英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

archipelago [archipelago 词源字典]: archipelago: [16] Originally, archipelago was a quite specific term – it was the name of the Aegean Sea, the sea between Greece and Turkey. Derivationally, it is a compound formed in Greek from arkhi- ‘chief’ and pélagos ‘sea’ (source of English pelagic [17] and probably related to plain, placate, and please). The term ‘chief sea’ identified the Aegean, as contrasted with all the smaller lagoons, lakes, and inlets to which the word pélagos was also applied.

An ‘Englished’ form of the word, Arch-sea, was in use in the 17th century, and in sailors’ jargon it was often abbreviated to Arches: ‘An island called Augusto near Paros, in the Arches’, Sir T Roe, Negotiations 1626. A leading characteristic of the Aegean Sea is of course that it contains a large number of islands, and from the 16th century onwards we see a strong and steady move towards what is now the word’s main meaning, ‘large group of islands’.

The immediate source of the English word was Italian arcipelago, and some etymologists have speculated that rather than coming directly from Greek arkhipélagos, this may have been a sort of folk-etymological resuscitation of it based on a misunderstanding of Greek Aigaion pelagos ‘Aegean Sea’.
=> pelagic[archipelago etymology, archipelago origin, 英语词源]
march: march: English has three words march. The commonest is also the most recent: march ‘walk as a soldier’ [16]. Etymologically, this means virtually ‘trample down’. It comes via French marcher from Gallo-Roman *marcāre, a verb derived from late Latin marcus ‘hammer’. The month-name March [12] goes back via Old French to Latin Martius, literally the ‘month of Mars, the god of war’ (Mars also gave English martial). March ‘boundary’ [13] has now almost died out, apart from its use in the plural (‘the Marches’) as a geographical name.

It comes via Old French marche from medieval Latin marca (source also of marquis and marchioness); and marca in turn goes back through Frankish *marka to prehistoric Germanic *markō, source of English mark.
=> martial; mark, marquis
marquis: marquis: [14] Etymologically, a marquis is a lord of the ‘marches’ or borderlands. The word comes from Old French marquis, an alteration of an earlier marchis. This was a derivative of medieval Latin marca ‘border, frontier’, source of archaic English march ‘border’. The feminine form marchioness [16] comes from medieval Latin marchionissa, a derivative of marchiō ‘lord of the marches’, which likewise was based on marca.

