英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

ceiling [ceiling 词源字典]: ceiling: [14] Ceiling is something of a mystery word. It originally signified the internal lining of any part of a building, including walls as well as roof (the modern sense ‘overhead inside surface of a room’ began to crystallize out in the 16th century), and the material of which it was made took in wooden planks and even tapestry hangings, as well as plaster. But where it comes from is not at all clear.

It has no apparent relations in other modern European languages, and the likeliest candidate as a source may be Latin caelāre ‘carve, engrave’. This is perhaps endorsed by an item in the accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, 1497, revealing how a ‘carver’ was paid £2 14s for ‘the ceiling of the chapel’ – an indication that the underlying notion of ceiling may be ‘carved internal surface of a room’.
[ceiling etymology, ceiling origin, 英语词源]
cocktail: cocktail: [19] The origins of the word cocktail are mysterious. It first appeared (in America) in the first decade of the 19th century, roughly contemporary with cocktail meaning ‘horse with a cocked tail’ – that is, one cut short and so made to stick up like a cock’s tail – but whether the two words are connected, and if so, how the drink came to be named after such a horse, are not at all clear.
dream: dream: [13] Old English had a word drēam, which meant ‘joy, merrymaking, music’, but it is not at all clear that this is the same word as modern English dream (the recorded Old English words for ‘dream’ were swefn and mǣting). Semantically, the two are quite a long way apart, and on balance it seems more likely that Old English had a homonym *drēam ‘dream’, which has not survived in the written records, and which was perhaps subsequently reinforced by Old Norse draumr.

Both these and the related German traum and Dutch droom have been traced back to an Indo-European base denoting ‘deception’, represented also in Sanskrit druh- ‘seek to harm’ and Avestan (a dialect of Old Iranian) druz- ‘lie, deceive’.
hit: hit: [11] Hit is one of those words, now so common that we assume it has always been around, that is in fact a comparative latecomer to the English language, and one, what is more, whose ancestry is not at all clear. The standard Old English verb for ‘strike’ was slēan (modern English slay), but at the end of the Old English period hit suddenly appeared. It was borrowed from Old Norse hitta, a verb of unknown origin which meant not ‘strike’ but ‘come upon, find’ (as Swedish hitta still does). This sense was carried over into English (and still survives in hit upon), and it was not until the 13th century that the meaning ‘strike’ began to appear.
lounge: lounge: [16] It is the verb lounge (originally ‘move indolently’) which came first; its application as a noun to a ‘room where one can sit and take one’s ease’ came later, in the 18th century. It is not at all clear where the word came from, but some have linked it with the long obsolete noun lungis, which denoted both a ‘gangling foolish fellow’ and ‘someone who is slow or dilatory at doing things’. This was borrowed in the 16th century from French longis, which was apparently a generic application of Longīnus, the name of the Roman centurion who pierced Christ’s side with a spear as he was hanging on the cross.
luck: luck: [15] The antecedents of luck are not at all clear. Its likeliest source is Low German luk. This is clearly a close relative of modern Dutch geluk, whose prefix ge- is found also in Middle High German gelücke (source of modern German glück ‘good fortune, happiness’). But where the element lu(c)k came from is not known.
nevertheless (adv.): c. 1300, neuer þe lesse; as one word from early 14c., neuerþeles. The sense of never here is "not at all; none the," as in unmerged expressions such as never the wiser, never the worse. Middle English also had neverthelater in same sense.
nil (n.): "nothing," 1833, from Latin nil, contraction of nihil, nihilum "nothing, not at all; in vain," from ne- "not" (see un-) + hilum "small thing, trifle," of unknown origin.
no: "negative reply," early 13c., from Old English na (adv.) "no, never, not at all," from ne "not, no" + a "ever." First element from Proto-Germanic *ne (cognates: Old Norse, Old Frisian, Old High German ne, Gothic ni "not"), from PIE root *ne "no, not" (see un-). Second element from PIE *aiw- "vital force, life, long life, eternity" (see aye (adv.)).

As an adjective meaning "not any" (c. 1200) it is reduced from Old English nan (see none), the final -n omitted first before consonants and then altogether. As a noun from c. 1300. Phrase no can do "it is not possible" is attested from 1827, a locution of English-speaking Chinese noted 19c. in China, Australia and West Coast of U.S.
We repeated our advice again and again, but got no answer but a loud horse-laugh, and their national maxim of No can do: Europe fashion no do in China. ["Reminiscences of a Voyage to and from China," in "Paxton's Horticultural Register," London, 1836]
Construction no X, no Y attested from 1530s (in no peny no pardon). No problem as an interjection of assurance first attested 1963. No way as an expression meaning "it can't be done" is attested by 1968 (no way "by no means" is from c. 1400).
nohow (adv.): "not at all," 1775, American English, from no + how, on model of nowhere.
non-: prefix meaning "not, lack of," or "sham," 14c., from Anglo-French noun-, from Old French non-, from Latin non "not, by no means, not at all, not a," from Old Latin noenum "not one" (*ne oinom, from PIE *ne "not" + *oi-no-; see one). In some cases perhaps from Middle English non "not" (adj.), from Old English nan (see not).
nowhere (adv.): Old English nahwær "nowhere, not at all;" see no + where. Similar constructions were attempted with nowhat (1520s) and nowhen (1764), but they failed to take hold and remain nonce words.