英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

loose: loose: [13] Loose is one of a large family of words that go back ultimately to Indo-European *lau-, *leu-, *lu-, which denoted ‘undoing’. It includes (via Greek) analyse and paralyse, (via Latin) dissolve and solution, and (via Germanic) lose and the suffix -less. Loose itself was borrowed from Old Norse laus, which was descended from a prehistoric Germanic *lausaz.
=> analyse, dissolve, lose, paralyse, solution
mill: mill: [OE] Mill is one of a large family of English words that go back ultimately to the Indo- European base *mel-, *mol-, *ml-, denoting ‘grind’. It includes meal ‘flour’, mollify, mollusc, mould ‘earth’, and (via the extended form *meld-, *mold-) melt and mild. One particular subset of the family comes from closely related Latin sources: the verb molere ‘grind’ has produced emolument and ormolu [18] (etymologically ‘ground gold’); the noun mola ‘grindstone’ has given molar [16] and (via a later sense ‘flour mixed with salt, sprinkled on sacrificial victims’) immolate [16]; and late Latin molīnus ‘grindstone’, which replaced classical Latin mola, was borrowed into Old English as mylen, from which we get modern English mill.
=> emolument, meal, melt, mild, molar, mollify, mollusc, mould, ormolu
mouse: mouse: [OE] Mouse is an ancient word, with relatives today in all the Germanic and Slavic languages. Its Indo-European ancestor was *mūs-, which produced Greek mūs, Latin mūs (something of a dead end: the modern Romance languages have abandoned it), Sanskrit mūs (source, via a very circuitous route, of English musk), and prehistoric Germanic *mūs-.

This has evolved into German maus, Dutch muis, Swedish and Danish mus, and English mouse. And the Slavic branch of the ‘mouse’-family includes Russian mysh’, Polish mysz, and Serbo- Croat mish. English relatives of mouse include muscle and mussel (ultimately the same word) and marmot [17], which goes back to a Vulgar Latin accusative form *mūrem montis ‘mouse of the mountain’.
=> marmot, muscle, musk, mussel
nerve: nerve: [16] Latin nervus meant ‘sinew, bowstring’. It and its Greek relative neuron (source of English neural) may belong to a wider family of words that includes Latin nēre ‘spin’ (a relative of English needle) and possibly also English narrow, perhaps with a common meaning element. The application to ‘bundle of fibres carrying sensory or other impulses’ seems to have begun in Greek, but was soon adopted into the Latin word, and was brought with it into English.

Metaphorically, the Romans used nervus for ‘strength, force’, an application perhaps lying behind the English sense ‘courage’, first recorded in the early 19th century. The use of the plural nerves for ‘agitation, apprehension’ (and of the adjective nervous [14] for ‘apprehensive’) is an English development, which probably started in the mid- 18th century.
=> needle, neural
nominate: nominate: [16] Nominate is one of a small band of English words descended from nōmen, the Latin representative of the Indo-European ‘name’ word family that also includes English name. It was based on the derived verb nōmināre ‘name’, which has also given English, via French, nominee [17]. Other English words from the same source include nominal [15], nomenclature [17] (from Latin nōmenclātūra, whose second element was based on the verb calāre ‘call’), noun, and renown.
=> name, noun, renown
our: our: [OE] Our is the English member of the common Germanic family of first person plural possessive forms, which also includes German unser and Dutch onze. They all come from the same prehistoric base, *ons, as produced English us.
=> us
patron: patron: [14] Patron is one of a large group of English words descended from pater, the Latin member of the Indo-European family of ‘father’- words (which also includes English father). Among the others are paternal [17], paternity [15], paternoster [OE] (literally ‘our father’), patrician [15], and patrimony [14]. Patron itself comes from Latin patrōnus, a derivative of pater which was used for ‘one who protects the interests of another, as a father does’.

By postclassical times it had acquired its current meanings, including that of a ‘guardian saint’. Pattern is ultimately the same word as patron. The Greek branch of the ‘father’-family is represented by patér, from which English gets patriarch [12], patriot [16] (based ultimately on the notion of a ‘fatherland’), and patronymic [17].
