英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

amphibious [amphibious 词源字典]: amphibious: [17] The Greek prefix amphimeant ‘both, on both sides’ (hence an amphitheatre [14]: Greek and Roman theatres were semicircular, so two joined together, completely surrounding the arena, formed an amphitheatre). Combination with bios ‘life’ (as in biology) produced the Greek adjective amphibios, literally ‘leading a double life’. From the beginning of its career as an English word it was used in a very wide, general sense of ‘combining two completely distinct or opposite conditions or qualities’ (Joseph Addison, for example, used it as an 18th-century equivalent of modern unisex), but that meaning has now almost entirely given way to the word’s zoological application.

At first, amphibious meant broadly ‘living on both land and water’, and so was applied by some scientists to, for example, seals; but around 1819 the zoologist William Macleay proposed the more precise application, since generally accepted, to frogs, newts, and other members of the class Amphibia whose larvae have gills but whose adults breathe with lungs.
=> biology[amphibious etymology, amphibious origin, 英语词源]
assert: assert: [17] Assert comes ultimately from Latin asserere, which meant literally ‘join oneself to something’. It was a compound verb formed from the prefix ad- ‘to’ and serere ‘join’ (source of English series and serial), and it came to take on various metaphorical connotations: if one ‘joined oneself to’ a particular thing, one ‘declared one’s right to’ it, and if one ‘joined oneself to’ a particular point of view, one ‘maintained’ it, or ‘claimed’ it.

The verb was used in both these senses when English acquired it, from the Latin past participial stem assert-, but the former had more or less died out by the end of the 18th century.
=> serial, series
common: common: [13] Common comes ultimately from an Indo-European base *moi-, *mei-, signifying ‘change, exchange’, which also produced English immune, mutate, mutual, and remunerate. A derivative of this base, *moin-, *mein- seems to have joined up with the Indo- European collective *kom- to produce *komoin-, *komein- ‘shared by all’.

In Germanic this became *gamainiz, source of English mean ‘despicable’, while in Latin it gave commūnis, source, via Old French comun, of English common. Both the Latin and French forms have given English a number of derivatives: from the former we have community [14] (Latin commūnitātis), communion [14] (Latin commūniō), and communicate [16] (Latin commūnicāre), while the latter has yielded commune [13] (Old French comuner) and communism [19] (French communisme, coined around 1840).
=> communicate, communism, community, immune, mean, mutual, mutate, remunerate
distemper: distemper: English has two distinct words distemper, although ultimately they come from the same source, Latin temperāre ‘mingle’ (source of English temper, temperate, and temperature). This formed the basis of two separate medieval Latin verbs, both compounded from the prefix dis- but using it in quite different ways. Dis- in the sense ‘reversal of a current state’ joined with temperāre in the specialized meaning ‘mingle in proper proportion’ to produce distemperāre ‘upset the proper balance of bodily humours’, hence ‘vex, make ill’.

This passed directly into English as distemper [14], and survives today mainly as the term for an infectious disease of dogs. Disjoined with temperāre in its intensive function produced medieval Latin distemperāre ‘mix thoroughly, soak’, which entered English via Old French destemprer in the 14th century. The meaning ‘soak, steep, infuse’ survived until the 17th century: ‘Give the Horse thereof every morning … the quantity of a Hasel-nut distempered in a quart of Wine’, Edward Topsell, History of Four-footed Beasts 1607.

The word’s modern application, to a water-based decorator’s paint, comes from the fact that the pigment is mixed with or infused in water (the same notion lies behind tempera [19], borrowed from Italian).
=> temper, temperate, temperature
endeavour: endeavour: [14] Despite its plausible appearance, endeavour is not a borrowing from French or Latin but a purely English creation. It was coined from the Middle English phrase put in dever, which was a partial translation of Old French mettre en deveir, literally ‘put in duty’, hence ‘make it one’s duty to do something’ (deveir, ancestor of modern French devoir ‘duty’, came ultimately from Latin dēbēre ‘owe’, source of English debit and debt). In the 14th century the last two words were joined together to form the verb endeavour ‘make an effort’.
=> debit, debt
indent: indent: Etymologically, English has two separate words indent, although they have converged to a considerable extent over the centuries (particularly in the virtually shared derivative indentation). The one meaning ‘(make) a hole or depression’ [14] is simply a derivative of dent, which itself probably originated as a variant of dint. Indent ‘make notches in’ [14], however, owes its origin to Latin dēns ‘tooth’.

