英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

rank [rank 词源字典]: rank: English has two words rank. The one meaning ‘row, line’ [16], and hence ‘position of seniority’, was borrowed from Old French ranc (source also of English range), which goes back via Frankish *hring to a prehistoric Germanic *khrengaz ‘circle, ring’ (ancestor of English ring). Rank ‘absolute, downright’ [OE], as in ‘rank bad manners’, has had an eventful semantic history.

It originally meant ‘haughty’ and ‘full-grown’, and came from a prehistoric Germanic *rangkaz, which also produced Old Norse rakkr ‘erect’. ‘Full-grown’ evolved via ‘growing vigorously, luxuriant’ (which still survives) into ‘gross, disgusting’, on which the present-day intensive usage is based.
=> range, ring[rank etymology, rank origin, 英语词源]
armpit (n.): mid-14c., from arm (n.1) + pit (n.1). Arm-hole (early 14c.) was used in this sense but was obsolete by 18c. Colloquial armpit of the nation for any locale regarded as ugly and disgusting was in use by 1965.
disgust (v.): c. 1600, from Middle French desgouster "have a distaste for" (see disgust (n.)). Sense has strengthened over time, and subject and object have been reversed; the older use looks like this: "It is not very palatable, which makes some disgust it" (1660s). The reverse sense of "to excite nausea" is attested from 1640s. Related: Disgusted; disgusting.
fellowship (n.): c. 1200, feolahschipe "companionship," from fellow + -ship. Sense of "a body of companions" is from late 13c. Meaning "spirit of comradeship, friendliness" is from late 14c. As a state of privilege in English colleges, from 1530s. In Middle English it was at times a euphemism for "sexual intercourse" (carnal fellowship).
To fellowship with is to hold communion with; to unite with in doctrine and discipline. This barbarism now appears with disgusting frequency in the reports of ecclesiastical conventions, and in the religious newspapers generally. [Bartlett, "Dictionary of Americanisms," 1848]
But Chaucer and Wyclif used it as a verb in Middle English, "to have fellowship with."
gnarly (adj.): "knotted and rugged," c. 1600, from gnarl (see gnarled) + -y (2). Picked up 1970s as surfer slang to describe a dangerous wave; it had spread to teen slang by 1982, where it meant both "excellent" and "disgusting."
gross (adj.): mid-14c., "large;" early 15c., "thick," also "coarse, plain, simple," from Old French gros "big, thick, fat; tall; strong, powerful; pregnant; coarse, rude, awkward; ominous, important; arrogant" (11c.), from Late Latin grossus "thick, coarse" (of food or mind), in Medieval Latin "great, big" (source also of Spanish grueso, Italian grosso), a word of obscure origin, not in classical Latin. Said to be unrelated to Latin crassus, which meant the same thing, or to German gross "large," but said by Klein to be cognate with Old Irish bres, Middle Irish bras "big."

Its meaning forked in English. Via the notion of "coarse in texture or quality" came the senses "not sensitive, dull stupid" (1520s), "vulgar, coarse in a moral sense" (1530s). Via notion of "general, not in detail" came the sense "entire, total, whole, without deductions" (early 15c.), as in gross national product (1947). Meaning "glaring, flagrant, monstrous" is from 1580s; modern meaning "disgusting" is first recorded 1958 in U.S. student slang, from earlier use as an intensifier of unpleasant things (gross stupidity, etc.).
harpy (n.): winged monster of ancient mythology, late 14c., from Old French harpie (14c.), from Latin harpyia, from Greek Harpyia (plural), literally "snatchers," which is probably related to harpazein "to snatch" (see rapid (adj.)). Metaphoric extension to "repulsively greedy person" is c. 1400.
In Homer they are merely personified storm winds, who were believed to have carried off any person that had suddenly disappeared. In Hesiod they are fair-haired and winged maidens who surpass the winds in swiftness, and are called Aello and Ocypete; but in later writers they are represented as disgusting monsters, with heads like maidens, faces pale with hunger, and claws like those of birds. The harpies ministered to the gods as the executors of vengeance. ["American Cyclopædia," 1874]
hooch (n.): also hootch, "cheap whiskey," 1897, shortened form of Hoochinoo (1877) "liquor made by Alaskan Indians," from the name of a native tribe in Alaska whose distilled liquor was a favorite with miners in 1898 Klondike gold rush; the tribe's name is said by OED to be from Tlingit Hutsnuwu, literally "grizzly bear fort."
As the supply of whisky was very limited, and the throats down which it was poured were innumerable, it was found necessary to create some sort of a supply to meet the demand. This concoction was known as "hooch"; and disgusting as it is, it is doubtful if it is much more poisonous than the whisky itself. [M.H.E. Hayne, "The Pioneers of the Klondyke," London, 1897]
vile (adj.): late 13c., "morally repugnant; morally flawed, corrupt, wicked; of no value; of inferior quality; disgusting, foul, ugly; degrading, humiliating; of low estate, without worldly honor or esteem," from Anglo-French ville, Old French vil "shameful, dishonorable; low-born; cheap; ugly, hideous," from Latin vilis "cheap, worthless, base, common," of uncertain origin, perhaps from PIE root *wes- (1) "to buy, sell" (see venal). Related: Vilely; vileness; vilety (early 13c.).
wad (n.): early 15c., wadde, "small bunch of fibrous, soft material for padding or stuffing," of uncertain origin, perhaps from Medieval Latin wadda (14c., source also of French ouate, Italian ovate), or Dutch watten (source of German Watte), or Middle English wadmal (c. 1300) "coarse woolen cloth," which seems to be from Old Norse vaðmal "a woolen fabric of Scandinavia," probably from vað "cloth" + mal "measure."

The meaning "something bundled up tightly" (especially paper currency) is from 1778. To shoot (one's) wad "do all one can do" is recorded from 1914. The immediate source of the expression probably is the sense of "disk of cloth used to hold powder and shot in place in a gun." Wad in slang sense of "a load of semen" is attested from 1920s, and the expression now often is felt in this sense. As a suffix, -wad in 1980s joined -bag, -ball, -head in combinations meaning "disgusting or unpleasant person."