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watch [watch 词源字典]: watch: [OE] Ultimately, watch and wake are the same word. The two verbs share a common ancestor (prehistoric Germanic *wakōjan), and to begin with watch was used for ‘be awake’ (‘He sleepeth on the day and watcheth all the night’, John Lydgate, 1430). The notion of being ‘alert and vigilant’, of being ‘on the look-out’, is implicit in that of being ‘awake’ (indeed, vigil and vigilant are members of the same word family), but watch did not develop fully into ‘observe, look at closely’ until the 14th century.

The sort of watch that tells the time is probably so called not because you look at it to see what the time is, but because originally it woke you up. The earliest records of the noun’s application to a timepiece (in the 15th century) refer to an ‘alarm clock’; it was not used for what we would today recognize as a ‘watch’ until the end of the 16th century.
=> vegetable, vigil, vigour, waft, wait, wake[watch etymology, watch origin, 英语词源]
water: water: [OE] Water is an ancient and widespread word, which goes back ultimately to prehistoric Indo-European *wodōr. Its relatives include Greek húdōr ‘water’ (source of the English prefix hydro-), Latin unda ‘wave’ (source of English redundant, surround, undulate, etc), Russian voda ‘water’ (source of English vodka), Gaelic uisge ‘water’ (source of English whisky), Lithuanian vanduō ‘water’, Latvian ūdens ‘water’, Sanskrit udán ‘water’, and Hittite watar ‘water’.

In the Germanic languages it has become German wasser (source of English vaseline), Dutch and English water, Swedish vatten, and Danish vand. Otter comes from a variant of the same Indo-European base, as may winter, and wet is closely related.
=> abound, hydro-, otter, redundant, surround, undulate, vaseline, vodka, wet, whisky
Waterloo: Waterloo: [19] The decisive battle at which the army of Napoleon was finally defeated by British, Dutch, and Prussian forces was fought just outside the village of Waterloo, near Brussels in Belgium, on 18 June 1815. The word Waterloo soon came to be used metaphorically for a ‘final and crushing defeat, something that puts one hors de combat for ever’. The first record of this new application comes in a letter written in 1816 by Lord Byron to his friend Thomas Moore: ‘It [Armenian] is … a Waterloo of an Alphabet’.
wave: wave: English has two words wave, distinct in origin, which have grown to resemble each other over the centuries. The verb, ‘move to and fro’ [OE], goes back to a prehistoric Germanic base *wab-, which also produced English waver [14] (borrowed from Old Norse vafra ‘move unsteadily’) and wobble [17]. The noun wave ‘movement of the sea’ [16] seems to be an alteration (under the influence of the verb wave) of an earlier wawe ‘wave’. This in turn probably went back to Old English wǣg ‘motion, wave’, a derivative of the verb which produced modern English wag.
=> waver, wobble; wag
wax: wax: Wax ‘soft oily substance’ [OE] and the now archaic wax ‘grow, become’ [OE] are distinct words. The former comes (together with German wachs, Dutch was, Swedish vax, and Danish vox) from a prehistoric Germanic *wakhsam. This in turn was descended from the Indo-European *weg- ‘weave’ (source also of English veil). Wax originally referred specifically to ‘bees-wax’, and the word’s underlying etymological reference is to the combs ‘woven’ from wax by bees.

