英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

cheer [cheer 词源字典]: cheer: [13] Originally, cheer meant ‘face’. It came via Anglo-Norman chere ‘face’ and late Latin cara ‘face’ from Greek kárā ‘head’. As often happens, ‘face’ was taken as a metaphor of the mental condition causing the expression on it, so ‘be of good cheer’ came to mean ‘be in a good mood’; and gradually cheer grew to be used on its own for ‘happy frame of mind, cheerfulness’. It first appears in the sense ‘shout of applause or encouragement’ at the start of the 18th century, when Daniel Defoe identifies it as a nautical usage.
[cheer etymology, cheer origin, 英语词源]
drench: drench: [OE] Originally, drench meant simply ‘cause to drink’. It comes ultimately from the prehistoric Germanic verb *drangkjan, which was a causative variant of *drengkan (source of English drink) – that is to say, it denoted ‘causing someone to do the action of the verb drink’. That particular sense now survives only as a technical usage in veterinary medicine, but already by the Middle English period it had moved on metaphorically to ‘drown’ (now obsolete, and succeeded by the related drown) and ‘soak thoroughly’.
=> drink, drown
eerie: eerie: [13] Eerie seems to come ultimately from Old English earg ‘cowardly’, a descendant of prehistoric Germanic *arg-, although the connection has not been established for certain. It emerged in Scotland and northern England in the 13th century in the sense ‘cowardly, fearful’, and it was not until the 18th century that it began to veer round semantically from ‘afraid’ to ‘causing fear’. Burns was one of the first to use it so in print: ‘Be thou a bogle by the eerie side of an auld thorn’. In the course of the 19th century its use gradually spread further south to become general English.
embellish: embellish: [14] To embellish something is literally to ‘make it beautiful’. It comes from Old French embellir, a compound verb formed from the prefix en-, which denotes ‘causing’ or ‘making’, and bel ‘beautiful’. This Old French adjective (source of modern French beau) came from Latin bellus ‘beautiful’, and its other English offspring include beau, belle, and beauty.
=> beau, beauty, belle
locomotive: locomotive: [17] Locomotive denotes etymologically ‘moving by change of place’. It is an anglicization of modern Latin locōmōtīvus, a compound formed from locus ‘place’ and mōtīvus ‘causing to move’ (source of English motive). Originally it was used strictly as an adjective, and it was not until the early 19th century that the present-day noun use (which began life as an abbreviation of locomotive engine) emerged.
motor: motor: [16] The most direct English descendant of Latin movēre ‘move’ is of course move, but several more have found their way into the language via derivatives. From mōtiō ‘movement’ comes motion [15] (and its collateral forms commotion [15], emotion, and promotion [15]); from mōtīvus ‘causing to move’ come motivate [19], motive [14], and (via modern French) motif [19]; and mōtor ‘mover’ has given motor.

Originally this was used for the rather generalized notion of a ‘moving force’; the modern application to an ‘engine’ did not emerge until the mid-19th century. Also from movēre come English moment and mutiny.
=> commotion, emotion, moment, motif, motion, motive, move, mutiny, promotion
rabies: rabies: [17] Latin rabiēs meant ‘fury, madness’ (it is the source of English rage). Hence it came to be used for ‘madness in dogs’, and was subsequently adopted as the name of the disease causing this, when it came to be identified. The word was derived from the verb rabere ‘be mad’, as also was rabidus, source of English rabid [17].
=> rabid, rage
static: static: [17] Static means etymologically ‘causing to stand’. Its ultimate ancestor is Greek statós ‘placed, standing’, a derivative of the base *sta- ‘stand’ (to which English stand is related). From this was derived statikós ‘causing to stand’, which passed into English via Latin staticus.
=> stand
think: think: [OE] Think goes back to an Old English thencan. This was a variant of thyncan ‘seem, appear’, which survives in the archaic methinks (literally ‘it seems to me’), and so etymologically think probably carries the notion of ‘causing images, reflections, etc to appear to oneself, in one’s brain’. The noun thought comes from the same prehistoric Germanic base as produced the verb (as does English thank). Related Germanic forms include German and Dutch denken, Swedish tänka, and Danish tænke.
