Origin and history of raffia

c. 1300, afere, "what one has to do, ordinary business," from Anglo-French afere, Old French afaire "business, event; rank, estate" (12c., Modern French affaire), from the infinitive phrase à faire "to do," from Latin ad "to" (see ad-) + facere "to do, make" (from PIE root *dhe-

late 14c., fibre "a lobe of the liver," also "entrails," from Medieval Latin fibre, from Latin fibra "a fiber, filament; entrails," which is of uncertain origin, perhaps related to Latin filum "a thread, string" (from PIE root *gwhi- "thread, tendon") or to Latin findere "to spli

c. 1300, bref, "of short duration;" early 14c., "small with respect to length, short;" from Latin brevis (adj.) "short, low, little, shallow," from PIE *mregh-wi-, from root *mregh-u- "short."...early 14c., bref, "a writing issued by authority," from Latin breve (genitive brevis)

mid-14c., "convert (an estate) into 'fee tail' (feudum talliatum)," from en- (1) "make" + taile "legal limitation," especially of inheritance, ruling who succeeds in ownership and preventing the property from being sold off, from Anglo-French taile, Old French taillie, past parti

"to hit hard, defeat decisively," 1941, British air force slang, of unknown origin, probably related to bombing; possibly echoic. Related: Clobbered; clobbering. In late 19c. British slang an identical word principally had to do with clothing, as in clobber (n.) "clothes," (v.) "

early 13c., "flat or comparatively thin mass of baked dough," from Old Norse kaka "cake," from West Germanic *kokon- (source also of Middle Dutch koke, Dutch koek "a cake, gingerbread, dumpling," Old High German kuohho, German Kuchen "a cake, a tart"). Not believed to be related

c. 1300, "ostentation and display," especially on parade, from Old French pompe "pomp, magnificence" (13c.) and directly from Latin pompa "procession, pomp," from Greek pompē "solemn procession, display, escort," literally "a sending," from pempein "to send," which is of unknown

also zombi, jumbie, 1788, possibly representing two separate words, one relating to the dead and the other to authority figures, but if so historically these were not kept distinct in English-speaking usage. The oldest attested sense in English is "'spirits of dead wicked men [..

late 14c., "new things," plural of new (n.) "new thing" (see new (adj.)); after French nouvelles, which was used in Bible translations to render Medieval Latin nova (neuter plural) "news," literally "new things." The English word was construed as singular at least from the 1560s,

Middle English shiften, from Old English sciftan, scyftan "arrange, place, put in order" (a sense now obsolete), also "divide, separate, partition; distribute, allot, share" (now obsolete or provincial), from Proto-Germanic *skiftan (source also of Old Norse skipta "to divide, ch