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amphibious [amphibious 词源字典]: amphibious: [17] The Greek prefix amphimeant ‘both, on both sides’ (hence an amphitheatre [14]: Greek and Roman theatres were semicircular, so two joined together, completely surrounding the arena, formed an amphitheatre). Combination with bios ‘life’ (as in biology) produced the Greek adjective amphibios, literally ‘leading a double life’. From the beginning of its career as an English word it was used in a very wide, general sense of ‘combining two completely distinct or opposite conditions or qualities’ (Joseph Addison, for example, used it as an 18th-century equivalent of modern unisex), but that meaning has now almost entirely given way to the word’s zoological application.

At first, amphibious meant broadly ‘living on both land and water’, and so was applied by some scientists to, for example, seals; but around 1819 the zoologist William Macleay proposed the more precise application, since generally accepted, to frogs, newts, and other members of the class Amphibia whose larvae have gills but whose adults breathe with lungs.
=> biology[amphibious etymology, amphibious origin, 英语词源]
actuality (n.): late 14c., "power, efficacy," from Old French actualite and directly from Medieval Latin actualitatem (nominative actualitas), from Late Latin actualis (see actual). A Latin loan-translation of Greek energeia. Meaning "state of being real" is from 1670s (actualities "existing conditions" is from 1660s).
Mod. use of actuality in the sense of realism, contact with the contemporary, is due to Fr. actualité, from actuel, which does not mean actual, real, but now existing, up to date. [Weekley]
adaptation (n.): c. 1600, "action of adapting," from French adaptation, from Late Latin adaptationem (nominative adaptatio), noun of action from past participle stem of adaptare (see adapt). Meaning "condition of being adapted" is from 1670s. Sense of "modification of a thing to suit new conditions" is from 1790. Biological sense first recorded 1859 in Darwin's writings.
aesthetic (n.): 1798, from German Ästhetisch or French esthétique, both from Greek aisthetikos "sensitive, perceptive," from aisthanesthai "to perceive (by the senses or by the mind), to feel," from PIE *awis-dh-yo-, from root *au- "to perceive" (see audience).

Popularized in English by translation of Immanuel Kant, and used originally in the classically correct sense "the science which treats of the conditions of sensuous perception." Kant had tried to correct the term after Alexander Baumgarten had taken it in German to mean "criticism of taste" (1750s), but Baumgarten's sense attained popularity in English c. 1830s (despite scholarly resistance) and removed the word from any philosophical base. Walter Pater used it (1868) to describe the late 19c. movement that advocated "art for art's sake," which further blurred the sense. As an adjective by 1803. Related: Aesthetically.
armless (adj.): late 14c., of physical conditions, from arm (n.1) + -less. Meaning "without weapons" is attested from 1610s (from arm (n.2)), but that sense is more typically expressed by unarmed.
barrelhouse (n.): "cheap saloon, often with an associated brothel," by 1875, American English, so called in reference to the barrels of beer or booze typically stacked along the wall. See barrel (n.) + house (n.).
Q. What was this place you rented? -- A. It was a room adjoining a barrel-house.
Q. What is a barrel house? -- A. It is a room where barrels of whisky are tapped, a very inferior kind of whisky, and the whisky is sold by the glassful right out of the barrel. It is a primitive coffee house. [Committee Report of the 43rd Congress, Select Committee on Conditions of the South, 1874-75]
blue moon (n.): 1821 as a specific term in the sense "very rarely," perhaps suggesting something that, in fact, never happens (compare at the Greek calends, and the native in the reign of Queen Dick and Saint Geoffrey's Day "Never, there being no saint of that name," reported in Grose (1788)); suggested earliest in this couplet from 1528:
Yf they say the mone is blewe,
We must beleve that it is true.
