英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

climber (n.)[climber 词源字典]: early 15c., "one who climbs," agent noun from climb (v.). Of plants, from 1630s.[climber etymology, climber origin, 英语词源]
clime (n.): 1540s, shortening of climate (or a nativization of Latin clima). It might usefully take up the old, abandoned "horizontal region of the earth" sense of climate, but it is used chiefly by the poets and with no evident agreement on just what they mean by it.
clinch (v.): 1560s, "clasp, interlock," especially with a bent nail, variant of clench. The sense of "settle decisively" is first recorded 1716, from the notion of "clinching" the point of a nail to keep it fast. Boxing sense is from 1860. Related: Clinched; clinching.
clinch (n.): 1620s, "method of fastening," from clinch (v.). Meaning "a fastening by bent nail" is from 1650s. In pugilism, from 1875.
clincher (n.): early 14c., "person or thing that clinches" (i.e., secures nails by bending down or riveting the pointed end), late 15c. as a class of shipyard worker; agent noun from clinch (v.). As a type of nail, from 1735; as a conclusive statement, argument, etc., 1737.
cline (n.): 1938, in biological use, back-formation from incline or from Greek klinein "to slope, to lean" (see lean (v.)). Middle English had clinen (v.) "to bend, bow," from Old French cliner, from Latin clinare.
cling (v.): Old English clingan "hold fast, adhere closely; congeal, shrivel" (strong verb, past tense clang, past participle clungen), from Proto-Germanic *klingg- (cognates: Danish klynge "to cluster;" Old High German klinga "narrow gorge;" Old Norse klengjask "press onward;" Danish klinke, Dutch klinken "to clench;" German Klinke "latch").

The main sense shifted in Middle English to "adhere to" (something else), "stick together." Of persons in embrace, c. 1600. Figuratively (to hopes, outmoded ideas, etc.), from 1580s. Of clothes from 1792. Related: Clung; clinging.
clingstone (n.): "fruit having the pulp adhering firmly to the stone," 1722, from cling (v.) + stone (n.). Also as an adjective.
clingy (adj.): 1680s, of things, from cling + -y (2). Of persons (especially children) from 1969, though the image of a "clingy vine" in a relationship goes back to 1896. Related: Clinginess.
clinic (n.): 1620s, from French clinique (17c.), from Latin clinicus "physician that visits patients in their beds," from Greek klinike (techne) "(practice) at the sickbed," from klinikos "of the bed," from kline "bed, couch, that on which one lies," from suffixed form of PIE root *kli- "lean, slope" (see lean (v.)).

Originally in English "bedridden person;" sense of "hospital" is 1884, from German Klinik in this sense, itself from French clinique, via the notion of "bedside medical education." The modern sense is thus reversed from the classical, when the "clinic" came to the patient. General sense of "conference for group instruction in something" is from 1919.
clinical (adj.): 1780, "pertaining to hospital patients or hospital care," from clinic + -al (2). Meaning "coldly dispassionate" (like a medical report) is recorded from 1928. Related: Clinically.
clinician (n.): 1844, from French clinicien, from Latin clinicus (see clinic).
clink (v.): early 14c., echoic (compare Dutch klinken, Old High German klingan, German klingen). Related: Clinked; clinking. The noun in the sound sense is from c. 1400.
clink (n.2): "prison," 1770s, apparently originally (early 16c.) the Clynke on Clink Street in Southwark, on the estate of the bishops of Winchester. To kiss the clink "to be imprisoned" is from 1580s, and the word and the prison name might be cognate derivatives of the sound made by chains or metal locks (see clink (v.)).
clink (n.1): "sharp, ringing sound made by collision of sonorous (especially metallic) bodies," c. 1400, from clink (v.).
clinker (n.): "mass of slag," 1769, from klincard (1640s), a type of paving brick made in Holland, from Dutch klinkaerd, from klinken "to ring" (as it does when struck), of imitative origin. Also "a clinch-nail;" hence clinker-built (1769). The meaning "stupid mistake" is first recorded 1950 in American English; originally (1942) "a wrong note in music."
clino-: before vowels clin-, word-forming element meaning "slope, slant, incline," from Latinized comb. form of Greek klinein "to lean, slope" (see lean (v.)).
clinometer (n.): "measurer of slopes and elevations," 1811, from clino- + -meter. Related: Clinometric.
Clio: "muse of history, muse who sings of glorious actions," usually represented with a scroll and manuscript case, from Latin Clio, from Greek Kleio, literally "the proclaimer," from kleiein "to tell of, celebrate, make famous," from kleos "rumor, report, news; good report, fame, glory," from PIE *klew-yo-, from root *kleu- "to hear" (see listen). Related to the -kles in Damocles, etc.
clip (v.1): "to cut or sever with a sharp instrument," c. 1200, from a Scandinavian source (compare Old Norse klippa, Swedish klippa, Danish klippe "clip, shear, cut") probably echoic. Related: Clipped; clipping.

Meaning "to pronounce short" is from 1520s. The verb has a long association with shady activities, originally especially in reference to cutting or shaving metal from coins (c. 1400), but later extended to swindles from the sense "to shear sheep," hence clip-joint "place that overcharges outrageously" (1933, American English, a term from Prohibition). To clip (someone's) wings figuratively (1590s) is from the method of preventing a captive bird from flying.