英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

acrostic [acrostic 词源字典]: acrostic: [16] An acrostic is a piece of verse in which the first letters of each line when put together spell out a word. The term is of Greek origin (akrostikhis), and was formed from ákros ‘at the extremity’ (see ACROBAT) and stíkhos ‘line of verse’. The second element crops up in several other prosodic terms, such as distich and hemistich, and comes from the Greek verb steíkhein ‘go’, which is related ultimately to English stair, stile, and stirrup.
=> acrobat, distich, hemistich, stair, stile, stirrup[acrostic etymology, acrostic origin, 英语词源]
Adam: Adam: Adam’s apple [18] The original apple in question was the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which the serpent in the Garden of Eden tricked Eve into eating, and which she in turn persuaded Adam to eat. It was traditionally believed that a piece of it stuck in Adam’s throat, and so it became an appropriate and convenient metaphor for the thyroid cartilage of the larynx, which protrudes noticeably in men.
Adam's apple: Adam's apple: [18] The original apple in question was the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which the serpent in the Garden of Eden tricked Eve into eating, and which she in turn persuaded Adam to eat. It was traditionally believed that a piece of it stuck in Adam’s throat, and so it became an appropriate and convenient metaphor for the thyroid cartilage of the larynx, which protrudes noticeably in men.
apology: apology: [16] The original meaning of apology was ‘formal self-justification’, often used as the title of a piece of writing rebutting criticism (as in the Apology of Sir Thomas More, knight 1533). This is indicative of the word’s origins in Greek apologíā, a derivative of the verb apologeisthai ‘speak in one’s defence’, formed from the prefix apo- ‘away, off’ and logos ‘speech’ (source of English logic).

It entered English through either French apologie or Latin apologia (which was separately borrowed into English as a Latinism in the late 18th century). The meaning ‘expression of regret for offence given’ developed in the late 16th century.
=> logic
bain-marie: bain-marie: [19] In its origins, the bain-marie was far from today’s innocuous domestic utensil for heating food over boiling water. It takes its name from Mary, or Miriam, the sister of Moses, who according to medieval legend was an adept alchemist – so much so that she had a piece of alchemical equipment named after her, ‘Mary’s furnace’ (medieval Greek kaminos Marias). This was mistranslated into medieval Latin as balneum Mariae ‘Mary’s bath’, from which it passed into French as bain-marie.

English originally borrowed the word in the 15th century, in semi-anglicized form, as balneo of Mary. At this time it still retained its original alchemical meaning, but by the early 19th century, when English adopted the French term, it had developed its present-day use.
carbuncle: carbuncle: [13] Etymologically, a carbuncle is a ‘small piece of coal’. It comes ultimately from Latin carbunculus, a diminutive form of carbō ‘coal’ (source of English carbon). This reached English via Old French carbuncle. The Latin word had two main metaphorical meanings, based on the idea of a glowing coal: ‘red gem’ and ‘red inflamed spot’, both of which passed into English.