Though this might refer to calendrical calculations by the Church. Thus the general "rareness" sense of the term is difficult to disentangle from the specific calendrical one (commonly misinterpreted as "second full moon in a calendar month," but actually a quarterly calculation). In either case, the sense of blue here is obscure. Literal blue moons do sometimes occur under extreme atmospheric conditions.
butterfly (n.): Old English buttorfleoge, evidently butter (n.) + fly (n.), but of obscure signification. Perhaps based on the old notion that the insects (or witches disguised as butterflies) consume butter or milk that is left uncovered. Or, less creatively, simply because the pale yellow color of many species' wings suggests the color of butter. Another theory connects it to the color of the insect's excrement, based on Dutch cognate boterschijte. An overview of words for "butterfly" in various languages can be found here. Also see papillon.

Applied to persons from c. 1600, originally in reference to vain and gaudy attire; by 1806 in reference to transformation from early lowly state; in reference to flitting tendencies by 1873. The swimming stroke so called from 1936. Butterflies "light stomach spasms caused by anxiety" is from 1908.
The butterfly effect is a deceptively simple insight extracted from a complex modern field. As a low-profile assistant professor in MIT's department of meteorology in 1961, [Edward] Lorenz created an early computer program to simulate weather. One day he changed one of a dozen numbers representing atmospheric conditions, from .506127 to .506. That tiny alteration utterly transformed his long-term forecast, a point Lorenz amplified in his 1972 paper, "Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?" [Peter Dizikes, "The Meaning of the Butterfly," The Boston Globe, June 8, 2008]
calm (adj.): late 14c., from Old French calme "tranquility, quiet," traditionally from Old Italian calma, from Late Latin cauma "heat of the mid-day sun" (in Italy, a time when everything rests and is still), from Greek kauma "heat" (especially of the sun), from kaiein "to burn" (see caustic). Spelling influenced by Latin calere "to be hot." Figurative application to social or mental conditions is 16c.
capitulate (v.): 1570s, "to draw up in chapters" (i.e., under "heads"), in part a back-formation from capitulation, in part from Medieval Latin capitulatus, past participle of capitulare "to draw up in heads or chapters, arrange conditions." Often of terms of surrender, hence meaning "to yield on stipulated terms" (1680s). Related: Capitulated; capitulating.
capitulation (n.): 1530s, "an agreement," from Middle French capitulation, noun of action from capituler "agree on specified terms," from Medieval Latin capitulare "to draw up in heads or chapters, arrange conditions," from capitulum "chapter," in classical Latin "heading," literally "a little head," diminutive of caput (genitive capitis) "head" (see capitulum). Meaning narrowed by mid-17c. to "make terms of surrender."
circumstance (n.): early 13c., "conditions surrounding and accompanying an event," from Old French circonstance "circumstance, situation," also literally, "outskirts" (13c., Modern French circonstance), from Latin circumstantia "surrounding condition," neuter plural of circumstans (genitive circumstantis), present participle of circumstare "stand around, surround, encompass, occupy, take possession of" from circum "around" (see circum-) + stare "to stand" from PIE root *sta- "to stand" (see stet). The Latin word is a loan-translation of Greek peristasis.

Meaning "a person's surroundings, environment" is from mid-14c. Meaning "a detail" is from c. 1300; sense of "that which is non-essential" is from 1590s. Obsolete sense of "formality about an important event" (late 14c.) lingers in Shakespeare's phrase pomp and circumstance ("Othello" III, iii).
condition (v.): late 15c., "to make conditions," from condition (n.). Meaning "to bring to a desired condition" is from 1844. Related: Conditioned; conditioning.
conservation (n.): late 14c., conservacioun, "preservation of one's health and soundness," from Latin conservationem (nominative conservatio) "a keeping, preserving, conserving," noun of action from past participle stem of conservare (see conserve). Meaning "preservation of existing conditions" in any sense is from mid-15c. Since late 15c., in reference to English municipal authorities who had charge of rivers, sewers, forests, fisheries, etc. Specifically of the environment from 1922.
constant (adj.): late 14c., "steadfast, resolute," from Old French constant (14c.) or directly from Latin constantem (nominative constans) "standing firm, stable, steadfast, faithful," present participle of constare, from com- "together" (see com-) + stare "to stand," from PIE root *sta- "to stand" (see stet). Of actions and conditions from 1650s. Related: Constantly.
convenience (n.): late 14c., "agreement, conformity," from Latin convenientia "meeting together, agreement, harmony," from conveniens, present participle of convenire (see convene). Meaning "suitable, adapted to existing conditions" is from c. 1600; that of "personally not difficult" is from 1703.
cotton-picking (adj.): as a deprecatory term first recorded in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, but a similar noun meaning "contemptible person" dates to around 1919, perhaps with racist overtones that have faded over the years. Before mechanization, cotton picking was the most difficult labor on a cotton plantation.
