英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

accretion: accretion: see crescent
aesthetic: aesthetic: [18] In strict etymological terms, aesthetic relates to perception via the senses. It comes ultimately from the Greek verb aísthesthai ‘perceive’ (which is related to Latin audīre ‘hear’), and this meaning is preserved in anaesthetic, literally ‘without feeling’. The derived adjective aisthētikós reached Western Europe via modern Latin aesthēticus, and was first used (in its Germanized form ästhetisch) in the writings of the philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804).

Here, it retained its original sense, ‘perceptual’, but its use by A T Baumgarten as the title (Æsthetica) of a work on the theory of beauty in art (1750) soon led to its adoption in its now generally accepted meaning.
=> audible, audition
appetite: appetite: [14] In its origins, appetite referred to a very generalized desire or inclination; the wish for food is a secondary development. The Latin noun was appetītus, a derivative of the compound verb appetere ‘strive after, desire eagerly’, which was based on petere ‘go to, seek out’ (source also of English compete, impetus, petition, and repeat, and related to feather).
=> compete, impetus, petition, repeat
arithmetic: arithmetic: see algorithm
bulletin: bulletin: [17] If a bullet is etymologically a ‘little ball’, a bulletin is a ‘little little edict’. It comes via French bulletin from Italian bulletino, which was a diminutive form of bulletta ‘document, voting slip’ (briefly introduced into English in the 17th century as bullet: ‘Elected by the Great Master and his Knights, who give their voices by bullets’, George Sandys, Travels 1615); French billet ‘letter’, and indeed English billet, as in ‘billeting’ soldiers on a house, are parallel formations on a variant of the root of bulletta.

And to return to bulletta, this was itself a diminutive form of bulla, from medieval Latin bulla ‘sealed document’, which is the source of English bull, as in ‘papal bull’.
=> billet, bull
cretin: cretin: [18] In the Swiss-French dialect of the high Alps the term creitin or crestin (their version of christian) was applied to people suffering from mental handicap and stunted growth – the notion being to emphasize that despite their abnormalities, such people were nevertheless as much human beings as any other ‘Christian’. The word was adopted (via French crétin) as a clinical term for someone suffering from dwarfism and mental retardation as a result of a congenital thyroid deficiency, and was subsequently broadened out, towards the end of the 19th century, as a general disparaging term for a ‘fool’.
=> christian
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
emetic: emetic: see vomit
etiquette: etiquette: [18] Etiquette is, almost literally, ‘just the ticket’. The primary meanings of French étiquette are ‘ticket’ and ‘label’ – and indeed it is the source of English ticket. A particular application of it in former times was to a small card which had written or printed on it directions as to how to behave properly at court – hence it came to mean ‘prescribed code of social behaviour’.
=> ticket
expletive: expletive: [17] Originally, an expletive word was simply one used to ‘fill up’ a line of verse, to complete its metrical pattern (expletive comes from Latin explētus, the past participle of explēre ‘fill out’, a compound formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and plēre ‘fill’, source of English complete and related to English fill).

Hence the term came to be used for a redundant word, not contributing anything to the meaning of the sentence: “The Key my loose, powerless fingers forsook”, a lame and expletive way of saying “I dropt the key”, Robert Southey 1804. The first recorded example of its euphemistic application as a noun to ‘profanities’ is by Sir Walter Scott in Guy Mannering 1815: ‘retaining only such of their expletives as are least offensive’.
=> complete, full
fetish: fetish: [17] Fetish is a doublet of factitious: that is to say, the two words have a common origin, but have subsequently diverged widely. Both come ultimately from Latin factītius ‘made by art’, an adjective derived from the past participle of facere ‘do, make’ (whence English effect, fact, fashion, among a host of other related words).

Its Portuguese descendant, feitiço, was used as a noun meaning ‘charm, sorcery’. French took this over as fétiche and passed it on to English, where it was used in the concrete sense ‘charm, amulet’, particularly as worshipped by various West African peoples. ‘Object irrationally or obsessively venerated’ is a 19th-century semantic development.
=> effect, fact, factory, fashion
genetic: genetic: see general
hermetic: hermetic: [17] Hermetic means literally ‘of Hermes’. Not Hermes the messenger of the Greek gods, though, but an Egyptian priest of the time of Moses, who in the Middle Ages was regarded as identical with the versatile Hermes in his capacity of patron of science and invention, and who was thus named Hermes Trismegistus ‘Hermes the thrice greatest’. This shadowy figure was the supposed author of various works on alchemy and magic, and so the term hermetic came to be roughly synonymous with alchemical.