The latter achieved some notoriety in British English in the 1980s following a remark by the Prince of Wales in 1984 comparing a piece of modern architecture unfavourably to a ‘carbuncle’, although ironically from the 15th to the 17th centuries the word was used for ‘something of great splendour’.
=> carbon
catapult: catapult: [16] The first catapults were large military machines for hurling missiles at the enemy (originally darts, in contrast with the ballista, which discharged large rocks, but the distinction did not last); the schoolboy’s handheld catapult, consisting of a piece of elastic fixed in a Y-shaped frame, did not appear until the latter part of the 19th century. Etymologically, their name is a fairly straightforward description of what they do: it comes ultimately from Greek katapáltēs, which was formed from katá- ‘down’, hence ‘against’, and pállein ‘hurl’.
crony: crony: [17] Crony originated as a piece of Cambridge university slang. Originally written chrony, it was based on Greek khrónios ‘longlasting’, a derivative of khrónos ‘time’ (source of English chronicle, chronology, chronic, etc), and seems to have been intended to mean ‘friend of long-standing’, or perhaps ‘contemporary’. The first recorded reference to it is in the diary of Samuel Pepys, a Cambridge man: ‘Jack Cole, my old school-fellow … who was a great chrony of mine’, 30 May 1665.
=> chronic, chronicle, chronology
cuirass: cuirass: [15] A cuirass ‘breastplate’ is literally, and was originally, a piece of body armour made of leather. The word comes, via French cuirasse, from Vulgar Latin *coriācia, a nominal use of the Latin adjective coriāceus ‘made of leather’. This was a derivative of corium ‘leather’, which came ultimately from the Indo-European base *ker- or *sker- ‘cut’ (source also of English shear), the underlying notion being of removing the animal’s hide with a knife. Other descendants of Latin corium include French cuir and Spanish cuero, both meaning ‘leather’.
=> curtail, shear, shirt, short, skirt
diaper: diaper: [14] The notion underlying diaper is of extreme whiteness. It comes ultimately from Byzantine Greek díaspros, which was a compound formed from the intensive prefix diaand áspros ‘white’. (Aspros itself has an involved history: it started life as Latin asper ‘rough’ – source of English asperity – which was applied particularly to bas-relief on carvings and coins; it was borrowed into Byzantine Greek and used as a noun to designate silver coins, and their brightness and shininess led to its reconversion into an adjective, meaning ‘white’.) Díaspros appears originally to have been applied to ecclesiastical vestments, and subsequently to any shiny fabric.

When the word first entered English, via medieval Latin diasprum and Old French diapre, it referred to a rather rich silk fabric embellished with gold thread, but by the 16th century it was being used for less glamorous textiles, of white linen, with a small diamond-shaped pattern. The specific application to a piece of such cloth used as a baby’s nappy (still current in American English) seems to have developed in the 16th century.
=> asperity
dilapidate: dilapidate: [16] It is a common misconception that dilapidate means literally ‘fall apart stone by stone’, since the word comes ultimately from Latin lapis ‘stone’ (as in lapis lazuli [14], literally ‘azure stone’). But in fact Latin dīlapidāre meant ‘squander’ (a sense once current in English, but now superseded). It was a compound verb formed from the prefix dis- ‘apart’ and lapidāre ‘throw stones’, and thus originally must have meant literally ‘scatter like stones’, but its only recorded sense is the metaphorical extension ‘throw away or destroy wantonly, squander’.

The application of the word to the destruction of buildings is a piece of later etymologizing.
=> lapis lazuli
dominion: dominion: [15] Dominion, in common with demesne, domain, dominant, dominate, domineer, dominie, domino, and don, and indeed danger and dungeon, comes ultimately from Latin dominus ‘lord, master’. This was a derivative of Latin domus ‘house’ (source of English dome) and, like the parallel Greek formation despótēs (source of English despot), originally meant ‘master of the house’.

Its most direct descendant in modern English is don [17]. This is the Spanish reflex of Latin dominus, used as a title of respect for Spanish lords or gentlemen, and has been applied since the mid 17th century (originally as a piece of university slang) to university teachers. Of derivatives, dominion comes from Latin dominium ‘property’ (of which a post-classical descendant was dominiō or domniō, source of English dungeon); dominate [17] and dominant [15] come from the verb dominārī ‘be lord and master’; domineer [16] is also from dominārī, via French dominer and early modern Dutch domineren; and dominie [17], a Scottish term for a ‘schoolmaster’, probably comes from the Latin vocative case dominē.
=> dame, danger, demesne, despot, dome, domestic, dominate
fake: fake: [19] The use of fake for ‘produce a fraudulent copy of’ is a comparatively recent development. It used to mean ‘do up something spurious to make it seem genuine’, and in this sense seems to be a descendant of the longobsolete verb feague [16]. Essentially it is a piece of underworld slang, and as such has a rather slippery semantic history. In the 19th century it was used, like its ancestor feague, for any number of nefarious operations, including beating up and killing (‘to fake a man out and out, is to kill him’, J H Vaux, Vocabulary of the Flash Language 1812), but its current sense leads back in a straight line to its probable ultimate source, German fegen ‘polish, refurbish’.

