英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

peyote (n.)[peyote 词源字典]: "mescal cactus," 1849, from Mexican Spanish peyote, from Nahuatl (Aztecan) peyotl, said to mean "caterpillar;" the cactus so called from the downy button on top.[peyote etymology, peyote origin, 英语词源]
Pez: Austrian candy product, in U.S. use by 1956, said to be from letters in German Pfefferminz "peppermint."
pH: 1909, from German PH, introduced by S.P.L. Sörensen, from P, for German Potenz "potency, power" + H, symbol for the hydrogen ion that determines acidity or alkalinity.
ph: now in English usually representing "f," originally it was the combination used by Romans to represent Greek letter phi (cognate with Sanskrit -bh-, Germanic -b-), which at first was an aspirated "p," later the same sound as German -pf-. But by 2c. B.C.E. had become a simple sound made by blowing through the lips (bilabial spirant).

Roman "f," like modern English "f," was dentilabial; by c. 400, however, the sounds had become identical and in some Romanic languages (Italian, Spanish), -ph- regularly was replaced by -f-. This tendency took hold in Old French and Middle English, but with the revival of classical learning the words subsequently were altered back to -ph- (except fancy and fantastic), and due to zealousness in this some non-Greek words in -f- began to appear confusedly in -ph-, though these forms generally have not survived.
Ph.D: attested from 1869; abbreviation of Latin Philosophiae Doctor "Doctor of Philosophy."
phaeton (n.): type of light four-wheeled carriage, 1742, from French (1735), from Greek Phaethon name of the son of Helios and Clymene, who tried to drive his father's sun-chariot but crashed after almost setting fire to the whole earth. His name is literally "shining," from phaein "to shine, gleam," from phaos "light" (see fantasy). Earlier as a name for a reckless driver (1590s).
phage (n.): virus that destroys bacteria, 1917, an abbreviated form of bacteriophage.
phago-: word-forming element meaning "eating," from Greek phago- "eating, devouring," (see -phagous).
phagocyte (n.): 1884, from German phagocyten (plural), coined in German in 1884 by Dr. Elias Metchnikoff (1845-1916) from Greek phago- "eating, devouring" (see -phagous) + -cyte (see cyto-). Related: Phagocytosis.
phalange (n.): mid-15c., "phalanx, ancient military division," from Middle French phalange "phalanx" (13c.), from Latin phalangem (nominative phalanx); see phalanx. It is the earlier form of this word in English.
phalanstery (n.): 1846, from French phalanstère, name for one of the socialistic communities of c.1,800 people, living together as family, proposed as the basic unit of society in the system of French social scientist François-Marie-Charles Fourier (1772-1837), coined by Fourier from phalange, properly "phalanx" (see phalanx) + ending after monastère "monastery."
phalanx (n.): 1550s, "line of battle in close ranks," from Latin phalanx "compact body of heavily armed men in battle array," or directly from Greek phalanx (genitive phalangos) "line of battle, battle array," also "finger or toe bone," originally "round piece of wood, trunk, log," of unknown origin. Perhaps from PIE root *bhelg- "plank, beam" (source of Old English balca "balk;" see balk (n.)). The Macedonian phalanx consisted of 50 close files of 16 men each. In anatomy, originally the whole row of finger joints, which fit together like infantry in close order. Figurative sense of "number of persons banded together in a common cause" is attested from 1600 (compare Spanish Falangist, member of a fascist organization founded in 1933).
phallic (adj.): "pertaining to the phallus," 1789, from Greek phallikos, from phallos (see phallus). First record of phallic symbol is from 1809.
phallocentric (adj.): 1927, from comb. form of phallus + -centric.
phallus (n.): 1610s, "an image of the penis," from Latin phallus, from Greek phallos "penis," also "carving or image of an erect penis (symbolizing the generative power in nature) used in the cult of Dionysus," from PIE *bhel-no-, from root *bhel- (2) "to blow, inflate, swell" (cognates: Old Norse boli "bull," Old English bulluc "little bull," and possibly Greek phalle "whale;" see bole). Used of the penis itself (often in symbolic context) from 1924, originally in jargon of psychoanalysis.
phanero-: before vowels phaner-, word-forming element meaning "visible, manifest," from Greek phanero-, comb. form of phaneros "visible, manifest," from phainein "to show" (see phantasm).
phantasm (n.): early 13c., fantesme, from Old French fantosme "a dream, illusion, fantasy; apparition, ghost, phantom" (12c.), and directly from Latin phantasma "an apparition, specter," from Greek phantasma "image, phantom, apparition; mere image, unreality," from phantazein "to make visible, display," from stem of phainein "to bring to light, make appear; come to light, be seen, appear; explain, expound, inform against; appear to be so," from PIE root *bha- (1) "to shine" (cognates: Sanskrit bhati "shines, glitters," Old Irish ban "white, light, ray of light"). Spelling conformed to Latin from 16c. (see ph). A spelling variant of phantom, "differentiated, but so that the differences are elusive" [Fowler].
phantasma (n.): 1590s, from Latin phantasma (see phantasm).
phantasmagoria (n.): 1802, name of a "magic lantern" exhibition brought to London in 1802 by Parisian showman Paul de Philipstal, the name an alteration of French phantasmagorie, said to have been coined 1801 by French dramatist Louis-Sébastien Mercier as though to mean "crowd of phantoms," from Greek phantasma "image, phantom, apparition" (see phantasm) + second element probably a French form of Greek agora "assembly" (but this may have been chosen more for the dramatic sound than any literal sense). Transferred meaning "shifting scene of many elements" is attested from 1822. Related: Phantasmagorical.
phantasmal (adj.): 1813, from phantasm + -al (1). Related: Phantasmally.