英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

melissic acid [melissic acid 词源字典]: "A straight-chain fatty acid or mixture of acids corresponding to melissyl alcohol, found in various plant and animal waxes; specifically either n-triacontanoic acid (CH3(CH2)28COOH) or triacontane-1-carboxylic acid (CH3(CH2)29COOH)", Mid 19th cent..[melissic acid etymology, melissic acid origin, 英语词源]
manufactory: "A factory", Early 17th century (denoting a manufactured article): from manufacture, on the pattern of factory. More factory from late 16th century:The first factories were far from any urban area, in India and southeast Asia. A factory in the late 16th century was a trading company's foreign base or station. The first use of the word in something like the modern sense came in the early 17th century, but until the Victorian era a building where goods were produced was more usually called a manufactory. The root of factory is Latin facere ‘to make or do’, the source of a great many English words such as fact, factor, feat, and feature (all LME). The sense ‘a place where things are made’ probably came from Latin factorium ‘oil press’.
magnetics: "The branch of science that deals with magnetism", Mid 17th cent. From magnetic: see -ic.
Mason–Dixon Line: "(In the US) the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania, taken as the northern limit of the slave-owning states before the abolition of slavery", Named after Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, the 18th-century English astronomers who surveyed it in 1763–7.
maculopapular: "Of the nature of a maculopapule; characterized by the presence of maculopapules; both macular and papular", Early 20th cent. From maculopapule + -ar.
monocarpic: "(Of a plant) flowering only once and then dying", Mid 19th century: from mono- 'single' + Greek karpos 'fruit' + -ic.
metoposcopy: "The art of judging character or telling a person's fortune from the forehead or face", Mid 16th cent.; earliest use found in James Sanford (fl. 1567–1582), translator. From Middle French metoposcopie and its etymon post-classical Latin metoposcopia from classical Latin metōposcopus + -ia.
meticulosity: "Scrupulousness, punctiliousness, preciseness. In earlier use especially: overscrupulousness", Mid 17th cent.; earliest use found in Hamon L'Estrange (1605–1660), theologian and historian. From meticulous + -ity: see -osity.
moral turpitude: "Wickedness or depravity of character or conduct", Mid 17th cent.; earliest use found in Roger Coke (c1628–?1707), political writer and economist.
marigraph: "= mareograph", Mid 19th cent.; earliest use found in Peter Simmonds (1814–1897), newsagent and journalist. From classical Latin mari-, mare sea + -graph, probably after French maréographe mareograph.
myringitis: "Inflammation of the eardrum", Mid 19th cent.; earliest use found in Robert Mayne (1808–1868). From post-classical Latin myringa, myrinx, variants of meninga + -itis. Mayne also cites a French form myringite.
monacanthid: "Of or relating to the family Monacanthidae (sometimes included within the family Balistidae), which comprises the filefishes", Late 19th cent.; earliest use found in The Century Dictionary.
metachromatism: "Change of the colour of hair, skin, etc. Now rare", Late 19th cent. From meta- + chromatism; in later use in sense 1 probably after French métachromatisme, although in quot. 1876 at sense 1b apparently an independent formation.
motordrome: "A motor racing track", Early 20th cent.; earliest use found in The Westminster Gazette.
Muhammadan: "Archaic term for Muslim (not favoured by Muslims)", Late 17th century: from the name of the prophet Muhammad (see Muhammad), + -an.
macro-scale: "A large or macroscopic scale; ( Chemistry ) the scale of macroanalysis", 1930s. From macro- + scale. Compare micro-scale.
mesocoracoid: "In some teleostean fishes: a bone situated between and bridging the hypercoracoid and hypocoracoid bones", Mid 19th cent.; earliest use found in William K. Parker (1823–1890), comparative anatomist and zoologist. From meso- + coracoid.
merchantry: "The business of a merchant; trade, commercial dealings. Also (occasionally) figurative", Mid 16th cent. From merchant + -ry, probably as alteration of merchandry.
monospermous: "Of a fruit or flower: containing or producing only one seed. Of a plant: having such fruits or flowers", Late 17th cent.; earliest use found in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. From scientific Latin monospermus + -ous.
mobile vulgus: "= mobile", Late 16th cent.; earliest use found in William Watson (?1559–1603), Roman Catholic priest and conspirator. From classical Latin mōbile vulgus the changeable common people, the fickle crowd from mōbile, neuter of mōbilis + vulgus.