quword 趣词
            Word Origins Dictionary
         
        
        
     
    - flux    
- flux: [14] Flux denotes generally ‘flowing’, and comes from Latin fluxus, a derivative of the past participle of fluere ‘flow’. This verb, similar in form and meaning to English flow but in fact unrelated to it, is responsible for a very wide range of English words: its past participle has given us fluctuate [17], its present participle fluent [16] and a spectrum of derived forms, such as affluent, effluent [18], and influence, and other descendants include fluid [15] (literally ‘flowing’, from Latin fluidus), mellifluous (literally ‘flowing with honey’), superfluous [15], and fluvial [14] (from Latin fluvius ‘river’, a derivative of fluere).
 
 Latin fluxus also produced the card-playing term flush [16].
 => affluent, effluent, fluctuate, fluent, fluid, influence, mellifluous, superfluous
- ace (n.)    
- c. 1300, "one at dice," from Old French as "one at dice," from Latin as "a unit, one, a whole, unity;" also the name of a small Roman coin ("originally one pound of copper; reduced by depreciation to half an ounce" [Lewis]), perhaps originally Etruscan and related to Greek eis "one" (from PIE *sem- "one, as one"), or directly from the Greek word.
 
 
 In English, it meant the side of the die with only one mark before it meant the playing card with one pip (1530s). Because this was the lowest roll at dice, ace was used metaphorically in Middle English for "bad luck" or "something of no value;" but as the ace is often the highest playing card, the extended senses based on "excellence, good quality" arose 18c. as card-playing became popular. Ace in the hole in the figurative sense of "concealed advantage" is attested from 1904, from crooked stud poker deals.
 
 Meaning "outstanding pilot" dates from 1917 (technically, in World War I aviators' jargon, one who has brought down 10 enemy planes, though originally in reference to 5 shot down), from French l'ace (1915), which, according to Bruce Robertson (ed.) "Air Aces of the 1914-1918 War" was used in prewar French sporting publications for "top of the deck" boxers, cyclists, etc. Sports meaning of "point scored" (1819) led to that of "unreturnable serve" (1889).
- chip (v.)    
- early 15c., "to chip" (intransitive, of stone); from Old English forcippian "to pare away by cutting, cut off," verbal form of cipp "small piece of wood" (see chip (n.)). Transitive meaning "to cut up, cut or trim" is from late 15c. Sense of "break off fragments" is 18c. To chip in "contribute" (1861) is American English, perhaps from card-playing. Related: Chipped; chipping. Chipped beef attested from 1826.
- discard (v.)    
- 1590s, literally "to throw a card away," from dis- "away" + card (n.). Figurative use (in a non-gaming sense) is first recorded 1580s. In the card-playing sense, decard is attested by 1550s. Related: Discarded; discarding. As a noun, from 1742.
- force (v.)    
- c. 1300, forcen, also forsen, "exert force upon (an adversary)," from Old French forcer "conquer by violence," from force "strength, power, compulsion" (see force (n.)). From early 14c. as "to violate (a woman), to rape." From c. 1400 as "compel by force, constrain (someone to do something)." Meaning "bring about by unusual effort" is from 1550s. Card-playing sense is from 1746 (whist). Related: Forced; forcing.
- four (n., adj.)    
- Old English feower "four; four times," from Proto-Germanic *fedwor- (cognates: Old Saxon fiuwar, Old Frisian fiower, fiuwer, Frankish *fitter-, Dutch vier, Old High German fior, German vier, Old Norse fjorir, Danish fire, Swedish fyra, Gothic fidwor "four"), from PIE *kwetwer- "four" (cognates: Sanskrit catvarah, Avestan čathwaro, Persian čatvar, Greek tessares, Latin quattuor, Oscan petora, Old Church Slavonic četyre, Lithuanian keturi, Old Irish cethir, Welsh pedwar). The phonetic evolution of the Germanic forms has not been fully explained; Watkins explains the -f- as being from the following number (Modern English five).
 
