[Ads-l] most important unresolved English etymologies?

[Stephen Goranson]

Thanks all.
On gizmo/gismo, there is more to be done, though this list has several years earlier citations than OED and Green's.
My Navy officer Dad (d. 1960) spent all WWII in the Pacific and often used gizmo, long ago.

American Speech had a follow-up reduced list by Sterling Eisiminger,
ETYMOLOGY UNKNOWN: THE CREME DE LA. CREME DE LA CREME. In the Summer 1981 issue of American Speech (56: 146-48)

Anatoly Liberman—whose Oxford Etymologist blog column has gone silent—in General Linguistics 32.1 (1992) Etymological Studies, the 'Dregs,' offered "Modern English Words without Established Cognates outside English in The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology," pages 24-35.

My question was influenced by disputes on origins of older terms such as Essenes, Pharisees, Sadducees, Nazarenes, Ebionites, and changing/evolving senses of heresies, kinds, and minim. Epiphanius, Panarion, listed Nazarenes as a heresy, though, to others it meant Christians.
Views of origins may have changed or been used in polemic. E.g., Albert Baumgarten, "The Name of the Pharisees," Journal of Biblical Literature 102 (1983) 63-71. Their name could be interpreted either as separatists or as specifiers. And could be seen from different perspectives as positive or negative.
So maybe I have overlapping questions:
Which relatively modern English etymologies are mysteries that are especially interesting puzzles and/or which are cases the outcome or acceptance of which some have reason to care about?
sg



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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Jonathan Lighter <00001aad181a2549-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, February 7, 2026 5:21 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: most important unresolved English etymologies?

And "skag." And "skank." And "skivvy." And "splib." And "spiffy." Also
"schmo" and "schnook." And "snooker." And "zilch." And "barf." And "flub"
and "flubdub."  And "fuddy-duddy." And "scad." Sorry to exploit my age here.

JL

On Sat, Feb 7, 2026 at 4:39 PM Shapiro, Fred <
00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> I suggest looking at the article titled "Etymology Unknown: Toward a
> Master List of Words of Obscure Origin," published in American Speech,
> Summer 1981 issue, pp. 146-148.
>
> Fred Shapiro
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> Stephen Goranson <00001dd3d6fc15d3-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Friday, February 6, 2026 4:17 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: most important unresolved English etymologies?
>
> Pop quiz [is that one of them?]
> Long ago I asked a similar question, and one of the then more skilled
> responders, Doug Wilson, advised to pay attention to the list discussions.
> Given that my memory is limited, and (boring story) I lost some old
> emails, and the available archives may not be complete or accurately
> searchable, what say ye, if you care to venture, are a few of the chief
> remaining English word origin puzzles?
>
> Stephen G
>
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