quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- consider
- consider: [14] Etymologically, consider means ‘observe the stars’. Amongst the most popular of ancient Roman methods of divination was astrology, and so the Latin verb consīderāre was coined (from the intensive prefix com- and sīdus ‘star’, source of English sidereal) to describe the activity of carefully noting the stars’ courses for the purpose of drawing auguries.
From ‘observing stars’ it soon broadened out in meaning to simply ‘observe’, and hence figuratively ‘think over something’, but the sense ‘have an opinion’ seems to be an English development of the 16th century. English acquired the word via Old French considerer, but borrowed considerable directly from Latin consīderābilis; the modern sense ‘large in amount’ arose in the mid-17th century, on the basis of an earlier ‘worthy of consideration because of great quantity’.
=> desire, sidereal - temple
- temple: Temple for worship [OE] and temple at the side of the head [14] are distinct words. The former was borrowed from Latin templum, which originated as a term relating to divination, used by priests in ancient times. It denoted a space marked out or ‘cut’ out as suitable for making observations on which auguries were based – some say a space marked out on the ground, others a section of the night sky.
It probably came ultimately from the base *tem- ‘cut’, which also produced Greek témein ‘cut’ and the English suffix -tomy ‘surgical cutting’. It has found its way into most western European languages, including German, Dutch, Swedish, and Danish tempel and Welsh teml as well as the Romance languages. Temple ‘area at the side of the head’ comes via Old French temple from Vulgar Latin *tempula, an alteration of tempora, the plural of Latin tempus.
This of course originally meant ‘time’ (English gets temporary from it), and it seems that the sense ‘area at the side of the head’ arose via an intermediate ‘appropriate time, proper period’, hence ‘right place (for dealing someone a fatal blow)’.
=> tome; temporary - augury (n.)
- late 14c., "divination from the flight of birds," from Old French augure "divination, soothsaying, sorcery, enchantment," or directly from Latin augurium "divination, the observation and interpretation of omens" (see augur). Figurative sense of "omen, portent, indication" is from 1797 (also often in plural as auguries).
- august (adj.)
- 1660s, from Latin augustus "venerable, majestic, magnificent, noble," probably originally "consecrated by the augurs, with favorable auguries" (see augur (n.)); or else "that which is increased" (see augment).
- contemplation (n.)
- c. 1200, "religious musing," from Old French contemplation or directly from Latin contemplationem (nominative contemplatio) "act of looking at," from contemplat-, past participle stem of contemplari "to gaze attentively, observe," originally "to mark out a space for observation" (as an augur does). From com-, intensive prefix (see com-), + templum "area for the taking of auguries" (see temple (n.1)).