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abscess [abscess 词源字典]: abscess: [16] Abscess comes, via French abcès, from Latin abscessus, a noun derived from abscēdere ‘go away’. The constituent parts of this compound verb are abs ‘away’ and cēdere ‘go’, which has given English cede and a whole range of other words, such as accede and recede. The notion linking ‘abscesses’ and ‘going away’ was that impure or harmful bodily humours were eliminated, or ‘went away’, via the pus that gathered in abscesses.

It originated amongst the Greeks, who indeed had a word for it: apostema. This meant literally ‘separation’ (apo ‘away’ and histánai ‘stand’), and Latin abscessus was an approximate translation of it, possibly by Aulus Cornelius Celsus, the Roman writer on medical and other matters.
=> accede, cede, recede[abscess etymology, abscess origin, 英语词源]
address: address: [14] Address originally meant ‘straighten’. William Caxton, for example, here uses it for ‘stand up straight’: ‘The first day that he was washed and bathed he addressed him[self] right up in the basin’ Golden Legend 1483. This gives a clue to its ultimate source, Latin dīrectum ‘straight, direct’. The first two syllables of this seem gradually to have merged together to produce *drictum, which with the addition of the prefix ad- was used to produce the verb *addrictiāre.

Of its descendants in modern Romance languages, Italian addirizzare most clearly reveals its source. Old French changed it fairly radically, to adresser, and it was this form which English borrowed. The central current sense of ‘where somebody lives’ developed in the 17th and 18th centuries from the notion of directing something, such as a letter, to somebody.
=> direct
aggression: aggression: [17] The violent associations of aggression have developed from the much milder notion of ‘approaching’ somebody. The Latin verb aggredī ‘attack’ was based on the prefix ad- ‘towards’ and gradī ‘walk’, a verb derived in its turn from the noun gradus ‘step’ (from which English gets, among many others, grade, gradual, and degree).
=> degree, grade, gradual
assess: assess: [15] The literal meaning of Latin assidēre, ultimate source of assess, was ‘sit beside someone’ (it was a compound verb formed from the prefix ad- ‘near’ and sedēre ‘sit’, a relative of English sit). This developed the secondary meaning ‘sit next to a judge and assist him in his deliberations’ (which lies behind English assize), and in medieval Latin the sense passed from helping the judge to performing his functions, particularly in fixing the amount of a fine or tax to be paid.

Hence English assess, which came via Old French assesser from Latin assess-, the past participial stem of assidēre. (The Latin adjective assiduus, formed from assidēre in the sense ‘apply oneself to something’, gave English assiduous [16].)
=> assiduous, assize, session, sit, size
bless: bless: [OE] Bless occurs in no other language than English, and originally meant ‘mark with blood’, from some sort of religious rite in which such marking conferred sanctity. It probably goes back to a prehistoric Germanic formation *blōthisōjan, a derivative of *blōtham ‘blood’, which was taken up by no Germanic language other than Old English. Here it produced blētsian, which by the 13th century had become blesse. The word’s connotations of ‘happiness’ and ‘well-being’, which go back at least to the year 1000, were probably influenced by the etymologically unrelated bliss.
=> blood
burgess: burgess: see borough
cessation: cessation: see cease
cesspool: cesspool: [17] Cesspool has no direct etymological connection with pool. It comes from Old French suspirail ‘ventilator, breathing hole’, a derivative of souspirer ‘breathe’ (this goes back to Latin suspīrāre, source of the archaic English suspire ‘sigh’). This was borrowed into English in the early 15th century as suspiral ‘drainpipe’, which in the subsequent two hundred years appeared in a variety of spellings, including cesperalle.

By the early 16th century we find evidence of its being used not just for a pipe to drain matter away, but also for a well or tank to receive matter thus drained (originally any effluent, not just sewage). The way was thus open for a ‘reinterpretation’ of the word’s final element as pool (by the process known as folk etymology), and in the late 17th century the form cesspool emerged.

