英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

main [main 词源字典]: main: [OE] Main goes back to prehistoric Germanic *mag- ‘be able, have power’ (source also of English may and might, and distantly related to machine). From it was descended Old English mægen ‘strength’. This now survives as a noun only in the expression with might and main, but it was also used attributively in Old English to mean ‘of large size, great’, and by the 13th century (helped along partly by the related Old Norse megenn or megn ‘strong’) it was being used as an adjective in its own right. At first it still meant just ‘large’, but by the 15th century its modern sense ‘chief’ had evolved.
=> may, might[main etymology, main origin, 英语词源]
man: man: [OE] Man is a widespread Germanic word (with relatives in German mann ‘man’ and mensch ‘person’, Dutch and Swedish man ‘man’, Danish mand ‘man’, and Swedish menniska ‘person’), and connections have even been found outside Germanic (Sanskrit, for instance, had mánu- ‘man’). But no decisive evidence has been found for an ultimate Indo- European source.

Among the suggestions put forward have been links with a base *men- ‘think’ or ‘breathe’, or with Latin manus ‘hand’. The etymologically primary sense of the word is ‘human being, person’, and that is what it generally meant in Old English: the sexes were generally distinguished by wer ‘man’ (which survives probably in werewolf and is related to world) and wīf (source of modern English wife) or cwene ‘woman’.

But during the Middle English and early modern English periods ‘male person’ gradually came to the fore, and today ‘person’ is decidedly on the decline (helped on its way by those who feel that the usage discriminates against women). Woman originated in Old English as a compound of wīf ‘woman, female’ and man ‘person’. Manikin [17] was borrowed from Dutch manneken, a diminutive form of man ‘man’; and mannequin [18] is the same word acquired via French.
=> manikin, mannequin
manner: manner: [12] Etymologically, a manner is a method of ‘handling’ something. It comes via Anglo-Norman manere from Vulgar Latin *manuāria ‘way of handling’. This was a noun use of the Latin adjective manuārius ‘of the hand’, a derivative of manus ‘hand’. The adoption of manner as a conventional translation of Latin modus ‘method’ helped to establish the far broader range of meanings it has today.
=> manual
quiz: quiz: [19] No one has ever been able satisfactorily to explain the origins of quiz. A word of that form first appeared at the end of the 18th century, meaning ‘odd person’ or, as a verb, ‘make fun of’ (in the early 19th century it was claimed to have been coined by a Dublin theatre proprietor by the name of Daly, but no proof has ever been found for this). The verb later came to be used for ‘look at mockingly or questioningly through a monocle’, and it may be that this led on (perhaps helped by associations with inquisitive or Latin quis? ‘who?, what?’) to the sense ‘interrogate’.
scone: scone: [16] The word scone first appeared in Scottish English, and does not seem to have made any significant headway south of the border until the 19th century (helped on its way, no doubt, by that great proselytizer of Scottish vocabulary, Sir Walter Scott). It was borrowed from Dutch schoonbrood ‘fine white bread’, a compound formed from schoon ‘beautiful, bright, white’ (first cousin to German schön ‘beautiful’ and related to English sheen and show) and brood ‘bread’.
=> sheen, show
wallop: wallop: [14] Wallop and gallop are doublets – that is to say, they began life as the same word, but have gradually drifted apart. Their ultimate common source was Frankish *walahlaupan ‘jump well’. This was a compound verb formed from *wala ‘well’ and *hlaupan ‘jump’, a relative of English leap. This was borrowed into Old French as galoper, which gave English gallop.

But the northern dialect of Old French took it over as waloper, which is where English wallop comes from. This was originally used for ‘gallop’ (‘Came there king Charlemagne, as fast as his horse might wallop’. William Caxton, Four Sons of Aymon 1489), but after the acquisition of gallop it began to go steadily downhill semantically, helped on its way perhaps by its sound, suggestive of hitting.
=> gallop
Boeotian (adj.): 1590s, "ignorant, dull," from Boeotia, district around Thebes in ancient Greece (said to have been so called for its cattle pastures; Greek bous = "ox"), whose inhabitants were characterized as proverbially dull and countrified by their neighbors, the Athenians. The Boeotians presumably held reciprocal opinions, but their great writers, Plutarch and Pindar, though patriots, are full of praise for Athenian deeds and institutions.
Though his aim was to vindicate Boeotia, [Pindar] has probably done her a disservice, in that he has helped to immortalise the scurrilous proverb Βοιωτία ύς, which he wished to confute. ... If left to itself, the slander might have passed into oblivion long ago. [W. Rhys Roberts, "The Ancient Boeotians," 1895]
convey (v.): c. 1300, "to go along with;" late 14c., "to carry, transport;" from Anglo-French conveier, from Old French convoier "to escort" (Modern French convoyer), from Vulgar Latin *conviare "to accompany on the way," from Latin com- "together" (see com-) + via "way, road" (see via). It was a euphemism for "steal" 15c.-17c., which helped broaden its meaning. Related: Conveyed; conveying.
curium (n.): 1946, named by U.S. chemist Glenn T. Seaborg, who helped discover it in 1944, for the Curies (see Curie).
ecstasy (n.): late 14c., extasie "elation," from Old French estaise "ecstasy, rapture," from Late Latin extasis, from Greek ekstasis "entrancement, astonishment, insanity; any displacement or removal from the proper place," in New Testament "a trance," from existanai "displace, put out of place," also "drive out of one's mind" (existanai phrenon), from ek "out" (see ex-) + histanai "to place, cause to stand," from PIE root *sta- "to stand" (see stet).

