quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- arrowroot



[arrowroot 词源字典] - arrowroot: [17] Arrowroot, a tropical American plant with starchy tubers, gets its name by folk etymology, the process whereby an unfamiliar foreign word is reformulated along lines more accessible to the speakers of a language. In this case the word in question was aru-aru, the term used by the Arawak Indians of South America for the plant (meaning literally ‘meal of meals’). English-speakers adapted this to arrowroot because the root of the plant was used by the Indians to heal wounds caused by poisoned arrows.
[arrowroot etymology, arrowroot origin, 英语词源] - bottle




- bottle: [14] Etymologically, a bottle is a small butt, or barrel. The word comes ultimately from medieval Latin butticula, a diminutive form of late Latin buttis ‘cask’ (whence English butt ‘barrel’). It reached English via Old French botele. The 20th-century British colloquial meaning ‘nerve, courage’ comes from rhyming slang bottle and glass ‘class’. In medieval Latin, a servant who handed wine round at meals and looked after the wine cellar was a buticulārius: hence, via Old French bouteillier and Anglo-Norman buteler, English butler [13].
=> butler - table




- table: [12] Latin tabula originally denoted a ‘board’ or ‘plank’, and hence a ‘slab for writing on’ and a ‘list or similar arrangement of words or figures written on such a slab’ (as in a ‘table of contents’). It was in the farther outposts of the Roman empire that the sense ‘piece of furniture for serving meals on’ emerged – possibly in Frankish, where it would have been a direct translation of the term used for ‘table’, which meant literally ‘serving board’ (until tables with legs found their way northward from Greece and Rome, food had been served on individual trays or boards).
In much of the empire it became established as the word for ‘table’ (and it passed into English via Old French table), although in Spanish the original Latin term mensa survived as mesa. Derivatives in English include entablature [17], tableau [17] (originally a French diminutive form), tablet, tabloid, and tabular [17].
=> entablature, tableau, tablet, tabloid, tabular - banquet (n.)




- late 15c., "feast, sumptuous entertainment," from French banquet (15c.; in Old French only "small bench"), from Old Italian banchetto, diminutive of banco "bench;" originally a snack eaten on a bench (rather than at table), hence "a slight repast between meals;" the meaning has entirely reversed. As a verb from 1510s.
- board (v.)




- verb senses derived from various senses of board (n.1) and board (n.2) include "come alongside" (a ship), mid-15c. (from n.2); "put boards on, frame with boards," late 14c. (implied in boarded, from n.1); "
to get onto" (a ship), 1590s, transferred from mid-19c. to stages, railway cars, aircraft, etc. (from n.2). Meaning "to be supplied with food and lodging" is from 1550s (from n.1 in transferred sense). Transitive meaning "provide with daily meals and lodging" is from 1590s. Related: Boarded; boarding.
- boarding (n.)




- 1530s, "supplying of meals, food and lodging," from board (n.1) in its extended sense of "food" (via notion of "table"). Boarding-school is from 1670s; boarding-house attested from 1728.
- course (n.)




- late 13c., "onward movement," from Old French cors (12c.) "course; run, running; flow of a river," from Latin cursus "a running race or course," from curs- past participle stem of currere "to run" (see current (adj.)).
Most extended senses (meals, etc.) are present in 14c. Academic meaning "planned series of study" is c. 1600 (in French from 14c.). Phrase of course is attested from 1540s; literally "of the ordinary course;" earlier in same sense was bi cours (c. 1300). - found (adj.)




- "discovered," late 14c., past participle adjective from find (v.). Expression and found attached to the wages or charges in old advertisements for job openings, travelling berths, etc., indicates that meals are provided. It comes from the expression to find one's self "to provide for one's self." "When a laborer engages to provide himself with victuals, he is said to find himself, or to receive day wages" [Bartlett, "Dictionary of Americanisms," 1848]. Hence, so much and found for "wages + meals provided."
- meal (n.1)




