英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

acumen: acumen: [16] Acumen is a direct borrowing from Latin acūmen, which meant both literally ‘point’ and figuratively ‘sharpness’. It derived from the verb acuere ‘sharpen’, which was also the source of English acute. The original pronunciation of acumen in English was /ə_kjūmen/, with the stress on the second syllable, very much on the pattern of the Latin original; it is only relatively recently that a pronunciation with the stress on the first syllable has become general.
=> acute
allegory: allegory: [14] Etymologically, allegory means ‘speaking otherwise’. It comes from a Greek compound based on allos ‘other’ (which is related to Latin alius, as in English alibi and alias, and to English else) and agoreúein ‘speak publicly’ (derived from agorá ‘(place of) assembly’, which is the source of English agoraphobia and is related to gregarious). Greek allēgorein ‘speak figuratively’ produced the noun allēgorīā, which passed into English via Latin and French.
=> aggregate, agoraphobia, alias, alibi, else, gregarious
ambition: ambition: [14] Like ambient, ambition comes ultimately from the Latin compound verb ambīre ‘go round’ (formed from the prefix ambi-, as in AMBIDEXTROUS, and the verb īre ‘go’, which also gave English exit, initial, and itinerant). But while ambient, a 16th-century acquisition, remains fairly faithful to the literal meaning of the verb, ambition depends on a more metaphorical use.

It seems that the verb’s nominal derivative, ambitiō, developed connotations of ‘going around soliciting votes’ – ‘canvassing’, in fact – and hence, figuratively, of ‘seeking favour or honour’. When the word was first borrowed into English, via Old French ambition, it had distinctly negative associations of ‘greed for success’ (Reginald Pecock writes of ‘Vices [such] as pride, ambition, vainglory’, The repressor of overmuch blaming of the clergy 1449), but by the 18th century it was a more respectable emotion.
=> exit, initial, itinerant
capital: capital: [13] Etymologically, capital is something that is at the top or ‘head’; it comes from Latin caput ‘head’. The various current English uses of the word reached us, however, by differing routes. The first to come was the adjective, which originally meant simply ‘of the head’ (Milton in Paradise lost wrote of the Serpent’s ‘capital bruise’, meaning the bruise to its head); this came via Old French capital from Latin capitālis, a derivative of caput.

The other senses of the adjective have derived from this: ‘capital punishment’, for instance, comes from the notion of a crime which, figuratively speaking, affects the head, or life. Its use as a noun dates from the 17th century: the immediate source of the financial sense is Italian capitale. The architectural capital ‘top of a column’ (as in ‘Corinthian capitals’) also comes from Latin caput, but in this case the intermediate form was the diminutive capitellum ‘little head’, which reached English in the 14th century via Old French capitel.
=> cattle, chapter, head
cohort: cohort: [15] Etymologically, cohort is an ‘enclosed yard’. It comes via Old French cohorte from Latin cohors, a compound noun formed from the prefix com- ‘with’ and an element hortwhich also appears in Latin hortus ‘garden’ (source of English horticulture) and is related to English garden, yard, and the second element of orchard.

From the underlying sense of ‘enclosed place’ it came to be applied to a crowd of people in such a place, and then more specifically to an infantry company in the Roman army. Its meaning has spread figuratively in English to ‘band of associates or accomplices’, whose frequent use in the plural led to the misapprehension that a single cohort was an ‘associate’ or ‘accomplice’ – a usage which emerged in American English in the mid 20th century.

The original form of the Latin word is well preserved in cohort, but it has also reached us, more thickly disguised, as court.
=> court, garden, horticulture, orchard, yard
confound: confound: [13] Latin confundere literally meant ‘pour together’; it was a compound verb formed from the prefix com- ‘together’ and fundere ‘pour’ (source of English found ‘melt’ and fuse). This sense was later extended figuratively to ‘mix up, fail to distinguish’, a meaning which passed via Old French confondre into English. Meanwhile, the Latin verb’s past participle, confusus, came to be used as an adjective; in Old French this became confus, which English acquired in the 14th century as confuse.

