英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

loose [loose 词源字典]: loose: [13] Loose is one of a large family of words that go back ultimately to Indo-European *lau-, *leu-, *lu-, which denoted ‘undoing’. It includes (via Greek) analyse and paralyse, (via Latin) dissolve and solution, and (via Germanic) lose and the suffix -less. Loose itself was borrowed from Old Norse laus, which was descended from a prehistoric Germanic *lausaz.
=> analyse, dissolve, lose, paralyse, solution[loose etymology, loose origin, 英语词源]
Appaloosa: breed of horses favored by Indian tribes in U.S. West, 1849, either from Opelousa in Louisiana or from Palouse Indians, who lived near the river of that name in Idaho, in which case it probably is a Nez Percé word. Opelousa is perhaps from Choctaw api losa "black body;" while Palouse is from Sahaptin palou:s "what is standing up in the water."
fast and loose: described as "a cheating game played with a stick and a belt or string, so arranged that a spectator would think he could make the latter fast by placing a stick through its intricate folds, whereas the operator could detach it at once." [James O. Halliwell, "Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words," 1847]. The figurative sense (1550s) is recorded earlier than the literal (1570s).
footloose (adj.): 1690s, "free to move the feet, unshackled," from foot (n.) + loose. Figurative sense of "free to act as one pleases" is from 1873.
loose (adj.): early 13c., "not securely fixed;" c. 1300, "unbound," from Old Norse lauss "loose, free, vacant, dissolute," cognate with Old English leas "devoid of, false, feigned, incorrect," from Proto-Germanic *lausaz (cognates: Danish løs "loose, untied," Swedish lös "loose, movable, detached," Middle Dutch, German los "loose, free," Gothic laus "empty, vain"), from PIE *leu- "to loosen, divide, cut apart" (see lose). Meaning "not clinging, slack" is mid-15c. Meaning "not bundled" is late 15c. Sense of "unchaste, immoral" is recorded from late 15c. Meaning "at liberty, free from obligation" is 1550s. Sense of "rambling, disconnected" is from 1680s. Figurative sense of loose cannon was in use by 1896, probably from celebrated image in a popular story by Hugo:
You can reason with a bull dog, astonish a bull, fascinate a boa, frighten a tiger, soften a lion; no resource with such a monster as a loose cannon. You cannot kill it, it is dead; and at the same time it lives. It lives with a sinister life which comes from the infinite. It is moved by the ship, which is moved by the sea, which is moved by the wind. This exterminator is a plaything. [Victor Hugo, "Ninety Three"]
Loose end in reference to something unfinished, undecided, unguarded is from 1540s; to be at loose ends is from 1807. Phrase on the loose "free, unrestrained" is from 1749 (upon the loose).
loose (v.): early 13c, "to set free," from loose (adj.). Meaning "to undo, untie, unfasten" is 14c. Related: Loosed; loosing.
loose-leaf (adj.): 1899, from loose (adj.) + leaf (n.).
loosely (adv.): late 14c., from loose + -ly (2).
loosen (v.): late 14c., losnen, later lousen (early 15c.), from loose (v.) + -en (1). Related: Loosened; loosening.
looseness (n.): c. 1400, from loose + -ness.
Tuscaloosa: river in Alabama, first attested in Spanish as Tascaluza, from Choctaw (Muskogean) taska-losa, literally "warrior-black."
unloose (v.): mid-14c., "relax;" late 14c., "to set free," from un- (2), used here emphatically, + loose. Old English had unliesan "unloose, set free." Related: Unloosed; unloosing.