 
 To be on all fours is from 1719; earlier on all four (14c.). Four-letter word as a euphemism for one of the short words generally regarded as offensive or objectionable is attested from 1923; four-letter man is recorded from 1920 (apparently as a euphemism for a shit). Compare Latin homo trium litterarum, literally "three-letter man," a euphemism for fur "a thief." A four-in-hand (1793) was a carriage drawn by four horses driven by one person; in the sense of "loosely tied necktie" it is attested from 1892. To study The History of the Four Kings (1760, compare French Livres des Quatre Rois) contains an old euphemistic slang phrase for "a pack of cards," from the time when card-playing was considered a wicked pastime for students. Slang 4-1-1 "essential information" (by 1993) is from the telephone number called to get customer information. The four-color problem so called from 1879. The four-minute mile was attained 1954.
- Hoyle    
- cited as a typical authority on card or board games, in reference to Edmond Hoyle (1672-1769), author of several works on card-playing. The surname, according to Bardsley, represents a Northern English dialectal pronunciation of hole. "In Yorks and Lancashire hole is still dialectically hoyle. Any one who lived in a round hollow or pit would be Thomas or Ralph in the Hoyle." ["Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames," London, 1901]
- jackpot (n.)    
- also jack-pot, "big prize," 1944, from slot machine sense (1932), from obsolete poker sense (1881) of antes that begin when no player has a pair of jacks or better; from jack (n.) in the card-playing sense + pot (n.1). Earlier, in criminal slang, it meant "trouble," especially "an arrest" (1902).
 
 The regular Draw-Poker game is usually varied by occasional Jack-Pots, which are played once in so many deals, or when all have refused to play, or when the player deals who holds the buck, a marker placed in the pool with every jack-pot. In a jack-pot each player puts up an equal stake and receives a hand. The pot must then be opened by a player holding a hand of the value of a pair of knaves (jacks) or better. If no player holds so valuable a hand the deal passes and each player adds a small sum to the pot or pool. When the pot is opened the opener does so by putting up any sum he chooses, within the limit, and his companions must pay in the same amount or "drop." They also possess the right to raise the opener. The new cards called for are then dealt and the opener starts the betting, the play proceeding as in the regular game. ["Encyclopaedia Britannica," 11th ed., 1911, "Poker." The article notes "Jack-Pots were introduced about 1870."]
  
- kaput (adj.)    
- "finished, worn out, dead," 1895, from German kaputt "destroyed, ruined, lost" (1640s), which in this sense probably is a misunderstanding of the phrase capot machen, a partial translation of French faire capot, a phrase which meant "to win all the tricks (from the other player) in piquet," an obsolete card game. Literally "to make a bonnet;" perhaps the notion is throwing a hood over the other player, but faire capot also meant in French marine jargon "to overset in a squall when under sail." The word was popularized in English during World War I.
 
 "Kaput" -- a slang word in common use which corresponds roughly to the English "done in," the French "fichu." Everything enemy was "kaput" in the early days of German victories. [F. Britten Austin, "According to Orders," New York, 1919]
  French capot is literally "cover, bonnet," also the name of a type of greatcloak worn by sailors and soldiers (see capote). The card-playing sense attested in German only from 1690s, but capot in the (presumably) transferred sense of "destroyed, ruined, lost" is attested from 1640s. [see William Jervis Jones, "A Lexicon of French Borrowings in the German Vocabulary (1575-1648)," Berlin, de Gruyter, 1976]. In Hoyle and other English gaming sources, faire capot is "to win all the tricks," and a different phrase, être capot, "to be a bonnet," is sometimes cited as the term for losing them. The sense reversal in German might have come about because if someone wins all the tricks the other player has to lose them, and the same word capot, when it entered English from French in the mid-17c. meant "to score a cabot against; to win all the tricks from."
 "There are others, says a third, that have played with my Lady Lurewell at picquet besides my lord; I have capotted her myself two or three times in an evening." [George Farquhar (1677-1707), "Sir Harry Wildair"]
  
- lead (n.2)    
- c. 1300, "action of leading," from lead (v.1). Meaning "the front or leading place" is from 1560s. Johnson stigmatized it as "a low, despicable word." Sense in card-playing is from 1742; in theater, from 1831; in journalism, from 1912; in jazz bands, from 1934.
- meld (v.)    
- "to blend together, merge, unite" (intransitive), by 1910, of uncertain origin. OED suggests "perh. a blend of MELT v.1 and WELD v." Said elsewhere to be a verb use of melled "mingled, blended," past participle of dialectal mell "to mingle, mix, combine, blend."
 
