英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

puberty [puberty 词源字典]: puberty: [14] Latin pūber denoted ‘adult’, and hence, by implication, ‘covered in hair’. Both strands of meaning have followed the word into English: ‘adulthood’ by way of the derivative pūbertās, source of English puberty, and ‘hairiness’ in pubescent [17], which means ‘downy’ as well as ‘having reached puberty’. And the two are combined in pubic ‘relating to the region of the groin where hair begins to grow at puberty’ [19].
[puberty etymology, puberty origin, 英语词源]
hairy (adj.): early 14c., "covered with hair, rough, shaggy," from hair + -y (2). From 1848 in slang sense of "difficult," perhaps from the notion of "rugged, rough." Farmer calls this "Oxford slang." Related: Hairiness. For adjectives Old English had hæriht, hære "hairy;" hæren "of hair."
sapphire (n.): "precious stone next in hardness to a diamond," mid-13c., from Old French saphir (12c.) and directly from Latin sapphirus (source also of Spanish zafir, Italian zaffiro), from Greek sappheiros "blue stone" (the gem meant apparently was not the one that now has the name, but perhaps rather "lapis lazuli," the modern sapphire being perhaps signified by Greek hyakinthos), from a Semitic source (compare Hebrew sappir "sapphire"), but probably not ultimately from Semitic. Some linguists propose an origin in Sanskrit sanipriya, a dark precious stone (perhaps sapphire or emerald), literally "sacred to Saturn," from Sani "Saturn" + priyah "precious." In Renaissance lapidaries, it was said to cure anger and stupidity. As an adjective from early 15c. Related: Sapphiric; sapphirine.
wiry (adj.): 1580s, "made of wire," from wire (n.) + -y (2). As "resembling wire" from 1590s; of persons, "lean, sinewy," by 1808. Related: Wiriness.