This was soon assimilated to the normal pattern of English past participial adjectives as confused, from which the new verb confuse, was coined.
=> confuse, found, fuse
consider: consider: [14] Etymologically, consider means ‘observe the stars’. Amongst the most popular of ancient Roman methods of divination was astrology, and so the Latin verb consīderāre was coined (from the intensive prefix com- and sīdus ‘star’, source of English sidereal) to describe the activity of carefully noting the stars’ courses for the purpose of drawing auguries.

From ‘observing stars’ it soon broadened out in meaning to simply ‘observe’, and hence figuratively ‘think over something’, but the sense ‘have an opinion’ seems to be an English development of the 16th century. English acquired the word via Old French considerer, but borrowed considerable directly from Latin consīderābilis; the modern sense ‘large in amount’ arose in the mid-17th century, on the basis of an earlier ‘worthy of consideration because of great quantity’.
=> desire, sidereal
derive: derive: [14] Like rival, derive comes ultimately from Latin rīvus ‘stream’. This was used as the basis of a verb dērīvāre, formed with the prefix dē- ‘away’, which originally designated literally the ‘drawing off of water from a source’. This sense was subsequently generalized to ‘divert’, and extended figuratively to ‘derive’ (a metaphor reminiscent of spring from). English acquired the word via Old French deriver.
=> rival
fascist: fascist: [20] The early 20th-century Italian fascisti, under Benito Mussolini, took their name from Italian fascio, literally ‘bundle’ but figuratively ‘group, association’. Its source was Latin fascis ‘bundle’, from whose diminutive form fasciculus English gets fascicle [15]. Closely related was Latin fascia ‘band, bandage, strip’, borrowed by English in the 16th century.
=> fascia, fascicle
fizzle: fizzle: [16] Originally, fizzle meant ‘fart silently or unobtrusively’: ‘And then in court they poisoned one another with their fizzles’, Benjamin Walsh’s translation of Aristophanes’ Knights 1837. Then in the mid-19th century it started to be used for a ‘weak spluttering hissing sound’, and hence figuratively ‘end feebly’. In the earlier sense, fizzle was probably a derivative of the now obsolete English verb fist ‘fart’ (source of feisty), which came ultimately from Indo-European *pezd- (no doubt imitative of the sound of breaking wind).

The later sense is close enough semantically to suggest that it is probably a metaphorical extension of the earlier, but it could also be a new formation, based on fizz [17] (which was also of onomatopoeic origin).
=> feisty
front: front: [13] As its close French relative front still does, front used to mean ‘forehead’. Both come from Latin frōns, a word of dubious origins whose primary meaning was ‘forehead’, but which already in the classical period was extending figuratively to the ‘most forwardly prominent part’ of anything. In present-day English, only distant memories remain of the original sense, in such contexts as ‘put up a brave front’ (a now virtually dead metaphor in which the forehead, and hence the countenance in general, once stood for the ‘demeanour’).

The related frontier [14], borrowed from Old French frontiere, originally meant ‘front part’; its modern sense is a secondary development.
=> frontier
galvanize: galvanize: [19] The verb galvanize commemorates the work of Italian physicist Luigi Galvani (1737–98), who in 1762 discovered voltaic electricity by attaching the legs of dead frogs to pairs of different metals. It was first used literally, for the production of muscular spasms by electrical means (Sydney Smith in 1825: ‘Galvanize a frog, don’t galvanize a tiger’), but by the mid-19th century it was being employed figuratively, for ‘stimulate, spur’. The sense ‘coat electrolytically with metal’, dates from the 1830s.
gamut: gamut: [15] Gamut began life as a medieval musical term. The 11th-century French-born musical theorist Guido d’Arezzo devised the ‘hexachord’, a six-note scale used for sightreading music (and forerunner of the modern tonic sol-fa). The notes were mnemonically named ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la (after, according to legend, syllables in a Latin hymn to St John: ‘Ut queant laxis resonāre fibris Mira gestorum famuli tuorum, Solve polluti labii reatum’ – ‘Absolve the crime of the polluted lip in order that the slaves may be able with relaxed chords to praise with sound your marvellous deeds’).