This (like English fig ‘clothes, array’) was a derivative of the prehistoric Germanic base *feg-, a variant of *fag-, from which English gets fair ‘beautiful’.
=> fair, feast, fig
file: file: The file for smoothing and rubbing [OE] and the file for storing things in [16] are quite different words. The former comes from a prehistoric Germanic *fikhalā (source also of German feile and Dutch vijl), which goes back ultimately to Indo-European *pik-, *peik-, denoting ‘cut’. The latter, on the other hand, comes from Old French fil, a descendant of Latin filum ‘thread’, which was applied to a piece of string or wire suspended from two points and used for hanging documents and records on for easy reference.

As methods of document storage and retrieval became more sophisticated, the word file followed them. The later file ‘(military) column’, first recorded at the end of the 16th century, probably represents a reborrowing from French, but it is ultimately the same word. Fillet [14] originated as a diminutive form of Latin filum.
=> filigree, fillet
gadget: gadget: [19] Gadget is an elusive sort of word, as vague in its history as it is unspecific in its meaning. It seems to have originated as a piece of sailors’ slang, and is said to have been current as long ago as the 1850s, but the earliest record of it in print is from 1886, in R Brown’s Spun Yarn and Spindrift: ‘Then the names of all the other things on board a ship! I don’t know half of them yet; even the sailors forget at times, and if the exact name of anything they want happens to slip from their memory, they call it a chickenfixing, or a gadjet, or a gill-guy, or a timmeynoggy, or a wim-wom – just pro tem., you know’.

As for its source, suggestions have included French gâchette ‘catch of a mechanism’ and French dialect gagée ‘tool’.
ginger: ginger: [OE] Few foodstuffs can have been as exhaustively etymologized as ginger – Professor Alan Ross, for instance, begetter of the U/non-U distinction, wrote an entire 74-page monograph on the history of the word in 1952. And deservedly so, for its ancestry is extraordinarily complex. Its ultimate source was Sanskrit śrngavēram, a compound formed from śrngam ‘horn’ and vẽra- ‘body’; the term was applied to ‘ginger’ because of the shape of its edible root.

This passed via Prakrit singabēra and Greek ziggíberis into Latin as zinziberi. In postclassical times the Latin form developed to gingiber or gingiver, which Old English borrowed as gingifer. English reborrowed the word in the 13th century from Old French gingivre, which combined with the descendant of the Old English form to produce Middle English gingivere – whence modern English ginger.

Its verbal use, as in ‘ginger up’, appears to come from the practice of putting a piece of ginger into a lazy horse’s anus to make it buck its ideas up.
hallmark: hallmark: [18] The hallmark on a piece of gold, silver or platinum, which allows it to be legally sold, is so called simply because it was originally applied in Goldsmiths’ Hall, the headquarters of the Goldsmiths’ Company (a City livery company), where the London assay office was situated. The building is in Foster Lane, to the northeast of St Paul’s Cathedral in the City of London.
mark: mark: English has two words mark, although they may be ultimately related. Mark ‘sign, trace’ [OE] goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *markō. This seems originally to have denoted ‘boundary’ (that is what Old English mearc meant, and related forms such as march ‘border’ and margin still bear witness to it), but the notion of a ‘sign denoting a boundary’ seems to have led early on to the development of the word’s main present-day sense. Remark is closely related, as are marquis and marchioness, and marquetry [16], borrowed from French marqueterie, a derivative of marque ‘mark’, denotes etymologically work that is ‘marked’ with patterns. Mark ‘coin’ [OE] comes from medieval Latin marcus or marca, which may well derive ultimately from the ancestor of mark ‘sign, trace’ (its etymological meaning being ‘mark on a piece of metal, constituting a coin’).
=> demarcation, march, margin, marquetry, marquis, remark
melody: melody: [13] Greek mélos originally meant ‘limb’ (it is related to Cornish mal ‘joint’), but it was transferred metaphorically to a ‘limb or ‘part’ of a piece of music’, a ‘musical phrase’, and from there to ‘song’. It was combined with the element ōid- ‘singing’ (source of English ode) to form melōidíā ‘choral song’, which passed into English via late Latin melōdia and Old French melodie. The compound melodrama [19] is of French origin.
=> melodrama, ode
ostracism: ostracism: [16] In ancient Greece, when it was proposed that a particular person should be sent into exile for a period, because he was becoming a danger to the state, a democratic vote was taken on the matter. The method of registering one’s vote was to inscribe the name of the prospective banishee on a piece of broken pottery. The pieces were counted, and if enough votes were cast against him away he would go for ten years.

