英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

smock [smock 词源字典]: smock: [OE] Smock originally denoted a woman’s undergarment, and etymologically it may be a garment one ‘creeps’ or ‘burrows’ into. For it may be related to Old English smūgan ‘creep’ and smygel ‘burrow’ and to Old Norse smjúga ‘creep into, put on a garment’. The underlying comparison seems to be between pulling on a tight undershirt over one’s head and burrowing into a narrow space. Low German smukkelen or smuggelen, the source of English smuggle [17], may come from the same source.
=> smuggle[smock etymology, smock origin, 英语词源]
terrace: terrace: [16] Terrace is one of a small family of English words that go back ultimately to Latin terra ‘earth, land’. This was probably descended from Indo-European *tersā- ‘dry’ (source also of English thirst, torrid, etc), in which case it denoted etymologically ‘dry land’, as opposed to ‘sea’. The family also includes inter [14] (etymologically ‘put into the earth’), terra cotta [18] (from Italian, literally ‘cooked earth’), terra firma [17] (literally ‘firm land’), terrain [18], terrestrial [15], terrier [15] (etymologically a dog which is sent down burrows in the ‘earth’ after its quarry), terrine, territory [15], and tureen. Terrace itself came via Old French terrace from the Vulgar Latin derivative *terrāceus, which denoted a ‘platform made from a pile of earth or rubble’.
=> terrain, terrestrial, terrier, terrine, territory, thirst, torrid, tureen
aardvark (n.): 1833, from Afrikaans Dutch aardvark, literally "earth-pig" (the animal burrows), from aard "earth" (see earth) + vark "pig," cognate with Old High German farah (source of German Ferkel "young pig, sucking pig," a diminutive form), Old English fearh (see farrow).
ferret (v.): early 15c., "hunt with a ferret," from ferret (n.) or from Old French verb fureter, in reference to the use of half-tame ferrets to kill rats and flush rabbits from burrows. The extended sense of "search out, discover," especially by perseverence and cunning, usually with out (adv.), is from 1570s. Related: Ferreted; ferreting.
gopher (n.): burrowing squirrel, 1812, American English, perhaps an Englishing of Louisiana French gaufre "honeycomb, waffle," said to have been used by French settlers in reference to small mammals on analogy of the structure of their burrows, from Old French gaufre, walfre (12c.), which is from Frankish or some other Germanic source. The rodent was the nickname of people from Arkansas (1845) and later Minnesota (1872). The gopherwood tree of the Bible (used by Noah to make the ark, Gen. vi:14) is unrelated; it is from Hebrew gofer, name of a kind of wood now unidentified, perhaps meaning the cypress.
terrier (n.): kind of dog, early 15c., from Old French chien terrier "terrier dog," literally "earth dog," from Medieval Latin terrarius "of earth," from Latin terra "earth" (see terrain). So called because the dogs pursue their quarry (foxes, badgers, etc.) into their burrows.