英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

atrocious: atrocious: [17] Traced back to its ultimate source, atrocious meant something not too dissimilar to ‘having a black eye’. Latin āter was ‘black, dark’ (it occurs also in English atrabilious ‘melancholic’ [17] – Greek mélās meant ‘black’), and the stem *-oc-, *-ox meant ‘looking, appearing’ (Latin oculus ‘eye’ and ferox ‘fierce’ – based on ferus ‘wild’, and source of English ferocious – were formed from it, and it goes back to an earlier Indo-European base which also produced Greek ōps ‘eye’ and English eye).

Combined, they formed atrox, literally ‘of a dark or threatening appearance’, hence ‘gloomy, cruel’. English borrowed it (in the stem form atrōci-) originally in the sense ‘wantonly cruel’.
=> eye, ferocious, inoculate, ocular
churn: churn: [OE] It has been speculated that the term churn is based on the granular appearance cream takes on as it is stirred or agitated. The Old English noun cyrin comes from a prehistoric Germanic *kernjōn, which may be related to English corn and kernel and Latin grānum ‘grain’. The derived verb churn is a comparatively late creation, not appearing until the 15th century.
=> corn, grain, kernel
ferocious: ferocious: [17] Etymologically, ferocious means ‘wild-eyed’. It comes from Latin ferox, which was originally a compound formed from ferus ‘fierce, wild’ (source of English feral [17]) and an element -oc-, -ox meaning ‘looking, appearing’. This also appears in atrocious and ocular, and goes back to an Indo-European source which also produced Greek ōps ‘eye’ and English eye.
=> atrocious, eye, feral, ocular
ghost: ghost: [OE] In Old English times, ghost was simply a synonym for ‘spirit’ or ‘soul’ (a sense preserved in Holy Ghost); it did not acquire its modern connotations of the ‘disembodied spirit of a dead person appearing among the living’ until the 14th century. However, since it has been traced back to Indo-European *ghois- or *gheis-, which also produced Old Norse geisa ‘rage’, Sanskrit hédas ‘anger’, and Gothic usgaisjan ‘terrify’, it could well be that its distant ancestor denoted as frightening concept as the modern English word does.

The Old English form of the word was gāst, which in Middle English became gost; the gh- spelling, probably inspired by Flemish gheest, first appeared at the end of the 15th century, and gradually established itself over the next hundred years.
=> poltergeist
gynaecology: gynaecology: [19] The Greek word for ‘woman’ was guné. It has relatives in several modern Indo-European languages, including Swedish kvinna, Danish kvinde, Irish Gaelic bean, Welsh benyw, Czech zhena, Russian zhenshchina, Persian zan (whence ultimately English zenana ‘harem’ [18]), and the now obsolete English quean [OE], and goes back to Indo-European *gwen-.