- "food; time for eating," c. 1200 (perhaps late Old English), mel "appointed time for eating," also "a meal, feast," from Old English mæl "fixed time, occasion, a meal," from Proto-Germanic *mæla- (cognates: Old Frisian mel "time;" Middle Dutch mael, Dutch maal "time, meal;" Old Norse mal "measure, time, meal;" German Mal "time," Mahl "meal;" Gothic mel "time, hour"), from PIE *me-lo-, from root *me- "to measure" (see meter (n.2)). Original sense of "time" is preserved in piecemeal. Meals-on-wheels attested from 1961. Meal ticket first attested 1870 in literal sense of "ticket of admission to a dining hall;" figurative sense of "source of income or livelihood" is from 1899.
- mens sana in corpore sano




- c. 1600, Latin, literally "a sound mind in a sound body," a line found in Juvenal, "Satires," x.356.
Mens sana in corpore sano is a contradiction in terms, the fantasy of a Mr. Have-your-cake-and-eat-it. No sane man can afford to dispense with debilitating pleasures; no ascetic can be considered reliably sane. Hitler was the archetype of the abstemious man. When the other krauts saw him drink water in the Beer Hall they should have known he was not to be trusted. [A.J. Liebling, "Between Meals," 1962]
- mess (v.)




- late 14c., "serve up in portions," from mess (n.). Meaning "take one's meals" is from 1701; that of "make a mess" is from 1853. Related: Messed; messing. To mess with "interfere, get involved" is from 1903; mess up "make a mistake, get in trouble" is from 1933 (earlier "make a mess of," 1909), both originally American English colloquial.
- prohibition (n.)




- late 14c., "act of prohibiting, a forbidding by authority," from Anglo-French and Old French prohibition (early 13c.), from Latin prohibitionem (nominative prohibitio) "a hindering, forbidding; legal prohibition," noun of action from past participle stem of prohibere "hold back, restrain, hinder, prevent," from pro- "away, forth" (see pro-) + habere "to hold" (see habit (n.)). Meaning "forced alcohol abstinence" is 1851, American English; in effect nationwide in U.S. as law 1920-1933 under the Volstead Act.
People whose youth did not coincide with the twenties never had our reverence for strong drink. Older men knew liquor before it became the symbol of a sacred cause. Kids who began drinking after 1933 take it as a matter of course. ... Drinking, we proved to ourselves our freedom as individuals and flouted Congress. We conformed to a popular type of dissent -- dissent from a minority. It was the only period during which a fellow could be smug and slopped concurrently. [A.J. Liebling, "Between Meals," 1959]
Related: Prohibitionist. - resurrection (n.)




- c. 1300, originally the name of a Church festival commemorating Christ's rising from death, from Anglo-French resurrectiun, Old French resurrection "the Resurrection of Christ" (12c.) and directly from Church Latin resurrectionem (nominative resurrectio) "a rising again from the dead," noun of action from past participle stem of Latin resurgere "rise again, appear again" (see resurgent). Replaced Old English æriste.
Generalized sense of "revival" is from 1640s. Also used in Middle English of the rising again of the dead on the Last Day (c. 1300). Resurrectionist, euphemism for "grave-robber" is attested from 1776. Resurrection pie was mid-19c. English schoolboy slang for a pie made from leftovers of previous meals; first attested 1831 as a Sheffield dialect term.
There was a dreadful pie for dinner every Monday; a meat-pie with a stony crust that did not break; but split into scaly layers, with horrible lumps of gristle inside, and such strings of sinew (alternated by lumps of flabby fat) as a ghoule might use as a rosary. We called it kitten pie--resurrection pie--rag pie--dead man's pie. We cursed it by night we cursed it by day; we wouldn't stand it, we said; we would write to our friends; we would go to sea. ["How I Went to Sea," "Harper's Magazine," December 1852]
- sit-down (adj.)




- 1836 of meals, 1936 of strikes, from verbal phrase (c. 1200), from sit (v.) + down (adv.); as a noun, sit-down "act of sitting down" is from 1861.
- sizar (n.)




- also sizer, at certain British universities, a student of limited means who received school meals for free, 1580s, from size (n.) in a specialized sense "ration, allowance for provisions."
- smorgasbord (n.)




