英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

multistory (adj.)[multistory 词源字典]: also multi-story, multi-storey, 1918, from multi- + story (2).[multistory etymology, multistory origin, 英语词源]
multitasking (n.): also multi-tasking, 1966, originally in computing, from multi- + tasking (see task). Of humans, by 1998. Related: Multitask (v.). As an adjective, multi-task is recorded from 1954 in a non-computer mechanical context.
multitude (n.): early 14c., from Old French multitude (12c.) and directly from Latin multitudinem (nominative multitudo) "a great number, a crowd; the crowd, the common people," from multus "many, much" (see multi-) + suffix -tudo (see -tude). Related: Multitudes.
multitudinous (adj.): c. 1600, first in Shakespeare, from Latin multitudin-, stem of multitudo (see multitude) + -ous. Related: Multitudinously; multitudinousness.
multivalent (adj.): 1874, from multi- + -valent, from Latin valentem, present participle of valere "be worth" (see valiant).
multivariate (adj.): 1928, from multi- + -variate, from Latin variatio (see variation).
multiverse (n.): 1895, William James's coinage, an alternative to universe meant to convey absence of order and unity.
But those times are past; and we of the nineteenth century, with our evolutionary theories and our mechanical philosophies, already know nature too impartially and too well to worship unreservedly any god of whose character she can be an adequate expression. Truly all we know of good and beauty proceeds from nature, but none the less so all we know of evil. Visible nature is all plasticity and indifference, a moral multiverse, as one might call it, and not a moral universe. [William James, "Is Life Worth Living?" address to the Young Men's Christian Association of Harvard University, May 1895]
mum (interj.): "be silent," 1560s, from Middle English mum, mom (late 14c.), inarticulate closed-mouth sound, indicative of unwillingness or inability to speak. As an adjective meaning "secret" from 1520s. Phrase mum's the word is first recorded 1704.
mum (n.1): abbreviation of chrysanthemum, first attested 1915 in the jargon of gardeners.
mum (n.2): pet word for "mother," 1823, short for mummy (see mamma). In British sociology, used from 1957 in reference to "the working class mother as an influence in the lives of her children." Also sometimes a vulgar corruption of madam.
mumble (v.): early 14c., momelen, "to eat in a slow, ineffective manner" (perhaps "to talk with one's mouth full"), probably frequentative of interjection mum. The -b- is excrescent. Meaning "to speak indistinctly" is from mid-14c. Related: Mumbled; mumbling.
mumble (n.): 1902, from mumble (v.).
mumblety-peg (n.): boys' knife-throwing game, 1650s, originally mumble-the-peg (1620s), of unknown signification and origin.
mumbo jumbo (n.): 1738, name of an idol supposedly worshipped by certain tribes in Africa; said to be a corruption of words in Mandingo (one reconstructed version is Mama Dyumbo), but no likely source has been found in the languages of the Niger region, to which the original accounts relate. Meaning "big, empty talk" is attested from 1896.
mummer (n.): "one who performs in a mumming, actor in a dumb show," early 15c., probably a fusion of Middle French momeur "mummer" (from Old French momer "mask oneself," from momon "mask") and Middle English mommen "to mutter, be silent," related to mum (interjection).
mummery (n.): 1520s, "performance of mumming," from Old French mommerie, from momer (see mummer). Transferred sense of "ridiculous ceremony or ritual" is from 1540s.
mummification (n.): 1800, from mummy + -fication.
mummify (v.): 1620s, from French momifier, from momie "mummy," from Medieval Latin mumia (see mummy) + -fier "to make into" (see -fy). Related: Mummified; mummifying.
mummy (n.1): c. 1400, "medicine prepared from mummy tissue," from Medieval Latin mumia, from Arabic mumiyah "embalmed body," from Persian mumiya "asphalt," from mum "wax." Sense of "embalmed body" first recorded in English 1610s. Mummy wheat (1842) was said to be cultivated from grains found in mummy-cases.
mummy (n.2): 1784, childish alteration of mammy. Alternative form mumsy attested by 1876.