英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

antelope [antelope 词源字典]: antelope: [15] Antelope comes from medieval Greek antholops. In the Middle Ages it was applied to an outlandish but figmentary beast, in the words of the Oxford English Dictionary, ‘haunting the banks of the Euphrates, very savage, hard to catch, having long saw-like horns with which they cut in pieces and broke all “engines” and even cut down trees’. The term was subsequently used for a heraldic animal, but it was not until the early 17th century that it was applied, by the naturalist Edward Topsell, to the swift-running deerlike animal for which it is now used.
[antelope etymology, antelope origin, 英语词源]
fall: fall: [OE] The verb fall comes from prehistoric Germanic *fallan, which also produced German fallen, Dutch vallen, and Swedish falla. The noun is partly a survival of Old English feall, partly a borrowing from the related Old Norse fall, but probably mostly a new formation based on the verb. The sense ‘autumn’, now restricted to American English, originated in the 16th century from an earlier phrase fall of the leaf. (Fell ‘cut down’ is related: etymologically it means ‘cause to fall’.)
=> fell
fell: fell: English has no fewer than four separate words fell, not counting the past tense of fall. Fell ‘cut down’ [OE] originated as the ‘causative’ version of fall – that is to say, it means literally ‘cause to fall’. It comes ultimately from prehistoric Germanic *falljan, causative of *fallan ‘fall’. Fell ‘animal’s skin’ [OE] goes back via Germanic *fellam (source also of English film) to Indo-European *pello- (whence Latin pellis ‘skin’, from which English gets pellagra [19], pellicle [16], and pelt ‘skin’ [15]). Fell ‘hill’ [13] was borrowed from Old Norse fjall ‘hill’; this seems to be related to German fels ‘rock’, whose ultimate ancestor was Indo-European *pels-.

And the adjective fell ‘fierce, lethal’ [13] was borrowed from Old French fel, ancestor of English felon.
=> fall; film, pelt; felon
hay: hay: [OE] Etymologically, hay is ‘that which is cut down’. It comes ultimately from the prehistoric Germanic verb *khauwan, source also of English hew, which was formed from the Indo-European base *kou-, *kow-. From it was derived the noun *khaujam, which has become German hau, Dutch hooi, Swedish and Danish hä, and English hay – ‘grass cut down and dried’.

Other English descendants of Germanic *khauwan ‘cut down’ are haggle [16], which originally meant ‘hack, mutilate’ and was derived from an earlier hag ‘cut’, a borrowing from Old Norse höggva ‘cut’; and hoe [14], which comes via Old French houe from Frankish *hauwa ‘cut’.
=> haggle, hew, hoe
sycamore: sycamore: [14] The sycamore is etymologically either the ‘fig-mulberry’ or the ‘mulberrymulberry’. The word came via Old French sicamor and Latin sycomorus from Greek sūkómoros. This was a compound based on móron ‘mulberry’, its first element being either Greek súkon ‘fig’ or an adaptation of Hebrew shiqmāh ‘mulberry’. It was originally used in English for a type of fig tree (the sycomores mentioned in the Bible – as in ‘The sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars’, Isaiah 9:10 – are fig trees), and the modern application to a variety of maple did not emerge until the 16th century.
=> sycophant
caesura (n.): 1550s, from Latin caesura, "metrical pause," literally "a cutting," from past participle stem of caedere "to cut down" (see -cide).
carve (v.): Old English ceorfan (class III strong verb; past tense cearf, past participle corfen) "to cut, cut down, slay; to carve, cut out, engrave," from West Germanic *kerfan (cognates: Old Frisian kerva, Middle Dutch and Dutch kerven, German kerben "to cut, notch"), from PIE root *gerbh- "to scratch," making carve the English cognate of Greek graphein "to write," originally "to scratch" on clay tablets with a stylus.