I drove out to a number of the farms near Denison and found many very young white children working all day in the hot sun picking and dragging sacks of cotton. In one field the labor corps consisted of one woman and six children, one of them 5 years, one 6 years, one 7 years, one 9 years, and two about 11. The father was plowing. The 5 and 6 year olds worked all day as did the rest. The 7-year-old said he picked 50 pounds a day and the 9 year old 75 pounds. (A good picker averages several hundred a day.) School begins late on account of the cotton picking, but the children nearly all prefer school to the picking. Picking hours are long, hot, and deadly monotonous. While the very young children seem to enjoy it, very soon their distaste for it grows into all-absorbing hatred for all work. ["Field Notes of Lewis W. Hine, Child-Labor Conditions in Texas," report to U.S. Congressional Commission on Industrial Relations, 1916]
cultured (adj.): 1743 in the literal sense of "cultivated," of land, etc., past participle adjective from culture; meaning "developed under controlled natural conditions" is from 1906, originally of pearls. Meaning "improved by exposure to intellectual culture" is from 1777.
diversity (n.): mid-14c., "quality of being diverse," mostly in a neutral sense, from Old French diversité (12c.) "difference, diversity, unique feature, oddness:" also "wickedness, perversity," from Latin diversitatem (nominative diversitas) "contrariety, contradiction, disagreement;" also, as a secondary sense, "difference, diversity," from diversus "turned different ways" (in Late Latin "various"), past participle of divertere (see divert).

Negative meaning, "being contrary to what is agreeable or right; perversity, evil" existed in English from late 15c. but was obsolete from 17c. Diversity as a virtue in a nation is an idea from the rise of modern democracies in the 1790s, where it kept one faction from arrogating all power (but this was not quite the modern sense, as ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, etc. were not the qualities in mind):
The dissimilarity in the ingredients which will compose the national government, and still more in the manner in which they will be brought into action in its various branches, must form a powerful obstacle to a concert of views in any partial scheme of elections. There is sufficient diversity in the state of property, in the genius, manners, and habits of the people of the different parts of the Union, to occasion a material diversity of disposition in their representatives towards the different ranks and conditions in society. ["Federalist" #60, Feb. 26, 1788 (Hamilton)]
Specific focus (in a positive sense) on race, gender, etc. is from 1992.
easy (adj.): c. 1200, "at ease, having ease, free from bodily discomfort and anxiety," from Old French aisie "comfortable, at ease, rich, well-off" (Modern French aisé), past participle of aisier "to put at ease," from aise (see ease (n.)). Sense of "not difficult, requiring no great labor or effort" is from late 13c.; of conditions, "offering comfort, pleasant," early 14c. Of persons, "lenient, kind, calm, gentle," late 14c. Meaning "readily yielding, not difficult of persuasion" is from 1610s. The concept of "not difficult" was expressed in Old English and early Middle English by eaþe (adv.), ieþe (adj.), apparently common West Germanic (compare German öde "empty, desolate," but of disputed origin.