The note below the lowest note (ut) became known as gamma-ut (gamma, the name of the Greek equivalent of g, having been used in medieval notation for the note bottom G). And in due course gamma-ut, or by contraction in English gamut, came to be applied to the whole scale, and hence figuratively to any ‘complete range’ (an early 17th-century development).
gargoyle: gargoyle: [15] The ancient root *garg-, *gurgoriginated as an imitation of throat sounds. From it were derived such guttural words as Greek gargaraaizein ‘gargle’ (whence Latin gargarizāre ‘gargle’) and Latin gurguliō ‘gullet’ (Latin gurges, source of English gorge and regurgitate, had moved further figuratively to ‘whirlpool’).

Among the offspring of gurguliō are Vulgar Latin *gurguliāre, source of English gurgle [16], and Old French gargouille ‘throat’. Roof spouts carved in the shape of grotesque creatures had the term gargouille applied to them from the notion that the rain-water was coming out of their throats – hence English gargoyle. Gargouille also formed the basis of the verb gargouiller ‘gargle, gurgle’, from which English gets gargle [16].
=> gargle, gurgle
gasket: gasket: [17] Although it has never been established for certain, it seems likely that gasket may have originated as a word meaning ‘little girl’ – namely French garcette. This is a diminutive of grace ‘girl’, the feminine form of gars ‘boy’ (whence garçon). It is used figuratively for a ‘small rope’, and was originally borrowed into English in the 17th century as gassit, used as a nautical term for a ‘small rope for attaching a furled sail to a mast’.

Modern English gasket, first recorded in the early 17th century, seems to be an alteration of this. The main present-day sense ‘joint seal’ (originally made from tow or plaited hemp) developed in the early 19th century.
groin: groin: [15] Unravelling the history of groin required a good deal of detective work, and the answer that the 19th-century etymologist Walter Skeat came up with was the rather surprising one that it is related to ground. The root on which this was formed was prehistoric Germanic *grundu-, which also produced the derivative *grundja-. This passed into Old English as grynde, which seems originally to have meant ‘depression in the ground’ (although the more extreme ‘abyss’ is its only recorded sense).

It appears to correspond to Middle English grynde ‘groin’ (‘If the pricking be in the foot, anoint the grynde with hot common oil’, Lanfranc’s Science of Surgery 1400 – evidently an example of reflexology), and the theory is that the original sense ‘depression in the ground’ became transferred figuratively to the ‘depression between the abdomen and the thighs’.

