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effort [effort 词源字典]: effort: [15] Etymologically, effort is the ‘putting out’ or ‘showing’ of ‘force’. It comes ultimately from Vulgar Latin *exfortiāre, a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and the adjective fortis ‘strong’. This passed into Old French as esforcier ‘force, exert’, from which was derived the noun esforz. English borrowed it in its later form effort.
=> force[effort etymology, effort origin, 英语词源]
effrontery: effrontery: [18] The notion of ‘audacity’ or ‘impudence’ is often expressed in terms of ‘exposing or pushing forward the face’: a ‘barefaced lie’ or ‘putting on a bold front’, for instance. And effrontery is no exception. It comes ultimately from late Latin effrōns ‘barefaced, shameless’, a compound adjective formed from the prefix ex- ‘out of’ and frōns ‘forehead’ (source of English front).

This seems subsequently to have been reformulated along the lines of its original components, giving Vulgar Latin *exfrontātus, source of Old French esfronte. This in turn developed to French effronté, whose derived noun effronterie was acquired by English as effrontery.
=> front
egalitarian: egalitarian: see equal
egg: egg: English has two distinct words egg, but surprisingly the noun, in the form in which we now have it, has not been in the language as long as the verb. Egg ‘reproductive body’ [14] was borrowed from Old Norse egg. Old English had a related word, ǣg, which survived until the 16th century as eye (plural eyren). Although it does not begin to show up in the written records until the 14th century, the form egg was presumably introduced into English by Norse immigrants considerably earlier, but even so, as late as the end of the 15th century there was still considerable competition between the native eye and the imported egg: ‘What sholde a man in thyse dayes now wryte, egges or eyren, certaynly it is harde to playse every man’, William Caxton, Eneydos 1490.

Both the Old English and the Old Norse forms came from a prehistoric Germanic *ajjaz (source also of German and Dutch ei). This in turn was a descendant of an Indo- European *ōwo- (whence Greek ōión, Latin ōvum, French oeuf, Italian uovo, Spanish huevo, and Russian jajco), which was probably derived ultimately from a base signifying ‘bird’ (source of Sanskrit vís and Latin avis ‘bird’, the ancestor of English aviary). Egg ‘incite’ [10], as in ‘egg on’, is a Scandinavian borrowing too.

It comes from Old Norse eggja, which was a relative or derivative of egg ‘edge’ (a cousin of English edge).
=> aviary; edge
ego: ego: [19] Ego is Latin for ‘I’ (and comes in fact from the same Indo-European base as produced English I). English originally acquired it in the early 19th century as a philosophical term for the ‘conscious self’, and the more familiar modern uses – ‘self-esteem’, or more derogatorily ‘selfimportance’, and the psychologist’s term (taken up by Freud) for the ‘conscious self’ – date from the end of the century.

Derivatives include egoism [18], borrowed from French égoïsme, and egotism [18], perhaps deliberately coined with the t to distinguish it from egoism. And the acquisitions do not end there: alter ego, literally ‘other I, second self’, was borrowed in the 16th century, and the Freudian term superego, ‘beyond I’, entered the language in the 1920s.
=> i
egregious: egregious: see segregate
eight: eight: [OE] Virtually all the ancient basic Indo- European ‘number’-words are very stable, remaining recognizably the same as they spread and developed over the millennia, and the ancestor of English eight is no exception. It was *oktō, which produced Sanskrit astáu, Latin octō (source of French huit, Italian otto, and Spanish ocho), Greek októ, and Irish ocht. Its prehistoric Germanic descendant was *akhtō, source of German and Dutch acht, Swedish åtta, and English eight.
=> october
eisteddfod: eisteddfod: [19] An eisteddfod is literally a ‘session’ or ‘sitting’. It comes from the Welsh verb eistedd ‘sit’, a derivative of sedd ‘seat’, which goes back to the same Indo-European base (*sed-) as produced English sit and session. The final element, -fod, comes from the Welsh verb bod ‘be’.
=> session, sit
either: either: [OE] Either is the modern descendant of an ancient Germanic phrase which meant literally ‘always each of two’. Its constituents were *aiwō, source of English aye ‘ever, always’, (which was also one of the building blocks of which each was made) and *gikhwatharaz, ancestor of English whether. In Old English this became lexicalized as the compound ǣgehwæther, subsequently contracted to ǣgther, from which developed modern English either. Despite its similarity, neither is more than just either with a negative prefix tacked on: its history is parallel but slightly different.
=> aye, whether
ejaculate: ejaculate: [16] Etymologically, ejaculate means ‘dart out’. It comes from Latin ejaculārī, a compound verb formed ultimately from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and jaculum ‘dart, javelin’. This in turn was a derivative of jacere ‘throw’ (which itself combined with ex- to form ejicere, source of English eject [15]). The word’s original sense ‘throw out suddenly’ survived (or perhaps has revived) for a time in English, but essentially it has been for its metaphorical uses (‘emit semen’ and ‘exclaim’) that it has been preserved.
=> eject, jesses, jet, object, reject, subject
eke: eke: [12] No Old English evidence of this verb, which originally meant ‘increase’, has been found, but related forms in other Germanic languages, such as Old Norse auka and Gothic aukan, suggest that it did exist. Both these and a range of non-Germanic verbs, such as Latin augēre (source of English auction, augment, and author) and Greek aúkhein, point to an ultimate Indo-European ancestor *aug- (from which comes English wax ‘grow’).

