英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

author [author 词源字典]: author: [14] Latin auctor originally meant ‘creator, originator’; it came from auct-, the past participial stem of augēre, which as well as ‘increase’ (as in English augment) meant ‘originate’. But it also developed the specific sense ‘creator of a text, writer’, and brought both these meanings with it into English via Old French autor. Forms with -th- began to appear in the mid 16th century (from French), and originally the-th- was just a spelling variant of -t-, but eventually it affected the pronunciation.

While the ‘writing’ sense has largely taken over author, authority [13] (ultimately from Latin auctōritās) and its derivatives authoritative and authorize have developed along the lines of the creator’s power to command or make decisions.
=> auction, augment[author etymology, author origin, 英语词源]
lot: lot: [OE] Lot goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *khlut-, which appears to have denoted the use of objects to make decisions by chance (Old English hlot was used for such an object). The first inklings of the modern range of senses did not emerge until the 18th century, when lot began to be used for a ‘set of things’. ‘Large number, many’ followed in the 19th century. The Germanic word was borrowed into the Romance languages, and of its descendants English has acquired allot [16] (from Old French) and lotto [18] (from Italian). Lottery [16] comes from the Dutch derivative loterij.
=> allot, lottery, lotto
arbitrator (n.): early 15c., from Old French arbitratour (13c.), from Latin arbitrator "a spectator, hearer, witness, judge," agent noun from past participle stem of arbitrari, from arbiter (see arbiter). The legal form of popular arbiter; in modern usage, an arbiter makes decisions of his own accord and is accountable to no one but himself; an arbitrator (early 15c.) decides issues referred to him by the parties.
herald (n.): late 13c. (in Anglo-Latin); c. 1200 as a surname, "messenger, envoy," from Anglo-French heraud, Old French heraut, hiraut (12c.), perhaps from Frankish *hariwald "commander of an army," from Proto-Germanic *harja "army" (from PIE root *koro- "war;" see harry) + *waldaz "to command, rule" (see wield). The form fits, but the sense evolution is difficult to explain, unless in reference to the chief officer of a tournament, who introduced knights and made decisions on rules (which was one of the early senses, often as heraud of armes, though not the earliest in English).
judgment (n.): mid-13c., "action of trying at law, trial," also "capacity for making decisions," from Old French jugement "legal judgment; diagnosis; the Last Judgment" (11c.), from jugier (see judge (v.)). From late 13c. as "penalty imposed by a court;" early 14c. as "any authoritative decision, verdict." From c. 1300 in referfence to the Last Judgment. Also from c. 1300 as "opinion." Sense of "discernment" is first recorded 1530s.
overturn (v.): early 13c., of a wheel, "to rotate, roll over," from over- + turn (v.). Attested from c. 1300 in general transitive sense "to throw over violently;" figurative meaning "to ruin, destroy" is from late 14c. Of judicial decisions, "to reverse," it is attested from 1826. Related: Overturned; overturning.
second-guess (v.): 1941, back-formation from second-guesser (1937), American English, originally baseball slang for a fan who loudly questions decisions by players, managers, etc.; perhaps from guesser in the baseball slang sense of "umpire."
shot (n.): Old English scot, sceot "a shot, a shooting, an act of shooting; that which is discharged in shooting, what is shot forth; darting, rapid motion," from Proto-Germanic *skutan (cognates: Old Norse skutr, Old Frisian skete, Middle Dutch scote, German Schuß "a shot"), related to sceotan "to shoot" (see shoot (v.)).

Meaning "discharge of a bow, missile," also is from related Old English gesceot. Extended to other projectiles in Middle English, and to sports (hockey, basketball, etc.) 1868. Another original meaning, "payment" (perhaps literally "money thrown down") is preserved in scot-free. "Throwing down" might also have led to the meaning "a drink," first attested 1670s, the more precise meaning "small drink of straight liquor" by 1928 (shot glass by 1955). Camera view sense is from 1958. Sense of "hypodermic injection" first attested 1904; figurative phrase shot in the arm "stimulant" first recorded 1922. Meaning "try, attempt" is from 1756; sense of "remark meant to wound" is recorded from 1841. Meaning "an expert in shooting" is from 1780. To call the shots "control events, make decisions" is American English, 1922, perhaps from sport shooting. Shot in the dark "uninformed guess" is from 1885. Big shot "important person" is from 1861.
unscramble (v.): "restore to order," 1911, from un- (2) "reverse, opposite of" + scramble (v.). The original use is in a quip attributed to U.S. financier J.P. Morgan (1837-1913) about the impossibility of unscrambling an omelet.
Mr. Morgan is credited with the aphorism that the recent trust decisions are like an order to a cook to "unscramble" the eggs which have just been prepared. [Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science," January 1912]
Related: Unscrambled; unscrambling.