英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

bittern [bittern 词源字典]: bittern: [14] The Latin word for ‘bittern’ (a marsh bird) was būtiō, but by the time it reached Old French it had become butor. The discrepancy has been accounted for by proposing a Vulgar Latin intermediate *būtitaurus, literally ‘bittern-bull’ (Latin taurus is ‘bull’), coined on the basis of the bittern’s loud booming call, supposedly reminiscent of a bull’s. The original English forms, as borrowed from Old French, were botor and bitoure; the final -n first appeared in the 16th century, perhaps on the analogy of heron.
[bittern etymology, bittern origin, 英语词源]
cistern: cistern: see chest
cittern: cittern: see guitar
concern: concern: [15] In earliest use, English concern meant ‘distinguish, discern’. This was a reflection of its ultimate source, Latin cernere ‘sift, separate’. In combination with the prefix com- ‘together’ it produced concernere, which in classical times meant specifically ‘mix together preparatory to sifting’. Later, however, the prefix seems to have taken on a more intensive role, with concernere reverting to the same range of senses as cernere.

By the Middle Ages these not only included ‘discern, perceive’ and ‘decide’ (whence English certain, from the past participle of cernere), but had widened considerably to ‘relate to’ – a meaning which emerged in English concern in the 16th century. Connotations of distress or worry began to develop in the late 17th century.
=> certain, discern
consternation: consternation: see strata
cybernetics: cybernetics: [20] Cybernetics was first coined in French, as cybernétique, in the 1830s. But then it was used literally for the ‘art of governing’ (it is a derivative of Greek kubernétēs ‘steersman, governor’, from kubernan ‘steer’, source of English govern). The English term, ‘theory of control and communication processes’, is a new formation, introduced in the late 1940s by the founder of cybernetics, the US mathematician Norbert Wiener (1894–1964).
=> govern
discern: discern: [14] Discern, discreet, discrete, and discriminate all come ultimately from the same source, Latin discernere, literally ‘separate by sifting’, hence ‘distinguish’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix dis- ‘apart’ and cernere ‘sift, separate’ (source of English crime and secret and related to crisis).

The derived noun discrīmen formed the basis of a new Latin verb discrīmināre, from which English gets discriminate [17]. (Closely related is decree [14], whose ultimate source is Latin dēcernere ‘decide’, also a derivative of cernere but with the prefix dē-, denoting removal.)
=> certain, crime, crisis, decree, discreet, discrete, discriminate, excrement, secret
eternal: eternal: [14] Something that is eternal lasts literally for ‘aeons’. The word comes via Old French eternal from aeternālis, a late Latin development of the Latin adjective aeternus ‘eternal’. This in turn was a derivative of aevum ‘age’ (which crops up in English medieval, primeval, etc), a relative of Greek aión ‘age’ (from which English gets aeon) and archaic English aye ‘ever’.
=> aeon, aye, ever
fern: fern: [OE] Fern is a fairly widespread Indo- European word, represented among the other West Germanic languages by German farn and Dutch varen. It comes ultimately from Indo- European *porno-. This also produced Sanskrit parnám, which meant ‘feather’ as well as ‘leaf’, suggesting that the fern may have been named originally from the feathery leaves of some species.
fraternal: fraternal: [15] Etymologically as well as semantically, fraternal is ‘brotherly’. It comes from frāternālis, a medieval Latin derivative of Latin frāter ‘brother’. This goes back to the same prehistoric Indo-European source, *bhrāter, as produced English brother. The Latin accusative from, frātrem, produced French frère ‘brother’, from which English gets friar [13].
=> brother, friar, pal
govern: govern: [13] Politicians’ clichés about ‘steering the ship of state’ are no new thing; for the distant ancestor of English govern is the Greek verb kubernan ‘steer a ship’ (source also of English cybernetics). It developed the metaphorical sense ‘guide, rule’, and it was this that passed with it via Latin gubernāre and Old French governer into English. The Latin form is preserved in gubernatorial ‘of a governor’ [18].
=> cybernetics, gubernatorial
gubernatorial: gubernatorial: see govern
hibernate: hibernate: [19] The Latin word for ‘winter’ was hiems (it is the source of French hiver, Italian inverno, and Spanish invierno, and is related to a number of other ‘winter’ or ‘snow’ words, such as Greek kheima, modern Irish geimhreadh, Russian zima, and Sanskrit hima- – the Himalayas are etymologically the ‘snowy’ mountains – which point back to a common Indo-European ancestor *gheim-, *ghyem-).

