英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

agog [agog 词源字典]: agog: [15] Agog probably comes from Old French gogue ‘merriment’. It was used in the phrase en gogue, meaning ‘enjoying oneself’ (Randle Cotgrave, in his Dictionarie of the French and English tongues 1611, defines estre en ses gogues as ‘to be frolicke, lustie, lively, wanton, gamesome, all-a-hoit, in a pleasant humour; in a veine of mirth, or in a merrie mood’), and this was rendered into English as agog, with the substitution of the prefix a- (as in asleep) for en and the meaning toned down a bit to ‘eager’.

It is not clear where gogue came from (it may perhaps be imitative of noisy merrymaking), but later in its career it seems to have metamorphosed into go-go, either through reduplication of its first syllable (gogue had two syllables) or through assimilation of the second syllable to the first: hence the French phrase à go-go ‘joyfully’, and hence too English go-go dancers.
[agog etymology, agog origin, 英语词源]
alabaster: alabaster: [14] Chaucer was the first English author to use the word alabaster: in the Knight’s Tale (1386) he writes of ‘alabaster white and red coral’. It comes, via Old French and Latin, from Greek alábast(r)os, which may be of Egyptian origin. Scottish English used the variant from alabast until the 16th century (indeed, this may predate alabaster by a few years); and from the 16th to the 17th century the word was usually spelled alablaster, apparently owing to confusion with arblaster ‘crossbowman’.

The use of alabaster for making marbles (of the sort used in children’s games) gave rise to the abbreviation alley, ally ‘marble’ in the early 18th century.
athlete: athlete: [18] The etymological idea underlying athlete is ‘competing for a prize’. Greek āthlon meant ‘award, prize’, whence the verb athlein ‘compete for a prize’. Derived from this was the noun athlētés ‘competitor’. The context in which the word was most commonly used in Greek was that of the public games, where competitors took part in races, boxing matches, etc. Hence the gradual narrowing down of the meaning of athlete to ‘one who takes part in sports involving physical exercise’, and even further to ‘participant in track and field events’.
bowl: bowl: Bowl ‘round receptacle’ [OE] and bowl ‘ball used in bowls’ [15] come from different sources. The former (Old English bolle or bolla) comes ultimately from the Germanic base *bul-, *bal-, which was also the source of English ball, balloon, and ballot. The Middle Dutch form corresponding to Old English bolle was bolle, which was borrowed into English in the 13th century as boll, initially meaning ‘bubble’ but latterly ‘round seed-head’.

The other bowl was originally simply a synonym for ball, but its modern specialized uses in the game of bowls, and the verbal usage ‘deliver the ball’ in cricket and other games, had already begun their development in the 15th century. The word came via Old French boule from Latin bulla ‘bubble’, which also lies behind English boil, bull (as in ‘papal bull’), bullion, bullet, bulletin, and bully (as in ‘bully beef’), as well, perhaps, as bill.
=> ball, balloon, ballot; boil, bull, bullet, bulletin, bully
draught: draught: [12] Draught and draft are essentially the same word, but draft (more accurately representing its modern English pronunciation) has become established since the 18th century as the spelling for ‘preliminary drawing or plan’, ‘money order’, and (in American English) ‘conscription’. The word itself probably comes from an unrecorded Old Norse *drahtr, an abstract noun meaning ‘pulling’ derived from a prehistoric Germanic verb *dragan (source of English drag and draw).

Most of its modern English meanings are fairly transparently descended from the idea of ‘pulling’: ‘draught beer’, for example, is ‘drawn’ from a barrel. Of the less obvious ones, ‘current of air’ is air that is ‘drawn’ through an opening; the game draughts comes from an earlier, Middle English sense of draught, ‘act of drawing a piece across the board in chess and similar games’; while draft ‘provisional plan’ was originally ‘something drawn or sketched’.
=> draft, drag, draw
game: game: There are two games in English. The noun game ‘pastime, sport’ [OE] used to be a fairly widespread word in the Germanic languages (Swedish and Danish still preserve it as gamman and gammen respectively) and may well go back to a prehistoric Germanic compound formed from the collective prefix *ga- and *mann- ‘person’ (source of English man), and denoting literally ‘people together, participating’.