=> father, paternal, pattern, patrician, patriot
terrace: terrace: [16] Terrace is one of a small family of English words that go back ultimately to Latin terra ‘earth, land’. This was probably descended from Indo-European *tersā- ‘dry’ (source also of English thirst, torrid, etc), in which case it denoted etymologically ‘dry land’, as opposed to ‘sea’. The family also includes inter [14] (etymologically ‘put into the earth’), terra cotta [18] (from Italian, literally ‘cooked earth’), terra firma [17] (literally ‘firm land’), terrain [18], terrestrial [15], terrier [15] (etymologically a dog which is sent down burrows in the ‘earth’ after its quarry), terrine, territory [15], and tureen. Terrace itself came via Old French terrace from the Vulgar Latin derivative *terrāceus, which denoted a ‘platform made from a pile of earth or rubble’.
=> terrain, terrestrial, terrier, terrine, territory, thirst, torrid, tureen
thyroid: thyroid: [18] The thyroid glands are situated in the neck, and they get their name ultimately from a comparison of the shape of the large oblong cartilage in front of the throat (which includes the Adam’s apple) with that of a door. The word comes via early modern French thyroide from Greek thuroidés ‘door-shaped’, an alteration of thureoeidés, which was derived from thúrā ‘door’ (a relative of English door). The term khóndros thureoiedés, literally ‘door-shaped cartilage’, was used by the Greek physician Galen for the ‘cartilage in front of the throat’ (now known in English as the thyroid cartilage).
=> door, foreign
tit: tit: English has three separate words tit. The oldest, ‘breast’ [OE], belongs to a West Germanic family of terms for ‘breast’ or ‘nipple’ that also includes German zitze and Dutch tit: it presumably originated in imitation of a baby’s sucking sounds. From Germanic it was borrowed into the Romance languages, giving Italian tetta, Spanish teta, Romanian tata, and French tette.

The Old French ancestor of this, tete, gave English teat [13], which gradually replaced tit as the ‘polite’ term. (Titillate [17] may be ultimately related). Tit the bird [18] is short for titmouse [14]. This in turn was formed from an earlier and now defunct tit, used in compounds denoting ‘small things’ and probably borrowed from a Scandinavian language, and Middle English mose ‘titmouse’, which came from a prehistoric Germanic *maisōn (source also of German meise and Dutch mees ‘tit’).

And the tit [16] of tit for tat (which produced British rhyming slang titfer ‘hat’ [20]) originally denoted a ‘light blow, tap’, and was presumably of onomatopoeic origin. (The tit- of titbit [17], incidentally, is probably a different word. It was originally tid- – as it still is in American English – and it may go back ultimately to Old English tiddre ‘frail’.)
=> teat, titillate; titmouse
up: up: [OE] Up is part of a widespread family of Germanic adverbs which also includes German auf, Dutch and Danish op, and Swedish upp. It goes back ultimately to Indo-European *up-, which also produced English over and the prefixes hyper- and super- and may lie behind English evil. To open something is etymologically to put it ‘up’.
=> open, over
assault (n.): late 14c., earlier asaut (c. 1200), from Old French asaut, assaut "an attack, an assault, attacking forces" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *adsaltus "attack, assault," from ad "to" (see ad-) + Latin saltus "a leap," from salire "to leap, spring" (see assail). In law by 1580s; historically, assault includes menacing words or actions; battery is an actual blow.
bug (n.): "insect," 1620s (earliest reference is to bedbugs), of unknown origin, probably but not certainly from or influenced by Middle English bugge "something frightening, scarecrow" (late 14c.), a meaning obsolete since the "insect" sense arose except in bugbear (1570s) and bugaboo (q.v.).

Probably connected with Scottish bogill "goblin, bugbear," or obsolete Welsh bwg "ghost, goblin" (compare Welsh bwgwl "threat," earlier "fear," Middle Irish bocanách "supernatural being"). Some speculate that these words are from a root meaning "goat" (see buck (n.1)) and represent originally a goat-like spectre. Compare also bogey (n.1) and German bögge, böggel-mann "goblin." Perhaps influenced in meaning by Old English -budda used in compounds for "beetle" (compare Low German budde "louse, grub," Middle Low German buddech "thick, swollen").
