英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

deadline [deadline 词源字典]: deadline: [19] Originally, in US military parlance, a ‘deadline’ was a literal line drawn round a military prison, which the inmates were not allowed to cross. If they did, they risked being shot. The modern figurative application of the word, to a time-limit (originally for the submission of material for a particular edition of a newspaper), dates from around 1920.
[deadline etymology, deadline origin, 英语词源]
maudlin: maudlin: [16] Maudlin represents a gradual erosion of the pronunciation of Magdalen (exhibited also in the case of the Oxford and Cambridge colleges that have taken that name). The word originated as the name given to a woman called Mary who came from Magdala on the Sea of Galilee, and who according to the Bible was present at Christ’s crucifixion and was the first to meet him after he had risen from the dead. In the Middle Ages she was generally represented in paintings as crying, and so maudlin came to be used for ‘oversentimental’.
birdlime (n.): viscous sticky stuff prepared from holly bark and used to catch small birds, mid-15c., from bird (n.1) + lime (n.1). Used as rhyming slang for time (especially time in prison) by 1857.
blood-curdling (adj.): also bloodcurdling, 1817, from blood (n.) + present participle of curdle. Also formerly with a noun form, bloodcurdler "incident which freezes the blood," especially "sensational story," 1877, slang; also in use in this sense was blood-freezer (1886).
bundling (n.): 1640s, "a gathering into a bundle," verbal noun from bundle (v.). Meaning "sharing a bed for the night, fully dressed, wrapped up with someone of the opposite sex" (1782) is a former local custom in New England (especially Connecticut and southeastern Massachusetts). It was noted there from about 1750s and often regarded by outsiders as grossly immoral, but New Englanders wrote defenses of it and claimed it was practiced elsewhere, too. It seems to have died out with the 18th century.
I am no advocate for temptation; yet must say, that bundling has prevailed 160 years in New England, and, I verily believe, with ten times more chastity than the sitting on a sofa. I had daughters, and speak from near forty years' experience. Bundling takes place only in cold seasons of the year--the sofa in summer is more dangerous than the bed in winter. [The Rev. Samuel Peters, "A general history of Connecticut," 1782]
childlike (adj.): 1580s, "proper to a child," from child + like (adj.). Meaning "like a child" in a good sense (distinguished from childish) is from 1738.
deadline (n.): "time limit," 1920, American English newspaper jargon, from dead (adj.) + line (n.). Perhaps influenced by earlier use (1864) to mean the "do-not-cross" line in Civil War prisons, which figured in the Wirz trial.
And he, the said Wirz, still wickedly pursuing his evil purpose, did establish and cause to be designated within the prison enclosure containing said prisoners a "dead line," being a line around the inner face of the stockade or wall enclosing said prison and about twenty feet distant from and within said stockade; and so established said dead line, which was in many places an imaginary line, in many other places marked by insecure and shifting strips of [boards nailed] upon the tops of small and insecure stakes or posts, he, the said Wirz, instructed the prison guard stationed around the top of said stockade to fire upon and kill any of the prisoners aforesaid who might touch, fall upon, pass over or under across the said "dead line" .... ["Trial of Henry Wirz," Report of the Secretary of War, Oct. 31, 1865]
floodlight (n.): also flood-light, 1924, from flood (n.) + light (n.). Related: Floodlit.
foundling (n.): "deserted infant," c. 1300, from Middle English founden "found," past participle of finden (see find (v.)) + diminutive suffix -ling. Compare Dutch vondeling, German Findling. Middle English also had finding in this sense (late 14c.).
frumbierdling (n.): Old English word meaning "a youth;" from fruma "first, beginning" (see foremost) + beard (n.) + -ling.
godlike (adj.): 1510s, from god + like (adj.). Absent in Middle English; Old English had godlic "godlike, divine."
godliness (n.): 1530s, from godly + -ness.
groundling (n.): "theater patron in the pit" (which originally had no floor or benches), c. 1600, from ground (n.) in an Elizabethan sense of "pit of a theater" + -ling. From the beginning emblematic of bad or unsophisticated taste. Old English grundling was a type of fish.
handling (n.): Old English handlung "action of touching or feeling," from handlian (see handle (v.)). Meaning "way in which something handles" (especially a motor vehicle) is from 1962.
headlight (n.): large lamp and reflector carried in front to illuminate at night, 1861, originally of ships and locomotives, from head (n.) + light (n.). Related: Headlights, which, as slang for "a woman's breasts," is from 1940s.
headline (n.): 1670s, from head (n.) in sense "heading of a book or chapter" (c. 1200) + line (n.). Originally a printers' term for the line at the top of a page containing the title and page number; used of the lines that form the title of a newspaper article from 1890, and transferred unthinkingly to broadcast media. Headlinese "language peculiar to headlines" is from 1927. Headlines "important news" is from 1908.
headliner (n.): 1891, "one who writes newspaper headlines;" 1896 as "one who stars in a performance;" from headline + -er (1).
kindling (n.): "material for lighting fire," 1510s, from present participle of kindle (v.). Earlier "a setting alight" (c. 1300).
landline (n.): also land-line, by 1861, originally a telegraph wire run over land (as opposed to under sea); from land (n.) + line (n.). In modern use (by 1965), a telephone line which uses wire or some other material (distinguished from a radio or cellular line).
maudlin (adj.): c. 1600, "tearful," from Middle English fem. proper name Maudelen (early 14c.), from Magdalene (Old French Madelaine), woman's name, originally surname of Mary the repentant sinner forgiven by Jesus in Luke vii:37 (see Magdalene). In paintings, she often was shown weeping as a sign of repentance. Meaning "characterized by tearful sentimentality" is recorded by 1630s.
meddling (n.): "action of blending," mid-14c., from present participle of meddle (v.). Meaning "action of taking part, interference" is late 14c. As a past participle adjective, from 1520s. Related: Meddlingly.
middling (adj.): 1540s, from Scottish mydlyn (mid-15c.), from middle + suffix -ing. Used to designate the second of three grades of goods. As an adverb by 1719.
midlife (n.): also mid-life, 1837, from mid + life. Midlife crisis attested from 1965.
piddling (adj.): "insignificant, trifling," 1550s, past participle adjective from piddle (v.).
quodlibet (n.): "a nicety, subtlety," late 14c., Latin, literally "what you will, what you please," from quod "what," neuter of qui (see who) + libet "it pleases" (see love (n.)).
redline (v.): also red-line, "mark in red ink," 1820, from red (adj.1) + line (v.). Specific sense of "deny loans to certain neighborhoods based on ethnicity" is from 1973, on notion of lines drawn on maps. Used earlier in reference to insurance company practices (1961) and in World War II military slang in reference to a red line drawn through a soldier's name for some infraction, thus denying his pay. Related: Redlined; redlining.
seedling (n.): "young plant developed from seed," 1650s, from seed (n.) + diminutive suffix -ling.
wildlife (n.): also wild life, "fauna of a region," 1879, from wild (adj.) + life.
headlinese: "The condensed, elliptical, or sensationalist style of language characteristic of (especially newspaper) headlines", Early 20th cent.; earliest use found in The New York Tribune. From headline + -ese.
brandling: "A red earthworm with rings of a brighter colour, typically found in manure, and used as bait by anglers and in composting kitchen waste", Mid 17th century: from brand + -ling.