英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

aluminium [aluminium 词源字典]: aluminium: [19] Aluminium comes from a coinage by the English chemist Sir Humphry Davy, who discovered the metal. His first suggestion was alumium, which he put forward in Volume 98 of the Transactions of the Royal Society 1808: ‘Had I been so fortunate as … to have procured the metallic substances I was in search of, I should have proposed for them the names of silicium, alumium, zirconium, and glucium’.

He based it on Latin alūmen ‘alum’ (alum is a sulphate of aluminium, and the word alum, a 14th-century borrowing from French, derives ultimately from alūmen; alumina is an oxide of aluminium, and the word alumina is a modern Latin formation based on alūmen, which entered English at the end of the 18th century); and alūmen may be linked with Latin alūta ‘skins dried for making leather, using alum’.

Davy soon changed his mind, however, and in 1812 put forward the term aluminum – which remains the word used in American English to this day. British English, though, has preferred the form aluminium, which was mooted contemporaneously with aluminum on grounds of classical ‘correctness’: ‘Aluminium, for so we shall take the liberty of writing the word, in preference to aluminum, which has a less classical sound’, Quarterly Review 1812.
=> alum[aluminium etymology, aluminium origin, 英语词源]
aquarium: aquarium: [19] Aquarium is a modern adaptation of the neuter form of the Latin adjective aquārius ‘watery’ (a noun aquārium existed in Roman times, but it meant ‘place where cattle drink’). Its model was vivarium, a 16th-century word for a ‘place for keeping live animals’. This was the term first pressed into service to describe such a place used for displaying fish and other aquatic life: in 1853 the magazine Athenaeum reported that ‘the new Fish house at the London Zoo has received the somewhat curious title of the “Marine Vivarium”’; and in the following year the guidebook to the Zoological Gardens called it the ‘Aquatic Vivarium’.

Within a year or two of this, however, the term aquarium had been coined and apparently established.
bacterium: bacterium: [19] Bacterium was coined in the 1840s from Greek baktérion, a diminutive of báktron ‘stick’, on the basis that the originally discovered bacteria were rod-shaped. At first it was sometimes anglicized to bactery, but the Latin form has prevailed. Related, but a later introduction, is bacillus [19]: this is a diminutive of Latin baculum ‘stick’, and the term was again inspired by the microorganism’s shape. Latin baculum is also responsible, via Italian bacchio and its diminutive form bacchetta, for the long French loaf, the baguette.
=> bacillus, baguette, débacle, imbecile
barium: barium: see gravity
calcium: calcium: [19] Calcium was coined by the English chemist Sir Humphry Davy in 1808 on the basis of Latin calx ‘limestone’ (which is also the ancestor of English calcareous, calculate, calculus, causeway, and chalk). The Latin word probably came from Greek khálix, which meant ‘pebble’ as well as ‘limestone’.
=> calcarious, calculate, causeway, chalk
cambium: cambium: see change
cilium: cilium: see supercilious
compendium: compendium: see ponder
delphinium: delphinium: see dolphin
geranium: geranium: [16] The native English name for the ‘geranium’, cranesbill, shows that the same thought occurred independently to the speakers of two independent languages many miles and centuries apart. For the plant’s seed case is long and pointed, very much like the beak of a crane; and geranium comes via Latin from Greek geránion, literally ‘little crane’, a diminutive form of géranos ‘crane’ (which is related to English crane).
=> crane
gymnasium: gymnasium: [16] Greek gumnós meant ‘naked’. It was customary in ancient times for athletes to train naked, and so the verb gumnázein came to mean ‘train, practise’ – particularly by doing exercises (whence English gymnast [16]). From the verb was derived the noun gumnásion, which Latin borrowed as gymnasium ‘school’. This academic sense has never caught on to any extent in English (although it is the word’s only application in German); we have preferred to go back to the original athletic connotations.
medium: medium: [16] Latin medius meant ‘middle’ (it came from an Indo-European source that also produced English mid and middle). Its neuter form, used as a noun, has given English medium, but it has made several other contributions to the language, including mean ‘average’, medial [16], median [16], mediate [16] (and its derivatives immediate [16] – etymologically ‘acting directly, without any mediation’ – and intermediate [17]), medieval [19] (literally ‘of the Middle Ages’), mediocre, meridian, mitten, and moiety.