Russian and Czech vosk ‘wax’ come from the same ultimate source. The verb wax goes back to the Indo- European base *woks-, a variant of which has given English auction and augment. Although it has largely died out in English, its relatives in the other Germanic languages (meaning ‘grow’) are still very much alive: German wachsen, Dutch wassen, Swedish vāxa, and Danish vokse.
=> veil; auction, augment
way: way: [OE] In common with German and Dutch weg, Swedish väg, and Danish vej, way goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *wegaz. This was formed from the base *weg- ‘move, carry’ (source also of English waggon, wee, and weigh), which in turn was descended from Indo- European *wegh-. This also produced English vector, vehicle, etc, and a variant of it is responsible for English wag and wave of the sea.
=> vehicle, vogue, wag, waggon, wave, wee, weigh
we: we: [OE] We goes back ultimately to Indo- European *wei, which also produced Sanskrit vayám ‘we’. The precise process by which this evolved into German wir, Dutch wij, Swedish and Danish vi, and English we has never been unravelled.
weak: weak: [13] Etymologically, something that is weak is ‘bendable’. The word was borrowed from Old Norse veikr. This was descended from prehistoric Germanic *waikwaz, which also produced German weich and Dutch week ‘soft’. And this in turn was formed from *waikw-, *wikw- ‘give way, yield’, a derivative of the base *wik- ‘bend’, which also produced the witch of English witch hazel [16] (etymologically the hazel with ‘bendy’ branches) and possibly English week.
wealth: wealth: [13] The now virtually defunct weal [OE] meant ‘welfare’, and also ‘riches’; it was descended from prehistoric West Germanic *welon, a derivative of the same base as produced English well. The abstract-noun suffix -th was added to it in early Middle English to produce wealth. This also originally meant ‘welfare, well-being’ as well as ‘riches’, a sense which now survives only in the compound commonwealth [15].
=> well
wean: wean: [OE] The etymological notion underlying wean is of ‘becoming accustomed’. The specialization to ‘making accustomed to food other than mother’s milk’ is a secondary development. The word comes from a prehistoric Germanic *wanjan (source also of German gewöhnen ‘accustom’). This was derived from the adjective *wanaz ‘accustomed’, which in turn was formed from the base *wan-, *wen-, *wun-(source also of English winsome, wish, and wont ‘accustomed’ [OE]).
=> winsome, wish, wont
weapon: weapon: [OE] Weapon comes from a prehistoric Germanic *wǣpnam, a source it shares with German waffe, Dutch wapen, Swedish vapen, and Danish vaaben. But of the ancestry of the Germanic form nothing certain is known.
wear: wear: [OE] Wear goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *wazjan, of whose other descendants only the Icelandic past participle varinn ‘clad’ survives. This was formed from the base *was-, which in turn was descended from Indo- European *wes-, source of Latin vestis ‘clothing’, from which English gets vest, vestment, etc.
=> vest
weary: weary: [OE] Weary is descended from a West Germanic *wōriga, whose other offspring have all died out. It was formed from the base *wōr-, which also produced Old English wōrian ‘wander, totter’ and Old Norse örr ‘mad’, but its ultimate ancestry is uncertain.
weather: weather: [OE] Weather goes back ultimately to the Indo-European base *we- ‘blow’, which also produced English ventilate and wind. From it were formed two nouns, *wedhrom (source of Russian vedro ‘good weather’) and *wetróm (source of Lithuanian vétra ‘storm’). One or other of these became prehistoric Germanic *wethram, which evolved into German wetter, Dutch weer, Swedish väder, Danish vejr, and English weather. Wither [14] may have originated as a variant of weather, in the sense ‘show the effects of being exposed to the elements’.
=> ventilate, wind
weave: weave: English has two distinct verbs weave, but they have grown to resemble each other closely over the centuries. Weave ‘make cloth’ [OE] goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *weben, which also produced German weben, Dutch weven, Swedish väva, and Danish voeve. It was formed from the base *web-, *wab- (source also of English wafer, web, and weft [OE]), which in turn went back to Indo-European *webh-, *wobh-, probable source of English wasp. Weave ‘take a zigzag course’ [13] was probably borrowed from Old Norse veifa.

This was descended from prehistoric Germanic *weibjan, which came from the Indo-European base *weib-, *wib- ‘move quickly’ (source also of English vibrate, whip, and wipe). At first it meant ‘move about, travel’ (‘Then the evil ghost fares out of the man and weaves wide … seeking rest’, 11th-century English poem). The notion of ‘moving from side to side, threading one’s way’ did not emerge until the 16th century, presumably through the influence of the other verb weave.
=> wafer, wasp, web, weft; vibrate, whip, wipe
web: web: [OE] A web is etymologically something ‘woven’. In common with Dutch web, Swedish väf, and Danish voev, the word goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *wabjam. This was derived from the base *wab-, *web-, which also produced English weave ‘make cloth’. The derivative webster [OE] originally denoted a ‘female weaver’, but it now survives only as a surname.
=> weave
wedding: wedding: [OE] A wedding is etymologically a ceremony at which people ‘promise’ to marry each other. The word’s source, the verb wed [OE], goes back to prehistoric Germanic *wathjōjan (source also of German wetten ‘wager’). This in turn was derived from the noun *wathjam ‘pledge’, which also produced English engage, wage, and wager.
=> engage, wage, wager
Wednesday: Wednesday: [OE] The Romans called the middle day of the week Mercurii diēs ‘Mercury’s day’ (source of French mercredi, Italian mercoledì, and Spanish miercoles). The Germanic peoples equated Mercury with their own god Woden or Odin (whose name may etymologically mean the ‘inspired or mad one’), and they translated the Latin term accordingly, giving Dutch woensdag, Swedish and Danish onsdag, and English Wednesday.
wee: wee: English has two words wee. The older, ‘small’ [OE], was originally a noun, Old English wēg or wēge. This meant ‘weight’, and is closely related to English weigh. Its use in contexts such as a little wee, literally ‘a small weight’, meant that by the 13th century it had shifted semantically to ‘small amount’, but it did not become an adjective until the 15th century. Weeny was derived from it in the 18th century. Wee ‘urine, urinate’ [20] and its reduplication wee-wee [20] are nursery words, and no doubt originated in some sort of fanciful imitation of the sound of urinating.
=> weigh
week: week: [OE] Week evolved from a prehistoric Germanic *wikōn, which also produced German woche, Dutch week, Swedish vecka, and Danish uge. This was probably derived from the base *wik- ‘bend, turn, change’ (source also of English weak), and it is thought that it may originally have denoted ‘time-change’, perhaps with specific reference to the change of phase of the moon.