *leue- “to wash”). Figurative sense of “anything that overflows or floods” is from early 15c.

After me the deluge (F. après moi le déluge), a saying ascribed to Louis XV, who expressed thus his indifference to the results of his policy of selfish and reckless extravagance, and perhaps his apprehension of coming disaster. [Century Dictionary]