英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

act: act: [14] Act, action, active, actor all go back to Latin agere ‘do, perform’ (which is the source of a host of other English derivatives, from agent to prodigal). The past participle of this verb was āctus, from which we get act, partly through French acte, but in the main directly from Latin. The Latin agent noun, āctor, came into the language at about the same time, although at first it remained a rather uncommon word in English, with technical legal uses; it was not until the end of the 16th century that it came into its own in the theatre (player had hitherto been the usual term).

Other Latin derivatives of the past participial stem āct- were the noun āctiō, which entered English via Old French action, and the adjective āctīvus, which gave English active. See also ACTUAL.
=> action, active, agent, cogent, examine, prodigal
ancestor: ancestor: [13] Ultimately, ancestor is the same word as antecedent [14]: both come from the Latin compound verb antecēdere ‘precede’, formed from the prefix ante- ‘before’ and the verb cēdere ‘go’ (source of English cede and a host of related words, such as proceed and access). Derived from this was the agent noun antecessor ‘one who precedes’, which was borrowed into Old French at two distinct times: first as ancessour, and later as ancestre, which subsequently developed to ancêtre. Middle English had examples of all three of these forms. The modern spelling, ancestor, developed in the 16th century.
=> access, antecedent, cede, precede, proceed
bound: bound: English has no fewer than four separate words bound. The only one which goes back to Old English is the adjective, meaning ‘obliged’ or ‘destined’, which comes from the past participle of bind (in Old English this was bunden, which survives partially in ‘bounden duty’). Next oldest is the adjective meaning ‘going or intending to go’ [13]. Originally meaning ‘ready’, this was borrowed from Old Norse búinn, the past participle of búa ‘prepare’, which derived from the same ultimate source (the Germanic base *bū- ‘dwell, cultivate’) as be, boor, booth, bower, build, burly, bye-law, and byre.

The final -d of bound, which appeared in the 16th century, is probably due to association with bound ‘obliged’. Virtually contemporary is the noun bound ‘border, limit’ [13]. It originally meant ‘landmark’, and came via Anglo-Norman bounde from early Old French bodne (source also of Old French borne, from which English got bourn, as in Hamlet’s ‘undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns’).

Its ultimate source was medieval Latin bodina, perhaps from a prehistoric Gaulish *bodina. Boundary [17] seems to have been formed from the dialectal bounder, an agent noun derived from the verb bound ‘form the edge or limit of’. Finally, bound ‘leap’ [16] comes from Old French bondir. It originally meant ‘rebound’ in English (rebound [14] began as an Old French derivative of bondir), but this physical sense was a metaphorical transference from an earlier sense related to sound.

Old French bondir ‘resound’ came from Vulgar Latin *bombitīre ‘hum’, which itself was a derivative of Latin bombus ‘booming sound’ (source of English bomb).
=> band, bend, bind, bond, bundle; be, boor, booth, bower, build, burly, byre, neighbour; boundary, bourn; bomb, rebound
cater: cater: [16] Cater is related to French acheter ‘buy’, and originally meant ‘buy provisions’. It comes ultimately from Vulgar Latin *accaptāre, a compound verb formed from the Latin prefix ad- ‘to’ and the verb captāre ‘try to seize’ (source of English catch and chase). This provided the basis for the Anglo-Norman agent noun acatour ‘buyer, purveyor’, which gave English the now obsolete acater.

Losing its a-, this became cater, which until the early 17th century was the word for what we would now call a ‘caterer’. At around the same time cater began to be used as a verb; the first known example of this is in Shakespeare’s As You Like It II, iii: ‘He that doth the ravens feed, yea providently caters for the sparrow’.
=> capture, catch, chase
cognizance: cognizance: [14] Latin gnōscere meant ‘know’ (it is related to know and notion). From it was derived the compound verb cognōscere ‘get to know, recognize, acknowledge’. Its present participial stem cognōscent- formed the basis of a Vulgar Latin noun *connōscentia, which passed into Old French as connoissance. English borrowed this as conisance, restoring the Latin g to the spelling in the 15th century, which eventually affected the word’s pronunciation.

