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aspic: aspic: [18] Aspic was borrowed from French, where, like the archaic English asp which reputedly bit Cleopatra, it also means ‘snake’ (ultimately from Greek aspís). This has led to speculation that aspic the jelly was named from aspic the snake on the basis that the colours and patterns in which moulds of aspic were made in the 18th and 19th centuries resembled a snake’s coloration.

There does not appear to be any watertight evidence for this rather far-fetched theory, and perhaps more plausible is some connection with French aspic ‘lavender, spikenard’, formerly used for flavouring aspic, or with Greek aspís ‘shield’ (source of aspidistra [19]), on the basis that the earliest aspic moulds were shield-shaped.
cassock: cassock: [16] Etymologically, a cassock is probably a cloak worn by a Cossack; the two words appear to be ultimately identical. Cassock, which originally meant simply ‘cloak’ or ‘long coat’ (its current application to clergymen’s tunics arose in the 17th century), comes via French casaque from Italian casacca. It has been conjectured that this was a descendant of Turkish quzzāk ‘nomad’ (a derivative of the verb qaz ‘wander’), which also, via Russian kozak, gave English Cossack [16].

However, another theory is that cassock comes ultimately from Persian kazhāghand ‘padded jacket’, a compound formed from kazh ‘raw silk’ and āghand ‘stuffed’.
=> cossack
crock: crock: English has two words crock. The one meaning ‘earthenware pot’ [OE] is now almost never heard on its own, except perhaps in the phrase ‘crock of gold’, but it is familiar from its derivative crockery [18]. Its immediate antecedents appear to be Germanic (Dutch, for instance, has the related kruik), but cognate forms appear in other Indo-European languages, including Welsh crochan and Greek krōssós. Cruet [13] comes from Anglo-Norman *cruet, a diminutive frorm of Old French crue ‘pot’, which was borrowed from Old Saxon krūka, a relative of English crock. Crock ‘decrepit person, car, etc’ [15] is earliest encountered (in Scottish English) in the sense ‘old ewe’.

The connotation of being ‘broken-down’, and the existence of near synonyms such as Dutch krak, Flemish krake, and Swedish krake, all meaning ‘wornout old horse’, suggest some kind of link with the word crack.
=> crockery, cruet
hare: hare: [OE] The hare seems originally to have been named from its colour. The word comes from prehistoric West and North Germanic *khason, which also produced German hase, Dutch haas, and Swedish and Danish hare, and if as has been suggested it is related to Old English hasu ‘grey’ and Latin cascus ‘old’, its underlying meaning would appear to be ‘grey animal’ (just as the bear and the beaver are etymologically the ‘brown animal’, and the herring may be the ‘grey fish’). Harrier ‘dog for hunting hares’ [16] was derived from hare on the model of Old French levrier (French lièvre means ‘hare’, and is related to English leveret ‘young hare’ [15]); it was originally harer, and the present-day form arose from confusion with harrier ‘falcon’ [16], a derivative of the verb harry.
=> harrier, herring, hoar
heath: heath: [OE] Heath goes back to Indo-European *kait-, denoting ‘open, unploughed country’. Its Germanic descendant *khaithiz produced German and Dutch heide and English heath. One of the commonest plants of such habitats is the heather, and this was accordingly named in prehistoric Germanic *khaithjō, a derivative of the same base as produced *khaithiz, which in modern English has become heath ‘plant of the heather family’. (The word heather [14] itself, incidentally, does not appear to be related. It comes from a Scottish or Northern Middle English hadder or hathir, and its modern English form is due to association with heath.)
seem: seem: [12] Originally, seem meant ‘be suitable’ (a meaning preserved in the derived seemly [13]). It was borrowed from the Old Norse verb soema ‘conform to, honour’. This was derived from the adjective soemr ‘fitting’, a descendant of the prehistoric base *sōm- (to which English same is distantly related). The sense ‘appear to be’ emerged in the early 13th century.
=> same, seemly, soft
storm: storm: [OE] Etymologically, a storm is probably a ‘violent disturbance or agitation’; its meteorological connotations appear to be a secondary development. The word comes from a prehistoric Germanic *sturmaz (source also of German sturm and Dutch, Swedish, and Danish storm). This was probably formed from the base *stur- ‘disturbance, agitation’, which also lies behind English stir.
=> stir
-cule: word-forming element used to make diminutives, from French -cule or directly from Latin -culus (masc.), -cula (fem.), -culum (neuter); these appear to be variants of the diminutive suffix -ulus (see -ule) used after -i-, -e-, -u-, and consonant stems [Gildersleeve], or might be a double-diminutive involving "an ancient diminutive suffix *-qo-" [Palmer, "The Latin Language"].

