英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

familiar [familiar 词源字典]: familiar: [14] Familiar originally meant simply ‘of the family’ (it came, partly via Old French familier, from Latin familiāris). Its usual use in this sense was in phrases such as familiar enemy and familiar foe, denoting a treacherous enemy from within one’s own family or household. It gradually broadened out semantically via ‘intimately associated’ (preserved in familiar spirit, and in the noun use ‘intimate friend’) to ‘well-known from constant association’.
=> family[familiar etymology, familiar origin, 英语词源]
rub: rub: [14] The antecedents of rub are unclear. It may have been borrowed from Low German rubben, but since it is not known where that came from, it does not get us much further. The derivative rubber [16] was originally used simply for ‘something for rubbing with’. But since the substance obtained from rubber trees was early on used for pencil erasers, it became known from the end of the 18th century as rubber (or in full India-rubber, from its place of origin). It is not clear whether rubber ‘set of games’ [16], which originated as a bowls term, is the same word.
=> rubber
Benedictine (n.): c. 1600, "one of the order known from the color of its dress as the Black Monks," founded c.529 by St. Benedict (see benedict).
cathode (n.): 1834, from Latinized form of Greek kathodos "a way down," from kata- "down" (see cata-) + hodos "way" (see cede). Proposed by the Rev. William Whewell (1794-1866), English polymath, and published by English chemist and physicist Michael Faraday (1791-1867). So called from the path the electric current was supposed to take. Related: Cathodic; cathodal. Cathode ray first attested 1880, but the phenomenon known from 1859; cathode ray tube is from 1905.
Christopher: masc. proper name, Church Latin Christophoros, from Ecclesiastical Greek khristophoros, literally "Christ-bearing;" from phoros "bearer," from pherein "to carry" (see infer). In medieval legend he was a giant (one of the rare virtuous ones) who aided travellers by carrying them across a river. Medallions with his image worn by travellers are known from the Middle Ages (Chaucer's Yeoman had one). Not a common name in medieval England.
daily (adj.): Old English dæglic (see day). This form is known from compounds: twadæglic "happening once in two days," þreodæglic "happening once in three days;" the more usual Old English word was dæghwamlic, also dægehwelc. Cognate with German täglich.
dot (n.): Old English dott "speck, head of a boil," perhaps related to Norwegian dot "lump, small knot," Dutch dot "knot, small bunch, wisp," Old High German tutta "nipple;" ultimate origin unclear.

Known from a single source c. 1000; the word reappeared with modern meaning "mark" c. 1530; not common until 18c. Morse telegraph sense is from 1838. On the dot "punctual" is 1909, in reference to a clock dial face. Dot-matrix first attested 1975.
Dushanbe: capital of Tajikistan, from Tajik dushanbe "Monday" (a compound of du "two" + Shanbe "Saturday," literally "Sabbath;" thus "two days after Saturday"); so called in reference to a regular Monday market there. Known from 1929-1961 as Stalinabad.
Eohippus (n.): oldest known genus of the horse family, about the size of a fox and first known from fossil remains found in New Mexico, 1879, Modern Latin, from eo- "earliest" + Greek hippos "horse" (see equine).
familiar (adj.): mid-14c., "intimate, very friendly, on a family footing," from Old French famelier "related; friendly," from Latin familiaris "domestic, private, belonging to a family, of a household;" also "familiar, intimate, friendly," dissimilated from *familialis, from familia (see family). From late 14c. as "of or pertaining to one's family." Of things, "known from long association," from late 15c. Meaning "ordinary, usual" is from 1590s.

The noun meaning "demon, evil spirit that answers one's call" is from 1580s (familiar spirit is attested from 1560s); earlier as a noun it meant "a familiar friend" (late 14c.). The Latin plural, used as a noun, meant "the slaves," also "a friend, intimate acquaintance, companion."
mammoth (n.): 1706, from Russian mammot', probably from Ostyak, a Finno-Ugric language of northern Russia (compare Finnish maa "earth"). Because the remains were dug from the earth, the animal was believed to root like a mole. As an adjective, "gigantic," from 1802; in this sense "the word appears to be originally American" [Thornton, "American Glossary"], and its first uses are in derogatory accounts to the cheese wheel, more than 4 feet in diameter, sent to President Jefferson by the ladies of the Baptist congregation in Cheshire, Mass., as a present, engraved with the motto "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God." Federalist editors mocked the affair, and called up the word mammoth (known from Peale's exhibition) to characterize it.
pat (v.): 1560s, "to hit, throw;" meaning "to tap or strike lightly" is from 1714; from pat (n.). Related: Patted; patting. The nursery rhyme phrase pat-a-cake is known from 1823. Alternative patty-cake (usually American English) is attested from 1794 (in "Mother Goose's Melody, or Sonnets for the Cradle," Worcester, Mass.).
syrinx (n.): tubular instrument, c. 1600, the thing itself known from 14c. in English, from Late Latin syrinx, from Greek syrinx "shepherd's pipe" (see syringe). Used of vocal organs of birds from 1872.
oreodont: "An extinct ruminant mammal of the family Oreodontidae, known from fossils of the Middle Tertiary period", Mid 19th cent. From scientific Latin Oreodont- (in Oreodontidae: J. Leidy 1869, in Jrnl. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 7 71; from oreo- (in Oreodon) + -odont + -idae: see -id).
Africanthropus: "Any of several extinct fossil hominids of the former genus or subgenus Africanthropus, known from Pleistocene fossil remains found in South and East Africa, and now regarded as various archaic forms of Homo sapiens", 1930s; earliest use found in Man: a monthly record of anthropological science. From scientific Latin Africanthropus, former genus name, originally coined as a subgenus of Homo from classical Latin Āfrica, the name of Africa + scientific Latin -anthropus.