The resumption of the study of Greek in the 16th century led to increasing adoption of compounds involving guné into English. The earliest recorded ones are gyneconome ‘member of a board of Athenian magistrates whose job was to ensure that women behaved properly’ [16] and gynocracy ‘rule by women’ [17]. Gynaecology is a comparative latecomer, not appearing before the 1840s.
=> queen, zenana
honeymoon: honeymoon: [16] The word honeymoon first appeared in print in the middle of the 16th century. Richard Huloet in his Abecedarium Anglico Latinum 1552 defined it as ‘a term proverbially applied to such as be new married, which will not fall out at the first, but the one loueth the other at the beginning exceedingly, the likelihood of their exceeding love appearing to assuage, the which time the vulgar people call the honey moon’. His description suggests not only that the term had already been around for some time by the 1550s, but also that it was probably inspired by the notion that although married love was at first as sweet as honey, it soon waned like the moon.
occur: occur: [16] Etymologically, occur means ‘run towards’. It was borrowed from Latin occurrere, a compound verb formed from the prefix ob- ‘towards’ and currere ‘run’ (source of English course, current, etc). This had the sense ‘run to meet’, hence simply ‘meet’, which survived into English: ‘The whole multitude might freely move … with very little occurring or interfering’, Richard Bentley, Boyle Lectures 1692. But ‘meeting’ also passed into ‘presenting itself’, ‘appearing’, and hence ‘happening’ – from which the main present-day meaning of English occur comes.
=> course, current
panic: panic: [17] Panic is etymologically ‘terror caused by the god Pan’. The ancient Greeks believed that he lurked in lonely spots, and would frighten people by suddenly appearing, or making noises. He was evidently invoked to account for alarming but harmless natural phenomena, and so the element of ‘irrationality’ in the English word was present from the beginning. English acquired it (originally as an adjective) via French panique and modern Latin pānicus from Greek pānikós ‘of Pan’.
=> pan
tadpole: tadpole: [15] A tadpole is etymologically a ‘toad-head’. The word was coined from Middle English tadde ‘toad’ and pol ‘head’ (ancestor of modern English poll ‘voting’, historically a counting of ‘heads’). Tadpoles, with their moonlike faces appearing to take up about half of their small globular bodies, seem rather like animated heads.
=> poll, toad
woman: woman: [OE] A woman is etymologically a ‘wife-man’ – that is to say, a ‘female person’. The word was compounded in the Old English period from wīf ‘woman’ (source of modern English wife) and man ‘person’ (source of modern English man). Already by the end of the Old English period the f of wifman was disappearing, giving wiman, and the influence of the w sound started to turn this into woman in the 13th century. Woman did not finally oust the two more ancient words for ‘female person’, wife and the now obsolete quean, until the end of the Middle English period.
=> man, wife
-ancy: word-forming element denoting quality or state, from Latin -antia, forming abstract nouns on past participle adjectives in -antem, appearing in English mostly in words borrowed directly from Latin (those passing through French usually have -ance or -ence; see -ance).
appear (v.): late 13c., "to come into view," from stem of Old French aparoir (12c., Modern French apparoir) "appear, come to light, come forth," from Latin apparere "to appear, come in sight, make an appearance," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + parere "to come forth, be visible." Of persons, "present oneself," late 14c. Meaning "seem, have a certain appearance" is late 14c. Related: Appeared; appearing.
chart (v.): 1837, "to enter onto a map or chart," from chart (n.). In the commercial recording sense, a reference to appearing on the "Billboard" magazine music popularity chart is by 1961. The chart itself was printed from c. 1942. Related: Charted; charting.