There also was a Latin instrumentive suffix -culo-, -culum in baculum "walking stick," gubernaculum "rudder, helm; management, government," operculum "cover, lid," obstaculum "a hindrance, obstacle," oraculum "divine announcement."
ease (n.): c. 1200, "physical comfort, undisturbed state of the body; tranquility, peace of mind," from Old French aise "comfort, pleasure, well-being; opportunity," which is of unknown origin, despite attempts to link it to various Latin verbs; perhaps Celtic. According to OED, the earliest senses in French appear to be 1. "elbow-room" (from an 11th century Hebrew-French glossary) and 2. "opportunity." This led Sophus Bugge to suggest an origin in Vulgar Latin asa, a shortened form of Latin ansa "handle," which could be used in the figurative sense of "opportunity, occasion," as well as being a possible synonym for "elbow," because Latin ansatus "furnished with handles" also was used to mean "having the arms akimbo." OED editors add, "This is not very satisfactory, but it does not appear that any equally plausible alternative has yet been proposed."

At ease "at rest, at peace, in comfort" is from late 14c.; as a military order (1802) the word denotes "freedom from stiffness or formality."
empathic (adj.): 1909 [Titchener], from empathy + -ic. Related: Empathically. Treated as a coinage of Titchener's when it appeared in psychological writing; there are dozens of uses of empathic in printed material from the late 19th century but most of these appear to be errors for emphatic.
farm (n.): c. 1300, "fixed payment (usually in exchange for taxes collected, etc.), fixed rent," from Old French ferme "a rent, lease" (13c.), from Medieval Latin firma "fixed payment," from Latin firmare "to fix, settle, confirm, strengthen," from firmus "firm" (see firm (adj.)).

Sense of "tract of leased land" is first recorded early 14c.; that of "cultivated land" (leased or not) is 1520s. A word of confused history, but there is agreement that "the purely agricultural sense is comparatively modern" [Century Dictionary]. There is a set of Old English words that appear to be related in sound and sense; if these, too, are from Latin it would be a very early borrowing. Some books strenuously defend a theory that the Anglo-Saxon words are original (perhaps related to feorh "life").

Phrase buy the farm "die in battle," is at least from World War II, perhaps a cynical reference to the draftee's dream of getting out of the war and going home, in many cases to a peaceful farmstead. But fetch the farm is prisoner slang from at least 1879 for "get sent to the infirmary," with reference to the better diet and lighter duties there.
fulfill (v.): Old English fullfyllan "fill up" (a room, a ship, etc.), "make full; take the place of (something)," from full (adj.), here perhaps with a sense of "completion" + fyllan (see fill (v.), which is ultimately from the same root). Used from mid-13c. in reference to prophecy (probably translating Latin implere, adimplere). From mid-13c. as "do, perform; carry out, consummate, carry into effect;" from c. 1300 as "complete, finish; satiate, satisfy, gratify." Related: Fulfilled; fulfilling. Modern English combinations with full tend to have it at the end of the word (as -ful), but this is a recent development and in Old English it was more common at the start, but this word and fulsome appear to be the only survivors.
phantasm (n.): early 13c., fantesme, from Old French fantosme "a dream, illusion, fantasy; apparition, ghost, phantom" (12c.), and directly from Latin phantasma "an apparition, specter," from Greek phantasma "image, phantom, apparition; mere image, unreality," from phantazein "to make visible, display," from stem of phainein "to bring to light, make appear; come to light, be seen, appear; explain, expound, inform against; appear to be so," from PIE root *bha- (1) "to shine" (cognates: Sanskrit bhati "shines, glitters," Old Irish ban "white, light, ray of light"). Spelling conformed to Latin from 16c. (see ph). A spelling variant of phantom, "differentiated, but so that the differences are elusive" [Fowler].
sabotage (n.): 1907 (from 1903 as a French word in English), from French sabotage, from saboter "to sabotage, bungle," literally "walk noisily," from sabot "wooden shoe" (13c.), altered (by association with Old French bot "boot") from Middle French savate "old shoe," from an unidentified source that also produced similar words in Old Provençal, Portuguese, Spanish (zapata), Italian (ciabatta), Arabic (sabbat), and Basque (zapata).

In French, and at first in English, the sense of "deliberately and maliciously destroying property" originally was in reference to labor disputes, but the oft-repeated story (as old as the record of the word in English) that the modern meaning derives from strikers' supposed tactic of throwing shoes into machinery is not supported by the etymology. Likely it was not meant as a literal image; the word was used in French in a variety of "bungling" senses, such as "to play a piece of music badly." This, too, was the explanation given in some early usages.
SABOTAGE [chapter heading] The title we have prefixed seems to mean "scamping work." It is a device which, we are told, has been adopted by certain French workpeople as a substitute for striking. The workman, in other words, purposes to remain on and to do his work badly, so as to annoy his employer's customers and cause loss to his employer. ["The Liberty Review," January 1907]

You may believe that sabotage is murder, and so forth, but it is not so at all. Sabotage means giving back to the bosses what they give to us. Sabotage consists in going slow with the process of production when the bosses go slow with the same process in regard to wages. [Arturo M. Giovannitti, quoted in report of the Sagamore Sociological Conference, June 1907]

