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absolute: absolute: [14] Absolute, absolution, and absolve all come ultimately from the same source: Latin absolvere ‘set free’, a compound verb made up from the prefix ab- ‘away’ and the verb solvere ‘loose’ (from which English gets solve and several other derivatives, including dissolve and resolve). From the 13th to the 16th century an alternative version of the verb, assoil, was in more common use than absolve; this came from the same Latin original, but via Old French rather than by a direct route.

The t of absolute and absolution comes from the past participial stem of the Latin verb – absolūt-. The noun, the adjective, and the verb have taken very different routes from their common semantic starting point, the notion of ‘setting free’: absolve now usually refers to freeing from responsibility and absolution to the remitting of sins, while absolute now means ‘free from any qualification or restriction’.
=> dissolve, resolve, solve
circus: circus: [16] Latin circus meant literally ‘ring, circle’, but it was applied metaphorically by the Romans to the circular arena in which performances and contests were held. That was the original signification of the word in English, applied in a strictly antiquarian sense to the ancient world, and it was not until the late 18th century that it began to be used for any circular arena and the entertainment staged therein.

The Latin word is related to, and may have come from, Greek kírkos; and it is also connected with Latin curvus, source of English curve. It has additionally been linked with Latin corōna ‘circlet’, from which English gets crown. And it is of course, via its accusative form circum, the starting point of a wide range of English words with the prefix circum-, from circumference to circumvent (in this category is circuit [14], which goes back to an original Latin compound verb circumīre, literally ‘go round’).
=> circle, circuit, circulate, crown, curve, search
malign: malign: [14] Malign comes, probably via Old French, from Latin malignus ‘wicked’. This was derived from malus ‘bad’, a word of unknown origin (some have tried to link it with English small). Malus is of course the starting point for a wide range of other English words, including malady [13] (ultimately from Vulgar Latin *male habitus ‘in bad condition’); malaise [18] (which originated in Old French as a conflation of mal aise ‘bad ease’); malapropism; malaria; malediction [15] (etymologically ‘evil saying’); malevolent [16] (literally ‘wishing evil’); malice [13] (from Latin malitia, a derivative of malus); and malingerer [18] (from French malingre, which may have been a compound of mal- and haingre ‘weak’). Malignant [16] comes from the present participle of Latin malignāre ‘act with malice’, a verb derived from malignus.
=> malady, malaise, malaria, malignant, malingerer
moral: moral: [14] Latin mōs ‘custom’ is the starting point of the English family of ‘morality’-words (and its plural mōres was acquired by English as mores in the 20th century). Its derived adjective mōrālis was coined, according to some by Cicero, as a direct translation of Greek ēthikós ‘ethical’, to denote the ‘typical or proper behaviour of human beings in society’, and was borrowed directly into English in the 14th century. Morale [18] was borrowed from French, where it is the feminine form of the adjective moral.

At first it was used in English for ‘morality, moral principles’; its modern sense ‘condition with regard to optimism, cheerfulness, etc’ is not recorded until the early 19th century.
=> morale, mores
polyp: polyp: [16] A polyp is etymologically a ‘manyfooted’ creature. The word originally signified ‘octopus’, but in the 18th century was broadened out into a general term for marine invertebrates with tentacles, such as hydras and sea anemones. It comes via French polype and Latin polypus from Greek polúpous ‘cuttlefish’, a compound formed from pólus ‘much, many’ and poús ‘foot’ (source of English pew and podium and related to English foot).

The metaphorical application of the word to a tumour growing from mucous membrane (an allusion to its tentacle-like outgrowths) originated in Greek. Greek pólus (a distant relative of English full and plural) is of course the starting point of many English poly- words, all with the underlying notion of ‘several’ – among them polyglot [17] (etymologically ‘many tongues’), polygon [16], polysyllable [16], and polytechnic [19].

And its plural, polloí ‘many’, is the origin of English hoi polloi [19], literally ‘the many’.
=> foot, full, hoi polloi, pedal, plural, plus, polygon
romance: romance: [13] A romance is etymologically a story written in the language ‘of Rome’. The word comes from Old French romanz, which denoted ‘something written in French (as opposed to classical Latin)’. This went back to the Vulgar Latin adverb *rōmānicē ‘in the local vernacular descended from Latin’ (contrasted with latinē ‘in Latin’). This in turn came from Latin rōmānicus ‘Roman’, a derivative ultimately of Rōma ‘Rome’.

