英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

vacuum (v.)[vacuum 词源字典]: "to clean with a vacuum cleaner," 1919, from vacuum (n.). Related: Vacuumed; vacuuming.[vacuum etymology, vacuum origin, 英语词源]
vacuum (n.): 1540s, "emptiness of space," from Latin vacuum "an empty space, vacant place, a void," noun use of neuter of vacuus "empty, unoccupied, devoid of," figuratively "free, unoccupied," related to vacare "be empty" (see vain). Properly a loan-translation of Greek kenon, literally "that which is empty." Meaning "a space emptied of air" is attested from 1650s. Vacuum tube "glass thermionic device" is attested from 1859. Vacuum cleaner is from 1903; shortened form vacuum (n.) first recorded 1910.
The metaphysicians of Elea, Parmenides and Melissus, started the notion that a vacuum was impossible, and this became a favorite doctrine with Aristotle. All the scholastics upheld the maxim that "nature abhors a vacuum." [Century Dictionary]
vade: Latin, imperative singular of vadere "to go" (see vamoose).
vade-mecum (n.): "a pocket manual, handbook," 1620s, Latin, literally "go with me;" from imperative of vadere "to go" (see vamoose) + me "me" + cum "with."
vae victis: Latin, literally "woe to the vanquished," from Livy, "History" V.xlviii.9.
vagabond (adj.): early 15c. (earlier vacabond, c. 1400), from Old French vagabond, vacabond "wandering, unsteady" (14c.), from Late Latin vagabundus "wandering, strolling about," from Latin vagari "wander" (from vagus "wandering, undecided;" see vague) + gerundive suffix -bundus.
vagabond (n.): c. 1400, earlier wagabund (in a criminal indictment from 1311); see vagabond (adj.). Despite the earliest use, in Middle English often merely "one who is without a settled home, a vagrant" but not necessarily in a bad sense. Notion of "idle, disreputable person" predominated from 17c.
vagal (adj.): "pertaining to the vagus," 1846, from vagus + -al (1).
vagary (n.): 1570s, "a wandering, a roaming journey," from Italian vagare or directly from Latin vagari "to wander, stroll about, roam, be unsettled, spread abroad," from vagus "roving, wandering" (see vague). The infinitive appears to have been adopted in English as a noun and conformed to nouns in -ary, "but this can hardly be explained except as an orig. university use" [Century Dictionary]. Current meaning of "eccentric notion or conduct" (1620s) is from notion of mental wandering. Related: Vagaries.
vagina (n.): "sexual passage of the female from the vulva to the uterus," 1680s, medical Latin, from specialized use of Latin vagina "sheath, scabbard, covering; sheath of an ear of grain, hull, husk" (plural vaginae), from PIE *wag-ina- (cognates: Lithuanian vožiu "ro cover with a hollow thing"), from root *wag- "to break, split, bite." Probably the ancient notion is of a sheath made from a split piece of wood (see sheath). A modern medical word; the Latin word was not used in an anatomical sense in classical times. Anthropological vagina dentata is attested from 1902.
vaginal (adj.): 1726, "pertaining to a sheath," from vagina + -al (1). From 1800 as "pertaining to the vagina of a female." Related: Vaginally.
vaginismus (n.): "spasmodic narrowing of the orifice of the vagina," 1861, medical Latin, from vagina + -ismus (see -ism).
vaginitis (n.): "inflammation of the vagina," 1833, medical Latin; see vagina + -itis "inflammation."
vagitus (n.): crying of a newborn child, 1650s, from Latin vagitus "a crying, squalling," from vagire (see sough (v.)).
vagrancy (n.): "life of idle begging," 1706, from vagrant + -cy. Earlier in a figurative sense, "mental wandering" (1640s). By late 18c. used in law as a catch-all for miscellaneous petty offenses against public order.
vagrant (n.): mid-15c., "person who lacks regular employment, one without fixed abode, a tramp," probably from Anglo-French vageraunt, also wacrant, walcrant, which is said in many sources to be a noun use of the past participle of Old French walcrer "to wander," from Frankish (Germanic) *walken, from the same source as Old Norse valka "wander" and English walk (v.).

Under this theory the word was influenced by Old French vagant, vagaunt "wandering," from Latin vagantem (nominative vagans), past participle of vagari "to wander, stroll about" (see vagary). But on another theory the Anglo-French word ultimately is from Old French vagant, with an intrusive -r-. Middle English also had vagaunt "wandering, without fixed abode" (late 14c.), from Old French vagant.
vagrant (adj.): early 15c., from Anglo-French vagarant, waucrant, and sharing with it the history to be found under vagrant (n.). Dogberry's corruption vagrom ("Much Ado about Nothing") persisted through 19c. in learned jocularity.
vague (adj.): "uncertain as to specifics," 1540s, from Middle French vague "empty, vacant; wild, uncultivated; wandering" (13c.), from Latin vagus "strolling, wandering, rambling," figuratively "vacillating, uncertain," of unknown origin. Related: Vagueness.
vaguely (adv.): 1748, from vague + -ly (2).
vagus (n.): plural vagi, 1840, "pneumogastric nerve," the long, widely distributed nerve from the brain to the upper body, from Latin vagus "wandering, straying" (see vague).