From it was derived the adjective hībernus, whose neuter plural form hīberna was used as a noun meaning ‘winter quarters’. This in turn formed the basis of a verb hībernāre ‘pass the winter’, whose English descendant hibernate was apparently first used by the British naturalist Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles) around 1800. (Hibernia, incidentally, the Romans’ name for ‘Ireland’, comes ultimately from Old Celtic *Iveriu, source also of Erin and the Ire- of Ireland, but its Latin form was influenced by hībernus, as if it meant ‘wintry land’.)
=> himalayas
inferno: inferno: [19] Etymologically, an inferno is that which is ‘below’. The word comes ultimately from Latin infernus, meaning ‘situated below, subterranean’. In ancient mythology, the nether regions were the abode of the dead, so inferna came to be used as the equivalent of Dis, and the Greek Hades. In Jewish and Christian belief, this basement area was the realm of evil spirits, and consequently in late Latin infernus came to cover much the same semantic ground as English hell.

In Italian this became inferno, and English adopted it (strongly under the influence of the Inferno of Dante’s Divine Comedy) in that form in the early 19th century. Its metaphorical use for ‘intense heat’, inspired by the stereotypical flames of hell, is a comparatively recent development. Meanwhile the related infernal [14] (from late Latin infernalis) had long since taken up residence in English, and by the 18th century was being used as an expletive (as in ‘their infernal cheek’).
internecine: internecine: [17] Etymologically, internecine denotes ‘attended by great slaughter’. Its modern connotations of ‘conflict within a group’, which can be traced back to the 18th century (Dr Johnson in his Dictionary 1755 defines it as ‘endeavouring mutual destruction’), presumably arise from the standard interpretation of inter- as ‘among, between’. But in fact in the case of internecine it was originally used simply as an intensive prefix.

The word was borrowed from Latin internecīnus, a derivative of internecāre ‘slaughter, exterminate’. This was a compound verb formed with the intensive inter- from necāre ‘kill’ (a relative of English necromancy and pernicious).
=> necromancy, pernicious
juggernaut: juggernaut: [17] Hindi Jagganath is a title of Krishna, one of the avatars, or incarnations, of the god Vishnu, the Preserver. It comes from Sanskrit Jagganātha, a compound of jagat- ‘world’ and nāthás ‘lord’. It is applied also to a large wagon on which an image of the god is carried in procession (notably in an annual festival in Puri, a town in the northeastern Indian state of Orissa).

It used to be said, apocryphally, that worshippers of Krishna threw themselves under the wheels of the wagon in an access of religious ecstasy, and so juggernaut came to be used metaphorically in English for an ‘irresistible crushing force’: ‘A neighbouring people were crushed beneath the worse than Jaggernaut car of wild and fierce democracy’, J W Warter, Last of the Old Squires 1854.

