Word of Today

pile[pile 词源字典]

pile: English has three words pile. The commonest, ‘heap’ [15], originally meant ‘pillar’. It comes ultimately from Latin pīla ‘pillar’, source also of English pilaster, pillar, etc. This evolved in meaning to ‘pier or harbour wall made of stones’, and inspired a derived verb pīlāre ‘heap up’ (source of English compile [14]).

The sense ‘heap’ came to the fore in Old French pile, and passed into English. Pile ‘post driven into the ground’ [OE] was borrowed into Old English from Latin pīlum ‘javelin’. It was originally used for a ‘throwing spear’, ‘arrow’, or ‘spike’, and its present-day use did not emerge (via ‘pointed stake or post’) until the Middle English period. Pile ‘nap on cloth, carpets, etc’ [15] probably comes via Anglo-Norman pyle from Latin pilus ‘hair’ (which may be distantly related to English pillage and pluck, and lies behind English depilatory [17]).
=> compile, pilaster, pillar; depilatory[pile etymology, pile origin, 英语词源]