By the late 15th century grynde had become gryne, and (by the not uncommon phonetic change of /ee/ to /oi/) this metamorphosed to groin in the late 16th century. (Groyne ‘wall projecting into the sea’ [16] is a different word. It is a transferred use of the now obsolete groin ‘pig’s snout’ [14], which came via Old French groin from Latin grunnīre ‘grunt’.)
halcyon: halcyon: [14] Halcyon days, originally ‘days of calm weather’, but now used figuratively for a ‘past period of happiness and success’, are literally ‘days of the kingfisher’. The expression comes from Greek alkuonídes hēmérai ‘kingfisher’s days’, a term used in the ancient world for a period of 14 days fine or calm weather around the winter solstice which was attributed to the magical influence of the kingfisher. The origin of Greek alkúon is not known, although it was from earliest times associated with Greek háls ‘sea’ and kúōn ‘conceiving’ (whence the spelling halcyon).
harsh: harsh: [16] Harsh originally meant ‘hairy’. Its ancestor, Middle Low German harsch, was a derivative of the noun haer ‘hair’, and its exact English equivalent would have been hairish. By the time English acquired it, it had broadened out in meaning to ‘rough’, both literally and figuratively.
incense: incense: English has two distinct words incense, but both come ultimately from the same source. The noun, ‘aromatic burnt substance’ [13], comes via Old French encens from late Latin incensum, a noun use of the verb incendere ‘set fire to’ (source of English incendiary [17]). This in turn was formed from a derivative of candēre ‘glow’ (source of English candle). (From encens was derived Old French censier, which passed into English via Anglo-Norman as censer [13].) Besides the literal ‘set fire to’, incendere was used figuratively for ‘enrage’, which English acquired as the verb incense [15] via Old French.
=> censer, incendiary
language: language: [13] Like English tongue, Latin lingua ‘tongue’ was used figuratively for ‘language’; from it English gets linguist [16] and linguistic [19]. In the Vulgar Latin spoken by the inhabitants of Gaul, the derivative *linguāticum emerged, and this became in due course Old French langage, source of English language. (The u in the English word, which goes back to the end of the 13th century, is due to association with French langue ‘tongue’.)
=> linguistic
lecher: lecher: [12] Etymologically, a lecher is a ‘licker’. English borrowed the word from Old French lecheor, a derivative of the verb lechier ‘lick’, which was used figuratively for ‘live a life of debauchery’. This in turn came from Frankish *likkōn, a descendant of the same prehistoric Germanic source as English lick [OE]. The inspiration of the metaphor, which originally encompassed the pleasures of the table as well as of the bed, was presumably the tongue as an organ of sensual gratification.
=> lick
mawkish: mawkish: [17] The underlying meaning of mawkish is ‘maggotish’. It was derived from a now obsolete word mawk, which meant literally ‘maggot’ but was used figuratively (like maggot itself) for a ‘whim’ or ‘fastidious fancy’. Hence mawkish originally meant ‘nauseated, as if repelled by something one is too fastidious to eat’. In the 18th century the notion of ‘sickness’ or ‘sickliness’ produced the present-day sense ‘over-sentimental’. Mawk itself went back to a Middle English mathek ‘maggot’ (possible source of maggot [14]), which was borrowed from Old Norse mathkr.
=> maggot
mystery: mystery: [14] Greek múein meant ‘close one’s eyes or mouth’, and hence was used figuratively for ‘keep secret’. Its association with secret initiation ceremonies inspired the formation from it of muein ‘initiate’, whose derivative mústēs meant ‘initiated person’. This in turn formed the basis of mustérion ‘secret ceremony, secret thing’, which passed into English via Latin mystērium. Also derived from mústēs was mustikós, from which ultimately English gets mystic [14] and mystical [15].
=> mystic
oblige: oblige: [13] To oblige someone is etymologically to ‘bind them to’ something with a promise. The word comes via Old French obliger from Latin obligāre, a compound verb formed from the prefix ob- ‘to’ and ligāre ‘tie’ (source of English liable, ligament, etc). By classical times its original literal sense had been extended figuratively to ‘make liable, put under an obligation’. The synonymous obligate [16] comes from its past participial stem, as does obligatory [15].
=> liable, ligament, obligatory
paragon: paragon: [16] When we say someone is a ‘paragon of virtue’ – a perfect example of virtue, able to stand comparison with any other – we are unconsciously using the long-dead metaphor of ‘sharpening’ them against others. The word comes via archaic French paragon and Italian paragone from medieval Greek parakónē ‘sharpening stone, whetstone’. Thīs was a derivative of parakonan, a compound verb formed from pará ‘alongside’ and akonan ‘sharpen’ (a descendant of the same base, *ak- ‘be pointed’, as produced English acid, acute, etc), which as well as meaning literally ‘sharpen against’ was also used figuratively for ‘compare’.
=> acid, acute, eager, oxygen
pool: pool: Pool of water [OE] and pool ‘collective amount’ [17] are distinct words in English. The former comes from a prehistoric West Germanic *pōl-, source also of German pfuhl and Dutch poel. The latter was borrowed from French poule ‘hen’, a descendant of Latin pullus ‘young chicken’ (source also of English pony, poultry, and pullet).