Used by 17c. mystical writers for "a state of rapture that stupefied the body while the soul contemplated divine things," which probably helped the meaning shift to "exalted state of good feeling" (1610s). Slang use for the drug 3,4-methylendioxymethamphetamine dates from 1985. Formerly also spelled ecstasie, extacy, extasy, etc. Attempts to coin a verb to go with it include ecstasy (1620s), ecstatize (1650s), ecstasiate (1823), ecstasize (1830).
Ezra: masc. proper name, in Old Testament name of a celebrated 5c. B.C.E. scribe, from Late Latin, from Hebrew Ezra, contraction of Azaryah(u), literally "God has helped," from ezer "help" + Yah, a shortened form of Yahweh "God."
Greek (n.): Old English Grecas, Crecas (plural) "Greeks, inhabitants of Greece," early Germanic borrowing from Latin Graeci "the Hellenes," apparently from Greek Graikoi. Aristotle, who was the first to use Graikhos as equivalent to Hellenes ("Meteorologica" I.xiv), wrote that it was the name originally used by Illyrians for the Dorians in Epirus, from Graii, native name of the people of Epirus.

But a modern theory (put forth by German classical historian Georg Busolt, 1850-1920), derives it from Graikhos "inhabitant of Graia" (literally "gray," also "old, withered"), a town on the coast of Boeotia, which was the name given by the Romans to all Greeks, originally to the Greek colonists from Graia who helped found Cumae (9c. B.C.E.), the important city in southern Italy where the Latins first encountered Greeks. Under this theory, it was reborrowed in this general sense by the Greeks.

The Germanic languages originally borrowed the word with an initial "-k-" sound (compare Old High German Chrech, Gothic Kreks), which probably was their initial sound closest to the Latin "-g-" at the time; the word was later refashioned. From late 14c. as "the Greek language." Meaning "unintelligible speech, gibberish, any language of which one is ignorant" is from c. 1600. Meaning "member of a Greek-letter fraternity" is student slang, 1884.
It was subtle of God to learn Greek when he wished to become an author -- and not to learn it better. [Nietzsche, "Beyond Good and Evil," 1886]
help (v.): Old English helpan (class III strong verb; past tense healp, past participle holpen) "help, support, succor; benefit, do good to; cure, amend," from Proto-Germanic *helpan (cognates: Old Norse hjalpa, Old Frisian helpa, Middle Dutch and Dutch helpen, Old High German helfan, German helfen), from PIE root *kelb- "to help" (cognates: Lithuanian selpiu "to support, help").