Also from the Latin present participle came Italian conoscente, which in its latinized form was borrowed into English as cognoscente in the 18th century. Meanwhile, the past participial stem of the Latin verb, cognit-, produced the noun cognitiō, source of English cognition [15]. The infinitive form of the Latin verb passed into Old French as connoître, from which was derived the agent noun connoisseur, borrowed into English in the 18th century (modern French has connaisseur).
=> cognition, connoisseur, know, notion, recognize, reconnaissance, reconnoitre
console: console: [14] Console means literally ‘offer solace’. It comes from Latin consōlārī, a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix com- and sōlārī ‘comfort’ (source of the Latin noun sōlātium, from which English gets solace [13]). English acquired it either directly, or via French consoler. The Latin agent noun derived from consōlārī was consōlātor ‘comforter’, which passed into French as consolateur. This came to be used as an architectural term for a carved human figure supporting a cornice, shelf, etc, and was eventually shortened to console; this was borrowed into English in the 18th century.
=> solace
control: control: [15] Implausible as it may seem, control’s closest relative in English is contrarotating. It has its origins in a medieval method of checking accounts which involved a duplicate register, or ‘counter-roll’, as it was known (contrārotulus in medieval Latin, contrā meaning ‘opposite’ and rotulus being the diminutive of rota ‘wheel’).

From the medieval Latin noun a verb was formed, contrārotulāre, meaning ‘check accounts by such means’, and hence ‘exert authority’. This passed into English via Anglo-Norman contreroller. The spelling of the agent noun controller as comptroller, still encountered in certain official designations, arises from an erroneous 16th-century association of the first syllable with count, from late Latin computus.
=> rota, rotate
copper: copper: [OE] A major source of copper in the ancient world was the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, so the Romans called it cyprium aes ‘metal of Cyprus’. This became cuprum in late Latin, from which it was borrowed into prehistoric West and North Germanic as *kupar, source of Old English coper. (Copper the slang term for ‘policeman’ [19] is simply the agent noun formed from the verb cop ‘seize’, which probably comes via Old French caper from Latin capere ‘seize, take’, source of English capture.)
ledger: ledger: [15] Etymologically, a ledger is a book that ‘lies’ in one place. The term was used in 15th- and 16th-century English with various specific applications, including a ‘large copy of the Breviary’ (the Roman Catholic service book), and a ‘large register or record-book’ – both big volumes that would not have been moved around much – but it finally settled on the ‘main book in the set of books used for keeping accounts’. It probably comes from Dutch legger or ligger, agent nouns derived respectively from leggen ‘lay’ and liggen ‘lie’ (relatives of English lay and lie).
=> lay, lie
poker: poker: English has two words poker. The earlier, poker for a fire [16], is simply the agent noun formed from poke [14], a verb borrowed from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German poken ‘thrust, hit’. The card-game name [19] originated in the USA, but it is not clear where it came from: one suggestion is that it is connected with German pochen ‘brag’.
procure: procure: [13] The -cure of procure goes back to Latin cūrāre ‘look after’, source of English cure. Combination with prō- ‘for’ produced prōcūrāre ‘look after on behalf of someone else, manage’, which English acquired via Old French procurer as procure. The main modern sense ‘obtain’ developed via ‘take care, take pains’ and ‘bring about by taking pains’. The agent noun derived from the Latin verb was prōcūrātor ‘manager, agent’; English adopted this as procurator [13], and subsequently contracted it to proctor [14]. A similar process of contraction lies behind proxy, which goes back to Latin prōcūrātiō.
=> cure, proctor, proxy
punt: punt: English has three separate words punt. The oldest is punt ‘flat-bottomed boat’ [15], which comes via Middle Low German punte or punto from Latin pontō, a term for a sort of Gaulish boat which also produced English pontoon. Punt ‘bet’ [18] (better known in the form of the agent noun punter ‘better’, hence ‘customer’) comes from French ponter, a derivative of ponte ‘bet against the banker in certain card games’.

