quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- lizard
- lizard: [14] Lizard goes back to Latin lacertus or lacerta, words of unknown origin. It reached English via Old French lesard. The Latin word was used for ‘muscle’ as well as ‘lizard’, perhaps because the ripple of a muscle beneath the skin reminded people of a lizard’s movement (an exactly parallel development links mouse and muscle). And in heavily disguised form, owing to a detour via Arabic, alligator is the same word.
=> alligator - lizard (n.)
- "an animal resembling a serpent, with legs added to it" [Johnson], late 14c., lusarde, from Anglo-French lusard, Old French laisarde "lizard" (Modern French lézard), from Latin lacertus (fem. lacerta) "lizard," of unknown origin, perhaps from PIE root *leq- "to bend, twist" [Klein].