quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- muscle



[muscle 词源字典] - muscle: [16] Ultimately, muscle and mussel [OE] are the same word, and both owe their origin to a supposed resemblance to a mouse. They go back to Latin mūsculus, literally ‘little mouse’, a diminutive form of mūs ‘mouse’, which was applied to the shellfish because of a similarity in shape and colour, and to ‘muscle’ because the shape and movement of certain muscles beneath the skin, such as the biceps, reminded people of a mouse.
Latin mūsculus ‘mussel’ was borrowed into Old English as muscle or muxle; the -ssspelling began to emerge in the 15th century, inspired by Middle Low German mussel (which came from *muscula, a Vulgar Latin feminization of Latin mūsculus and source of French moule ‘mussel’) and reinforced in the 16th century by the introduction via Old French of muscle for ‘muscle’.
The notion of resemblance to a mouse also lies behind English musk.
=> mouse, mussel[muscle etymology, muscle origin, 英语词源] - smoke




- smoke: [OE] Smoke has close relatives in German schmauch and Dutch smook, now specialized in meaning to ‘thick smoke’. And more distantly it is linked to Welsh mwg and Breton moged ‘smoke’, Lithuanian smaugti ‘choke with smoke’, Greek smugenai ‘be consumed with heat’, and Armenian mux ‘smoke’. The use of the verb smoke in connection with tobacco is first recorded in 1604, in James I’s Counterblast to Tobacco.
- flummox (v.)




- 1837, cant word, also flummux, of uncertain origin, probably risen out of a British dialect (OED finds candidate words in Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, southern Cheshire, and Sheffield). "The formation seems to be onomatopœic, expressive of the notion of throwing down roughly and untidily" [OED]. Related: Flummoxed; flummoxing.
- smoke (n.1)




- late Old English smoca (rare) "fumes and volatile material given off by burning substances," related to smeocan "give off smoke," from Proto-Germanic *smuk- (cognates: Middle Dutch smooc, Dutch smook, Middle High German smouch, German Schmauch), from PIE root *smeug- "to smoke; smoke" (cognates: Armenian mux "smoke," Greek smykhein "to burn with smoldering flame," Old Irish much, Welsh mwg "smoke").
There is no fyre without some smoke [Heywood, 1562]
The more usual noun was Old English smec, which became dialectal smeech. Abusive meaning "black person" attested from 1913, American English. Smoke-eater "firefighter" is c. 1930. Figurative phrase go up in smoke "be destroyed" (as if by fire) is from 1933. Smoke-alarm first attested 1936; smoke-detector from 1957.