The first syllable of nickname was originally eke. Until comparatively recently English had another word eke [OE], which meant ‘also’ (German auch and Dutch ook ‘also’ are related to it). It is not clear whether it is ultimately the same word as the verb eke.
=> auction, augment, author, nickname, wax
elaborate: elaborate: [16] Etymologically, something that is elaborate has been produced by hard work. The word comes from ēlabōrātus, the past participle of Latin ēlabōrāre; this was a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and labor ‘work’ (source of English labour). The notion of ‘painstaking work’ had passed by the early 17th century into ‘extreme detail’.
=> labour
eland: eland: [18] Although the eland is an African animal, it has an ancient European name, given to it by Dutch settlers in South Africa. Eland is the Dutch word for an ‘elk’ (the European version of the North American moose); it comes via German from Lithuanian élnis, which goes back ultimately to a prehistoric Indo-European source (*oln-, *eln-) which also produced English elk.
=> elk
elastic: elastic: [17] Greek elaúnein meant ‘drive’. From it was derived the late Greek adjective elastikós, which had the sense ‘driving, propelling’. Its Latin version elasticus was used by the French scientist Jean Pecquet (1622–74) in describing the expansive properties of gases, and that is the sense in which it was originally adopted into English. Its transference to the wider meaning ‘returning to a former state after contracting’ took place towards the end of the 17th century.
elate: elate: [16] Elate means literally ‘lift up’, and that is how it was originally used in English: ‘Placus doth elate his shady forehead’, George Chapman, Iliad 1611. The word comes from ēlātus, the past participle of Latin efferre. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and ferre ‘carry’ (a relative of English bear). Its metaphorical extension to a ‘lifting of the spirits, exultation’ had already started in the Latin word, and had completely ousted the literal meaning in English before the end of the 18th century.
=> relate
elbow: elbow: [OE] Logically enough, elbow means etymologically ‘arm bend’. It comes from a prehistoric West and North Germanīc *alinobogan (which also produced German ellenbogen, Dutch elleboog, and Danish albue). This was a compound formed from *alinā ‘forearm’ and *bogan (source of English bow). However, there is a further twist.

For *alinā (source also of English ell [OE], a measure of length equal to that of the forearm) itself goes back ultimately to an Indo-European base *el-, *ele- which itself meant ‘bend’, and produced not just words for ‘forearm’ (such as Latin ulna), but also words for ‘elbow’ (such as Welsh elin). So at this deepest level of all, elbow means tautologically ‘bend bend’.
=> bow, ell, ulna
elder: elder: Elder ‘older’ [OE] is not, of course, the same word as elder the tree-name [OE]. The former began life in prehistoric Germanic as *althizon, the comparative form of *althaz ‘old’. Gradually, the vowel i had an effect on the preceding vowel a, and by Old English times the word had become eldra – hence modern English elder. The regularized form older appeared in the 16th century. The derivative elderly dates from the 17th century. The tree-name comes from Old English ellærn, a word whose origin is not known for certain (although it may perhaps be related to English alder). The intrusive d began to appear in the 14th century.
=> old
eldorado: eldorado: [16] Eldorado was the name given by the Spanish to a country or city which they believed to exist in the heart of the Amazonian jungle, rich in precious metals and gems. It means ‘the gilded one’: el is the Spanish definite article, and dorado is the past participle of the Spanish verb dorar ‘gild’, a descendant of Latin dēaurāre. This was a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix dē- and aurum ‘gold’. The first known use of the word in English is in the title of Sir Walter Raleigh’s book Discoverie of Guiana, with a relation of the Great and Golden City of Manoa (which the Spaniards call El Dorado) 1596.
elect: elect: [15] To elect somebody is literally to ‘choose them out’ of a range of possibilities. The word comes from ēlectus, the past participle of Latin ēligere ‘pick out, select’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and legere ‘gather, choose’ (source also of English collect, neglect, and select and, from its secondary meaning ‘read’, legible and lecture).

The notion of ‘choosing by ballot’ is the oldest of the verb’s senses in English. A person who may be ‘elected’ or ‘chosen’ is eligible [15] (an acquisition via French from the late Latin derivative ēligibilis). And someone who has been ‘picked out’ from the crowd is a member of the élite [18] (a borrowing of the feminine form of the past participle of French élire ‘elect’).

Also closely related is elegant.
=> collect, elegant, eligible, elite, lecture, legible, neglect, select
electricity: electricity: [17] The earliest manifestation of electricity was that produced by rubbing amber, and hence the name, based on ēlectrum, Latin for ‘amber’ (which in turn derives from Greek ēlektron). The first evidence of this in a Latin text is in William Gilbert’s De magnete 1600, but by the middle of the century we find the word being used in English treatises, notably Sir Thomas Browne’s Pseudodoxia epidemica 1646. (At this early stage, of course, it referred only to the ability of rubbed amber, etc to attract light bodies, the only property of electricity then known about; it was not until later that the full range of other electrical phenomena came to be included under the term.)