In practice, these medieval vernacular tales were usually about chivalric adventure, and that was the starting point from which the modern meaning of romance, and its derivative romantic [17], developed. The original sense survives in the linguistic term Romance, denoting languages such as French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, etc that have evolved from Latin.
rubble: rubble: [14] Old French robe (a relative of English rob) originally meant ‘loot, odds and ends stolen’ (its later sense ‘stolen clothes’ led on to English robe). From it was derived Anglo- Norman *robel ‘bits of broken stone’, which passed into English as rubble. The plural of *robel would have been *robeus, and this may have been the starting point for Anglo-Norman rubbous, which became English rubbish [14].
=> rob, rubbish
sentence: sentence: [13] ‘Complete grammatical unit’ is a comparatively recent meaning of sentence, which only emerged in English in the 15th century. Its Latin ancestor sententia originally meant ‘feeling’, for it was a derivative of sentīre ‘feel’ (source also of English sense, sentiment, etc). It subsequently broadened out to ‘opinion, judgment’, which was the starting point for the use of English sentence for ‘judicial declaration of punishment’. Sententia also came to denote ‘meaning’, and hence ‘meaning expressed in words’ and ‘maxim’.

The former lies behind the grammatical sense of English sentence, while the latter survives in the derived adjective sententious [15].
=> sense, sententious
base (n.): "bottom, foundation, pedestal," early 14c., from Old French bas "depth" (12c.), from Latin basis "foundation," from Greek basis "step, pedestal," from bainein "to step" (see come). The military sense is from 1860. The chemical sense (1810) was introduced in French 1754 by French chemist Guillaume-François Rouelle (1703-1770). Sporting sense of "starting point" ia from 1690s, also "destination of a runner" (1812). As a "safe" spot in a tag-like game, suggested from mid-15c. (as the name of the game later called prisoner's base).
era (n.): 1716, earlier aera (1610s), from Late Latin aera, era "an era or epoch from which time is reckoned" (7c.), probably identical with Latin aera "counters used for calculation," plural of aes (genitive aeris) "brass, copper, money" (see ore, also compare copper). The Latin word's use in chronology said to have begun in 5c. Spain (where the local era, aera Hispanica, began 38 B.C.E.; some say because of a tax levied that year). Other ancient eras included the Chaldean (autumn of 311 B.C.E.), the Era of Actium (31 B.C.E.), of Antioch (49 B.C.E.), of Tyre (126 B.C.E.), the Olympiadic (July 1, 776 B.C.E.) and the Seleucidan (autumn 312 B.C.E.). In English it originally meant "the starting point of an age" (compare epoch); meaning "system of chronological notation" is from 1640s; that of "historical period" is from 1741, as in the U.S. Era of Good Feeling (1817) was anything but.
mark (n.1): "trace, impression," Old English mearc (West Saxon), merc (Mercian) "boundary, sign, limit, mark," from Proto-Germanic *marko (cognates: Old Norse merki "boundary, sign," mörk "forest," which often marked a frontier; Old Frisian merke, Gothic marka "boundary, frontier," Dutch merk "mark, brand," German Mark "boundary, boundary land"), from PIE *merg- "edge, boundary, border" (cognates: Latin margo "margin;" Avestan mareza- "border," Old Irish mruig, Irish bruig "borderland," Welsh bro "district").

The primary sense is probably "boundary," which had evolved by Old English through "sign of a boundary," through "sign in general," then to "impression or trace forming a sign." Meaning "any visible trace or impression" first recorded c. 1200. Sense of "line drawn to indicate starting point of a race" (as in on your marks ...) first attested 1887. The Middle English sense of "target" (c. 1200) is the notion in marksman and slang sense "victim of a swindle" (1883). The notion of "sign, token" is behind the meaning "numerical award given by a teacher" (1829). Influenced by Scandinavian cognates.
salient (adj.): 1560s, "leaping," a heraldic term, from Latin salientem (nominative saliens), present participle of salire "to leap," from PIE root *sel- (4) "to jump" (cognates: Greek hallesthai "to leap," Middle Irish saltraim "I trample," and probably Sanskrit ucchalati "rises quickly").

It was used in Middle English as an adjective meaning "leaping, skipping." The meaning "pointing outward" (preserved in military usage) is from 1680s; that of "prominent, striking" first recorded 1840, from salient point (1670s), which refers to the heart of an embryo, which seems to leap, and translates Latin punctum saliens, going back to Aristotle's writings. Hence, the "starting point" of anything.
scratch (n.): 1580s, "slight skin tear produced by a sharp thing," from scratch (v.). Meaning "mark or slight furrow in metal, etc." is from 1660s. American English slang sense of "money" is from 1914, of uncertain signification. Many figurative senses (such as up to scratch, originally "ready to meet one's opponent") are from sporting use for "line or mark drawn as a starting place," attested from 1778 (but the earliest use is figurative); meaning "nothing" (as in from scratch) is 1918, generalized from specific 19c. sporting sense of "starting point of a competitor who receives no odds in a handicap match." Sense in billiards is from 1850. Scratch-pad is attested from 1883.