=> thank, thought
typhoon: typhoon: [16] A typhoon is etymologically a ‘great wind’. The word was adapted from Cantonese Chinese daai feng ‘great wind’, its form no doubt influenced by Greek Tūphón, father of the winds in Greek mythology (his name was derived from the verb túphein ‘smoke’, which also produced túphos ‘smoke’, hence ‘fever causing delusion’, source of English stew, typhoid, and typhus).
abortive (adj.): late 14c., "born prematurely or dead," from Latin abortivus "pertaining to miscarriage; causing abortion," from abort-, past participle stem of aboriri "disappear, miscarry," from ab- "amiss" (see ab-) + oriri "appear, be born, arise" (see orchestra); the compound word used in Latin for deaths, miscarriages, sunsets, etc. The Latin verb for "to produce an abortion" was abigo, literally "to drive away." Not originally used to imply forced or deliberate miscarriage; from 14c.-18c. stillborn children or domestic animals were said to be abortive. Also see abortion. Related: Abortiveness.
allergen (n.): substance causing allergy, 1912, from allergy on model of antigen.
amnestic (adj.): "causing loss of memory," 1879, from Greek amnestia "oblivion, forgetfulness;" see amnesia.
anxious (adj.): 1620s, from Latin anxius "solicitous, uneasy, troubled in mind" (also "causing anxiety, troublesome"), from angere, anguere "choke, squeeze," figuratively "torment, cause distress" (see anger (v.)). The same image is in Serbo-Croatian tjeskoba "anxiety," literally "tightness, narrowness." Related: Anxiously; anxiousness.
barm (n.): Old English beorma "yeast, leaven," also "head of a beer," from Proto-Germanic *bermon- (cognates: Dutch berm, Middle Low German barm), from PIE root *bher- (4) "to cook, bake" (cognates: Latin fermentum "substance causing fermentation," Sanskrit bhurati "moves convulsively, quivers," Middle Irish berbaim "I boil, seethe;" see brew (v.)).
blood (n.): Old English blod "blood," from Proto-Germanic *blodam "blood" (cognates: Old Frisian blod, Old Saxon blôd, Old Norse bloð, Middle Dutch bloet, Dutch bloed, Old High German bluot, German Blut, Gothic bloþ), from PIE *bhlo-to-, perhaps meaning "to swell, gush, spurt," or "that which bursts out" (compare Gothic bloþ "blood," bloma "flower"), in which case it would be from suffixed form of *bhle-, extended form of root *bhel- (3) "to thrive, bloom" (see folio).

There seems to have been an avoidance in Germanic, perhaps from taboo, of other PIE words for "blood," such as *esen- (source of poetic Greek ear, Old Latin aser, Sanskrit asrk, Hittite eshar); also *krew-, which seems to have had a sense of "blood outside the body, gore from a wound" (source of Latin cruour "blood from a wound," Greek kreas "meat"), which came to mean simply "blood" in the Balto-Slavic group and some other languages.

Inheritance and relationship senses (also found in Latin sanguis, Greek haima) emerged in English by mid-13c. Meaning "person of one's family, race, kindred" is late 14c. As the seat of passions, it is recorded from c. 1300. Slang meaning "hot spark, a man of fire" [Johnson] is from 1560s. Blood pressure attested from 1862. Blood money is from 1530s; originally money paid for causing the death of another.