By analogy, as if there were really a word cess ‘sewage’, the term cesspit was coined in the mid-19th century.
=> suspire
chess: chess: [13] The game of chess was named after its key move, in which the king is put in check. The plural of Old French eschec (from which we get check) was esches, which in Middle English became chess. (A roughly contemporary English term for the game was chequer, but this died out in the 15th century.) Old French eschec came ultimately from Persian shāh ‘king’, reflecting the game’s eastern origins. However, the terms for the game in Persian (chatrang) and Sanskrit (chaturanga) signify ‘four members of an army’ – namely, elephants, horses, chariots, and foot-soldiers.
=> check, cheque, exchequer
compress: compress: see press
confess: confess: [14] Confess comes from Latin confitērī ‘acknowledge’. This was a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix com- and fatērī ‘admit’ (a relative of English fable, fame, and fate). Its past participle was confessus, and this was taken as the basis of a new Vulgar Latin verb *confessāre, which passed into English via Old French confesser.
=> fable, fame, fate
congress: congress: [16] A congress is literally a ‘coming together’ – hence, a ‘meeting’. The word comes from Latin congressus, which was based on the past participial stem of congredī ‘come together’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix com- ‘together’ and gradī ‘go, walk’ (a derivative of gradus ‘step’, from which English gets grade, gradual, and graduate). The application of the word to the US legislature dates from the 1770s.
=> grade, gradual, graduate, progress, transgress
cresset: cresset: see grease
depress: depress: see press
dessert: dessert: see desert
digress: digress: see gradual
dress: dress: [14] Dress originally meant literally ‘put right, put straight’. It comes via Old French dresser from Vulgar Latin *dīrectiāre, a derivative of Latin dīrectus ‘straight’ (from which English gets direct). Traces of this underlying sense survive in the word’s application to the correct aligning of columns of troops, but its main modern signification, ‘clothe’, comes via a more generalized line of semantic development ‘prepare’ (as in ‘dress a turkey for the oven’), and hence ‘array, equip’. (English address developed in parallel with dress, and comes from the same ultimate source.) Dresser ‘sideboard’ [15] was borrowed from Old French dresseur, a derivative of dresser in the sense ‘prepare’.
=> address, direct
duchess: duchess: see duke
duress: duress: [14] Etymologically, duress means literally ‘hardness’, and that was what it was used for when English first acquired it. It comes via Old French duresse from Latin dūritia, a derivative of the adjective dūrus ‘hard’ (from which English gets during). The current sense ‘constraint’ developed during the 15th century.
=> during, endure
espresso: espresso: [20] Etymologically, espresso is coffee that has been ‘pressed out’. The word comes from Italian caffè espresso, literally ‘pressed-out coffee’, which refers to the way in which the coffee is made by forcing pressurized steam or boiling water through the finely ground beans. Espresso is the past participle of esprimere ‘press out’, from Latin exprimere – which is also the source of English express.
essay: essay: [15] Essay and assay [14] are fundamentally the same word, and only began to diverge in the 15th century. Both come via Old French assaier from Vulgar Latin *exagiāre ‘weigh out’, a verb derived from late Latin exagium ‘weighing’; this in turn was formed from the Latin verb exigere ‘weigh’ (source of English exact and examine).

Accordingly, both originally had underlying connotations of ‘testing by weighing’. But while these have become more concrete in assay ‘analyse precious metals’, essay has, under the influence of French essayer, gone down the more metaphorical route from ‘test’ to ‘try’. The verb now survives only in fairly formal use, but the noun is much more frequent, owing to its application to a ‘short nonfictional literary composition’.

It was first used thus in English by Francis Bacon in 1597 as the title of a collection of such pieces, and it is generally assumed that he borrowed the idea from the Essais of Montaigne, published in 1580.
=> assay, exact, examine
essence: essence: [14] Essence and its derivative essential [14] are the English descendants of the Latin verb ‘to be’, esse (which came ultimately from the Indo-European base *es- ‘be’, source also of English is). From it was formed the abstract noun essentia ‘being, existence’, acquired by English through Old French essence. In the adjective essential, the sense ‘absolutely necessary’ developed via ‘inherent’ and ‘indispensable’ in the 16th century.
=> is
express: express: [14] Something that is expressed is literally ‘pressed out’. The word comes via Old French from Vulgar Latin *expressāre, a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and pressāre ‘press’. Its meaning developed metaphorically from ‘press out’ to ‘form by pressure’ (presumably applied originally to modelling in clay or some similar substance, and subsequently to sculpture and then painting), and finally to ‘make known in words’.

The Vulgar Latin verb was in fact moving in on territory already occupied by its classical Latin forerunner exprimere (source of French exprimer ‘express’ and perhaps of English sprain [17]). The past participle of this was expressus, used adjectivally for ‘prominent, distinct, explicit’. Old French took it over as expres and passed it on to English in the 14th century.

