quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- acorn
- acorn: [OE] Acorn has no etymological connection with oak; its nearest linguistic relative in English is probably acre. The Old English word was æcern, which may well have derived from æcer ‘open land’ (the related Middle High German ackeran referred to beech mast as well as acorns, and Gothic akran developed more widely still, to mean simply ‘fruit’).
There are cognate words in other, non- Germanic, Indo-European languages, such as Russian yagoda ‘berry’ and Welsh aeron ‘fruits’. Left to develop on its own, æcern would have become modern English achern, but the accidental similarity of oak and corn have combined to reroute its pronunciation.
=> acre - crinoline
- crinoline: [19] The reason crinolines are called crinolines is that they were originally made from a stiff fabric woven from horsehair and linen thread. Italian crino ‘horsehair’ (from Latin crīnus ‘hair’, a possible relative of English crest) and lino ‘flax’ (from Latin līnum, source of English linen) were combined to produce crinolino, which passed into English via French crinoline.
=> crest, linen - filigree
- filigree: [17] Etymologically, filigree describes very accurately how filigree was originally made: it was delicate ornamental work constructed from threads (Latin filum) and beads (Latin grānum ‘grain, seed’). The Italian descendants of these two Latin words were combined to form filigrana, which passed into English via French as filigrane. This gradually metamorphosed through filigreen to filigree.
=> file, grain