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avenge [avenge 词源字典]: avenge: see vindicate
[avenge etymology, avenge origin, 英语词源]
challenge: challenge: [13] The original notion contained in challenge in English was of ‘accusation’. The word comes, via Old French chalenge or calenge, from Latin calumnia ‘false charge, deception’ (source of English calumny [15]). By the early 14th century, the modern, more neutral sense of ‘inviting to a contest’ had emerged, however, and before the end of the 17th century the word’s accusatory connotations had virtually died out.

Latin calumnia probably came from the verb calvī ‘deceive’. This may, via an unrecorded intermediary *calvilla, be related to Latin cavilla ‘raillery’, whose derived verb cavillārī was the source of English cavil [16].
=> calumny
engage: engage: [15] Vulgar Latin had a noun *wadium ‘pledge’ (it came from Germanic *wathjam, source also of English wed and wage). From it was derived a verb *wadiāre ‘pledge’, which formed the basis of a compound *inwadiāre. Germanic w became g in French (hence French Guillaume for William), so the Old French descendant of *inwadiāre was engager, acquired by English as engage. (The superficially similar gauge [15] is probably not related, although it is not known for certain what its ultimate source is.)
=> wage, wed
engine: engine: [13] The underlying etymological meaning of engine is ‘natural talent’. It comes ultimately from Latin ingenium (source also of English ingenious) which was formed from the base *gen- (as in genetic) denoting ‘reproduction’ and meant literally ‘skill or aptitude one was born with’. Abstract meanings related to this (such as ‘ingenuity’ and ‘genius’) have now died out in English (which acquired the word via Old French engin), but what remains is a more specific strand of meaning in the Latin word – ‘clever device, contrivance’.

Originally this was an abstract concept (often used in a bad sense ‘trick, cunning ruse’), but as early as about 1300 there is evidence of a more concrete application in English to a ‘mechanical device’. The word’s modern use for ‘machine producing motion’ originates in its early 19thcentury application to the steam engine. Engineer [14] comes via Old French engigneor from medieval Latin ingeniātōr, a derivative of the verb ingeniāre ‘contrive’, which in turn came from ingenium.
=> gin, ingenious
English: English: [OE] The people and language of England take their name from the Angles, a West Germanic people who settled in Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries AD. They came originally from the Angul district of Schleswig, an area of the Jutland peninsula to the south of modern Denmark. This had a shape vaguely reminiscent of a fishhook, and so its inhabitants used their word for ‘fishhook’ (a relative of modern English angler and angling) to name it.

From earliest times the adjective English seems to have been used for all the Germanic peoples who came to Britain, including the Saxons and Jutes, as well as the Angles (at the beginning of the 8th century Bede referred to them collectively as gens anglorum ‘race of Angles’). The earliest record of its use with reference to the English language is by Alfred the Great.
=> angler, angling
engrave: engrave: see grave
engross: engross: see gross
length: length: [OE] Length was coined in the prehistoric Germanic period from the adjective *langgaz (source of English long) and the abstract noun suffix *-ithō. The resultant *langgithō has subsequently diversified to Dutch lengte, Swedish längd, Danish længde, and English length. (German has plumped for the different noun derivative länge ‘length’, whose English relative lenge ‘length’ survived until the 17th century.)
=> long
passenger: passenger: [14] Originally a passenger was a passager – someone who goes on a ‘passage’, makes a journey. The word was borrowed from Old French passager, at first an adjective meaning ‘passing’, which was derived from passage. The n began to appear in the mid-15th century, a product of the same phonetic process as produced the n of harbinger and messenger.
=> pass
penguin: penguin: [16] Penguin is one of the celebrated mystery words of English etymology. It first appears towards the end of the 16th century (referring to the ‘great auk’ as well as to the ‘penguin’) in accounts of voyages to the southern oceans, but no one has ever ascertained where it came from. A narrative of 1582 noted ‘The countrymen call them Penguins (which seemeth to be a Welsh name)’, and in 1613 John Selden speculated that the name came from Welsh pen gwyn ‘white head’.

