quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- abort



[abort 词源字典] - abort: see origin
[abort etymology, abort origin, 英语词源] - borage




- borage: [13] The plant-name borage comes via Old French bourrache from Latin borrāgo. Various words have been advanced as an ultimate source, including late Latin burra ‘shaggy cloth’, on account of its hairy leaves, but in view of the fact that the Arabs used the plant medicinally to induce sweating, the likeliest contender is Arabic abū ‘āraq, literally ‘father of sweat’.
- border




- border: [14] English acquired border from Old French bordure. This came from the common Romance verb *bordāre ‘border’, which was based on *bordus ‘edge’, a word of Germanic origin whose source, *borthaz, was the same as that of English board in the sense ‘side of a ship’.
=> board - bore




- bore: Bore ‘make a hole’ [OE] and bore ‘be tiresome’ [18] are almost certainly two distinct words. The former comes ultimately from an Indo-European base *bhor-, *bhr-, which produced Latin forāre ‘bore’ (whence English foramen ‘small anatomical opening’), Greek phárynx, and prehistoric Germanic *borōn, from which we get bore (and German gets bohren). Bore connoting ‘tiresomeness’ suddenly appears on the scene as a sort of buzzword of the 1760s, from no known source; the explanation most commonly offered for its origin is that it is a figurative application of bore in the sense ‘pierce someone with ennui’, but that is not terribly convincing.
In its early noun use it meant what we would now call a ‘fit of boredom’. There is one other, rather rare English word bore – meaning ‘tidal wave in an estuary or river’ [17]. It may have come from Old Norse bára ‘wave’.
=> perforate, pharynx - born




- born: [OE] The Old English past participle of the verb meaning ‘bear’ was boren. By Middle English times this had become contracted to born(e), but no distinction in meaning was made on the basis of spelling. This did not come about until around 1600, since when born has become established as the obstetric orthography, while borne remains the straightforward past participle of bear ‘carry’.
=> bear - borough




- borough: [OE] Borough (Old English burg or burh) comes from Germanic *burgs ‘fortress’ (whence also German burg ‘castle, stronghold’). It was a derivative of the base *burg- ‘protect’ (whence also bury), a variant of *berg- (source of English barrow ‘mound’ and German berg ‘mountain’) and *borg- (source of English borrow).
At some time during the prehistoric Germanic period a progression in meaning began to take place from ‘fortress’ (which had largely died out in English by 1000), through ‘fortified town’, to simply ‘town’. Romance languages borrowed the word, giving for instance French bourg, from which English gets burgess [13] and bourgeois [16]. Burrow [13] is probably a variant form.
=> bourgeois, burgess, burrow, bury - borrow




- borrow: [OE] Modern English borrow is a descendant of Old English borgian, which came from the Germanic base *borg-. This was a variant of *berg- (source of English barrow ‘mound’) and *burg- (source of English borough and bury). The underlying sense of the Germanic base was ‘protection, shelter’, and the development of meaning in the case of borrow seems to have been like this: originally, to borrow something from somebody was to receive it temporarily from them in return for some sort of security, which would be forfeited if the thing borrowed were not kept safe and eventually returned.
Gradually, the notion of giving some sort of concrete security, such as money, weakened into a spoken pledge, which by modern times had become simply the unspoken assumption that anything that has been borrowed must by definition be returned.
=> barrow, borough, bury - corroborate




- corroborate: see robust
- elaborate




- elaborate: [16] Etymologically, something that is elaborate has been produced by hard work. The word comes from ēlabōrātus, the past participle of Latin ēlabōrāre; this was a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and labor ‘work’ (source of English labour). The notion of ‘painstaking work’ had passed by the early 17th century into ‘extreme detail’.
=> labour - smorgasbord




- smorgasbord: see smear
- suborn




- suborn: see ornament
- tabor




- tabor: see tambourine
- aboriginal (adj.)




- 1660s, "first, earliest," especially in reference to inhabitants of lands colonized by Europeans, from aborigines (see aborigine) + -al (1); specific Australian sense is from 1820. The noun is attested from 1767. Related: Aboriginally.
- aborigine (n.)




- 1858, mistaken singular of aborigines (1540s; the correct singular is aboriginal), from Latin Aborigines "the first ancestors of the Romans; the first inhabitants" (especially of Latium), possibly a tribal name, or from or made to conform to ab origine, literally "from the beginning." Extended 1789 to natives of other countries which Europeans have colonized. Australian slang shortening Abo attested from 1922.
- aborning (adv.)




- 1893, American English, from a- (1) + born + -ing (2).
- abort (v.)




