英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

impeach [impeach 词源字典]: impeach: [14] Impeach has nothing to do with peaches. In fact it is closely related to impede, and indeed originally meant ‘impede’ in English. Both verbs comes ultimately from Latin pēs ‘foot’. Impede [17] goes back to Latin impedīre, a compound verb based on pēs which originally meant literally ‘tie the feet together’. Impeach, on the other hand, comes via Old French empecher (ancestor of modern French empêcher) from late Latin impedicāre ‘fetter, entangle, ensnare’, a compound verb based on the noun pedica ‘fetter’, which itself came from the same base as pēs.

Its original meaning ‘impede, prevent’ survived in English until the late 17th century (‘a Ditch of sufficient breadth, and depth, to impeach the Assaults of an Enemy’, William Leybourn. Cursus Mathematicus 1690). Its use for ‘charge, accuse’ arose in the 14th century from an erroneous association with Latin impetere ‘attack, accuse’ (source of English impetuous).
=> foot, impede, pedal[impeach etymology, impeach origin, 英语词源]
inoculate: inoculate: [15] Far-fetched as the connection may seem, inoculate actually comes ultimately from Latin oculus ‘eye’ (source of English ocular [16] and oculist [17]). By metaphorical extension oculus was applied to the ‘bud’ of a plant (much like the eye of a potato in English), and the verb inoculāre was coined to denote the grafting on of a bud or other plan part.

That was how it was used when originally adopted into English (‘Peaches have their Season at May Kalends them to inoculate’, Palladius on Husbandry 1440), and the modern sense ‘introduce antigens into the body’ did not emerge before the early 18th century, based on the notion of ‘engrafting’ or ‘implanting’ an immunising virus into a person. It was originally used with reference to smallpox.
=> eye, ferocious, ocular
apricot (n.): 1550s, abrecock, from Catalan abercoc, related to Portuguese albricoque, from Arabic al-birquq, through Byzantine Greek berikokkia from Latin (malum) praecoquum "early-ripening (fruit)" (see precocious). Form assimilated to French abricot.
Latin praecoquis early-ripe, can probably be attributed to the fact that the fruit was considered a variety of peach that ripened sooner than other peaches .... [Barnhart]
The older Latin name for it was prunum Armeniacum or malum Armeniacum, in reference to supposed origin in Armenia. As a color name, first attested 1906.
peach (n.): c. 1400 (late 12c. as a surname), from Old French pesche "peach, peach tree" (Old North French peske, Modern French pêche), and directly from Medieval Latin pesca, from Late Latin pessica, variant of persica "peach, peach tree," from Latin malum Persicum, literally "Persian apple," translating Greek Persikon malon, from Persis "Persia" (see Persian).

In ancient Greek Persikos could mean "Persian" or "the peach." The tree is native to China, but reached Europe via Persia. By 1663 William Penn observed peaches in cultivation on American plantations. Meaning "attractive woman" is attested from 1754; that of "good person" is from 1904. Peaches and cream in reference to a type of complexion is from 1901. Peach blossom as a color is from 1702. Georgia has been the Peach State since 1939.
peach Melba: "A dessert of ice cream and peaches with Melba sauce", Named after Dame Nellie Melba (see Melba, Dame Nellie).
amygdalin: "A bitter crystalline compound found in bitter almonds and the stones of peaches, apricots, and other fruit", Mid 19th century: from Latin amygdala 'almond' + -in¹.