英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

cake: cake: [13] Originally, cake was a term for a flat round loaf of bread (it is this ‘shape’ element in its meaning that lies behind more modern usages such as ‘cake of soap’). It is not until the 15th century that we find it being applied to foodstuffs we would now recognize as cakes, made with butter, eggs, and some sort of sweetening agent. English borrowed the word from Old Norse kaka; it is related to cookie (from Dutch koekje), but not, despite the similarity, to cook. The expression piece of cake ‘something easy’ seems to have originated in the 1930s.
=> cookie
cockatoo: cockatoo: [17] Cockatoo was originally a Malay word, although it has changed somewhat under the influence of English cock. It comes via Dutch kaketoe from Malay kakatua, a compound formed from kakak ‘elder brother or sister’ and tua ‘old’. A related word is cockatiel ‘small Australian parrot’ [19]; it comes ultimately from Portuguese cacatilha, formed from Malay kakatua with the Portuguese diminutive suffix -ilha, and it reached English via Dutch kaketielje.
hunger: hunger: [OE] Hunger is a widespread word in the Germanic languages, shared by German, Swedish, and Danish as well as English (Dutch spells it honger), but it is not represented in any of the other Indo-European languages. Indeed, no related forms have been identified for certain, although Greek kégkein ‘be hungry’ and Sanskrit kákat ‘be thirsty’ are possibilities.
shake: shake: [OE] Shake is a general Germanic verb, although today its only surviving relatives are Swedish skaka and Norwegian skage. It comes from a prehistoric Germanic *skakan, which goes back to the Indo-European base *skeg-, *skek- (source also of Sanskrit khajati ‘agitate, churn’ and Welsh ysgogi ‘move’).
skate: skate: English has two words skate. The older is the fish-name [14], which was borrowed from Old Norse skata. Skate used for gliding over ice [17] comes from an Old French word for ‘stilt’ – eschasse. Its northern dialect form was escase. This was borrowed into English in the 16th century as the now obsolete scatch ‘stilt’, and into Middle Dutch as schaetse, its meaning unaccountably changed to ‘skate’.

Its modern Dutch descendant schaats was borrowed into English as scates, which soon came to be regarded as a plural, and was ‘singularized’ to skate. Eschasse itself came from a Frankish *skakkja, a derivative of the verb *skakan ‘run fast’, which in turn was descended from prehistoric Germanic *skakan (source of English shake).
=> shake
caca (n.): "excrement," a nursery word but a very ancient one (PIE *kakka-), forming the base word for "excrement, to void excrement" in many Indo-European languages, such as Greek kakke "human excrement," Latin cacare, Irish caccaim, Serbo-Croatian kakati, Armenian k'akor; Old English cac-hus "latrine."

Etymologists dispute whether the modern Germanic words (Dutch kakken, Danish kakke, German kacken), are native cognates or student slang borrowed from Latin cacare. The word in this form appears in English slang c. 1870, and could have been taken from any or several of the languages that used it (Spanish, Modern Greek).
cake (n.): early 13c., from Old Norse kaka "cake," from West Germanic *kokon- (cognates: Middle Dutch koke, Dutch koek, Old High German huohho, German Kuchen). Not now believed to be related to Latin coquere "to cook," as formerly supposed. Replaced its Old English cognate, coecel.
What man, I trow ye raue, Wolde ye bothe eate your cake and haue your cake? ["The Proverbs & Epigrams of John Heywood," 1562]
Originally (until early 15c.) "a flat, round loaf of bread." Piece of cake "something easy" is from 1936. The let them eat cake story is found in Rousseau's "Confessions," in reference to an incident c. 1740, long before Marie Antoinette, though it has been associated with her since c. 1870; it apparently was a chestnut in the French royal family that had been told of other princesses and queens before her.
cockatoo (n.): 1610s, from Dutch kaketoe, from Malay kakatua, possibly echoic, or from kakak "elder brother or sister" + tua "old." Also cockatiel (1880), from Dutch diminutive kaketielje (1850), which is perhaps influenced by Portuguese. Spelling influenced by cock (n.1).
shake (v.): Old English sceacan "move (something) quickly to and fro, brandish; move the body or a part of it rapidly back and forth;" also "go, glide, hasten, flee, depart" (related to sceacdom "flight"); of persons or parts of the body, "to tremble" especially from fever, cold, fear" (class VI strong verb; past tense scoc, past participle scacen), from Proto-Germanic *skakanan (cognates: Old Norse, Swedish skaka, Danish skage "to shift, turn, veer"). No certain cognates outside Germanic, but some suggest a possible connection to Sanskrit khaj "to agitate, churn, stir about," Old Church Slavonic skoku "a leap, bound," Welsh ysgogi "move."

Of the earth in earthquakes, c. 1300. Meaning "seize and shake (someone or something else)" is from early 14c. In reference to mixing ingredients, etc., by shaking a container from late 14c. Meaning "to rid oneself of by abrupt twists" is from c. 1200, also in Middle English in reference to evading responsibility, etc. Meaning "weaken, impair" is from late 14c., on notion of "make unstable."

To shake hands dates from 1530s. Shake a (loose) leg "hurry up" first recorded 1904; shake a heel (sometimes foot) was an old way to say "to dance" (1660s); to shake (one's) elbow (1620s) meant "to gamble at dice." Phrase more _____ than you can shake a stick at is attested from 1818, American English. To shake (one's) head as a sign of disapproval is recorded from c. 1300.