英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

alms [alms 词源字典]: alms: [OE] The word alms has become much reduced in its passage through time from its ultimate Greek source, eleēmosúnē ‘pity, alms’. This was borrowed into post-classical (Christian) Latin as eleēmosyna, which subsequently became simplified in Vulgar Latin to *alimosina (source of the word for ‘alms’ in many Romance languages, such as French aumône and Italian limosina).

At this stage Germanic borrowed it, and in due course dispersed it (German almosen, Dutch aalmoes). It entered Old English as ælmesse, which became reduced in Middle English to almes and finally by the 17th century to alms (which because of its -s had come to be regarded as a plural noun). The original Greek eleēmosúnē is itself a derivative, of the adjective eleémōn ‘compassionate’, which in turn came from the noun éleos ‘pity’.

From medieval Latin eleēmosyna was derived the adjective eleēmosynarius (borrowed into English in the 17th century as the almost unpronounceable eleemosynary ‘giving alms’). Used as a noun, this passed into Old French as a(u)lmonier, and eventually, in the 13th century, became English aumoner ‘giver of alms’. The modern sense of almoner as a hospital social worker did not develop until the end of the 19th century.
=> almoner, eleemosynary[alms etymology, alms origin, 英语词源]
bath: bath: [OE] Bath is a word widely dispersed among the Germanic languages (German has bad, as does Swedish). Like the others, Old English bæth goes back to a hypothetical Germanic *batham, which perhaps derives from the base *ba- (on the suffix -th see BIRTH). If this is so, it would be an indication (backed up by other derivatives of the same base, such as bake, and cognate words such as Latin fovēre ‘heat’, source of English foment) that the original notion contained in the word was of ‘heat’ rather than ‘washing’.

This is preserved in the steam bath and the Turkish bath. The original verbal derivative was bathe, which goes back to Germanic *bathōn (another derivative of which, Old Norse batha, had a reflexive form bathask, which probably lies behind English bask); use of bath as a verb dates from the 15th century.
=> bask, bathe
bough: bough: [OE] Bough is a word of some antiquity, dispersed far and wide throughout the Indo- European languages, but it is only in English that it has come to mean ‘branch’. It comes ultimately from an Indo-European *bhāghūs; the meaning this had is not altogether clear, but many of its descendants, such as Greek pakhus and Sanskrit bāhús, centre semantically round ‘arm’ or ‘forearm’ (a meaning element which can be discerned in the possibly related bosom).

Germanic adopted the Indo-European form as *bōgus, with apparently a shift in signification up the arms towards the shoulders (Old English bōg, bōh, Old Norse bógr, and Middle Dutch boech all meant ‘shoulder’, and the Dutch word later came to be applied to the front of a ship – possibly the source of English bow).
=> bosom, bow
emulsion: emulsion: [17] An emulsion is an undissolved suspension of tiny drops of one liquid dispersed throughout another. The classic example of this is milk – whence its name. It comes from modern Latin ēmulsiō, a derivative of ēmulgēre ‘drain out, milk out’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and mulgēre ‘milk’, a distant relative of English milk. The word’s familiar modern application to paint dates from the 1930s.
=> milk
rout: rout: English has two words rout. ‘Disorderly retreat’ [16] comes via archaic French route ‘dispersed group’ and Italian rotta ‘breakage’ from Vulgar Latin *rupta, a noun use of the past participle of Latin rumpere ‘break’ (source of English corrupt, disrupt [17], erupt, and rupture and related to English rob). Other English descendants of *rupta are route, routine, and rut. Rout ‘dig with the nose’, hence ‘search, rummage’ [16] is a variant form of root.
=> corrupt, disrupt, erupt, rob, robe, route, routine, rupture, rut; root
Cajun: 1868, Cagian, dialectic pronunciation of Acadian, from Acadia, former French colony in what is now Canadian Maritimes. Its French setters were dispersed and exiled by the English and thousands made their way to New Orleans in the period 1764-1788.
disperse (v.): late 14c., from Latin dispersus, past participle of dispergere "to scatter," from dis- "apart, in every direction" (see dis-) + spargere "to scatter" (see sparse). The Latin word is glossed in Old English by tostregdan. Related: Dispersed; dispersing.
emulsion (n.): 1610s, from French émulsion (16c.), from Modern Latin emulsionem (nominative emulsio), noun of action from past participle stem of emulgere "to milk out," from assimilated form of ex- "out" (see ex-) + mulgere "to milk" (see milk (n.)). Milk is a classic instance of an emulsion, drops of one liquid dispersed throughout another.
latex (n.): 1660s, "body fluid," from Latin latex (genitive laticis) "liquid, fluid," probably from Greek latax "dregs," from PIE root *lat- "wet" (cognates: Middle Irish laith "beer," Welsh llaid "mud, mire," Lithuanian latakas "pool, puddle," Old Norse leþja "filth"). Used 1835 to mean "milky liquid from plants." Meaning "water-dispersed polymer particles" (used in rubber goods, paints, etc.) is from 1937. As an adjective by 1954, in place of clasically correct laticiferous.
rout (n.): 1590s, "disorderly retreat following a defeat," from Middle French route "disorderly flight of troops," literally "a breaking off, rupture," from Vulgar Latin rupta "a dispersed group," literally "a broken group," from noun use of Latin rupta, fem. past participle of rumpere "to break" (see rupture (n.)).

The archaic English noun rout "group of persons, assemblage," is the same word, from Anglo-French rute, Old French route "host, troop, crowd," from Vulgar Latin rupta "a dispersed group," here with sense of "a division, a detachment." It first came to English meaning "group of soldiers" (early 13c.), also "gang of outlaws or rioters, mob" (c. 1300) before the more general sense developed 14c. Also as a legal term. A rout-cake (1807) was one baked for use at a reception.
sporadic (adj.): 1680s, from Medieval Latin sporadicus "scattered," from Greek sporadikos "scattered," from sporas (genitive sporados) "scattered, dispersed," from spora "a sowing" (see spore). Originally a medical term, "occurring in scattered instances;" the meaning "happening at intervals" is first recorded 1847. Related: Sporadical (1650s); sporadically.
spore (n.): "reproductive body in flowerless plants corresponding to the seeds of flowering ones," 1836, from Modern Latin spora, from Greek spora "a seed, a sowing, seed-time," related to sporas "scattered, dispersed," sporos "a sowing," and speirein "to sow, scatter," from PIE *spor-, variant of root *sper- (4) "to strew" (see sprout (v.)).
sporo-: before vowels spor-, word-forming element meaning "spore," from comb. form of Greek spora "a seed, a sowing," related to sporas "scattered, dispersed," sporos "sowing," and speirein "to sow," from PIE *spor-, variant of root *sper- (4) "to strew" (see sprout (v.)).
straggle (v.): early 15c., "to wander from the proper path, stray, to rove from one's companions," perhaps from a Scandinavian source (compare dialectal Norwegian stragla "to walk laboriously"), or a frequentative of Middle English straken "to move, go." Specifically of soldiers, "be dispersed, be apart from the main body," from 1520s. Related: Straggled; straggling.
alcogel: "A gel in which the liquid constituent is an alcohol; a gelatinous suspension dispersed in an alcohol", Mid 19th cent.; earliest use found in Thomas Graham (1805–1869), chemist. From alco- + gel-. Compare alcosol.