英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

bittern (n.)[bittern 词源字典]: heron-like bird, 13c., botor, from Old French butor "bittern," perhaps from Gallo-Roman *butitaurus, from Latin butionem "bittern" + taurus "bull" (see steer (n.)); according to Pliny, so called because of its booming voice, but this seems fanciful. Modern form from 1510s.[bittern etymology, bittern origin, 英语词源]
bitterness (n.): Old English biternys "bitterness, grief;" see bitter + -ness. Figurative sense (of feelings, etc.) is attested earlier than literal sense (of taste), which will surprise no one who reads any amount of Anglo-Saxon literature.
bitters (n.): 1713, from bitter. So called for its taste.
bittersweet (n.): also bitter-sweet, late 14c., used especially in Middle English in reference to a type of apple, from bitter (adj.) + sweet (adj.). As an adjective, attested from 1610s. Greek had a similarly formed compound, glykypikros, literally "sweet-bitter."
BitTorrent: peer-to-peer file sharing protocol, implemented in 2001, from bit (n.2) in the computing sense + torrent.
bitty (adj.): 1892, "made of little scraps," from bit (n.1) + -y (2). As a clipped variant of bitsy, recorded from 1905, American English.
bitumen (n.): mid-15c., from Latin bitumen "asphalt," probably, via Oscan or Umbrian, from Celtic *betu- "birch, birch resin" (compare Gaulish betulla "birch," used by Pliny for the tree supposedly the source of bitumen).
bituminous (adj.): 1610s, from French bitumineux, from Latin bituminosus, from bitumen (see bitumen).
The Plain, wherein a black bituminous gurge Boiles out from under ground, the mouth of Hell. ["Paradise Lost," XII.41]
bivalence (n.): 1868; see bivalent + -ence.
bivalency (n.): 1872; see bivalent + -ency.
bivalent (adj.): 1864, of chemicals, 1899, of chromosomes, from bi- + -valent, from Latin valentem, present participle of valere "be worth" (see valiant).
bivalve (adj.): 1660s in reference to mollusks with double shells; 1670s in reference to shutters or doors; from bi- + valve. The noun is 1680s in the mollusk sense.
bivariate (adj.): also bi-variate, "involving two variables," 1906, from bi- + -variate, from Latin variatio (see variation).
bivouac (n.): 1702, from French bivouac (17c.), ultimately from Swiss/Alsatian biwacht "night guard," from bei- "double, additional" + wacht "guard" (see wait (v.)). Original meaning was an army that stayed up on night watch; sense of "outdoor camp" is 1853. Not a common word in English before the Napoleonic Wars. Italian bivacco is from French. As a verb, 1809, "to post troops in the night;" meaning "camp out of doors" is from 1814.
biweekly (adj.): also bi-weekly, 1865, from bi- + weekly. The sense "twice a week" is the first attested, but that of "every two weeks" is equally implied.
biz (n.): 1862, American English, colloquial and phonetic shortening of business.
bizarre (adj.): 1640s, from French bizarre "odd, fantastic" (16c.), originally "handsome, brave," perhaps from Basque bizar "a beard" (the notion being of bearded Spanish soldiers making a strange impression on the French); alternative etymology traces it to Italian bizarro "angry, fierce, irascible," from bizza "fit of anger."
bize: obsolete form of bice.
blab (v.): mid-15c., apparently from Middle English noun blabbe "one who does not control his tongue" (late 13c.), probably echoic. Related: Blabbed; blabbing. The exact relationship between the blabs and blabber is difficult to determine. The noun was "[e]xceedingly common in 16th and 17th c.; unusual in literature since c 1750" [OED].
blabber (v.): mid-14c., "to speak as an infant speaks," frequentative of blabben, of echoic origin (compare Old Norse blabbra, Danish blabbre "babble," German plappern "to babble"). Meaning "to talk excessively" is from late 14c. Related: Blabbered; blabbering.