Its Italian descendant is mezzo ‘half’, which has given English intermezzo [19], mezzanine [18], mezzosoprano [18], and mezzotint [18].
=> immediate, intermezzo, mean, median, mediate, middle, mitten
millennium: millennium: see mile
moratorium: moratorium: see demur
nasturtium: nasturtium: [17] The nasturtium plant has a peppery taste (its immature flower buds are often used as an alternative to capers), and tradition has it that the Romans named it nasturtium because its pungency made them pucker up their noses. According to this theory, the word is an alteration of an earlier *nāsitortium, which would have been a compound formed from nāsus ‘nose’ and tort-, the past participle stem of torquēre ‘twist’ (source of English torture).
opium: opium: [14] Etymologically, opium means ‘little juice’. It comes via Latin from Greek ópion ‘poppy juice’, which originated as a diminutive form of opós ‘juice’. This in turn may be related to Persian āb ‘water’. The derivative opiate [16] comes via medieval Latin opiātus.
pandemonium: pandemonium: [17] Pandemonium was coined by John Milton as the name for the capital of Hell in his poem Paradise lost 1667: ‘Meanwhile the winged heralds … throughout the host proclaim a solemn council forthwith to be held at Pandaemonium, the high capital of Satan and his peers’. He formed it from the prefix pan- ‘all’ and Greek daímōn ‘demon’ – hence ‘place of all the demons’. The modern colloquial use of the word for ‘uproar’ developed in the mid-19th century.
=> demon
podium: podium: see pew
sanatorium: sanatorium: see sane
stadium: stadium: [16] Greek stádion denoted a ‘racetrack’, particularly the one at Olympia, which was about 185 metres long. In due course the word came to be used as a term for a measure of length equal to this, and that was the sense in which English originally acquired it, via Latin stadium. The original ‘racetrack’ was introduced in the 17th century, and ‘sports arena’ is a modern development of this. The Greek word itself was an alteration of an earlier spádion ‘racetrack’, a derivative of span ‘pull’ (source of English spasm). The change from sp- to st- was perhaps set in motion by Greek stádios ‘fixed, firm’.
=> spasm
strontium: strontium: [19] The element strontium gets its name from the Strontian area of the Highland region of Scotland, which contains lead mines in which strontium was first discovered. Indeed, it was originally called strontian; the latinized version strontium was introduced by the chemist Sir Humphry Davy in 1808.
symposium: symposium: [18] A symposium is etymologically a ‘get-together for a drink’. The word comes via Latin symposium from Greek sumpósion, a derivative of sumpótēs ‘drinking companion’. This was a compound noun formed from the prefix sun- ‘together’ and the base *pot- ‘drink’ (source of English poison, potion, etc). The Greeks favoured lubricating intellectual discussion with drink, and so the term sumpósion came to be used for a meeting which combined elements of party and intellectual interchange.
=> poison, potable, potion
triumph: triumph: [14] Triumph comes via Old French triumphe from Latin triumphus, which denoted a ‘public celebration to welcome home a victorious general’. It was an alteration of Old Latin triumpus, which was probably borrowed from Greek thríambos ‘hymn to Bacchus’. The cards term trump is an alteration of triumph.
=> trump
uranium: uranium: [18] Ouranós was an ancient sky god in Greek mythology, consort of Gaea and father of Cronos and the Titans (his name was a personification of Greek ouranós ‘heaven’). The Romans called him ūranus, and the name soon came to be applied to the seventh planet from the sun after it was discovered in 1781. (Its discoverer, the German-born British astronomer Sir William Herschel, originally named it Georgium sidus ‘Georgian planet’, as an obsequious compliment to King George III, and others suggested that it should be called Herschel after the man who found it, but in the end the customary practice of naming after a classical deity prevailed.) The term uranium was derived from the planet’s name in 1789 by the German chemist Martin Klaproth, and is first recorded in English in 1797.
actinium (n.): radioactive element discovered in 1899, from Greek actin-, comb. form of aktis (genitive aktinos) "ray, radiance" (see actino-) + chemical suffix -ium.
alluvium (n.): "matter deposited by flowing water," 1660s, from Medieval Latin alluvium, neuter of alluvius "washed against," from Latin alluere "wash against," from ad- "to, against" (see ad-) + -luere, comb. form of lavere "to wash" (see lave).
aluminium: see aluminum.
apodyterium (n.): 1690s, from Latin apodyterium "undressing room" (in a bath house), from Greek apodyterion "undressing room," from apodyein "to put off, undress," from apo- "off" (see apo-) + dyein "to put on, enter, go in."
aquarium (n.): 1830, noun use of neuter of Latin aquarius "pertaining to water," as a noun, "water-carrier," genitive of aqua "water" (see aqua-). The word existed in Latin, but there it meant "drinking place for cattle." Originally especially for growing aquatic plants; An earlier attempt at a name for "fish tank" was marine vivarium.
