quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- appeal



[appeal 词源字典] - appeal: [14] The ultimate Latin source of appeal, the verb adpellere (formed from the prefix ad- ‘to’ and pellere ‘drive’ – related to anvil, felt, and pulse), seems to have been used in nautical contexts in the sense ‘direct a ship towards a particular landing’. It was extended metaphorically (with a modification in form to appellāre) to mean ‘address’ or ‘accost’, and from these came two specific, legal, applications: ‘accuse’ and ‘call for the reversal of a judgment’. Appeal had both these meanings when it was first adopted into English from Old French apeler.
The former had more or less died out by the beginning of the 19th century, but the second has flourished and led to the more general sense ‘make an earnest request’. Peal [14], as in ‘peal of bells’, is an abbreviated form of appeal, and repeal [14] comes from the Old French derivative rapeler.
=> anvil, felt, peal, pulse, repeal[appeal etymology, appeal origin, 英语词源] - belfry




- belfry: [13] Etymologically, belfry has nothing to do with bells; it was a chance similarity between the two words that led to belfry being used from the 15th century onwards for ‘bell-tower’. The original English form was berfrey, and it meant ‘movable seige-tower’. It came from Old French berfrei, which in turn was borrowed from a hypothetical Frankish *bergfrith, a compound whose two elements mean respectively ‘protect’ (English gets bargain, borough, borrow, and bury from the same root) and ‘peace, shelter’ (hence German friede ‘peace’); the underlying sense of the word is thus the rather tautological ‘protective shelter’.
A tendency to break down the symmetry between the two rs in the word led in the 15th century to the formation of belfrey in both English and French (l is phonetically close to r), and at around the same time we find the first reference to it meaning ‘bell-tower’, in Promptorium parvulorum 1440, an early English-Latin dictionary: ‘Bellfray, campanarium’.
=> affray, bargain, borrow, borough, bury, neighbour - chime




- chime: [13] Etymologically, chime is the same word as cymbal – indeed it originally meant ‘cymbal’ in English – but the route by which it reached English is not altogether clear. Latin cymbalum was borrowed into Old French as chimbe, which is perhaps the most likely source of the English word, whose earliest forms include chimbe. However, Old English also acquired the Latin word, as cimbal, and it has been speculated that this may have survived into the Middle English period as *chimbel, whose last syllable was misinterpreted as bell.
This would have opened the way to a misanalysis of the word as chime bell, a term which does actually occur from the 13th to the 15th centuries. This theory has the advantage of explaining the transference of the word’s meaning from ‘cymbals’ to ‘bells’, which occurred between the 14th and 15th centuries.
=> cymbal - cockney




- cockney: [14] Etymologically, a cockney is a ‘cock’s egg’ (it comes from cokene, the old genitive plural of cock, and ey, the Middle English word for ‘egg’). This was a medieval term for a small or misshapen egg, the ‘runt’ of the clutch, supposedly laid by a cock, and it came to be applied (probably egged on by Middle English cocker ‘pamper’) to a ‘pampered child’ or ‘mother’s boy’.
In the 16th century we find that it has passed on to ‘town dweller’ (the notion being that people who lived in towns were soft and effete compared with countrymen), and by around 1600 it had started to mean more specifically ‘someone born in the city of London’. The popular definition ‘someone born within the sound of Bow bells’ is first reported by the lexicographer John Minsheu in 1617.
=> cock, egg - quarter




- quarter: [13] Quarter is one of a large family of English words that go back ultimately to Latin quattuor ‘four’ and its relatives. Direct descendants of quattuor itself are actually fairly few – among them quatrain [16] and quatrefoil [15] (both via Old French). But its ordinal form quārtus ‘fourth’ has been most prolific: English is indebted to it for quart [14], quarter (via the Latin derivative quartārius ‘fourth part’), quartet [18], and quarto [16].
In compounds quattuor assumed the form quadr-, which has given English quadrangle [15] (and its abbreviation quad [19]), quadrant [14], quadratic [17], quadrille [18], quadruped [17], quadruplet [18] (also abbreviated to quad [19]), quarantine, quarrel ‘arrow’, not to mention the more heavily disguised cadre [19], carfax [14] (which means etymologically ‘four-forked’), squad, and square.
And the derivative quater ‘four times’ has contributed carillon [18] (etymologically a peal of ‘four’ bells), quaternary [15], and quire of paper [15] (etymologically a set of ‘four’ sheets of paper).
=> cadre, carfax, carillon, quad, quarrel, quarry, quire, squad, square - ring