By now its meaning was moving towards ‘intended for a particular purpose’, and in the 19th century it was applied to ‘special’ trains (as in ‘football specials’). It did not take long, however, for this to slip via ‘train for people wanting to go to a particular place, and therefore not stopping anywhere else’ to ‘fast train’. Hence the modern sense of express, ‘fast’, was born.
=> espresso, press, sprain
feckless: feckless: [16] From an etymological point of view, feckless is simply another way of saying ineffective. It originated in Scotland, where from the 15th century the local population economized on the pronunciation of effect, reducing it to feck (this survived into modern times in the sense ‘efficacy’). From it was formed feckless, literally ‘having no effect’, and also feckful ‘efficient, vigorous’, which never made it further south than northern England.
=> effect
fortress: fortress: see fort
guess: guess: [13] In the earliest records we have of the verb guess, it is used for ‘take aim’. The modern sense ‘estimate’ did not emerge until the mid- 14th century. It seems to be of Scandinavian origin, and probably comes ultimately from the same base as produced get (Old Norse geta meant ‘guess’ as well as ‘get’, and the semantic progression hinted at by the intermediate ‘take aim’ is probably via ‘lock on to something in one’s sights’ to ‘fix on a particular figure’ – by implication, without exact calculation). Guesstimate, a blend of guess and estimate, is a US coinage of the 1930s.
=> get
harness: harness: [13] Etymologically, harness is ‘equipment for an army’. It comes via Old French herneis ‘military equipment’ from an unrecorded Old Norse *hernest, a compound formed from herr ‘army’ (a descendant of prehistoric Germanic *kharjaz ‘crowd’ and related to English harangue, harbinger, harbour, and harry) and nest ‘provisions’.

English took it over in the general sense ‘equipment’, and did not apply it specifically to the straps, buckles, etc of a horse until the 14th century (it was originally used for any equestrian equipment, including reins, saddles, etc, but now it denotes exclusively the gear of a draught horse).
=> harangue, harbinger, harbour, harry, herald
hessian: hessian: [19] In common with many other sorts of textile, such as denim, jersey, and worsted, hessian’s name reveals its place of origin. In this case it was Hesse, formerly a grand duchy, nowadays a state of West Germany, in the western central part of the country.
impress: impress: see press
less: less: [OE] In origin, less is a comparative form. It goes back ultimately to Indo-European *loiso- ‘small’, which in prehistoric Germanic had the comparative suffix added to it to produce *laisiz – whence English less. It is not found in any of the other modern Germanic languages.
=> least
lessee: lessee: see lease
lesson: lesson: [13] Etymologically, a lesson is ‘something read’ – as indeed the lesson read in church still is. The word comes via Old French lecon from Latin lectiō ‘reading’, a derivative of the verb legere ‘read’ (from which English gets lectern, lecture, etc). The word’s educational sense arose from the notion of a passage of text that a child had to read and learn.
=> lectern, lecture, legible
listless: listless: see list
mattress: mattress: [13] Etymologically, a mattress is something ‘thrown’ down on the floor to lie on. The word comes via Old French materas and Italian materasso from Arabic matrah ‘mat, cushion’, a derivative of the verb taraha ‘throw’.
mess: mess: [13] Mess comes via Old French mes from late Latin missus, a derivative of the verb mittere ‘send’ (source of English admit, mission, transmit, etc). This meant ‘sending, placement’, and its original metaphorical application was to a ‘round or heat of a contest’, but it was also used for a ‘course of a meal’, and this was the sense in which it originally entered English.

