英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

aggression [aggression 词源字典]: aggression: [17] The violent associations of aggression have developed from the much milder notion of ‘approaching’ somebody. The Latin verb aggredī ‘attack’ was based on the prefix ad- ‘towards’ and gradī ‘walk’, a verb derived in its turn from the noun gradus ‘step’ (from which English gets, among many others, grade, gradual, and degree).
=> degree, grade, gradual[aggression etymology, aggression origin, 英语词源]
farce: farce: [14] Farce originally meant ‘stuff’ (widening gastronomic knowledge in the late 20th century has made us more familiar with its French cousin farcir ‘stuff’, and the force- of forcemeat [17] is the same word). It came via Old French farsir from Latin farcīre ‘stuff’. The Latin verb was used in the Middle Ages for the notion of inserting additional passages into the text of the Mass, and hence to padding out any text. A particular application was the insertion of impromptu, usually comical interludes into religious plays, which had led by the 16th century to something approaching the modern meaning of farce.
=> forcemeat
sudden: sudden: [13] The etymological notion underlying sudden is of something approaching stealthily or without warning, so that it takes one by surprise. It comes via Anglo-Norman sudein from late Latin subitānus, an alteration of Latin subitāneus ‘sudden’. This was derived from subitus ‘sudden’, an adjectival use of the past participle of subīre ‘approach stealthily’. And subīre was a compound verb formed from the prefix sub-, used here in the sense ‘secretly’, and īre ‘go’ (source of English ambition, exit, issue, etc).
=> ambition, exit, issue
air raid (n.): 1914, from air (n.1) + raid (n.); originally in reference to British attacks Sept. 22, 1914, on Zeppelin bases at Cologne and Düsseldorf in World War I. The German word is Fliegerangriff "aviator-attack," and if Old English had survived into the 20th century our word instead might be fleogendeongrype.
One didn't dare to inhale for fear of breathing it in. It was the sound of eighteen hundred airplanes approaching Hamburg from the south at an unimaginable height. We had already experienced two hundred or even more air raids, among them some very heavy ones, but this was something completely new. And yet there was an immediate recognition: this was what everyone had been waiting for, what had hung for months like a shadow over everything we did, making us weary. It was the end. [Hans Erich Nossack, "Der Untergang," 1942]
asymptote (n.): "straight line continually approaching but never meeting a curve," 1650s, from Greek asymptotos "not falling together," from a- "not" + syn "with" + ptotos "fallen," verbal adjective from piptein "to fall" (see symptom). Related: Asymptotic.
avenue (n.): c. 1600, "a way of approach" (originally a military word), from Middle French avenue "way of access," from Old French avenue "act of approaching, arrival," noun use of fem. of avenu, past participle of avenir "to come to, arrive," from Latin advenire "to come to," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + venire "to come" (see venue). Meaning shifted to "a way of approach to a country-house," usually bordered by trees, hence, "a broad, tree-lined roadway" (1650s), then to "wide, main street" (by 1846, especially in U.S.).
languish (v.): early 14c., "fail in strength, exhibit signs of approaching death," from languiss-, present participle stem of Old French languir "be listless, pine, grieve, fall ill," from Vulgar Latin *languire, from Latin languere "be weak or faint" (see lax). Weaker sense "be lovesick, grieve, lament, grow faint," is from mid-14c. Related: Languished; languishing.
recline (v.): early 15c., from Old French recliner "rest, lay; bend, lean over" (13c.) and directly from Latin reclinare "to bend back, to lean back; cause to lean," from re- "back, against" (see re-) + clinare "to bend," from PIE *klei-n-, suffixed form of *klei "to lean" (see lean (v.)). Related: Reclined; reclining.
Recline is always as strong as lean, and generally stronger, indicating a more completely recumbent position, and approaching lie. [Century Dictionary]
toward (prep.): Old English toweard "in the direction of," prepositional use of toweard (adj.) "coming, facing, approaching," from to (see to) + -ward.
towards (adv.): Old English toweards, from toweard (adj.) "coming, facing, approaching" (see toward) + adverbial genitive ending.
jaywalk: "Cross or walk in the street or road unlawfully or without regard for approaching traffic", Early 20th century: from jay in the colloquial sense 'silly person' + walk. More The ‘jay’ in the word is the same as the bird, which has been used colloquially to mean ‘silly person’.