The current application to large heavy lorries is prefigured as long ago as 1841 in William Thackeray’s Second Funeral of Napoleon (‘Fancy, then, the body landed at day-break and transferred to the car; and fancy the car, a huge Juggernaut of a machine’); but it did not become firmly established until the late 1960s.
kernel: kernel: [OE] Etymologically, a kernel is a ‘little seed’. Old English corn, ancestor of modern English corn, meant ‘seed, grain’, and its diminutive form cyrnel was applied to ‘pips’ (now obsolete), to ‘seeds’ (a sense which now survives only in the context of cereals), and to the ‘inner part of nuts, fruit stones, etc’.
=> corn
lantern: lantern: [13] Like lamp, lantern comes ultimately from the Greek verb lámbein ‘give light, shine’. Derived from this was the noun lamptér, which originally denoted ‘bunch of burning sticks, torch’, but was later extended to ‘lamp’. Latin borrowed it, and tacked on the ending of lucerna ‘lamp’ to produce lanterna, which English acquired via Old French lanterne. The translucent cover of lanterns was in former times usually made of horn, and so popular etymology from the 16th to the 19th centuries produced the spelling lanthorn.
=> lamp
maternal: maternal: [15] Maternal and maternity [17] are the central English representatives of the Romance-language branch of the great Indo- European ‘mother’ word-family. Both go back to Latin māter ‘mother’ (source of French mère and Italian and Spanish madre), whose derived adjective māternus reached English via Old French maternel. Other English words that come ultimately from māter include material and matter, matrix [16] (from which also come madrigal and matriculate [16], etymologically ‘enter on a matrix or list’), and matrimony [14].
=> mother
modern: modern: [16] Latin modus (source of English mode and model) meant ‘measure’. Its ablative form modō hence originally denoted ‘to the measure’, but it subsequently came to be used as an adverb meaning ‘just now’. And in postclassical times an adjective modernus was derived from it, signifying ‘of the present time’ – source, via French, of English modern. At first it was used strictly for ‘of the present moment’, but before the end of the 16th century the now familiar sense ‘of the present age’ had begun to emerge.
=> mode, model
paraphernalia: paraphernalia: [17] In former times, when a woman married her property was divided into two categories: her dowry, which became the property of her husband, and the rest. The legal term for the latter was paraphernalia, which came via medieval Latin from late Latin parapherna, a borrowing from Greek parápherna. And the Greek word in turn was a compound formed from pará ‘beside’ and pherné ‘dowry’. It is a measure of the light in which these remaining odds and ends were viewed that by the early 18th century the term paraphernalia had come to be used dismissively for ‘equipment’ or ‘impedimenta’.
paternal: paternal: see patron
paternity: paternity: see patron
paternoster: paternoster: see patron
pattern: pattern: [14] Etymologically, pattern and patron are the same word. When it arrived in Old French as patron (from Latin patrōnus), it had roughly the range of senses of modern English patron, including that of ‘one who commissions work’. But it had also acquired one other. Someone who pays for work to be done often gives an example of what he wants for the workman to copy: and so patrōnus had developed the meaning ‘example, exemplar’.

