Every word has a story to tell. Take the word companion. Did you know it comes from a Latin word that has the literal sense of "one who breaks bread with another?" Or consider the word silly. Its original sense was "blessed."
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DOG
Man's most lovable and loyal friend is actually one of English's most perplexing mysteries.
The word dog comes from the rare Old English word docga. The more usual word back then was hund, which became hound.
But where did this word dog come from? Theories have been offered, but etymologists are left scratching their heads.
RABBIT
Found in Middle English, rabbit originally meant "young rabbit, bunny," and was probably borrowed from a French word. Etymologists point us to the Walloon robett and the dialectical Dutch robbe.
GIRL
Now this one's really packs the etymological punch.
First, the word girl—generally meaning "a female child"—originally meant any "child" or "young person," regardless of gender.
Girl, for "child," is recorded around 1250–1300. The deeper roots of the word, however, are uncertain.
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BOY
Girl's counterpart, boy, is also obscure. Like girl, boy is also dated to around 1250–1300.
We have some clues to the roots of boy. It might be based on the Old English Bōia, a male given name. Boy is related to the Frisian boi, "young man," and the German Bube, "knave, boy, lad."
That German sense of "knave" is interesting because among the earliest senses of boy was "male servant."
NUDGE
To nudge is "to push slightly or gently, specifically with an elbow when doing so literally, in order to get someone's attention or to prod someone along."
Nudge, found by 1665–75, can be traced back to a dialectical variant of knidge or nidge, related to the Old English cnucian or cnocian, meaning to knock.
From Dictionary.com
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