There was a French game called jeu de la poule, the ‘hen game’, involving throwing things at a hen – which you won as a prize if you hit it. Hence poule came to be used figuratively for ‘target’, and also for ‘that which is at stake in a game’ – source of the original meaning of English pool, ‘stake’. This evolved via ‘stake made up of players’ contributions’ to ‘collective amount’ and ‘collective resource’. Pool the snooker-like game is the same word; the game was originally played for a collective stake.
=> foal, pony, poultry, pullet
psalm: psalm: [OE] The Greek verb psállein originally meant ‘pluck’, but it was extended figuratively to ‘pluck harpstrings’, and hence ‘sing to the accompaniment of the harp’. From it was derived the noun psalmós ‘harp-song’, which was used in the Greek Septuagint to render Hebrew mizmōr ‘song (of the sort sung to the harp by David)’. It passed into Old English via late Latin psalmus. Another derivative of Greek psállein was psaltérion ‘stringed instrument played by plucking’, which has given English psalter [OE] and psaltery [13].
result: result: [15] Etymologically, to result is to ‘jump backwards’. The word comes ultimately from Latin resultāre ‘jump backwards’, hence ‘rebound’, a compound verb formed from the prefix re- ‘back’ and saltāre ‘jump’ (source of English insult, sauté, etc). In medieval Latin it came to be used figuratively for ‘happen as a consequence’, the sense in which English borrowed it. It was not used as a noun until the 17th century.
=> assault, insult, sauté
sack: sack: English has three separate words sack, one of them now a historical relic and the other two ultimately related. Sack ‘large bag’ [OE] was borrowed from Latin saccus (source also of English sac, sachet, and satchel). This in turn came from Greek sákkos ‘rough cloth used for packing’, which was of Semitic origin (Hebrew has saq meaning both ‘sack’ and ‘sackcloth’).

The colloquial sense ‘dismissal from work’ (as in get the sack) arose in the early 19th century, perhaps from the notion of a dismissed worker going away with his tools or clothing in his bag. Sack ‘plunder’ [16] came via French sac from sacco ‘bag’, the Italian descendant of Latin saccus. This was used in expressions like mettere a sacco, literally ‘put in a bag’, which denoted figuratively ‘plunder, pillage’ (no doubt inspired by the notion of ‘putting one’s loot in a bag’). Sack ‘sherry-like wine’ [16] (Sir John Falstaff’s favourite tipple) was an alteration of seck.

This was short for wine sec, a partial translation of French vin sec ‘dry wine’ (French sec came from Latin siccus ‘dry’, source of English desiccate [16]).
=> sac, sachet, satchel; desiccate, sec
spring: spring: [OE] The noun spring and the verb spring come from the same source: the Indo-European base *sprengh-, which denoted ‘rapid movement’. Of its Germanic verbal descendants, German and Dutch springen, like English spring, have moved on semantically to ‘jump’, but Swedish springa ‘run’ has stayed closer to its roots. The noun spring in Old English times denoted the place where a stream ‘rises’ from the ground, which soon evolved metaphorically into ‘source, origin’ in general.

The notion of ‘rising’ was also applied figuratively to the ‘beginning of the day’ and to the ‘emergence of new growth’, and the latter led in the 16th century, via the expression spring of the year, to the use of spring for the ‘season following winter’ (replacing the previous term Lent).
Absalom: masc. proper name, King David's son in the Old Testament, often used figuratively for "favorite son," from Hebrew Abhshalom, literally "father is peace," from abh "father" + shalom "peace."
abstract (adj.): late 14c., originally in grammar (of nouns), from Latin abstractus "drawn away," past participle of abstrahere "to drag away, detach, pull away, divert;" also figuratively, from ab(s)- "away" (see ab-) + trahere "draw" (see tract (n.1)).