This formed the basis of an Anglo-Latin verb indentāre, which denoted the drawing up of a contract between two parties on two identical documents, which were cut along a matching line of notches or ‘teeth’ which could subsequently be rejoined to prove their authenticity. A particular use of such contracts was between master craftsmen and their trainees, who hence became known as indentured apprentices.
=> dent, dint; dentist
join: join: [13] Join goes back ultimately to a prehistoric Indo-European *jug- (which also produced English adjust, conjugal, jostle, joust, jugular, juxtapose, subjugate, yoga, and yoke). Its Latin descendant was jungere ‘join’, which passed into English via joign-, the present stem of Old French joindre. The Latin past participial stem junct- gave English junction [18] and juncture [14], and also, via Spanish, junta [17] (etymologically a body of people ‘joined’ together for a particular purpose, hence a ‘governing committee’).
=> adjust, conjugal, joust, jugular, junction, junta, juxtapose, subjugate, yoga, yoke
shelter: shelter: [16] The origins of shelter are unclear, but the most usually accepted explanation is that it is an alteration of the now obsolete sheltron. This denoted a body of troops which protected itself in battle with a covering of joined shields. It was descended from Old English scieldtruma, a compound formed from scield, the ancestor of modern English shield, and truma ‘troop’.
=> shield
Siamese twins: Siamese twins: [19] The original ‘Siamese twins’ were two males, Chang and Eng (1811– 74), born in Siam (now Thailand), who were joined together at the hip. No attempt was made to separate them, and they lived to a respectable age; each married and fathered children. In an age unembarrassed to be interested in ‘freaks’, they gained considerable public attention, and by the 1850s Siamese twins seems to have established itself as a generic term. The late 20th century’s aversion from associating physical defects with racial or national groups has ousted it in favour of ‘conjoined twins’.
snooker: snooker: [19] The most widely canvassed theory of the origins of the term snooker is that it is an adaptation of late 19th-century army slang snooker ‘new cadet’ (‘These embryo generals were called by the somewhat sneering terms of “snookers” or “last-joined”,’ Routledge’s Every Boy’s Annual 1872). The game was invented, as a diversion perhaps from the monotony of billiards, by British army officers serving in India in the 1870s, and the story goes that the term snooker was applied to it by Colonel Sir Neville Chamberlain (1856–1944), at that time a subaltern in the Devonshire Regiment stationed in Jubbulpore, in allusion to the inept play of one of his brother officers.