Etymologists since have not been able to come up with a better guess than this, but it is at odds with the fact that the great auk had a mainly black head, and so do penguins. The earliest known reference to the word (from 1578) mentions the birds being found on an ‘island named Penguin’, off Newfoundland, so it could be that it was originally the name of the island (perhaps ‘white (i.e. snow-covered) headland’) rather than of the bird.

However, a further objection to this theory is that a combination based on Welsh pen gwyn would have produced penwyn, not penguin.
revenge: revenge: see vindicate
scavenger: scavenger: [15] A scavenger was originally a scavager – the extra n is the same as that intruded into messenger, passenger, etc. This was acquired from Anglo-Norman scawager, and it started life as a term for an official whose job was to collect taxes levied on foreign merchants. Etymologically it denoted ‘inspector’, for it was derived from the verb escauwer ‘inspect’, which was borrowed from Flemish scauwen ‘look at’, a relative of English show.

By the 16th century the scavenger had begun to come down in the world, first to a ‘street-cleaner’ and finally to ‘one who gathers or lives on what others have thrown away’. The verb scavenge was derived from it in the 17th century.
=> show
strength: strength: [OE] Strength is of course closely related to strong. It was formed in prehistoric Germanic (as *stranggithō) from the ancestor of modern English strong. The verb strengthen was coined from it in the 13th century.
=> string, strong
vengeance: vengeance: see vindicate
arms-length (n.): 1650s, from arm (n.1) + length. At arm's end is recorded from 1570s.
avenge (v.): late 14c., from Anglo-French avenger, Old French avengier, from a- "to" (see ad-) + vengier "take revenge" (Modern French venger), from Latin vindicare "to claim, avenge, punish" (see vindicate). Related: Avenged; avenging.
avenger (n.): 1530s, agent noun from avenge (v.). Spenser (1596) has avengeress but no mention of Mrs. Peel.
Bengal: region in South Asia, named for its people, said to be from Banga, name of a founding chief. It is attested in Europe as far back as Marco Polo (1298), who wrote of Bangala.
Black English (n.): English as spoken by African-Americans, by 1969.
camerlengo (n.): "papal chamberlain," from Italian camerlingo "chamberlain" (see chamberlain).
challenge (n.): early 14c., "something one can be accused of, a fault, blemish;" mid-14c., "false accusation, malicious charge; accusation of wrong-doing," also "act of laying claim" (to something), from Anglo-French chalenge, Old French chalonge "calumny, slander; demand, opposition," in legal use, "accusation, claim, dispute," from Anglo-French chalengier, Old French chalongier "to accuse, to dispute" (see challenge (v.)). Accusatory connotations died out 17c. Meanings "an objection" in law, etc.; "a calling to fight" are from mid-15c. Meaning "difficult task" is from 1954.
challenge (v.): c. 1200, "to rebuke," from Old French chalongier "complain, protest; haggle, quibble," from Vulgar Latin calumniare "to accuse falsely," from Latin calumniari "to accuse falsely, misrepresent, slander," from calumnia "trickery" (see calumny).