Recorded as a cry of distress from late 14c. Sense of "serve someone with food at table" (1680s) is translated from French servir "to help, stead, avail," and led to helping "portion of food." Related: Helped (c. 1300). The Middle English past participle holpen survives in biblical and U.S. dialectal use.
Lazarus: Biblical character (Luke xvi:20), the poor man covered in sores; his name was extended in medieval usage to "any poor and visibly diseased person" (compare lazar, mid-14c., "one deformed and nauseous with filthy and pestilential diseases" [Johnson]). The name is from a Greek rendition of Hebrew El'azar, literally "God has helped."
main line (n.): "principal line of a railway," 1841; meaning "affluent area of residence" is by 1917, originally (with capitals) that of Philadelphia, from the "main line" of the Pennsylvania Railroad which added local stops to a string of backwater towns west of the city late 19c. that helped turn them into fashionable suburbs.
The Main Line, Philadelphia's most famous suburban district, was deliberately conceived in the 1870's and 1880's by the [Pennsylvania] Railroad, which built high-toned housing developments, ran hotels, more or less forced its executives to plunk their estates out there, and created a whole series of somewhat spurious Welsh towns along the railroad tracks. ... Now everybody assumes these all date from 1682, like the Robertses; but as Chestnut Hill people like to say, "nobody but Welsh peasants lived on the Main Line till the Railroad built it up." [Nathaniel Burt, "The Perennial Philadelphians," 1963]
The original station stops were, in order out from the city, Overbrook, Merion, Narberth, Wynnewood, Ardmore, Haverford, Bryn Mawr, Paoli. The train line for commuters along it is the Paoli Local.
Montanist (n.): mid-15c., millenarian and severely ascetic sect that believed in continual direct inspiration of the spirit and offered prominent church roles to women, from Montanus, Christian-inspired prophet in the wilds of Phrygia c. 160 C.E. The heresy persisted into the 6c. and helped bring prophecy into disrepute in the established Church. Related: Montanism.
nomenclature (n.): c. 1600, "a name," from Middle French nomenclature (16c.), from Latin nomenclatura "calling of names," from nomenclator "namer," from nomen "name" (see name (n.)) + calator "caller, crier," from calare "call out" (see claim (v.)).

Nomenclator in Rome was the title of a steward whose job was to announce visitors, and also of a prompter who helped a stumping politician recall names and pet causes of his constituents. Meaning "list or catalogue of names" first attested 1630s; that of "system of naming" is from 1660s; sense of "terminology of a science" is from 1789.
omg: Internet chat abbreviation of oh my God, by 1994. (Earlier in computerese it meant Object Management Group, 1989, a consortium which helped pave the way for the modern Internet.)
Orwellian (adj.): 1950 (first attested in Mary McCarthy), from English author George Orwell (pseudonym of Eric Blair, 1903-1950), especially in reference to his novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four." Ironically, it has come to be used in reference to the totalitarian systems he satirized.
It is as if George Orwell had conceived the nightmare instead of analyzed it, helped to create it instead of helping to dispel its euphemistic thrall. [Clive James]
post-modern (adj.): also post-modern, post modern, by 1919, in frequent use from 1949, from post- + modern.
But it has been only during the later decades of the modern era -- during that time interval that might fairly be called the post-modern era -- that this mechanistic conception of things has begun seriously to affect the current system of knowledge and belief; and it has not hitherto seriously taken effect except in technology and in the material sciences. [Thorstein Veblen, "The Vested Interests and the Common Man," 1919]

So much for the misapplied theory which has helped set the artist's nerves a-quiver and incited him to the extremes of post modern art, literary and other. [Wilson Follett, "Literature and Bad Nerves," "Harper's," June 1921]
Of architecture from 1940s; specific sense in the arts emerged 1960s (see postmodernism).
Rosetta Stone (n.): discovered 1798 at Rosetta, Egypt; now in British Museum. Dating to 2c. B.C.E., its trilingual inscription helped Jean-François Champollion decipher Egyptian demotic and hieroglyphics in 1822, which opened the way to study of all early Egyptian records. Hence, figurative use of the term to mean "something which provides the key to previously unattainable understanding" (1902). The place name is the European form of Rashid, a name given because it was founded c.800 C.E. by Caliph Harun ar-Rashid.
to (prep.): Old English to "in the direction of, for the purpose of, furthermore," from West Germanic *to (cognates: Old Saxon and Old Frisian to, Dutch too, Old High German zuo, German zu "to"), from PIE pronominal base *do- "to, toward, upward" (cognates: Latin donec "as long as," Old Church Slavonic do "as far as, to," Greek suffix -de "to, toward," Old Irish do, Lithuanian da-), from demonstrative *de-.

Not found in Scandinavian, where the equivalent of till (prep.) is used. In Old English, the preposition (go to town) leveled with the adverb (the door slammed to) except where the adverb retained its stress (tired and hungry too); there it came to be written with -oo (see too).

The nearly universal use of to with infinitives (to sleep, to dream, etc.) arose in Middle English out of the Old English dative use of to, and it helped drive out the Old English inflectional endings (though in this use to itself is a mere sign, without meaning).

Commonly used as a prefix in Middle English (to-hear "listen to," etc.), but few of these survive (to-do, together, and time references such as today, tonight, tomorrow -- Chaucer also has to-yeere). To and fro "side to side" is attested from mid-14c. Phrase what's it to you "how does that concern you?" (1819) is a modern form of an old question:
Huæd is ðec ðæs?
[John xxi:22, in Lindisfarne Gospel, c.950]
whelp (v.): c. 1200, from whelp (n.). Related: Whelped; whelping.