英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

advertise: advertise: [15] When it was originally borrowed into English, from French, advertise meant ‘notice’. It comes ultimately from the Latin verb advertere ‘turn towards’ (whose past participle adversus ‘hostile’ is the source of English adverse [14] and adversity [13]). A later variant form, advertīre, passed into Old French as avertir ‘warn’ (not to be confused with the avertir from which English gets avert [15] and averse [16], which came from Latin abvertere ‘turn away’).

This was later reformed into advertir, on the model of its Latin original, and its stem form advertiss- was taken into English, with its note of ‘warning’ already softening into ‘giving notice of’, or simply ‘noticing’. The modern sense of ‘describing publicly in order to increase sales’ had its beginnings in the mid 18th century. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the verb was pronounced with the main stress on its second syllable, like the advertise- in advertisement.
=> adverse, adversity, verse
bias: bias: [16] English acquired bias from Old French biais, but its previous history is uncertain. It probably came via Old Provençal, but where from? Speculations include Latin bifacem ‘looking two ways’, from bi- ‘two’ and faciēs ‘face’, and Greek epikársios ‘oblique’. When the word first entered English it meant simply ‘oblique line’, but by the end of the 16th century it was being applied more specifically to the game of bowls, in the sense of the ‘bowl’s curved path’, and also the ‘unequal weighting given to the bowl in order to achieve such a path’.

The modern figurative senses ‘inclination’ and ‘prejudice’ derive from this.
biscuit: biscuit: [14] Biscuit means literally ‘twicecooked’ – from the method of cooking, in which the biscuits are returned to the oven after the initial period of baking in order to become dry or crisp. The original source of the word was probably a medieval Latin *biscoctus, from bis ‘twice’ and coctus ‘cooked’, the past participle of coquere (which is related to English cook). It reached English via Old French biscut.
=> cook
burke: burke: [19] In present-day English burke means ‘avoid’, as in ‘burke an issue’, but it can be traced back semantically via ‘suppress, hush up’ to ‘suffocate so as to provide a body for surgical dissection’. In this sense it was a macabre adoption of the name of William Burke (1792– 1829), an Irishman who with his colleague William Hare set up a profitable but nefarious business in early 19th-century Edinburgh providing cadavers for surgeons to dissect.

To begin with they obtained their supplies by robbing graves, but eventually, in order to get higher-quality material, they took to murdering people, generally by suffocation or strangling. Burke was executed.
diagnosis: diagnosis: [17] The underlying meaning of Greek diágnōsis was ‘knowing apart’. It was derived from diagignóskein ‘distinguish, discern’, a compound verb formed from the prefix dia- ‘apart’ and gignóskein ‘know, perceive’ (a relative of English know): In postclassical times the general notion of ‘distinguishing’ or ‘discerning’ was applied specifically to medical examination in order to determine the nature of a disease.
=> know
eureka: eureka: [16] The Greek mathematician Archimedes (c. 287–212 BC) was commissioned by King Hiero II of Syracuse to find out whether the goldsmith who had made a new crown for him had fraudulently mixed some silver in with the gold. In order to do so, Archimedes needed to ascertain the metal’s specific gravity. But how to do this? According to Plutarch, he decided to take a bath to ponder the problem.

He filled the bath too full, and some of the water overflowed – and it suddenly occurred to Archimedes that a pure-gold crown would displace more water if immersed than one made from an alloy. Elated at this piece of lateral thinking, Archimedes is said to have leapt out of the bath shouting heúrēka! ‘I have found!’, the perfect indicative of Greek heurískein ‘find’ (source of English heuristic [19]).

The earliest occurrence of the word in an English text as an exclamation of delight at discovery is in John Dee’s Preface, but there it appears in Greek characters; the first English author to fully naturalize it was probably Henry Fielding in Joseph Andrews 1742; ‘Adams returned overjoyed cring out “Eureka!”’ (The goldsmith, incidentally, had adulterated the gold.)
=> heuristic
experience: experience: [14] Experience, experiment [14], and expert [14] all come from the same source, Latin experīrī. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and a prehistoric base *per- denoting ‘attempt, trial’ (found also in English empirical, peril, pirate, and repertory), and meant ‘try, test’. The original meaning is best preserved in experiment, but in fact experience too meant at first ‘putting to the test’ in English.

