英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

ween [ween 词源字典]: ween: see wish
[ween etymology, ween origin, 英语词源]
weep: weep: [OE] Weep goes back to prehistoric Germanic *wōpjan, which probably originated in imitation of the sound of wailing or lamentation. Most of its Germanic relatives have long since died out, but Icelandic still has ǽpa ‘cry out, scream’.
weever: weever: see viper
weevil: weevil: [15] Old English had a word wifel ‘beetle’, but this appears to have died out, and weevil was probably borrowed from Middle Low German wevel. Both words had the same ultimate origin, however: prehistoric Germanic *webilaz. It is not clear whether this was derived from the base *web-, *wab- ‘weave’ (source of English weave ‘make cloth’ and web), in which case the weevil would be the ‘weaving’ creature; or from the base *web- ‘move quickly’ (source of English weave ‘move in a zigzag way’, whip, etc), in which case it would be the ‘quick mover’.
weft: weft: see weave
weigh: weigh: [OE] The etymological notion underlying weigh is ‘carrying’: for it comes ultimately from the Indo-European base *wegh-, which also produced Latin vehere ‘carry’ (source of English vector, vehicle, etc). The idea of ‘heaviness’ is a secondary development. The word’s immediate source was prehistoric Germanic *wegan, which also produced Dutch wegen, Swedish väga, and Danish veie ‘weigh’ and German bewegen ‘move’. The derivative weight [OE] also goes back to prehistoric Germanic.
=> vehicle, waggon, wee
weir: weir: [OE] A weir is etymologically a structure for ‘hindering’ the flow of water. The word’s Old English ancestor was derived from the verb werīan ‘defend, protect’, also ‘hinder’, and hence by extension ‘dam up’, which was distantly related to Sanskrit vr ‘cover’ and vāraya ‘stop, hinder’, and came ultimately from the Indo-European base *wer- ‘cover, shut’.
weird: weird: [OE] Originally, weird was a noun, meaning ‘fate, destiny’. Etymologically it denoted ‘that which comes about’: for it was derived from the same base which produced the now obsolete English verb worth ‘come to be, become’ (a relative of German werden ‘become’). It was used adjectivally in Middle English in the sense ‘having power to control fate’ (which is where the weird sisters who confronted Macbeth come in), but the modern sense ‘uncanny’ did not emerge until the early 19th century, inspired by, but taking semantic liberties with, Shakespeare’s use of the word.
=> verse
welcome: welcome: [12] Old English had the greeting wilcume, which was a compound word formed from wil- ‘pleasure’ (ancestor of modern English will) and cume, a derivative of cuman ‘come’. From it was formed the verb wilcumian ‘welcome’. (German has the parallel wilkommen.) Then in the early Middle English period, due to the similarity of well and the influence of the parallel Old French greeting bienvenu (literally ‘well come’), it changed to welcome.
=> come, will
weld: weld: [16] Weld is ultimately the same verb as well (as in ‘The tears welled up in his eyes’). This originally meant ‘boil, melt’, but in the 15th century (perhaps under the influence of Swedish välla ‘gush, weld’) it began to be used for ‘fuse metal by heating’. Weld itself presumably arose from the use of the past form welled as a present form.
=> well
well: well: English has two distinct words well, both of ancient ancestry. The adverb, ‘satisfactorily’ [OE], has relatives throughout the Germanic languages (German wohl, Dutch wel, Swedish väl, and Danish vel), and probably goes back ultimately to the Indo-European base *wel-, *wol-, which also gave English voluntary, wealth, and will.

It was not used as an adjective until the 13th century. Well ‘water-hole’ [OE] is descended from the Germanic base *wal-, *wel- ‘roll’ (source also of English wallet, wallow, waltz, welter, etc), and so etymologically denotes a place where water ‘bubbles’ up. This original notion of turbulent overflowing liquid is better preserved in the related verb well ‘gush’ [OE], which to begin with meant ‘boil’, and hence ‘melt metal’ (‘He made him drink welled lead’, Holy Rood 1300), and produced English weld.
=> voluntary, wealth, will; volume, wallow, waltz, weld, welter
wellington: wellington: [19] The first duke of Wellington (1769–1852) was perhaps the best-known figure in British public life during the first half of the 19th century, having won considerable prestige for his military campaigns during the Napoleonic wars, and (in what amounted virtually to the first instance of personally endorsed clothing) several types of garment worn by or associated with him were named after him – among them the Wellington coat, the Wellington hat, and the Wellington trousers.