Once extensively used, most senses now usurped by cut (v.). Meaning specialized to sculpture, meat, etc., by 16c. Related: Carved; carving. Original strong conjugation has been abandoned, but archaic carven lingers.
cement (n.): c. 1300, from Old French ciment "cement, mortar, pitch," from Latin cæmenta "stone chips used for making mortar" (singular caementum), from caedere "to cut down, chop, beat, hew, fell, slay" (see -cide). The sense evolution from "small broken stones" to "powdered stones used in construction" took place before the word reached English.
excise (v.): "cut out," 1570s, from Middle French exciser, from Latin excisus, past participle of excidere "cut out, cut down, cut off," from ex- "out" (see ex-) + -cidere, comb. form of caedere "to cut down" (see -cide). Related: Excised; excising.
feather (v.): Old English fiðerian "to furnish with feathers or wings," from feðer (see feather (n.)). Meaning "to fit (an arrow) with feathers" is from early 13c.; that of "to deck, adorn, or provide with plumage" is from late 15c. In reference to oars (later paddles, propellers, etc.) from 1740, perhaps from the notion of the blade turned edgewise, or from the spray of the water as it falls off (compare nautical feather-spray, that produced by the cutwater of a fast vessel). The noun in reference to this is from the verb. Meaning "cut down to a thin edge" is from 1782, originally in woodworking. Phrase feather one's nest "enrich oneself" is from 1580s. Related: Feathered; feathering.
fratricide (n.): mid-15c., "person who kills a brother;" 1560s, "act of killing a brother," from Latin fratricida "brother-slayer," from frater "brother" (see brother) + cida "killer;" in the later use from cidum "a killing," both from caedere "to kill, to cut down" (see -cide). Among several Old English words for this were broðorbana "one who kills a brother;" broðorcwealm "act of killing a brother."
junk (v.): 1803, "to cut off in lumps," from junk (n.1). The meaning "to throw away as trash, to scrap" is from 1908. Related: Junked; junking.
New settlers (who should always be here as early in the spring as possible) begin to cut down the wood where they intend to erect their first house. As the trees are cut the branches are to be lopped off, and the trunks cut into lengths of 12 or 14 feet. This operation they call junking them; if they are not junked before fire is applied, they are much worse to junk afterwards. [letter dated Charlotte Town, Nov. 29, 1820, in "A Series of Letters Descriptive of Prince Edward Island," 1822]
mead (n.2): "meadow," Old English mæd, Anglian med "meadow, pasture," from Proto-Germanic *medwo (cognates: Old Frisian mede, Dutch made, German Matte "meadow," Old English mæþ "harvest, crop"), from PIE *metwa- "a mown field," from root *me- (4) "mow, cut down grass or grain" (see mow (v.)). Now only archaic or poetic.
rend (v.): Old English rendan, hrendan "to tear, cut down," from West Germanic *randijan (cognates: Old Frisian renda "to cut, break," Middle Low German rende "anything broken," German Rinde "bark, crust"), probably related to rind. Related: Rended; rent; rending.
retrench (v.2): "cut off, cut down, pare away" (expenses, etc.), 1620s, from obsolete French retrencher "to cut off, lessen, shorten" (Modern French retrancher, Old French retrenchier), from re- "back" (see re-) + Old French trenchier "to cut" (see trench). Related: Retrenched; retrenching.
thwaite (n.): "cleared land," 1620s, from Old Norse or Old Danish þveit "a clearing, meadow, paddock," literally "a cutting, cut-piece" (related to Old English þwitan "to cut, cut off;" see whittle). Always a rare word and now obsolete, but frequently encountered in place names, but "It is unclear whether the base meaning was 'something cut off, detached piece of land,' or 'something cut down, felled tree' ..." [Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names].
undercut (v.): late 14c., "to cut down or off," from under + cut (v.). In the commercial sense of "sell at lower prices" (or work at lower wages) it is first attested 1884. Figurative sense of "render unstable, undermine" is recorded from 1955, from earlier literal meaning "cut so as to leave the upper portion larger than the lower" (1874).