Its Old English was gamen which, before it became reduced to game (a process which began in the 13th century but was not complete until the 16th century), bequeathed gammon (as in backgammon) and probably also gamble to modern English. Game ‘plucky’ [18] is probably an adjectival use of the same word. Game ‘lame’ [18], however, and its derivative gammy [19], are not related; they may come from archaic French gambi ‘crooked’.
=> gamble, man; gammy
jeopardy: jeopardy: [14] The semantic focus of jeopardy has changed subtly over the centuries. Originally it meant ‘even chance’, but gambling being the risky business it is, and human nature having a strong streak of pessimism, attention was soon focussed on the ‘chanciness’ rather than the ‘evenness’, and by the late 14th century jeopardy was being used in its modern sense ‘risk of loss or harm, danger’. The word originated in the Old French expression jeu parti, literally ‘divided play’, hence ‘even chance’. It was to begin with a term in chess and similar board games.
lag: lag: English has three distinct words lag. The verb ‘fall behind’ [16] is perhaps of Scandinavian origin (Norwegian has lagga ‘go slowly’), although a link has been suggested with the lag of fog, seg, lag, a dialect expression used in children’s games which represents an alteration of first, second, last. Lag ‘insulate’ [19] comes from an earlier noun lag ‘barrel stave’, which was also probably borrowed from a Scandinavian language (Swedish has lagg ‘stave’); the original material used for ‘lagging’ was wooden laths.

And finally the noun lag ‘prisoner’ [19] seems to have come from an earlier verb lag, which originally meant ‘steal’, and then ‘catch, imprison’; but no one knows where this came from.
marathon: marathon: [19] According to tradition, when the Greek army defeated the Persians at Marathon, on the northeast coast of Attica, in 490 BC, the runner Pheidippides was dispatched to bring the good news to Athens (in fact there is no contemporary evidence for the story, which is not recorded until 700 years after the event). When the modern Olympic Games were first held, in Athens in 1896, a long-distance race was introduced to commemorate the ancient feat, run over a course supposedly equal in distance to that from Marathon to Athens (about 35 km/22 miles).

The present distance (42.195 km/26 miles 385 yards) was established at the 1908 London Olympics (the odd yards were added to bring the finishing line in front of the royal box).
punt: punt: English has three separate words punt. The oldest is punt ‘flat-bottomed boat’ [15], which comes via Middle Low German punte or punto from Latin pontō, a term for a sort of Gaulish boat which also produced English pontoon. Punt ‘bet’ [18] (better known in the form of the agent noun punter ‘better’, hence ‘customer’) comes from French ponter, a derivative of ponte ‘bet against the banker in certain card games’.

This was adapted from Spanish punto ‘point’, a descendant of Latin punctum (source of English point). Punt ‘kick’ [19] may be a variant of bunt ‘push’ [19] (now used as a baseball term, meaning ‘hit the ball softly’); this could in turn be an alteration of butt, but it might also come from a Celtic source, related to Breton bounta ‘butt’.
=> pontoon; point, punctuation
python: python: [19] The original Python was a fabulous serpent said to have been hatched from the mud of Deucalion’s flood (Deucalion was the Greek counterpart of Noah) and slain by Apollo near Delphi in ancient Greece. Its name, in Greek Pūthōn, may be related to Pūthó, an old name for Delphi; and that in turn, it has been speculated, may derive from púthein ‘rot’, as the serpent supposedly rotted there after its demise.

Female soothsayers served at the Delphi oracle, and English adopted pythoness [14] as a general term for such ancient priestesses; and the four-yearly athletic contests held at Delphi in honour of Apollo were known as the Pythian Games (they were second in importance only to the Olympic Games). The scientific application of the name python to a genus of large Old World constricting snakes (now its most familiar role) dates from the 1830s.

