英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

mend [mend 词源字典]

mend: [12] Mend originated as a shortened form of amend [13] – or rather, of the Old French source of amend, which did not arrive in English until after mend. The Old French verb was amender, a descendant of Vulgar Latin *admendāre ‘remove faults, correct’. This in turn was an alteration of classical Latin ēmendāre (source of English emend [15]), a compound verb formed from the prefix exdenoting ‘removal’ and menda, mendum ‘fault, defect’. (Other Latin derivatives of mendum were mendīcus ‘injured’, which was used as a noun meaning ‘beggar’ – hence English mendicant [15]; and perhaps mendāx ‘speaking faultily’, hence ‘lying’, from which English gets mendacious [17].)
=> amend, emend, mendicant[mend etymology, mend origin, 英语词源]

scapegoat

scapegoat: [16] In biblical times the ritual of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, included a ceremony involving two goats: one was sacrificed to God, and the other was sent off into the wilderness as the symbolic bearer of the people’s sins. This second goat was termed ‘azāzēl. That appears to have been a proper name, said in Jewish tradition to be that of a demon to whom the goat was sent, and may be linked with Aziz, the name of a Canaanite god.

Later commentators, however, interpreted it as equivalent to Hebrew ‘ēz ōzēl, which means ‘goat that departs’. In the Latin of the Vulgate, that was rendered as caper emissarius (whence the French expression bouc émissaire, literally ‘goat sent forth’), and William Tindale, in his 1530 translation of the Bible, expressed it as scapegoat (the first part, scape, is a shortened form of escape).

The modern metaphorical application to someone who takes the blame for others’ faults dates from the early 19th century.

amend (v.)

early 13c., "to free from faults, rectify," from Old French amender (12c.), from Latin emendare "to correct, free from fault," from ex- "out" (see ex-) + menda "fault, blemish," from PIE *mend- "physical defect, fault" (cognates: Sanskrit minda "physical blemish," Old Irish mennar "stain, blemish," Welsh mann "sign, mark").

Supplanted in senses of "repair, cure" by its shortened offspring mend (v.). Meaning "to add to legislation" (ostensibly to correct or improve it) is recorded from 1777. Related: Amended; amending.

amendment (n.)

early 13c., "betterment, improvement;" c. 1300, of persons, "correction, reformation," from Old French amendment, from amender (see amend). Sense expanded to include "correction of error in a legal process" (c. 1600) and "alteration of a writ or bill" to remove its faults (1690s).

caste (n.)

1550s, "a race of men," from Latin castus "chaste," from castus "cut off, separated; pure" (via notion of "cut off" from faults), past participle of carere "to be cut off from" (and related to castration), from PIE *kas-to-, from root *kes- "to cut" (cognates: Latin cassus "empty, void"). Originally spelled cast in English and later often merged with cast (n.) in its secondary sense "sort, kind, style."

Application to Hindu social groups was picked up by English in India 1610s from Portuguese casta "breed, race, caste," earlier casta raça, "unmixed race," from the same Latin word. The current spelling of of the English word is from this reborrowing. Caste system is first recorded 1840.

emend (v.)

"remove faults from, alter for the better," c. 1400, from Latin emendare "to free from fault, correct, improve, revise," from assimilated form of ex- "out" (see ex-) + mendum (nominative menda) "fault, blemish" (see amend). Related: Emended; emending.

faulty (adj.)

"containing faults, errors, or defects," late 14c., from fault (n.) + -y (2). Related: Faultily; faultiness.

humor (n.)

mid-14c., "fluid or juice of an animal or plant," from Old North French humour (Old French humor; Modern French humeur), from Latin umor "body fluid" (also humor, by false association with humus "earth"); related to umere "be wet, moist," and to uvescere "become wet," from PIE *wegw- "wet."

In ancient and medieval physiology, "any of the four body fluids" (blood, phlegm, choler, and melancholy or black bile) whose relative proportions were thought to determine state of mind. This led to a sense of "mood, temporary state of mind" (first recorded 1520s); the sense of "amusing quality, funniness" is first recorded 1680s, probably via sense of "whim, caprice" (1560s), which also produced the verb sense of "indulge," first attested 1580s. "The pronunciation of the initial h is only of recent date, and is sometimes omitted ...." [OED] For types of humor, see the useful table below, from H.W. Fowler ["Modern English Usage," 1926].

device	HUMOR	WIT	SATIRE	SARCASM	INVECTIVE	IRONY	CYNICISM	SARDONIC
motive/aim	discovery	throwing light	amendment	inflicting pain	discredit	exclusiveness	self-justification	self-relief
province	human nature	words & ideas	morals & manners	faults & foibles	misconduct	statement of facts	morals	adversity
method/means	observation	surprise	accentuation	inversion	direct statement	mystification	exposure of nakedness	pessimism
audience	the sympathetic	the intelligent	the self-satisfied	victim & bystander	the public	an inner circle	the respectable	the self

manners (n.)

"external behavior (especially polite behavior) in social intercourse," late 14c., plural of manner.

Under bad manners, as under graver faults, lies very commonly an overestimate of our special individuality, as distinguished from our generic humanity. [Oliver W. Holmes, "The Professor at the Breakfast Table," 1858]

Earlier it meant "moral character" (early 13c.).

nitpick (v.)

"seek petty faults," also nit-pick, 1962, back-formation from earlier nitpicker. Related: Nitpicking; nitpicky.

repossess (v.)

late 15c., "to reoccupy;" see re- "back, again" + possess. Meaning "take back from a purchaser who defaults on payments" first recorded 1933. Related: Repossessed; repossessing.

vicious (adj.)

late 14c., "unwholesome, impure, of the nature of vice, wicked, corrupting, pernicious, harmful;" of a text, "erroneous, corrupt," from Anglo-French vicious, Old French vicios "wicked, cunning, underhand; defective, illegal" (Modern French vicieux), from Latin vitiosus (Medieval Latin vicious) "faulty, full of faults, defective, corrupt; wicked, depraved," from vitium "fault" (see vice (n.1)).

Meaning "inclined to be savage or dangerous" is first recorded 1711 (originally of animals, especially horses); that of "full of spite, bitter, severe" is from 1825. In law, "marred by some inherent fault" (late 14c.), hence also this sense in logic (c. 1600), as in vicious circle in reasoning (c. 1792, Latin circulus vitiosus), which was given a general sense of "a situation in which action and reaction intensify one another" by 1839. Related: Viciously (mid-14c., "sinfully"); viciousness.

vituperation (n.)

mid-15c., but rare before early 19c., from Latin vituperationem (nominative vituperatio) "blame, a blaming, censuring," from past participle stem of vituperare "disparage, find fault with," from vitiperos "having faults," from vitium "fault, defect" (see vice (n.1)) + parare "prepare, provide, procure" (see pare). Vituperatio was stronger than either Latin reprehensio or Modern English vituperation.

whipping boy

"A person who is blamed or punished for the faults or incompetence of others", Extended use of the original term ( mid 17th century) denoting a boy educated with a young prince or other royal person and punished instead of him.