英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

acquaint [acquaint 词源字典]: acquaint: [13] Acquaint is connected with quaint, distant though they may seem in meaning. It comes via Old French acointer from medieval Latin accognitāre, which was based ultimately on cognitus, the past participle of cognoscere ‘know’. Cognitus gave English cognition, of course, but also quaint (cognitus developed into cointe, queinte in Old French, and came to mean ‘skilled, expert’; this led later to the notion of being skilfully made or elegant, which eventually degenerated into ‘agreeably curious’).
=> cognition, quaint[acquaint etymology, acquaint origin, 英语词源]
charm: charm: [13] Although now largely weakened to mere ‘attractiveness’, the origins of charm are in magic spells and incantations. It comes via Old French charme from Latin carmen ‘song’, which was also used for the chanting or reciting of verses with supposedly magic powers. Thus in the Middle Ages, charms were synonymous with enchantment – either spoken or, in more concrete form, carried as talismans. The latter have degenerated in modern times to small trinkets worn on bracelets, an application first recorded in the mid 19th century.
measure: measure: [13] The distant ancestor of English measure was the Indo-European base *ma-, *me- ‘measure’. This has generated a wide range of often unexpected English progeny, including meal ‘repast’, month, and moon. Measure itself comes from an extension of the base, *mat-, *met-, from which was derived the Latin verb mētīrī ‘measure’.

Its past participial stem mēnsformed the basis of the noun mēnsūra ‘measure’, which passed into English via Old French mesure as measure. From the same Latin stem come commensurate [17], dimension [14], and immense [15] (literally ‘unmeasurable’); and other related forms that go back to the base *mat-, *met- (or *med-) include mate ‘friend’, meat, meditate, meet ‘suitable’, mete, mode, moderate, modest, and modify.
=> commensurate, dimension, immense, mate, meal, meat, meditate, meet, mete, metre, mode, moderate, modest, month, moon
tsunami: tsunami: [19] Japanese tsunami means literally ‘harbour waves’, a reference to the devastating effect Pacific tsunamis have had on Japanese coastal communities. For most of the 20th century the term was largely restricted to the specialized vocabulary of oceanographers and earth scientists, lay people preferring the more familiar tidal wave (a misnomer: strictly speaking, a tidal wave is one caused by the movement of the tide, whereas a tsunami is specifically generated by an undersea earthquake), but the disastrous inundation of southern Asian coasts at the end of 2004 lodged it firmly in the language’s everyday lexicon.
autogenous (adj.): "self-generated," 1846, earlier autogeneal (1650s), from Greek autogenes "self-produced," from autos "self" (see auto-) + genes "formation, creation" (see genus). Modern form and biological use of the word said to have been coined by English paleontologist Richard Owen (1804-1892).
Beguine (n.): late 15c., from French béguine (13c.), Medieval Latin beguina, a member of a women's spiritual order said to have been founded c.1180 in Liege in the Low Countries. They are said to take their name from the surname of Lambert le Bègue "Lambert the Stammerer," a Liege priest who was instrumental in their founding, and it's likely the word was pejorative at first.

The order generally preserved its reputation, though it quickly drew imposters who did not; nonetheless it eventually was condemned as heretical. A male order, called Beghards founded communities by the 1220s in imitation of them, but they soon degenerated (compare Old French beguin "(male) Beguin," also "hypocrite") and wandered begging in the guise of religion; they likely were the source of the words beg and beggar, though there is disagreement over whether Beghard produced Middle Dutch beggaert "mendicant" or was produced by it.

Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine" (1935) refers to a kind of popular dance of West Indian origin, from French colloquial béguin "an infatuation, boyfriend, girlfriend," earlier "child's bonnet," and before that "nun's headdress" (14c.), from Middle Dutch beggaert, ultimately the same word.
cellophane (n.): 1912, trademark name for a flexible, transparent product made from regenerated cellulose, coined by the inventor, Swiss chemist Jacques E. Brandenberger (1872-1954), probably from cellulose + connective o + -phane.
cgi: by 2004, initialism (acronym) for computer-generated imagery.
chauvinism (n.): 1840, "exaggerated, blind nationalism; patriotism degenerated into a vice," from French chauvinisme (1839), from the character Nicholas Chauvin, soldier of Napoleon's Grand Armee, notoriously attached to the Empire long after it was history, in the Cogniards' popular 1831 vaudeville "La Cocarde Tricolore." Meaning extended to "sexism" via male chauvinism (1969).