From this developed the notion of ‘actually observing phenomena in order to gain knowledge of them’, which in turn led to the more subjective ‘condition of having undergone or been affected by a particular event’. The sense ‘knowledge or skill gained from such observation or from undergoing such events’ did not, however, emerge until the late 15th century. Expert was originally only an adjective, meaning ‘having experience of something’, or ‘trained by such experience’; its use as a noun only developed in the 19th century.
=> empirical, experiment, expert, peril, pirate, repertory
frugal: frugal: [16] Paradoxically, frugal comes from a source that meant ‘fruitful’. English borrowed it from Latin frūgālis, which was derived from the adjective frūgī ‘useful’. This in turn was the dative case of the noun frūx ‘fruit, value’, which came from the same base as frūctus, the source of English fruit. The links in the semantic chain seem to have been that something that was ‘useful, valuable, or productive’ was also ‘profitable’, and that in order to be ‘profitable’ it must be ‘economical’ – hence frugal’s connotations of ‘careful expenditure’.
=> fruit
guild: guild: [14] Guilds probably got their name from the subscriptions paid by their members. It goes back to a Germanic *gelth- ‘pay’, which also produced German and Dutch geld ‘money’. An association to which people contributed in order to further a common effort was a *gelthjōn, which probably passed into English via Middle Low German or Middle Dutch gilde. English yield is a relative; it originally meant ‘pay’.
=> yield
honour: honour: [12] English acquired honour via Old French honour from honōr-, the stem form of Latin honōs (later honor). It is not known where the Latin word came from. Derivatives to reach English include honest, honesty, honorary [17], and honorarium [17] (which in Latin denoted virtually a bribe paid in order to get appointed to an honorary post).
=> honest, honesty
jettison: jettison: [15] Etymologically, to jettison something is to ‘throw’ it overboard. Like jet, as in ‘jet engine’, the word comes from Latin jactāre ‘throw’. The abstract noun derived from this was jactātiō, which entered English via Anglo-Norman getteson. It was used for the ‘action of throwing cargo overboard, especially in order to lighten a ship’, but it was not converted to its familiar modern role, as a verb, until as recently as the 19th century. The contracted form jetson, later jetsam, emerged in the 16th century, and later came to be used for such jettisoned material washed ashore.
=> jet, jctsam
osprey: osprey: [15] Etymologically, the osprey is simply a ‘bird of prey’. Its name comes from ospreit, the Old French descendant of Vulgar Latin *avispreda, which in turn was a conflation of Latin avis praedae ‘bird of prey’ (avis is the source of English augur, auspice, aviary, and aviation, and praeda is the ancestor of English prey).

The specific association with the ‘osprey’ came about in Old French through confusion with the coincidentally similar osfraie ‘osprey’. This meant etymologically ‘bone-breaker’. It came from Latin ossifraga, a compound formed from os ‘bone’ (source of English ossify [18]) and frangere ‘break’ (source of English fracture, fragment, etc).

It was originally applied to the lammergeier, a large vulture, in allusion to its habit of dropping its prey from a great height on to rocks beneath in order to break its bones, but was subsequently also used for the osprey.
=> aviary, prey
potshot: potshot: [19] A potshot was originally a shot taken at an animal or bird simply in order to kill it for food – in order to get it into the ‘pot’, in other words – rather than in accordance with the strict code and precise techniques of shooting as a ‘sport’. Indeed to begin with it was distinctly a contemptuous term among the hunting and shooting fraternity. But gradually it broadened out in meaning to any ‘casually aimed shot’.
quorum: quorum: [15] Quorum began life as the genitive plural of the Latin pronoun quī ‘who’. This appeared in former times in the Latin text of commissions issued to persons who because of some special expertise were required to act as justices of the peace in a particular case (if two JPs were required, for instance, the wording would be quorum vos … duos esse volumnus ‘of whom we wish that you … be two’). In due course the word came to be used as a noun, denoting the ‘number of justices who must be present in order to try the case’, and in the 17th century this was generalized to ‘minimum number of members necessary for a valid meeting’.
refuge: refuge: [14] A refuge is etymologically a place one ‘flees’ to in order to get away from danger. The word comes via Old French refuge from Latin refugium, a derivative of refugere. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix re- ‘away’ and fugere ‘flee’ (source of English fugitive [14] and fugue [16]). The derivative refugee [17] is an adaptation of refugié, the past participle of modern French refugier ‘take refuge’.
=> fugitive, refugee
salient: salient: [16] Salient is one of a large number of English words that go back ultimately to Latin salīre ‘jump’. Others include assail, assault, desultory, insult, sally, sauté, and also salacious [17], which goes back to Latin salāx ‘given to leaping on to females in order to copulate’, a derivative of salīre. Salient itself comes from the present participle saliēns, and was originally used as a heraldic term, meaning ‘jumping’; the metaphorical ‘prominent’ did not emerge until the 18th century.
=> assail, assault, desultory, insult, result, salacious, sally, sauté
sandwich: sandwich: [18] John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich (1718–92), is said to have been so addicted to the gambling table that in order to sustain him through an entire 24-hour session uninterrupted, he had a portable meal of cold beef between slices of toast brought to him. The basic idea was nothing new, of course, but the Earl’s patronage ensured it a vogue, and by the early 1760s we have the first evidence of his name being attached to it: the historian Edward Gibbon in 1762 recorded in his diary how he dined at the Cocoa Tree and saw ‘twenty or thirty of the best men in the kingdom … supping at little tables … upon a bit of cold meat, or a Sandwich’.
sap: sap: English has three distinct words sap. The oldest, ‘plant-juice’ [OE], goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *sappam, which also produced German saft ‘juice’. This in turn was a descendant of Indo-European *sapon-, from which came Latin sapa ‘new wine’. Sap ‘undermine’ [16] was borrowed via French saper from Italian zappare, which may have been ultimately of Arabic origin.