Blood type is from 1928. That there were different types of human blood was discovered c. 1900 during early experiments in transfusion. To get blood from a stone "do the impossible" is from 1660s. Expression blood is thicker than water attested by 1803, in reference to family ties of those separated by distance. New (or fresh) blood, in reference to members of an organization or group is from 1880.
boring (adj.): mid-15c., "action of piercing," from bore (v.). From 1853 in reference to animals that bore; 1840 in the sense "wearying, causing ennui."
boulder (n.): 1670s, variant of Middle English bulder (c. 1300), from a Scandinavian source akin to Swedish dialectal bullersten "noisy stone" (large stone in a stream, causing water to roar around it), from bullra "to roar" + sten "stone." Or the first element might be from *buller- "round object," from Proto-Germanic *bul-, from PIE *bhel- (2) "to inflate, swell" (see bole).
calamitous (adj.): 1540s, from French calamiteux (16c.), from Latin calamitosus "causing loss, destructive," from calamitas (see calamity). Related: Calamitously; calamitousness.
carcinogen (n.): "cancer-causing substance," 1853, from carcinoma + -gen.
causation (n.): 1640s, from Latin causationem (nominative causatio) "excuse, pretext," in Medieval Latin "action of causing," from causa (see cause).
cause (v.): late 14c., "produce an effect," also "impel, compel," from Old French causer "to cause" (13c.) and directly from Medieval Latin causare, from Latin causa "a cause; a reason; interest; judicial process, lawsuit," which is of unknown origin. Related: Caused; causing. Classical Latin causari meant "to plead, to debate a question."
chilly (adj.): 1560s, "causing a sensation of cold," from chill (n.) + -y (2). Meaning "feeling coldish" is attested from 1610s; figurative use is recorded by 1841. Related: Chilliness.
darnel (n.): weed growing in grainfields, c. 1300, from northern dialectal French darnelle; according to one theory, the the second element is Old French neelle (Modern French nielle) "cockle," from Vulgar Latin nigella "black-seeded," from fem. of Latin nigellus "blackish."

But perhaps rather the word is related to Middle Dutch verdaernt, verdarnt "stunned, dumbfounded, angry," Walloon darne, derne "stunned, dazed, drunk," the plant so called from its well-known inebriating property. Long noted for its "poisonous" properties (actually caused by fungus growing on the plant); The French word for it is ivraie, from Latin ebriacus "intoxicated," and the botanical name, Lolium temulentum, is from Latin temulent "drunken," though this sometimes is said to be "from the heavy seed heads lolling over under their own weight."
In some parts of continental Europe it appears the seeds of darnel have the reputation of causing intoxication in men, beasts, and birds, the effects being sometimes so violent as to produce convulsions. In Scotland the name of Sleepies, is applied to darnel, from the seeds causing narcotic effects. [Gouverneur Emerson, "The American Farmer's Encyclopedia," New York, 1860. It also mentions that "Haller speaks of them as communicating these properties to beer."]
deadly (adj.): Old English deadlic "mortal, subject to death," also "causing death;" see dead + -ly (1). Meaning "having the capacity to kill" is from late 14c. (Old English words for this included deaðbærlic, deaðberende).
detonation (n.): 1670s, "explosion accompanied by loud sound," from French détonation, from Medieval Latin detonationem (nominative detonatio), from Latin detonare "to thunder down, to release one's thunder, roar out," from de- "down" (see de-) + tonare "to thunder" (see thunder (n.)). Sense of "act of causing to explode" (mid-18c.) developed in French.
dolorous (adj.): c. 1400, "causing pain," from Old French doloros (12c., Modern French douloureux) "painful, sorrowful, wretched," from Late Latin dolorosus "painful, sorrowful," from Latin dolor "pain, grief." Sense of "causing grief" is from mid-15c.; that of "full of sorrow" is from 1510s. Related: Dolorously; dolorousness.
dreadful (adj.): early 13c., "full of dread," from dread (n.) + -ful. Meaning "causing dread" is from mid-13c.; weakened sense of "very bad" is from c. 1700. Related: Dreadfully.
eerie (adj.): also eery, c. 1300, "timid, affected by superstitious fear," north England and Scottish variant of Old English earg "cowardly, fearful, craven, vile, wretched, useless," from Proto-Germanic *argaz (cognates: Old Frisian erg "evil, bad," Middle Dutch arch "bad," Dutch arg, Old High German arg "cowardly, worthless," German arg "bad, wicked," Old Norse argr "unmanly, voluptuous," Swedish arg "malicious"). Sense of "causing fear because of strangeness" is first attested 1792. Finnish arka "cowardly" is a Germanic loan-word.