Meaning "withdrawn or separated from material objects or practical matters" is from mid-15c. That of "difficult to understand, abstruse" is from c. 1400. Specifically in reference to modern art, it dates from 1914; abstract expressionism as an American-based uninhibited approach to art exemplified by Jackson Pollock is from 1952, but the term itself had been used in the 1920s of Kandinsky and others.
Oswald Herzog, in an article on "Der Abstrakte Expressionismus" (Sturm, heft 50, 1919) gives us a statement which with equal felicity may be applied to the artistic attitude of the Dadaists. "Abstract Expressionism is perfect Expressionism," he writes. "It is pure creation. It casts spiritual processes into a corporeal mould. It does not borrow objects from the real world; it creates its own objects .... The abstract reveals the will of the artist; it becomes expression. ..." [William A. Drake, "The Life and Deeds of Dada," 1922]

Then, that art we have called "abstract" for want of any possible descriptive term, with which we have been patient, and, even, appreciative, getting high stimulation by the new Guggenheim "non-objective" Art Museum, is reflected in our examples of "surrealism," "dadaism," and what-not, to assert our acquaintance in every art, fine or other. [Report of the Art Reference Department of Pratt Institute Free Library for year ending June 30, 1937]
absurdity (n.): late 15c., from Middle French absurdité, from Late Latin absurditatem (nominative absurditas) "dissonance, incongruity," noun of state from Latin absurdus "out of tune;" figuratively "incongruous, silly, senseless," from ab-, intensive prefix, + surdus "dull, deaf, mute" (see susurration).
Achates: armor-bearer and faithful friend of Aeneas in the "Aeneid," hence sometimes used figuratively for "faithful friend." The name is from Greek akhates "agate" (see agate).
acidulous (adj.): 1769, "sub-acidic," used figuratively for "sour-tempered;" from Latin acidulus "slightly sour," a diminutive of acidus (see acid (adj.)).
acrimony (n.): 1540s, "quality of being acrid," from Middle French acrimonie or directly from Latin acrimonia "sharpness, pungency of taste," figuratively "acrimony, severity, energy," from acer "sharp" (fem. acris, neuter acre; see acrid) + -monia suffix of action, state, condition. Figurative extension to "sharpness of temper" is first recorded 1610s.
Actaeon: in Greek mythology, the name of the hunter who discovered Artemis bathing and was changed by her to a stag and torn to death by his hounds. The name is of unknown origin. Sometimes used figuratively in 17c. for "a cuckold" (because of his "horns").
acute (adj.): late 14c., originally of fevers and diseases, "coming and going quickly" (opposed to a chronic), from Latin acutus "sharp, pointed," figuratively "shrill, penetrating; intelligent, cunning," past participle of acuere "sharpen" (see acuity). Meaning "sharp, irritating" is from early 15c. Meaning "intense" is from 1727. Related: Acutely; acuteness.
adamant (n.): mid-14c., from Old French adamant and directly from Latin adamantem (nominative adamas) "adamant, hardest iron, steel," also figuratively, of character, from Greek adamas (genitive adamantos) "unbreakable, inflexible" metaphoric of anything unalterable, also the name of a hypothetical hardest material, perhaps literally "invincible," from a- "not" + daman "to conquer, to tame" (see tame (adj.)), or else a word of foreign origin altered to conform to Greek.

