quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- gullible




- gullible: [19] Gullible is a derivative of the now archaic gull ‘dupe’, itself a verbal use of the noun gull ‘gullible person, simpleton’. This appears to have been a figurative extension of an earlier gull ‘newly hatched bird’ [14], which survived dialectally into the late 19th century, and was itself perhaps a noun use of the obsolete adjective gull ‘yellow’ (borrowed from Old Norse gulr and still extant in Swedish and Danish gul ‘yellow’). Some etymologists, however, derive the noun gull ‘simpleton’ from an obsolete verb gull ‘swallow’ [16], which goes back ultimately to Old French gole, goule ‘throat’ (source of English gullet).
- 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.
- brood (n.)




- Old English brod "brood, fetus, hatchling," from Proto-Germanic *brod (cognates: Middle Dutch broet, Old High German bruot, German Brut "brood"), literally "that which is hatched by heat," from *bro- "to warm, heat," from PIE *bhre- "burn, heat, incubate," from root *bhreue- "to boil, bubble, effervesce, burn" (see brew (v.)).
- bungalow (n.)




- 1670s, from Gujarati bangalo, from Hindi bangla "low, thatched house," literally "Bengalese," used elliptically for "house in the Bengal style" (see Bengal). Related: Bungaloid.
- cockatrice (n.)




- late 14c., from Old French cocatriz, altered (by influence of coq) from Late Latin *calcatrix, from Latin calcare "to tread" (from calx (1) "heel"), as translation of Greek ikhneumon, literally "tracker, tracer."
In classical writings, an Egyptian animal of some sort, the mortal enemy of the crocodile, which it tracks down and kills. This vague sense became hopelessly confused in the Christian West, and in England the word ended up applied to the equivalent of the basilisk. A serpent hatched from a cock's egg, it was fabled to kill by its glance and could be slain only by tricking it into seeing its own reflection. Belief in them persisted even among the educated because the word was used in the KJV several times to translate a Hebrew word for "serpent." In heraldry, a beast half cock, half serpent. - gull (n.2)




- cant term for "dupe, sucker, credulous person," 1590s, of uncertain origin. Perhaps from verb meaning "to dupe, cheat" (see gull (v.)). Or it is perhaps from (or influenced by) the bird name (see gull (n.1)); in either case with a sense of "someone who will swallow anything thrown at him." Another possibility is Middle English gull, goll "newly hatched bird" (late 14c.), which is perhaps from Old Norse golr "yellow," from the hue of its down.
- hatch (v.1)




- early 13c., hachen, "to produce young from eggs by incubation," probably from an unrecorded Old English *hæccan, of unknown origin, related to Middle High German, German hecken "to mate" (used of birds). Meaning "to come forth from an egg," also "cause to come forth from an egg" are late 14c. Figurative use (of plots, etc.) is from early 14c. Related: Hatched; hatching.
- hatch (v.2)




- "engrave, draw fine parallel lines," late 14c., from Old French hachier "chop up, hack" (14c.), from hache "ax" (see hatchet). Related: Hatched; hatching. The noun meaning "an engraved line or stroke" is from 1650s.
- hatch (n.2)




- "that which has hatched; action of hatching," 1620s, from hatch (v.1).
- hatchling (n.)




- "newly hatched creature," 1854, from hatch (v.1) + diminutive suffix -ling.
- latterly




- 1734, from latter + -ly (2). Called by Johnson "a low word lately hatched." Related: Lattermost.
- oviparous (adj.)




- "producing eggs that are hatched outside the body of the female," 1640s, from Latin oviparus, from ovum "egg" (see egg (n.)) + stem of parere "to bring forth" (see pare).
- altricial




- "(Of a young bird or other animal) hatched or born in an undeveloped state and requiring care and feeding by the parents", Late 19th century: from Latin altrix, altric-, feminine of altor 'nourisher', from alere 'nourish'.
- rondavel




- "A traditional circular African dwelling with a conical thatched roof", From Afrikaans rondawel.