In the United States bug is not confined, as in England, to the domestic pest, but is applied to all insects of the Coleoptera order, which includes what in this country are generally called beetles. [Farmer & Henley, "Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial English," 1912 abridged edition]
Meaning "defect in a machine" (1889) may have been coined c. 1878 by Thomas Edison (perhaps with the notion of an insect getting into the works). Meaning "person obsessed by an idea" (such as firebug) is from 1841, perhaps from notion of persistence. Sense of "microbe, germ" is from 1919. Bugs "crazy" is from c. 1900. Bug juice as a slang name for drink is from 1869, originally "bad whiskey." The 1811 slang dictionary has bug-hunter "an upholsterer." Bug-word "word or words meant to irritate and vex" is from 1560s.
classical (adj.): 1590s, "of the highest rank" (originally in literature), from classic + -al (1). Classical music (1836) was defined originally against romantic music.
[I]n general, as now used, the term classical includes the composers active in instrumental music from somewhere about 1700 to say 1830. Hence the list includes among the great names those of Bach, his sons, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Clementi, Dussek, Pleyel, Cramer, etc. The next step beyond the term classical is "modern romantic," the composers of which school may be taken to include all the writers for pianoforte from about 1829 (when Mendelssohn published the first "Songs without Words") down to the present. The term romantic in this sense means strongly marked, extraordinary, intending to tell stories and the like. ["Music, Its Ideals and Methods," W.S.B. Mathews, 1897]
But already by 1880s it was acknowledged the term had a double sense: Music that had withstood the test of time, as well as music of a style contrasted to "romantic." Later (early 20c.) it was contrasted to jazz (in this sense more often with reference to the orchestras than to the music itself). Still later in contrast to popular music generally (mid-20c.).
contrary (adj.): mid-14c., from Anglo-French contrarie, from Latin contrarius "opposite, opposed," from contra "against" (see contra).
If we take the statement All men are mortal, its contrary is Not all men are mortal, its converse is All mortal beings are men, & its opposite is No men are mortal. The contrary, however, does not exclude the opposite, but includes it as its most extreme form. Thus This is white has only one opposite, This is black, but many contraries, as This is not white, This is coloured, This is dirty, This is black; & whether the last form is called the contrary, or more emphatically the opposite, is usually indifferent. But to apply the opposite to a mere contrary (e.g. to I did not hit him in relation to I hit him, which has no opposite), or to the converse (e.g. to He hit me in relation to I hit him, to which it is neither contrary nor opposite), is a looseness that may easily result in misunderstanding; the temptation to go wrong is intelligible when it is remembered that with certain types of sentence (A exceeds B) the converse & the opposite are identical (B exceeds A). [Fowler]
As a noun from late 13c. Related: Contrarily; contrariwise.
echinoderm (n.): 1834, from Modern Latin Echinodermata, name of the phylum that includes starfish and sea urchins, from Latinized form of Greek ekhinos "sea urchin," originally "porcupine, hedgehog" (see echidna) + derma (genitive dermatos) "skin" (see derma); so called from its spiky shell. Related: Echinodermal.
elasmobranch (n.): 1859, from Elasmobranchii, class of fishes that includes sharks and rays, from comb. form of Greek elasmos "metal plate," from elan "to strike" (see elastic) + brankhia "gill."
gawky (adj.): "awkward, ungainly," 1759, from gawk hand "left hand" (1703), perhaps a contraction of gaulick, thus "gaulish hand," derogatory slang that could have originated during some period of strained Anglo-French relations, i.e. most of recorded history. Liberman considers it belongs to the group that includes gawk (v.). Related: Gawkily.