Applied in antiquity to a metal resembling gold (Plato), white sapphire, magnet (by Ovid, perhaps via confusion with Latin adamare "to love passionately"), steel, emery stone, and especially diamond (see diamond). "The name has thus always been of indefinite and fluctuating sense" [Century Dictionary]. The word was in Old English as aðamans "a very hard stone."
addict (v.): 1530s (implied in addicted), from Latin addictus, past participle of addicere "to deliver, award, yield; give assent, make over, sell," figuratively "to devote, consecrate; sacrifice, sell out, betray" from ad- "to" (see ad-) + dicere "say, declare" (see diction), but also "adjudge, allot." Earlier in English as an adjective, "delivered, devoted" (1520s). Related: Addicted; addicting.
adept (adj.): 1690s, "completely skilled" from Latin adeptus "having reached, attained," past participle of adipisci "to come up with, arrive at," figuratively "to attain to, acquire," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + apisci "grasp, attain," related to aptus "fitted" (see apt). Related: Adeptly.
adverse (adj.): late 14c., "contrary, opposing," from Old French avers (13c., Modern French adverse) "antagonistic, unfriendly, contrary, foreign" (as in gent avers "infidel race"), from Latin adversus "turned against, turned toward, fronting, facing," figuratively "hostile, adverse, unfavorable," past participle of advertere, from ad- "to" (see ad-) + vertere "to turn" (see versus). Related: Adversely.
affect (n.): late 14c., "mental state," from Latin noun use of affectus "furnished, supplied, endowed," figuratively "disposed, constituted, inclined," past participle of afficere "to do; treat, use, manage, handle; act on; have influence on, do something to," a verb of broad meaning, from ad- "to" (see ad-) + facere (past participle factus) "to make, do" (see factitious). Perhaps obsolete except in psychology. Related: Affects.
affinity (n.): c. 1300, "relation by marriage" (as opposed to consanguinity), from Old French afinité (12c.), from Latin affinitatem (nominative affinitas) "neighborhood, relationship by marriage," noun of state from affinis "adjacent," also "kin by marriage," literally "bordering on," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + finis "a border, a boundary" (see finish (v.)). Used figuratively since c. 1600 of structural relationships in chemistry, philology, etc. Meaning "natural attraction" (as though by family) is from 1610s.
affirm (v.): c. 1300, from Old French afermier (Modern French affirmer) "affirm, confirm; strengthen, consolidate," from Latin affirmare "to make steady, strengthen," figuratively "confirm, corroborate," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + firmare "strengthen, make firm," from firmus "strong" (see firm (adj.)). Spelling refashioned 16c. in French and English on Latin model. Related: Affirmed; affirming.
affluence (n.): mid-14c., "a plentiful flowing, an abundance," from Old French affluence, from Latin affluentia "a flowing to," figuratively "affluence, abundance," noun of state from affluentem (nominative affluens) "flowing toward, abounding, rich, copious" (see affluent). Sense of "wealth" attested from c. 1600, from notion of "a plentiful flow" (of the gifts of fortune).
aggravation (n.): late 15c., from Middle French aggravation, from Late Latin aggravationem (nominative aggravatio), noun of action from past participle stem of Latin aggravare "make heavier," figuratively "to embarrass further, increase in oppressiveness," from ad "to" (see ad-) + gravare "weigh down," from gravis "heavy" (see grave (adj.)). Oldest sense is "increasing in gravity or seriousness;" that of "irritation" is from 1610s.
alabaster (n.): translucent whitish kind of gypsum used for vases, ornaments, and busts, late 14c., from Old French alabastre (12c., Modern French albâtre), from Latin alabaster "colored rock used to make boxes and vessels for unguents," from Greek alabastros (earlier albatos) "vase for perfumes," perhaps from Egyptian 'a-labaste "vessel of the goddess Bast." Used figuratively for whiteness and smoothness from 1570s. "The spelling in 16-17th c. is almost always alablaster ..." [OED].
Alastor: in Greek tradition, son of Neleus, brother of Nestor, slain by Herakles. The name is perhaps literally "not to forget," from privative prefix a- "not" + root of lathein "to forget" (see Lethe), hence its use figuratively in sense of "an avenging spirit." Or else it might be connected with alaomai "to wander, roam," figuratively "to be distraught."
alley (n.): mid-14c., "passage in a house; open passage between buildings; walkway in a garden," from Old French alee (13c., Modern French allée) "a path, passage, way, corridor," also "a going," from fem. of ale, past participle of aler "to go," which ultimately may be a contraction of Latin ambulare "to walk," or from Gallo-Roman allari, a back-formation from Latin allatus "having been brought to" [Barnhart]. Compare sense evolution of gate. Applied by c. 1500 to "long narrow enclosure for playing at bowls, skittles, etc." Used in place names from c. 1500.

The word is applied in American English to what in London is called a mews, and also is used there especially of a back-lane parallel to a main street (1729). To be up someone's alley "in someone's neighborhood" (literally or figuratively) is from 1931; alley-cat attested by 1890.