英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

cadet: cadet: [17] Etymologically, a cadet is a ‘little head’. Its original meaning in English was ‘younger son or brother’, and it came from French cadet, an alteration of a Gascon dialect term capdet ‘chief’. This in turn derived from Vulgar Latin *capitellus ‘little head’, a diminutive form of Latin caput ‘head’ (from which English also gets captain and chief).

The reason for its apparently rather strange change in meaning from ‘chief’ to ‘younger son’ seems to be that the younger sons of Gascon families were in former times sent to the French court to fulfil the role of officers. When English borrowed French cadet, it did so not only in a form that retained the original spelling, but also as caddie or cadee, which originally meant ‘young officer’.

The Scottish version, caddie, gradually developed in meaning over the centuries through ‘person who runs errands’ to, in the 19th century, ‘golfer’s assistant’. Cad, originally ‘unskilled assistant’ [18], is an abbreviation of caddie or cadee.
=> captain, chief
celandine: celandine: [12] Etymologically the celandine, a buttercup-like spring flower, is the ‘swallow’s’ flower. Its name comes, via Old French, from Greek khelidonion, which was based on khelidon ‘swallow’. The original reference was no doubt to the appearance of the flowers around the time when the swallows began to arrive in Europe from Africa. Its juice was used in former times as a remedy for poor eyesight, and, no doubt in an over-interpretation of the name, it was said that swallows used the juice to boost the sight of their young.
cobalt: cobalt: [17] German kobold means ‘goblin’: and in former times it was believed by German silver miners that impurities in the ore they were extracting, which lessened the value of the silver and even made them ill, were put there by these mischievous creatures. In fact these impurities were a silver-white metallic element, which was named kobalt after a Middle High German variant of kobold (the miners’ sickness was probably caused by the arsenic with which it occurred).
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
eunuch: eunuch: [15] Eunuch has no etymological connection with ‘castration’. It is simply the fact that in former times male harem attendants in Oriental courts had their testicles removed, to ensure that they were not distracted from their work, that has led ultimately to the equation of eunuch with ‘castrated man’. Literally, the word means ‘bed-guard’; it comes via Latin from Greek eunoukhos, a compound formed from euné ‘bed’ and ékhein ‘have charge of, keep’.
fee: fee: [14] Fee is a word bequeathed to modern English by the feudal system (and indeed it is closely related etymologically to feudal). It came via Anglo-Norman fee from medieval Latin feodum or feudum (source also of feudal [17]). This denoted ‘land or other property whose use was granted as a reward for service’, a meaning which persists in its essentials in modern English ‘payment for work done’.

The secondary signification of fee, ‘feudal estate’, is no longer a live sense, but it is represented in the related fief [17], a descendant of feodum, which English acquired through French rather than Anglo-Norman. The ultimate derivation of the medieval Latin term itself is not altogether clear, although it is usually assigned to an unrecorded Frankish *fehuōd, literally ‘cattle-property’ (*fehu has related forms in Old English féoh ‘cattle, property’ and Old Norse fé ‘cattle, money’ – joint sources of the first syllable of English fellow – and in modern German viehe ‘cattle’; they all go back ultimately to Indo- European *peku-, ancestor of a wide range of words meaning ‘cattle’ which, since in former times cattle were symbolic of wealth, in many cases came to signify ‘property’ too).
=> fellow, feudal, fief
forget: forget: [OE] From a formal point of view, forget is exactly what it seems – a combination of for and get. However, this is not the modern English preposition for, but a prefix that in former times was a live building block of the language, denoting negation or exclusion. So here, forget’s Germanic ancestor *fergetan meant literally ‘not get’, hence ‘lose one’s hold on’ and metaphorically ‘lose one’s memory of’.
=> get
hall: hall: [OE] Etymologically, a hall is a ‘roofed or covered place’. Its ultimate ancestor was prehistoric West and North Germanic *khallō, a derivative of *khal-, *khel- ‘cover, hide’ (a slightly different derivative produced English hell, and cell, clandestine, conceal, hull ‘pod’, and possibly colour and holster are all relatives, close or distant).

