英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

pigeon (n.)[pigeon 词源字典]: late 14c. (early 13c. as a surname), from Old French pigeon "young dove" (13c.), probably from Vulgar Latin *pibionem, dissimilation from Late Latin pipionem (nominative pipio) "squab, young chirping bird" (3c.), from pipire "to peep, chirp," of imitative origin. Meaning "one easily duped" is from 1590s. Replaced culver (Old English culufre, from Vulgar Latin *columbra, from Latin columbula) and native dove.[pigeon etymology, pigeon origin, 英语词源]
pigeon-hole (n.): also pigeonhole, 1570s, "a small recess for pigeons to nest in," from pigeon + hole (n.). Meaning "a compartment in a writing desk," etc. is from 1680s, based on resemblance. The verb is from 1840 literally; figurative sense of "label mentally" is from 1870.
[Y]ou will have an inspector after you with note-book and ink-horn, and you will be booked and pigeon-holed for further use when wanted. ["Civilisation--The Census," "Blackwood's Magazine," Oct. 1854]
Related: Pigeonholed.
pigeon-toed (adj.): 1788, originally of horses; see pigeon.
piggish (adj.): 1792, from pig (n.) + -ish. Until 20c. usually "stubborn, selfish; unclean, coarse;" association with greedy eating is more recent. Related: Piggishly; piggishness.
Piggly-Wiggly: chain of self-service grocery stores, started 1916 in Memphis. According to founder's reminiscence from 1921 arbitrary coinage, simply "something different from anything used before" ["Current Opinion"].
piggy (adj.): "resembling a pig," 1841, from pig (n.) + -y (2).
piggy (n.): "a little pig," 1799, from pig (n.) + -y (3). Related: Piggies. Piggy bank popular from 1940 (ceramic or tin pig banks are noted by 1903 in American English, sometimes as souvenirs from Mexico).
piggyback (adj.): 1823, probably a folk etymology alteration of pick pack (1560s), which perhaps is from pick, a dialectal variant of pitch (v.1). As a verb from 1952.
pigheaded (adj.): also pig-headed; 1756, "having a head resembling a pig;" 1788 as "obstinate;" see pig (n.) + head (n.). Usually, but not always, figurative.
A pig-headed man must be one, who, like a driven pig, always will do exactly the opposite to what other people--in the case of the pig his luckless driver--wish him to do, that is to say he is an obstinate man. ["The Sedberghian," June 1882]
piglet (n.): 1883, from pig (n.) + diminutive suffix -let. Earlier name for baby pig was farrow.
pigment (n.): late 14c., from Latin pigmentum "coloring matter, pigment, paint," figuratively "ornament," from stem of pingere "to color, paint" (see paint (v.)). Variants of this word could have been known in Old English (compare 12c. pyhmentum). As a verb from 1900. Related: Pigmented; pigmenting.
pigmentation (n.): 1866, from pigment + -ation. Perhaps modeled on French.
pigmentocracy (n.): 1952, apparently coined in the "Economist," from pigment + -cracy.
pigmy: see pygmy.
pigskin (n.): "saddle leather," 1855, from pig (n.) + skin (n.). As slang for "football" from 1894.
pigsney (n.): (obsolete), late 14c., endearing form of address to a girl or woman, apparently from Middle English pigges eye, literally "pig's eye," with excrescent -n- from min eye, an eye, etc. See OED for explanation of why this might have been felt as a compliment. In a pig's eye! as an adverse retort is recorded from 1872.
pigsty (n.): 1590s, from pig (n.) + sty. Figurative use for "miserable, dirty hovel" is attested from 1820.
pigtail (n.): 1680s, "tobacco in a twisted roll," from pig (n.) + tail (n.). So called from resemblance. Meaning "braid of hair" is from 1753, when it was a fashion among soldiers and sailors. Applied variously to other objects or parts thought to resemble this in appearance.
pika: rabbit-like animal of Siberia and North America, 1827, from Tunguse piika.
pike (n.1): "highway," 1812 shortening of turnpike.