英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

beldam (n.)[beldam 词源字典]: "aged woman," 1570s; earlier "grandmother" (mid-15c.), from dame (q.v.) in the sense of "mother" + bel-, Middle English prefix expressing relationship (as in belfader, belsire "grandfather"), from Old French bel, belle "beautiful, fair, fine" (see belle). This "direct relationship" sense of bel is not found in French, where the prefix is used to form words for in-laws.[beldam etymology, beldam origin, 英语词源]
chamber (n.): c. 1200, "room," usually a private one, from Old French chambre "room, chamber, apartment," also used in combinations to form words for "latrine, privy" (11c.), from Late Latin camera "a chamber, room" (see camera). In anatomy from late 14c.; of machinery from 1769. Gunnery sense is from 1620s. Meaning "legislative body" is from c. 1400. Chamber music (1789) was that meant to be performed in private rooms instead of public halls.
deaf (adj.): Old English deaf "deaf," also "empty, barren," specialized from Proto-Germanic *daubaz (cognates: Old Saxon dof, Old Norse daufr, Old Frisian daf, Dutch doof "deaf," German taub, Gothic daufs "deaf, insensate"), from PIE dheubh-, which was used to form words meaning "confusion, stupefaction, dizziness" (cognates: Greek typhlos "blind," typhein "to make smoke;" Old English dumb "unable to speak;" Old High German tumb).

The word was pronounced to rhyme with reef until 18c. Deaf-mute is from 1837, after French sourd-muet. Deaf-mutes were sought after in 18c.-19c. Britain as fortune-tellers. Deaf as an adder (Old English) is from Psalms lviii:5.
-ine (2): chemical suffix, sometimes -in, though modern use distinguishes them; early 19c., from French -ine, from Latin -ina, fem. form of suffix used to form adjectives from nouns (identical with -ine (1)). In French, the suffix commonly was used to form words for derived substances, hence its extended use in chemistry, where it was applied unsystematically at first (as in aniline), but now has more restricted use.
lipo-: word-forming element meaning "fat" (n.), from Greek lipo-, comb. form of lipos "fat" (n.), from PIE root *leip- "to stick, adhere," also used to form words for "fat," see leave (v.)).
spell (v.1): early 14c., "read letter by letter, write or say the letters of;" c. 1400, "form words by means of letters," apparently a French word that merged with or displaced a native Old English one; both are from the same Germanic root, but the French word had evolved a different sense. The native word is Old English spellian "to tell, speak, discourse, talk," from Proto-Germanic *spellam (cognates: Old High German spellon "to tell," Old Norse spjalla, Gothic spillon "to talk, tell"), from PIE *spel- (2) "to say aloud, recite."

But the current senses seem to come from Anglo-French espeller, Old French espelir "mean, signify, explain, interpret," also "spell out letters, pronounce, recite," from Frankish *spellon "to tell" or some other Germanic source, ultimately identical with the native word.

Related: Spelled; spelling. In early Middle English still "to speak, preach, talk, tell," hence such expressions as hear spell "hear (something) told or talked about," spell the wind "talk in vain" (both 15c.). Meaning "form words with proper letters" is from 1580s. Spell out "explain step-by-step" is first recorded 1940, American English. Shakespeare has spell (someone) backwards "reverse the character of, explain in a contrary sense, portray with determined negativity."