The fragment of pottery was called an óstrakon, a word related to Greek ostéon ‘bone’ (source of the English prefix osteo-) and óstreon ‘oyster’ (source of English oyster). To cast such a vote was therefore ostrakízein (whence English ostracize [17]), and the abstract now derived from this was ostrakismós, source of English ostracism.
palaver: palaver: [18] Palaver originated as a piece of naval slang picked up by English sailors in Africa. There they came across Portuguese traders negotiating with the local inhabitants, a process known in Portuguese as palavra ‘speech’ (a descendant of Latin parabola, source of English parable). They took the Portugese word over as palaver, applying it first to ‘negotiations’, and then by extension to ‘idle chatter’.
=> parable
pun: pun: [17] Snappy monosyllables produced by breaking off a piece of a longer word were all the rage in late 17th- and early 18th-century England (mob is a well-known example), and it is thought that pun may be one of them. It seems to be short for pundigrion, a short-lived fanciful 17th- and 18th-century term for a ‘pun’ or ‘quibble’ which may have been adapted from Italian puntiglio ‘nice point, quibble’ (source of English punctilious).
row: row: There are three distinct words row in English. The one meaning ‘use oars’ [OE] goes back to a prehistoric Germanic base *rō- ‘steer’, which also produced Dutch roeijen and Swedish ro, not to mention English rudder. Row ‘orderly line’ [OE] comes from a prehistoric Germanic *raigwa, and is probably related to German reihe ‘row’. Row ‘noisy quarrel’ [18] seems to have originated in the late 18th century as a piece of Cambridge University slang, but where it came from is not known.
=> rudder
sail: sail: [OE] Sail has numerous relatives in the other Germanic languages, among them German and Swedish segel, Dutch zeil, and Danish sejl. These all come from a prehistoric Germanic *seglam, which some have traced back to an Indo-European *seklom. This was presumably formed from the same Indo-European base (*sek- ‘cut’) that produced English dissect, saw, segment, etc, and so sail may signify etymologically a piece of ‘cut’ cloth.
=> dissect, saw, segment
serenade: serenade: [17] A serenade is strictly a ‘song sung in the evening’, but in fact historically it has nothing to do with ‘night’ – etymologically it is a ‘serene’ piece of music. The word comes via French sérénade from Italian serenata, a derivative of sereno ‘serene’. The notion of a serenata as a piece of ‘night’ music arose through association with sera ‘evening’ (a relative of French soir ‘evening’, from which English gets soirée [19]). Italian sereno came from Latin serēnus ‘bright, clear’, which also produced English serene [16].
=> serene
ski: ski: [19] A ski is etymologically a piece of wood ‘split’ from a tree trunk. The word was borrowed from Norwegian ski, a descendant of Old Norse skíth ‘piece of split wood, ski’. This in turn came from the prehistoric Germanic base *skīth-, *skaith- ‘divide, split’, source also of English sheath, shed, etc. The Norwegian word is pronounced /she/, and that is the way in which it was once often said (and indeed sometimes spelled) in English. (Old Norse skíth may also lie behind English skid [17], which originally meant ‘block of wood used as a support’, hence ‘wooden chock for stopping a wheel’.

