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twelve: twelve: [OE] Etymologically, twelve probably means ‘two over’ (just as eleven means ‘one over’). It appears to go back to a prehistoric Germanic compound formed from *twa- ‘two’ and *lif- (a relative of English leave), which also produced German zwölf, Dutch twaalf, Swedish tolf, and Danish tolv. If so, its underlying meaning is ‘two left (over ten)’, hence ‘ten plus two’.
=> leave, two
velvet: velvet: [14] Velvet is etymologically a ‘hairy’ or ‘downy’ fabric. Its ultimate ancestor is Latin villus ‘hair, down’, which also produced English velours [18]. From it was derived medieval Latin villūtus ‘shaggy’, which passed into Old French as velu ‘velvety’. And this in turn formed the basis of a noun veluotte, from which English got velvet. The derivative velveteen dates from the 18th century.
=> velours
belvedere (n.): "raised turret atop a house," 1590s, from Italian belvedere, literally "a fair sight," from bel, bello "beautiful" (from Latin bellus "beautiful, fair;" see bene-) + vedere "a view, sight" (see vista). Pronunciation perhaps influenced by the French form of the word. So called because it was used for viewing the grounds.
delve (v.): Old English delfan "to dig" (class III strong verb; past tense dealf, past participle dolfen), common West Germanic verb (cognates: Old Saxon delban, Dutch delven, Middle High German telben "to dig"), from PIE root *dhelbh- (cognates: Lithuanian delba "crowbar," Russian dolbit', Czech dlabati, Polish dłubać "to chisel;" Russian dolotó, Czech dlato, Polish dłuto "chisel"). Weak inflections emerged 14c.-16c. Related: Delved; delving.
elven (adj.): Old English -ælfen (n.) "an elf or fairy," usually a female one (see elf). Not a pure adjective in Middle English (elvish was used), but used in phrases such as elven land (c. 1300). Apparently revived as an adjective by Tolkien (1937).
elver (n.): "young eel," 1640s, variant or corruption of eelfare (1530s), literally "passage of young eels up a river;" see eel + fare (n.).
Elvira: fem. proper name, from Spanish, of Germanic origin.
elvish (adj.): c. 1200, aluisc, "belonging to or pertaining to the elves; supernatural," from elf + -ish. Old English used ilfig in this sense.
helve (n.): Old English helfe, hielfe "handle of an axe" or other tool or weapon, from Proto-Germanic *halb- (cognates: Old Saxon helvi, Middle Dutch helf, Old High German halb "handle of an axe," Old High German helmo "tiller"); related to halter and helm (1), from PIE *kelp- "to hold, grasp." In Middle English, to holden the axe bi the helve (c. 1200) meant "to take something by the right end."
Helvetian (adj.): "Swiss," 1550s, from Helvetia terra, Medieval Latin name of Switzerland, from Latin Helvetius "pertaining to the Helvetii," a Celtic people of ancient Gallia Lugdunensis.
Kelvin: unit of absolute temperature scale, 1911, in honor of British physicist Sir William Thompson, Lord Kelvin (1824-1907).
Melvin: masc. proper name, from Old English Mælwine, literally "friend of the council," from mæl "council," from Proto-Germanic *mathla- (see blackmail) + wine "friend" (related to winnan "to strive, struggle, fight;" see win (v.)).
pelvic (adj.): 1830, irregularly formed from pelvis + -ic. OED prefers "the better-formed" French pelvien.
pelvis (n.): 1610s, "basin-like cavity formed by the bones of the pelvic girdle," from Modern Latin, from Latin pelvis "basin, laver," Old Latin peluis "basin," from PIE *pel- "container" (cognates: Sanskrit palavi "vessel," Greek pelex "helmet," pelike "goblet, bowl," Old Norse and Old English full "cup").
selvage (n.): mid-15c., "edge of web or cloth so finished as to prevent raveling," apparently literally "its own edge," a corruption of self + edge (n.); on analogy of Middle Flemish selvegge (compare also Low German sulfegge; Dutch zelfkant, from kant "border;" Middle High German selbende, German Selbend, literally "self-end").
shelve (v.1): 1590s, "to overhang," also "to provide with shelves," probably a back-formation from shelves, plural of shelf (n.1). Meaning "put on a shelf" first recorded 1650s; metaphoric sense of "lay aside, dismiss" is from 1812. Related: Shelved; shelving.
shelve (v.2): "to slope gradually," 1610s, from Middle English shelven "to slope," from shelfe "grassy slope," a word related to shelf (n.1). Related: Shelved; shelving.
themselves (pron.): mid-15c. in northern dialect, standard from 1540s, alteration of Middle English tham-self, emphatic plural pronoun, also reciprocal pronoun (14c.); see them + self, with self, originally an inflected adjective, treated as a noun with a meaning "person" and pluralized. Displacing Old English heom selfum (dative). Themself returned late 20c. as some writers took to replacing himself with gender-neutral everyone, anyone, etc.
twelve (adj.): Old English twelf "twelve," literally "two left" (over ten), from Proto-Germanic *twa-lif-, a compound of the root of two + *lif-, root of the verb leave (see eleven). Compare Old Saxon twelif, Old Norse tolf, Old Frisian twelef, Middle Dutch twalef, Dutch twaalf, Old High German zwelif, German zwölf, Gothic twalif. Outside Germanic, an analogous formation is Lithuanian dvylika, with second element -lika "left over."
twelve-month (n.): "a year," Old English twelf-monð; see twelve + month.
velvet (n.): early 14c., probably from Old Provençal veluet, from Vulgar Latin *villutittus, diminutive of Vulgar Latin *villutus "velvet," literally "shaggy cloth," from Latin villus "shaggy hair, nap of cloth, tuft of hair," probably a dialectal variant of vellus "fleece," from PIE *wel-no-, suffixed form of root *wel- (4) "to tear, pull" (see svelte).
velveteen (n.): imitation velvet (made with cotton in place of silk), 1776, from velvet + commercial suffix -een (variant of -ine).
velvety (adj.): 1712, from velvet + -y (2). Related: Velvetiness.