quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- patrol
- patrol: [17] What is now a reasonably dignified term began life as a colloquialism meaning ‘paddle about in mud’. English acquired the word via German from French patrouiller, which originally denoted ‘tramp around through the mud of a military camp – when doing guard duty, for instance’. This was an alteration of Old French patouiller ‘walk or trample in mud’, a verb based on the noun patte ‘paw’.
Other English words which trace their history back to patte are patois [17] (which developed via the Old French verb patoier ‘trample on’, hence ‘treat roughly’, and originally meant ‘rough speech’) and patten ‘wooden shoe’ [14].
=> patois, patten - watch (n.)
- Old English wæcce "a watching, state of being or remaining awake, wakefulness;" also "act or practice of refraining from sleep for devotional or penitential purposes;" from wæccan (see watch (v.)). From c. 1200 as "one of the periods into which the night is divided," in reference to ancient times translating Latin vigilia, Greek phylake, Hebrew ashmoreth.
The Hebrews divided the night into three watches, the Greeks usually into four (sometimes five), the Romans (followed by the Jews in New Testament times) into four. [OED]
On þis niht beð fowuer niht wecches: Biforen euen þe bilimpeð to children; Mid-niht ðe bilimpeð to frumberdligges; hanecrau þe bilimpeð þowuene men; morgewile to alde men. [Trinity Homilies, c. 1200]
From mid-13c. as "a shift of guard duty; an assignment as municipal watchman;" late 13c. as "person or group obligated to patrol a town (especially at night) to keep order, etc." Also in Middle English, "the practice of remaining awake at night for purposes of debauchery and dissipation;" hence wacches of wodnesse "late-night revels and debauchery." The alliterative combination watch and ward preserves the old distinction of watch for night-time municipal patrols and ward for guarding by day; in combination, they meant "continuous vigilance."
Military sense of "military guard, sentinel" is from late 14c. General sense of "careful observation, watchfulness, vigilance" is from late 14c.; to keep watch is from late 14c. Meaning "period of time in which a division of a ship's crew remains on deck" is from 1580s. The meaning "small timepiece" is from 1580s, developing from that of "a clock to wake up sleepers" (mid-15c.). - watchword (n.)
- also watch-word, c. 1400, "password," from watch (n.) in the military sense of "period of standing guard duty" + word (n.). In the sense of "motto, slogan" it dates from 1738.