- 1570s, "to miscarry," from Latin abortus, past participle of aboriri "to miscarry" (see abortive); 1610s as "to deliberately terminate" anything, but especially a pregnancy, which seems to be the literal sense. Transitive meaning "to cause a woman to miscarry" is recorded from 1933. Related: Aborted; aborting.
- abortifacient (n.)




- 1875, noun and adjective, from Latin abortus (see abortive) + facientem "making," related to facere "to make, do" (see factitious). An earlier word for this in the noun sense was abortive (1640s).
- abortion (n.)




- 1540s, originally of both deliberate and unintended miscarriages; from Latin abortionem (nominative abortio) "miscarriage; abortion," noun of action from past participle stem of aboriri "to miscarry" (see abortive).
Earlier noun in English was simple abort (early 15c.) "miscarriage." In 19c. some effort was made to distinguish abortion "expulsion of the fetus between 6 weeks and 6 months" from miscarriage (the same within 6 weeks of conception) and premature labor (delivery after 6 months but before due time). The deliberate miscarriage was criminal abortion. This broke down late 19c. as abortion came to be used principally for intentional miscarriages, probably via phrases such as procure an abortion.
Foeticide (n.) appears 1823 as a forensic medical term for deliberate premature fatal expulsion of the fetus; also compare prolicide. Another 19c. medical term for it was embryoctony, from Latinized form of Greek kteinein "to destroy." Abortion was a taboo word for much of early 20c., disguised in print as criminal operation (U.S.) or illegal operation (U.K.), and replaced by miscarriage in film versions of novels. - abortionist (n.)




- 1872, from abortion + -ist.
- abortive (adj.)




- late 14c., "born prematurely or dead," from Latin abortivus "pertaining to miscarriage; causing abortion," from abort-, past participle stem of aboriri "disappear, miscarry," from ab- "amiss" (see ab-) + oriri "appear, be born, arise" (see orchestra); the compound word used in Latin for deaths, miscarriages, sunsets, etc. The Latin verb for "to produce an abortion" was abigo, literally "to drive away." Not originally used to imply forced or deliberate miscarriage; from 14c.-18c. stillborn children or domestic animals were said to be abortive. Also see abortion. Related: Abortiveness.
- airborne (adj.)




- 1640s, "carried through the air," from air (n.1) + borne. Of military units, from 1937.
- arbor (n.)




- c. 1300, herber, "herb garden," from Old French erbier "field, meadow; kitchen garden," from Latin herba "grass, herb" (see herb). Later "a grassy plot" (early 14c., a sense also in Old French), "a shaded nook" (mid-14c.). Probably not from Latin arbor "tree," though perhaps influenced by its spelling.
The change from er- to ar- before consonants in Middle English also reflects a pronunciation shift: compare farm from ferme, harbor from Old English herebeorg. - Arbor Day




- the day set aside for the planting of trees, first celebrated 1872 in Nebraska, the brainchild of U.S. agriculturalist and journalist J. Sterling Morton (1832-1902). From Latin arbor "tree," which is of unknown origin.
- arbor vitae (n.)




- type of evergreen shrub, 1660s, name given by French physician and botanist Charles de Lécluse (1525-1609), Latin, literally "tree of life." Also used in late 18c. rogue's slang as a cant word for "penis."
- arboreal (adj.)




- 1660s, from Latin arboreus "pertaining to trees," from arbor "tree," which is of unknown origin, + -al (1).
- arboretum (n.)




- "tree-garden," 1838, from Latin arboretum, literally "a place grown with trees," from arbor "tree," which is of unknown origin, + -etum, suffix used to form the names of gardens and woods.
- arborist (n.)




- 1570s, from Latin arbor "tree," which is of unknown origin, + -ist. In early use probably from French arboriste.
- aurora borealis (n.)




- 1620s, "Northern Lights," literally "northern dawn," said to have been coined by French philosopher Petrus Gassendus (1592-1655) after a spectacular display seen in France Sept. 2, 1621; see aurora + boreal. In northern Scotland and among sailors, sometimes called the dancers or the merry dancers.
- belabor (v.)




- 1590s, "to exert one's strength upon," from be- + labor (v.). But figurative sense of "assail with words" is attested somewhat earlier (1590s); and belabored is attested from mid-15c. with a sense of "tilled, cultivated."
- borage (n.)




- flowering plant used in salads, mid-13c., from Anglo-French, Old French borage (13c., Modern French bourrache), from Medieval Latin borrago. Klein says this is ultimately from Arabic abu arak, literally "the father of sweat," so called by Arab physicians for its effect on humans. But OED says it's from Latin borra "rough hair, short wool," in reference to the texture of the foliage.
- borax (n.)