Germanic (adj.): 1630s, "of Germany or Germans," from Latin Germanicus, from Germani (see German (n.)). From 1773 as "of the Teutonic race;" from 1842 especially with reference to the language family that includes German, Dutch, English, etc. As a noun, the name of that language family, by 1892, replacing earlier Teutonic. Germanical is attested from 1550s.
gloat (v.): 1570s, "to look at furtively," probably a variant of earlier glout "to gaze attentively, stare, scowl, look glum, pout" (mid-15c.), from a Scandinavian source such as Old Norse glotta "to grin, smile scornfully and show the teeth," Swedish dialectal glotta "to peep;" or from Middle High German glotzen "to stare, gape," from the Germanic group of *gl- words that also includes glower. Sense of "to look at with malicious satisfaction, ponder with pleasure something that satisfies an evil passion" first recorded 1748. Johnson didn't recognize the word, and OED writes that it was probably "taken up in the 16th c. from some dialect." Related: Gloated; gloating. As a noun, from 1640s with sense of "side-glance;" 1899 as "act of gloating."
Whosoever attempteth anything for the publike ... the same setteth himselfe upon a stage to be glouted upon by every evil eye. [translators' "note to the reader" in the 1611 King James Bible]
gnarled (adj.): c. 1600, probably a variant of knurled, from Middle English knar "knob, knot in wood" (late 14c.), earlier "a crag, twisted rock" (early 13c.), from a general group of Germanic words that includes English knob, knock, knuckle, knoll, knurl. Gnarl (v.) "make knotty," gnarl (n.) "a knotty growth on wood," and gnarly (adj.) all seem to owe their existence in modern English to Shakespeare's use of gnarled in 1603:
Thy sharpe and sulpherous bolt Splits the vn-wedgable and gnarled Oke. ["Measure for Measure," II.ii.116]
"(Gnarled) occurs in one passage of Shakes. (for which the sole authority is the folio of 1623), whence it came into general use in the nineteenth century" [OED].
Goidelic (adj.): "pertaining to the branch of Celtic languages that includes Irish, Gaelic, and Manx," 1875, from Old Irish Goidel "Gael" (see Gael).
Hamitic (adj.): of or pertaining to the language group that includes ancient Egyptian, Berber, Galla, etc.; 1842, from Ham, Cham, second son of Noah (Gen. ix:18-19), whose four sons were popularly believed to have populated Egypt and adjacent regions of Africa.
higher: comparative of high (adj.), Old English. Higher education is attested by 1839.
The French distinguish l'instruction secondaire, which includes what we term a liberal education, from l'instruction supérieure, which denotes professional education; but I do not think the corresponding English phrases are used with this distinction. [William Whewell, "Of a Liberal Education in General," 1850]
Higher-up (n.) "one in a superior post" is from 1905, American English.
Hymenoptera: order of insects that includes ants, wasps, and bees, 1773, coined in Modern Latin 1748 by Linnæus from Greek hymen (genitive hymenos) "membrane" (see hymen) + pteron "wing" (see pterodactyl). Related: Hymenopterous.
Lamarckian (adj.): 1846, pertaining to French botanist and zoologist J.B.P. Lamarck (1744-1829), especially his view that the process of evolution includes the inheritance of acquired characteristics.
Lepidoptera (n.): 1773, "insects with four scaly wings," the biological classification that includes butterflies and moths, coined 1735 in Modern Latin by Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus (Karl von Linné, 1707-1778) from Greek lepido-, comb. form of lepis (genitive lepidos) "(fish) scale" (related to lepein "to peel;" see leper) + pteron "wing, feather" (see pterodactyl).
litany (n.): c. 1200, from Old French letanie and directly from Medieval Latin letania, Late Latin litania (source also of Spanish letania, Italian litania), from Greek litaneia "litany, an entreating," from lite "prayer, supplication, entreaty," of unknown origin. From notion of monotonous enumeration of petitions in Christian prayer services came generalized sense of "repeated series," early 19c., borrowed from French.
For those who know the Greek words, a litany is a series of prayers, a liturgy is a canon of public service; the latter in practice includes prayer, but does not say so. [Fowler]
mixed (adj.): mid-15c., from mix (n.). Mixed blessing from 1933. Mixed marriage is from 1690s (originally in a religious context; racial sense was in use by 1942 in U.S., though mixed breed in reference to mulattoes is found by 1775). Mixed bag "heterogeneous collection" is from 1936. Mixed up is from 1884 as "confused," from 1862 as "involved."

