英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

grapevine (n.)[grapevine 词源字典]: also grape-vine, 1736, from grape + vine. Meaning "a rumor; a secret or unconventional method of spreading information" (1863) is from the use of grapevine telegraph as "secret source of information and rumor" in the American Civil War; in reference to Southerners under northern occupation but also in reference to black communities and runaway slaves.
The false reports touching rebel movements, which incessantly circulated in Nashville, brings us to the consideration of the "grapevine telegraph"--a peculiar institution of rebel generation, devised for the duplex purpose of "firing the Southern heart," and to annoy the "Yankees." It is worthy of attention, as one of the signs of the times, expressing the spirit of lying which war engenders. But it is no more than just to say that there is often so little difference between the "grapevine" and the associated press telegraph, that they might as well be identical. ["Rosecrans' Campaign with the Fourteenth Corps," Cincinnati, 1863]
[grapevine etymology, grapevine origin, 英语词源]
ofay (n.): American English black slang, "white person," 1925, of unknown origin. If, as is sometimes claimed, it derives from an African word, none corresponding to it has been found. Perhaps the most plausible speculation is Yoruba ófé "to disappear" (as from a powerful enemy), with the sense transferred from the word of self-protection to the source of the threat. OED regards the main alternative theory, that it is pig Latin for foe, to be no more than an "implausible guess." Sometimes shortened to fay (1927).
seven (n.): Old English seofon, from Proto-Germanic *sebun (cognates: Old Saxon sibun, Old Norse sjau, Swedish sju, Danish syv, Old Frisian sowen, siugun, Middle Dutch seven, Dutch zeven, Old High German sibun, German sieben, Gothic sibun), from PIE *septm "seven" (cognates: Sanskrit sapta, Avestan hapta, Hittite shipta, Greek hepta, Latin septem, Old Church Slavonic sedmi, Lithuanian septyni, Old Irish secht, Welsh saith).

Long regarded as a number of perfection (seven wonders; seven sleepers, the latter translating Latin septem dormientes; seven against Thebes, etc.), but that notion is late in Old English and in German a nasty, troublesome woman could be eine böse Sieben "an evil seven" (1662).

Magical power or healing skill associated since 16c. with the seventh son ["The seuenth Male Chyld by iust order (neuer a Gyrle or Wench being borne betweene)," Thomas Lupton, "A Thousand Notable Things," 1579]. The typical number for "very great, strong," as in seven-league boots in the fairy story of Hop o'my Thumb. The Seven Years' War (1756-63) is also the Third Silesian War.

The Seven Stars (Old English sibunsterri), usually refers to the Pleiades, though in 15c. and after this name occasionally was given to the Big Dipper (which also has seven stars), or the seven planets of classical astronomy. Popular as a tavern sign, it might also (with six in a circle, one in the center) be a Masonic symbol.
FOOL: ... The reason why the
seven stars are no more than seven is a pretty reason.
LEAR: Because they are not eight?
FOOL: Yes, indeed: thou wouldst make a good fool.
["King Lear," I.v.]
tango (n.): syncopated ballroom dance, 1913 (the year it became a rage in Britain and America), from Argentine Spanish tango, originally the name of an African-American drum dance, probably from a Niger-Congo language (compare Ibibio tamgu "to dance"). Phrase it takes two to tango was a song title from 1952. As a verb from 1913. Related: Tangoed.
It is hardly a year ago since the Tango reached this country from South America by way of Paris. It was at first no more than a music-hall freak. But some of those mysterious people who inspire new social fashions were attracted by its sinuous movements and the strange backward kick, and this year it made its way into private houses as well as public ball rooms. [The Living Age, Dec. 13, 1913]

"I need not describe the various horrors of American and South American negroid origin. I would only ask hostesses to let one know what houses to avoid by indicating in some way on their invitation cards whether the 'turkey-trot,' the 'Boston' (the beginner of the evil), and the 'tango' will be permitted." [quoted in "Current Opinion," October 1913, as from a letter to the London Times]
cannelloni: "Rolls of pasta stuffed with a meat or vegetable mixture", Italian, literally 'large tubes', from cannello 'tube'. More cannon from Late Middle English:This large heavy piece of artillery derives its name from French canon, from Italian cannone ‘large tube’, from canna ‘cane, reed, tube’. Soldiers have been called cannon fodder, no more than material to be used up in war, since the late 19th century—the expression is a translation of German Kanonenfutter. Shakespeare did encapsulate a similar idea much earlier, with his phrase ‘food for powder’ in Henry IV Part 1. Canna or its Greek equivalent kanna is the base of a number of other words in English, as well as giving us the name of the canna lily (mid 17th century), which gets its name from the shape of its leaves. Some reflect the use of the plants for making things, some their hollow stems. Canes (Middle English) are basically the same plant. Canister (Late Middle English) was originally a basket from Latin canistrum ‘basket for bread, fruit, or flowers’, from Greek kanastron ‘wicker basket’, from kanna. Canal (Late Middle English) and channel (Middle English) both come via French from Latin canalis ‘pipe, groove, channel’ from canna, and share a source with the Italian pasta cannelloni (mid 19th century). The medical cannula (late 17th century) was originally a ‘small reed’; a canyon (mid 19th century) is from Spanish cañón ‘tube’ from canna.