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aeolian harp [aeolian harp 词源字典]: aeolian harp: [18] Aeolus was the Greek god of the winds (the form of the name is Latin; the original Greek was Aiolos, deriving from the adjective aiolos ‘quick-moving’). Hence the application of the epithet to a musical instrument whose strings are sounded by the breeze blowing over them. The term is first recorded in the writings of Erasmus Darwin, at the end of the 18th century.
[aeolian harp etymology, aeolian harp origin, 英语词源]
char: char: see charcoal
character: character: [14] The ultimate source of character is Greek kharaktér, a derivative of the verb kharássein ‘sharpen, engrave, cut’, which in turn came from kharax ‘pointed stake’. Kharaktér meant ‘engraved mark’, and hence was applied metaphorically to the particular impress or stamp which marked one thing as different from another – its ‘character’. The word came into English via Latin charactēr and Old French caractere. Characteristic followed in the 17th century.
=> gash
charcoal: charcoal: [14] The words char and charcoal are related, but not in the way commonsense might lead one to suppose: for the verb char [17], originally apparently a charcoal-burner’s term, appears to derive from charcoal. So etymologically, the element char has nothing to do with ‘burning’. There are two main suggestions as to charcoal’s origins: firstly that it comes from Old French charbon ‘charcoal’ (related to English carbon); and secondly that it represents the now obsolete English verb chare (see CHARWOMAN), which in Old English times (cerran) meant ‘turn’.

On the basis of this theory, the etymological meaning of the word would be ‘turning into charcoal’ (for in Old English, coal meant ‘charcoal’ as well as ‘coal’).
charge: charge: [13] The notion underlying the word charge is of a ‘load’ or ‘burden’ – and this can still be detected in many of its modern meanings, as of a duty laid on one like a load, or of the burden of an expense, which began as metaphors. It comes ultimately from Latin carrus ‘two-wheeled wagon’ (source also of English car). From this was derived the late Latin verb carricāre ‘load’, which produced the Old French verb charger and, via the intermediate Vulgar Latin *carrica, the Old French noun charge, antecedents of the English words.

The literal sense of ‘loading’ or ‘bearing’ has now virtually died out, except in such phrases as ‘charge your glasses’, but there are reminders of it in cargo [17], which comes from the Spanish equivalent of the French noun charge, and indeed in carry, descended from the same ultimate source. The origins of the verb sense ‘rush in attack’ are not altogether clear, but it may have some connection with the sense ‘put a weapon in readiness’.

This is now familiar in the context of firearms, but it seems to have been used as long ago as the 13th century with reference to arrows. The Italian descendant of late Latin carricāre was caricare, which meant not only ‘load’ but also, metaphorically, ‘exaggerate’. From this was derived the noun caricatura, which reached English via French in the 18th century as caricature.
=> car, cargo, caricature
charlatan: charlatan: [17] Charlatan is of Italian origin. It comes from the verb cialare ‘chatter, prattle’. Its original application was to the patter of salesmen trying to sell quack remedies, and hence Italian ciarlatano at first referred to such vendors, and then by extension to any dispenser of impostures. Some etymologists have sought to connect the word with Italian Cerretano, literally ‘inhabitant of Cerreto’, an Italian village supposedly noted for exaggeration, alleging that it may have contributed its suffix to ciarlatano and reinforced its meaning. However that may be, the word reached English in its current from via French charlatan.
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.
charnel: charnel: see carnal
chart: chart: [16] English card and chart are related. Both come from Latin charta ‘paper’, but whereas card was routed via French carte, and for some reason changed its t to a d, chart was borrowed directly from the Latin word, in which the meaning ‘map’ had already developed. Latin charta originally denoted ‘leaf of the papyrus plant’, and developed the sense ‘paper’ because paper was originally made from papyrus (indeed the English word paper comes from papyrus).

It came from Greek khártēs, which is probably of Egyptian origin. It has provided the basis of a number of other English words besides card and chart, including charter [13], which comes via Old French from Latin chartula, a diminutive form of charta; carton [19], which comes from a French derivative, and was originally used in English for the ‘white disc at the centre of a target’; and, via Italian carta, cartel, cartoon, cartouche, and cartridge. Cartel [16] comes via French from the Italian diminutive form cartello, which meant literally ‘placard’.

