quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- choate (adj.)




- "finished, complete," mistaken back-formation from inchoate (q.v.) as though that word contained in- "not." First attested 1878 in letter from Oliver Wendell Holmes lamenting barbarisms in legal case writing (he said he found choate in a California report).
- elegiac (adj.)




- 1580s, in reference to lines of verse of a particular construction, from Middle French élégiaque, from Latin elegiacus, from Greek elegeiakos, from eleigeia (see elegy). In ancient Greece the verse form was used especially with mournful music. Meaning "pertaining to an elegy or elegies" is from 1640s in English; loosened sense "expressing sorrow, lamenting" is from c. 1800. Related: Elegiacal (1540s, of meter); elegiacally.
- lament (v.)




- mid-15c., back-formation from lamentation or else from Middle French lamenter "to moan, bewail" (14c.) and directly from Latin lamentari, from lamentum (see lamentation). Related: Lamented; lamenting.
- plaintive (adj.)




- late 14c., "lamenting," from Old French plaintif "complaining; wretched, miserable," from plainte (see plaint). Sense of "mournful, sad" first recorded 1570s. Related: Plaintively; plaintiveness.
- scream (n.)




- mid-15c., from scream (v.).
And (as they say) lamentings heard i' th' Ayre; Strange Schreemes of Death. ["Macbeth," II.iii.61]
Shakespeare's spelling probably reflects "sk-" as spelled in words from Latin (such as school); he also has schreene for screen. Slang meaning "something that evokes a cry of laughter" is 1888; screamer in this sense is from 1831.