OLD, MIDDLE, and MODERN ENGLISH

The etymology usually gives the Middle English and the Old English forms of words in the following style:

Main Entry: ¹nap
Function: intransitive verb
Etymology: Middle English nappen, from Old English hnappian . . .

Main Entry: ¹old
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English eald . . .

An etymology in which a word is traced back to Middle English but not to Old English indicates that the word is found in Middle English but not in those texts that have survived from the Old English period:

Main Entry: ¹slab
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English slabbe

Main Entry: ¹stale
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, aged (of ale), not fresh; akin to Middle Dutch stel stale

An etymology in which a word is traced back directly to Old English with no intervening mention of Middle English indicates that the word has not survived continuously from Old English times to the present. Rather, it died out after the Old English period and has been revived in modern times:

Main Entry: ge.mot
Function: noun
Etymology: Old English gemot . . .

Main Entry: thegn
Function: noun
Etymology: Old English . . .

An etymology is not usually given for a word created in English by the combination of existing constituents or by functional shift. This indicates that the identity of the constituents is expected to be self-evident to the user.

Main Entry: book.shelf
Function: noun
: an open shelf for holding books

Main Entry: ¹fire.proof
Function: adjective
: proof against or resistant to fire

Main Entry: off-put.ting
Function: adjective
: that puts off : REPELLENT, DISCONCERTING

Main Entry: penal code
Function: noun
: a code of laws concerning crimes and offenses and their punishment

Main Entry: ³stalk
Function: noun
1 : the act of stalking

In the case of a family of words obviously related to a common English word but differing from it by containing various easily recognizable suffixes, an etymology is usually given only at the base word, even though some of the derivatives may have been formed in a language other than English:

Main Entry: ¹equal
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin aequalis, from aequus level, equal
1 a (1) : of the same measure, quantity, amount, or number as another . . .

Main Entry: equal.i.ty
Function: noun
1 : the quality or state of being equal . . .

Main Entry: equal.ize
Function: transitive verb
1: to make equal . . .

While equalize was formed in Modern English, equality was actually borrowed into Middle English (via Middle French) from Latin aequalitas.

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