英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

pentagon [pentagon 词源字典]: pentagon: see five
[pentagon etymology, pentagon origin, 英语词源]
pentagram: pentagram: see five
pentecost: pentecost: see five
penthouse: penthouse: [14] Penthouse has no etymological connection with house. It comes from Anglo- Norman *pentis, an abbreviated version of Old French apentis. This in turn went back to Latin appendicium ‘additional attached part’, a derivative of appendēre ‘attach’ (source of English append [15] and appendix [16]), which was a compound verb formed from the prefix ad- ‘to’ and pendēre ‘hang’ (source of English pending, pendulum, etc).

It arrived in English as pentis, and was used for a sort of ‘lean-to with a sloping roof’. A perceived semantic connection with houses led by the late 14th century to its reformulation as penthouse, but its application to a ‘(luxurious) flat on top of a tall block’ did not emerge until the 20th century.
=> append, pendulum
penumbra: penumbra: see umbrage
people: people: [13] People is one of a large family of English words (including also popular and public) descended from Latin populus ‘people’. Its spelling and pronunciation are due to its route of entry into English, via Anglo-Norman poeple, people and Old French pueple, pople rather than direct from Latin.
=> popular, population, public
pepper: pepper: [OE] The pepper vine is a native of the East Indies, and its name is oriental in origin too. It comes ultimately from Sanskrit pippalí, which meant ‘berry’, and hence ‘peppercorn’. It came west via Greek péperi and Latin piper, and was borrowed in prehistoric times into the West Germanic languages, giving German pfeffer, Dutch peper, and English pepper. Its application to fruits of the capsicum family, or their pungent dried products (no relation to the original pepper), dates from the 16th century. Pimpernel is a derivative of Latin piper.
=> pimpernel
peptic: peptic: see melon
perchance: perchance: see perhaps
percussion: percussion: see concussion
peregrine: peregrine: see pilgrim
peremptory: peremptory: [16] Peremptory comes via Anglo- Norman peremptorie from Latin peremptōrius. This meant ‘destructive’, and was derived from perimere ‘take away completely’, a compound verb formed from the prefix per- ‘completely’ and emere ‘obtain’ (source of English example, exempt, prompt, etc). By extension it was used for ‘taking away all possibility of debate’, and hence ‘decisive’.
=> example, exempt, prompt
perestroika: perestroika: [20] Along with glasnost, perestroika was catapulted into English from Russian in the mid-1980s by Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms in the Soviet Union. It means literally ‘rebuilding, reconstruction, reform’, and is a compound formed from pere- ‘re-’ and stroika ‘building, construction’. In the context of Gorbachev’s sweeping changes, it denotes a ‘sweeping restructuring of Soviet society, industry, etc’.
perfect: perfect: [13] Something that is perfect is etymologically ‘completely made’. The word comes via Old French parfit from Latin perfectus, the past participle of perficere ‘finish’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix per- ‘completely’ and facere ‘do, make’ (source of English fact, fashion, etc). The modern English form perfect, a reversion to the Latin spelling, emerged in the 15th century.
=> fact, factory, fashion
perfidy: perfidy: see faith
perform: perform: [14] If the word perform had carried on as it started out, it would now be perfurnish (as indeed it was in northern and Scottish English from the 14th to the 16th centuries). For it comes ultimately from Old French parfournir, a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix par- and fournir ‘accomplish’ (source of English furnish). By association with forme ‘form’, this was altered in Anglo-Norman to parformer – whence English perform.
=> furnish
perfume: perfume: [16] The -fume of perfume is the same word as English fumes, but whereas fumes has gone downhill semantically, perfume has remained in the realms of pleasant odours. It comes from French parfum, a derivative of the verb parfumer. This was borrowed from early Italian parfumare, a compound formed from the prefix par- ‘through’ and fumare ‘smoke’, which denoted a ‘pervading by smoke’. When it first arrived in English, the semantic element ‘burning’ was still present, and perfume denoted the ‘fumes produced by burning a substance, such as incense’, but this gradually dropped out in favour of the more general ‘pleasant smell’.
=> fume
perfunctory: perfunctory: see function
perhaps: perhaps: [16] The phrase by hap or by haps ‘by chance’ originated in the 14th century (hap ‘chance’, a borrowing from Old Norse, now survives in the derived happen). In the 16th century it was transformed into perhaps on the model of perchance [14] and the now obsolete percase [14], both borrowings from Anglo- Norman containing per ‘by’.
=> happen, happy
perigee: perigee: see apogee