英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

blaspheme [blaspheme 词源字典]: blaspheme: [14] Blaspheme has maintained a remarkable semantic and formal stability since its origins in Greek blásphēmos, which meant ‘speaking evil or profane things’ (blas- is related to blaptikós ‘hurtful’; the -phēmos element denotes ‘speaking’, and is related to phēmí ‘I say’). The derived Greek verb blasphēmein was transmitted via ecclesiastical Latin blasphēmāre to Old French and thence to English. Blastēmāre, an altered version of blasphēmāre, produced blame.
=> blame[blaspheme etymology, blaspheme origin, 英语词源]
cement: cement: [13] Latin caementa meant ‘stone chips used for making mortar’; etymologically, the notion behind it was of ‘hewing for a quarry’, for it was originally *caedmenta, a derivative of caedere ‘cut’ (from which English gets concise and decide). In due course the signification of the Latin word passed from ‘small broken stones’ to ‘powdered stone (used for mortar)’, and it was in this sense that it passed via Old French ciment into English.
=> concise, decide
cemetery: cemetery: [14] Not surprisingly for a word having associations with death, cemetery’s origins are euphemistic. It comes via late Latin coemētērium from Greek koimētérion, which originally meant ‘dormitory’ (it was a derivative of the verb koiman ‘put to sleep’); it was apparently early Greek Christian writers who first applied the word to burial grounds.
demeanour: demeanour: [15] A person’s demeanour is how they ‘conduct’ themselves. The word goes back ultimately to the literal notion of driving animals along. It is a derivative of the now virtually obsolete reflexive verb demean ‘behave’, borrowed in the 13th century from Old French demener. This was a compound formed from the intensive prefix de- and mener ‘lead’, a descendant of Latin mināre ‘drive a herd of animals’ (whose original connotation of ‘urging on with threats’ is revealed by its close relationship with minārī ‘threaten’, source of English menace).

This obsolete demean should not, incidentally, be confused with demean ‘degrade’ [17], which was formed from the adjective mean.
=> menace
demerit: demerit: [14] A demerit may be virtually the opposite of a merit, but the word was not formed, as might be supposed, by adding the prefix de-, denoting oppositeness or reversal, to merit. Its distant ancestor was Latin demeritum, from the verb demereri ‘deserve’, where the de- prefix meant not ‘opposite of’ but ‘completely’ (as it does too in, for example, denude and despoil).

Add this de- to mereri ‘deserve’ and you get ‘deserve thoroughly’. However, at some point in the Middle Ages the prefix began to be reinterpreted as ‘opposite’, and medieval Latin demeritum came to mean ‘fault’ – the sense that reached English via French démérite.
demesne: demesne: [14] Ultimately, demesne is the same word as domain. It comes via Old French demeine from Latin dominicus, an adjective meaning ‘of a lord’ (see DOMINION), and hence etymologically means ‘land belonging to a lord’. Under the feudal system it denoted land retained by the lord for his own use, rather than let out to tenants. The -s- was inserted into the word in Anglo-Norman, partly as a graphic device to indicate a long vowel and partly through association with Old French mesnie ‘household’, which came ultimately from Latin mansio ‘place to stay’ (source of English mansion).
=> dame, danger, domain, dominion
denouement: denouement: [18] A denouement is literally an ‘untying of a knot’. It was borrowed from French (its first recorded use in English is by Lord Chesterfield in one of his famous letters to his son (1752)), where it was a derivative of dénouer ‘undo’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix dé- ‘un-’ and nouer ‘tie’, which came ultimately from Latin nōdus ‘knot’ (source of English newel, node, nodule, and noose).
=> newel, node, nodule, noose
emend: emend: see mend
emerald: emerald: [13] Emerald traces its history back to an ancient Semitic verb ‘shine’ – bāraq. From this there seems to have been formed a noun *bāraqt meaning ‘gem’. This was taken over into the ancient vernacular languages of India (main source of gems in early times) as maragada-. Greek acquired the word as máragdos ‘green gem’, which was soon superseded as the main form by a variant smáragdos.