Then, in the late 1960s, a chance decision brought python a more left-field career move: after considering and rejecting several alternatives, a group of young comic writer-performers called their new surreally humorous BBC television series Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969–74), and by the mid-1970s Pythonesque was being used generically to suggest surreality or absurdity.
rub: rub: [14] The antecedents of rub are unclear. It may have been borrowed from Low German rubben, but since it is not known where that came from, it does not get us much further. The derivative rubber [16] was originally used simply for ‘something for rubbing with’. But since the substance obtained from rubber trees was early on used for pencil erasers, it became known from the end of the 18th century as rubber (or in full India-rubber, from its place of origin). It is not clear whether rubber ‘set of games’ [16], which originated as a bowls term, is the same word.
=> rubber
whist: whist: [17] The game of whist was originally called whisk, and it is generally assumed that the name came from the ‘whisking’ away of the cards after the tricks had been taken (whisk [14] itself was borrowed from a Scandinavian source that went back ultimately to the prehistoric Germanic base *wisk- ‘move quickly’). Charles Cotton, however, in his Complete Gamester 1680, said that it was ‘called Whist from the silence that is to be observed in the play’ (whist is also a now archaic exclamation meaning ‘be quiet!’).
aboveboard (adj.): 1610s, from above and board (n.1). "A figurative expression borrowed from gamesters, who, when they put their hands under the table, are changing their cards." [Johnson]
act (n.): late 14c., "a thing done," from Old French acte "(official) document," and directly from Latin actus "a doing, a driving, impulse; a part in a play, act," and actum "a thing done," originally a legal term, both from agere "to do, set in motion, drive, urge, chase, stir up," from PIE root *ag- "to drive, draw out or forth, move" (cognates: Greek agein "to lead, guide, drive, carry off," agon "assembly, contest in the games," agogos "leader;" Sanskrit ajati "drives," ajirah "moving, active;" Old Norse aka "to drive;" Middle Irish ag "battle").

Theatrical ("part of a play," 1510s) and legislative (early 15c.) senses of the word also were in Latin. Meaning "display of exaggerated behavior" is from 1928. In the act "in the process" is from 1590s, perhaps originally from the 16c. sense of the act as "sexual intercourse." Act of God "uncontrollable natural force" recorded by 1726.
An act of God is an accident which arises from a cause which operates without interference or aid from man (1 Pars. on Cont. 635); the loss arising wherefrom cannot be guarded against by the ordinary exertions of human skill and prudence so as to prevent its effect. [William Wait, "General Principles of the Law," Albany, 1879]
adventurer (n.): late 15c., "one who plays at games of chance," agent noun from adventure (v.). Meaning "one who seeks adventures" is from 1660s.
agonist (n.): 1876, in writings on Greek drama, from Greek agonistes, literally "combatant in the games" (see agony).
agony (n.): late 14c., "mental suffering" (especially that of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane), from Old French agonie, agoine "anguish, terror, death agony" (14c.), and directly from Late Latin agonia, from Greek agonia "a (mental) struggle for victory," originally "a struggle for victory in the games," from agon "assembly for a contest," from agein "to lead" (see act (n.)). Sense of "extreme bodily suffering" first recorded c. 1600.
aleatory (adj.): "of uncertain outcome," literally "depending on the throw of a die," 1690s, from Latin aleatorius "pertaining to a gamester," from aleator "a dice player," from alea "a game with dice; chance, hazard, risk; a die, the dice;" perhaps literally "a joint-bone, a pivot-bone," and related to axis.
athlete (n.): early 15c., from Latin athleta "a wrestler, athlete, combatant in public games," from Greek athletes "prizefighter, contestant in the games," agent noun from athlein "to contest for a prize," related to athlos "a contest" and athlon "a prize," which is of unknown origin. Before 1750, usually in Latin form. In this sense, Old English had plegmann "play-man." Athlete's foot first recorded 1928, for an ailment that has been around much longer.
bean bag (n.): also bean-bag, 1871 as a device in children's games, 1969 as a type of chair. From bean (n.) + bag (n.).
bluestocking (n.): also blue-stocking, 1790, derisive word for a woman considered too learned, traces to a London literary salon founded c. 1750 by Elizabeth Montagu on the Parisian model, featuring intellectual discussion instead of card games, and in place of ostentatious evening attire, simple dress, including Benjamin Stillingfleet's blue-gray tradesman's hose which he wore in place of gentleman's black silk, hence the term, first applied in derision to the whole set by Admiral Boscawen. None of the ladies wore blue stockings. Borrowed by the neighbors in loan-translations, such as French bas-bleu, Dutch blauwkous, German Blaustrumpf.
bust (v.): "to burst," 1806, variant of burst (v.); for loss of -r-, compare ass (n.2). Meaning "go bankrupt" is from 1834. Meaning "break into" is from 1859. The slang meaning "demote" (especially in a military sense) is from 1918; that of "place under arrest" is from 1953 (earlier "to raid" from Prohibition). In card games, "to go over a score of 21," from 1939. Related: Busted; busting.
caber (n.): pole used in housebuilding, especially as an object tossed in the Highland games, 1510s, from Gaelic cabar "pole, spar," cognate with Irish cabar "lath," Welsh ceibr "beam, rafter."
carom (n.): 1779, earlier carambole (1775), from French carambole "the red ball in billiards," from Spanish carombola "the red ball in billiards," perhaps originally "fruit of the tropical Asian carambola tree," which is round and orange and supposed to resemble a red billiard ball; from Marathi (southern Indian) karambal. Originally a type of stroke involving the red ball:
If the Striker hits the Red and his Adversary's Ball with his own Ball he played with, he wins two Points; which Stroke is called a Carambole, or for Shortness, a Carrom. ["Hoyle's Games Improved," London, 1779]
catbird (n.): 1731, common name for the North American thrush (Dumetella Carolinensis), so called from its warning cry, which resembles that of a cat; from cat (n.) + bird (n.1). Catbird seat is a 19c. Dixieism, popularized by Brooklyn Dodgers baseball announcer Red Barber and by author James Thurber (1942).
"She must be a Dodger fan," he had said. "Red Barber announces the Dodger games over the radio and he uses those expressions--picked 'em up down South." Joey had gone on to explain one or two. "Tearing up the pea patch" meant going on a rampage; "sitting in the catbird seat" means sitting pretty, like a batter with three balls and no strikes on him. [James Thurber, "The Catbird Seat," "The New Yorker," Nov. 14, 1942]
checker (n.1): mid-13c., "game of chess (or checkers);" c. 1300, "a chessboard, board with 64 squares for playing chess or similar games; a set of chessmen" a shortening of Old French eschequier "chessboard; a game of chess," from Medieval Latin scaccarium (see check (n.1)). Meaning "pattern of squares" is late 14c. Meaning "a man or marker in the game of checkers" is from 1864. British prefers chequer. From late 14c. as "a checked design." The word had earlier senses of "table covered with checked cloth for counting" (late 12c. in Anglo-Latin), a sense also in Old French (see checker (n.2)).
club (n.): c. 1200, "thick stick used as a weapon," from Old Norse klubba "cudgel" or a similar Scandinavian source (compare Swedish klubba, Danish klubbe), assimilated from Proto-Germanic *klumbon, related to clump (n.). Old English words for this were sagol, cycgel. Specific sense of "bat used in games" is from mid-15c.