- ring: [OE] English has two distinct words ring. The one meaning ‘circle’ goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *khrenggaz, which also produced German, Dutch, Swedish, and Danish ring (not to mention the Finnish borrowing rengas). It may be related to Old Church Slavonic kragu ‘circle’. The Germanic form was taken over by Old French as ranc, from which English gets rank, and also as renc, which may be the source of English rink [18]. Ring ‘chime’ presumably goes back to a prehistoric Germanic ancestor that imitated the sound of clanging, and also produced German and Dutch ringen, Swedish ringa, and Danish ringe (the suggestion that it contains some reference to the circular motion of tolling bells is attractive, but has no basis in fact).
=> range, rank, rink - touch




- touch: [13] The etymological notion underlying touch seems to be the ‘striking of a bell’. It comes via Old French tochier from Vulgar Latin *toccāre ‘hit, knock’, which appears originally to have denoted ‘make the sound toc by striking something, such as a bell’ (as in English ticktock). The connection with bells is preserved in tocsin ‘signal given with a bell’ [16], which comes via French tocsin from Provençal tocasenh, a compound formed from tocar ‘strike’ and senh ‘bell’ (a relative of English sign).
Another member of the family is toccata [18], a borrowing from Italian, which etymologically denotes the ‘touching’ of the keys of an instrument with the fingers.
=> toccata, tocsin - backward (adv.)




- c. 1300, from abakward, from Old English on bæc (see back (adv.)) + -weard adjectival and adverbial suffix (see -ward). Old English had the adverb bæcling. As an adjective, from 1550s. Meaning "behindhand with regard to progress" is first attested 1690s. To ring bells backward (from lowest to highest), c. 1500, was a signal of alarm for fire or invasion, or to express dismay. Another Middle English word for "backward, wrongly" was arseward (c. 1400); Old English had earsling.
- carillon (n.)




- 1775, from French carillon, which, according to French sources, is from Old French carignon "set of four bells," an alteration of quarregon, from Vulgar Latin *quadrinionem, from Latin quaternionem "set of four," from quater "four times," from PIE *kwetrus, from root *kwetwer- "four" (see four).
- chime (n.)




- c. 1300, chymbe "cymbal," from Old English cymbal, cimbal, also perhaps through Old French chimbe or directly from Latin cymbalum (see cymbal, the modern word for what this word originally meant). Evidently the word was misinterpreted as chymbe bellen (c. 1300) and its sense shifted to "chime bells," a meaning attested from mid-15c.
- clock (n.1)




- late 14c., clokke, originally "clock with bells," probably from Middle Dutch clocke (Dutch klok) "a clock," from Old North French cloque (Old French cloke, Modern French cloche), from Medieval Latin (7c.) clocca "bell," probably from Celtic (compare Old Irish clocc, Welsh cloch, Manx clagg "a bell") and spread by Irish missionaries (unless the Celtic words are from Latin); ultimately of imitative origin.
Replaced Old English dægmæl, from dæg "day" + mæl "measure, mark" (see meal (n.1)). The Latin word was horologium; the Greeks used a water-clock (klepsydra, literally "water thief"). Image of put (or set) the clock back "return to an earlier state or system" is from 1862. Round-the-clock (adj.) is from 1943, originally in reference to air raids. To have a face that would stop a clock "be very ugly" is from 1886. (Variations from c. 1890 include break a mirror, kill chickens.)
remember I remember
That boarding house forlorn,
The little window where the smell
Of hash came in the morn.
I mind the broken looking-glass,
The mattress like a rock,
The servant-girl from County Clare,
Whose face would stop a clock.
[... etc.; "The Insurance Journal," Jan. 1886]
- ding-a-ling (n.)




- "one who is crazy," 1935, from notion of hearing bells in the head (see ding (v.)).
- glockenspiel (n.)




- 1825 as a type of organ-stop 1834 as a musical instrument consisting of small bells or metal bars struck by hammers, from German Glockenspiel, literally "play of bells," from plural of Glocke "bell" (see clock (n.)) + Spiel "a play" (see spiel).
- New Year's Eve




- c. 1300; "þer þay dronken & dalten ... on nwe gerez euen." The Julian calendar began on January 1, but the Christian Church frowned on pagan celebrations of this and chose the Feast of the Annunciation (March 25) as its New Year's Day. The civic year in England continued to begin January 1 until late 12c., and even though legal documents then shifted to March 25, popular calendars and almanacs continued to begin on January 1. The calendar reform of 1751 restored the Julian New Year. New Year's was the main midwinter festival in Scotland from 17c., when Protestant authorities banned Christmas, and continued so after England reverted to Christmas, hence the Scottish flavor ("Auld Lang Syne," etc.). New Year's gathering in public places began 1878 in London, after new bells were installed in St. Paul's.
- peal (n.)




