tantalizeyoudaoicibaDictYouDict[tantalize 词源字典]
tantalize: [16] The verb tantalize was inspired by the sad story of Tantalus, a mythical king of Phrygia in the ancient world. He had displeased the gods in some way (versions differ as to how, the commonest being that he had stolen their food), and as a punishment he was condemned to stand for ever in water up to his chin, while overhead hung boughs laden with fruit: whenever he stooped to drink, the water disappeared, and when he tried to reach the fruit, the wind blew it away. The term tantalus, coined in the 19th century for a lockable decanter stand whose contents can be seen but not got at, preserves the same idea.
[tantalize etymology, tantalize origin, 英语词源]
equip (v.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
1520s, from Middle French équiper "to fit out," from Old French esquiper "fit out a ship, load on board" (12c.), probably from Old Norse skipa "arrange, place in order," usually "fit out a ship," but also of warriors manning a hall and trees laden with ripe fruit, from skip "ship" (see ship (n.)). Related: Equipped; equipping. Similar words in Spanish and Portuguese ultimately are from Germanic.
make-workyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
1913 (adj.); 1937 (n.), "busy-work, activity of no value," American English, from the verbal expression to make work (see make (v.) + work (n.)).
A big fire devoured a street; "It will make work," I heard my father say; a ship was lost at sea laden with silk, and leather, and cloth; "It will make work," said my father; a reservoir broke jail, and swept the heart of the town away. "It will make work," my mother said; so all human calamities were softened blessings to me; they made "work," and work made wages, and wages made bread and potatoes, and clothes for me. ["The Radical Review," Chicago, Sept. 15, 1883]
tantalize (v.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
1590s, with -ize + Latin Tantalus, from Greek Tantalos, king of Phrygia, son of Zeus, father of Pelops and Niobe, punished in the afterlife (for an offense variously given) by being made to stand in a river up to his chin, under branches laden with fruit, all of which withdrew from his reach whenever he tried to eat or drink. His story was known to Chaucer (c. 1369). Related: Tantalized; tantalizing; tantalizingly; tantalization.