Easy Street is from 1890. Easy money attested by 1889; to take it easy "relax" is from 1804 (be easy in same sense recorded from 1746); easy does it recorded by 1835. Easy rider (1912) was U.S. black slang for "sexually satisfying lover." The easy listening radio format is from 1961, defined by William Safire (in 1986) as, "the music of the 60's played in the 80's with the style of the 40's." Related: Easier; easiest.
ecosphere (n.): region around a star where conditions allow life-bearing planets to exist, 1953; see eco- + sphere. Apparently coined by German-born U.S. physician and space medicine pioneer Hubertus Strughold (1898-1986).
environment (n.): c. 1600, "state of being environed" (see environ + -ment); sense of "the aggregate of the conditions in which a person or thing lives" first recorded 1827 (used by Carlyle to render German Umgebung); specialized ecology sense first recorded 1956.
eternal (adj.): late 14c., from Old French eternel "eternal," or directly from Late Latin aeternalis, from Latin aeternus "of an age, lasting, enduring, permanent, everlasting, endless," contraction of aeviternus "of great age," from aevum "age" (see eon). Used since Middle English both of things or conditions without beginning or end and things with a beginning only but no end. A parallel form, Middle English eterne, is from Old French eterne (cognate with Spanish eterno), directly from Latin aeternus. Related: Eternally. The Eternal (n.) for "God" is attested from 1580s.
eugenics (n.): "doctrine of progress in evolution of the human race, race-culture," 1883, coined (along with adjective eugenic) by English scientist Francis Galton (1822-1911) on analogy of ethics, physics, etc. from Greek eugenes "well-born, of good stock, of noble race," from eu- "good" (see eu-) + genos "birth" (see genus).
The investigation of human eugenics, that is, of the conditions under which men of a high type are produced. [Galton, "Human Faculty," 1883]
fatalism (n.): 1670s as a philosophical doctrine that all things are determined by fate, from fatal + -ism. Meaning "disposition to accept all conditions and events as inevitable" is from 1734.
flapper (n.): 1560s, "one who or that which flaps," agent noun from flap (v.). Sense of "forward young woman" is 1921 slang, but the exact connection is disputed. Perhaps from flapper "young wild-duck or partridge" (1747), with reference to flapping wings while learning to fly, many late 19c. examples of which are listed in Wright's "English Dialect Dictionary" (1900), including one that defines it as "A young partridge unable to fly. Applied in joke to a girl of the bread-and-butter age."

Other suggested sources include a late 19c. northern English dialectal use of the word for "teen-age girl" (on notion of one with the hair not yet put up), or an earlier meaning "prostitute" (1889), which is perhaps from dialectal flap "young woman of loose character" (1610s). Any or all of these might have converged in the 1920s sense. Wright also has flappy, of persons, "wild, unsteady, flighty," with the note that it also was "Applied to a person's character, as 'a flappy lass,'" and further on he lists flappy sket (n.) "an immoral woman." In Britain the word took on political tones in reference to the debate over voting rights.
"Flapper" is the popular press catch-word for an adult woman worker, aged twenty-one to thirty, when it is a question of giving her the vote under the same conditions as men of the same age. ["Punch," Nov. 30, 1927]
freely (adv.): Middle English frely, from Old English freolice "of one's own accord, readily;" see free (adj.) + -ly (2). Meaning "unstintedly; plentifully" is from c. 1300; that of "without constraint, under free conditions" is from 1590s. Similar formation in Middle Low German vrilike, Dutch vrijelijk "freely," German freilich "to be sure."
freeze (n.): "freezing conditions," c. 1400, from freeze (v.).
galvanized (adj.): 1820, "subject to galvanism," past participle adjective from galvanize. As "coated with a metal by galvanism" from 1839, originally in galvanized iron.
Iron covered with zinc has been called galvanised iron, from the fact that we have two metals in different electrical conditions; the zinc, suffering chemical change, oxidising, and acting as a protecting agent to the iron. ["Hunt's Hand-Book to the Official Catalogues," 1851]
generate (v.): c. 1500, "to beget" (offspring), a back-formation from generation or else from Latin generatus, past participle of generare "to beget, produce," from genus "race, kind" (see genus). In reference to natural forces, conditions, substances, etc., from 1560s. Related: Generated; generating.
I.Q.: 1922, abbreviation of intelligence quotient, a 1921 translation of German Intelligenz-quotient, coined 1912 by German psychologist William L. Stern (1871-1938).