It was used metaphorically for ‘letter of defiance’, and entered English with the sense ‘written challenge’. The modern commercial sense comes from German kartell. Cartouche [17] comes via French from Italian cartoccio. It originally signified a ‘cartridge’, made from a roll or twist of paper; the modern architectural sense of ‘ornamental tablet’ arose from its original scroll-like shape. Cartridge [16] is an English modification of cartouche; an intermediate form was cartage.
=> card, cartel, carton, cartoon, cartouche, cartridge, charter
charwoman: charwoman: [16] A charwoman is, quite literally, a woman who does ‘chores’. Chore is a variant of the now obsolete noun chare or char, which meant literally ‘turn’ (it derived from the Old English verb cerran, which may be the source of charcoal). Hence ‘doing one’s turn’, ‘one’s turn at work’ in due course advanced its meaning to ‘job’. Already by the 15th century it had connotations of menial or household jobs: ‘making the beds and such other chares’, Nicholas Love, Bonaventura’s Mirror 1410.
=> ajar, chore
chary: chary: see care
eucharist: eucharist: [14] The Greek-based eucharist corresponds to native English thanksgiving. It comes via Old French eucariste and late Latin eucharistia from Greek eukharistíā ‘gratitude’. This was a derivative of eukháristos ‘grateful’, a compound adjective formed from the prefix eu- ‘well’ and kharízesthai ‘show favour’. The verb in turn was formed from the noun kháris ‘favour, grace’ (source of English charisma [19] and probably a distant relative of yearn [OE]).
=> yearn
hara-kiri: hara-kiri: [19] Hara-kiri is a Japanese form of ritual suicide, now little practised, involving disembowelment. The term, which means literally ‘belly-cutting’, is a relatively colloquial one in Japanese; the more dignified expression is seppuku, literally ‘cut open the stomach’.
harangue: harangue: [15] The original notion underlying harangue may have been of a large group of people crowded round, with the idea of ‘addressing’ them only developing later. The word comes via Old French harangue from medieval Latin harenga, and it has been speculated that this was perhaps acquired from a prehistoric Germanic *kharikhring- ‘assembly’, a compound of *kharjaz ‘crowd’ (source of English harbinger, harbour, harry, and herald and related to harness) and *khringaz ‘ring’.
=> harbinger, harbour, harness, harry, herald
harbinger: harbinger: [12] Originally, a harbinger was simply someone who provided ‘harbour’ – that is, ‘shelter, lodging’. The word began life as a derivative of Old French herberge ‘lodging’, a borrowing from heriberga, the Old Saxon equivalent of Old English herebeorg (whence modern English harbour). English acquired it as herbergere, and the n did not put in an appearance until the 15th century (it was quite a common phenomenon, seen also in messenger and passenger).

As for its meaning, it developed in the 14th century to ‘someone sent on ahead to arrange for lodging for an army, an official royal party, etc’, and from this came the present-day figurative sense ‘forerunner’.
=> harbour
harbour: harbour: [OE] Etymologically, a harbour is a ‘shelter for a crowd of people’. English acquired it in the late Anglo-Saxon period as herebeorg, perhaps borrowed from Old Norse herbergi, but it began life as a compound of prehistoric Germanic *kharjaz, originally ‘crowd’, later specifically ‘army’ (source also of English harry and related to harness) and *berg- ‘protect’ (which occurs in a range of English words, including barrow ‘mound’, borough, borrow, and bury).

The original sense ‘shelter for a crowd or army’ had broadened out by historic times to the more general ‘shelter, lodging’. That is what Old English herebeorg meant, and gradually it underwent further semantic development, via ‘place in which shelter can be obtained’, to (as recently as the 16th century) ‘place of shelter for ships, port’.
=> barrow, borough, borrow, bury, harbinger, harness, harry, herald
hard: hard: [OE] Hard comes ultimately from a prehistoric Indo-European *krátus, which denoted ‘power, strength’. This original meaning was carried over into Greek krátos ‘strength, power, authority’ (source of the ending -cracy in such English words as democracy and plutocracy), but the Germanic languages took it over mainly in the sense ‘resistant to physical pressure’.

The prehistoric Germanic form *kharthuz produced, besides English hard, German hart, Dutch hard, Swedish hård, and Danish haard. The sense ‘difficult’, incidentally, developed in the 14th and 15th century from the notion ‘resistant to one’s efforts’. A Germanic derived verb *kharthjan ‘harden’ was borrowed into Old French as hardir ‘embolden’, and its past participle hardi ‘bold’ reached English as hardy [13].