Mixed drink in the modern liquor sense is recorded by 1868; the thing itself is older; Bartlett (1859) lists sixty names "given to the various compounds or mixtures of spirituous liquors and wines served up in fashionable bar rooms in the United States," all from a single advertisement. The list includes Tippe na Pecco, Moral suasion, Vox populi, Jewett's fancy, Ne plus ultra, Shambro, Virginia fancy, Stone wall, Smasher, Slingflip, Pig and whistle, Cocktail, Phlegm-cutter, Switchel flip, Tip and Ty, Ching-ching, Fiscal agent, Slip ticket, Epicure's punch.
oy: Yiddish exclamation of dismay, 1892, American English. Extended form oy vey (1959) includes Yiddish vey, from German Weh "woe" (see woe).
pork (n.): c. 1300 (early 13c. in surname Porkuiller), "flesh of a pig as food," from Old French porc "pig, swine, boar," and directly from Latin porcus "pig, tame swine," from PIE *porko- "young swine" (cognates: Umbrian purka; Old Church Slavonic prase "young pig;" Lithuanian parsas "pig;" and Old English fearh, Middle Dutch varken, both from Proto-Germanic *farhaz).

Pork barrel in the literal sense is from 1801, American English; meaning "state's financial resources (available for distribution)" is attested from 1907 (in full, national pork barrel); it was noted as an expression of U.S. President President William Howard Taft:
"Now there is a proposition that we issue $500,000,000 or $1,000,000,000 of bonds for a waterway, and then that we just apportion part to the Mississippi and part to the Atlantic, a part to the Missouri and a part to the Ohio. I am opposed to it. I am opposed to it because it not only smells of the pork barrel, but it will be the pork barrel itself. Let every project stand on its bottom." ["The Outlook," Nov. 6, 1909, quoting Taft]
The magazine article that includes the quote opens with:
We doubt whether any one knows how or when, or from what application of what story, the phrase "the National pork barrel" has come into use. If not a very elegant simile, it is at least an expressive one, and suggests a graphic picture of Congressmen eager for local advantage going, one after another, to the National pork barrel to take away their slices for home consumption.
Pork in this sense is attested from 1862 (compare figurative use of bacon). Pork chop is attested from 1858. Pork pie is from 1732; pork-pie hat (1855) originally described a woman's style popular c. 1855-65, so called for its shape.
Salish (n.): self-designation of the Native American people of Montana also known as Flathead, from a term containing -ish "people." The language group that includes their tongue has been called Salishan.
Semitic (adj.): 1797, denoting the language group that includes Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, Assyrian, etc.; 1826 as "of or pertaining to Semites," from Medieval Latin Semiticus (source of Spanish semitico, French semitique, German semitisch), from Semita (see Semite). As a noun, as the name of a linguistic family, from 1813. In non-linguistic use, perhaps directly from German semitisch. In recent use often with the specific sense "Jewish," but not historically so limited.
silent (adj.): c. 1500, "without speech, silent, not speaking," from Latin silentem (nominative silens) "still, calm, quiet," present participle of silere "be quiet or still" (see silence (n.)). Meaning "free from noise or sound" is from 1580s.

Of letters, c. 1600; of films, 1914. In the looser sense "of few words," from 1840. Phrase strong, silent (type) is attested from 1905. Silent majority in the political sense of "mass of people whose moderate views are not publicly expressed and thus overlooked" is first attested 1955 in a British context and was used by John F. Kennedy but is most associated in U.S. with the rhetoric of the Nixon administration (1969-74).
It is time for America's silent majority to stand up for its rights, and let us remember the American majority includes every minority. America's silent majority is bewildered by irrational protest. [Spiro T. Agnew, May 9, 1969]
In Victorian use, the phrase meant "the dead" (1874; compare Roman use of the noun plural of "silent" to mean "the dead"). Silence is golden (1831) is Carlyle's translation ["Sartor Resartus"] of part of the "Swiss Inscription" Sprechen ist silbern, Schweigen ist golden. In one 14c. text Latin "one who is silent" is translated by a beere stille.
taroc (n.): 1610s, name of an old card game of Italy, Austria, etc., played originally with a 78-card deck that includes four suits, four face-cards each, plus the tarot cards as trumps; from Old Italian tarocchi (plural); see tarot.