From late 13c. as "to object to, take exception to;" c. 1300 as "to accuse," especially "to accuse falsely," also "to call to account;" late 14c. as "to call to fight." Also used in Middle English with sense "claim, take to oneself." Related: Challenged; challenging.
challenged (adj.): as a euphemism for "disabled," 1985, past participle adjective from challenge (v.).
challenger (n.): late 13c., "a claimant;" mid-14c., "one who makes false charges;" mid-15c., "one who disputes something, objector," from Anglo-French chalengeour (Old French chalongeor "slanderer, petitioner, plaintiff"), agent noun from challenge (v.). Specific sense of "one who calls out another in a contest" is from 1510s.
dengue (n.): 1828, from West Indian Spanish dengue, from an African source, perhaps Swahili dinga "seizure, cramp," form influenced by Spanish dengue "prudery" (perhaps because sufferers walk stiffly and erect due to painful joints). The disease is African, introduced to the West Indies 1827.
disengage (v.): c. 1600 in figurative sense; 1660s in literal sense of "detach," from dis- "do the opposite of" + engage (q.v.). Related: Disengaged; disengaging.
disengagement (n.): 1640s; see disengage + -ment.
engage (v.): early 15c., "to pledge" (something, as security for payment), from Old French engagier "bind (by promise or oath), pledge; pawn" (12c.), from phrase en gage "under pledge," from en "in" (see en- (1)) + gage "pledge," through Frankish from Proto-Germanic *wadiare "pledge" (see wed). It shows the common evolution of Germanic -w- to central French -g- (see gu-). Meaning "attract and occupy the attention of" is from 1640s; that of "employ, secure for aid, employment or use" is from 1640s, from notion of "binding as by a pledge;" meaning "enter into combat or contest with" is from 1640s. Specific sense of "promise to marry" is 1610s (implied in engaged). Machinery sense is from 1884. Also from the French word are German engagiren, Dutch engageren, Danish engagere.
engaged (adj.): "affianced, betrothed," 1610s, past participle adjective from engage. Of telephone lines from 1891.
engagement (n.): 1620s, "formal promise," from engage + -ment. Meaning "a battle or fight between armies or fleets" is from 1660s; sense of "state of having entered into a promise of marriage" is from 1742; meaning "appointment" is from 1806. Engagement ring attested by 1863.
engaging (adj.): "interesting, winning, attractive," 1670s, present participle adjective from engage. Related: Engagingly.
engender (v.): early 14c., "beget, procreate," from Old French engendrer (12c.) "give birth to, beget, bear; cause, bring about," from Latin ingenerare "to implant, engender, produce," from in- "in" (see in- (2)) + generare "beget, create" (see generation). With euphonious -d- in French. Also from early 14c. engendered was used in a theological sense, with reference to Jesus, "derived (from God)." Meaning "cause, produce" is mid-14c. Related: Engendering.
engine (n.): c. 1300, "mechanical device," especially one used in war; "manner of construction," also "skill, craft, innate ability; deceitfulness, trickery," from Old French engin "skill, wit, cleverness," also "trick, deceit, stratagem; war machine" (12c.), from Latin ingenium "inborn qualities, talent" (see ingenious), in Late Latin "a war engine, battering ram" (Tertullian, Isidore of Seville). Sense of "device that converts energy to mechanical power" is 18c.; in 19c. especially of steam engines.
engineer (n.): mid-14c., enginour, "constructor of military engines," from Old French engigneor "engineer, architect, maker of war-engines; schemer" (12c.), from Late Latin ingeniare (see engine); general sense of "inventor, designer" is recorded from early 15c.; civil sense, in reference to public works, is recorded from c. 1600 but not the common meaning of the word until 19c (hence lingering distinction as civil engineer). Meaning "locomotive driver" is first attested 1832, American English. A "maker of engines" in ancient Greece was a mekhanopoios.
engineer (v.): 1818, "act as an engineer," from engineer (n.). Figurative sense of "arrange, contrive, guide or manage (via ingenuity or tact)" is attested from 1864, originally in a political context. Related: Engineered. Middle English had a verb engine "contrive, construct" (late 14c.), also "seduce, trick, deceive" (c. 1300) and "put to torture."
engineering (n.): 1720, "work done by an engineer," from engineer (n.). As a field of study, attested from 1792. An earlier word was engineership (1640s); engineery was attempted in 1793, but it did not stick.
engird (v.): 1560s, from en- (1) "in" + gird (v.). Related: Engirt; engirded.
England (n.): Old English Engla land, literally "the land of the Angles" (see English (n.1)), used alongside Angelcynn "the English race," which, with other forms, shows Anglo-Saxon persistence in thinking in terms of tribes rather than place. By late Old English times both words had come to be used with a clear sense of place, not people; a Dane, Canute, is first to call himself "King of England." By the 14c. the name was being used in reference to the entire island of Great Britain and to the land of the Celtic Britons before the Anglo-Saxon conquest. The loss of one of the duplicate syllables is a case of haplology.
English (n.1): "the people of England; the speech of England," noun use of Old English adjective Englisc (contrasted to Denisc, Frencisce, etc.), "of or pertaining to the Angles," from Engle (plural) "the Angles," the name of one of the Germanic groups that overran the island 5c., supposedly so-called because Angul, the land they inhabited on the Jutland coast, was shaped like a fish hook (see angle (n.)). Reinforced by Anglo-French engleis. Cognates: Dutch Engelsch, German Englisch, Danish Engelsk, French Anglais (Old French Engelsche), Spanish Inglés, Italian Inglese.