The modern sense only emerged in the 19th century, from the notion of a wheel slipping when it is prevented from revolving.)
=> sheath, shed, skid
snuff: snuff: English has three words snuff, all probably going back ultimately to a prehistoric Germanic base *snuf-, imitative of the sound of drawing air noisily in through the nose. Snuff ‘powdered tobacco for inhaling’ [17] was borrowed from Dutch snuf. This was probably short for snuftabak, etymologically ‘sniff-tobacco’, which in turn was derived from Middle Dutch snuffen ‘sniff, snuffle’, source of English snuff ‘sniff’ [16].

That base *snuf- also produced English snuffle [16], probably borrowed from Low German or Dutch snuffelen, and snivel [14], which may go back to an unrecorded Old English *snyflan; and sniff [14], if not directly related, was certainly similarly inspired by the sound of sniffing. Snuff ‘put out a candle’ was derived in the 15th century from the noun snuff ‘burnt candlewick’ [14].

The origins of this are not known, but the fact that the now obsolete verb snot was once used for ‘put out a candle’ as well as ‘blow one’s nose’ suggests that this snuff too may ultimately have connections with the inner workings of the nose (possibly a perceived resemblance between an extinguished candlewick and a piece of nasal mucus), and with the base *snuf-. Snuff it ‘die’ is first recorded in the late 19th century.
=> snivel
tenor: tenor: [13] Latin tenor was derived from the verb tenēre ‘hold’ (source also of English tenacious, tenant, etc), and so etymologically denoted ‘that which is held to’, hence a ‘continuous course’. This evolved in due course into the ‘general sense or import’ of a piece of speech or writing, in which sense English acquired it via Anglo- Norman tenur. The musical term tenor, which is basically the same word, arrived in the 14th century via Italian tenore and Old French tenor. It denotes etymologically the voice that ‘holds’ the melodic line.
=> tenant
tornado: tornado: [16] Tornado appears to denote etymologically something that ‘turns’, but this is due to a piece of English folk-etymologizing. Its actual source is Spanish tronada ‘thunderstorm’, a derivative of the verb tronar ‘thunder’ (which in turn went back to Latin tonāre ‘thunder’, source of English astonish, detonate, etc). It was at first used in English for a ‘violent thunderstorm’, but confusion with Spanish tornado ‘turned’ had converted tronada into tornado, and as early as the 1620s we find it being applied to a ‘whirlwind’.
=> thunder
Adam's apple (n.): 1731, corresponding to Latin pomum Adami, perhaps an inexact translation of Hebrew tappuah haadam, literally "man's swelling," from ha-adam "the man" + tappuah "anything swollen." The reference is to the legend that a piece of the forbidden fruit (commonly believed to be an apple) that Eve gave Adam stuck in his throat. The term is mentioned in early 15c. as the name of an actual oriental and Mediterranean fruit, a variety of lime with an indentation fancied to resemble the marks of Adam's teeth.
bagatelle (n.): 1630s, "a trifle," from French bagatelle "knick-knack, bauble, trinket" (16c.), from Italian bagatella "a trifle," diminutive of Latin baca "berry." As "a piece of light music," it is attested from 1827.
beat (n.): c. 1300, "a beating, whipping; the beating of a drum," from beat (v.). As "throb of the heart" from 1755. Meaning "regular route travelled by someone" is attested from 1731, also "a track made by animals" (1736), from the sense of the "beat" of the feet on the ground (late Old English), or perhaps that in beat the bushes to flush game (c. 1400), or beat the bounds (1560s). Extended to journalism by 1875. Musical sense is by 1842, perhaps from the motion of the conductor and the notion of "beating the time":
It is usual, in beating the time of a piece of music, to mark or signalize the commencement of every measure by a downward movement or beat of the hand, or of any other article that may be used for the purpose .... ["Godfrey Weber's General Music Teacher," 1842]
Earlier in music it meant a sort of grace note:
BEAT, in music, a transient grace note, struck immediately before the note it is intended to ornament. The beat always lies half a note beneath its principal, and should be heard so closely upon it, that they may almost seem to be struck together. ["The British Encyclopedia," London, 1809]
cabinet (n.): 1540s, "secret storehouse, treasure chamber," from Middle French cabinet "small room" (16c.), diminutive of Old French cabane "cabin" (see cabin); perhaps influenced by (or rather, from) Italian gabbinetto, diminutive of gabbia, from Latin cavea "stall, stoop, cage, den for animals" (see cave (n.)).

