英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

foraminifer [foraminifer 词源字典]: "A single-celled planktonic animal with a perforated chalky shell through which slender protrusions of protoplasm extend. Most kinds are marine, and when they die thick ocean-floor sediments are formed from their shells", Mid 19th century: from Latin foramen, foramin- (see foramen) + -fer 'bearing' (from ferre 'to bear').[foraminifer etymology, foraminifer origin, 英语词源]
fah: "(In tonic sol-fa) the fourth note of a major scale", Middle English: representing (as an arbitrary name for the note) the first syllable of famuli, taken from a Latin hymn (see solmization).
fallopian tube: "(In a female mammal) either of a pair of tubes along which eggs travel from the ovaries to the uterus", Early 18th century: from Fallopius, Latinized form of the name of Gabriello Fallopio (1523–62), the Italian anatomist who first described them.
faute de mieux: "For want of a better alternative", French.
freaking: "Used for emphasis or to express anger, annoyance, contempt, or surprise", Euphemism for fucking.
flipping: "Used for emphasis or to express mild annoyance", Early 20th century: from flip¹ + -ing².
foliar: "Relating to leaves", Late 19th century: from modern Latin foliaris, from Latin folium 'leaf'.
favela: "A Brazilian shack or shanty town; a slum", Portuguese. More shanty from early 19th century:The sea shanty, the song to which sailors hauled ropes, probably comes from French chantez!, an order to ‘sing!’ It is recorded from the mid 19th century. A slightly earlier shanty appeared in North America for a small, crudely built shack and may come from Canadian French chantier ‘lumberjack's cabin, logging camp’, a specialized used of the word which usually means ‘building site’ in France. This shanty gave the world the shanty town, such as the favela in Rio de Janeiro and other Brazilian cities. This word, from the Portuguese equivalent of shanty is first recorded in 1961.
fibro: "A mixture of sand, cement, and cellulose fibre, used in sheets for building", 1950s: abbreviation of fibro-cement.
faff: "Spend time in ineffectual activity", Late 18th century (originally dialect in the sense 'blow in puffs', describing the wind): imitative. The current sense may have been influenced by dialect faffle 'stammer, stutter', later 'flap in the wind', which came to mean 'fuss, dither' at about the same time as faff (late 19th century). More Originally a dialect word for ‘blow in puffs or small gusts’, faff was describing the wind, imitating the sound. The current sense may have been influenced by dialect faffle initially meaning ‘stammer, stutter’, later ‘flap in the wind’, which came to mean ‘fuss or dither’ at about the same time as faff in the late 19th century.
feta: "A white salty Greek cheese made from the milk of ewes or goats", From modern Greek pheta.
freegan: "A person who rejects consumerism and seeks to help the environment by reducing waste, especially by retrieving and using discarded food and other goods", Early 21st century: blend of free and vegan.
frisée: "The curly endive (see endive (sense 1))", French, from chicorée frisée 'curly endive'.
Fortean: "Relating to or denoting paranormal phenomena", 1970s: from the name of Charles H. Fort (1874–1932), American student of paranormal phenomena.
fulmar: "A gull-sized grey and white seabird of the petrel family, with a stocky body and tubular nostrils", Late 17th century: from Hebridean Norn dialect, from Old Norse fúll 'stinking, foul' (because of its habit of regurgitating its stomach contents when disturbed) + már 'gull'.
foie gras: "The liver of a specially fattened goose or duck prepared as food", French, 'fat liver'.
fly-tip: "Illegally dump waste", 1960s: from on the fly at fly¹.
Friesian: "An animal of a black-and-white breed of chiefly dairy cattle originally from Friesland", 1920s: alteration of Frisian.
floriferous: "(Of a plant) producing many flowers", Mid 17th century: from Latin florifer (from flos, flor- 'flower', + -fer 'producing') + -ous.
floribunda: "A plant, especially a rose, which bears dense clusters of flowers", Late 19th century: modern Latin, feminine (used as a noun) of floribundus 'freely flowering', from Latin flos, flor- 'flower', influenced by Latin abundus 'copious'.