Its main modern sense, ‘robust, tough’, presumably a harking back to its distant English relative hard, developed in the 16th century.
=> hardy
hare: hare: [OE] The hare seems originally to have been named from its colour. The word comes from prehistoric West and North Germanic *khason, which also produced German hase, Dutch haas, and Swedish and Danish hare, and if as has been suggested it is related to Old English hasu ‘grey’ and Latin cascus ‘old’, its underlying meaning would appear to be ‘grey animal’ (just as the bear and the beaver are etymologically the ‘brown animal’, and the herring may be the ‘grey fish’). Harrier ‘dog for hunting hares’ [16] was derived from hare on the model of Old French levrier (French lièvre means ‘hare’, and is related to English leveret ‘young hare’ [15]); it was originally harer, and the present-day form arose from confusion with harrier ‘falcon’ [16], a derivative of the verb harry.
=> harrier, herring, hoar
harem: harem: [17] Etymologically, Arabic harīm is a ‘forbidden place’. It is a derivative of the verb harama ‘prohibit’ (whence also harmattan, literally ‘the forbidden one’, the name of a dry dusty Saharan wind). Hence it came to be applied to a part of a Muslim house reserved for women, and by extension to the women who lived there – the wives and concubines of the master of the household.

Synonymous terms in English include seraglio, which comes via Italian and Turkish from Persian serāi ‘residence, palace’, and forms the second element of caravanserai, and zenana, which is derived ultimately from Persian zan ‘woman’, a relative of Greek guné ‘woman’ (as in English gynaecology).
harlequin: harlequin: [16] Harlequin, a brightly-clad character in the Italian commedia dell’arte, has a murky history. He seems to have originated in a mythical figure known in Old French as Herlequin or Hellequin, who was the leader of a ghostly troop of horsemen who rode across the sky at night. And Herlequin could well be a later incarnation of King Herla (in Old English Herla cyning), a legendary personage who has been identified with the chief Anglo-Saxon god Woden.

It seems likely that another piece of the jigsaw could be the erlking, the supernatural abductor of children described in a Goethe poem memorably set to music by Schubert; its name is generally traced back to Danish ellerkonge, a variant of elverkonge, literally ‘king of the elves’, which bears a resemblance to Herlequin that is surely too strong to be coincidental.

In early modern French Herlequin became Harlequin, the form borrowed by English (present-day French arlequin shows the influence of Italian arlecchino).
=> king
harlot: harlot: [13] The use of harlot for ‘prostitute’ is a comparatively recent development in the word’s history. It originally meant ‘tramp, beggar’, and did not come to mean ‘prostitute’ until the 15th century. It was borrowed from Old French harlot or herlot ‘vagabond’, a word of unknown ancestry with relatives in Italian (arlotto) and Provençal (arlot).
harm: harm: [OE] The ideas of ‘physical damage’ and ‘grief’ are intimately associated in the word harm: indeed, until the early 17th century it had both meanings, and its relatives, German and Swedish harm, mean exclusively ‘grief’. It appears to be related to Russian sram ‘shame, scandal’, but its ultimate ancestry is not known.
harmony: harmony: [14] The etymological idea behind harmony is ‘fitting things together’ – that is, of combining notes in an aesthetically pleasing manner. It comes via Old French harmonie and Latin harmonia from Greek harmoníā ‘means of joining’, hence ‘agreement, concord’, a derivative of harmós ‘joint’. As a musical term in Greek it appears to have denoted ‘scale’, or more simply just ‘music’, and its original use in English was for what we would now call ‘melody’.

It was not applied to the combination of notes to form chords (a practice which originated in the 9th century) until the 16th century. The term harmonica was coined in 1762 by the American physicist and statesman Benjamin Franklin for a musical instrument consisting of a set of water-filled glasses tuned to different notes and played with the fingers. It was first applied to the mouth-organ in the 19th century.
harness: harness: [13] Etymologically, harness is ‘equipment for an army’. It comes via Old French herneis ‘military equipment’ from an unrecorded Old Norse *hernest, a compound formed from herr ‘army’ (a descendant of prehistoric Germanic *kharjaz ‘crowd’ and related to English harangue, harbinger, harbour, and harry) and nest ‘provisions’.