- mid-14c., "a ringing of a bell" especially as a call to church service, generally considered a shortened form of appeal (n.), with the notion of a bell that "summons" people to church (compare similar evolution in peach (v.)). Extended sense of "loud ringing of bells" is first recorded 1510s.
- ring (v.1)




- "sound a bell," Old English hringan "sound, give a certain resonant sound when struck; announce by bells," from Proto-Germanic *khrengan (cognates: Old Norse hringja, Swedish ringa, Middle Dutch ringen), probably of imitative origin. Related: Rang; rung. Originally a weak verb, strong inflection began in early Middle English by influence of sing, etc. To ring down a theatrical curtain is from 1772, from the custom of signaling for it by ringing a bell. To ring up a purchase on a cash register is by 1937, from the bell that sounded. Specialized sense "give a resonant sound when struck as an indication of genuineness or purity," with transferred use (as in to ring hollow) is from 1610s.
- ring (n.2)




- 1540s, "set of church bells," from ring (v.1). Meaning "a call on the telephone" is from 1900; to give (someone) a ring "call on the telephone" was in use by 1910. Meaning "a ringing tone" is from 1620s; specifically "the ringing sound made by a telephone" by 1951. Meaning "resonance of coin or glass as a test of genuineness" is from 1850, with transferred use (ring of truth, etc.).
- ringer (n.)




- early 15c., "one who rings" (a bell), agent noun from ring (v.1). In quoits (and by extension, horseshoes) from 1863, from ring (v.2). Especially in be a dead ringer for "resemble closely," 1891, from ringer, a fast horse entered fraudulently in a race in place of a slow one (the verb to ring in this sense is attested from 1812), possibly from British ring in "substitute, exchange," via ring the changes, "substitute counterfeit money for good," a pun on ring the changes in the sense of play the regular series of variations in a peal of bells (1610s). Meaning "expert" is first recorded 1918, Australian slang, from earlier meaning "man who shears the most sheep per day" (1871).
- sleigh (n.)




- "vehicle mounted on runners for use on ice and snow," 1703, American and Canadian English, from Dutch slee, shortened from slede (see sled (n.)). As a verb from 1728. Related: Sleighing. Sleigh-ride is first recorded 1770; sleigh-bells is from c. 1780; they originally were used to give warning of the approach of a sleigh.
- tintinnabulation (n.)




- "the ringing of bells," 1823, from Latin tintinnabulum "bell," from tintinnare "to ring, jingle" (reduplicated form of tinnire "to ring," from an imitative base) + instrumental suffix -bulum. Earlier forms in English were adjectives tintinnabulary (1787), tintinnabulatory (1827), and noun tintinnabulum "small bell" (late 14c.).
- toll (v.)




- "to sound with slow single strokes" (intransitive), mid-15c., probably a special use of tollen "to draw, lure," early 13c. variant of Old English -tyllan in betyllan "to lure, decoy," and fortyllan "draw away, seduce," of obscure origin. The notion is perhaps of "luring" people to church with the sound of the bells, or of "drawing" on the bell rope. Transitive sense from late 15c. Related: Tolled; tolling. The noun meaning "a stroke of a bell" is from mid-15c.
- Tom




- familiar shortening of masc. proper name Thomas, used by late 14c. as a type of a nickname for a common man (as in Tom, Dick, and Harry, 1734). Applied 17c. as a nickname for several exceptionally large bells. Short for Uncle Tom in the sense of "black man regarded as too servile to whites" is recorded from 1959. Tom Walker, U.S. Southern colloquial for "the devil" is recorded from 1833. Tom and Jerry is first attested 1828 and later used in many extended senses, originally were the names of the two chief characters (Corinthian Tom and Jerry Hawthorn) in Pierce Egan's "Life in London" (1821); the U.S. cat and mouse cartoon characters debuted 1940 in "Puss Gets the Boot." Tom Thumb (1570s) was a miniature man in popular tradition before P.T. Barnum took the name for a dwarf he exhibited. Tom-tit "titmouse" is from 1709. Compare tomcat.
- traps (n.2)




- "drums, cymbals, bells, etc.," 1925, from earlier trap drummer (1903) "street musician who plays a drum and several other instruments at once," perhaps from traps "belongings" (1813), shortened form of trappings.
- ghaghra




- "(In South Asia) a long full skirt, often decorated with embroidery, mirrors, or bells", Hindi ghāghrā, from Sanskrit gharghara 'gurgle, rattle'.