One of the inventions credited to Hermes Trismegistus was a magic seal to make containers airtight, and by the 1660s we find hermetic being used for ‘airtight’.
métier: métier: see minister
peripatetic: peripatetic: [16] Peripatetic means literally ‘walking round’. It comes via Old French peripatetique and Latin peripatēticus from Greek peripatētikós. This was a derivative of peripatein, a compound verb formed from the prefix perí- ‘round’ and patein ‘walk’. But the Greeks used it not simply for ‘walk around’, but specifically for ‘teach while walking around’ – an allusion to the teaching methods of Aristotle, who discussed and argued with his pupils and followers while walking about in the Lyceum, a garden near the temple of Apollo in Athens.

Hence adherents of Aristotle’s school of philosophy are known as Peripatetics. The more general use of the adjective for ‘itinerant’ represents a relatively modern (17th-century) return to its etymological meaning.
petition: petition: see repeat
reticent: reticent: [19] The ultimate source of reticent is Latin tacēre ‘be silent’ (source of English tacit and taciturn). Combination with the intensive prefix re- produced reticēre ‘keep silent’, whose present participle gave English reticent. It was preceded into the language by over two hundred years by the derived noun reticence.
=> tacit, taciturn
reticule: reticule: [18] Reticule is a now superannuated term for a small handbag. It alludes to the fact that such bags were originally made from netted fabric. The Latin word for ‘net’ was rēte, whose diminutive form rēticulum was used for ‘netted bag’ – whence, via French réticule, English reticule. From rēticulum was derived rēticulātus ‘having a network pattern’, which has given English reticulated [18] (used by Dr Johnson in his famous definition of network: ‘any thing reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections’, 1755). Rēte was also the source of medieval Latin retina ‘inner lining of the eyeball’, borrowed by English as retina [14].
=> retina
retinue: retinue: [14] A retinue is etymologically ‘that which is retained’. The word was borrowed from Old French retenue, the feminine past participle of retenir ‘keep, restrain’ (source of English retain [14]). This in turn went back via Vulgar Latin *retenēre to Latin retinēre ‘hold back’, a compound verb formed from the prefix re- ‘back’ and tenēre ‘hold’ (source of English contain, obtain, etc). The notion behind retinue is of a body of men ‘retained’ in one’s service. Another English descendant of retinēre is rein.
=> contain, detain, obtain, rein, retain
accretion (n.): 1610s, from Latin accretionem (nominative accretio) "an increasing, a growing larger" (as of the waxing moon), noun of action from past participle stem of accrescere, from ad- "to" (see ad-) + crescere "grow" (see crescent).
acetic (adj.): 1808, from French acétique "pertaining to vinegar," from Latin acetum "vinegar" (properly vinum acetum "wine turned sour;" see vinegar), originally past participle of acere "be sour," related to acer "sharp" (see acrid).
aerodonetics (n.): science of gliding, 1907, from Greek aero- "air" (see aero-) + stem of donein "to shake, drive about." Also see -ics.
aesthetic (n.): 1798, from German Ästhetisch or French esthétique, both from Greek aisthetikos "sensitive, perceptive," from aisthanesthai "to perceive (by the senses or by the mind), to feel," from PIE *awis-dh-yo-, from root *au- "to perceive" (see audience).