- 1893, from Swedish smörgåsbord, literally "butter-goose table," from smörgås, "slice of bread and butter," compounded from smör "butter" (see smear (n.)) and gås, literally "goose" (and from the same Germanic root that yielded English goose (n.)).
[Smörgås] properly signifies "a slice of bread-and-butter"; and has come by custom--in much the same way as when we familiarly speak of "taking a sandwich" for partaking of some light refreshment--to be applied synecdochically to the preliminary relish or appetizer partaken of before meals. ["Notes and Queries," Nov. 15, 1884]
The final element is bord "table," from Proto-Germanic *burdam "plank, board, table" (see board (n.1)). Figurative sense of "medley, miscellany" is recorded from 1948. - square (adj.)




- early 14c., "containing four equal sides and right angles," from square (n.), or from Old French esquarre, past participle of esquarrer. Meaning "honest, fair," is first attested 1560s; that of "straight, direct" is from 1804. Of meals, from 1868.
Sense of "old-fashioned" is 1944, U.S. jazz slang, said to be from shape of a conductor's hand gestures in a regular four-beat rhythm. Square-toes meant nearly the same thing late 18c.: "precise, formal, old-fashioned person," from the style of men's shoes worn early 18c. and then fallen from fashion. Squaresville is attested from 1956. Square dance attested by 1831; originally one in which the couples faced inward from four sides; later of country dances generally.
[T]he old square dance is an abortive attempt at conversation while engaged in walking certain mathematical figures over a limited area. [March 1868]
- steward (n.)




- Old English stiward, stigweard "house guardian, housekeeper," from stig "hall, pen for cattle, part of a house" (see sty (n.1)) + weard "guard" (see ward (n.)). Used after the Conquest as the equivalent of Old French seneschal (q.v.). Meaning "overseer of workmen" is attested from c. 1300. The sense of "officer on a ship in charge of provisions and meals" is first recorded mid-15c.; extended to trains 1906. This was the title of a class of high officers of the state in early England and Scotland, hence meaning "one who manages affairs of an estate on behalf of his employer" (late 14c.). Meaning "person who supervises arrangements" at a meeting, dinner, etc., is from 1703.
The Scottish form (with terminal -t attested from late 14c.) is reflected in Stewart, name of the royal house descended from Walter (the) Steward, who married (1315) Marjorie de Bruce, daughter of King Robert. Stuart is a French spelling, attested from 1429 and adopted by Mary, Queen of Scots. - supper (n.)




- mid-13c., soper, "the last meal of the day," from Old French soper "evening meal," noun use of infinitive soper "to eat the evening meal," which is of Germanic origin (see sup (v.1)).
Formerly, the last of the three meals of the day (breakfast, dinner, and supper); now applied to the last substantial meal of the day when dinner is taken in the middle of the day, or to a late meal following an early evening dinner. Supper is usually a less formal meal than late dinner. [OED]
Applied since c. 1300 to the last meal of Christ. - symposium (n.)




- 1580s, "account of a gathering or party," from Latin symposium "drinking party, symposium," from Greek symposion "drinking party, convivial gathering of the educated" (related to sympotes "drinking companion"), from assimilated form of syn- "together" (see syn-) + posis "a drinking," from a stem of Aeolic ponen "to drink," cognate with Latin potare "to drink" (see potion).
The symposium usually followed a dinner, for the Greeks did not drink at meals. Its enjoyment was heightened by intellectual or agreeable conversation, by the introduction of music or dancers, and by other amusements. [Century Dictionary]
The sense of "a meeting on some subject" is from 1784. Reflecting the Greek fondness for mixing wine and intellectual discussion, the modern sense is especially from the word being used as a title for one of Plato's dialogues. Greek plural is symposia, and the leader of one is a symposiarch (c. 1600 in English). Related: Symposiac (adj.); symposial. - trellis (n.)




- late 14c., "lattice, grating," from Old French trelis, trellis "trellis, fence," originally "sackcloth," from Vulgar Latin *trilicius, from Latin trilicis, genitive of trilix "having three threads, triple-twilled," from tri- (see tri-) + licium "thread."
Sense extended in Old French to things "woven" of iron, etc., which brought on influence of Old French treille "vine trellis," perhaps from Latin trichila "bower, arbor," which is apparently from Latin triclinium "couch extending round three sides of a table" (for reclining on at meals). Meaning "lattice used to support growing vines" is from 1510s. As a verb, c. 1400. Related: Trellised.