英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

prize [prize 词源字典]: prize: English has four words prize. The one meaning ‘reward’ [16] is essentially the same word as price. This was originally pris, mirroring its immediate Old French ancestor pris. It became prise, to indicate the length of its vowel i, and in the 16th century this differentiated into price for ‘amount to pay’ and prize for ‘reward’. (Modern French prix has given English grand prix [19], literally ‘great prize’, first used for a ‘car race’ in 1908.) Prize ‘esteem’ [14] was based on pris-, the stem of Old French preisier ‘praise’ (source of English praise). Prize ‘something captured in war’ [14] comes via Old French prise ‘capture, seizure, booty’ from Vulgar Latin *prēsa or *prēnsa ‘something seized’.

This was a noun use of the past participle of *prēndere ‘seize’, a contraction of classical Latin praehendere (from which English gets prehensile, prison, etc). Another sense of Old French prise was ‘grasp’. English borrowed this in the 14th century as prize ‘lever’, which in due course was turned into modern English’s fourth prize, the verb prize, or prise, ‘lever’ [17]. Pry ‘lever’ [19] is an alteration of prize, based on the misapprehension that it is a third-person singular present form (*pries).
=> grand prix, price; praise; comprehensive, prison, reprehensible; pry[prize etymology, prize origin, 英语词源]
rostrum: rostrum: [16] Latin rōstrum originally meant ‘beak’ or ‘muzzle of an animal’ – it was derived from the verb rōdere ‘gnaw’ (source of English corrode [14], erode [17], and rodent [19]). The word was also applied metaphorically to the ‘beaklike’ prows of ships. In 338 BC the platform for public speakers in the Forum in Rome was adorned with the prows of ships captured from Antium (modern Anzio), and so in due course all such platforms came to be known as rostra – whence the English word.
=> corrode, erode, rodent
turtle: turtle: Turtle the dove [OE] and turtle the marine reptile [17] are different words. The former was borrowed from Latin turtur, which no doubt originated in imitation of the bird’s cooing. It is now encountered only in the compound turtledove, first recorded in the 13th century. Turtle the reptile is more of a mystery. It is generally assumed to be an alteration of French tortue ‘tortoise’ (source of English tortoise [15]), but since it is not known where that came from, it does not get us much further.

