quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- walnut



[walnut 词源字典] - walnut: [OE] A walnut is etymologically a ‘foreign nut’. Its name alludes to the fact that the nut was regarded by the Germanic peoples as an exotic import from southern Europe, land of Romans and Celts (their own native nut was the hazel). Prehistoric Germanic *walkhaz originally meant ‘Celtic’ (it was borrowed from Latin Volcae, the name of a Celtic people), but it soon broadened out to include anyone or anything foreign (including the Romans) within its scope.
Its original Celtic connotations survive, however, in Welsh and Walloon (the name of a people of Gaulish origin), both of which go back to *walkhaz. English shares the formation walnut with its Germanic neighbours – German walnuss, Dutch walnoot, Swedish valnöt, and Danish valnød.
=> walloon, welsh[walnut etymology, walnut origin, 英语词源] - fuzzy (adj.)




- 1610s, "soft, spongy;" a dialectal word of uncertain origin, apparently from fuzz (n.) + -y (2), but perhaps an import from continental Germanic. Compare Low German fussig "weak, loose, spongy," Dutch voos "spongy." From 1713 as "covered with fuzz;" 1778 as "blurred;" and 1937 as "imprecise," with reference to thought, etc. Related: Fuzzily; fuzziness.