英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

caucus: caucus: [18] Caucus ‘closed party meeting’ is believed to be of native American origin. Certainly its early usage was restricted to the USA (it did not reach British English until the 1870s, when it became something of a political buzzword for a time). In form and meaning it strongly resembles caucauasu, a word meaning ‘counsellor’ in the Algonquian languages of eastern Canada and the USA which was recorded in print by Captain John Smith (1580– 1631), an early English colonist in America.
ditto: ditto: [17] Ditto is a precisely parallel formation to English said ‘aforementioned’ (as in ‘the said John Smith’). It is the Tuscan dialect version of Italian detto, which comes from dictus, the past participle of Latin dīcere ‘say’ (source of English dictionary and a vast range of related words). It was originally used in Italian to avoid repeating the name of the month when giving a series of dates, much as inst and ult are used in commercial English.
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hominy: hominy: [17] Hominy, a gruel or porridge made from coarsely ground maize kernels, is a North American dish, and appropriately enough its linguistic origins are probably American too. A likely source is Algonquian appuminnéonash ‘parched corn’, a compound noun formed from appwóon ‘he bakes’ and minneash ‘grains, corn’. The first reference to it in an English text is by Captain John Smith, an early English colonist in America, in 1629: ‘Their servants commonly feed upon Milk Homini, which is bruised Indian corn pounded, and boiled thick, and milk for the sauce’.
awning (n.): 1624, origin uncertain (first recorded use is by Capt. John Smith), perhaps from Middle French auvans, plural of auvent "a sloping roof," "itself of doubtful etym[ology]" (OED). A nautical term only until sense of "cover for windows or porch" emerged 1852.
cockroach (n.): 1620s, folk etymology (as if from cock + roach) of Spanish cucaracha "chafer, beetle," from cuca "kind of caterpillar." Folk etymology also holds that the first element is from caca "excrement."
A certaine India Bug, called by the Spaniards a Cacarootch, the which creeping into Chests they eat and defile with their ill-sented dung [Capt. John Smith, "Virginia," 1624].
hominy (n.): 1629, first recorded by Capt. John Smith, probably from Powhatan (Algonquian) appuminneonash "parched corn," probably literally "that which is ground or beaten." See grits.
New England: 1616, named by Capt. John Smith. As an adjective, New English (1630s) is older than New Englandish (1863).
raccoon (n.): also racoon, c. 1600, arocoun, from Algonquian (Powhatan) arahkun, from arahkunem "he scratches with the hands." Early forms included Capt. John Smith's raugroughcum. In Norwegian, vaskebjørn, literally "wash-bear."
splice (n.): 1620s (implied in splicing), first recorded in writing of Capt. John Smith, from splice (v.). Motion picture film sense is from 1923. In colloquial use, "marriage union, wedding" (1830).
sting-ray (n.): also sting ray, 1620s, from sting + ray (n.2). First in Capt. John Smith's writings: "Stingraies, whose tailes are very dangerous ...."
swamp (n.): c. 1500 (implied in swampwatyr "swamp-water"), of uncertain origin, perhaps [Barnhart] a dialectal survival from an Old English cognate of Old Norse svöppr "sponge, fungus," from Proto-Germanic *swampuz; but traditionally connected with Middle English sompe "morass, swamp," which probably is from Middle Dutch somp or Middle Low German sump "swamp" (see sump). All of these likely are ultimately related to each other, from PIE *swombho- "spongy; mushroom," via the notion of "spongy ground."
[B]y swamps then in general is to be understood any low grounds subject to inundations, distinguished from marshes, in having a large growth of timber, and much underwood, canes, reeds, wythes, vines, briers, and such like, so matted together, that they are in a great measure impenetrable to man or beast .... [Bernard Romans, "A Concise History of East and West Florida," 1775]
More popular in U.S. (swamp (n.) by itself is first attested 1624 in Capt. John Smith's description of Virginia). Swamp-oak is from 1680s, American English. Swamp Yankee "rural, rustic New Englander" is attested from 1941. Thornton's "American Glossary" (1912) has swamp-angel "dweller in a swamp," swamp-law "might makes right."
re-embarkment: "= re-embarkation", Early 17th cent.; earliest use found in John Smith. From re- + embarkment, after re-embark. Compare French rembarquement, Italian (now rare) rimbarcamento.