Its original literal sense ‘dig a trench or tunnel underneath in order to attack’ has now been largely superseded by the metaphorical ‘weaken’, which has been heavily influenced by sap ‘plant-juice’ (from the notion of ‘draining sap from a plant’). The colloquial sap ‘fool’ [19] may be short for an earlier sapskull, a compound formed from sap in the now seldom heard sense ‘sapwood’ – hence ‘wooden head’.
abomination (n.): early 14c., "abominable thing or action;" late 14c., "feeling of disgust, hatred, loathing," from Old French abominacion "abomination, horror, repugnance, disgust" (13c.), from Latin abominationem (nominative abominatio) "abomination," noun of action from past participle stem of abominari "shun as an ill omen," from ab- "off, away from" (see ab-) + omin-, stem of omen (see omen). Meaning intensified by folk etymology derivation from Latin ab homine "away from man," thus "beastly."
Doubtless, the life of an Irregular is hard; but the interests of the Greater Number require that it shall be hard. If a man with a triangular front and a polygonal back were allowed to exist and to propagate a still more Irregular posterity, what would become of the arts of life? Are the houses and doors and churches in Flatland to be altered in order to accommodate such monsters? [Edwin Abbot, "Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions," 1885]
atheist (n.): 1570s, from French athéiste (16c.), from Greek atheos "without god, denying the gods; abandoned of the gods; godless, ungodly," from a- "without" + theos "a god" (see theo-).
The existence of a world without God seems to me less absurd than the presence of a God, existing in all his perfection, creating an imperfect man in order to make him run the risk of Hell. [Armand Salacrou, "Certitudes et incertitudes," 1943]
catastrophism (n.): as a geological or biological theory, 1869, coined by Huxley from catastrophe + -ism.
By CATASTROPHISM I mean any form of geological speculation which, in order to account for the phenomena of geology, supposes the operation of forces different in their nature, or immeasurably different in power, from those which we at present see in action in the universe. [T.H. Huxley, "Address" to the Geological Society of London, Feb. 19, 1869]
Related: Catastrophist.
coney (n.): c. 1200, from Anglo-French conis, plural of conil "long-eared rabbit" (Lepus cunicula) from Latin cuniculus (source of Spanish conejo, Portuguese coelho, Italian coniglio), the small, Spanish variant of the Italian hare (Latin lepus), the word perhaps from Iberian Celtic (classical writers say it is Spanish).

Rabbit arose 14c. to mean the young of the species, but gradually pushed out the older word 19c., after British slang picked up coney as a punning synonym for cunny "cunt" (compare connyfogle "to deceive in order to win a woman's sexual favors"). The word was in the King James Bible [Prov. xxx:26, etc.], however, so it couldn't be entirely dropped, and the solution was to change the pronunciation of the original short vowel (rhyming with honey, money) to rhyme with boney. In the Old Testament, the word translates Hebrew shaphan "rock-badger." Rabbits not being native to northern Europe, there was no Germanic or Celtic word for them.
great (adj.): Old English great "big, tall, thick, stout, massive; coarse," from West Germanic *grautaz "coarse, thick" (cognates: Old Saxon grot, Old Frisian grat, Dutch groot, German groß "great"). If the original sense was "coarse," it is perhaps from PIE root *ghreu- "to rub, grind," but "the connextion is not free from difficulty" [OED]. It took over much of the sense of Middle English mickle, and itself now is largely superseded by big and large except in reference to non-material things.