The club suit in the deck of cards (1560s) bears the correct name (Spanish basto, Italian bastone), but the pattern adopted on English cards is the French trefoil. Compare Danish klőver, Dutch klaver "a club at cards," literally "a clover."

The social club (1660s) apparently evolved from this word from the verbal sense "gather in a club-like mass" (1620s), then, as a noun, "association of people" (1640s).
We now use the word clubbe for a sodality in a tavern. [John Aubrey, 1659]

Admission to membership of clubs is commonly by ballot. Clubs are now an important feature of social life in all large cities, many of them occupying large buildings containing reading-rooms, libraries, restaurants, etc. [Century Dictionary, 1902]

I got a good mind to join a club and beat you over the head with it. [Rufus T. Firefly]
Club soda is by 1881, originally a proprietary name (Cantrell & Cochrane, Dublin). Club sandwich recorded by 1899, apparently as a type of sandwich served in clubs. Club car is from 1890, American English, originally one well-appointed and reserved for members of a club run by the railway company; later of any railway car fitted with chairs instead of benches, and other amenities (1917). Hence club for "class of fares between first-class and transit" (1978).
The club car is one of the most elaborate developments of the entire Commuter idea. It is a comfortable coach, which is rented to a group of responsible men coming either from a single point or a chain of contiguous points. The railroad charges from $250 to $300 a month for the use of this car in addition to the commutation fares, and the "club" arranges dues to cover this cost and the cost of such attendants and supplies as it may elect to place on its roving house. [Edward Hungerford, "The Modern Railroad," 1911]
cutthroat (n.): also cut-throat, 1530s, from cut (v.) + throat (n.). As an adjective from 1560s. Of card games from 1823.
dummy (n.): 1590s, "mute person," from dumb (adj.) + -y (3). Extended by 1845 to "figure representing a person." Used in card games (originally whist) since 1736. Meaning "dolt, blockhead" is from 1796.
extended (adj.): mid-15c., "occupying time, made longer," past participle adjective from extend (v.). Meaning "stretched out" in space is from 1550s; extended-play (adj.), in reference to recordings (especially 7-inch, 45 rpm vinyl records) is from 1953; in reference to pinball games by 1943. Extended family (n.) in sociology recorded from 1942.
A challenging question was asked RCA engineers and scientists in 1951. How can we increase the playing time of a 7-inch record, without using a larger disc? Sixteen months of research gave the answer, "45 EP"--Extended Play. [Radio Corporation of America magazine advertisement, May 1953]
fly (n.): Old English fleoge "a fly, winged insect," from Proto-Germanic *fleugon "flying insect" (cognates: Old Saxon fleiga, Old Norse fluga, Middle Dutch vlieghe, Dutch vlieg, Old High German flioga, German Fliege "fly"); literally "the flying (insect)" (compare Old English fleogende "flying"), from same source as fly (v.1).

