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amuse [amuse 词源字典]: amuse: [15] Amuse is probably a French creation, formed with the prefix a- from the verb muser (from which English gets muse ‘ponder’ [14]). The current meaning ‘divert, entertain’ did not begin to emerge until the 17th century, and even so the commonest application of the verb in the 17th and 18th centuries was ‘deceive, cheat’. This seems to have developed from an earlier ‘bewilder, puzzle’, pointing back to an original sense ‘make someone stare open-mouthed’.

This links with the probable source of muser, namely muse ‘animal’s mouth’, from medieval Latin mūsum (which gave English muzzle [15]). There is no connection with the inspirational muse, responsible for music and museums.
=> muse, muzzle[amuse etymology, amuse origin, 英语词源]
gamut: gamut: [15] Gamut began life as a medieval musical term. The 11th-century French-born musical theorist Guido d’Arezzo devised the ‘hexachord’, a six-note scale used for sightreading music (and forerunner of the modern tonic sol-fa). The notes were mnemonically named ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la (after, according to legend, syllables in a Latin hymn to St John: ‘Ut queant laxis resonāre fibris Mira gestorum famuli tuorum, Solve polluti labii reatum’ – ‘Absolve the crime of the polluted lip in order that the slaves may be able with relaxed chords to praise with sound your marvellous deeds’).

The note below the lowest note (ut) became known as gamma-ut (gamma, the name of the Greek equivalent of g, having been used in medieval notation for the note bottom G). And in due course gamma-ut, or by contraction in English gamut, came to be applied to the whole scale, and hence figuratively to any ‘complete range’ (an early 17th-century development).
hippopotamus: hippopotamus: [16] Etymologically, a hippopotamus is a ‘river horse’. The word comes, via Latin, from late Greek hippopótamos, a lexicalization of an earlier phrase híppos ho potámios, literally ‘horse of the river’. Other English descendants of híppos (a relative of Latin equus ‘horse’) include hippodrome [16], from a Greek compound that meant originally ‘horse-race’ (-drome occurs also in aerodrome and dromedary), and the name Philip, literally ‘lover of horses’. The abbreviation hippo, incidentally, dates from the mid-19th century.
=> equine, hippodrome
amuck (adv.): 17c., variant of amok; treated as a muck by Dryden, Byron, etc., and defended by Fowler, who considered amok didacticism.
amulet (n.): mid-15c., amalettys, from Latin amuletum (Pliny) "thing worn as a charm against spells, disease, etc.," which is of uncertain origin, perhaps related to amoliri "to avert, to carry away, remove." Not recorded again in English until c. 1600; the 15c. use may be via French.
amuse (v.): late 15c., "to divert the attention, beguile, delude," from Middle French amuser "divert, cause to muse," from a "at, to" (but here probably a causal prefix) + muser "ponder, stare fixedly" (see muse (v.)). Sense of "divert from serious business, tickle the fancy of" is recorded from 1630s, but through 18c. the primary meaning was "deceive, cheat" by first occupying the attention. Bemuse retains more of the original meaning. Related: Amused; amusing.
amusement (n.): c. 1600, "diversion of attention," especially in military actions, from French amusement, noun of action from amuser (see amuse).
And because all bold and irreverent Speeches touching matters of high nature, and all malicious and false Reports tending to Sedition, or to the Amusement of Our People, are punishable ... (etc.) [Charles II, Proclamation of Oct. 26, 1688]
Meaning "a pastime, play, game, anything which pleasantly diverts the attention" (from duty, work, etc.) is from 1670s, originally depreciative; meaning "pleasurable diversion" attested from 1690s. Amusement hall is from 1862; amusement park first recorded 1897.
amusing (adj.): c. 1600, "cheating;" present participle adjective from amuse (v.). Sense of "interesting" is from 1712; that of "pleasantly entertaining, tickling to the fancy" is from 1826. Noted late 1920s as a vogue word. Amusive has been tried in all senses since 18c. and might be useful, but it never caught on. Related: Amusingly.
extramural (adj.): 1854, from extra- + ending from intermural.
gamut (n.): 1520s, "low G, lowest note in the medieval musical scale" (the system of notation devised by Guido d'Arezzo), a contraction of Medieval Latin gamma ut, from gamma, the Greek letter, used in medieval music notation to indicate the note below the A which began the classical scale, + ut (now do), the low note on the six-note musical scale that took names from syllables sung to those notes in a Latin sapphic hymn for St. John the Baptist's Day:
Ut queant laxis resonare fibris
Mira gestorum famuli tuorum,
Solve pollutis labiis reatum,
Sancte Iohannes.