In the sense of "excellent, wonderful" great is attested from 1848. Great White Way "Broadway in New York City" is from 1901, in reference to brilliant street illumination. The Great Lakes of North America so called from 1747. Great Spirit "high deity of the North American Indians," 1703, originally translates Ojibwa kitchi manitou. The Great War originally (1887) referred to the Napoleonic Wars, later (1914) to what we now call World War I (see world).
"The Great War" -- as, until the fall of France, the British continued to call the First World War in order to avoid admitting to themselves that they were now again engaged in a war of the same magnitude. [Arnold Toynbee, "Experiences," 1969]
Also formerly with a verb form, Old English greatian "to become enlarged," Middle English greaten "to become larger, increase, grow; become visibly pregnant," which became archaic after 17c.
order (n.): early 13c., "body of persons living under a religious discipline," from Old French ordre "position, estate; rule, regulation; religious order" (11c.), from earlier ordene, from Latin ordinem (nominative ordo) "row, rank, series, arrangement," originally "a row of threads in a loom," from Italic root *ord- "to arrange, arrangement" (source of ordiri "to begin to weave;" compare primordial), of unknown origin.

Meaning "a rank in the (secular) community" is first recorded c. 1300; meaning "command, directive" is first recorded 1540s, from the notion of "to keep in order." Military and honorary orders grew our of the fraternities of Crusader knights. Business and commerce sense is attested from 1837. In natural history, as a classification of living things, it is first recorded 1760. Meaning "condition of a community which is under the rule of law" is from late 15c.

Phrase in order to (1650s) preserves etymological notion of "sequence." The word reflects a medieval notion: "a system of parts subject to certain uniform, established ranks or proportions," and was used of everything from architecture to angels. Old English expressed many of the same ideas with endebyrdnes. In short order "without delay" is from 1834, American English; order of battle is from 1769.
patter (v.2): "talk rapidly," c. 1400, from pater "mumble prayers rapidly" (c. 1300), shortened form of paternoster. Perhaps influenced by patter (v.1). The related noun is first recorded 1758, originally "cant language of thieves and beggars." Compare Devil's paternoster (1520s) "a grumbling and mumbling to oneself."
PATTERING. The maundering or pert replies of servants; also talk or palaver in order to amuse one intended to be cheated. [Grose, "Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue," 2nd edition. 1788]
relay (n.): late 14c., "hounds placed along a line of chase," from Middle French relai "reserve pack of hounds or other animals" (13c.), from Old French relaier "to exchange tired animals for fresh," literally "leave behind," from re- "back" (see re-) + laier "to leave" (see delay (v.)). The etymological sense is "to leave (dogs) behind (in order to take fresh ones)." Of horses, 1650s. Electromagnetic sense first recorded 1860. As a type of foot-race, it is attested from 1898.
restaurant (n.): 1821, from French restaurant "a restaurant," originally "food that restores," noun use of present participle of restaurer "to restore or refresh," from Old French restorer (see restore).
In 1765 a man by the name of Boulanger, also known as "Champ d'Oiseaux" or "Chantoiseau," opened a shop near the Louvre (on either the rue des Poulies or the rue Bailleul, depending on which authority one chooses to believe). There he sold what he called restaurants or bouillons restaurants--that is, meat-based consommés intended to "restore" a person's strength. Ever since the Middle Ages the word restaurant had been used to describe any of a variety of rich bouillons made with chicken, beef, roots of one sort or another, onions, herbs, and, according to some recipes, spices, crystallized sugar, toasted bread, barley, butter, and even exotic ingredients such as dried rose petals, Damascus grapes, and amber. In order to entice customers into his shop, Boulanger had inscribed on his window a line from the Gospels: "Venite ad me omnes qui stomacho laboratis et ego vos restaurabo." He was not content simply to serve bouillon, however. He also served leg of lamb in white sauce, thereby infringing the monopoly of the caterers' guild. The guild filed suit, which to everyone's astonishment ended in a judgment in favor of Boulanger. [Jean-Robert Pitte, "The Rise of the Restaurant," in "Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present," English editor Albert Sonnenfeld, transl. Clarissa Botsford, 1999, Columbia University Press]
Italian spelling ristorante attested in English by 1925.
talk (v.): c. 1200, talken, probably a diminutive or frequentative form related to Middle English tale "story," and ultimately from the same source as tale, with rare English formative -k (compare hark from hear, stalk from steal, smirk from smile) and replacing that word as a verb. East Frisian has talken "to talk, chatter, whisper." Related: Talked; talking.