The French feminine form of marquis is marquise. This was borrowed into English in the 17th century and used for a ‘large tent’. It soon came to be misanalysed as a plural form, and so a new ‘singular’, marquee, was born.
=> march, mark, marquee
abutment (n.): 1640s, from abut + -ment. Originally any "junction;" the architectural usage is attested from 1793 (the notion is of the meeting-place of the arches of a bridge, etc.).
arcade (n.): 1731 (as arcado, from 1640s), from Italian arcata "arch of a bridge," from arco "arc," from Latin arcus (see arc). Applied to passages formed by a succession of arches, avenues of trees, and ultimately to any covered avenue, especially one lined with shops (1731) or amusements; hence arcade game (1977).
fornication (n.): c. 1300, from Old French fornicacion "fornication, lewdness; prostitution; idolatry" (12c.), from Late Latin fornicationem (nominative fornicatio), noun of action from past participle stem of fornicari "to fornicate," from Latin fornix (genitive fornicis) "brothel" (Juvenal, Horace), originally "arch, vaulted chamber, a vaulted opening, a covered way," probably an extension, based on appearance, from a source akin to fornus "brick oven of arched or domed shape" (see furnace). Strictly, "voluntary sex between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman;" extended in the Bible to adultery. The sense extension in Latin is perhaps because Roman prostitutes commonly solicited from under the arches of certain buildings.
gastrology (n.): "cooking, good eating," 1810, from gastro- "stomach" + -logy. Compare gastronomy. Gastrologia was the title of a lost work by Archestratus.
investigator (n.): 1550s, a native agent-noun formation from investigate, or else from Latin investigator "he that searches into," agent noun from past participle stem of investigare (see investigation).
loaf (v.): 1835, American English, back-formation from loafer (1830). Related: Loafed; loafing.
The term "loafing" is, of course, very vague. Its meaning, like that of its opposite, "work," depends largely on the user. The highly successful quarterback with an E in Greek is a loafer in his professor's eyes, while the idea of the professor's working, in spite of his voluminous researches on Mycenean Table Manners, would excite hoots of derision from the laborer that lays the drains before his study window. [Yale Literary Magazine, May 1908]
lurch (n.1): "sudden pitch to one side," 1784, from earlier lee-larches (1765), a nautical term for "the sudden roll which a ship makes to lee-ward in a high sea, when a large wave strikes her, and bears her weather-side violently up, which depresses the other in proportion" ["Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences," London 1765]; perhaps from French lacher "to let go," from Latin laxus (see lax).
When a Ship is brought by the Lee, it is commonly occaſsioned by a large Sea, and by the Neglect of the Helm's-man. When the Wind is two or three Points on the Quarter, the Ship taking a Lurch, brings the Wind on the other Side, and lays the Sails all dead to the Maſt; as the Yards are braced up, ſhe then having no Way, and the Helm being of no Service, I would therefore brace about the Head ſails ſharp the other Way .... [John Hamilton Moore, Practical Navigator, 8th ed., 1784]
marquis (n.): also marquess, c. 1300, title of nobility, from Old French marchis, literally "ruler of a border area," from Old French marche "frontier," from Medieval Latin marca "frontier, frontier territory" (see march (n.1)). Originally the ruler of border territories in various European regions (such as Italian marchese, Spanish marqués); later a mere title of rank, below duke and above count. Related: Marquisate.
Mercia: Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the Midlands, Latinized from Old English Mierce "men of the Marches," from mearc (see march (n.2)). Related: Mercian.
Messier: in reference to a catalogue of about 100 nebulae, star clusters and galaxies begun in 1758 by French astronomer and comet-hunter Charles Messier (1730-1817), who found his telescopic searches deceived by fuzzy objects that resembled distant comets but turned out to be fixed.
What caused me to undertake the catalog was the nebula I discovered above the southern horn of Taurus on September 12, 1758, whilst observing the comet of that year. This nebula had such a resemblance to a comet in its form and brightness that I endeavored to find others, so that astronomers would no more confuse these same nebulae with comets just beginning to appear. [Messier, 1800]
The first version of the catalogue was published 1771, and the fuller version in 1781.
military (adj.): mid-15c., from Middle French militaire (14c.), from Latin militaris "of soldiers or war, of military service, warlike," from miles (genitive militis) "soldier," of unknown origin, perhaps ultimately from Etruscan, or else meaning "one who marches in a troop," and thus connected to Sanskrit melah "assembly," Greek homilos "assembled crowd, throng." Related: Militarily. Old English had militisc, from Latin. Military-industrial complex coined 1961 in farewell speech of U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower.
poliomyelitis (n.): 1874, also polio-myelitis, coined by German physician Adolph Kussmaul (1822-1902) from Greek polios "grey" (see fallow (adj.)) + myelos "marrow" + -itis "inflammation." So called because the gray matter in the spinal cord is inflamed, which causes paralysis. The earlier name was infantile paralysis (1843).
In many respects, also, this affection resembles the acute spinal paralysis of infancy, which, from the researches of Charcot, Joffroy, and others, have been shown pathologically to be an acute myelitis of the anterior cornua. Hence, for these forms of paralysis, Professor Kussmaul suggests the name of 'poliomyelitis anterior.' ["London Medical Record," Dec. 9, 1874]
skeptic (n.): also sceptic, 1580s, "member of an ancient Greek school that doubted the possibility of real knowledge," from Middle French sceptique and directly from Latin scepticus "the sect of the Skeptics," from Greek skeptikos (plural Skeptikoi "the Skeptics, followers of Pyrrho"), noun use of adjective meaning "inquiring, reflective" (the name taken by the disciples of the Greek philosopher Pyrrho, who lived c. 360-c. 270 B.C.E.), related to skeptesthai "to reflect, look, view" (see scope (n.1)).
Skeptic does not mean him who doubts, but him who investigates or researches as opposed to him who asserts and thinks that he has found. [Miguel de Unamuno, "Essays and Soliloquies," 1924]
The extended sense of "one with a doubting attitude" first recorded 1610s. The sk- spelling is an early 17c. Greek revival and is preferred in U.S. As a verb, scepticize (1690s) failed to catch on.
tetrarch (n.): late Old English tetrarche "ruler of one of four divisions of a kingdom or province," from Late Latin tetrarcha, from tetrarches, from Greek tetrarkhes "leader of four companies, ruler of four provinces," from tetra- "four" (see tetra-) + arkhein "to rule" (see archon). Applied generally to subordinate rulers in the Roman Empire, especially in Syria. Related: Tetrarchy.
tracer (n.): c. 1500, "one who tracks or searches," agent noun from verb form of trace (n.1). Meaning "bullet whose course is made visible" is from 1910.
viaduct (n.): 1816, from Latin via "road" (see via) + -duct as in aqueduct. French viaduc is a 19c. English loan-word.
An extensive bridge consisting, strictly of a series of arches of masonry, erected for the purpose of conducting a road or a railway a valley or a district of low level, or over existing channels of communication, where an embankment would be impracticable or inexpedient; more widely, any elevated roadway which artificial constructions of timber, iron, bricks, or stonework are established. [Century Dictionary]
But the word apparently was coined by English landscape gardener Humphry Repton (1752-1818) for an architectural feature, "a form of bridge adapted to the purposes of passing over, which may unite strength with grace, or use with beauty ...."
nectarial: "Of the nature of a nectary; of or relating to a nectary", Early 19th cent.; earliest use found in Asiatick Researches. From nectary + -al; compare -ial.
omphalic: "Of or relating to a navel; ( Anatomy ) umbilical", Early 19th cent.; earliest use found in Asiatick Researches. From ancient Greek ὀμϕαλός omphalos + -ic.