The name is a French form of Latin Calvinus and thus Calvinism and chauvinism are, etymologically, twins. The name was a common one in Napoleon's army, and if there was a real person at the base of the character in the play, he has not been certainly identified by etymologists, though memoirs of Waterloo (one published in Paris in 1822) mention "one of our principal piqueurs, named Chauvin, who had returned with Napoleon from Elba," which implies loyalty.
degenerate (v.): 1540s, from Latin degeneratus, past participle of degenerare "fall from ancestral quality" (see degenerate (adj.)). Figurative sense of "to fall off, decline" was in Latin. Related: Degenerated; degenerating.
electric (adj.): 1640s, first used in English by physician Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682), apparently coined as Modern Latin electricus (literally "resembling amber") by English physicist William Gilbert (1540-1603) in treatise "De Magnete" (1600), from Latin electrum "amber," from Greek elektron "amber" (Homer, Hesiod, Herodotus), also "pale gold" (a compound of 1 part silver to 4 of gold); which is of unknown origin.
Vim illam electricam nobis placet appellare [Gilbert]
Originally the word described substances which, like amber, attract other substances when rubbed. Meaning "charged with electricity" is from 1670s; the physical force so called because it first was generated by rubbing amber. In many modern instances, the word is short for electrical. Figurative sense is attested by 1793. Electric light is from 1767. Electric toothbrush first recorded 1936; electric blanket in 1930. Electric typewriter is from 1958. Electric guitar is from 1938; electric organ coined as the name of a hypothetical future instrument in 1885.
generate (v.): c. 1500, "to beget" (offspring), a back-formation from generation or else from Latin generatus, past participle of generare "to beget, produce," from genus "race, kind" (see genus). In reference to natural forces, conditions, substances, etc., from 1560s. Related: Generated; generating.
homeliness (n.): mid-14c., from homely + -ness. Originally "meekness, gentleness," also "familiarity, intimacy; friendliness;" sense degenerated by c. 1400 to "want of refinement in manners, coarseness; presumptuousness."
powerhouse (n.): 1873, "building where power is generated," from power (n.) + house (n.). Figurative sense is from 1913.
regenerate (v.): 1550s, back-formation from regeneration or else from Latin regeneratus, past participle of regenerare "bring forth again" (see regeneration). Originally religious; of body parts from 1590s. Related: Regenerated; regenerating. Replaced earlier regeneren (c. 1400), from Old French regenerer.
shit (v.): Old English scitan, from Proto-Germanic *skit- (cognates: North Frisian skitj, Dutch schijten, German scheissen), from PIE *skei- "to cut, split, divide, separate" (see shed (v.)). The notion is of "separation" from the body (compare Latin excrementum, from excernere "to separate," Old English scearn "dung, muck," from scieran "to cut, shear;" see sharn). It is thus a cousin to science and conscience.

"Shit" is not an acronym. The notion that it is a recent word might be partly because it was taboo from c. 1600 and rarely appeared in print (neither Shakespeare nor the KJV has it), and even in "vulgar" publications of the late 18c. it is disguised by dashes. It drew the wrath of censors as late as 1922 ("Ulysses" and "The Enormous Room"), scandalized magazine subscribers in 1957 (a Hemingway story in "Atlantic Monthly") and was omitted from some dictionaries as recently as 1970 ("Webster's New World").

Extensive slang usage; meaning "to lie, to tease" is from 1934; that of "to disrespect" is from 1903. Shite, now a jocular or slightly euphemistic and chiefly British variant of the noun, formerly a dialectal variant, reflects the vowel in the Old English verb (compare German scheissen); the modern verb has been influenced by the noun. Shat is a humorous past tense form, not etymological, first recorded 18c. To shit bricks "be very frightened" attested by 1961. The connection between fear and involuntary defecation has generated expressions in English since 14c. (the image also is in Latin), and probably also is behind scared shitless (1936).
Alle þe filþ of his magh ['maw'] salle breste out atte his fondament for drede. ["Cursor Mundi," early 14c.]