In English, "malicious mischief" would appear to be the nearest explicit definition of "sabotage," which is so much more expressive as to be likely of adoption into all languages spoken by nations suffering from this new force in industry and morals. Sabotage has a flavor which is unmistakable even to persons knowing little slang and no French .... ["Century Magazine," November 1910]
Scrooge (n.): generic for "miser," 1940, from curmudgeonly character in Dickens' 1843 story "A Christmas Carol." It does not appear to be a genuine English surname, but it is an 18c. variant of scrounge.
seem (v.): c. 1200, "to appear to be;" c. 1300, "to be fitting, be appropriate, be suitable," though the more recent sense in English is the etymological one; from Old Norse soema "to honor; to put up with; to conform to (the world, etc.)," verb derived from adjective soemr "fitting," from Proto-Germanic *somi- (cognates: Old English som "agreement, reconciliation," seman "to conciliate," source of Middle English semen "to settle a dispute," literally "to make one;" Old Danish some "to be proper or seemly"), from PIE *som-i-, from root *sem- "one, as one" (see same). Related: Seemed; seeming.
shaft (n.1): Old English sceaft "long, slender rod, staff, pole; spear-shaft; spear," from Proto-Germanic *skaftaz (cognates: Old Norse skapt, Old Saxon skaft, Old High German scaft, German schaft, Dutch schacht, not found in Gothic), which some connect with a Germanic passive past participle of PIE root *(s)kep- "to cut, to scrape" (source of Old English scafan "to shave, scrape, polish") on notion of "tree branch stripped of its bark." But compare Latin scapus "shaft, stem, shank," Greek skeptron "a staff" (see scepter) which appear to be cognates.

Meaning "beam or ray" (of light, etc.) is attested from c. 1300. Sense of "an arrow" is from c. 1400; that of "a handle" from 1520s. Mechanical sense is from 1680s. Vulgar slang meaning "penis" first recorded 1719 on notion of "columnar part" (late 14c.); hence probably shaft (v.) and the related noun sense "act of unfair treatment" (1959), though some early sources insist this is from the notion of a "wound."
spelunker (n.): "a cave bug; one who explores caves as a hobby," 1942, agent noun formed from obsolete spelunk "cave, cavern." The verb spelunk "explore caves" and the verbal noun spelunking are attested from 1946 and appear to be back-formations.
television (n.): 1907, as a theoretical system to transmit moving images over telegraph or telephone wires; formed in English or borrowed from French télévision, from tele- + vision.
Television is not impossible in theory. In practice it would be very costly without being capable of serious application. But we do not want that. On that day when it will be possible to accelerate our methods of telephotography by at least ten times, which does not appear to be impossible in the future, we shall arrive at television with a hundred telegraph wires. Then the problem of sight at a distance will without doubt cease to be a chimera. ["Telegraphing Pictures" in "Windsor Magazine," 1907]
Other proposals for the name of a then-hypothetical technology for sending pictures over distance were telephote (1880) and televista (1904). The technology was developed in the 1920s and '30s. Nativized in German as Fernsehen. Shortened form TV is from 1948. Meaning "a television set" is from 1941. Meaning "television as a medium" is from 1927.
Television is the first truly democratic culture -- the first culture available to everyone and entirely governed by what the people want. The most terrifying thing is what people do want. [Clive Barnes, "New York Times," Dec. 30, 1969]
Tuesday (n.): third day of the week, Old English tiwesdæg, from Tiwes, genitive of Tiw "Tiu," from Proto-Germanic *Tiwaz "god of the sky," the original supreme deity of ancient Germanic mythology, differentiated specifically as Tiu, ancient Germanic god of war, from PIE *deiwos "god," from root *dyeu- "to shine" (see diurnal). Compare Old Frisian tiesdei, Old Norse tysdagr, Swedish tisdag, Old High German ziestag.

The day name (second element dæg, see day) is a translation of Latin dies Martis (source of Italian martedi, French Mardi) "Day of Mars," from the Roman god of war, who was identified with Germanic Tiw (though etymologically Tiw is related to Zeus), itself a loan-translation of Greek Areos hemera. In cognate German Dienstag and Dutch Dinsdag, the first element would appear to be Germanic ding, þing "public assembly," but it is now thought to be from Thinxus, one of the names of the war-god in Latin inscriptions.
Uncle Sam (n.): symbol of the United States of America, 1813, coined during the war with Britain as a contrast to John Bull, and no doubt suggested by the initials U.S. in abbreviations. "[L]ater statements connecting it with different government officials of the name of Samuel appear to be unfounded" [OED]. The common figure of Uncle Sam began to appear in political cartoons c. 1850. Only gradually superseded earlier Brother Jonathan (1776), largely through the popularization of the figure by cartoonist Thomas Nast. British in World War I sometimes called U.S. soldiers Sammies.