The ancestry of snooker ‘new cadet’, however, remains a mystery.
adjoin (v.): c. 1300, "unite, ally" from Old French ajoin- stem of ajoindre "join together, unite," from Latin adiungere "fasten on, harness, join to," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + iungere "to bind together" (see jugular). Meaning "be contiguous with, be adjacent to" is from late 14c. Related: Adjoined; adjoining.
adjunct (n.): 1580s, from Latin adiunctus "closely connected, joined, united" (as a noun, "a characteristic, essential attribute"), past participle of adiungere "join to" (see adjoin).
adjunct (adj.): 1590s, from Latin adiunctus "closely connected, joined, united," past participle of adiungere "join to" (see adjoin). Adjunct professor is 1826, American English.
Algeria: North African country, named for Algiers, city chosen by the French as its capital when they colonized it in 1830 + Latinate "country" suffix -ia. The city name is Arabic al-Jazair, literally "the islands," in reference to four islands formerly off the coast but joined to the mainland since 1525. A resident of the place formerly was an Algerine (1650s), and the word was practically synonymous with "pirate" in English and U.S. usage early 19c.
appendix (n.): 1540s, "subjoined addition to a document or book," from Latin appendix "an addition, continuation, something attached," from appendere (see append). Used for "small outgrowth of an internal organ" from 1610s, especially in reference to the vermiform appendix. This sense perhaps from or influenced by French appendix, where the term was in use from 1540s.
aptitude (n.): early 15c., "tendency, likelihood," from Middle French aptitude (14c.) or directly from Late Latin aptitudo (genitive aptitudinis) "fitness," noun of quality from Latin aptus "joined, fitted" (see apt). Meaning "natural capacity to learn" is 1540s; that of "quality of being fit (for a purpose or position)" is from 1640s.
Caligula: cognomen of the third Roman emperor (12 C.E.-41 C.E.), born Gaius Caesar. The nickname is Latin, literally "little boot," given when he joined his father on military campaigns when still a toddler, in full, child-sized military gear; diminutive of caliga "heavy military shoe," which is of unknown origin.
conjoin (v.): late 14c., from Old French conjoindre "meet, come together" (12c.), from Latin coniungere "to join together," from com- "together" (see com-) + iungere "join" (see jugular). Related: Conjoined, conjoining.
Dracula (n.): the vampire from in Bram Stoker's novel (1897). It was a surname of Prince Vlad II of Wallachia (d.1476), and means in Romanian "son of Dracul," literally "the dragon," from the name and emblem taken by Vlad's father, also named Vlad, c. 1431 when he joined the Order of the Dragon, founded 1418 by Sigismund the Glorious of Hungary to defend the Christian religion from the Turks and crush heretics and schismatics.
enjoin (v.): c. 1200, engoinen, "to prescribe, impose" (penance, etc.), from stem of Old French enjoindre (12c.) "impose (on), inflict; subject to; assign (to)," from Latin iniungere "to join, fasten, attach;" figuratively "to inflict, to attack, impose," from in- "on" (see in- (2)) + iungere "to join" (see jugular). Related: Enjoined; enjoining.
ester (n.): compound formed by an acid joined to an alcohol, 1852, coined in German in 1848 by German chemist Leopold Gmelin (1788-1853), professor at Heidelberg. The name is "apparently a pure invention" [Flood], perhaps a contraction of or abstraction from Essigäther, the German name for ethyl acetate, from Essig "vinegar" + Äther "ether" (see ether). Essig is from Old High German ezzih, from a metathesis of Latin acetum (see vinegar).
hendiadys (n.): 1580s, figure of speech in which two nouns joined by and are used in place of a noun and an adjective; from Medieval Latin alteration of Greek hen dia duoin "one (thing) by means of two." If this term was used by Greek grammarians it is no longer found in their writings, but it is frequent among Latin writers.
Huguenot: 1562, from Middle French Huguenot, according to French sources originally political, not religious. The name was applied in 1520s to Genevan partisans opposed to the Duke of Savoy (who joined Geneva to the Swiss Confederation), and it is probably an alteration of Swiss German Eidgenoss "confederate," from Middle High German eitgenoze, from eit "oath" + genoze "comrade" (related to Old English geneat "comrade, companion"). The form of the French word probably altered by association with Hugues Besançon, leader of the Genevan partisans. In France, applied generally to French Protestants because Geneva was a Calvinist center.
janizary (n.): "elite Turkish infantry," 1520s, from French janissaire (15c.), from Italian giannizzero, from Turkish yenicheri, literally "new troops," from yeni "new" + cheri "soldiery." Formed 1362 from slaves and prisoners of war, until late 17c. largely recruited from compulsory conscripts and converts taken from Christian subjects. In later times Turks and other Muslims joined the corps because of the various privileges attached to it; abolished 1826.
join (v.): c. 1300, from stem of Old French joindre "join, connect, unite; have sexual intercourse with" (12c.), from Latin iungere "to join together, unite, yoke," from PIE *yeug- "to join, unite" (see jugular). Related: Joined; joining. In Middle English, join sometimes is short for enjoin. Join up "enlist in the army" is from 1916. Phrase if you can't beat them, join them is from 1953. To be joined at the hip figuratively ("always in close connection") is by 1986, from the literal sense in reference to "Siamese twins."
joint (n.): late 13c., "a part of a body where two bones meet and move in contact with one another," from Old French joint "joint of the body" (12c.), from Latin iunctus "united, connected, associated," past participle of iungere "join" (see jugular). Related: Joints. Slang meaning of "place, building, establishment" (especially one where persons meet for shady activities) first recorded 1877, American English, from an earlier Anglo-Irish sense (1821), perhaps on the notion of a side-room, one "joined" to a main room. The original U.S. sense was especially of "an opium-smoking den."