English took it over in the general sense ‘equipment’, and did not apply it specifically to the straps, buckles, etc of a horse until the 14th century (it was originally used for any equestrian equipment, including reins, saddles, etc, but now it denotes exclusively the gear of a draught horse).
=> harangue, harbinger, harbour, harry, herald
harpsichord: harpsichord: [17] Harpsichord means literally ‘harp-string’. Harp [OE] is a Germanic word. It comes from a prehistoric West and North Germanic *kharpōn, which also produced German harfe, Dutch harp, and Swedish harpa, and was borrowed into the Romance languages via late Latin harpa (its Italian descendant, arpa, gave English arpeggio [18]). When the harpsichord was developed in the late 16th century, it was named in Italian arpicordo, a compound formed with corda ‘string’. English acquired the term via the now obsolete French harpechorde, for some unknown reason inserting an s in the process.
=> arpeggio, harp
harrier: harrier: see hare
harry: harry: [OE] Etymologically, to harry is to ‘go on a raid as an army does’. The word comes ultimately from prehistoric Germanic *kharjaz, which meant ‘crowd of people’ and also ‘army’ (it also produced English harangue, harbinger, harbour, and harness). From it was formed the verb *kharōjan, which passed into Old English as hergian. This developed into modern English harry, and it also produced the verb harrow ‘rob, plunder’, now obsolete except in the expression harrowing of hell (which denotes the rescuing by Christ, after his crucifixion, of the souls of the righteous held in captivity in hell).
=> harangue, harbinger, harbour, harness, harrow
harsh: harsh: [16] Harsh originally meant ‘hairy’. Its ancestor, Middle Low German harsch, was a derivative of the noun haer ‘hair’, and its exact English equivalent would have been hairish. By the time English acquired it, it had broadened out in meaning to ‘rough’, both literally and figuratively.
harvest: harvest: [OE] The idea underlying the word harvest is of ‘plucking, gathering, cropping’ – it comes ultimately from Indo-European *karp-, which also produced Greek karpós ‘fruit, crop, harvest’ (whence English carpel [19]) and Latin carpere ‘pluck’ (source of English carpet, excerpt, and scarce) – but its original meaning in English was ‘time of gathering crops’ rather than ‘act of gathering crops’.

Indeed, until as recently as the 18th century it was used as the name for the season now known as autumn (as its German relative herbst still is), and it was not until the 16th century that the present-day senses ‘act of gathering crops’ and ‘crops gathered’ began to develop.
=> carpet, excerpt, scarce
lethargy: lethargy: [14] Greek léthē meant ‘oblivion’ (the Romans used it for the name of a river in Hades whose water induced forgetfulness, and its influence has also been traced in changing Latin lētum ‘death’ to lēthum, source of English lethal [17]). From it was formed the adjective léthargos, which in turn produced the noun lēthargíā, source (via Latin and Old French) of English lethargy.
=> lethal
maharajah: maharajah: see raj
orchard: orchard: [OE] Etymologically, an orchard is probably simply a ‘plant-yard’. It appears to have been coined in the prehistoric Germanic period from *worti-, the ancestor of the now archaic English noun wort ‘plant, vegetable, herb’ (which is distantly related to root), and *gardaz, *gardon, forerunner of English yard and garden. Originally, as its derivation suggests, it was quite a broad term, covering vegetable gardens as well as enclosures for fruit trees, but by the 15th century it had more or less become restricted to the latter.
=> garden, yard
saccharin: saccharin: [19] Medieval Latin saccharum ‘sugar’ belonged to the same word-family as the ancestor of English sugar. Its original contribution to English was the adjective saccharine ‘sugary’ [17]; and in the late 1870s the German chemist Fahlberg used it in coining the term saccharin for the new sweetening substance he had invented. English borrowed it in the mid 1880s.
=> sugar
share: share: Share ‘plough-blade’ [OE] and share ‘portion’ [14] are distinct words, but they are ultimately related. The former came from the Germanic base *skar-, *sker- ‘cut’, which also produced English score, shear, short, etc. Its German relative is schar ‘ploughshare’. Share ‘portion’ appears to be a survival of Old English scearu.