emetic: 1650s (n.), 1660s (adj.), from French émétique (16c.), from Latin emeticus, from Greek emetikos "causing vomiting," from emesis "vomiting," from emein "to vomit," from PIE *weme- "to spit, vomit" (see vomit (v.)).
emotive (adj.): 1735, "causing movement," from Latin emot-, past participle stem of emovere "to move out, move away" (see emotion) + -ive. Meaning "capable of emotion" is from 1881; that of "evoking emotions" is from 1923, originally in literary criticism. Related: Emotively; emotiveness.
exciting (adj.): 1811, "causing disease," present participle adjective excite (v.). Sense of "causing excitement" is from 1826. Related: Excitingly.
-fication: word-forming element meaning "a making or causing," from Latin -ficationem (nominative -ficatio), forming nouns of action from verbs in -ficare (compare -fy); ultimately from facere "to make, do" (see factitious).
-ful: word-forming element attached to nouns (and in modern English to verb stems) and meaning "full of, having, characterized by," also "amount or volume contained" (handful, bellyful); from Old English -full, -ful, which is full (adj.) become a suffix by being coalesced with a preceding noun, but originally a separate word. Cognate with German -voll, Old Norse -fullr, Danish -fuld. Most English -ful adjectives at one time or another had both passive ("full of x") and active ("causing x; full of occasion for x") senses.

It is rare in Old English and Middle English, where full was much more commonly attached at the head of a word (for example Old English fulbrecan "to violate," fulslean "to kill outright," fulripod "mature;" Middle English had ful-comen "attain (a state), realize (a truth)," ful-lasting "durability," ful-thriven "complete, perfect," etc.).
factitive (adj.): "causative, expressive of making or causing," 1813, from Latin factus, past participle of facere "to make, do" (see factitious) + -ive.
fatal (adj.): late 14c., "decreed by fate," also "fraught with fate," from Middle French fatal (14c.) and directly from Latin fatalis "ordained by fate, decreed, destined; destructive, deadly," from fatum (see fate (n.)); sense of "causing or attended with death" in English is from early 15c. Meaning "concerned with or dealing with destiny" is from mid-15c.
fatality (n.): late 15c., "quality of causing death," from French fatalité, from Late Latin fatalitatem (nominative fatalitas) "fatal necessity, fatality," from Latin fatalis "ordained by fate; destructive, deadly" (see fatal). Senses in 16c.-17c. included "determined by fate" and "a destiny." Meaning "an occurrence resulting in widespread death" is from 1840. Related: Fatalities.
fearful (adj.): mid-14c., "causing fear," from fear (n.) + -ful. Meaning "full of fear, timid" (now less common) also is from mid-14c. As a mere emphatic, from 1630s. Related: Fearfully; fearfulness.
fearsome (adj.): "causing fear," 1768, from fear (n.) + -some (1). Occasionally used badly in the sense "timid," which ought to stick to fearful. Related: Fearsomely; fearsomeness.
ferment (v.): late 14c. (intransitive), from Old French fermenter (13c.) and directly from Latin fermentare "to leaven, cause to rise or ferment," from fermentum "substance causing fermentation, leaven, drink made of fermented barley," perhaps contracted from *fervimentum, from root of fervere "to boil, seethe" (see brew (v.)). Transitive use from 1670s. Figurative use from 1650s. Related: Fermented; fermenting.
feverish (adj.): late 14c., "causing fever;" 1630s, "excited, unduly ardent;" 1640s, "having symptoms of fever, having a slight fever," from fever + -ish. Earlier in same sense was feverous (late 14c.). Old English had feferig, feferseoc. Related: Feverishly; feverishness.
fibrillation (n.): 1842, "state of being fibrillar" (that is, "arranged in fibrils"), noun of action from fibrillate (v.). Especially "a quavering in the fibrils of the muscles of the heart" causing irregular beating (1882).