It retained much of its original meaning in Old English heall, which denoted simply a ‘large place covered by a roof’. This gradually became specialized to, on the one hand, ‘large residence’, and on the other, ‘large public room’. The main current sense, ‘entrance corridor’, dates from the 17th century (it derives from the fact that in former times the principal room of a house usually opened directly off the front door).
=> cell, clandestine, conceal, hell, hull
jade: jade: English has two words jade, of which by far the commoner nowadays is the name of the green stone [18]. Despite the mineral’s close association with China and Japan, the term has no Oriental connections. It is of Latin origin, and started life in fact as a description of the stone’s medical applications. Latin īlia denoted the ‘sides of the lower torso’, the ‘flanks’, the part of the body where the kidneys are situated (English gets iliac [16] from it).

In Vulgar Latin this became *iliata, which passed into Spanish as ijada. Now it was thought in former times that jade could cure pain in the renal area, so the Spanish called it piedra de ijada, literally ‘stone of the flanks’. In due course this was reduced to simply ijada, which passed into English via French. (Jade’s alternative name, nephrite [18], is based on the same idea; it comes from Greek nephrós ‘kidney’.) English’s other word jade [14] now survives really only in its derivative adjective jaded ‘tired, sated’ [16].

It originally meant ‘worn-out horse’, and was later transferred metaphorically to ‘disreputable woman’. Its origins are not known.
=> iliac; jaded
lantern: lantern: [13] Like lamp, lantern comes ultimately from the Greek verb lámbein ‘give light, shine’. Derived from this was the noun lamptér, which originally denoted ‘bunch of burning sticks, torch’, but was later extended to ‘lamp’. Latin borrowed it, and tacked on the ending of lucerna ‘lamp’ to produce lanterna, which English acquired via Old French lanterne. The translucent cover of lanterns was in former times usually made of horn, and so popular etymology from the 16th to the 19th centuries produced the spelling lanthorn.
=> lamp
mews: mews: [14] In former times, a mew was a place where trained falcons were kept (etymologically the word means ‘moulting-place’; it came from Old French mue, a derivative of muer ‘moult’, which was descended from Latin mūtāre ‘change’). In the latter part of the 14th century the Royal Mews were built in London on the site of what is now Trafalgar Square, to house the royal hawks.

By Henry VII’s time they were being used as stables, and from at least the early 17th century the term mews was used for ‘stabling around an open yard’. The modern application to a ‘street of former stables converted to human dwellings’ dates from the early 19th century.
=> moult, mutate
paraphernalia: paraphernalia: [17] In former times, when a woman married her property was divided into two categories: her dowry, which became the property of her husband, and the rest. The legal term for the latter was paraphernalia, which came via medieval Latin from late Latin parapherna, a borrowing from Greek parápherna. And the Greek word in turn was a compound formed from pará ‘beside’ and pherné ‘dowry’. It is a measure of the light in which these remaining odds and ends were viewed that by the early 18th century the term paraphernalia had come to be used dismissively for ‘equipment’ or ‘impedimenta’.
quorum: quorum: [15] Quorum began life as the genitive plural of the Latin pronoun quī ‘who’. This appeared in former times in the Latin text of commissions issued to persons who because of some special expertise were required to act as justices of the peace in a particular case (if two JPs were required, for instance, the wording would be quorum vos … duos esse volumnus ‘of whom we wish that you … be two’). In due course the word came to be used as a noun, denoting the ‘number of justices who must be present in order to try the case’, and in the 17th century this was generalized to ‘minimum number of members necessary for a valid meeting’.
rheumatic: rheumatic: [14] Greek rheuma meant literally ‘flow, stream’ (it came ultimately from the same Indo-European base as produced English stream, and was a close relative of the Greek verb rhein ‘flow’, which provides the second halves of English catarrh and diarrhoea). It was used for a ‘watery discharge from the body’, and was borrowed into English (via late Latin rheuma and Old French reume) as rheum [14] in the sense ‘mucous discharge from the eyes or nose’.

Pains in the joints were in former times thought to be caused by watery secretions within the body, and so towards the end of the 17th century the term rheumatism was applied to them.
=> catarrh, diarrhoea, rhyme, rhythm
salary: salary: [14] Salary goes back to a Latin word that originally denoted an ‘allowance given to Roman soldiers for buying salt’ (salt being in former times a valued commodity, over which wars were fought, rather than taken for granted as it is today). This was salārium, a derivative of sāl ‘salt’. It soon broadened out to mean ‘fixed periodic payment for work done’, and passed in this sense via Anglo-Norman salarie into English.
=> salt
scold: scold: [13] Scold was originally a noun, denoting an argumentative or nagging woman – the sort who had a ‘scold’s bridle’ fitted to keep her tongue quiet. It appears to have been borrowed from Old Norse skáld ‘poet’, the semantic link perhaps being the poet’s role of satirizing or poking fun at people (in Icelandic law in former times the term skáldskapr, literally ‘poetry’, denoted ‘libel in verse’). The origins of skáld itself are not known. Scold began to be used as a verb in the 14th century, at first in the sense ‘argue, nag’. The modern transitive use ‘reprove’ is not recorded until the early 18th century.
viper: viper: [16] A viper is etymologically a creature that ‘gives birth to live young’. The word comes via Old French vipere from Latin vīpera ‘snake’. This was a contraction of an earlier *vīvipera, a compound noun formed from vīvus ‘alive’ (source of English vivacious, vivid, etc) and parere ‘give birth’ (source of English parent, parturition, etc) – in former times it was thought that snakes gave birth to live young.

