英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

alabaster (n.): translucent whitish kind of gypsum used for vases, ornaments, and busts, late 14c., from Old French alabastre (12c., Modern French albâtre), from Latin alabaster "colored rock used to make boxes and vessels for unguents," from Greek alabastros (earlier albatos) "vase for perfumes," perhaps from Egyptian 'a-labaste "vessel of the goddess Bast." Used figuratively for whiteness and smoothness from 1570s. "The spelling in 16-17th c. is almost always alablaster ..." [OED].
bronze (n.): 1721, "alloy of copper and tin," from French bronze, from Italian bronzo, from Medieval Latin bronzium. Perhaps cognate (via notion of color) with Venetian bronza "glowing coals," or German brunst "fire." Perhaps influenced by Latin Brundisium the Italian town of Brindisi (Pliny writes of aes Brundusinum). Perhaps ultimately from Persian birinj "copper."

In Middle English, the distinction between bronze (copper-tin alloy) and brass (copper-zinc alloy) was not clear, and both were called bras. A bronze medal was given to a third-place finisher since at least 1852. The archaeological Bronze Age (1865) falls between the Stone and Iron ages, and is a reference to the principal material for making weapons and ornaments.
caparison (n.): 1570s, "cloth spread over a saddle," also "personal dress and ornaments," from Middle French caparasson (15c., Modern French caparaçon), from Spanish caparazón, perhaps from augmentative of Old Provençal caparasso "a mantle with a hood," or Medieval Latin caparo, the name of a type of cape worn by women, literally "chaperon" (see chaperon). Past participle adjective caparisoned is attested from c. 1600, from a verb caparison (1590s), from French caparaçonner, from caparaçon.
chroma (n.): "quality or intensity of color," 1889, from Latinized form of Greek khroma "surface of the body, skin, color of the skin," also used generically for "color" and, in plural, "ornaments, embellishments," related to khros "surface of the body, skin," khrozein "to touch the surface of the body, to tinge, to color;" the root is explained as being somehow from PIE *ghreu- "to rub, grind" (see grit (n.)).
cosmos (n.): c. 1200 (but not popular until 1848, as a translation of Humboldt's Kosmos), from Latinized form of Greek kosmos "order, good order, orderly arrangement," a word with several main senses rooted in those notions: The verb kosmein meant generally "to dispose, prepare," but especially "to order and arrange (troops for battle), to set (an army) in array;" also "to establish (a government or regime);" "to deck, adorn, equip, dress" (especially of women). Thus kosmos had an important secondary sense of "ornaments of a woman's dress, decoration" (compare kosmokomes "dressing the hair") as well as "the universe, the world."

Pythagoras is said to have been the first to apply this word to "the universe," perhaps originally meaning "the starry firmament," but later it was extended to the whole physical world, including the earth. For specific reference to "the world of people," the classical phrase was he oikoumene (ge) "the inhabited (earth)." Septuagint uses both kosmos and oikoumene. Kosmos also was used in Christian religious writing with a sense of "worldly life, this world (as opposed to the afterlife)," but the more frequent word for this was aion, literally "lifetime, age."
Deely-bobber (n.): "headband with springs carrying ornaments," 1982 trademark name held by Ace Novelty Company. Earlier it had been a patent name for a type of building blocks, manufactured 1969-1973.
defenestration (n.): 1620, "the action of throwing out of a window," from Latin fenestra "window" (see fenestration). A word invented for one incident: the "Defenestration of Prague," May 21, 1618, when two Catholic deputies to the Bohemian national assembly and a secretary were tossed out the window (into a moat) of the castle of Hradshin by Protestant radicals. It marked the start of the Thirty Years War. Some linguists link fenestra with Greek verb phainein "to show;" others see in it an Etruscan borrowing, based on the suffix -(s)tra, as in Latin loan-words aplustre "the carved stern of a ship with its ornaments," genista "the plant broom," lanista "trainer of gladiators." Related: Defenestrate (1915); defenestrated (1620).
jewelry (n.): late 14c., juelrye "precious ornaments, jewel work," from Old French juelerye, from jouel (see jewel). In modern use it can be analyzed as jewel + -ery or jeweler + -y (1). Also jewellery.
The longer is the commercial & popular form, the shorter the rhetorical & poetic. [Fowler]
marcasite (n.): crystalized pyrite, early 15c., from Medieval Latin marchasita, of obscure origin, perhaps via Spanish, probably from Arabic, though OED doubts this. Perhaps ultimately from Persian marquashisha [Klein]. "This name has been used for a number of substances but mainly for iron pyrites and especially for the crystalline forms used in the 18th century for ornaments." [Flood]
mundane (adj.): mid-15c., "of this world," from Old French mondain "of this world, worldly, earthly, secular;" also "pure, clean; noble, generous" (12c.), from Late Latin mundanus "belonging to the world" (as distinct from the Church), in classical Latin "a citizen of the world, cosmopolite," from mundus "universe, world," literally "clean, elegant"; used as a translation of Greek kosmos (see cosmos) in its Pythagorean sense of "the physical universe" (the original sense of the Greek word was "orderly arrangement"). Latin mundus also was used of a woman's "ornaments, dress," and is related to the adjective mundus "clean, elegant" (used of women's dress, etc.). Related: Mundanely. The mundane era was the chronology that began with the supposed epoch of the Creation (famously reckoned as 4004 B.C.E.).
Nez Perce: native people of Idaho and vicinity, and their language, from French Nez Percé, literally "pierced nose." In reference to an early custom of the people of wearing shell ornaments in pierced septums.
prose (n.): c. 1300, "story, narration," from Old French prose (13c.), from Latin prosa oratio "straightforward or direct speech" (without the ornaments of verse), from prosa, fem. of prosus, earlier prorsus "straightforward, direct," from Old Latin provorsus "(moving) straight ahead," from pro- "forward" (see pro-) + vorsus "turned," past participle of vertere "to turn" (see verse).
"Good prose, to say nothing of the original thoughts it conveys, may be infinitely varied in modulation. It is only an extension of metres, an amplification of harmonies, of which even the best and most varied poetry admits but few." [Walter Savage Landor, "Imaginary Conversations"]
Meaning "prose writing; non-poetry" is from mid-14c. The sense of "dull or commonplace expression" is from 1680s, out of earlier sense "plain expression" (1560s). Those who lament the want of an English agent noun to correspond to poet might try prosaist (1776), proser (1620s), or Frenchified prosateur (1880), though the first two in their day also acquired in English the secondary sense "dull writer."
rhinestone (n.): colorless imitation stone of paste or leaded glass, 1879, a loan-translation of French caillou du Rhin "Rhine pebble," so called because they were made near Strasburg, on the River Rhine, and invented there late 17c. Extensively worn later 18c.
Rhinestone jewelry, a reproduction of the ornaments of the Louis XV. period, is all the rage in Paris. The Rhinestones are as brilliant as diamonds, and being set in silver, will stand any amount of wear or of cleaning. ["The American Stationer," March 20, 1879]
papier mâché: "A malleable mixture of paper and glue, or paper, flour, and water, that becomes hard when dry, used to make boxes, trays, or ornaments", French, literally 'chewed paper'.