This was adapted from Spanish punto ‘point’, a descendant of Latin punctum (source of English point). Punt ‘kick’ [19] may be a variant of bunt ‘push’ [19] (now used as a baseball term, meaning ‘hit the ball softly’); this could in turn be an alteration of butt, but it might also come from a Celtic source, related to Breton bounta ‘butt’.
=> pontoon; point, punctuation
sculpture: sculpture: [14] Latin sculpere meant ‘carve, scratch’ (it was a variant of scalpere, from which English gets scalpel [18]). From is past participle sculptus was formed the noun sculptūra, acquired by English as sculpture. The agent noun sculptor [17] also comes from Latin, while the verb sculpt [19] was borrowed from French sculpter.
=> scalpel
upholster: upholster: [19] Upholster has no etymological connection with holsters. It is a back-formation from upholsterer [17], which itself was derived from an earlier but now obsolete upholster ‘person who deals in or repairs small articles’. This was an agent noun formed from the verb uphold [13] (a compound of up and hold), in the now defunct sense ‘repair’.
=> hold
abstainer (n.): mid-15c., "one who practices self-denial," agent noun from abstain.
abuser (n.): mid-15c., agent noun from abuse (v.).
accelerator (n.): 1610s, from Latin accelerator, agent noun from accelerare (see accelerate). Motor vehicle sense is from 1900.
accessory (n.): also accessary, early 15c. as a legal term in the criminal sense of "one aiding in a crime;" also "that which is subordinate to something else," from Late Latin accessorius, from accessor, agent noun from accedere "to approach" (see accede). Attested from 1896 as "woman's smaller articles of dress;" hence accessorize.
accessory (adj.): 1550s, "subordinate," from Late Latin accessorius, from accessor, agent noun from accedere "to approach" (see accede). Meaning "aiding in crime" is from c. 1600.
accoucheur (n.): 1759, "midwife" (properly, "male midwife"), from French accoucheur (Jules Clément, later 17c.), agent noun from accoucher "to go to childbed, be delivered" (13c.) originally simply "to lie down" (12c.), from Old French culcher "to lie," from Latin collocare, from com- "with" (see com-) + locare "to place" (see locate). The fem. is accoucheuse (1847).
adapter (n.): 1801, agent noun from adapt. Electrical engineering sense from 1907.
adjudicator (n.): 1804, agent noun in Latin form from adjudicate.
adjuster (n.): 1670s, agent noun in English form from adjust. Insurance sense is from 1830.
adjustor (n.): 1857, of certain muscles, agent noun in Latin form from adjust (v.).
administrator (n.): mid-15c., from Middle French administrateur or directly from Latin administrator "a manager, conductor," agent noun from past participle stem of administrare (see administer). Estate sense is earliest. For ending, see -er.
admirer (n.): c. 1600, agent noun from admire (v.). "In common speech, a lover" [Johnson], a sense recorded from 1704.
adulterer (n.): early 15c., earlier avouter (c. 1300), avoutrer (late 14c.), agent noun from obsolete verb adulter "commit adultery; adulterate" (late 14c.), from Latin adulterare "to corrupt" (see adulteration).
adulteress (n.): late 14c., avoutresse, agent noun in fem. form from obsolete verb adulter (see adulterer).
adventurer (n.): late 15c., "one who plays at games of chance," agent noun from adventure (v.). Meaning "one who seeks adventures" is from 1660s.
advertiser (n.): 1560s, agent noun from advertise (v.).
adviser (n.): 1610s, agent noun from advise (v.). Meaning "military person sent to help a government or army in a foreign country" is recorded from 1915. Alternative form, Latinate advisor, is perhaps a back-formation from advisory.
aggressor (n.): 1670s, from Latin aggressor, agent noun from aggredi "to approach, attack" (see aggression).
agitator (n.): 1640s, agent noun from agitate (v.); originally "elected representative of the common soldiers in Cromwell's army," who brought grievances (chiefly over lack of pay) to their officers and Parliament.

