Origin and history of OED

in Irish music, "harp tune of a sportive and animated character" [OED], 1790, of unknown origin, evidently not a native Irish...According to OED, some suggest ultimate derivation from Latin plangere "to strike, beat" (from PIE root *plak- (2) "to strike...See also Katrin Thier, "Of Picts and Penguins -- Celtic Languages in the New Edition of the OED," in "The Celtic Languages...

English *mān "complaint," from mānan, a variant of mænan "complain, moan," also "tell, intend, signify" (see mean (v.1)); but OED...Meaning "long, low inarticulate murmur expressing grief or pain" is by 1670s, "with onomatopoeic suggestion" [OED]....

vb., in which the northern seek has displaced the southern seech, in the compound beseech has become the standard form" [OED...Related: Besought (OED writes that beseeched is "now regarded as incorrect"); beseeching....

who wanders the pike (n.4)" (which is the notion in Sussex dialectal piker "vagrant, tramp, gypsy," 1838), but Barnhart, OED...appearance seems too late to connect it with Middle English piker "robber, petty thief" (c. 1300, attested as late as 1549 in OED...

"steady spray of salt water blown along the surf in heavy winds," c. 1600, according to OED a Scottish formation from verb..."Common in English writers from c 1880, probably at first under the influence of W[illiam] Black's novels" [OED], who did...

probably is somehow from to Vulgar Latin *manganum "machine" (see mangonel), "but its history has not been precisely traced" [OED...[OED]...

a broad-meaning word used of things that move slowly or with difficulty, "of obscure etymology" [OED]....1620s as "handle of a pitcher," this sense probably from Scottish lugge "earflap of a cap; ear" (late 15c. and according to OED...

1580s, from French ode (c. 1500), from Late Latin ode "lyric song," from Greek ōidē, an Attic contraction of aoidē "song, ode;" related to aeidein (Attic aidein) "to sing;" aoidos (Attic oidos) "a singer, singing;" aude "voice, tone, sound," probably from a PIE *e-weid-, perhaps

"female of the deer" (the male is a buck), from Old English da "a female deer," which is of unknown origin, perhaps a Celtic loan-word (compare Cornish da "fallow deer," Old Irish dam "ox," Welsh dafad "sheep"). The native word is hind (n.). Similar words in continental Germanic

1530s (implied in addicted) "to devote or give up (oneself) to a habit or occupation," from Latin addictus, past participle of addicere "to deliver, award, yield; make over, sell," properly "give one's assent to," but figuratively "to devote, consecrate; sacrifice, sell out, betr