英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

distelfink (n.)[distelfink 词源字典]: Pennsylvania Dutch ornamental bird design, from German Distelfink "goldfinch," literally "thistle-finch," from Old High German distilvinko, from distil "thistle" (see thistle) + Old High German finco "finch," from PIE *(s)ping- "sparrow, finch" (see finch). The bird so called because it feeds on thistle seeds. Compare Old French chardonel "goldfinch," from chardon "thistle."[distelfink etymology, distelfink origin, 英语词源]
feeder (n.): early 15c., "one who feeds (an animal);" 1560s, "one who eats;" agent noun from feed (v.). As a mechanical apparatus for conveying materials, from 1660s. Of cattle and streams, by 1790s; of roads and railroads, by 1850s.
ghoul (n.): 1786, goul, in the English translation of William Beckford's Orientalist novel "Vathek" (which was written in French), from Arabic ghul, an evil spirit that robs graves and feeds on corpses, from ghala "he seized."
pelican (n.): Old English pellicane, from Late Latin pelecanus, from Greek pelekan "pelican" (so used by Aristotle), apparently related to pelekas "woodpecker" and pelekys "ax," perhaps so called from the shape of the bird's bill. Spelling influenced in Middle English by Old French pelican. Used in Septuagint to translate Hebrew qaath. The fancy that it feeds its young on its own blood is an Egyptian tradition properly belonging to some other bird. Louisiana has been known as the Pelican state at least since 1859.
necrophagous: "That feeds on dead bodies or decaying animal tissue; characterized by such behaviour", Mid 19th cent.; earliest use found in William Kirby (1759–1850), entomologist and naturalist. From necro- + -phagous, after scientific Latin necrophagus from Hellenistic Greek νεκροϕάγος from νεκρο- + -ϕάγος.