Origin and history of profiling

late 14c., "expound the meaning of, render clear or explicit," from Old French interpreter "explain; translate" (13c.) and directly from Latin interpretari "explain, expound, understand," from interpres "agent, translator," from inter "between" (see inter-) + second element proba

late 14c., representen, "show, display, express; bring to mind by description," also "to symbolize, serve as a sign or symbol of (something else, something abstract); serve as the type or embodiment of;" also be a representative of" (the authority of another). This is from Old Fr

c. 1400, compousen, "to write" (a book), from Old French composer "put together, compound; adjust, arrange; write" a work (12c.), from com- "with, together" (see com-) + poser "to place," from Late Latin pausare "to cease, lay down" (see pause (n.)). Meaning influenced in Old Fre

1640s, "treating of a thing as the same as another; act of making or proving to be the same," from French identification, probably from identifier (see identify). Psychological sense of "becoming or feeling oneself one with another" is from 1857. Meaning "act or process of determ

formerly also endite, late 14c., "put down in writing," from Old French enditer, enditier "dictate, write; draw up, draft; (legally) indict," from Vulgar Latin *indictare, from Latin in- "in, into, on, upon" (from PIE root *en "in") + dictare "to declare," frequentative of dicere

late 13c., penne, "writing implement made from the hard, hollow stem at the base of a feather," from Old French pene "quill pen; feather" (12c.) and directly from Latin penna "a feather, plume," in plural "a wing," in Late Latin, "a pen for writing," from Old Latin petna, pesna,

Old English writan "to score, outline, draw the figure of," later "to set down in writing" (class I strong verb; past tense wrat, past participle writen), from Proto-Germanic *writan "tear, scratch" (source also of Old Frisian writa "to write," Old Saxon writan "to tear, scratch,

also spic-and-span, "very neat, clean, and trim," 1660s, from spick-and-span-new "new and fresh" (1570s), literally "new as a recently made spike and wood-chip." It seems to be an elaboration, with spick "nail" (see spike (n.1)), of older span-new "very new," in reference to some

mid-14c., nouel, nowel, "pillar from which steps of a winding stair radiate, stone cut to form a step and a section of the central pillar of a spiral stair," from Old French noel, noiel, novel "knob, newel, kernel, stone" (Modern French noyau), from Vulgar Latin *nodellus "little

c. 1300, pentis, pendize, "a shed or sloping roof projecting from a main wall or the side or end of a building," from Anglo-French pentiz, a shortening of Old French apentis "attached building, appendage," from Medieval Latin appendicium, from Latin appendere "to hang" (see appen