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camel [camel 词源字典]: camel: [OE] Naturally enough, camel is of Semitic origin: Hebrew has gāmāl, for example, and Arabic jamal. It was a relative of these that was the source of Greek kámēlos, which passed via Latin camēlus into English as early as the mid 10th century. (It replaced a previous Old English olfend, a word – shared by other early Germanic languages – apparently based on the misconception that a camel was an elephant.)
[camel etymology, camel origin, 英语词源]
camellia: camellia: [18] The camellia, a shrub of oriental origin, was named in the mid-18th century by the Swedish taxonomist Linnaeus after the Moravian Jesuit missionary and botanist Joseph Kamel (in modern Latin, Camellus) (1661– 1706), who described the flora on the Philippine island of Luzon. The spelling of its name, with a double l, encourages a short ‘e’ pronunciation, but in practice most people say ‘cameelia’.
chamelion: chamelion: [14] Etymologically, a chamelion is a ‘ground lion’. The word comes from Greek khamailéōn, a compound formed from khamaí ‘on the ground’ (English humus and humble are related to it) and léōn ‘lion’. Until the 19th century the word was usually spelled camelion, which led to popular association of the first element with camel; this is turn encouraged an identification with camelopard, a now obsolete word for ‘giraffe’, and in the 14th and 15th centuries camelion was used for ‘giraffe’.
=> humble, humus, lion
comely: comely: [13] Old English had an adjective cymlic ‘beautiful’ (no relation at all to come), but this seems to have died out around the year 1000, and it is likely that comely, which first appears in the early 13th century, represents a reduced version of becomely, an adjective long since defunct of which there are a few records towards the end of the 12th century. This meant ‘suitable, becoming’ (it was formed, of course, from the verb become), an early meaning of comely; its other semantic strand, ‘beautiful’, is probably a memory of Old English cymlic.
=> become
contumely: contumely: [14] The idea underlying contumely ‘insolence’ is ‘swelling up’. It comes, via Old French contumelie, from Latin contumēlia ‘insult, reproach’, a compound noun formed from the intensive prefix com- and (probably) tumēre ‘swell’ (source of English tumour). The sense development – from being ‘puffed up’ and ‘angry’, ‘proud’, or ‘stubborn’ through ‘overbearing’ to ‘insulting’ – appears also to be reflected in contumacy ‘insubordination’ [14], whose Latin source contumācia likewise probably came from tumēre.
=> contumacy, tumour
enamel: enamel: [14] The underlying meaning element in enamel is ‘melting’. It comes ultimately from a prehistoric Germanic base *smalt- (source of English schmaltz ‘sentimentality’ [20], borrowed via Yiddish from German schmalz ‘fat, dripping’), and related Germanic forms produced English smelt, melt, and malt. Old French acquired the Germanic word and turned it into esmauz; this in turn was re-formed to esmail, and Anglo-Norman adopted it as amail.

This formed the basis, with the prefix en- ‘in’, of a verb enamailler ‘decorate with enamel’. English borrowed it, and by the mid-15th century it was being used as a noun for the substance itself (the noun amel, a direct borrowing from Anglo-Norman, had in fact been used in this sense since the 14th century, and it did not finally die out until the 18th century).

Its application to the substance covering teeth dates from the early 18th century.
=> malt, melt, schmaltz, smelt
melancholy: melancholy: [14] Etymologically, melancholy means ‘black gall’. The word comes via Old French melancolie and late Latin melancholia from Greek melagkholíā, a compound formed from mélās ‘black’ (source also of English melanin [19] and melanoma [19]) and kholé ‘bile’ (a relative of English gall). This ‘black bile’ was one of the four bodily substances or ‘humours’ whose relative preponderance, according to medieval medical theory, determined a person’s physical and mental state. Excess of black bile was thought to cause depression – hence the modern meaning of melancholy.
=> gall, melanoma
mêlée: mêlée: see mix
mellifluous: mellifluous: see flux, molasses
mellow: mellow: see meal
melody: melody: [13] Greek mélos originally meant ‘limb’ (it is related to Cornish mal ‘joint’), but it was transferred metaphorically to a ‘limb or ‘part’ of a piece of music’, a ‘musical phrase’, and from there to ‘song’. It was combined with the element ōid- ‘singing’ (source of English ode) to form melōidíā ‘choral song’, which passed into English via late Latin melōdia and Old French melodie. The compound melodrama [19] is of French origin.