Originally any winged insect (moths, gnats, beetles, locusts, hence butterfly, etc.) and long used by farmers and gardeners for any insect parasite. Flies figuratively for "large numbers" of anything is from 1590s. Plural flien (as in oxen, etc.) gradually normalized 13c.-15c. to -s. Fly in the ointment is from Eccles. x:1. Fly on the wall "unseen observer" first recorded 1881. No flies on _____ "no lack of activity or alertness on the part of," is attested by 1866. Meaning "fish-hook dressed to resemble an insect" is from 1580s; Fly-fishing is from 1650s. Fly-catcher "bird which eats insects on the wing" is from 1670s. The fly agaric mushroom (1788) so called because it was used as a poison for flies.

The sense of "a flight, flying" is from mid-15c. From the verb and the notion of "flapping as a wing does" comes the noun sense of "tent flap" (1810), which was extended to "strip of material sewn into a garment as a covering for buttons" or some other purpose (1844). Baseball fly ball attested by 1866. To do something on the fly is 1856, apparently from baseball.
When the catcher sees several fielders running to catch a ball, he should name the one he thinks surest to take it, when the others should not strive to catch the ball on the fly, but only, in case of its being missed, take it on the bound. ["The American Boys Book of Sports and Games," New York, 1864]
football (n.): open-air game involving kicking a ball, c. 1400; in reference to the inflated ball used in the game, mid-14c. ("Ãe heued fro Ã¾e body went, Als it were a foteballe," Octavian I manuscript, c. 1350), from foot (n.) + ball (n.1). Forbidden in a Scottish statute of 1424. One of Shakespeare's insults is "you base foot-ball player" [Lear I.iv]. Ball-kicking games date back to the Roman legions, at least, but the sport seems first to have risen to a national obsession in England, c. 1630. Figurative sense of "something idly kicked around, something subject to hard use and many vicissitudes" is by 1530s.