- late 14c., from Anglo-French boras, from Medieval Latin baurach, from Arabic buraq, applied by the Arabs to various substances used as fluxes, probably from Persian burah. Originally obtained in Europe from the bed of salt lakes in Tibet.
- borborygmi (n.)




- also borborygmus, 17c., from Latin borborigmus, from Greek borborygmos, from borboryzein "to have a rumbling in the bowels," imitative.
- Bordeaux




- 1560s, type of wine imported from the city in southwestern France. Its name is Roman Burdigala (1c.), perhaps from a Celtic or pre-Celtic source the sense of which has been lost.
- bordello (n.)




- c. 1300, bordel "house of prostitution," from Old French bordel "small hut, cabin; brothel" (12c.), diminutive of borde "hut made of planks," from Frankish *bord "wooden board" or some other Germanic source related to board (n.1). The modern form is a result of the French word being borrowed by Italian then passed back to French with a suffix and re-borrowed into English in its current form by 1590s.
- border (n.)




- mid-14c., from Old French bordure "seam, edge of a shield, border," from Frankish *bord or a similar Germanic source (compare Old English bord "side;" see board (n.2)). The geopolitical sense first attested 1530s, in Scottish (replacing earlier march), from The Borders, name of the district adjoining the boundary between England and Scotland.
- border (v.)




- c. 1400, "to put a border on;" 1640s as "to lie on the border of," from border (n.). Related: Bordered; bordering.
- borderline (n.)




- 1869, "strip of land along a frontier," from border (n.) + line (n.). As an adjective meaning "verging on" it is attested from 1907, originally in medical jargon.
- bore (v.1)




- Old English borian "to bore through, perforate," from bor "auger," from Proto-Germanic *buron (cognates: Old Norse bora, Swedish borra, Old High German boron, Middle Dutch boren, German bohren), from PIE root *bher- (2) "to cut with a sharp point, pierce, bore" (cognates: Greek pharao "I plow," Latin forare "to bore, pierce," Old Church Slavonic barjo "to strike, fight," Albanian brime "hole").
The meaning "diameter of a tube" is first recorded 1570s; hence figurative slang full bore (1936) "at maximum speed," from notion of unchoked carburetor on an engine. Sense of "be tiresome or dull" first attested 1768, a vogue word c. 1780-81 according to Grose (1785); possibly a figurative extension of "to move forward slowly and persistently," as a boring tool does. - bore (v.2)




- past tense of bear (v.).
- bore (n.)




- thing which causes ennui or annoyance, 1778; of persons by 1812; from bore (v.1).
The secret of being a bore is to tell everything. [Voltaire, "Sept Discours en Vers sur l'Homme," 1738]
- boreal (adj.)




- "northern," late 15c., from Latin borealis, from boreas "north wind," from Greek Boreas, name of the god of the north wind, which is of unknown origin, perhaps related to words in Balto-Slavic for "mountain" and "forest."
- borealis




- shortening of aurora borealis (q.v.).
- bored (adj.)




- 1823, past participle adjective from bore (v.) in the figurative sense.
Society is now one polished horde,
Formed of two mighty tribes, the Bores and Bored.
[Byron, "Don Juan," 1823]
- boredom (n.)




- "state of being bored," 1852, from bore (v.1) + -dom. It also has been employed in a sense "bores as a class" (1883) and "practice of being a bore" (1864, a sense properly belonging to boreism, 1833).
- borg (n.)




- fictional hostile alien hive-race in the "Star Trek" series, noted for "assimilating" defeated rivals, first introduced in "The Next Generation" TV series (debut fall 1987). Their catchphrase is "resistance is futile."
- boring (adj.)




- mid-15c., "action of piercing," from bore (v.). From 1853 in reference to animals that bore; 1840 in the sense "wearying, causing ennui."
- Boris




- Slavic masc. proper name, literally "fight," from Slavic root *bor- "to fight, overcome" (see bore (v.)).
- bork (v.)




- 1987, "to discredit a candidate for some position by savaging his or her career and beliefs," from name of U.S. jurist Robert H. Bork (1927-2012), whose Supreme Court nomination in 1987 was rejected after an intense counter-campaign.
- born




- Old English boren, alternative past participle of beran (see bear (v.)). Distinction between born and borne is 17c.
- born-again (adj.)




- of Protestant Christians, by 1920, based on John iii:3. Used in figurative (non-religious) sense by 1977.