=> melodrama, ode
melon: melon: [14] Greek mēlon actually meant ‘apple’. But combination with pépōn ‘ripe’ (a relative of English peptic [17]) produced mēlopépōn, which was used for ‘melon’. This passed into Latin as mēlopepō, but the -pepō part was subsequently dropped, giving mēlō – source, via Old French, of English melon.
=> marmalade
melt: melt: [OE] Melt goes back ultimately to an Indo- European *meld-, *mold-, *mld-, denoting ‘softness’, which also produced English mild and Latin mollis ‘soft’ (source of English mollify and mollusc). Its prehistoric Germanic descendant *melt-, *malt- produced the verb *maltjan ‘dissolve’, which has become English melt. Malt comes from the same Germanic source, and smelt [15], a borrowing from Middle Low German, goes back to *smelt-, a variant of the base *melt-.
=> malt, mild, mollify, mollusc, smelt
omelette: omelette: [17] The omelette seems to have been named for its thinness, like a sheet of metal. The word was borrowed from French omelette, the modern descendant of Old French amelette. This meant literally ‘thin sheet of metal’, and was an alteration, by metathesis (the reversal of sounds) of alumette. This in turn was a variant of alumelle, which arose through the mistaking of la lemelle ‘the blade’ as l’alemelle. And lemelle goes back to Latin lāmella ‘thin sheet of metal’, a diminutive form of lāmina ‘plate, layer’ (from which English gets laminate [17]).
=> laminate
smell: smell: [12] Smell is something of a mystery word. It is assumed to go back to an Old English *smiellan or *smyllan, but no such verb has been recorded, nor have any related forms in other languages been pin-pointed for certain. One theory links it with English smoulder [14] and the related Dutch smeulen ‘smoulder’, as if the notion of ‘smelling’ arose from the idea of breathing vapour or smoke through the nose.
smelt: smelt: see melt
Amelia: fem. proper name, of Germanic origin, literally "laborious" (cognates: Old Norse ama "to trouble"), later assimilated with Roman gens name Aemilia.
ameliorate (v.): 1728, perhaps a back-formation from amelioration on pattern of French améliorer. The simpler form meliorate was used in Middle English. Related: Ameliorated; ameliorating.
amelioration (n.): 1650s, from French amélioration, from Old French ameillorer (12c.), from a "to" (see ad-) + meillior (Modern French meìlleur) "to better," from Late Latin meliorare "improve," from Latin melior "better," perhaps originally "stronger," and related to Greek mala "very, very much," from PIE *mel- "strong, great" (see multi-).
ameliorative (adj.): 1796, from ameliorate + -ive.
bechamel (n.): 1796, from French béchamel, named for Louis XIV's steward, Louis de Béchamel, marquis de Nointel (1630-1703), who perfected it. Gamillscheg identifies him as a great gourmet of the time ("eines bekannten Feinschmeckers des 17. Jhdts.").
blameless (adj.): late 14c., from blame (n.) + -less. Related: Blamelessly; blamelessness. Seldom-used blameful is recorded from late 14c.
bromeliad (n.): from Modern Latin Bromeliaceæ, family name given by Linnæus, for Olaus Bromel (1639-1705), Swedish botanist. Related: Bromeliads.
calomel (n.): old name for mercurous chloride, 1670s, from French calomel, supposedly (Littré) from Greek kalos "fair" (see Callisto) + melas "black;" but as the powder is yellowish-white this seems difficult. "It is perhaps of significance that the salt is blackened by ammonia and alkalis" [Flood].
camel (n.): Old English camel, perhaps via Old North French camel (Old French chamel, Modern French chameau), from Latin camelus, from Greek kamelos, from Hebrew or Phoenician gamal, perhaps related to Arabic jamala "to bear."

Another Old English word for the beast was olfend, apparently based on confusion of camels with elephants in a place and time when both were known only from travelers' vague descriptions. The Arabian have one hump (the lighter variety is the dromedary); the Bactrian have two.
cameleon (n.): obsolete form of chameleon.
camellia (n.): 1753, named by Linnæus from Latinized form of Georg Joseph Kamel (1661-1706), Moravian-born Jesuit who described the flora of the island of Luzon, + abstract noun ending -ia.
Camelot (n.): a name first found in medieval French romances; it corresponds to Latin Camuladonum, the Roman forerunner of Colchester, which was an impressive ruin in the Middle Ages. But Malory identifies it with Winchester and Elizabethans tended to see it as Cadbury Castle, an Iron Age hill fort near Glastonbury.
caramel (n.): 1725, from French caramel "burnt sugar" (17c.), via Old Spanish caramel (modern caramelo), ultimately from Medieval Latin cannamellis, traditionally from Latin canna (see cane (n.)) + mellis, genitive of mel "honey" (see Melissa). But some give the Medieval Latin word an Arabic origin, or trace it to Latin calamus "reed, cane."
caramelize (v.): 1837, from caramel + -ize. Earlier was past participle adjective carameled (1727). Related: Caramelized; caramelizing.
