quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- distemper



[distemper 词源字典] - distemper: English has two distinct words distemper, although ultimately they come from the same source, Latin temperāre ‘mingle’ (source of English temper, temperate, and temperature). This formed the basis of two separate medieval Latin verbs, both compounded from the prefix dis- but using it in quite different ways. Dis- in the sense ‘reversal of a current state’ joined with temperāre in the specialized meaning ‘mingle in proper proportion’ to produce distemperāre ‘upset the proper balance of bodily humours’, hence ‘vex, make ill’.
This passed directly into English as distemper [14], and survives today mainly as the term for an infectious disease of dogs. Disjoined with temperāre in its intensive function produced medieval Latin distemperāre ‘mix thoroughly, soak’, which entered English via Old French destemprer in the 14th century. The meaning ‘soak, steep, infuse’ survived until the 17th century: ‘Give the Horse thereof every morning … the quantity of a Hasel-nut distempered in a quart of Wine’, Edward Topsell, History of Four-footed Beasts 1607.
The word’s modern application, to a water-based decorator’s paint, comes from the fact that the pigment is mixed with or infused in water (the same notion lies behind tempera [19], borrowed from Italian).
=> temper, temperate, temperature[distemper etymology, distemper origin, 英语词源] - fragile




- fragile: [17] Fragile and frail [13] are doublets: that is to say, they have the same ultimate source but have evolved in different ways. In this case the source was Latin fragilis ‘breakable’, a derivative of the same base (*frag-) as produced frangere ‘break’ (whence English fractious). Fragile was acquired either directly from the Latin adjective or via French fragile, but frail passed through Old French frale or frele on its way to English. Other English words to come from *frag- include fragment [15] (from Latin fragmentum) and saxifrage, literally ‘rockbreaker’.
=> fraction, fracture, fragment, frail, saxifrage - hell




- hell: [OE] Etymologically, hell is a ‘hidden place’. It goes back ultimately to Indo-European *kel- ‘cover, hide’, which was contributed an extraordinary number of words to English, including apocalypse, cell, cellar, conceal, helmet, hull ‘pod’, occult, and possibly colour and holster. Its Germanic descendant was *khel-, *khal-, whose derivatives included *khallō and *khaljō.
The first became modern English hall, the second modern English hell – so both hall and hell were originally ‘concealed or covered places’, although in very different ways: the hall with a roof, hell with at least six feet of earth. Related Germanic forms include German hölle, Dutch hel, and Swedish helvete (in which vete means ‘punishment’).
=> apocalypse, cell, conceal, hall, helmet, hull, occult - hotel




- hotel: [17] Ultimately, hotel and hospital are the same word, but they have diverged widely over the centuries. Both go back to medieval Latin hospitāle ‘place where guests are received, hospice’, but this developed in two different ways in Old French. One branch led with little change to English hospital, but a reduced form hostel also emerged (borrowed by English as hostel [13]).
Its modern French descendant is hôtel, from which English gets hotel (originally used in the sense ‘large residence’, as in the French hôtel de ville ‘town hall’, but since the 18th century increasingly restricted to its present-day sense). Other contributions made to English by Old French hostel are the derivatives hostelry [14] and ostler [13], originally (as hosteler) ‘someone who receives guests’ but since the 14th century used for someone who looks after horses at an inn.
=> hospital, host, hostel, hostelry, ostler - dismiss (v.)




- early 15c., from Latin dimissus, past participle of dimittere "send away, send different ways; break up, discharge; renounce, abandon," from dis- "apart, away" (see dis-) + mittere "send, let go" (see mission). Prefix altered by analogy with many dis- verbs. Dismit, in the same sense, is attested from late 14c. Related: Dismissed; dismissing.
- distort (v.)




- 1580s, from Latin distortus, past participle of distorquere "to twist different ways, distort," from dis- "completely" + torquere "to twist" (see torque (n.)). Related: Distorted; distorting.
- divers (adj.)




- mid-13c., "not alike" (sense now in diverse); late 13c., "separate, distinct; various," from Old French divers (11c.) "different, various, singular, odd, exceptional, wretched, treacherous, perverse," from Latin diversus "turned different ways," in Late Latin "various," past participle of divertere (see divert).
Sense of "several, numerous" is recorded from c. 1300, referring "originally and in form to the variety of objects; but, as variety implies number, becoming an indefinite numeral word expressing multiplicity" [OED], a sense that emerged by c. 1400. - 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. - enharmonic (adj.)




- c. 1600, in reference to Greek music, from Late Latin enharmonicus, from Greek enharmonikos, from en (see en- (2)) + harmonikos (see harmonic). From 1794 in reference to a modern music note that can be indicated in different ways (G sharp/A flat).
- squint (adj.)




- 1570s, "looking different ways; looking obliquely," shortened form of asquint (adv.). Meaning "looking indirectly" is from 1610s.