Meaning "marijuana cigarette" (1938) is perhaps from notion of something often smoked in common, but there are other possibilities; earlier joint in drug slang meant "hypodermic outfit" (1935). Meaning "prison" is attested from 1953 but probably is older. Out of joint in the figurative sense is from early 15c. (literally, of bone displacement, late 14c.).
joint (adj.): early 15c., "united," from Old French jointiz (adj.) and joint, literally "joined," past participle of joindre (see join (v.)).
jointure (n.): late 14c., "act or fact of being joined," from Old French jointure "a putting together," from Latin iunctura "a joining, juncture" (see juncture). Specific legal sense from mid-15c.
juncture (n.): late 14c., "place where two things are joined," from Latin iunctura "a joining, uniting, a joint," from iunctus, past participle of iungere "to join" (see jugular). Sense of "point in time" first recorded 1650s, probably from astrology.
Levi: masc. proper name, biblical son of Jacob by Leah, from Hebrew lewi, literally "joining, pledging, attached," from stem of lawah "he joined."
ligature (n.): c. 1400, "something used in tying or binding," from Middle French ligature (14c.), from Late Latin ligatura "a band," from Latin ligatus, past participle of ligare "to bind" (see ligament). In musical notation from 1590s; of letters joined in printing or writing from 1690s.
manhandle (v.): mid-15c., "wield a tool," also, late 15c., "to attack (an enemy)," from man (n.) + handle (v.). Nautical meaning "to move by force of men" (without levers or tackle) is attested from 1834, and is the source of the slang meaning "to handle roughly" (1865).
[T]he two Canalers rushed into the uproar, and sought to drag their man out of it toward the forecastle. Others of the sailors joined with them in this attempt, and a twisted turmoil ensued; while standing out of harm's way, the valiant captain danced up and down with a whale-pike, calling upon his officers to manhandle that atrocious scoundrel, and smoke him along to the quarter-deck. [Melville, "The Town-Ho's Story," "Harper's" magazine, October 1851]
mat (n.1): loosely joined natural materials used as bedding, etc., Old English matte, from Late Latin matta "mat made of rushes" (4c.), probably from Punic or Phoenician matta (compare Hebrew mittah "bed, couch"). Meaning "tangled mass" is from 1835. That of "piece of padded flooring used in gymnastics or wrestling" is attested from 1892; hence figurative phrase go to the mat "do battle" (1910). The Latin word also is the source of German Matte, matze; Dutch mat, Italian matta. French natte "mat, matting" is from Late Latin secondary form natta (compare napkin).
Mosul: city in northern Iraq, from Arabic al-Mawsul, literally "the joined," a reference to the bridge and ford over the Tigris here.
non-conformist (n.): also nonconformist, 1610s, originally one who adhered to Church of England doctrine but not its practice, from non- + conformist. After their ejection under the Act of Uniformity (1662) the name passed to the separate churches they joined or formed. In general use from 1670s as "one who does not participate in a practice or course of action." As an adjective from 1640s.
oxymoron (n.): 1650s, from Greek oxymoron, noun use of neuter of oxymoros (adj.) "pointedly foolish," from oxys "sharp" (see acrid) + moros "stupid" (see moron). Rhetorical figure by which contradictory terms are conjoined so as to give point to the statement or expression; the word itself is an illustration of the thing. Now often used loosely to mean "contradiction in terms." Related: Oxymoronic.
rejoin (v.1): also re-join, 1520s, "unite again, unite after separation" (transitive), from re- "again" + join (v.). Meaning "join the company of again" is from 1610s. Related: Rejoined; rejoining.
Siamese (adj.): "of or pertaining to Siam," 1690s; see Siam + -ese. Also from 1690s as a noun meaning "native of Siam." the original Siamese twins (exhibited from 1829) were Chang and Eng (1814-1874), Thai-Chinese natives of Siam who settled in the U.S. Hence Siamesed (adj.) "joined in the manner of Siamese twins" (1830). Siamese cat is attested from 1871.
snooker (n.): 1889, the game and the word said in an oft-told story to have been invented in India by British officers as a diversion from billiards. The name is perhaps a reference (with regard to the rawness of play by a fellow officer) to British slang snooker "newly joined cadet, first-term student at the R.M. Academy" (1872). Tradition ascribes the coinage to Col. Sir Neville Chamberlain (not the later prime minister of the same name), at the time subaltern in the Devonshire Regiment in Jubbulpore. One of the first descriptions of the game is in A.W. Drayson's "The Art of Practical Billiards for Amateurs" (1889), which states in a footnote "The rules of the game of snooker are the copyright of Messrs. Burroughes & Watts, from whom they may be obtained," they being manufacturers of billiard tables.
subjoin (v.): "add to the end of," 1570s, from Middle French subjoin-, past participle stem of subjoindre, from Latin subjungere "to affix, append" (see subjunctive). Related: Subjoined; subjoining.
unjoin (v.): mid-14c., from un- (2) "opposite of" + join (v.). Related: Unjoined; unjoining.
wad (n.): early 15c., wadde, "small bunch of fibrous, soft material for padding or stuffing," of uncertain origin, perhaps from Medieval Latin wadda (14c., source also of French ouate, Italian ovate), or Dutch watten (source of German Watte), or Middle English wadmal (c. 1300) "coarse woolen cloth," which seems to be from Old Norse vaðmal "a woolen fabric of Scandinavia," probably from vað "cloth" + mal "measure."