Meaning "case for safe-keeping" (of papers, liquor, etc.) is from 1540s, gradually shading to mean a piece of furniture that does this. Sense of "private room where advisors meet" (c. 1600) led to modern political meaning (1640s); perhaps originally short for cabinet council (1630s); compare board (n.1) in its evolution from place where some group meets to the word for the group that meets there.
carnage (n.): c. 1600, from Middle French carnage (16c.), from Old Italian carnaggio "slaughter, murder," from Medieval Latin carnaticum "flesh," from Latin carnaticum "slaughter of animals," from carnem (nominative caro) "flesh," originally "a piece of flesh," from PIE root *(s)ker- (1) "to cut" (see shear (v.)). In English always used more of slaughters of men than beasts. Southey (1795) tried to make a verb of it.
coin (n.): c. 1300, "a wedge," from Old French coing (12c.) "a wedge; stamp; piece of money; corner, angle," from Latin cuneus "a wedge." The die for stamping metal was wedge-shaped, and the English word came to mean "thing stamped, a piece of money" by late 14c. (a sense that already had developed in French). Compare quoin, which split off from this word 16c. Modern French coin is "corner, angle, nook." Coins were first struck in western Asia Minor in 7c. B.C.E.; Greek tradition and Herodotus credit the Lydians with being first to make and use coins of silver and gold.
congressman (n.): 1780, in reference to members of U.S. Congress, and it first appears in a piece of abuse (written by a Loyalist):
Ye coxcomb Congressmen, declaimers keen,
Brisk puppets of the Philadelphia scene ...
Congresswoman attested from 1918 (Jeannette Rankin (1880-1973) was the first).
earful (n.): "a piece of one's mind," 1915, from ear (n.1) + -ful. Ear-bash (v.) is Australian slang (1944) for "talk inordinately" (to someone).
firebrand (n.): also fire-brand, c. 1200, "piece of wood kindled at a fire, a piece of something burning," from fire (n.) + brand (n.). Used for spreading fire. Figurative sense of "one who kindles mischief or passions" is from late 14c.
flag (n.2): "flat stone for paving," c. 1600, ultimately from Old Norse flaga "stone slab," from Proto-Germanic *flago- (see flake (n.)). Earlier in English as "piece cut from turf or sod" (mid-15c.), from Old Norse flag "spot where a piece of turf has been cut out," from flaga.
fraternize (v.): 1610s, "to sympathize as brothers," from French fraterniser, from Medieval Latin fraternizare, from Latin fraternus "brotherly" (see fraternity). Military sense of "cultivate friendship with enemy troops" is from 1897 (used in World War I with reference to the Christmas Truce). Used oddly in World War II armed forces jargon to mean "have sex with women from enemy countries" as a violation of military discipline.
A piece of frat, Wren-language for any attractive young woman -- ex-enemy -- in occupied territory. [John Irving, "Royal Navalese," 1946]
Related: Fraternized; fraternizing.
gaud (n.): early 15c., "a bauble, trinket," earlier "a large, ornamental bead in a rosary" (mid-14c.), probably mistakenly taken as singular of earlier gaudy (n.) "large, ornamental rosary bead" (early 14c., in plural form gaudeez), later "ornamentation" generally (late 14c.), which is from Medieval Latin gaudia and Old French gaudie "joy, pleasure, playfulness; a piece of showy finery, a flashy trinket," from Latin gaudium "joy," gaude "rejoice thou" (in hymns), from gaudere "rejoice" (see joy (n.), and compare jewel (n.)).

