英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

craic [craic 词源字典]: "Variant spelling of crack (sense 4 of the noun)", 1970s: Irish, from English crack. The English word apparently entered Irish English from Scots in the mid 20th century and subsequently assumed an Irish Gaelic form. More crack from Old English:In Old English crack meant ‘make a sudden sharp or explosive noise’. The drug known as crack, or crack cocaine, is a hard crystalline form of cocaine broken into small pieces and smoked. It gets its name from the ‘cracking’ noises the crystals make as they are heated. The ‘crack’ or lively socializing in a pub is an Irish use, first recorded in the 1920s and sometimes written craic, that comes from the Scottish sense ‘chat, conversation’. You can talk about a time very early in the morning as the crack of dawn. The expression is first recorded in the late 19th century, in the form crack of day. The crack here is the crack of a whip, with an additional echo perhaps of break of day and daybreak, and the notion of the sky cracking or breaking open to reveal a sliver of light. The crack of doom is a peal of thunder which, according to the Book of Revelation, will announce the Day of Judgement. See also paper, pop[craic etymology, craic origin, 英语词源]
chook: "A chicken or fowl", 1920s: probably from English dialect chuck 'chicken', of imitative origin.
coolibah: "A North Australian gum tree which typically grows near watercourses and yields very strong, hard timber", Late 19th century: from Kamilaroi (and related languages) gulubaa.
coulis: "A thin fruit or vegetable puree, used as a sauce", French, from couler 'to flow'.
corneous: "Horn-like; horny", Mid 17th century: from Latin corneus (from cornu 'horn') + -ous.
chanterelle: "An edible woodland mushroom with a yellow funnel-shaped cap, found in both Eurasia and North America", Late 18th century: from French, from modern Latin cantharellus, diminutive of cantharus, from Greek kantharos, denoting a kind of drinking container.
Crimplene: "A synthetic crease-resistant fibre and fabric", 1950s: perhaps from the name of the Crimple valley in Yorkshire, site of the ICI laboratory where the fabric was developed, + -ene.
Cantopop: "A type of popular music combining Cantonese lyrics and Western disco music", 1990s: blend of Cantonese and pop².
countertenor: "The highest male adult singing voice (sometimes distinguished from the male alto voice by its strong, pure tone)", Late Middle English: from French contre-teneur, from obsolete Italian contratenore, based on Latin tenor (see tenor¹).
celesta: "A small keyboard instrument in which felted hammers strike a row of steel plates suspended over wooden resonators, giving an ethereal bell-like sound", Late 19th century: pseudo-Latin, based on French céleste ‘heavenly’.
cannelloni: "Rolls of pasta stuffed with a meat or vegetable mixture", Italian, literally 'large tubes', from cannello 'tube'. More cannon from Late Middle English:This large heavy piece of artillery derives its name from French canon, from Italian cannone ‘large tube’, from canna ‘cane, reed, tube’. Soldiers have been called cannon fodder, no more than material to be used up in war, since the late 19th century—the expression is a translation of German Kanonenfutter. Shakespeare did encapsulate a similar idea much earlier, with his phrase ‘food for powder’ in Henry IV Part 1. Canna or its Greek equivalent kanna is the base of a number of other words in English, as well as giving us the name of the canna lily (mid 17th century), which gets its name from the shape of its leaves. Some reflect the use of the plants for making things, some their hollow stems. Canes (Middle English) are basically the same plant. Canister (Late Middle English) was originally a basket from Latin canistrum ‘basket for bread, fruit, or flowers’, from Greek kanastron ‘wicker basket’, from kanna. Canal (Late Middle English) and channel (Middle English) both come via French from Latin canalis ‘pipe, groove, channel’ from canna, and share a source with the Italian pasta cannelloni (mid 19th century). The medical cannula (late 17th century) was originally a ‘small reed’; a canyon (mid 19th century) is from Spanish cañón ‘tube’ from canna.
confect: "Make (something elaborate or dainty) from various elements", Late Middle English: from Latin confect- 'put together', from the verb conficere, from con- 'together' + facere 'make'.
colobus: "A slender leaf-eating African monkey with silky fur, a long tail, and very small or absent thumbs", Modern Latin, from Greek kolobos 'cut short'.
chinoiserie: "A decorative style in Western art, furniture, and architecture, especially in the 18th century, characterized by the use of Chinese motifs and techniques", Late 19th century: from French, from chinois 'Chinese'.
chapatti: "(In Indian cookery) a thin pancake of unleavened wholemeal bread cooked on a griddle", From Hindi capātī, from capānā 'flatten, roll out'.
costumier: "A person or company that makes or supplies theatrical or fancy-dress costumes", Mid 19th century: French, from costumer 'dress in a costume' (see costume).
concertante: "Denoting a piece of music containing one or more solo parts, typically of less prominence than in a concerto", Italian, 'harmonizing', from concertare 'harmonize'.
cordon bleu: "Denoting or relating to the highest class or standard of quality in cookery", Mid 18th century (as a noun, often specifically denoting a first-class cook): French, literally 'blue ribbon'. The blue ribbon once signified the highest order of chivalry in the reign of the Bourbon kings.
cliometrics: "A technique for the interpretation of economic history, based on the statistical analysis of large-scale numerical data from population censuses, parish registers, and similar sources", 1960s (originally US): from Clio, on the pattern of words such as econometrics.
cinéma-vérité: "A style of film-making characterized by realistic, typically documentary films which avoid artificiality and artistic effect and are generally made with simple equipment", French, literally 'cinema truth'.