quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- noon



[noon 词源字典] - noon: [OE] Noon denotes etymologically the ‘ninth’ hour. It was adopted in the Old English period from Latin nōna, short for nōna hōra, the ‘ninth hour’. Reckoning the day from sunrise, on average six o’clock, this meant that ‘noon’ was three o’clock in the afternoon (which was originally when the office of nones [18] – a related word – was said in the Roman catholic church).
By the 12th century, however, we find noon being used for a ‘midday meal’, and in the early 13th century it had moved on to simply ‘midday’, so it appears that some forward shifting of a meal that had originally taken place in mid afternoon was responsible for altering the meaning of noon (modern English terms for mealtimes, such as tea and dinner, are equally slippery).
=> nine[noon etymology, noon origin, 英语词源] - noose




- noose: [15] The notion underlying the word noose is of a ‘knot’, rather than of a ‘loop of rope made with a knot’. The word comes from nos or nous, the Old French descendant of Latin nodus ‘knot’. This was the source of English node [16], of course, and of the diminutive form nodule [16], but it has also made a couple of less obvious contributions to English: dénouement [18], which comes via a French word denoting literally the ‘untying of a knot’, and newel [14] ‘staircase post’, which was borrowed from Old French nouel ‘knob’, a descendant of the medieval Latin diminutive nōdellus.
=> dénouement, newel, node, nodule - snooker




- snooker: [19] The most widely canvassed theory of the origins of the term snooker is that it is an adaptation of late 19th-century army slang snooker ‘new cadet’ (‘These embryo generals were called by the somewhat sneering terms of “snookers” or “last-joined”,’ Routledge’s Every Boy’s Annual 1872). The game was invented, as a diversion perhaps from the monotony of billiards, by British army officers serving in India in the 1870s, and the story goes that the term snooker was applied to it by Colonel Sir Neville Chamberlain (1856–1944), at that time a subaltern in the Devonshire Regiment stationed in Jubbulpore, in allusion to the inept play of one of his brother officers.
The ancestry of snooker ‘new cadet’, however, remains a mystery.
- afternoon (n.)




- c. 1300, from after + noon. In 15c.-16c., the form was at afternoon; from c. 1600 it has been in the afternoon. Middle English also had aftermete "afternoon, part of the day following the noon meal," mid-14c.
- canoodle (v.)




- "to indulge in caresses and fondling endearments" [OED], by 1850s, said to be U.S. slang, of uncertain origin. The earliest known sources are British, but they tend to identify the word as American. In the 1830s it seems to have been in use in Britain in a sense of "cheat" or "overpower." Related: Canoodled; canoodling.
- Chattanooga




- city in Tennessee, of uncertain origin, said to be either Cherokee or Muskogee; compare Muskogee cvto "rock" (in Chattahoochee, etc.); the entire name is said to mean "rock rising to a point," which might describe nearby Lookout Mountain.
- Chinook




- name for a group of related native people in the Columbia River region of Washington and Oregon, from Salishan /činuk/, name of a village site. Name also extended to a type of salmon (1851) and warm spring wind. Chinook jargon was a mishmash of native (Chinook and Nootka), French, and English words; it once was lingua franca in the Pacific Northwest, and it is the earliest attested use of the word (1840).
- forenoon (n.)




- "the morning," especially the latter part of it, when business is done, c. 1500, from fore- + noon.
- Koh-i-noor (n.)




- famous diamond, one of the British crown jewels after the annexation of Punjab in 1849, from Persian koh-i-nur, literally "mountain of light," from Persian koh "mountain" + Arabic nur "light."
- noob (n.)




- c. 2000 in gamer slang, variant of newbie; often used interchangeably with it, but also often with a more derogatory shade of meaning; newbies owe their clueless behavior to lack of experience and can improve, while the fundamental characteristic of noobs is incorrigible obnoxiousness or stupidity.
- noodle (n.)




- "narrow strip of dried dough," 1779, from German Nudel, which is of unknown origin. West Flemish noedel and French nouille are German loan-words. The older noun meaning "simpleton, stupid person" (1753) probably is an unrelated word, as is the slang word for "head" (attested from 1914).
- noodle (v.)




- 1937 (implied in noodling), from noun meaning "improvised music," 1926, probably from noodle (n.), on analogy of the suppleness of the food and that of the trills and improvised phrases in jazz improvisations. Related: Noodled.
- nook (n.)




- c. 1300, noke, of unknown origin. Possibly connected with Norwegian dialectal nokke "hook, bent figure," or Old English hnecca "neck," but the sense evolution would be difficult.
- nookie (n.)




- "sexual activity," 1928, perhaps from Dutch neuken "to copulate with."
- noon (n.)




- mid-12c., non "midday, 12 o'clock p.m., midday meal," from Old English non "3 o'clock p.m., the ninth hour," also "the canonical hour of nones," from Latin nona hora "ninth hour" of daylight, by Roman reckoning about 3 p.m., from nona, fem. singular of nonus "ninth" (see nones). Sense shift from "3 p.m." to "12 p.m." began during 12c., when time of Church prayers shifted from ninth hour to sixth hour, or perhaps because the customary time of the midday meal shifted, or both. The shift was complete by 14c. (same evolution in Dutch noen).
- noonday (n.)




