quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- deity




- deity: [14] Deity comes via Old French deite from late Latin deitās ‘godhood, divinity’, a derivative of Latin deus ‘god’. This traces its ancestry back to Indo-European *deiwos, which has links with other words meaning ‘sky’ and ‘day’ and probably comes ultimately from a base with the sense ‘bright, shining’. Amongst its other descendants are English divine, the personifications Greek Zeus, Latin Iuppiter and Iovis (source of English jovial), and Old English Tīw (source of English Tuesday), and Sanskrit dēvás ‘god’ (source of English deodar ‘variety of cedar’ [19], literally ‘divine wood’); the superficially similar Greek theós ‘god’, however, is not related.
English is also indebted to Latin deus for deify [14] and, via a somewhat circuitous route, the joss [18] of joss-stick, a Pidgin English word which comes from deos, the Portuguese descendant of deus.
=> divine, joss, jovial, tuesday - magnitude




- magnitude: [14] Magnitude is one of a large family of words for which English is indebted to Latin magnus ‘large’. This goes back to an Indo- European *meg- or *megh-, source also of Greek mégas ‘large’ (from which English gets the prefix mega-) and prehistoric Germanic *mikil-, ancestor of English much. Apart from magnitude, English descendants of magnus include magnanimous [16] (etymologically ‘large-minded’), magnate [15] (a ‘large’ or ‘important’ person), magnificat [12] (from the first words of Luke 1:46, Magnificat anima mea dominum ‘My soul doth magnify the lord’, where magnificat is the 3rd person present singular of Latin magnificāre, a derivative of magnus and source of English magnify [14]), magnificent [16] (etymologically ‘doing great deeds’), and magnum [18] (the application to a double-sized wine bottle is a modern one).
In addition maxim and maximum come from the superlative of magnus and major and mayor from its comparative, and master and the monthname May could also be related.
=> magnum, major, maxim, mayor, much - neural




- neural: [19] Neural is one of a wide range of words for which English is indebted to Greek neuron ‘nerve’ (a relative of Latin nervus, from which English gets nerve). Others include neuralgia [19] (etymologically ‘nerve-pain’), neurology [17], neurosis [18], and neurotic [17].
=> nerve - novel




- novel: English has acquired the word novel in several distinct instalments. First to arrive was the adjective, ‘new’ [15], which came via Old French from Latin novellus, a derivative of novus ‘new’ (to which English new is distantly related). (The Old French derived noun novelte had already reached English as novelty [14].) Next on the scene was a now obsolete noun novel ‘new thing, novelty’ [15], which went back to Latin novella, a noun use of the neuter plural of novellus.
In Italian, novellus became novello, and this was used in storia novella, literally ‘new story’, a term which denoted ‘short story’. English adopted this as a third novel [16], at first referring specifically to Italian short stories of the type written by Boccaccio, but by the mid- 17th century being extended to a longer ‘prose narrative’ (the original Italian novella was reborrowed in the early 20th century for a ‘short novel’).
English is also indebted to Latin novus for nova [19] (etymologically a ‘new star’) and novice [14].
- proletarian




- proletarian: [17] A Roman citizen of the lowest class was termed a prōlētārius. The only service he was capable of performing for the state was that of producing children, to maintain its population level, and it was this function that gave the prōlētārius his name. For it was derived from prōlēs ‘offspring’, a word based on the same source (*ol- ‘nourish’) as produced English adolescent, alimony, etc.
The abbreviation prole dates back to the late 19th century (George Bernard Shaw is the first writer on record as using it), but it was George Orwell in the 1930s who firmly established the term. The immediate source of proletariat [19] is French prolétariat (in the 19th century it was often anglicized to proletariate). English is also indebted to Latin prōlēs for prolific [17], which comes from the medieval Latin derivative prōlificus ‘producing offspring’.
=> adolescent, alimentary, alimony, prolific - proud




- proud: [OE] Proud was borrowed in the 10th century from Old French prud. This came from a Vulgar Latin *prōdis, a derivative of Latin prōdesse ‘be beneficial’, which was a compound formed from prōd-, a variant of prō- ‘for’, and esse ‘be’. The Old French adjective meant ‘good, brave’, and it is thought that the sense ‘having a high opinion of oneself’, which does not occur in Old French but is the earliest recorded in English, may reflect what the Anglo- Saxons thought of Norman nobles who referred to themselves as prud barun or prud chevalier.
A later form of Old French prud or prod was prou, whose derivative proesce ‘bravery’ passed into English as prowess [13]; and English is also indebted to prud for prude.
=> pride, prowess, prude - quarter




