quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- thing




- thing: [OE] The ancestral meaning of thing is ‘time’: it goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *thingam, which was related to Gothic theihs ‘time’, and may come ultimately from the Indo- European base *ten- ‘stretch’ (source of English tend, tense, etc). In Germanic it evolved semantically via ‘appointed time’ to ‘judicial or legislative assembly’.
This was the meaning it originally had in English, and it survives in other Germanic languages (the Icelandic parliament is known as the Althing, literally ‘general assembly’). In English, however, it moved on through ‘subject for discussion at such an assembly’ to ‘subject in general, affair, matter’ and finally ‘entity, object’. (The ancient meaning ‘assembly’ is preserved in fossilized form in English husting, etymologically a ‘house assembly’).
=> husting - adjourn (v.)




- early 14c., ajournen, "assign a day" (for convening or reconvening), from Old French ajourner (12c.) "meet" (at an appointed time), from the phrase à jorn "to a stated day" (à "to" + journ "day," from Latin diurnus "daily;" see diurnal).
The sense is to set a date for a re-meeting. Meaning "to close a meeting" (with or without intention to reconvene) is from early 15c. Meaning "to go in a body to another place" (1640s) is colloquial. The -d- was added 16c. but is unwarranted, as the compound is not from Latin. Related: Adjourned; adjourning. - mazuma (n.)




- slang for "money," 1894, from Yiddish, from Mishnaic Hebrew mezumman "designated, fixed, appointed," used in Medieval Hebrew in sense of "cash" (compare slang the needful "money"), from Akkad. simanu "appointed time." It figured in "People v. Stokes," case argued before Supreme Court of California (1894), which cites newspaper coverage of an earlier trial mentioning "Colonel Mazuma":
It appears that the term "Colonel Mazuma" not only does not indicate some gentleman with a military title, but it does not even refer to a person at all. We fail to find the term mentioned by our lexicographers, but understand it to be a modern provincialism, probably emanating from the daily press, and used when referring to the corrupt application of money in the accomplishment of certain ends. If these jurors understood this term with the signification thus attached to it, it of itself furnished ample material to demand a retrial of the case. ["Pacific Reporter," vol. 37]
- meal (n.1)




- "food; time for eating," c. 1200 (perhaps late Old English), mel "appointed time for eating," also "a meal, feast," from Old English mæl "fixed time, occasion, a meal," from Proto-Germanic *mæla- (cognates: Old Frisian mel "time;" Middle Dutch mael, Dutch maal "time, meal;" Old Norse mal "measure, time, meal;" German Mal "time," Mahl "meal;" Gothic mel "time, hour"), from PIE *me-lo-, from root *me- "to measure" (see meter (n.2)). Original sense of "time" is preserved in piecemeal. Meals-on-wheels attested from 1961. Meal ticket first attested 1870 in literal sense of "ticket of admission to a dining hall;" figurative sense of "source of income or livelihood" is from 1899.
- piecemeal (adv.)




- c. 1300 (originally two words), from piece (n.) + Old English mælum "at a time," dative plural of mæl "appointed time, food served" (see meal (n.1)). The second element once was more commonly used, as in Old English styccemælum "bit by bit," gearmælum "year by year." One-word form from 15c.
- term (n.)




- c. 1200, terme "limit in time, set or appointed period," from Old French terme "limit of time or place, date, appointed time, duration" (11c.), from Latin terminus "end, boundary line," in Medieval Latin "expression, definition," related to termen "boundary, end" (see terminus). Old English had termen "term, end," from Latin. Sense of "period of time during which something happens" first recorded c. 1300, especially of a school or law court session (mid-15c.).
The meaning "word or phrase used in a limited or precise sense" is first recorded late 14c., from Medieval Latin use of terminus to render Greek horos "boundary," employed in mathematics and logic. Hence in terms of "in the language or phraseology peculiar to." Meaning "completion of the period of pregnancy" is from 1844. Term-paper in U.S. educational sense is recorded from 1931. - thing (n.)




- Old English þing "meeting, assembly, council, discussion," later "entity, being, matter" (subject of deliberation in an assembly), also "act, deed, event, material object, body, being, creature," from Proto-Germanic *thingam "assembly" (cognates: Old Frisian thing "assembly, council, suit, matter, thing," Middle Dutch dinc "court-day, suit, plea, concern, affair, thing," Dutch ding "thing," Old High German ding "public assembly for judgment and business, lawsuit," German Ding "affair, matter, thing," Old Norse þing "public assembly"). The Germanic word is perhaps literally "appointed time," from a PIE *tenk- (1), from root *ten- "stretch," perhaps on notion of "stretch of time for a meeting or assembly."
The sense "meeting, assembly" did not survive Old English. For sense evolution, compare French chose, Spanish cosa "thing," from Latin causa "judicial process, lawsuit, case;" Latin res "affair, thing," also "case at law, cause." Old sense is preserved in second element of hustings and in Icelandic Althing, the nation's general assembly.
Of persons, often pityingly, from late 13c. Used colloquially since c. 1600 to indicate things the speaker can't name at the moment, often with various meaningless suffixes (see thingamajig). Things "personal possessions" is from c. 1300. The thing "what's stylish or fashionable" is recorded from 1762. Phrase do your thing "follow your particular predilection," though associated with hippie-speak of 1960s is attested from 1841. - calends




- "The first day of the month in the ancient Roman calendar", Old English (denoting an appointed time): from Old French calendes, from Latin kalendae, calendae 'first day of the month' (when accounts were due and the order of days was proclaimed); related to Latin calare and Greek kalein 'call, proclaim'.