crow (n.): Old English crawe, imitative of bird's cry. Phrase eat crow is perhaps based on the notion that the bird is edible when boiled but hardly agreeable; first attested 1851, American English, but said to date to War of 1812 (Walter Etecroue turns up 1361 in the Calendar of Letter Books of the City of London). The image of a crow's foot for the wrinkles appearing with age at the corner of the eye is from late 14c. ("So longe mote ye lyve Til crowes feet be growen under youre ye." [Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde, c. 1385]). Phrase as the crow flies recorded from 1800.
deus (n.): "God, a god," see Zeus; c. 1300 as a French interjection; never nativized, but appearing in adopted Latin expressions such as deus absconditus "hidden god."
disappear (v.): early 15c., disaperen, from dis- "do the opposite of" + appear. Earlier was disparish (early 15c.), from French disparaiss-, stem of disparaître. Transitive sense. "cause to disappear," is from 1897 in chemistry; by 1948 of inconvenient persons. Related: Disappeared; disappearing; disappears. Slang disappearing act is originally of magic shows; in figurative sense of "getting away" first attested 1913.
ember-goose (n.): also embergoose, "loon," 1744, from Norwegian emmer-gaas, perhaps so called from its appearing on the coast in the ember days before Christmas.
emphasis (n.): 1570s, "intensity of expression," from Latin emphasis, from Greek emphasis "an appearing in, outward appearance;" in rhetoric, "significance, indirect meaning," from emphainein "to present, exhibit, display, let (a thing) be seen; be reflected (in a mirror), become visible," from assimilated form of en "in" (see en- (2)) + phainein "to show" (see phantasm). In Greek and Latin, originally a figure of expression implying more than would ordinarily be meant by the words, it developed a sense of "extra stress" given to a word or phrase in speech as a clue that it implies something more than literal meaning. In pure Latin, significatio.
factoid (n.): 1973, "published statement taken to be a fact because of its appearance in print," from fact + -oid, first explained, if not coined, by Norman Mailer.
Factoids ... that is, facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper, creations which are not so much lies as a product to manipulate emotion in the Silent Majority. [Mailer, "Marilyn," 1973]
By 1988 it was being used in the sense of "small, isolated bit of true factual information."
ferocity (n.): c. 1600, from French férocité, from Latin ferocitatem (nominative ferocitas) "fierceness," from ferocis, oblique case of ferox "bold, courageous, warlike; fierce, savage, headstrong, cruel," literally "wild-looking," a derivative of ferus "wild" (see fierce) + -ox, -ocem (genitive -ocis), a suffix meaning "looking or appearing" (cognate with Greek ops "eye, sight;" see eye (n.)).
go south (v.): "vanish, abscond," 1920s, American English, probably from mid-19c. notion of disappearing south to Mexico or Texas to escape pursuit or responsibility, reinforced by Native American belief (attested in colonial writing mid-18c.) that the soul journeys south after death.
home front (n.): also homefront, 1918, from home (n.) + front (n.) in the military sense. A term from World War I; popularized (if not coined) by the agencies running the U.S. propaganda effort.
The battle front in Europe is not the only American front. There is a home front, and our people at home should be as patriotic as our men in uniform in foreign lands. [promotion for the Fourth Liberty Loan appearing in various U.S. magazines, fall 1918]
proud (adj.): late Old English prud, prute "excellent, splendid; arrogant, haughty," probably from Old French prud, oblique case of adjective prouz "brave, valiant" (11c., Modern French preux; compare prud'homme "brave man"), from Late Latin prode "advantageous, profitable" (source also of Italian prode "valiant"), a back-formation from Latin prodesse "be useful," from pro- "before, for, instead of" (see pro-) + esse "to be" (see essence). Also see pride (n.), prowess.