- quarter: [13] Quarter is one of a large family of English words that go back ultimately to Latin quattuor ‘four’ and its relatives. Direct descendants of quattuor itself are actually fairly few – among them quatrain [16] and quatrefoil [15] (both via Old French). But its ordinal form quārtus ‘fourth’ has been most prolific: English is indebted to it for quart [14], quarter (via the Latin derivative quartārius ‘fourth part’), quartet [18], and quarto [16].
In compounds quattuor assumed the form quadr-, which has given English quadrangle [15] (and its abbreviation quad [19]), quadrant [14], quadratic [17], quadrille [18], quadruped [17], quadruplet [18] (also abbreviated to quad [19]), quarantine, quarrel ‘arrow’, not to mention the more heavily disguised cadre [19], carfax [14] (which means etymologically ‘four-forked’), squad, and square.
And the derivative quater ‘four times’ has contributed carillon [18] (etymologically a peal of ‘four’ bells), quaternary [15], and quire of paper [15] (etymologically a set of ‘four’ sheets of paper).
=> cadre, carfax, carillon, quad, quarrel, quarry, quire, squad, square - senior




- senior: [14] Senior was borrowed direct from Latin senior, which was the comparative form of senex ‘old’. This in turn was descended from the Indo-European base *sen-, which also produced Welsh hen, Gothic sineigs, Lithuanian senas, and Armenian hin, all meaning ‘old’. English is also indebted to senex for senate and senile [17], while senior has contributed sir and the whole range of Romance terms of address, including monsieur, sennor, and signor.
=> senate, senior, sir - sine




- sine: [16] As in the case of many other mathematical terms, English is indebted to Arabic for sine. But here the debt is only semantic, not formal. The word sine itself was borrowed from Latin sinus ‘curve, fold, hollow’ (source also of English sinuous [16] and indeed of sinus [16], whose anatomical use comes from the notion of a ‘hollow’ place or cavity). In postclassical times it came to denote the ‘fold of a garment’, and so it was mistakenly used to translate Arabic jayb ‘chord of an arc’, a doppelganger of Arabic jayb ‘fold of a garment’.
=> sinuous, sinus - strict




- strict: [16] Strict was acquired direct from strictus, the past participle of Latin stringere ‘pull tight, tighten’ (source also of English prestige, strain, and stringent). The original literal sense ‘tight’ survived into English (‘She wildly breaketh from their strict embrace’, Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis 1592), but it has since given way to various metaphorical extensions.
Routed via Old French, strictus has given English strait, and English is also indebted to it for stress [14] (via the Vulgar Latin derivative *strictia) and stricture [14], not to mention prefixed forms such as constrain, constrict [18], distrain, distress, district, restrain, and restrict [16].
=> constrain, constrict, distrain, distress, district, prestige, restrain, restrict, strain, stress, stricture, stringent - gazette (n.)




- "newspaper," c. 1600, from French gazette (16c.), from Italian gazzetta, Venetian dialectal gazeta "newspaper," also the name of a small copper coin, literally "little magpie," from gazza; applied to the monthly newspaper (gazeta de la novità) published in Venice by the government, either from its price or its association with the bird (typical of false chatter), or both. First used in English 1665 for the paper issued at Oxford, whither the court had fled from the plague.
The coin may have been so called for its marking; Gamillscheg writes the word is from French gai (see jay). The general story of the origin of the word is broadly accepted, but there are many variations in the details:
We are indebted to the Italians for the idea of newspapers. The title of their gazettas was, perhaps, derived from gazzera, a magpie or chatterer; or, more probably, from a farthing coin, peculiar to the city of Venice, called gazetta, which was the common price of the newspapers. Another etymologist is for deriving it from the Latin gaza, which would colloquially lengthen into gazetta, and signify a little treasury of news. The Spanish derive it from the Latin gaza, and likewise their gazatero, and our gazetteer, for a writer of the gazette and, what is peculiar to themselves, gazetista, for a lover of the gazette. [Isaac Disraeli, "Curiosities of Literature," 1835]
Gazzetta It., Sp. gazeta, Fr. E. gazette; prop. the name of a Venetian coin (from gaza), so in Old English. Others derive gazette from gazza a magpie, which, it is alleged, was the emblem figured on the paper; but it does not appear on any of the oldest Venetian specimens preserved at Florence. The first newspapers appeared at Venice about the middle of the 16th century during the war with Soliman II, in the form of a written sheet, for the privilege of reading which a gazzetta (= a crazia) was paid. Hence the name was transferred to the news-sheet. [T.C. Donkin, "Etymological Dictionary of the Romance Languages" (based on Diez), 1864]
GAZETTE. A paper of public intelligence and news of divers countries, first printed at Venice, about the year 1620, and so called (some say) because una gazetta, a small piece of Venetian coin, was given to buy or read it. Others derive the name from gazza, Italian for magpie, i.e. chatterer.--Trusler. A gazette was printed in France in 1631; and one in Germany in 1715. [Haydn's "Dictionary of Dates," 1857]