It was, however, the Wellington boot (first recorded in 1817) that carried his name down to posterity. The abbreviation welly is first recorded in 1961, and its use as a verb meaning ‘kick’ dates from the mid 1960s. The duke is also commemorated by the wellingtonia [19], a large Californian conifer.
Welsh rabbit: Welsh rabbit: [18] Despite the proverbial liking of the Welsh for cheese, there is no known connection between Wales and the Welsh rabbit; it is thought the epithet may reflect an earlier humorous use of Welsh for inferior things or substitutes for the real thing (the use of one’s hand to comb one’s hair used to be known as the Welsh comb, for instance). But if the Welsh part of the compound is dubious, the rabbit part is downright impenetrable. All that can be said with reasonable certainly is that it is the original form (first recorded in 1725), and that rarebit (first recorded in 1785) is a later perversion by those who found rabbit a little vulgar.
welter: welter: [13] Welter was originally a verb, meaning ‘roll about’ (borrowed probably from Middle Dutch welteren, it came ultimately from the Germanic base *wal-, *wel- ‘roll’, source also of English wallet, wallow, waltz, etc, and is distantly related to English involve, revolve, etc). It was first used as a noun in the 16th century, in the sense ‘confusion, turmoil’, but the modern sense ‘confused mass, jumble’ did not emerge fully until the mid 19th century.

The welter of welter-weight [19], which originally meant ‘heavyweight horseman or boxer’, may be the same word, but it is perhaps more likely to have been derived from the verb welt in the sense ‘hit, thrash’. This originally meant ‘provide a shoe with a welt or strip of leather’, and was derived from the noun welt [15], a word of uncertain origin.
=> involve, revolve, volume, wallow, waltz, weld, well
wend: wend: [OE] Wend comes from the prehistoric Germanic base *wand-, *wend- ‘turn’, which also produced German and Dutch wenden, Swedish vända, and Danish vende ‘turn’ (and English wand and wander). It started off meaning ‘turn’ in English too, but it soon broadened out to ‘go’, and from the end of the 15th century its past form went has been used as the past tense of go.
=> wand, wander, wind
werewolf: werewolf: [OE] Etymologically, a werewolf is probably a ‘man-wolf’. Its first element, were-, is generally assumed to be the same word as the long obsolete Old English noun wer ‘man’ (a relative of Latin vir ‘man’, from which English gets virile).
=> virile, world
west: west: [OE] Etymologically, the west may be the direction in which the sun goes ‘down’. Together with German and Dutch west, Swedish väster, and Danish vest, it comes from a prehistoric Germanic *westaz. This in turn was descended from the Indo-European base *wes-, which also produced Latin vesper (source of English vespers) and Greek hesperos ‘evening’ and was related to Sanskrit avas ‘down’. French ouest and Spanish oeste were borrowed from English west, Romanian vest from German west.
=> vespers
wet: wet: [OE] Wet is closely related to water. Together with Swedish våat, Danish vaad, Norwegian vaat, Ice-landic votur, and Frisian wiet, wiat, it was formed from the same prehistoric base as produced English water.
=> water
whale: whale: [OE] Whale comes from a prehistoric Germanic *khwal-, which also produced Swedish and Danish hval and the wal- of German walfisch ‘whale’. The expression a whale of, meaning ‘no end of’, originated in the USA towards the end of the 19th century.
wharf: wharf: [OE] Wharf has relatives in German werft ‘wharf, shipyard’ and Dutch werf ‘shipyard’. All three appear to go back to a prehistoric Germanic base *(kh)werb-, *(kh)warb- ‘turn’, which also produced German werfen ‘throw’ and English warp.
=> version, warp