quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- geranium




- geranium: [16] The native English name for the ‘geranium’, cranesbill, shows that the same thought occurred independently to the speakers of two independent languages many miles and centuries apart. For the plant’s seed case is long and pointed, very much like the beak of a crane; and geranium comes via Latin from Greek geránion, literally ‘little crane’, a diminutive form of géranos ‘crane’ (which is related to English crane).
=> crane - cranberry (n.)




- 1640s, American English adaptation of Low German kraanbere, from kraan "crane" (see crane (n.)) + Middle Low German bere "berry" (see berry). Perhaps so called from a resemblance between the plants' stamens and the beaks of cranes.
Upon the Rocks and in the Moss, grew a Shrub whose fruit was very sweet, full of red juice like Currans, perhaps 'tis the same with the New England Cranberry, or Bear-Berry, (call'd so from the Bears devouring it very greedily;) with which we make Tarts. ["An Account of Several Late Voyages & Discoveries," London, 1694]
German and Dutch settlers in the New World apparently recognized the similarity between the European berries (Vaccinium oxycoccos) and the larger North American variety (V. macrocarpum) and transferred the name. In England, they were marshwort or fenberries, but the North American berries, and the name, were brought over late 17c. The native Algonquian name for the plant is represented by West Abenaki popokwa. - geranium (n.)




- 1540s, from Latin geranium, from Greek geranion, the plant name, diminutive of geranos "crane" (cognate with Latin grus; see crane (n.)). So called from shape resemblance of seed pods to cranes' bills; the native name in English also was cranebill. As a color name from 1842.
- grallatorial (adj.)




- "of or pertaining to wading birds," 1825, from Latin grallotores "stilt-walkers," plural of grallator "one who walks on stilts," from grallae "stilts," ultimately from stem of gradi "to walk, go" (see grade (n.)). Grallatores was formerly used as the name of an order of birds comprising herons, cranes, etc. Related: Grallatory (1835).