The ut being the conjunction "that." Gamut also was used for "range of notes of a voice or instrument" (1630s), also "the whole musical scale," hence the figurative sense of "entire scale or range" of anything, first recorded 1620s. When the modern octave scale was set early 16c., si was added, changed to ti in Britain and U.S. to keep the syllables as different from each other as possible. Ut later was replaced by more sonorous do (n.). See also solmization.
hippopotamus (n.): 1560s, from Late Latin hippopotamus, from Greek hippopotamus "riverhorse" (earlier ho hippos ho potamios "the horse of the river"), from hippos "horse" (see equine) + potamos "river, rushing water" (see potamo-). Replaced Middle English ypotame (c. 1300), which is from the same source but via Old French. Glossed in Old English as sæhengest.
Ypotamos comen flyngynge. ... Grete bestes and griselich ["Kyng Alisaunder," c. 1300]
hypothalamus (n.): 1896, coined 1893 in German from Greek hypo- "under" (see sub-) + thalamus "part of the brain where a nerve emerges."
ignoramus (n.): 1570s, from an Anglo-French legal term (early 15c.), from Latin ignoramus "we do not know," first person present indicative of ignorare "not to know" (see ignorant). The legal term was one a grand jury could write on a bill when it considered the prosecution's evidence insufficient. Sense of "ignorant person" came from the title role of George Ruggle's 1615 play satirizing the ignorance of common lawyers.
intramural (adj.): 1846, literally "within the walls," from intra- "within" + Latin muralis "pertaining to a wall," from murus "wall" (see mural). Activity "within the walls" of a city, building, community, school, etc. Equivalent to Late Latin intramuranus.
intramuscular (adj.): 1874, from intra- + muscular.
malamute (n.): also malemute, Eskimo dog, 1874, from name of Alaska Eskimo tribe in northwestern Alaska that developed the breed. The native form is malimiut.
mandamus (n.): 1530s, "writ from a superior court to an inferior one, specifying that something be done," (late 14c. in Anglo-French), from Latin, literally "we order," first person plural present indicative of mandare "to order" (see mandate (n.)).
Nostradamus: "a prophet, seer, a fortune-teller," 1660s, from Latinized name of Michel de Nostredame (1503-1566), French physician and astrologer, who published a collection of predictions in 1555.
ragamuffin (n.): mid-14c., "demon," also in surnames (Isabella Ragamuffyn, 1344), from Middle English raggi "ragged" ("rag-y"?) + fanciful ending (or else second element is Middle Dutch muffe "mitten"). Or, as Johnson has it, "From rag and I know not what else." Ragged was used of the devil from c. 1300 in reference to "shaggy" appearance. Raggeman was used by Langland as the name of a demon, and compare Old French Ragamoffyn, name of a demon in a mystery play. Sense of "dirty, disreputable boy" is from 1580s. Compare in the same sense ragabash (c. 1600).
ramus (n.): "a branch" (anatomical), 1803, from Latin ramus "a branch, bough, twig," related to radix "root;" see radish.
Samuel: masc. proper name, Biblical judge and prophet, from Late Latin, from Greek Samouel, from Hebrew Shemiel, literally "the name of God," from shem "name" + El "God."
samurai (n.): 1727, from Japanese samurai "warrior, knight," originally the military retainer of the daimio, variant of saburai, nominal form of sabura(h)u "to be in attendance, to serve."
shamus (n.): "police officer, detective," 1920, apparently first in "The Shamus," a detective story published that year by Harry J. Loose (1880-1943), a Chicago police detective and crime writer; the book was marketed as "a true tale of thiefdom and an expose of the real system in crime." The word is said to be probably from Yiddish shames, literally "sexton of a synagogue" ("a potent personage only next in influence to the President" [Israel Zangwill]), from Hebrew shamash "servant;" influenced by Celtic Seamus "James," as a typical name for an Irish cop.
thalamus (n.): plural thalami, 1753, "the receptacle of a flower," Modern Latin, from Latin thalamus "inner chamber, sleeping room" (hence, figuratively, "marriage, wedlock"), from Greek thalamos "inner chamber, bedroom," related to thalame "den, lair," tholos "vault, vaulted building." Used in English since 1756 of a part of the forebrain where a nerve appears to originate.
barramundi: "Any of a number of large, chiefly freshwater fishes of Australia and SE Asia", Late 19th century: probably from an Aboriginal language of Queensland.
famulus: "An assistant or servant, especially one working for a magician or scholar", Mid 19th century: from Latin, 'servant'.
hamulus: "A small hook or hook-like projection, especially one of a number linking the fore- and hindwings of a bee or wasp", Early 18th century: from Latin, diminutive of hamus 'hook'.
ultramundane: "Existing outside the known world, the solar system, or the universe", Mid 17th century: from late Latin ultramundanus, from ultra 'beyond' + mundanus (from mundus 'world').
calamus: "another term for sweet flag", Late Middle English (denoting a reed or an aromatic plant mentioned in the Bible): from Latin, from Greek kalamos. sense 1 dates from the mid 17th century.