Political sense is first recorded 1734, and negative overtones began with its association with Irish patriots such as Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847). Historically, in American English, often with outside and referring to people who stir up a supposedly contented class or race. Latin agitator meant "a driver, a charioteer."
air conditioner (n.): from air (n.1) + agent noun from condition; along with air-conditioning, first attested 1909, originally an industrial process; main modern use in residences and office buildings is from 1930s.
air freshener (n.): 1949, from air (n.1) + agent noun from freshen.
alleger (n.): 1570s, agent noun from allege. The Latinate form, allegator (1680s) rarely was used, for some reason.
alternator (n.): 1878, agent noun in Latin form from alternate (v.).
amateur (n.): 1784, "one who has a taste for (something)," from French amateur "lover of," from Latin amatorem (nominative amator) "lover," agent noun from amatus, past participle of amare "to love" (see Amy). Meaning "dabbler" (as opposed to professional) is from 1786. As an adjective, by 1838.
ambler (n.): late 14c., agent noun from amble (v.).
ambulatory (adj.): "pertaining to walking;" also "shifting, not permanent," 1620s, from Latin ambulatorius "of or pertaining to a walker; movable," from ambulator, agent noun from past participle stem of ambulare "to walk" (see amble). Middle English had ambulary "movable" (mid-15c.).
amplifier (n.): 1540s; agent noun from amplify. Electronic sense is from 1914; shortened form amp is from 1967. Alternative stentorphone (1921) did not catch on.
ancestor (n.): c. 1300, ancestre, antecessour, from Old French ancestre (12c., Modern French ancêtre), from Late Latin antecessor "predecessor," literally "foregoer," agent noun from past participle stem of Latin antecedere "to precede," from ante- "before" (see ante) + cedere "to go" (see cede). Current form from early 15c. Feminine form ancestress recorded from 1570s.
anchorite (n.): mid-15c., "hermit (especially those of the Eastern deserts), recluse, one who withdraws from the world for religious reasons," from Medieval Latin anchorita, from Greek anakhoretes, literally "one who has retired," agent noun from anakhorein "to retreat, go back, retire," from ana- "back" (see ana-) + khorein "withdraw, give place," from khoros "place, space, free space, room." Replaced Old English ancer, from Late Latin anchoreta.
angler (n.): "fisher with a hook and line," mid-15c. (c. 1300 as a surname); agent noun from angle (v.1).
animator (n.): 1630s, "one who enlivens or inspires," from Latin animator, agent noun from animare (see animate (v.)). Cinematographic sense is from 1919.
announcer (n.): 1610s, agent noun from announce. Radio sense is recorded from 1922.
antagonist (n.): 1590s, from French antagoniste (16c.) or directly from Late Latin antagonista, from Greek antagonistes "competitor, opponent, rival," agent noun from antagonizesthai "to struggle against, oppose, be a rival," from anti- "against" (see anti-) + agonizesthai "to contend for a prize," from agon "contest" (see agony). Originally in battle or sport, extended 1620s to any sphere of human activity.
anteater (n.): also ant-eater, 1764, in reference to the South American species; 1868 of the Australian echidna; from ant + agent noun from eat (v.).
apocalypse (n.): late 14c., "revelation, disclosure," from Church Latin apocalypsis "revelation," from Greek apokalyptein "uncover, disclose, reveal," from apo- "from" (see apo-) + kalyptein "to cover, conceal" (see Calypso). The Christian end-of-the-world story is part of the revelation in John of Patmos' book "Apokalypsis" (a title rendered into English as "Apocalypse" c. 1230 and "Revelations" by Wyclif c. 1380).

Its general sense in Middle English was "insight, vision; hallucination;" meaning "a cataclysmic event" is modern. As agent nouns, apocalypst (1829), apocalypt (1834), and apocalyptist (1835) have been tried.
appeaser (n.): mid-15c., agent noun from appease (v.). Political sense attested from 1940.