Intelligence is a general capacity of an individual consciously to adjust his thinking to new requirements: it is general mental adaptability to new problems and conditions of life. [Stern, "The Psychological Methods of Testing Intelligence," 1914]
meteoric (adj.): 1812, "pertaining to meteors;" earlier "dependent on atmospheric conditions" (1789), from meteor + -ic. Figurative sense of "transiently brilliant" is from 1836.
miserable (adj.): early 15c., "full of misery, causing wretchedness" (of conditions), from Old French miserable "prone to pity, merciful," and directly from Latin miserabilis "pitiable, miserable, deplorable, lamentable," from miserari "to pity, lament, deplore," from miser "wretched" (see miser). Of persons, "existing in a state of misery" it is attested from 1520s.
moderate (adj.): late 14c., originally of weather and other physical conditions, from Latin moderatus "within bounds, observing moderation;" figuratively "modest, restrained," past participle of moderari "to regulate, mitigate, restrain, temper, set a measure, keep (something) within measure," related to modus "measure," from PIE *med-es-, from base *med- (see medical (adj.)). The notion is "keeping within due measure." In English, of persons from early 15c.; of opinions from 1640s; of prices from 1904. Related: Moderateness.
mucus (n.): 1660s (replacing Middle English mucilage), from Latin mucus "slime, mold, mucus of the nose, snot," from PIE root *meug- "slippery, slimy," with derivatives referring to wet or slimy substances or conditions (cognates: Latin emungere "to sneeze out, blow one's nose," mucere "be moldy or musty," Greek myssesthai "to blow the nose," myxa "mucus," mykes "fungus," Sanskrit muncati "he releases"). Old English had horh, which may be imitative.
mudder (n.): "horse that runs well in muddy conditions," 1903, from mud (n.).
normally (adv.): 1590s, "regularly," from normal + -ly (2). Meaning "under ordinary conditions" is from 1853.
optimum (n.): 1879, from Latin optimum, neuter singular of optimus "best" (used as a superlative of bonus "good"), probably related to ops "power, resources" (in which case the evolution is from "richest" to "the most esteemed," thus from PIE root *op- "to work") or to ob "in front of," with superlative suffix *-tumos. Originally in biology, in reference to "conditions most favorable" (for growth, etc.). As an adjective from 1885.
pathology (n.): "science of diseases," 1610s, from French pathologie (16c.), from medical Latin pathologia "study of disease," from Greek pathos "suffering" (see pathos) + -logia "study" (see -logy). In reference to the study of abnormal mental conditions from 1842. Ancient Greek pathologia was "study of the passions;" the Greek word for "science of diseases" was pathologike ("pathologics").
personality (n.): late 14c., "quality or fact of being a person," from Medieval Latin personalitatem (nominative personalitas), from Late Latin personalis (see personal). Sense of "a distinctive character" is first recorded 1795, from French personnalité.
Personality is the supreme realization of the innate idiosyncrasy of a living being. It is an act of courage flung in the face of life, the absolute affirmation of all that constitutes the individual, the most successful adaptation to the universal conditions of existence, coupled with the greatest possible freedom of self-determination. [C.G. Jung, "The Development of Personality," 1932]
Meaning "person whose character stands out from that of others" is from 1889. Personality cult is attested from 1956.
Quaker (n.): 1651, said to have been applied to them in 1650 by Justice Bennett at Derby, from George Fox's admonition to his followers to "tremble at the Word of the Lord;" but the word was used earlier of foreign sects given to fits of shaking during religious fervor, and that is likely the source here. Either way, it never was an official name of the Religious Society of Friends. The word in a literal sense is attested from early 15c., an agent noun from quake (v.).
