英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

dulcet (adj.)[dulcet 词源字典]: late 14c., from Old French doucet, diminutive of doux "sweet," earlier dulz, from Latin dulcis, from PIE *dlk-wi-, suffixed form of root *dlk-u- "sweet" (compare glucose).[dulcet etymology, dulcet origin, 英语词源]
dulcimer (n.): late 15c., from Middle French doulce mer, variant of doulcemele, perhaps from doulz de mer, said to represent Latin dulce "sweet" + melos "song," from Greek melos "melody."
Dulcinea: "sweetheart," 1748, from the name of Don Quixote's mistress in Cervantes' romance, the name a Spanish fem. derivative of Latin dulce "sweet."
dull (adj.): c. 1200, "stupid;" early 13c., "blunt, not sharp;" rare before mid-14c., apparently from Old English dol "dull-witted, foolish," or an unrecorded parallel word, or from Middle Low German dul "slow-witted," both from Proto-Germanic *dulaz (cognates: Old Frisian and Old Saxon dol "foolish," Old High German tol, German toll "mad, wild," Gothic dwals "foolish"), from PIE *dheu- (1) "dust, vapor, smoke" (and related notions of "defective perception or wits"). Of color from early 15c.; of pain or other sensations from 1725. Sense of "boring" first recorded 1580s.
dull. (8) Not exhilarating; not delightful; as to make dictionaries is dull work. [Johnson]
Dullsville, slang for "town where nothing happens," attested from 1960.
dull (v.): c. 1200, "to grow weary, tire;" of pointed or edged things from c. 1400; of the senses from 1550s; from dull (adj.). Related: Dulled; dulling.
dullard (n.): mid-15c. (but early 13c. as a surname), from dull (adj.) + -ard.
Duluth: city in Minnesota, U.S., named for French pioneer explorer Daniel Greysolon, sieur du Luth (1649-1710), "the Robin Hood of Canada," the leader of the coureurs de bois, who passed through in 1678 on a mission into the wilderness.
duly (adj.): late 14c., duweliche "rightly, properly," from dewe "due" (see due) + -liche (see -ly (2)).
duma (n.): Russian national assembly, 1870 (in reference to city councils; the national one was set up in 1905), literally "thought," from a Germanic source (compare Gothic doms "judgment," English doom, deem).
dumb (adj.): Old English dumb "silent, unable to speak," from PIE *dheubh- "confusion, stupefaction, dizziness," from root *dheu- (1) "dust, mist, vapor, smoke," and related notions of "defective perception or wits."

The Old English, Old Saxon (dumb), Gothic (dumbs), and Old Norse (dumbr) forms of the word meant only "mute, speechless;" in Old High German (thumb) it meant both this and "stupid," and in Modern German this latter became the only sense. Meaning "foolish, ignorant" was occasionally in Middle English, but modern use (1823) comes from influence of German dumm. Related: dumber; dumbest.

Applied to silent contrivances, hence dumbwaiter. As a verb, in late Old English, "to become mute;" c. 1600, "to make mute." To dumb (something) down is from 1933.
dumbass (n.): by 1959, from dumb "stupid" + ass (n.2).
dumbbell (n.): "weighted bar used for exercise," 1711, originally an apparatus like that used to ring a church bell, but without the bell (hence dumb); used for exercise but sometimes also to practice ringing changes. Figurative sense of "blockhead, stupid person" attested by 1918, American English college slang.
dumbfound (v.): 1650s, from dumb (adj.) + ending from confound.
dumbfounded (adj.): past participle adjective from dumbfound.
dumbledore (n.): 1787, noted as a dialect word in Hampshire, Cornwall, etc. for "a bumblebee."
dumbstruck (adj.): 1823, from dumb + past participle of strike (v.).
dumbwaiter (n.): 1749, an article of furniture, from dumb (adj.) + waiter (apparently because it serves as a waiter but is silent). As a movable platform for passing dishes, etc., up and down from one room (especially a basement kitchen) to another, from 1847.
dumdum bullet: 1897, named for Dum-Dum arsenal in Bengal, where the British made them to use against fanatical charges by tribesmen. Outlawed by international declaration, 1899. The place name is literally "hill, mound, battery," cognate with Persian damdama.
dummkopf (n.): 1809 (dom cop), from German dummkopf, literally "dumb head;" see dumb (adj.) + cup (n.).
dummy (n.): 1590s, "mute person," from dumb (adj.) + -y (3). Extended by 1845 to "figure representing a person." Used in card games (originally whist) since 1736. Meaning "dolt, blockhead" is from 1796.