D - Etymology, Origin & Meaning (2025)

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D

fourth letter of the Roman alphabet, from Greek delta, from Phoenician and Hebrew daleth, pausal form of deleth "door," so called from its shape.

The form of the modern letter is the Greek delta (Δ) with one angle rounded. As the sign for "500" in Roman numerals, it is said to be half of CIƆ, which was an early form of M, the sign for "1,000." 3-D for "three-dimensional" is attested from 1952.

Unetymological -d- is the result of a tendency in English and neighboring languages, perhaps for euphony, to add -d- to -n-, and especially to insert or swap a -d- sound when -l- or -r- follow too closely an -n-.

Compare sound (n.1), thunder (n.), pound (v.), spindle, kindred, strand (n.2) "fiber of rope," dialectal rundel, rundle for runnel. Swound was a form of swoun (swoon) attested from mid-15c, and used by Malory, Spenser, Lyly, Middleton, Beaumont & Fletcher. Also obsolete round (n.) "whispering," variant of roun "secret, mystery, divine mystery" (from Old English run, source of rune), with unetymological -d attested by 15c. in the verb.

Among the words from French are powder (n.), meddle, tender (adj.), remainder, gender (n.), also riband, jaundice. It is less evident in spider (an agent noun from the Germanic *spin- root), and perhaps explains lender in place of loaner.

Entries linking to D

gender(n.)

c. 1300, "kind, sort, class, a class or kind of persons or things sharing certain traits," from Old French gendre, genre "kind, species; character; gender" (12c., Modern French genre), from stem of Latin genus (genitive generis) "race, stock, family; kind, rank, order; species," also "(male or female) sex," from PIE root *gene- "give birth, beget," with derivatives referring to procreation and familial and tribal groups.

The unetymological-d- is a phonetic accretion in Old French (see D). Also used in Latin to translate Aristotle's Greek grammatical term genos. The grammatical sense is attested in English from late 14c. Jespersen ("Philosophy of Grammar," 1924) defines grammatical gender by reference to the Indo-European distinction of masculine, feminine, neuter, "whether the division be based on the natural division into two sexes, or on that between animate and inanimate, or on something else."

The "male-or-female sex" sense of the word is attested in English from early 15c. As sex (n.) took on erotic qualities in 20c., gender came to be the usual English word for "sex of a human being," in which use it was at first regarded as colloquial or humorous. Later often in feminist writing with reference to social attributes as much as biological qualities; this sense first attested 1963. Gender-bender is from 1977, popularized from 1980, with reference to pop star David Bowie.

jaundice(n.)

"morbid condition characterized by yellowish skin and eyes (caused by bile pigments in the blood)," c. 1300, jaunis, from Old French jaunice, earlier jalnice, "yellowness" (12c.), from jaune/jalne "yellow," from Latin galbinus "greenish yellow" (also source of Italian giallo), extended form of galbus, which probably is from PIE root *ghel- (2) "to shine," with derivatives denoting "green" and "yellow." With unetymological -d- (see D).

Trends of D

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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meddle

early 14c., "to mingle, blend, mix" (a sense now obsolete), from Old North French medler (Old French mesler, 12c., Modern French mêler) "to mix, mingle, to meddle," from Vulgar Latin *misculare (source of Provençal mesclar, Spanish mezclar, Italian mescolare, meschiare), from Lat

powder

"fine, minute, loose, uncompacted particles," c. 1300, poudre, "ash, cinders; dust of the earth;" early 14c. of any pulverized substance; from Old French poudre "dust, powder; ashes; powdered substance" (13c.), earlier pouldre (11c.), from Latin pulverem (nominative pulvis)

remainder

late 14c., remaindre, in law, a right of ownership designed to devolve upon a second party, from Anglo-French remeinder, Old French remaindre, noun use of infinitive, a variant of Old French remanoir "to stay, dwell, remain; be left; hold out," from Latin remanere "to remain, to

dord

In sorting out and separating abbreviations from words in preparing the dictionary's second edition, a card marked "D or...d" meaning "density" somehow migrated from the "abbreviations" stack to the "words" stack....The "D or d" entry ended up being typeset as a word, dord, and defined as a synonym for density....

bludgeon

A plausible conjecture connects it with D[utch] blusden, blusten bruise, beat .......this source may have been introduced as a cant term in the Elizabethan period, along with many other cant terms from the D[...

rudder

For shift of -th- to -d- compare burden (n.1), murder (n.); simultaneous but opposite movement turned -d- to -th- in father...

sound

The unetymological -d was established c. 1350-1550; there seems to have been a tendency, perhaps for euphony, to add -d-...to -n-, and especially to insert or swap in a -d- sound when -l- or -r- follow too closely an -n-....

letter

c. 1200, "graphic symbol, alphabetic sign, written character conveying information about sound in speech," from Old French letre "character, letter; missive, note," in plural, "literature, writing, learning" (10c., Modern French lettre), from Latin littera (also litera) "letter o

vitamin

1920, originally vitamine (1912) coined by Polish biochemist Casimir Funk (1884-1967), from Latin vita "life" (from PIE root *gwei- "to live") + amine, because they were thought to contain amino acids. The terminal -e formally was stripped off when scientists learned the true nat

five

"1 more than four; the number which is one more than four; a symbol representing this number;" Old English fif "five," from Proto-Germanic *fimfe (source also of Old Frisian fif, Old Saxon fif, Dutch vijf, Old Norse fimm, Old High German funf, Gothic fimf), from PIE root *penkwe-

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Dictionary entries near D

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