 [T]he biplane grew smaller and smaller, the stacatto clatter of the motor became once more a drone which imperceptibly became melded with the waning murmur of country sounds .... ["Aircraft" magazine, October 1910] 
  But it is perhaps an image from card-playing, where the verb meld is attested by 1907 in a sense of "combine two cards for a score:"
 Upon winning a trick, and before drawing from the stock, the player can "meld" certain combinations of cards. [rules for two-hand pinochle in "Hoyle's Games," 1907]
  The rise of the general sense of the word in English coincides with the craze for canasta, in which melding figures. The card-playing sense is said to be "apparently" from German melden "make known, announce," from Old High German meldon, from Proto-Germanic *meldojan (source of Old English meldian "to declare, tell, display, proclaim"), and the notion is of "declaring" the combination of cards. Related: Melded; melding.
- moon (n.)    
- Old English mona, from Proto-Germanic *menon- (cognates: Old Saxon and Old High German mano, Old Frisian mona, Old Norse mani, Danish maane, Dutch maan, German Mond, Gothic mena "moon"), from PIE *me(n)ses- "moon, month" (cognates: Sanskrit masah "moon, month;" Avestan ma, Persian mah, Armenian mis "month;" Greek mene "moon," men "month;" Latin mensis "month;" Old Church Slavonic meseci, Lithuanian menesis "moon, month;" Old Irish mi, Welsh mis, Breton miz "month"), probably from root *me- "to measure," in reference to the moon's phases as the measure of time.
 
 
 A masculine noun in Old English. In Greek, Italic, Celtic, Armenian the cognate words now mean only "month." Greek selene (Lesbian selanna) is from selas "light, brightness (of heavenly bodies)." Old Norse also had tungl "moon," ("replacing mani in prose" - Buck), evidently an older Germanic word for "heavenly body," cognate with Gothic tuggl, Old English tungol "heavenly body, constellation," of unknown origin or connection. Hence Old Norse tunglfylling "lunation," tunglœrr "lunatic" (adj.).
 
 Extended 1665 to satellites of other planets. To shoot the moon "leave without paying rent" is British slang from c. 1823; card-playing sense perhaps influenced by gambler's shoot the works (1922) "go for broke" in shooting dice. The moon race and the U.S. space program of the 1960s inspired a number of coinages, including, from those skeptical of the benefits to be gained, moondoggle (based on boondoggle). The man in the moon is mentioned since early 14c.; he carries a bundle of thorn-twigs and is accompanied by a dog. Some Japanese, however, see a rice-cake-making rabbit in the moon.
- raise (v.)    
- c. 1200, "cause a rising of; lift upright, set upright; build, construct," from a Scandinavian source, such as Old Norse reisa "to raise," from Proto-Germanic *raizjan (cognates: Gothic ur-raisjan, Old English ræran "to rear;" see rear (v.)), causative of root *ris- "to rise" (see rise (v.)). At first sharing many senses with native rear (v.).
 
 
 Meaning "make higher" is from c. 1300 in the physical sense, as is that of "restore to life." Of the voice, from late 14c. Meaning "increase the amount of" is from c. 1500; from 1530s of prices, etc. Meaning "to bring up" (a question, etc.) is from 1640s. Card-playing sense is from 1821. Meaning "promote the growth of" (plants, etc.) is from 1660s; sense of "foster, rear, bring up" (of children) is from 1744. Meaning "to elevate" (the consciousness) is from 1970. Related: Raised; raising.
 
 Pickering (1816) has a long passage on the use of raise and grow in reference to crops. He writes that in the U.S. raise is used of persons, in the sense "brought up," but it is "never thus used in the Northern States. Bartlett [1848] adds that it "is applied in the Southern States to the breeding of negroes. It is sometimes heard at the North among the illiterate; as 'I was raised in Connecticut,' meaning brought up there."
- ruff (n.)    
- kind of large collar, stiffly starched, especially common in the seventeenth century, 1520s, originally in reference to sleeves (of collars, from 1550s), probably a shortened form of ruffle.
 