Rules of the game first regularized at Cambridge, 1848; soccer (q.v.) split off in 1863. The U.S. style (known to some in England as "stop-start rugby with padding") evolved gradually 19c.; the first true collegiate game is considered to have been played Nov. 6, 1869, between Princeton and Rutgers, at Rutgers, but the rules there were more like soccer. A rematch at Princeton Nov. 13, with the home team's rules, was true U.S. football. Both were described as foot-ball at Princeton.
Then twenty-five of the best players in college were sent up to Brunswick to combat with the Rutgers boys. Their peculiar way of playing this game proved to Princeton an insurmountable difficulty; .... Two weeks later Rutgers sent down the same twenty-five, and on the Princeton grounds, November 13th, Nassau played her game; the result was joyous, and entirely obliterated the stigma of the previous defeat. ["Typical Forms of '71" by the Princeton University Class of '72, 1869]
fun (n.): "diversion, amusement, mirthful sport," 1727, earlier "a cheat, trick" (c. 1700), from verb fun (1680s) "to cheat, hoax," which is of uncertain origin, probably a variant of Middle English fonnen "befool" (c. 1400; see fond). Scantly recorded in 18c. and stigmatized by Johnson as "a low cant word." Older senses are preserved in phrase to make fun of (1737) and funny money "counterfeit bills" (1938, though this use of the word may be more for the sake of the rhyme). See also funny. Fun and games "mirthful carryings-on" is from 1906.
gamble (v.): "risk something of value on a game of chance," 1726 (implied in gambling), from a dialectal survival of Middle English gammlen, variant of gamenen "to play, jest, be merry," from Old English gamenian "to play, joke, pun," from gamen (see game (n.)), with form as in fumble, etc. Or possibly gamble is from a derivative of gamel "to play games" (1590s), itself likely a frequentative from game. Originally regarded as a slang word. The intrusive -b- may be from confusion with unrelated gambol (v.). Transitive meaning "to squander in gambling" is from 1808. Related: Gambled; gambling.
game (adj.2): "ready for action, unafraid, and up to the task;" probably literally "spirited as a game-cock," 1725, from game-cock "bird bred for fighting" (1670s), from game (n.) in the "sport, amusement" sense. Middle English adjectives gamesome, gamelich meant "joyful, playful, sportive."
game (v.): Middle English gamen "to sport, joke, jest," from Old English gamenian "to play, jest, joke;" see game (n.). The Middle English word is little recorded from c. 1400 and modern use for "to play at games" (1520s) probably is a new formation from the noun; and it might have been re-re-coined late 20c. in reference to computer games. Related: Gamed; gaming.
gamer (n.): mid-15c., "an athlete" (mid-13c. as a surname, Johannes le Gamer), agent noun from game (v.). Meaning "one devoted to playing video or computer games" is attested by 1981 (by 1975 in reference to players of Dungeons & Dragons). Gamester is attested from 1580s but also sometimes meant "prostitute" (compare old slang The Game "sexual intercourse" (by 1930s), probably from the first game ever played "copulation"). From 1550s as "a gambler." Gamesman is from 1947.
Quite a few of the gamers we've encountered during our monthly strolls down "Arcade Alley" suffer the same chronic frustration: finding enough opponents to slake their thirst for endless hours of play. ["Video" magazine, May 1981]
gaming (n.): c. 1500, "gambling," verbal noun from game (v.). From 1980s in reference to video and computer games. Gaming-house is from 1620s; gaming-table from 1590s.
gig (n.2): "job," originally in the argot of jazz musicians, attested from 1915 but said to have been in use c. 1905; of uncertain origin. As a verb, by 1939. Among the earlier meanings of gig was "combination of numbers in betting games" (1847). Related: Gigged; gigging.
gladiator (n.): mid-15c., "Roman swordsman," from Latin gladiator (fem. gladiatrix) "fighter in the public games; swordsman," from gladius "sword" (there is no verb *gladiare), which probably is from Gaulish (compare Welsh cleddyf, Cornish clethe, Breton kleze "sword;" see claymore). Old Irish claideb is from Welsh.
The close connection with Celtic words for 'sword', together with the imperfect match of initial consonants, and the semantic field of weaponry, suggests that Latin borrowed a form *gladio- or *kladio- (a hypothetical variant of attested British Celtic *kladimo- 'sword') from [Proto-Celtic] or from a third language. [de Vaan]
golf (n.): mid-15c., Scottish gouf, usually taken as an alteration of Middle Dutch colf, colve "stick, club, bat," from Proto-Germanic *kulth- (cognates: Old Norse kolfr "clapper of a bell," German Kolben "mace, club, butt-end of a gun"). The game is from 14c., the word is first mentioned (along with fut-bol) in a 1457 Scottish statute on forbidden games (a later ordinance decrees, "That in na place of the realme thair be vsit fut-ballis, golf, or vther sic unprofitabill sportis" [Acts James IV, 1491, c.53]). Despite what you read on the Internet, "golf" is not an acronym. Golf ball attested from 1540s; the motorized golf-cart from 1951. Golf widow is from 1890.
Oh! who a golfer's bride would be,
Fast mated with a laddie
Who every day goes out to tee
And with him takes the caddie.