Traces of the food connection survive in the mess of pottage (literally a ‘dish of porridge or gruel’ made from lentils) for which Esau sold his birthright to Jacob, and in the sense ‘communal eating place’ (as in ‘sergeants’ mess’), which developed in the 16th century. But the main present-day meaning, ‘disorderly thing or condition’, did not emerge until as recently as the 19th century, apparently based on the notion of a mess as a ‘dish of assorted foodstuffs dumped unceremoniously and without thought on to a plate’.
=> admit, commit, mission, permit, transmit
message: message: [13] Etymologically, a message is something that is ‘sent’. The word comes via Old French message from Vulgar Latin *missāticum, a derivative of the Latin verb mittere (from which English also gets admit, mission, transmit, etc). Messenger [13] comes from the Old French derivative messager, and was originally messager in English; the n is a 14thcentury intruder, found also in such words as harbinger and passenger.
=> admit, commit, mess, mission, permit
messieurs: messieurs: see sir
messrs: messrs: see sir
mistress: mistress: see master
necessary: necessary: [14] The original Latin adjective meaning ‘necessary’ was necesse (it was formed with the negative particle ne- from the stem of cēdere ‘yield’, source of English cede, and hence meant etymologically ‘unyielding’). This was subsequently extended to necessārius, and English acquired it via Anglo-Norman *necessarie.
=> cede, concede, proceed
ness: ness: see nose
oppress: oppress: see press
pessimism: pessimism: [18] The first English writer on record as using pessimism was the poet Coleridge, in the 1790s. But he employed it for the ‘worst possible state’. The modern sense ‘expecting the worst’ did not emerge until the early 19th century. The word was probably coined first in French, and was based on Latin pessimus ‘worst’.
possess: possess: [15] Latin potis ‘able, having power’ (source of English posse and potent) was combined with the verb sīdere ‘sit down’ (a relative of English sit) to form a new verb possīdere. This meant literally ‘sit down as the person in control’, hence by extension ‘take possession of’ and ultimately ‘have, own’. It passed into English via Old French possesser.
=> possible, potent, sit
predecessor: predecessor: [14] Etymologically, predecessor is first cousin to decease, but it has never taken on decease’s connotations of ‘dying’. Both go back to Latin dēcēdere ‘go away’ (a compound verb based on cēdere ‘go away’, source of English cede, concede, precede, etc), whose derived noun dēcessus ‘departure’ came to be used euphemistically for ‘death’ – whence English decease [14].

Combination with the prefix prae- ‘before’ with the derived dēcessor ‘leaver’ produced praedēcessor ‘one who leaves before’. Traces of this original meaning linger in English predecessor (acquired via Old French predecesseur) in the notion of ‘one who left office before the present incumbent took over’.
=> cede, concede, decease, precede, proceed, succeed
press: press: English has two words press. The commoner, and older, ‘exert force, push’ [14], comes via Old French presser from Latin pressāre, a verb derived from the past participle of premere ‘press’ (source of English print). The corresponding noun press (which actually arrived in English a century earlier in the now archaic sense ‘crowd’) originated as a derivative of the Old French verb.

Derived verbs in English include compress [14], depress [14], express, impress [14], oppress [14], repress [14], and suppress [14]. The other press, ‘force’ [16], is now found virtually only in the expression ‘press into service’ and in the compound press-gang [17]. It originally denoted ‘compel to join the navy, army, etc’, and was an alteration, under the influence of press ‘exert force’, of prest ‘pay recruits’.

This was a verbal use of Middle English prest ‘money given to recruits’, which was borrowed from Old French prest ‘loan’. This in turn was a derivative of the verb prester ‘lend’, which went back to Latin praestāre ‘provide’, a compound formed from the prefix prae- ‘before’ and stāre ‘stand’. Related to praestāre was Latin praestō ‘at hand’, from which have evolved French prêt ‘ready’ and Italian and Spanish presto ‘quick’ (English borrowed the Italian version as presto [16]).
=> compress, depress, express, impress, oppress, print, repress, suppress; presto, station
process: process: [14] Latin prōcēdere meant ‘go forward’: it was a compound verb formed from the prefix prō- ‘forward’ and cēdere ‘go’ (source of English cede, concede, etc), and has given English proceed [14] and procedure [17]. Its past participle prōcessus was used as a noun meaning ‘advance, progress, lapse of time’. This passed via Old French proces into English, where the notion of something ‘advancing during a period of time’ led in the 17th century to the word’s main modern sense ‘set of operations for doing something’. Procession [12] comes from the Latin derivative prōcessiō.
=> accede, cede, concede, exceed, precede, proceed, procession
profess: profess: [14] Profess comes from prōfessus, the past participle of Latin prōfitērī ‘declare publicly’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix prō- ‘forth, in public’ and fatērī ‘acknowledge, confess’ (a relative of English fable, fame, and fate and source also of confess). A professor [14] is etymologically someone who ‘makes a public claim’ to knowledge in a particular field; and someone’s profession [13] is the area of activity in which they ‘profess’ a skill or competence.
=> confess, fable, fame, fate
progress: progress: [15] Progress is one of a large family of English words (including also grade, gradual, transgress, etc) that go back to Latin gradus ‘step’. From it was derived the verb gradī ‘go, step’, which in combination with the prefix prō- ‘forward’ produced prōgredī ‘go forward’. English gets progress from its past participle prōgressus.
=> grade, gradual, ingredient, regress, transgress
prowess: prowess: see proud