There is not a word in the Scripture, to put David's condition into rime and meeter: sometimes he quaked and trembled, and lay roaring all the day long, that he watered his bed with his tears: and how can you sing these conditions (but dishonour the Lord) and say all your bones quake, your flesh trembled, and that you water your bed with your tears? when you live in pride and haughtiness, and pleasure, and wantonness;" etc. ["A Brief Discovery of a threefold estate of Antichrist Now Extant in the world, etc.," an early Quaker work, London, 1653]
Quaker gun (1809, American English) was a log painted black and propped up to look from a distance like a cannon, so called for the sect's noted pacifism. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has been known as the Quaker City since at least 1824. Related: Quakerish; Quakeress ("a female Quaker"); Quakerism.
rat-tail (n.): also rat's-tail, used since 16c. of conditions or devices held to resemble a rat's long, hairless tail in some sense, including "lank lock of hair" (1810); "end of a rope" (1867); from rat (n.) + tail (n.1).
rationing (n.): "restriction to limited allotments," 1865, verbal noun from ration (v.). Specifically of restrictions during wartime from 1917, from conditions in England during World War I.
Rip Van Winkle: "person out of touch with current conditions," 1829, from name of character in Washington Irving's "Sketch Book" (1819-20).
separate (adj.): "detached, kept apart," c. 1600, from separate (v.) or from Latin separatus. Separate but equal in reference to U.S. segregation policies on railroads is attested from 1888. Separate development, official name of apartheid in South Africa, is from 1955. Related: Separately (1550s); separateness.
Frequently the colored coach is little better than a cattle car. Generally one half the smoking car is reserved for the colored car. Often only a cloth curtain or partition run half way up separates this so-called colored car from the smoke, obscene language, and foul air of the smokers' half of the car. All classes and conditions of colored humanity, from the most cultured and refined to the most degraded and filthy, without regard to sex, good breeding or ability to pay for better accommodation, are crowded into this separate, but equal (?) half car. [Rev. Norman B. Wood, "The White Side of a Black Subject," 1897]
simulate (v.): 1620s, "feign, pretend, assume falsely" (implied in simulated), back-formation from simulation or else from Latin simulatus, past participle of simulare "to make like, imitate, copy." Meaning "to use a model to imitate certain conditions for purposes of study or training" is from 1947. Related: Simulating.
sleeping (adj.): c. 1300, past participle adjective from sleep (v.). Sleeping-pill is from 1660s; sleeping-bag is from 1850; sleeping sickness as a specific African tropical disease is first recorded 1875; sleeping has been used since late 14c. for diseases marked by morbid conditions. Sleeping Beauty (1729) is Perrault's La belle au bois dormant.
It is ill wakyng of a sleapyng dogge. [Heywood, 1562]

It is nought good a slepyng hound to wake. [Chaucer, c. 1385]
spiv (n.): "petty crook who will turn his hand to anything so long as it does not involve honest work," 1934, British slang, probably dating back to late 19c. and connected with spiff (see spiffy) in one of its various senses. Being a flashy dresser was a spiv characteristic.
The spiv reached his apotheosis during World War II and the succeeding years, when the disrupted economic conditions allowed ample scope for unofficial trading (a pair of nylons here, a few packets of cigarettes there) and other petty crime. He became a stock figure in the English social comedy, represented on screen by such stereotypes as 'Flash Harry' (played by George Cole) in the St. Trinian's films and Pte. Walker in Dad's Army. [Ayto, "20th Century Words"]
state (n.1): c. 1200, "circumstances, position in society, temporary attributes of a person or thing, conditions," from Old French estat "position, condition; status, stature, station," and directly from Latin status "a station, position, place; way of standing, posture; order, arrangement, condition," figuratively "standing, rank; public order, community organization," noun of action from past participle stem of stare "to stand" from PIE root *sta- "to stand" (see stet). Some Middle English senses are via Old French estat (French état; see estate).

The Latin word was adopted into other modern Germanic languages (German, Dutch staat) but chiefly in the political senses only. Meaning "physical condition as regards form or structure" is attested from late 13c. Meaning "mental or emotional condition" is attested from 1530s (phrase state of mind first attested 1749); colloquial sense of "agitated or perturbed state" is from 1837.
He [the President] shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient. [U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section iii]
strict (adj.): early 15c., "narrow, drawn in, small," from Latin strictus "drawn together, close, tight," past participle of stringere (2) "to draw or bind tight" (see strain (v.)). The sense of "stringent and rigorous" (of law) is first found in 1570s; of qualities or conditions generally, 1590s.