["The Golf Widow's Lament," in "Golf," Oct. 31, 1890]
grouch (n.): "ill-tempered person," 1896, earlier "state of irritable glumness" (1890, in expressions such as to have a grouch on), U.S. college student slang, of uncertain origin, possibly from grutching "complaint, grumbling" (see grutch).
The Grouch, on the other Hand, gave a correct Imitation of a Bear with a Sore Toe. His Conversation was largely made up of Grunts. He carried a Facial Expression that frightened little Children in Street Cars and took all the Starch out of sentimental Young Ladies. He seemed perpetually to carry the Hoof-Marks of a horrible Nightmare. [George Ade, "People You Know," 1902]
The verb is 1916, from the noun. Related: Grouched; grouching. Grouch bag "purse for carrying money secretly" (1908), probably so called for keeping the cash hidden from compatriots; it is the source of the nickname of U.S. comedian Julius "Groucho" Marx (1890-1977), who supposedly carried his money to poker games in one.
hijinks (n.): also hi-jinks, high jinks, "boisterous capers, lively or boisterous sport," 1842, from name of games played at drinking parties (1690s). See jink.
hobnail (n.): 1590s, the first element probably identical with hob "rounded peg or pin used as a mark or target in games" (1580s), of unknown origin. See hob. Because they were used to make rough shoes, the word was used figuratively for "rustic person" 17c. and after. Related: Hobnailed.
hot (adj.): Old English hat "hot, flaming, opposite of cold," also "fervent, fierce, intense, excited," from Proto-Germanic *haita- (cognates: Old Saxon and Old Frisian het, Old Norse heitr, Middle Dutch and Dutch heet, German heiß "hot," Gothic heito "heat of a fever"), from PIE root *kai- "heat" (cognates: Lithuanian kaistu "to grow hot").

The association of hot with sexuality dates back to c. 1500. Taste sense of "pungent, acrid, biting" is from 1540s. Sense of "exciting, remarkable, very good" is 1895; that of "stolen" is first recorded 1925 (originally with overtones of "easily identified and difficult to dispose of"); that of "radioactive" is from 1942.

Hot flashes in the menopausal sense attested from 1887. Hot air "unsubstantiated statements, boastful talk" is from 1900. Hot stuff for anything good or excellent is by 1889. Hot potato in figurative sense is from 1846. The hot and cold in hide-and-seek or guessing games are from hunting (1640s), with notion of tracking a scent.
Hoyle: cited as a typical authority on card or board games, in reference to Edmond Hoyle (1672-1769), author of several works on card-playing. The surname, according to Bardsley, represents a Northern English dialectal pronunciation of hole. "In Yorks and Lancashire hole is still dialectically hoyle. Any one who lived in a round hollow or pit would be Thomas or Ralph in the Hoyle." ["Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames," London, 1901]
it (pron.): Old English hit, neuter nominative and accusative of third person singular pronoun, from Proto-Germanic demonstrative base *khi- (cognates: Old Frisian hit, Dutch het, Gothic hita "it"), from PIE *ko- "this" (see he). Used in place of any neuter noun, hence, as gender faded in Middle English, it took on the meaning "thing or animal spoken about before."
Whether the charmer sinner it or saint it,
If the folly grow romantic, I must paint it.
[Pope, "Moral Essays," 1735]
The h- was lost due to being in an unemphasized position, as in modern speech the h- in "give it to him," "ask her," "is only heard in the careful speech of the partially educated" [Weekley]. It "the sex act" is from 1610s; meaning "sex appeal (especially in a woman)" first attested 1904 in works of Rudyard Kipling, popularized 1927 as title of a book by Elinor Glyn, and by application of It Girl to silent-film star Clara Bow (1905-1965). In children's games, meaning "the one who must tag the others" is attested from 1842.
joker (n.): 1729, "jester, merry fellow," agent noun from joke (v.). In generic slang use for "any man, fellow, chap" by 1811, which probably is the source of the meaning "odd face card in the deck" (1868). An 1857 edition of Hoyle's "Games" lists a card game called Black Joke in which all face cards were called jokers.
American manufacturers of playing-cards are wont to include a blank card at the top of the pack; and it is, alas! true that some thrifty person suggested that the card should not be wasted. This was the origin of the joker. ["St. James's Gazette," 1894]
kingpin (n.): also king-pin, 1801 as the name of the large pin in the game of kayles (similar to bowls except a club or stick was thrown instead of a ball; see "Games, Gaming and Gamesters' Laws," Frederick Brandt, London, 1871), from king with a sense of "chief" + pin (n.). The modern use is mainly figurative and is perhaps from the word's use as another name for the king-bolt (itself from 1825) in a machinery, though the figurative use is attested earlier (1867) than the literal.