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class [class 词源字典]: class: [16] Latin classis originally denoted ‘the people of Rome under arms, the ancient Roman army’; it appears to come from an earlier unrecorded *qladtis, a derivative of the base *qel- ‘call’, which points to an underlying sense ‘call to arms’. Under the terms of the constitution attributed to Servius Tullius, a 6thcentury BC king of Rome, the army, and hence the people, was divided into six such classes, membership of each based originally on the amount of land held, and latterly on wealth in money terms.

English first adopted the word in this antiquarian sense (which provided the basis for the modern application to social class), but its widespread use in the language probably began in the sense ‘group of pupils’. The derivatives classic [17] and classical [16] come from Latin classicus, probably via French classique; in Latin, the adjective signified ‘of the highest class of Roman citizen’, whence the word’s presentday approbatory connotations.
[class etymology, class origin, 英语词源]
enthusiasm: enthusiasm: [17] Enthusiasm has had a chequered semantic history. Like giddiness, it meant originally ‘state of being inspired by a god’. It comes ultimately from Greek énthous or éntheos ‘possessed, inspired’, a compound formed from the prefix en- ‘in’ and theós ‘god’ (as in English theology). From this in turn was derived the verb enthousiázein ‘be inspired’ and the noun enthousiasmós, which passed into English via Latin or French, still with the sense ‘divine inspiration’ (‘Doth he think they knew it by enthusiasm or revelation from heaven?’ Richard Baxter, Infants’ church membership and baptism 1651).

In the stern climate of Puritanism, however, divine inspiration was not something to be encouraged, and as the 17th century progressed enthusiasm took on derogatory connotations of ‘excessive religious emotion’. The modern approbatory meaning, ‘eagerness’, had its beginnings at the start of the 18th century, and by the early 19th century had ousted the deprecatory sense from leading place.
=> theology
prestige: prestige: [17] As opponents of semantic change are fond of pointing out, prestige once meant ‘trick, illusion’, and its use until the 19th century was usually derogatory. It comes via French prestige from Latin praestigiae ‘illusions produced by a conjurer or juggler’, an alteration of an unrecorded *praestrigiae. This would have been a derivative of praestringere ‘blindfold’, hence ‘confuse the sight, dazzle’, a compound verb formed from the prefix prae- ‘before’ and stringere ‘bind’ (source of English strict). The modern approbatory meaning appears to have been reintroduced from French.
=> strict
shrewd: shrewd: [14] Shrewd originally meant ‘wicked, dangerous’. Its modern sense ‘astute’ did not develop (via a less approbatory ‘cunning’) until the 16th century. It was derived from shrew ‘wicked man’ (a sense now obsolete). This is generally assumed to be the same noun as shrew the animal-name [OE], a word of uncertain origin. Shrews were formerly thought to have a poisonous bite, and were held in superstitious fear – hence the term’s metaphorical application. The move from ‘wicked man’ via ‘bad-tempered abusive complainer’ to ‘nagging woman’ began in the 14th century.
=> shrew
sly: sly: [12] Etymologically, sly means ‘able to hit’. It was borrowed from Old Norse slǣgr ‘clever, cunning’, which went back ultimately to the prehistoric Germanic base *slakh-, *slag-, *slōg- ‘hit’ (source also of English slaughter, slay, etc). The word’s original approbatory connotations of ‘cleverness’ or ‘skill’ survived into the 20th century in northern dialects, but elsewhere they were soon ousted by the notion of ‘underhandedness’. More neutral associations linger on in sleight ‘dexterity’ [13] (as in ‘sleight of hand’), which was acquired from an Old Norse derivative of slǣgr.
=> slaughter, slay, sleight
sophisticate: sophisticate: [14] As those who hanker for the ancestral meanings of words never tire of pointing out, sophisticated originally meant ‘adulterated, corrupted’. The modern approbatory sense ‘worldly-wise, cultured’ did not emerge (via an intermediate ‘lacking primitive or original naturalness or naivety’) until the end of the 19th century; and ‘refined and elaborate’ (as in ‘a sophisticated missile system’) is more recent still, not being recorded until after World War II.

The verb was adapted from the past participle of medieval Latin sophisticāre. This was derived from Latin sophisticus, a borrowing from Greek sophistikós, which in turn was derived from sophistés, a noun which meant literally ‘expert, deviser’, but was also used for a school of 5thcentury BC Greek philosophers (the Sophists) who came to be despised for their specious and intellectually dishonest reasoning (hence English sophistry [14]). Sophistés itself came via sophízesthai ‘play subtle tricks’ from sophós ‘skilled, clever, wise’, a word of unknown origin. Sophomore ‘second-year student’ [17] is an alteration of an earlier sophumer ‘arguer’, a derivative of sophum, which is a now defunct variant of sophism.
=> sophistry, sophomore