 
 Card-playing sense is a separate word, from a former game of that name (1580s), from Middle French roffle, earlier romfle (early 15c.), from Italian ronfa, perhaps a corruption of trionfo "triumph" (from French; compare trump). The game was in vogue c. 1590-1630.
- show (v.)    
- Old English sceawian "to look at, see, gaze, behold, observe; inspect, examine; look for, choose," from Proto-Germanic *skauwojan (cognates: Old Saxon skauwon "to look at," Old Frisian skawia, Dutch schouwen, Old High German scouwon "to look at;" Dutch schoon, Gothic skaunjai "beautiful," originally "conspicuous"), from Proto-Germanic root *skau- "behold, look at," from PIE *skou-, variant of root *skeue- "to pay attention, perceive" (see caveat).
 
 
 Causal meaning "let be seen; put in sight, make known" evolved c. 1200 for unknown reasons and is unique to English (German schauen still means "look at"). Spelling shew, popular 18c. and surviving into early 19c., represents obsolete pronunciation (rhymes with view). Horse racing sense is from 1903, perhaps from an earlier sense in card-playing.
- showdown (n.)    
- also show-down, 1873 in card-playing (especially poker) a slang term for the act of laying down the hands face-up, from show (v.) + down (adv.). Figurative sense of "final confrontation" is from 1904.
- strong (adj.)    
- Old English strang "physically powerful, powerful in effect; forceful, severe, firm, bold, brave; constant, resolute; arduous, violent," from Proto-Germanic *strangaz (cognates: Old Norse strangr "strong," Dutch streng "strict, rigorous," Old High German strang "strong, bold, hard," German streng "strict, rigorous"), possibly from PIE *strenk- "tight, narrow." Originally compared strenger, strengest (compare old/elder/eldest).
 
 
 Grammatical sense, of noun and verb inflections, is first attested 1841, translating German stark, used in a grammatical sense by J. Grimm (the terms strong and weak better fit German inflections). Strong suit (1865) is from card-playing. Strong man "man of great strength" (especially one who displays it professionally) is recorded from 1690s; meaning "dominating man in a political organization" is from 1859.
- suit (n.)    
- c. 1300, sute, also suete, suite, seute, "a band of followers; a retinue, company;" also "set of matching garments" worn by such persons, "matching livery or uniform;" hence " kind, sort; the same kind, a match;" also "pursuit, chase," and in law, "obligation (of a tenant) to attend court; attendance at court," from Anglo-French suit, siwete, from Old French suite, sieute "pursuit, act of following, hunt; retinue; assembly" (12c., Modern French suite), from Vulgar Latin *sequita, fem. of *sequitus, from Latin secutus, past participle of sequi "to attend, follow" (see sequel).
 
 
 Legal sense of "lawsuit; legal action" is from mid-14c. Meaning "the wooing of a woman" is from late 15c. Meaning "set of clothes to be worn together" is attested from late 14c., also "matching material or fabric," from notion of the livery or uniform of court attendants. As a derisive term for "businessman," it dates from 1979. Meaning "matched set of objects, number of objects of the same kind or pattern used together" is from late 14c., as is that of "row, series, sequence." Meaning "set of playing cards bearing the same symbol" is first attested 1520s, also ultimately from the notion of livery. To follow suit (1670s) is from card-playing: "play a card of the same suit first played," hence, figuratively, "continue the conduct of a predecessor."
- vie (v.)    
- 1560s, "to bet, make a bet," (literally "make a vie, the noun attested from 1530s in cards), especially in card-playing, "to wager the value of one's hand against an opponent's," shortened form of Middle English envie "make a challenge," from Old French envier "compete (against), provoke; invite, summon, subpoena;" in gambling, "put down a stake, up the bet;" from Latin invitare "to invite," also "to summon, challenge" (see invitation). Sense of "to contend (with) in rivalry" in English is from 1560s; that of "to contend, compete, strive for superiority" is from c. 1600.