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climate [climate 词源字典]: climate: [14] The notion underlying climate is of ‘sloping’ or ‘leaning’. It comes, via Old French climat or late Latin clīma (whence English clime [16]), from Greek klīma ‘sloping surface of the earth’, which came ultimately from the same source (the Indo-European base *kli-) as produced English lean. Greek geographers assigned the earth’s surface to various zones according to the angle which their ‘slope’ made with the rays of the sun (originally there were seven of these, ranging from 17 degrees of latitude North to 48 degrees, but later the system was elaborated so that each hemisphere was divided into 24 bands or ‘climates’ of latitude).

This was the sense in which the word passed into Latin, where it broadened out into simply ‘region’, and hence ‘weather associated with a particular area’.
=> ladder, lean[climate etymology, climate origin, 英语词源]
climax: climax: [16] Etymologically, a climax is a series of steps by which a goal is achieved, but in the late 18th century English, anticipating the culmination, started using it for the goal itself. It comes, via late Latin, from Greek klimax ‘ladder’, which was ultimately from the same source (the Indo-European base *kli-) as produced English lean. This came to be used metaphorically as a rhetorical term for a figure of speech in which a series of statements is arranged in order of increasing forcefulness, and hence for any escalating progression: ‘the top of the climax of their wickedness’, Edmund Burke 1793.

Whence modern English ‘high point’.
=> ladder, lean
climb: climb: [OE] The original notion contained in climb seems not to have been so much ‘ascent’ as ‘holding on’. Old English climban came from a prehistoric West Germanic *klimban, a nasalized variant of the base which produced English cleave ‘adhere’. To begin with this must have meant strictly ‘go up by clinging on with the hands and feet’ – to ‘swarm up’, in fact – but already by the late Old English period we find it being used for ‘rising’ in general. The original past tense clamb, which died out in most areas in the 16th century, is probably related to clamp ‘fastening’ [14].
=> clamp, cleave
acclimate (v.): 1792, from French acclimater, verb formed from à "to" (see ad-) + climat (see climate). Related: Acclimated; acclimating. The extended form acclimatize is now more common.
acclimation (n.): 1826, noun of action from acclimate.
acclimatize (v.): 1836; see acclimate + -ize; a more recent formation than acclimate and replacing it in many uses. Related: Acclimatized; acclimatizing.
anticlimactic (adj.): also anti-climactic, 1831; see anticlimax + -ic.
anticlimax (n.): "the addition of a particular which suddenly lowers the effect," 1701, from anti- + climax (n.).
climacteric: c. 1600 (adj.), 1620s (n.), from Latin climactericus, from Greek klimakterikos "of a critical period," from klimakter "rung of a ladder" (see climax (n.)). A critical stage in human life, a period supposed to be especially liable to change. By some, held to be the years that are multiples of 7 (7, 14, 21, etc.), by others only the odd multiples (7, 21, 35, etc.), and by still others the multiples of 9. The Great Climacteric was the 63rd year (7x9), supposed to be especially critical.
climactic (adj.): "pertaining to a climax," 1832, from climax, apparently on the analogy of syntax/syntactic. Related: Climactical.
climate (n.): late 14c., "horizontal zone of the earth," Scottish, from Old French climat "region, part of the earth," from Latin clima (genitive climatis) "region; slope of the Earth," from Greek klima "region, zone," literally "an inclination, slope," thus "slope of the Earth from equator to pole," from root of klinein "to slope, to lean" (see lean (v.)).

The angle of sun on the slope of the Earth's surface defined the zones assigned by early geographers. Early references in English, however, are in astrology works, as each of the seven (then) climates was held to be under the influence of one of the planets. Shift from "region" to "weather associated with a region" perhaps began in Middle English, certainly by c. 1600.
climate change (n.): 1983, in the modern "global warming" sense.
climatic (adj.): 1828, from climate + -ic. There is a 1650 citation for climatical in OED. Related: Climatically.
climatography (n.): 1813, from comb. form of climate + -graphy. Related: Climatographic.
climatological (adj.): 1827, from climatology + -ical. Related: Climatologically.
climatologist (n.): 1844, from climatology + -ist.
climatology (n.): "scientific study of climates," 1803, from climate + -ology.
climax (n.): 1580s, in the rhetorical sense (a chain of reasoning in graduating steps from weaker to stronger), from Late Latin climax (genitive climacis), from Greek klimax "propositions rising in effectiveness," literally "ladder," from root of klinein "to slope," from PIE root *klei- "to lean" (see lean (v.)).

The rhetorical meaning evolved in English through "series of steps by which a goal is achieved," to "escalating steps," to (1789) "high point of intensity or development," a usage credited by the OED to "popular ignorance." The meaning "sexual orgasm" is recorded by 1880 (also in terms such as climax of orgasm), said to have been promoted from c. 1900 by birth-control pioneer Marie Stopes (1880-1958) and others as a more accessible word than orgasm (n.).
climax (v.): 1835, "to reach the highest point," from climax (n.). Related: Climaxed; climaxing.
climb (v.): Old English climban "raise oneself using hands and feet; rise gradually, ascend; make an ascent of" (past tense clamb, past participle clumben, clumbe), from West Germanic *klimban "go up by clinging" (cognates: Dutch klimmen "to climb," Old High German klimban, German klimmen). A strong verb in Old English, weak by 16c. Most other Germanic languages long ago dropped the -b. Meaning "to mount as if by climbing" is from mid-14c. Figurative sense of "rise slowly by effort" is from mid-13c. Related: Climbed; climbing.
climb (n.): 1580s, "act of climbing," from climb (v.). Meaning "an ascent by climbing" is from 1915, originally in aviation.
climbable (adj.): 1610s, from climb (v.) + -able.
climber (n.): early 15c., "one who climbs," agent noun from climb (v.). Of plants, from 1630s.
clime (n.): 1540s, shortening of climate (or a nativization of Latin clima). It might usefully take up the old, abandoned "horizontal region of the earth" sense of climate, but it is used chiefly by the poets and with no evident agreement on just what they mean by it.
microclimate (n.): 1918, from micro- + climate. Related: Microclimatology.
paleoclimatology (n.): also paleo-climatology, 1920, from paleo- + climatology. Related: Paleoclimatologist.
macroclimate: "The general climate of a relatively large area", 1930s. From macro- + climate. Compare earlier microclimate.