Meaning "elated by some act, fact, or thing" is from mid-13c. To do (someone) proud attested by 1819. Related: Proudness. "The -d- in prodesse is probably due to the influence of forms like red-eo-, 'I go back,' red-imo- 'I buy back,' etc." [OED]. The Old English form with -te probably is from or influenced by pride.

The sense of "have a high opinion of oneself," not found in Old French, might reflect the Anglo-Saxons' opinion of the Norman knights who called themselves "proud." Old Norse pruðr, probably from the same French source, had only the sense "brave, gallant, magnificent, stately" (compare Icelandic pruður, Middle Swedish prudh, Middle Danish prud). Likewise a group of "pride" words in the Romance languages -- such as French orgueil, Italian orgoglio, Spanish orgullo -- are borrowings from Germanic, where they had positive senses (Old High German urgol "distinguished").

Most Indo-European languages use the same word for "proud" in its good and bad senses, but in many the bad sense seems to be the earlier one. The usual way to form the word is by some compound of terms for "over" or "high" and words for "heart," "mood," "thought," or "appearance;" such as Greek hyperephanos, literally "over-appearing;" Gothic hauhþuhts, literally "high-conscience." Old English had ofermodig "over-moody" ("mood" in Anglo-Saxon was a much more potent word than presently) and heahheort "high-heart." Words for "proud" in other Indo-European languages sometimes reflect a physical sense of being swollen or puffed up; such as Welsh balch, probably from a root meaning "to swell," and Modern Greek kamari, from ancient Greek kamarou "furnish with a vault or arched cover," with a sense evolution via "make an arch," to "puff out the chest," to "be puffed up" (compare English slang chesty).
re-appear (v.): also reappear, 1610s, from re- "back, again" + appear. Related: Reappeared; reappearing.
semblance (n.): c. 1300, "fact of appearing to view," from Old French semblance, from semblant "likeness, appearance," present participle of sembler "to seem, appear," from Latin simulare "to resemble, imitate," from similis "like" (see similar (adj.)). Meaning "person's appearance or demeanor" is attested from c. 1400; that of "false, assumed or deceiving appearance" is from 1590s. Meaning "person or thing that resembles another" is attested from 1510s.
serotine (adj.): "late," 1590s, from French sérotine, from Latin serotinus "that which comes late; that which happens in the evening," from sero, adverb of serus "late" (see soiree). Also as a noun, a type of small, brown bat, from 1771. Related: serotinous, in botany (1880) "appearing later in the season than usual."
shaker (n.): mid-15c., "one who or which shakes," agent noun from shake (v.). Applied from 1640s (with capital initial) to various Christian sects whose devotional exercises often involved convulsions. The best-known, the American-based "Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing;" so called from 1784; the adjective with reference to furniture styles associated with these Shakers is recorded from 1866. Meaning "container for mixing cocktails, etc." is recorded from 1868. Phrase movers and shakers is attested from 1874.
slipshod (adj.): 1570s, "wearing slippers or loose shoes," from slip (v.) + shod "wearing shoes." Sense of "slovenly, careless" is from 1815, probably from the notion of appearing like one in slippers, or whose shoes are down at the heels.
spring (n.2): "source of a stream or river, flow of water rising to the surface of the earth from below," Old English spring "spring, source, sprinkling," from spring (v.) on the notion of the water "bursting forth" from the ground. Rarely used alone in Old English, appearing more often in compounds, such as wyllspring "wellspring," espryng "water spring." Figurative sense of "source or origin of something" is attested from early 13c. Cognate with Old High German sprung "source of water," Middle High German sprinc "leap, jump; source of water."
staged (adj.): 1560s, "appearing on a stage," past participle adjective from stage (v.). Meaning "proceeding in stages" is from 1960.
stigma (n.): 1590s (earlier stigme, c. 1400), "mark made on skin by burning with a hot iron," from Latin stigma (plural stigmata), from Greek stigma (genitive stigmatos) "mark of a pointed instrument, puncture, tattoo-mark, brand," from root of stizein "to mark, tattoo," from PIE root *steig- "to stick; pointed" (see stick (v.)).

Figurative meaning "a mark of disgrace" in English is from 1610s. Stigmas "marks resembling the wounds on the body of Christ, appearing supernaturally on the bodies of the devout" is from 1630s; earlier stigmate (late 14c.), from Latin stigmata.
subtext (n.): "underlying theme of a work of literature," 1950, from sub- + text (n.). Originally a term in Konstantin Stanislavsky's theory of acting. Earlier it was used in a literally sense of "text appearing below other text on a page" (1726). Latin subtextere meant "to weave under, work in below."
termagant (n.): c. 1500, "violent, overbearing person" (especially of women), from Teruagant, Teruagaunt (c. 1200), name of a fictitious Muslim deity appearing in medieval morality plays, from Old French Tervagant, a proper name in Chanson de Roland (c. 1100), of uncertain origin. As an adjective from 1590s.
thicket (n.): "close-set growth of shrubs, bushes, trees, etc.," late Old English þiccet, from þicce (see thick) + denominative suffix -et. Absent in Middle English, reappearing early 16c., perhaps a dialectal survival or a re-formation.
thaumatrope: "A scientific toy devised in the 19th century, consisting of a disc with a different picture on each of its two sides, these appearing to combine into one image when the disc is rapidly rotated", Early 19th century: from Greek thauma 'marvel' + -tropos '-turning'.
proteranthous: "Of a plant: having flowers appearing before the leaves. Of leaves: appearing before the flowers", Mid 19th cent.; earliest use found in John Lindley (1799–1865), botanist and horticulturist. From protero- + ancient Greek ἄνθος flower + -ous.
homocercal: "(Of a fish’s tail) appearing outwardly symmetrical but with the backbone passing into the upper lobe, as in all higher fish", Mid 19th century: from homo- 'same' + Greek kerkos 'tail' + -al.
bo-peep: "A quick look", Early 16th century (originally denoting a game of hiding and reappearing): from bo, an exclamation intended to startle someone (compare with boo¹) + the verb peep¹. The current sense dates from the 1940s.