Englisc was used from earliest times without distinction for all the Germanic invaders -- Angles, Saxon, Jutes (Bede's gens Anglorum) -- and applied to their group of related languages by Alfred the Great. "The name English for the language is thus older than the name England for the country" [OED]. After 1066, of the native population of England (as distinguished from Normans and French occupiers), a distinction which lasted about a generation. But as late as Robert of Gloucester's "Chronicle" (c. 1300) it also was sometimes distinguished from "Saxon" ("Þe englisse in þe norþ half, þe saxons bi souþe").
"... when Scots & others are likely to be within earshot, Britain & British should be inserted as tokens, but no more, of what is really meant" [Fowler]
In pronunciation, "En-" has become "In-," perhaps through the frequency of -ing- words and the relative rarity of -e- before -ng- in the modern language, but the older spelling has remained. Meaning "English language or literature as a subject at school" is from 1889. Old English meaning the Anglo-Saxon language before the Conquest is attested from c. 1200 in an account of the native (as opposed to Latin) month names.
English (n.2): "spin imparted to a ball" (as in billiards), 1860, from French anglé "angled" (see angle (n.)), which is similar to Anglais "English."
English (adj.): Old English, "belonging to the English people;" late 13c., "belonging to England," from English (n.1). The adverb Englishly (mid-15c.) is rare.
english (v.): "to translate into English," late 14c., from English (n.1) in the language sense. Related: Englished; englishing.
Englishman: Old English Engliscman, from English (n.1) + man (n.). Related: Englishmen. Englishwoman is from c. 1400. Englander "native of England" is from 1820; in some cases from German Engländer. Englisher is from 1680s. Englishry is from late 13c. in Anglo-French as "state of being English;" from mid-15c. as "the English people or faction."
engorge (v.): 1510s, "fill to excess," from French engorger "to obstruct, block, congest," Old French engorgier "to swallow, devour," from en- (see en- (1)) + gorge "throat" (see gorge (n.)). Probably originally in reference to hawks. Related: Engorged; engorging.
engorgement (n.): 1610s, from engorge + -ment or else from French engorgement.
engraft (v.): 1580s, from en- (1) + graft (n.). Originally figurative. Related: Engrafted; engrafting.
engrain (v.): also ingrain, late 14c., originally "dye (a fabric) red with cochineal," from French phrase en graine, from graine "seed of a plant," also "cochineal" (the source of the dye was thought to be berries), thus "fast-dyed." See grain; also compare kermes. Later associated with grain in the sense of "the fiber of a thing." Used figuratively from 16c. Related: Engrained.
engrave (v.): mid-15c. (implied in ingraved "engraved"), from en- (1) + obsolete verb grave "carve" (see grave (v.)) or from or modeled on French engraver. Related: Engraved; engraven; engraving.
engraver (n.): 1580s, agent noun from engrave.
engraving (n.): c. 1600, "act of cutting designs, etc. on a hard surface," verbal noun from engrave (v.). Meaning "that which is engraved" is from 1610s; meaning "impression taken from an engraved plate" is from 1803.