fike (v.): Middle English fyken "move about restlessly" (early 13c.), from Old Norse fikjask "to desire eagerly," fika (in fika sig upp "climb up nimbly," of a spider), probably from a general North Sea Germanic word related to the source of German ficken "to move about briskly." Later as "give trouble, vex" (1570s), a sense surviving especially in Scottish. Hence also fikery "vexatious trouble" (1823); fiky "causing trouble about trifles" (1768).
forgetful (adj.): late 14c., from forget + -ful. A curious formation. Used in the sense "causing forgetting" from 1550s, but almost exclusively in poetry (Milton, Tennyson, etc.). An older word in this sense was Middle English forgetel, from Old English forgitel "forgetful," from a formation similar to that in Dutch vergetel. Related: Forgetfully; forgetfulness.
formidable (adj.): mid-15c., "causing fear," from Middle French formidable (15c.), from Latin formidabilis "causing fear, terrible," from formidare "to fear," from formido "fearfulness, fear, terror, dread." Sense has softened somewhat over time, in the direction of "so great (in strength, size, etc.) as to discourage effort." Related: Formidably.
frightful (adj.): mid-13c., "timid, fearful, full of terror," from fright (n.) + -ful. The prevailing modern sense of "alarming, full of occasion for fright" is from c. 1600. Meaning "dreadful, horrible, shocking" (often hyperbolic) is attested from c. 1700; Johnson noted it as "a cant word among women for anything unpleasing." Related: Frightfully; frightfulness. Middle English also had frighty "causing fear," also "afraid" (mid-13c.).
frigorific (adj.): "causing cold," 1660s, from French frigorifique, from Late Latin frigorificus "cooling," from frigor-, stem of Latin frigus "cold, cool, coolness" (see frigid) + -ficus "making," from root of facere "to make, do" (see factitious).
frog (n.1): Old English frogga "frog," a diminutive of frosc, forsc, frox "frog," a common Germanic word but with different formations that are difficult to explain (cognates: Old Norse froskr, Middle Dutch vorsc, German Frosch "frog"), probably literally "hopper," from PIE root *preu- "to hop" (cognates: Sanskrit provate "hops," Russian prygat "to hop, jump"). Watkins calls the Old English -gga an "obscure expressive suffix."

The Latin word for it (rana) is imitative of croaking. Also in Middle English as frok, vrogge, frugge, and with sometimes plural form froggen. Collateral Middle English forms frude, froud are from Old Norse frauðr "frog," and native alternative form frosk "frog" survived in English dialects into the 19c.
I always eat fricasseed frogs regretfully; they remind one so much of miniature human thighs, and make one feel cannibalistic and horrid .... [H. Ellen Brown, "A Girl's Wanderings in Hungary," 1896]
As a British derogatory term for "Frenchman," 1778 (short for frog-eater), but before that (1650s) it meant "Dutch" (from frog-land "marshy land," in reference to their country). To have a frog in the throat "be hoarse" is from 1892, from frog as a name for a lump or swelling in the mouth (1650s) or throat infections causing a croaking sound.
fulsome (adj.): mid-13c., "abundant, plentiful," Middle English compound of ful "full" (see full (adj.)) + -som "to a considerable degree" (see -some (1)). Perhaps a case of ironic understatement. Sense extended to "plump, well-fed" (mid-14c.), then "arousing disgust" (similar to the feeling of having over-eaten), late 14c. Via the sense of "causing nausea" it came to be used of language, "offensive to taste or good manners" (early 15c.); especially "excessively flattering" (1660s). Since the 1960s, however, it commonly has been used in its original, favorable sense, especially in fulsome praise. Related: Fulsomely; fulsomeness.
funest (adj.): "portending death," 1650s, obsolete from 18c. except in poetry, from Middle French funeste "unlucky" (14c.), from Latin funestus "causing death, destructive; mournful," from funus "a funeral" (see funeral (n.)). Related: Funestal (1550s).