To talk (something) up "discuss in order to promote" is from 1722. To talk shop is from 1854. To talk turkey is from 1824, supposedly from an elaborate joke about a swindled Indian. To talk back "answer impudently or rudely" is from 1869. Phrase talking head is by 1966 in the jargon of television production, "an in-tight closeup of a human head talking on television." In reference to a person who habitually appears on television in talking-head shots (usually a news anchor), by 1970. The phrase is used earlier, in reference to the well-known magic trick (such as Señor Wences's talking head-in-the-box "Pedro" on the "Ed Sullivan Show"), and to actual talking heads in mythology around the world (Orpheus, Bran).
train (v.): "to discipline, teach, bring to a desired state by means of instruction," 1540s, probably from earlier sense of "draw out and manipulate in order to bring to a desired form" (late 14c.), specifically of the growth of branches, vines, etc. from mid-15c.; from train (n.). Sense of "point or aim" (a firearm, etc.) is from 1841. Sense of "fit oneself for a performance by a regimen or exercise" is from 1832. The meaning "to travel by railway" is recorded from 1856. Related: Trained; training.
white-collar (adj.): by 1911, perhaps 1909, from white (adj.) + collar (n.).
The white collar men are your clerks; they are your bookkeepers, your cashiers, your office men. We call them the 'white collar men' in order to distinguish them from the men who work with uniform and overalls and carry the dinner pails. The boys over on the West side got that name for them. It was supposed to be something a little better than they were. [Malcolm McDowell, quoted in "Chicago Commerce," June 12, 1914]
White-collar crime attested by 1957 (there is a white-collar criminaloids from 1934).
wrecker (n.): 1804, in reference to those who salvage cargos from wrecked ships, from wreck (n.). In Britain often with a overtones of "one who causes a shipwreck in order to plunder it" (1820); but in 19c. Bahamas and the Florida Keys it could be a legal occupation. Applied to those who wreck and plunder institutions from 1882. Meaning "demolition worker" attested by 1958. As a type of ship employed in salvage operations, from 1789. As a railway vehicle with a crane or hoist, from 1904.
prise: "Use force in order to move, move apart, or open (something)", Late 17th century: from dialect prise 'lever', from Old French prise 'grasp, taking hold'. Compare with pry².
acidize: "To treat with acid, to acidify; specifically to inject acid into (a well) in order to enlarge pores in the surrounding rock and stimulate the flow of oil, water, etc", Mid 19th cent. From acid + -ize. Compare earlier acidized.
aeromancy: "Divination by air or by things in the air (as clouds, birds, etc.); the practice of interpreting the weather or other atmospheric phenomena in order to predict the future", Late Middle English; earliest use found in John Gower (d. 1408), poet. From Anglo-Norman aermancie and Middle French ayromancie, aerimancie from post-classical Latin aeromantia (636 in Isidore, citing Varro) from aero- + -mantia.
distrain: "Seize (someone’s property) in order to obtain payment of rent or other money owed", Middle English: from Old French destreindre, from Latin distringere 'stretch apart', from dis- 'apart' + stringere 'tighten'.
siphuncle: "(In shelled cephalopods such as nautiloids and ammonoids) a calcareous tube containing living tissue running through all the shell chambers, serving to pump fluid out of vacant chambers in order to adjust buoyancy", Mid 18th century: from Latin siphunculus 'small tube'.
moulage: "A cast or impression, especially of a person or a part of the body; the process of making a cast or taking an impression; the material used for this", Early 20th cent.; earliest use found in Encyclopaedia Britannica. From French moulage act of moulding something, action of taking an impression (of something) in order to create a mould, reproduction made by taking an impression from mouler + -age.
ensile: "Put (grass or another crop) into a silo or silage clamp in order to preserve it as silage", Late 19th century: from French ensiler, from Spanish ensilar, from en- 'in' + silo 'silo'.
Rawlplug: "A thin plastic or fibre sheath that is inserted into a hole in masonry in order to hold a screw", Early 20th century: from Rawlings (the name of the engineers who introduced it) + plug.