Latin vīpera is also the ancestor of English wyvern ‘dragonlike creature’ [17] and possibly of weever [17], the name of a type of fish with poisonous spines; and the elements from which it was formed also of course underlie the English adjective viviparous.
=> parent, vivid, viviparous
before (adv., prep.): Old English beforan "before, in front of, in the presence of, in former times," from Proto-Germanic *bi- "by" + *forana "from the front," adverbial derivative of *fora (see fore (adv.)). Compare Old Frisian bifara, Old Saxon biforan, Old High German bifora, German bevor. Contrasting before and after in illustrations is from Hogarth (1768). Before the mast in old sailing ships denoting "common sailor," is from the place of their berths, in front of the fore-mast.
formerly (adv.): "in times past," 1580s, from former (adj.) + -ly (2). A Middle English word for this was andersith "formerly, at former times" (early 14c.).
old (adj.): Old English ald (Anglian), eald (West Saxon) "aged, antique, primeval; elder, experienced," from Proto-Germanic *althaz "grown up, adult" (cognates: Old Frisian ald, Gothic alþeis, Dutch oud, German alt), originally a past participle stem of a verb meaning "grow, nourish" (compare Gothic alan "to grow up," Old Norse ala "to nourish"), from PIE root *al- (3) "to grow, nourish" (cognates: Greek aldaino "make grow, strengthen," althein, althainein "to get well;" Latin alere "to feed, nourish, bring up, increase," altus "high," literally "grown tall," almus "nurturing, nourishing," alumnus "fosterling, step-child;" Old Irish alim "I nourish").

The usual PIE root is *sen- (see senior (adj.)). A few Indo-European languages distinguish words for "old" (vs. young) from words for "old" (vs. new), and some have separate words for aged persons as opposed to old things. Latin senex was used of aged living things, mostly persons, while vetus (literally "having many years") was used of inanimate things. Greek geraios was used mostly of humans; Greek palaios was used mostly of things, of persons only in a derogatory sense. Greek also had arkhaios, literally "belonging to the beginning," which parallels French ancien, used mostly with reference to things "of former times."

Old English also had fyrn "ancient," related to Old English feor "far, distant" (see far, and compare Gothic fairneis, Old Norse forn "old, of old, of former times," Old High German firni "old, experienced"). The original Old English vowel is preserved in Scots auld, also in alderman. The original comparative and superlative (elder, eldest) are retained in particular uses.

First record of old-timer is from 1860. Expression old as the hills first recorded 1819. The good old days dates from 1828. Of old "of old times" is from late 14c. Old maid "woman who remains single well beyond the usual marrying age" is from 1520s; the card game is attested by that name from 1844. Old man "man who has lived long" is from c. 1200; sense of "husband, father, boss" is from 1854, earlier (1830) it was military slang for "commanding officer;" old lady "wife, mother" is attested from c. 1775. Old English is attested from 1701, originally as a type of font. Old boy originally was a former pupil of one of the English public schools. Old Testament attested from mid-14c.
rakish (adj.): 1706, "debauched, disreputable," from rake (n.2) + -ish. Related: Rakishly; rakishness.

The meaning "smart, jaunty, dashing" (1824) is said to be a different word, probably from rake "slant, slope" (1620s), used especially in reference to any deviation from the vertical in a ship's masts, of uncertain origin, perhaps from Scandinavian (compare Old Swedish raka "project, reach;" Danish rage "protrude, project") related to Old English reccan "stretch." "The piratical craft of former times were distinguished for their rakish build" [Century Dictionary].
yore (adv.): Old English geara "of yore, formerly, in former times," literally "of years," originally adverbial genitive plural of gear (see year), and used without of. As a noun from mid-14c.