- "middle of the day," first used by Coverdale (1535), from noon + day.
- noose (n.)




- mid-15c., perhaps from Old French nos or cognate Old Provençal nous "knot," from Latin nodus "knot" (see net (n.)). Rare before c. 1600.
- schnook (n.)




- 1948, probably from Yiddish shnuk "elephant's trunk," or altered from schmuck (q.v.), or perhaps from German schnucke "a small sheep," used in U.S. Yiddish for "a customer easily persuaded, a sucker."
- snood (n.)




- Old English snod "ribbon for the hair," from Proto-Germanic *snodo (cognates: Swedish snod "string, cord"), from PIE root *(s)ne- "to spin, sew" (cognates: Lettish snate "a linen cover," Old Irish snathe "thread;" see needle (n.)). In the Middle Ages, typically worn by young unmarried girls, hence "It was held to be emblematic of maidenhood or virginity" [Century Dictionary]. Modern fashion meaning "bag-like hair net" first recorded 1938 (these also were worn by girls in the Middle Ages, but they are not snoods properly).
- snook (n.)




- "derisive gesture," 1791, of unknown origin.
- snooker (n.)




- 1889, the game and the word said in an oft-told story to have been invented in India by British officers as a diversion from billiards. The name is perhaps a reference (with regard to the rawness of play by a fellow officer) to British slang snooker "newly joined cadet, first-term student at the R.M. Academy" (1872). Tradition ascribes the coinage to Col. Sir Neville Chamberlain (not the later prime minister of the same name), at the time subaltern in the Devonshire Regiment in Jubbulpore. One of the first descriptions of the game is in A.W. Drayson's "The Art of Practical Billiards for Amateurs" (1889), which states in a footnote "The rules of the game of snooker are the copyright of Messrs. Burroughes & Watts, from whom they may be obtained," they being manufacturers of billiard tables.
- snooker (v.)




- "to cheat," early 1900s, from snooker (n.). Related: Snookered; snookering.
One of the great amusements of this game is, by accuracy in strength, to place the white ball so close behind a pool ball that the next player cannot hit a pyramid ball, he being "snookered" from all of them. If he fail to strike a pyramid ball, this failure counts one to the adversary. If, however, in attempting to strike a pyramid ball off a cushion, he strike a pool ball, his adversary is credited with as many points as the pool ball that is struck would count if pocketed by rule. [Maj.-Gen. A.W. Drayson, "The Art of Practical Billiards for Amateurs," 1889]
- snookums (n.)




- trivial term of endearment, 1919, from Snooks, proper name used in Britain for "a hypothetical person" (1860), compare Joe Blow in U.S. As an actual proper name, Snooks dates back to the Domesday Book and may be from Old English *snoc "a projecting point of land" (perhaps here with sense of "a big nose").
- snoop (v.)




- 1832, "to go around in a prying manner," American English, probably from Dutch snoepen "to pry," also "eat in secret, eat sweets, sneak," probably related to snappen "to bite, snatch" (see snap (v.)). Specific meaning "to pry into other people's business" is attested from 1921. Related: Snooped; snooping.
- snoop (n.)




- 1891, "act of snooping," from snoop (v.). Meaning "one who snoops" is from 1929; meaning "detective" is from 1942. snooper "one who pries or peeps" is from 1889.
- snoopy (adj.)




- 1895, from snoop (n.) + -y (2). The cartoon dog of that name in the "Peanuts" newspaper comic strip debuted in 1950.
- snoot (n.)




- "the nose," 1861, originally a Scottish variant of snout.
- snootful (n.)




- "as much (liquor) as one can take," 1885, from snoot (n.) + -ful.
- snooty (adj.)




- "proud, arrogant," 1918, noted that year as college slang, from snoot (n.) + -y (2). Probably with suggestions of snouty (1858); the notion being of "looking down one's nose." Related: Snootily; snootiness.
- snooze (v.)




- 1789, cant word, of unknown origin, perhaps echoic of a snore. Related: Snoozed; snoozing. The noun meaning "a short nap" is from 1793. Snooze-alarm is from 1965.
- nooky




- "Sexual activity or intercourse", Early 20th century: perhaps from nook.
- inglenook




- "A space on either side of a large fireplace", Late 18th century: from Scots ingle + nook.
- noological




- "Of or relating to noology", Early 19th cent.; earliest use found in Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), philosopher, jurist, and reformer. From ancient Greek νόος nous + -logical. Compare noology, nooscopic (also earliest in Bentham).
- noogenesis




- "In or with reference to the writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: the development of the stage or sphere of evolutionary development dominated by consciousness, the mind, and interpersonal relationships", 1940s; earliest use found in Scientific Monthly. From ancient Greek νόος nous + -genesis, after French noogénèse.
- noosphere




- "A postulated sphere or stage of evolutionary development dominated by consciousness, the mind, and interpersonal relationships", 1940s: from French noösphere, based on Greek noos 'mind'.
- mid-afternoon




- "The middle of the afternoon", Late Middle English; earliest use found in Medical Recipes. From mid + afternoon adverb interjection. Compare earlier midovernoon.