This is only recorded in the senses ‘groin’ and ‘tonsure’, but they share a meaning element (‘dividing’ in the case of the groin, the ‘forking’ of the body, and ‘cutting’ in the case of tonsure) that leads back to Germanic *skar-, *sker-, and suggests that share ‘portion’ denotes etymologically something ‘cut’ up or divided between people.
=> score, sharp, shear, shirt, short, skirt
shark: shark: [16] The origins of the word shark are obscure. It appears to have been introduced to English in the late 1560s by members of Sir John Hawkins’ expedition (a ballad of 1569 recorded ‘There is no proper name for [the fish] that I know, but that certain men of Captain Hawkins’s doth call it a shark’), but it is not known where they got it from. A resemblance to Austrian dialect schirk ‘sturgeon’ has been noted. Also not clear is whether shark ‘swindler’ (first recorded in the 18th century) is the same word; an alternative possibility is that it came from German schurke ‘scoundrel’.
sharp: sharp: [OE] Sharp, together with its close relatives German scharf, Dutch scherp, and Swedish and Danish skarp, goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *skarpaz. This was probably descended from an extension of the Indo-European base *sker- ‘cut’ (source of English score, share, shear, etc). Welsh has borrowed sharp as siarp.
=> shear
wharf: wharf: [OE] Wharf has relatives in German werft ‘wharf, shipyard’ and Dutch werf ‘shipyard’. All three appear to go back to a prehistoric Germanic base *(kh)werb-, *(kh)warb- ‘turn’, which also produced German werfen ‘throw’ and English warp.
=> version, warp
Amharic: principal language of Ethiopia, 1813, from Amhara, name of a central province in Ethiopia.
autoharp (n.): 1882, name on a patent taken out by Charles F. Zimmermann of Philadelphia, U.S.A., for an improved type of harp, an instrument considerably different from the modern autoharp, actually a chord zither, which was invented about the same time by K.A. Gütter of Markneukirchen, Germany, who called it a Volkszither.
blepharoplasty (n.): 1839, from blepharo-, comb. form of Greek blepharon "eyelid" (related to blepein "to look, see") + -plasty.
blowhard (n.): also blow-hard, 1840, a sailor's word (from 1790 as a nickname for a sailor), perhaps not originally primarily meaning "braggart;" from blow (v.1) + hard (adv.). An adjective sense of "boastful" appeared c. 1855, and may be a separate formation leading to a modified noun use.
Cathar (n.): 1570s, "religious puritan" (implied in Catharism), from Medieval Latin Cathari "the Pure," name taken by Novatians and other Christian sects, from New Testament Greek katharizein "to make clean," from Greek katharos "pure." Related: Catharist.
catharsis (n.): 1803, "bodily purging," from Latinized form of Greek katharsis "purging, cleansing," from stem of kathairein "to purify, purge," from katharos "pure, clear of dirt, clean, spotless; open, free; clear of shame or guilt; purified" (with most of the extended senses now found in Modern English clear, clean, pure), which is of unknown origin. Originally medical in English; of emotions from 1872; psychotherapy sense first recorded 1909, in Brill's translation of Freud.
cathartic (adj.): 1610s, of medicines, from Latin catharticus, from Greek kathartikos "fit for cleansing, purgative," from katharsis "purging, cleansing" (see catharsis). General sense is from 1670s. Related: Cathartical.
char (v.): "to reduce to charcoal," 1670s, probably a back-formation from charcoal (q.v.). Related: Charred; charring.
charabanc (n.): British for "sightseeing bus," 1811, originally in a Continental context (especially Swiss), from French char-à-bancs, literally "benched carriage," from char "wagon," from Latin carrus (see car) + à "to" (see ad-) + banc "bench" (see bench (n.)).
character (n.): mid-14c., carecter, "symbol marked or branded on the body;" mid-15c., "symbol or drawing used in sorcery," from Old French caratere "feature, character" (13c., Modern French caractère), from Latin character, from Greek kharakter "engraved mark," also "symbol or imprint on the soul," also "instrument for marking," from kharassein "to engrave," from kharax "pointed stake," from PIE root *gher- (4) "to scrape, scratch." Meaning extended in ancient times by metaphor to "a defining quality."
You remember Eponina, who kept her husband alive in an underground cavern so devotedly and heroically? The force of character she showed in keeping up his spirits would have been used to hide a lover from her husband if they had been living quietly in Rome. Strong characters need strong nourishment. [Stendhal "de l'Amour," 1822]
Meaning "sum of qualities that define a person" is from 1640s. Sense of "person in a play or novel" is first attested 1660s, in reference to the "defining qualities" he or she is given by the author. Meaning "a person" in the abstract is from 1749; especially "eccentric person" (1773). Colloquial sense of "chap, fellow" is from 1931. The Latin ch- spelling was restored from 1500s. Character actor attested from 1861; character assassination from 1888; character-building (n.) from 1886.
characterisation (n.): chiefly British English spelling of characterization; for spelling, see -ize.
characterise (v.): chiefly British English spelling of characterize; for suffix, see -ize. Related: Characterised; characterising.
characteristic: adjective and noun both first attested 1660s, from character + -istic on model of Greek kharakteristikos. Earlier in the adjectival sense was characteristical (1620s). Related: Characteristically (1640s). Characteristics "distinctive traits" also attested from 1660s.