This passed into English from Old French along with the other meanings of patron, and not until the 17th century did it begin to be differentiated by the spelling pattern. The sense ‘decorative design’ emerged in the 16th century.
=> patron
pimpernel: pimpernel: [15] The burnet, a plant of the rose family, has fruit that look like peppercorns. It was therefore termed in Vulgar Latin *piperīnella, a derivative of *piperīnus ‘pepperlike’, which in turn was based on Latin piper ‘pepper’ (source of English pepper). This passed into Old French as piprenelle, which was later altered to pimpernelle – hence English pimpernel. This too denoted the ‘burnet’, and it is not clear how it came to be applied (as early as the 15th century) to the small red-flowered plant of the primrose family, its current usage.
=> pepper
stern: stern: English has two distinct words stern. The older, the adjective ‘severe’ [OE], comes from a prehistoric Germanic *sternjaz, which was probably derived from the base *ster-, *star- ‘be rigid’ (source also of English starch, stare, starve, etc). Stern ‘rear of a vessel’ [13] is etymologically the ‘steering’ end of a ship. The word was probably borrowed from Old Norse stjórn ‘steering’, a derivative of the same base as produced stýra ‘steer’ (source of English steer).
=> starch, stare, starve, stereo, stork; steer
tabernacle: tabernacle: see tavern
tavern: tavern: [13] Tavern comes via Old French taverne from Latin taberna ‘hut, inn’, a word possibly of Etruscan origin. Derived from taberna, in the sense ‘hut’, was the diminutive form tabernāculum ‘tent’, which was borrowed into English as tabernacle [13]. Its original application was to the tent which according to the Bible covered the Ark of the Covenant.
=> tabernacle
wyvern: wyvern: see viper
afternoon (n.): c. 1300, from after + noon. In 15c.-16c., the form was at afternoon; from c. 1600 it has been in the afternoon. Middle English also had aftermete "afternoon, part of the day following the noon meal," mid-14c.
Algernon: masc. proper name, literally "with mustaches," from Old French als gernons, from a les "to the, with the" + gernon, variant of grenon "mustache," from Vulgar Latin *granonem, from a Germanic source (compare Old English granu "mustache").
alternate (adj.): 1510s, from Latin alternatus "one after the other," past participle of alternare "to do first one thing then the other; exchange parts," from alternus "one after the other, alternate, in turns, reciprocal," from alter "the other" (see alter). Alternate means "by turns;" alternative means "offering a choice." Both imply two kinds or things.
alternate (v.): 1590s, from Latin alternatus, past participle of alternare (see alternate (adj.)). Replaced Middle English alternen "to vary, alternate" (early 15c.). Related: Alternated; alternating.
alternate (n.): 1718, "that which alternates (with anything else)," from alternate (adj.). Meaning "a substitute" is first attested 1848.
alternately (adv.): early 15c., from alternate (adj.) + -ly (2).
alternating (adj.): 1550s, present participle adjective from alternate (v.). Alternating current is recorded from 1839.
alternation (n.): mid-15c., from Old French alternacion, from Latin alternationem (nominative alternatio), noun of action from past participle stem of alternare (see alternate (v.)).
alternative (adj.): 1580s, "offering one or the other of two," from Medieval Latin alternativus, from Latin alternatus, past participle of alternare (see alternate (v.)). Meaning "purporting to be a superior choice to what is in general use" was current by 1970 (earliest reference is to the media). Alternative energy is from 1975. Related: Alternatively.
alternative (n.): 1620s, in rhetoric, from Medieval Latin alternativus (see alternative (adj.)). Of courses of action, from 1814. Of objects, etc., "the other of two which may be chosen," by 1838.
alternator (n.): 1878, agent noun in Latin form from alternate (v.).
astern (adv.): 1620s, from a- (1) "on" + stern (n.).
Bern: Swiss capital, probably originally from PIE root *ber- "marshy place," but by folk etymology from German Bär "bear" (compare Berlin). Related: Bernese.
Bernard: masc. proper name, from German Bernhard, literally "bold as a bear," from Old High German bero "bear" (see bear (n.)) + harti "hard, bold, strong" (see hard (adj.)).
Bernicia: Anglo-Saxon kingdom in northernmost England, founded by mid-6c., eventually merged into Northumbria; the name evidently is a survival of a pre-invasion Celtic name, perhaps that represented by Welsh Bryneich.
Bernoulli's principle: named for Dutch mathematician Daniel Bernoulli (1700-1782), who published it in 1738.
bittern (n.): heron-like bird, 13c., botor, from Old French butor "bittern," perhaps from Gallo-Roman *butitaurus, from Latin butionem "bittern" + taurus "bull" (see steer (n.)); according to Pliny, so called because of its booming voice, but this seems fanciful. Modern form from 1510s.
bitterness (n.): Old English biternys "bitterness, grief;" see bitter + -ness. Figurative sense (of feelings, etc.) is attested earlier than literal sense (of taste), which will surprise no one who reads any amount of Anglo-Saxon literature.
butternut (n.): also butter-nut, 1753, nut of the white walnut, a North American tree; transferred to the tree itself from 1783. The nut's color was a brownish-gray, hence the word was used (1861) to describe the warm gray color of the Southern army uniforms in the American Civil War.
cabernet (n.): family of grapes, or wine made from them, 1833, from French. Supposedly the best of them, cabernet sauvignon is attested in English from 1846.