Origin and history of goose-step

Compare Chinook jargon wawa "talk, speak, call, ask, sermon, language;" Cree (Algonquian) wehwew "goose," Lenape (Algonquian...) wava "snow goose," all probably of imitative origin....

Barnhart says possibly from Old Norse gagl "small goose, gosling, wild goose;" OED calls it "one of the many artificial terms...

Latin, literally "A Step to Parnassus," the mountain sacred to Apollo and the Muses; from Latin gradus "a step; a step climbed...; a step toward something" (from PIE root *ghredh- "to walk, go")....

1510s, "degree of measurement," from French grade "grade, degree" (16c.), from Latin gradus "a step, a pace, gait; a step...climbed (on a ladder or stair);" figuratively "a step toward something, a degree of something rising by stages," from gradi...(past participle gressus) "to walk, step, go," from PIE root *ghredh- "to walk, go."...It replaced Middle English gree "a step, degree in a series," from Old French grei "step," from Latin gradus....

past-participle stem of aggredi "to approach; to attempt; to attack," from ad "to" (see ad-) + gradi (past participle gressus) "to step...," from gradus "a step," figuratively "a step toward something, an approach" (from PIE root *ghredh- "to walk, go")....

early 14c., bernak; earlier in Anglo-Latin, bernekke, early 13c., "species of northern European wild goose."...word is often said to be from a Celtic source (compare Breton bernik, a kind of shellfish), but the application to the goose...The goose nests in the Arctic in summer and returns to Europe in the winter, hence the mystery surrounding its reproduction...as late 17c.) to hatch or develop from the barnacle's shell, possibly because the crustacean's feathery stalks resemble goose...

past-participle stem of aggredi "to approach; to attempt; to attack," from ad "to" (see ad-) + gradi (past participle gressus) "to step...," from gradus "a step," figuratively "a step toward something, an approach" (from PIE root *ghredh- "to walk, go")....

1520s, "an accursed thing," from Latin anathema "an excommunicated person; the curse of excommunication," from Ecclesiastical Greek anathema "a thing accursed," a slight variation of classical Greek anathama, which meant merely "a thing devoted," literally "a thing set up (to the

late 14c., refleccioun, reflexioun, reflectioun, of surfaces or bodies, "the action of throwing back light or heat," from Old French reflexion, refleccion, and directly from Late Latin reflexionem (nominative reflexio) "a reflection," literally "a bending back," noun of action fr

early 14c., chalenge, "something one can be accused of, a fault, blemish;" mid-14c., "false accusation, malicious charge; accusation of wrong-doing," also "act of laying claim" (to something), from Anglo-French chalenge, Old French chalonge "calumny, slander; demand, opposition,"