armamentarium (n.): 1874, Latin, literally "little arsenal," from armamentum (see armament). Englished as armamentary (1731).
atrium (n.): 1570s, from Latin atrium "central court or main room of an ancient Roman house, room which contains the hearth," sometimes said (on authority of Varro, "De Lingua Latina") to be an Etruscan word, but perhaps from PIE *ater- "fire," on notion of "place where smoke from the hearth escapes" (through a hole in the roof). Anatomical sense of "either of the upper cavities of the heart" first recorded 1870. Meaning "skylit central court in a public building" first attested 1967.
auditorium (n.): 1727, from Latin auditorium "lecture room," literally "place where something is heard," neuter of auditorius (adj.) "of or for hearing," from auditus, past participle of audire "to hear" (see audience); also see -ory. Earlier in the same sense was auditory (late 14c.).
bacterium (n.): c. 1848, singular of bacteria (q.v.).
baluchitherium (n.): ancient mammal, Modern Latin, from Baluchi (see Baluchistan) + Greek therion "beast" (see fierce). So called because its fossils originally were found there.
barium (n.): 1808, coined in Modern Latin by its discoverer, English chemist Sir Humphrey Davy (1778-1829), because it was present in the mineral barytes "heavy spar" (barium sulphate), so named by Lavoisier from Greek barys "heavy," from PIE root *gwere- (2) "heavy" (see grave (adj.)). The metal is actually relatively light.
Belgium: c. 1600, "Low Germany and the Netherlands," from the Latin name of the territory near here occupied by the Belgæ, a Celtic tribe. Adopted 1830 as the name of a new nation formed from the southern part of the former United Kingdom of the Netherlands.
beryllium (n.): metallic element, 1863, so called because it figures in the composition of the pale green precious stone beryl and was identified in emerald (green beryl) in 1797 by French chemist Louis Nicolas Vauquelin (1763-1829) and first isolated in 1828. At first and through 19c. also sometimes called glucinum or glucinium.
biennium (n.): "space of two years," by 1851, from Latin biennium "two years, a period of two years," from bi- + annus "year" (see annual). For vowel change, see biennial.
Byzantium: said to be named for its 7c. B.C.E. Greek founder, Byzas of Megara.
cadmium (n.): bluish-white metal, 1822, discovered 1817 by German scientist Friedrich Strohmeyer, coined in Modern Latin from cadmia, a word used by ancient naturalists for various earths and oxides (especially zinc carbonate), from Greek kadmeia (ge) "Cadmean (earth)," from Kadmos "Cadmus," legendary founder of Boeotian Thebes. So called because the earth was first found in the vicinity of Thebes (Kadmeioi was an alternative name for "Thebans" since the time of Homer).
caesium (n.): see cesium.
calcium (n.): coined 1808 by English chemist Sir Humphrey Davy (1778-1829), who first succeeded in isolating it, from Latin calx (genitive calcis) "limestone" (see chalk (n.)) + metallic element ending -ium.
cambium (n.): 1670s in botany sense, from Late Latin cambium "exchange," from Latin cambiare "change" (see change (v.)).
cerium (n.): element, first isolated in pure form in 1875, named for ceria, the name of the earth from which it was taken, which was discovered in 1803 and named by Berzelius and Hissinger for Ceres, the minor planet, which had been discovered in 1801 and named for the Roman goddess Ceres.
cesium (n.): also caesium, rare alkaline metal, 1861, coined by Bunsen and Kirchhoff in 1860 in Modern Latin (caesium), from Latin caesius "blue-gray" (especially of eyes), in reference to the two prominent blue lines in its spectrum, by which it was first identified.
chromium (n.): metallic element, 1807, with metallic elemental suffix -ium + French chrome (Fourcroy and Haüy), from Greek chroma "color" (see chrome; also see chroma). So called for its colorful compounds. Related: Chromite.
colloquium (n.): early 17c., "conversation, dialogue," from Latin colloquium "conversation" (see colloquy). Also as a legal term; meaning "meeting, assembly, conference, seminar" is attested from 1844.
columbarium (n.): "subterranean sepulchre in ancient Roman places with niches for urns holding remains," neuter of Latin columbarius, "dove-cote" (so called from resemblance), literally "pertaining to doves;" from columba "dove." Literal sense of "dove-cote" is attested in English from 1881.
compendium (n.): 1580s, from Latin compendium "a shortening, saving," literally "that which is weighed together," from compendere "to weigh together," from com- "together" (see com-) + pendere "to weigh" (see pendant). Borrowed earlier as compendi (mid-15c.).
condominium (n.): c. 1714, "joint rule or sovereignty," from Modern Latin condominium "joint sovereignty," apparently coined in German c. 1700 from Latin com- "together" (see com-) + dominum "right of ownership" (see domain). A word in politics and international law until sense of "privately owned apartment" arose in American English 1962 as a special use of the legal term.