Vanessa: fem. proper name, also the name of a butterfly genus. As a name, not much used in U.S. before 1950. It appears to have been coined by Swift c. 1711 as a pseudonym for Esther Vanhomrigh, who was romantically attached to him, and composed of elements of her name. He used it in private correspondence and published it in the poem "Cadenus and Vanessa" (1713).
The name Cadenus is an anagram of Decanus; that of Vanessa is formed much in the same way, by placing the first syllable of her sir-name before her christian-name, Hessy. [William Monck Mason, "History and Antiquities of the Collegiate and Cathedral Church of St. Patrick, Near Dublin," 1820]
As the name of a genus of butterflies that includes the Red Admiral and the Painted Lady, it dates to 1808, chosen by Danish entomologist Johan Christian Fabricius (1745-1808) for unknown reasons. He has no obvious connection to Swift, and the theory that it was intended for *Phanessa, from Greek phanes "a mystical divinity in the Orphic system" does no honor to his classical learning.
physalis: "A plant of a genus that includes the Cape gooseberry and Chinese lantern, which has an inflated lantern-like calyx", Modern Latin, from Greek phusallis 'bladder' (because of the inflated calyx).
allium: "A bulbous plant of a genus that includes the onion and its relatives (e.g. garlic, leek, and chives)", Latin, 'garlic'.
myriapod: "An arthropod of a group that includes the centipedes, millipedes, and related animals. Myriapods have elongated bodies with numerous leg-bearing segments", Early 19th century: from modern Latin Myriapoda, from Greek murias (see myriad) + pous, pod- 'foot'.
Agnatha: "A group of primitive jawless vertebrates which includes the lampreys, hagfishes, and many fossil fishlike forms", From modern Latin Agnatha, from a-¹ 'without' + Greek gnathos 'jaw'.
acer: "A Eurasian or North American deciduous tree or shrub of a genus which includes the maples and the European sycamore", From Latin, 'maple'.
brassica: "A plant of a genus that includes cabbage, swede, rape, and mustard", Modern Latin, from Latin, literally 'cabbage'.
Ivy League: "A group of long-established universities in the eastern US having high academic and social prestige. It includes Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia", 1930s: with reference to the ivy traditionally growing over the walls of the university buildings .
ubuntu: "A quality that includes the essential human virtues; compassion and humanity", Xhosa and Zulu.
coelenterate: "An aquatic invertebrate animal of a phylum that includes jellyfishes, corals, and sea anemones. They typically have a tube- or cup-shaped body with a single opening ringed with tentacles that bear stinging cells (nematocysts)", Late 19th century: from modern Latin Coelenterata, from Greek koilos 'hollow' + enteron 'intestine'.
Apterygota: "A group of insects which includes the bristletails and springtails, having a primitive body form without wings and no distinct larval stage", Modern Latin Apterygota, from Greek a- 'not' + pterugōtos 'winged'.
acridid: "An orthopteran insect of the family Acrididae, which includes locusts and typical (short-horned) grasshoppers", Late 19th cent. From scientific Latin Acrida, genus name ( Linnaeus Systema Naturae (ed. 10, 1758) I. 427; from ancient Greek ἀκρίδ-, ἀκρίς locust: see acrid) + -id, after scientific Latin Acridiidae, family name.
Arachnida: "A class of chelicerate arthropods that includes spiders, scorpions, mites, and ticks. They have become adapted for a terrestrial life and possess both lungs and tracheae, and many have silk or poison glands", Modern Latin (plural), from Greek arakhnē 'spider'.
meiobenthos: "The section of the benthos that includes animals neither small enough to be grouped with the microfauna nor large enough to be grouped with the macrofauna", 1940s. From meio- + benthos. Compare macrobenthos and microbenthos.
primula: "A plant of a genus that includes primroses, cowslips, and polyanthuses. Many kinds are cultivated as ornamentals, bearing flowers in a wide variety of colours in the spring", Modern Latin, from medieval Latin, feminine of primulus, diminutive of primus 'first'.