Popularized in English by translation of Immanuel Kant, and used originally in the classically correct sense "the science which treats of the conditions of sensuous perception." Kant had tried to correct the term after Alexander Baumgarten had taken it in German to mean "criticism of taste" (1750s), but Baumgarten's sense attained popularity in English c. 1830s (despite scholarly resistance) and removed the word from any philosophical base. Walter Pater used it (1868) to describe the late 19c. movement that advocated "art for art's sake," which further blurred the sense. As an adjective by 1803. Related: Aesthetically.
aestheticism (n.): 1855, from aesthetic + -ism.
aesthetics (n.): 1803, from aesthetic (also see -ics).
aetio-: word-forming element used in chemistry and indicating "a fundamental degradation product of a complex organic compound" [Flood], from Latinized comb. form of Greek aitia "a cause, an origin" (see etiology).
aforetime (adv.): early 15c., "before the present, in the past," from afore + time (n.).
alphabetical (adj.): 1560s, from alphabet + -ical. Related: Alphabetically.
alphabetize (v.): 1866, from alphabet + -ize. Related: Alphabetized; alphabetizing.
anaesthetic (adj.): 1846, "insensible," from Greek anaisthetos "insensate, without feeling; senseless, stupid" (see anaesthesia). Noun meaning "agent that produces anesthesia" first used in modern sense 1848 by Scottish doctor James Young Simpson (1811-1870), discoverer of the surgical uses of chloroform.
anaesthetist (n.): 1861; see anaesthesia + -ist.
anaesthetize (v.): 1848, from Greek anaisthetos (see anaesthesia) + -ize. Related: Anaesthetized; anaesthetizing.
analgetic: see analgesic.
anesthetic (adj.): alternative spelling of anaesthetic (q.v.). See ae.
anesthetist (n.): alternative spelling of anaesthetist (q.v.). See ae.
anesthetize (v.): alternative spelling of anaesthetize (q.v.). See ae.
antipathetic (adj.): 1630s "having an antipathy for," from an adjectival construction from Greek antipathein (see antipathy). Related: antipathetical (c. 1600); antipathetically.
antipyretic: "reducing fever; that which reduces fever," 1680s, from anti- + Greek pyretos "fever, burning heat," related to pyr "fire," from PIE root *paəwr- "fire" (see fire (n.)) + -ic.
antithetic (adj.): "containing an antithesis," c. 1600, from Greek antithetikos "setting in opposition," from antithetos "placed in opposition," from antithesis (see antithesis).
antithetical (adj.): 1580s, from Greek antithetikos "setting in opposition," from antithetos "placed in opposition" (see antithetic) + -al (1). Related: Antithetically.
apathetic (adj.): 1744, from apathy + -ic, on model of pathetic.
aphetic (adj.): 1880, from aphesis (1880), coined by OED editor Sir James A.H. Murray (1837-1915) for "gradual and unintentional loss of a short unaccented vowel at the beginning of a word" (as squire from esquire), from Greek aphienai "to let go, to send forth," from apo- "from" (see apo-) + hienai "to send" (see jet (v.)).
apologetic (adj.): 1640s, "vindicatory," from French apologétique, from Latin apologeticus, from Greek apologetikos "defensible," from apologeisthai (see apology). Meaning "regretfully acknowledging failure" is from 1855. As a noun, "formal defense," from early 15c. Related: Apologetics (c. 1753).
aporetic (adj.): c. 1600, from French aporetique, from Greek aporetikos, from aporeein "to be at a loss," from aporos "impassable, impracticable, very difficult; hard to deal with; at a loss," from a-, privative prefix (see a- (3)), + poros "passage" (see pore (n.)).
appetite (n.): c. 1300, "craving for food," from Anglo-French appetit, Old French apetit (13c.) "appetite, desire, eagerness," from Latin appetitus "appetite," literally "desire toward," from appetitus, past participle of appetere "to long for, desire; strive for, grasp at," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + petere "go to, seek out" (see petition (n.)).

Of other desires or cravings, from late 14c. As an adjective form, OED lists appetitious (1650s) and appetitual (1610s) as "obsolete," but appetitive (1570s) continues.
appetize (v.): "make hungry," 1782 (implied in appetized), irregularly formed (on model of verbs in -ize) from appetite, or else a back-formation from appetizing.
appetizer (n.): "something taken to whet the appetite," 1820, agent noun from appetize.
appetizing (adj.): "exciting desire or hunger," 1650s, from appetite on model of present participle adjective forms in -ing.
arithmetic (n.): mid-13c., arsmetike, from Old French arsmetique (12c.), from Latin arithmetica, from Greek arithmetike (tekhne) "(the) counting (art)," fem. of arithmetikos "of or for reckoning, arithmetical," from arithmos "number, counting, amount," from PIE root *re(i)- "to reason, count" (cognates: Old English, Old High German rim "number;" Old Irish rim "number," dorimu "I count;" Latin ritus "religious custom;" see read).

Originally in English also arsmetrik, on folk etymology from Medieval Latin ars metrica; spelling corrected early 16c. Replaced native tælcræft, literally "tell-craft."
arithmetical (adj.): 1540s; see arithmetic + -al (1). Related: Arithmetically (late 15c.). In modern use, opposed to geometrical.