Latin adopted this as smaragdus (which passed into English, probably via Old French, as smaragd, a term used for the ‘emerald’ from the 13th to the 18th century, and revived as an archaism in the 19th century). In post-classical times Latin smaragdus became *smaralda, and as this became disseminated through the Romance languages it acquired in many cases an additional syllable: Spanish esmeralda, for instance (source of the English forename) and Old French esmeraude, borrowed into Middle English as emeraud.
emerge: emerge: see merge
emery: emery: see smear
emetic: emetic: see vomit
émeute: émeute: see emotion
ephemeral: ephemeral: [16] Ephemeral, now used fairly loosely for ‘transitory’, originally meant specifically ‘lasting only one day’. It comes from Greek ephémeros, a compound formed from the prefix epí- ‘on’ and hēmérā ‘day’. The Greeks named the mayfly ephémeron, since its adult form lives only one day, and English adopted ephemeron [16] as the scientific name for the insect.
excrement: excrement: [16] Latin excrēmentum meant originally ‘that which is sifted out’ (it was a derivative of the verb excernere, a compound formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and cernere ‘sift, decide’, from which English gets certain). Hence it was applied metaphorically to any substance that is excreted from or secreted by the body, including sweat, nasal mucus, and milk, as well as faeces. (English acquired excrete [17], incidentally, from the past participle of excernere, excrētus.) This very general sense survived in English into the mid 18th century, when it was finally ousted by the more specific ‘faeces’. (Increment, by the way, is a completely unrelated word, coming ultimately from Latin crēscere ‘grow’.)
=> certain, crime, critic, discern, discriminate, secret
extreme: extreme: [15] Etymologically, extreme is the latinate equivalent of the native English utmost. It comes via Old French extreme from Latin extrēmus ‘farthest, last, excessive’, which began life as a superlative form based on Latin ex ‘out’ – hence originally ‘most out, utmost’. The underlying notion of ‘furthest outlying’ still survives in, for example, the use of extremities for the ‘hands’ or ‘feet’.
implement: implement: [15] The idea underlying implement is of ‘filling up’. It comes ultimately from Latin implēre, a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix in- and plēre ‘fill’ (as in English complete). This originally meant ‘fill up’, and hence ‘fulfil’, but in post-classical times, under the influence of implicāre (source of English employ) it came to mean ‘use, employ’, and so the derived plural noun implēmenta denoted ‘things used, equipment’.