Carmel: mountain in northern Israel, from Latin Carmel, from Greek Karmel, from Hebrew karmel "garden, fertile field."
Carmelite (n.): c. 1500, from Medieval Latin Carmelites, member of an order of mendicant friars (White Friars) founded 12c. by Berthold of Calabria on Mount Carmel in what is now northwest Israel.
chameleon (n.): mid-14c., camelion, from Old French caméléon, from Latin chamaeleon, from Greek khamaileon "the chameleon," from khamai "on the ground" (also "dwarf"), akin to chthon "earth" (see chthonic) + leon "lion" (see lion). Perhaps the large head-crest on some species was thought to resemble a lion's mane. The classical -h- was restored in English early 18c. Figurative sense of "variable person" is 1580s. It formerly was supposed to live on air (as in "Hamlet" III.ii.98).
comely (adj.): "beautiful, handsome," c. 1400, probably from Old English cymlic "lovely, splendid, finely made," from cyme "exquisite, glorious, delicate," from West Germanic *kumi- "delicate, feeble" (cognates: Old High German chumo "with difficulty," chumig "weak, delicate;" German kaum "hardly, scarcely"). Or perhaps the modern word is from Middle English bicumelic (c. 1200) "suitable, exquisite," literally "becomely" (compare becoming).
contumelious (adj.): late 15c., from Old French contumelieus, from Latin contumeliosus "reproachful, insolently abusive," from contumelia (see contumely).
contumely (n.): late 14c., from Old French contumelie, from Latin contumelia "a reproach, insult," probably related to contumax "haughty, stubborn," from com-, intensive prefix (see com-), + tumere "to swell up" (see tumid).
The unhappy man left his country forever. The howl of contumely followed him across the sea, up the Rhine, over the Alps; it gradually waxed fainter; it died away; those who had raised it began to ask each other, what, after all, was the matter about which they had been so clamorous, and wished to invite back the criminal whom they had just chased from them. [Thomas Babington Macaulay, "Lord Byron," 1877]
enamel (v.): early 14c., from Anglo-French enamailler (early 14c.), from en- "in" (see en- (1)) + amailler "to enamel," variant of Old French esmailler, from esmal "enamel," from Frankish *smalt, from Proto-Germanic *smaltjan "to smelt" (see smelt (v.)). Related: Enameled; enameler; enameling.
enamel (n.): early 15c., in ceramics, from enamel (v.). As "hardest part of a tooth," 1718, from a use in French émail.
entrammel (v.): "to entangle," 1590s, from en- (1) "in" + trammel (n.).
extremely (adv.): 1530s, from extreme + -ly (2). Originally "with great severity," later more loosely, "in extreme degree" (1570s).
gamelan (n.): "East Indian orchestra," 1817, from Javanese gamel "to handle."
gamely (adv.): "courageously," 1861, from game (adj.2) + -ly (2). In Old English and Middle English the adverb meant "artfully; joyfully."
handsomely (adv.): 1540s, "conveniently," from handsome + -ly (2). Meaning "attractively" is from 1610s; "liberally, generously" from 1735.
homeland (n.): 1660s, from home (n.) + land (n.). Old English hamland meant "enclosed pasture."
homeless (adj.): 1610s, from home (n.) + -less. Old English had hamleas, but the modern word probably is a new formation. As a noun meaning "homeless persons," by 1857.
homelessness (n.): 1814, from homeless + -ness.
homeliness (n.): mid-14c., from homely + -ness. Originally "meekness, gentleness," also "familiarity, intimacy; friendliness;" sense degenerated by c. 1400 to "want of refinement in manners, coarseness; presumptuousness."
homely (adj.): late 14c., "of or belonging to home or household, domestic," from Middle English hom "home" (see home (n.)) + -ly (2). Sense of "plain, unadorned, simple" is late 14c., and extension to "having a plain appearance, ugly, crude" took place c. 1400, but now survives chiefly in U.S., especially in New England, where it was the usual term for "physically unattractive;" ugly being typically "ill-tempered."
lamely (adv.): 1590s, from lame (adj.) + -ly (2).
limelight (n.): 1826, popular name for Drummond light, a brilliant light created by the incandescence of lime (n.1); adopted for lighthouses and later for the Victorian stage, where it illuminated the principal actors, hence the figurative sense of "on stage, at the center of attention" (1877).