Also in Middle English "a jest, prank, trick" (late 14c.); "a deception, fraud, artifice" (mid-14c.). As a verb, "to furnish with gauds," from late 14c. Related: Gauded; gauding; gaudful; gaudless.
gib (n.): 1560s, type of iron hook, of unknown origin. As a piece of wood or metal to hold something else in place, from 1795. There are other mechanical senses, but it is not clear how, or if, the all are related. Compare jib, gibbet.
glebe (n.): late 14c., "soil of the earth; cultivated land;" also "a piece of land forming part of a clergyman's benefice," from Old French glebe, from Latin gleba, glaeba "clod, lump of earth," from PIE *glebh- "to roll into a ball" (cognates: Latin globus "sphere;" Old English clyppan "to embrace;" Lithuanian glebys "armful," globti "to embrace, support").
guard (n.): early 15c., "one who keeps watch, a body of soldiers," also "care, custody, guardianship," and the name of a part of a piece of armor, from Middle French garde "guardian, warden, keeper; watching, keeping, custody," from Old French garder "to keep, maintain, preserve, protect" (see guard (v.)). Abstract or collective sense of "a keeping, a custody" (as in bodyguard) also is from early 15c. Sword-play and fisticuffs sense is from 1590s; hence to be on guard (1640s) or off (one's) guard (1680s). As a football position, from 1889. Guard-rail attested from 1860, originally on railroad tracks and running beside the rail on the outside; the guide-rail running between the rails.
hand of glory (n.): 1707, originally a piece of mandrake root, translation of French maindeglorie, from a corruption of Latin mandragora "mandrake" (see mandrake). The dead man's hand charm is described from mid-15c., but not by this name.
improvement (n.): mid-15c., enprowment "management of something for profit," from Anglo-French emprowement, from emprouwer "turn to profit" (see improve). Meaning "betterment; amelioration" is from 1640s. Meaning "buildings, etc. on a piece of property" is from 1773. Related: Improvements.
job (n.): 1550s, in phrase jobbe of worke "piece of work" (contrasted with continuous labor), of uncertain origin, perhaps a variant of gobbe "mass, lump" (c. 1400; see gob) via sense of "a cart-load." Sense of "work done for pay" first recorded 1650s. Thieves' slang sense of "theft, robbery, a planned crime" is from 1722. Printing sense is from 1795. Slang meaning "specimen, thing, person" is from 1927.
job. (1) A low mean lucrative busy affair. (2) Petty, piddling work; a piece of chance work. [Johnson's Dictionary]
On the job "hard at work" is from 1882. Job lot is from obsolete sense of "cartload, lump," which might also ultimately be from gob. Job security attested by 1954; job description by 1920; job-sharing by 1972.
lovely (adj.): Old English luflic "affectionate, loveable;" see love (n.) + -ly (1). The modern sense of "lovable on account of beauty, attractive" is from c. 1300, "applied indiscriminately to all pleasing material objects, from a piece of plum-cake to a Gothic cathedral" [George P. Marsh, "The Origin and History of the English Language," 1862].
polish (v.): early 14c., polischen "make smooth," from Old French poliss-, present participle stem of polir (12c.) "to polish, decorate, see to one's appearance," from Latin polire "to polish, make smooth; decorate, embellish;" figuratively "refine, improve," said to be from Proto-Indo-European *pel- "to thrust, strike, drive" (via the notion of fulling cloth). The sense of "free from coarseness, to refine" first recorded in English mid-14c. Related: Polished; polishing. Slang polish off "finish" is 1837, from notion of applying a coat of polish being the final step in a piece of work.
quixotic (adj.): "extravagantly chivalrous," 1791, from Don Quixote, romantic, impractical hero of Cervantes' satirical novel "Don Quixote de la Mancha" (1605; English translation by 1620). His name literally means "thigh," also "a cuisse" (a piece of armor for the thigh), in Modern Spanish quijote, from Latin coxa "hip." Related: Quixotical; quixotically.