It was originally used in the plural in English too, and it was not until the 16th century that the singular ‘tool’ emerged. The original Latin sense ‘fulfil’ is preserved much more closely in the verb implement, which was an independent and considerably later introduction, first recorded in Scottish English in the 19th century. (From the same source come English complement and supplement.)
=> complement, complete, supplement
nemesis: nemesis: see nomad
piecemeal: piecemeal: see meal
raceme: raceme: see raisin
remedy: remedy: [13] Remedy is closely related to medicine. It comes via Anglo-Norman remedie from Latin remedium ‘medicine’ a noun formed from the same stem, med-, as produced medērī ‘heal’ (source of English medical, medicine, etc). The extension in meaning from ‘medicine’ to ‘something that corrects a wrong’ took place in Latin.
=> medicine
remember: remember: [14] Latin memor meant ‘mindful’ (it gave English memorial, memory, etc, and went back ultimately to the Indo-European base *men-, *mon- ‘think’, source of a wide range of English vocabulary from comment to mind). From it in the post-classical period was formed the verb rememorārī ‘recall to mind’, which passed into English via Old French remembrer.
=> comment, mental, mind
scheme: scheme: [16] Greek skhéma meant ‘form, figure’. Latin took it over as schēma and used it as the equivalent of figure in a range of applications, such as ‘figure of speech’ and ‘diagram’, many of which were originally taken over by English (‘In the text, by a very elegant scheme of speech he does … once more set them at liberty’, John Tillotson, Sermons 1684). The modern sense ‘plan’, which presumably developed out of ‘diagram’, began to emerge in the mid 17th century.
semen: semen: see seed
supplement: supplement: see supply
supreme: supreme: [16] Supreme comes ultimately from Latin suprā ‘above’ (a close relative of super). From this was formed the adjective suprēmus ‘highest’, which English adopted as supreme. Supremo is a 20th-century borrowing of the Spanish version of the word.
=> super
temerity: temerity: [15] Someone who behaves with temerity is etymologically acting in the ‘dark’. The word was adapted from Latin temeritās ‘rashness’, a derivative of temere ‘blindly’, hence ‘rashly’. This in turn was formed from an unrecorded *temus ‘darkness’, a relative of tenebrae ‘darkness’, and hence originally denoted ‘acting in the dark, so that one cannot see’.
tenement: tenement: see tenant
theme: theme: [13] Greek théma denoted etymologically ‘something placed’, hence a ‘proposition’ (it was formed from the base *the-, source also of tithénai ‘place, put’ and distant relative of English do). English acquired the word via Latin thēma and Old French *teme as teme, but soon reverted to the Latin spelling.
=> do
tracklements: tracklements: see dredge
trireme: trireme: see oar
abasement (n.): early 15c., "embarrassment, dread, fear," from abase + -ment. Sense of "action of lowering in price" is mid-15c.; "action of lowering in rank" is 1560s; "condition of being abased" is from 1610s.
abatement (n.): mid-14c., from Old French abatement, from abattre (see abate).
abovementioned (adj.): 1707, from above and past tense of mention. Above-named is recorded from c. 1600.
abridgement (n.): late 15c., from Old French abregement "shortening, abbreviation," from abregier (see abridge).
Academe (n.): "The Academy," 1580s, from phrase groves of Academe, translating Horace's silvas Academi (see academy); general sense of "the world of universities and scholarship" is attested from 1849. With lower-case letter, academia in the sense of "academic community" is from 1956.
Academe properly means Academus (a Greek hero); & its use as a poetic variant for academy, though sanctioned by Shakespeare, Tennyson & Lowell, is a mistake; the grove of A., however, (Milton) means rightly The Academy. [Fowler]
accouchement (n.): 1803, from French accouchement, noun of action from accoucher (see accoucheur).
accoutrements (n.): 1540s, from Middle French accoustrement (Modern French accoutrement), from accoustrer probably from Old French acostrer "arrange," originally "sew up" (see accouter)
achievement (n.): late 15c., "act of completing" (something), from Middle French achèvement "a finishing," noun of action from Old French achever (see achieve). Meaning "thing achieved" is recorded from 1590s.
acknowledgement (n.): 1590s, "act of acknowledging," from acknowledge + -ment. "An early instance of -ment added to an orig. Eng. vb." [OED]. Meaning "token of due recognition" is recorded from 1610s.
advancement (n.): c. 1300, avauncement, "a raising to a higher rank," from Old French avancement "advancement, profit, advance payment," from avancer (see advance (v.)). Of money, from 1640s.
advertisement (n.): early 15c., "written statement calling attention to" something, "public notice" (of anything, but often of a sale); from Middle French avertissement, from stem of avertir (see advertise). Meaning "public notice" (usually paid), the main modern sense, emerged 1580s and was fully developed by 18c.
advisement (n.): early 14c., avisement "examination, inspection, observation," from Old French avisement "consideration, reflection," from aviser (see advise). Meaning "advice, counsel" is from c. 1400, as is that of "consultation, conference."
aforementioned (adj.): 1580s, from afore + past participle of mention (v.). Afore-written is from mid-15c.
aggrandisement (n.): chiefly British English spelling of aggrandizement. See -ize.
aggrandizement (n.): 1650s, from French agrandissement, noun of action from agrandir (see aggrandize).
agreement (n.): c. 1400, "mutual understanding" (among persons), also (of things) "mutual conformity," from Old French agrement, noun of action from agreer "to please" (see agree).
allurement (n.): 1540s, "means of alluring;" see allure + -ment. Meaning "act of alluring" is recorded from 1560s.
amazement (n.): 1590s, "mental stupefaction," early use of the Latin suffix with a native verb, from amaze + -ment. Meaning "overwhelming wonder" is c. 1600.
amusement (n.): c. 1600, "diversion of attention," especially in military actions, from French amusement, noun of action from amuser (see amuse).
And because all bold and irreverent Speeches touching matters of high nature, and all malicious and false Reports tending to Sedition, or to the Amusement of Our People, are punishable ... (etc.) [Charles II, Proclamation of Oct. 26, 1688]
Meaning "a pastime, play, game, anything which pleasantly diverts the attention" (from duty, work, etc.) is from 1670s, originally depreciative; meaning "pleasurable diversion" attested from 1690s. Amusement hall is from 1862; amusement park first recorded 1897.