The expression turn turtle (which dates from the 19th century) alludes to the practice of sailors turning turtles over on to their backs, like beetles, so that they were helpless and could be easily captured.
=> tortoise
capture (v.): 1795, from capture (n.); in chess, checkers, etc., 1820. Related: Captured; capturing. Earlier verb in this sense was captive (early 15c.).
Gibraltar: 1590s, ancient Calpe, captured 710 C.E. by Saracen leader Tariq, renamed Jebel el Tarik "the Mountain of Tarik," hence the English name. A British possession since 1704. Figurative of impregnability by 1856. Formerly also the name of a kind of rock-candy (1831).
haft (n.): Old English hæft "handle," especially of a cutting or thrusting instrument, related to hæft "fetter, bond; captive, slave," via a common notion of "a seizing, a thing seized," from Proto-Germanic *haftjam (cognates: Old Saxon haft "captured;" Dutch hecht, Old High German hefti, German Heft "handle;" German Haft "arrest"), from PIE *kap- "to grasp" (see capable). To haven other haeftes in hand "have other hafts in hand" was a 14c.-15c. way of saying "have other business to attend to."
helot (n.): 1570s (with a capital -h-) "Spartan serf," from Greek Heilotes, plural of Heilos, popularly associated with Helos, Laconian town reduced to serfdom by Sparta, but perhaps related to Greek halonai "be captured." In extended use by 1820s.
jumbo (adj.): "very large, unusually large for its type," 1882, a reference to Jumbo, name of the London Zoo's huge elephant (acquired from France, said to have been captured as a baby in Abyssinia in 1861), sold February 1882 to U.S. circus showman P.T. Barnum amid great excitement in America and great outcry in England, both fanned by Barnum. The name is perhaps from slang jumbo "clumsy, unwieldy fellow" (1823), which itself is possibly from a word for "elephant" in a West African language (compare Kongo nzamba).
"I tell you conscientiously that no idea of the immensity of the animal can be formed. It is a fact that he is simply beyond comparison. The largest elephants I ever saw are mere dwarfs by the side of Jumbo." [P.T. Barnum, interview, "Philadelphia Press," April 22, 1882]
As a product size, by 1886 (cigars). Jumbo jet attested by 1964.
mayonnaise (n.): sauce made from egg yolks, oil, and vinegar, 1815, from French sauce mayonnaise (1806), said by French sources to be corrupted from mahonnaise and to have been named in recognition of Mahon, seaport capital of island of Minorca, captured by France 1756 after the defeat of the British defending fleet in the Seven Years' War; the sauce having been introduced either in commemoration of the victory, which was led by Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, duc de Richelieu (1696â1788), or because it was brought to France from there by him. But unless there is a gap in the record, the late date of appearance of the word make this seem doubtful.
McCarthyism: 1950, with -ism + name of U.S. Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy (1908-1957), leader of U.S. anti-Communist agitation. The term is said to have been coined by "Washington Post" political cartoonist Herbert Block ("Herblock"). The surname is from Irish Mac Carthaigh "son of Carthach" (Welsh Caradawc), an ancient Celtic name, also known in its Latinized form, Caractacus (last of the British leaders to resist Rome, captured 51 C.E.)
missing (adj.): "not present, absent," 1520s, from present participle of miss (v.). Military sense of "not present after a battle but not known to have been killed or captured" is from 1845. Missing link first attested 1851 in Lyell. Missing person is from 1876.
portobello: type of mushroom, by 1986, no agreed-upon theory accounts for the name, which seems to be a marketing coinage. London's Portobello Road (one suggested source of the mushroom name) originally was the lane to Porto Bello House, named for the Panamanian place captured by the British under Vernon in 1739.
prize (n.2): "something taken by force," mid-13c., prise "a taking, holding," from Old French prise "a taking, seizing, holding," noun use of fem. past participle of prendre "to take, seize," from Latin prendere, contraction of prehendere "lay hold of, grasp, seize, catch" (see prehensile). Especially of ships captured at sea (1510s). The spelling with -z- is from late 16c.
ransom (n.): c. 1200, "sum paid for the release of a prisoner or captured man," from Old French ranson (Modern French rançon), earlier raenson "ransom, redemption," from Latin redemptionem (nominative redemptio) "a redeeming," from redimere (see redeem).
recapture (v.): 1783, from re- "back, again" + capture (v.). Related: Recaptured; recapturing.
snapshot (n.): also snap-shot, 1808, "a quick shot with a gun, without aim, at a fast-moving target," from snap + shot (n.). Photographic sense is attested from 1890. Figuratively, of something captured at a moment in time, from 1897.
spoil (n.): "booty, goods captured in time of war," mid-14c., spoils (collective singular), from spoil (v.) or else from Old French espoille "booty, spoil," from the verb in French, and in part from Latin spolium. Also from the Latin noun are Spanish espolio, Italian spoglio.

Transferred sense of "that which has been acquired by special effort" is from 1750. Spoils has stood cynically for "public offices, etc." aince at least 1770. Spoils system in U.S. politics attested by 1839, commonly associated with the administration of President Andrew Jackson, on the notion of "to the victor belongs the spoils."
Tartar: mid-14c. (implied in Tartary, "the land of the Tartars"), from Medieval Latin Tartarus, from Persian Tatar, first used 13c. in reference to the hordes of Ghengis Khan (1202-1227), said to be ultimately from Tata, a name of the Mongols for themselves. Form in European languages probably influenced by Latin Tartarus "hell" (e.g. letter of St. Louis of France, 1270: "In the present danger of the Tartars either we shall push them back into the Tartarus whence they are come, or they will bring us all into heaven").

The historical word for what now are called in ethnological works Tatars. A Turkic people, their native region was east of the Caspian Sea. Ghengis' horde was a mix of Tatars, Mongols, Turks, etc. Used figuratively for "savage, rough, irascible person" (1660s). To catch a Tartar "get hold of what cannot be controlled" is recorded from 1660s; original sense not preserved, but probably from some military story similar to the old battlefield joke:
Irish soldier (shouting from within the brush): I've captured one of the enemy.
Captain: Excellent! Bring him here.
Soldier: He won't come.
Captain: Well, then, you come here.
Soldier: I would, but he won't let me.
Among the adjectival forms that have been used are Tartarian (16c.), Tartarous (Ben Jonson), Tartarean (17c.); Byron's Tartarly (1821) is a nonce-word (but a good one). Tartar sauce is first recorded 1855, from French sauce tartare.
Zion: late Old English Sion, from Greek Seon, from Hebrew Tsiyon, name of a Canaanite hill fortress in Jerusalem captured by David and called in the Bible "City of David." It became the center of Jewish life and worship.
thylacine: "A doglike carnivorous marsupial with stripes across the rump, found only in Tasmania. There have been no confirmed sightings since one was captured in 1933, and it is probably now extinct", Mid 19th century: from modern Latin Thylacinus (genus name), from Greek thulakos 'pouch'.