The meaning "something bundled up tightly" (especially paper currency) is from 1778. To shoot (one's) wad "do all one can do" is recorded from 1914. The immediate source of the expression probably is the sense of "disk of cloth used to hold powder and shot in place in a gun." Wad in slang sense of "a load of semen" is attested from 1920s, and the expression now often is felt in this sense. As a suffix, -wad in 1980s joined -bag, -ball, -head in combinations meaning "disgusting or unpleasant person."
wed (v.): Old English weddian "to pledge oneself, covenant to do something, vow; betroth, marry," also "unite (two other people) in a marriage, conduct the marriage ceremony," from Proto-Germanic *wadi- (cognates: Old Norse veðja, Danish vedde "to bet, wager," Old Frisian weddia "to promise," Gothic ga-wadjon "to betroth"), from PIE root *wadh- (1) "to pledge, to redeem a pledge" (cognates: Latin vas, genitive vadis "bail, security," Lithuanian vaduoti "to redeem a pledge").

The sense has remained closer to "pledge" in other Germanic languages (such as German Wette "a bet, wager"); development to "marry" is unique to English. "Originally 'make a woman one's wife by giving a pledge or earnest money', then used of either party" [Buck]. Passively, of two people, "to be joined as husband and wife," from c. 1200. Related: Wedded; wedding.
Wicca (n.): An Old English masc. noun meaning "male witch, wizard, soothsayer, sorcerer, astrologer, magician;" see witch. Use of the word in modern contexts traces to English folklorist Gerald Gardner (1884-1964), who is said to have joined circa 1939 an occult group in New Forest, Hampshire, England, for which he claimed an unbroken tradition to medieval times. Gardner seems to have first used it in print in 1954, in his book "Witchcraft Today" ("Witches were the Wica or wise people, with herbal knowledge and a working occult teaching usually used for good ...."). In published and unpublished material, he apparently only ever used the word as a mass noun referring to adherents of the practice and not as the name of the practice itself. Some of his followers continue to use it in this sense. According to Gardner's book "The Meaning of Witchcraft" (1959), the word, as used in the initiation ceremony, played a key role in his experience:
I realised that I had stumbled upon something interesting; but I was half-initiated before the word, 'Wica' which they used hit me like a thunderbolt, and I knew where I was, and that the Old Religion still existed. And so I found myself in the Circle, and there took the usual oath of secrecy, which bound me not to reveal certain things.
In the late 1960s the term came into use as the title of a modern pagan movement associated with witchcraft. The first printed reference in this usage seems to be 1969, in "The Truth About Witchcraft" by freelance author Hans Holzer:
If the practice of the Old Religion, which is also called Wicca (Craft of the Wise), and thence, witchcraft, is a reputable and useful cult, then it is worthy of public interest.
And, quoting witch Alex Sanders:
"No, a witch wedding still needs a civil ceremony to make it legal. Wicca itself as a religion is not registered yet. But it is about time somebody registered it, I think. I've done all I can to call attention to our religion."
Sanders was a highly visible representative of neo-pagan Witchcraft in the late 1960s and early 1970s. During this time he appears to have popularized use of the term in this sense. Later books c. 1989 teaching modernized witchcraft using the same term account for its rise and popularity, especially in U.S.
consociate: "A partner or associate", Late Middle English (as an adjective in the sense 'associated'): from Latin consociatus 'joined in action', from the verb consociare, from con 'together' + socius 'sharing, allied'.
adnate: "Joined by having grown together", Mid 17th century: from Latin adnatus, variant of agnatus (see agnate), by association with ad-.
acardiac: "Especially of one of a pair of monochorionic or conjoined twins: lacking a heart", Mid 19th cent.; earliest use found in Marshall Hall (1790–1857), physician and neurophysiologist. From Hellenistic Greek ἀκάρδιος without a heart + -ac, after acardia and cardiac.
acardia: "Congenital absence of the heart, usually accompanied by other malformations and typically occurring in one of a pair of monochorionic or conjoined twins", Mid 19th cent.; earliest use found in Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal. From scientific Latin acardia from ancient Greek ἀ + καρδία heart. Compare French acardie.
apocarpous: "(Of a flower, fruit, or ovary) having distinct carpels that are not joined together", Mid 19th century: from apo- + Greek karpos 'fruit' + -ous.
disjunct: "Each of the terms of a disjunctive proposition", Late Middle English: from Latin disjunctus 'disjoined, separated', from the verb disjungere.