quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- gaze
- gaze: [14] Gaze is probably of Scandinavian origin, although its precise antecedents have never been pinned down. Swedish has a dialect verb gasa ‘gape, stare’, which may be related, and it could be connected in some way with Old Norse gá ‘heed’, source of a Middle English verb gaw ‘gape, stare’, which may lie behind modern English gawk [18].
These suggestions fit semantically, for the earliest use of gaze in English was in the sense ‘gawp, stare’; only gradually was this over-taken by the politer ‘look intently’. Gazebo [18] probably originated as a ‘humorous’ quasi-Latin coinage based on gaze, using the Latin first person singular future suffix -ēbō, as if gazebo meant ‘I shall gaze’.
=> gazebo - pin
- pin: [OE] Latin pinna (a probable relative of English fin) meant ‘wing, feather, pointed peak’. Amongst its derivatives were the diminutive pinnāculum, which has given English pinnacle [14] and, via French, panache [16] (which originally meant ‘plume of feathers’), pinnātus ‘feathered, winged’, source of English pinnate [18], and Vulgar Latin *pinniō, from which English gets pinion ‘wing’ [15]. Pinna itself was borrowed into Old English as pinn, and it was used for ‘peg’ (a sense which survives in various technical contexts); the application to a ‘small thin metal fastener’ did not emerge until the 14th century.
A pinafore [18] is etymologically a garment that is ‘pinned afore’, that is, ‘pinned to the front of a dress to protect it’.
=> fin, panache, pinafore, pinion, pinnacle - Dutch (adj.)
- late 14c., used first of Germans generally, after c. 1600 of Hollanders, from Middle Dutch duutsch, from Old High German duit-isc, corresponding to Old English þeodisc "belonging to the people," used especially of the common language of Germanic people, from þeod "people, race, nation," from Proto-Germanic *theudo "popular, national" (see Teutonic), from PIE root *teuta- "people" (cognates: Old Irish tuoth "people," Old Lithuanian tauta "people," Old Prussian tauto "country," Oscan touto "community").
As a language name, first recorded as Latin theodice, 786 C.E. in correspondence between Charlemagne's court and the Pope, in reference to a synodical conference in Mercia; thus it refers to Old English. First reference to the German language (as opposed to a Germanic one) is two years later. The sense was extended from the language to the people who spoke it (in German, Diutisklant, ancestor of Deutschland, was in use by 13c.).
Sense narrowed to "of the Netherlands" in 17c., after they became a united, independent state and the focus of English attention and rivalry. In Holland, Duits (formerly duitsch) is used of the people of Germany. The Middle English sense survives in Pennsylvania Dutch, name of the people who immigrated from the Rhineland and Switzerland.
Since c. 1600, Dutch (adj.) has been a "pejorative label pinned by English speakers on almost anything they regard as inferior, irregular, or contrary to 'normal' (i.e., their own) practice" [Rawson]. E.g. Dutch treat (1887), Dutch uncle (1838), etc. -- probably exceeded in such usage only by Indian and Irish -- reflecting first British commercial and military rivalry and later heavy German immigration to U.S.
The Dutch themselves spoke English well enough to understand the unsavory connotations of the label and in 1934 Dutch officials were ordered by their government to stop using the term Dutch. Instead, they were to rewrite their sentences so as to employ the official The Netherlands. [Rawson]
Dutch oven is from 1769; OED lists it among the words describing things from Holland, but perhaps it is here used in the slighting sense. Dutch elm disease (1927) so called because it was first discovered in Holland (caused by fungus Ceratocystis ulmi). - pin (v.)
- mid-14c., "to affix with a pin," from pin (n.). Figurative use from 1570s. Related: Pinned; pinning. Sense of "to hold someone or something down so he or it cannot escape" is attested from 1740. In U.S., as a reference to the bestowal of a fraternity pin on a female student as an indication of a relationship, it is attested by 1938. Phrase pin down "define" is from 1951.
- pin-up (adj.)
- 1670s, from pin (v.) + up (adv.). From 1940, in reference to pictures of "winsome young ladies in daring undress" ("Life," May 6, 1940) such as soldiers pinned up on their dugout walls, etc. The thing itself is older than the name. The noun in this sense is recorded from 1943.
- pinafore (n.)
- "sleeveless apron worn by children," 1782, from pin (v.) + afore "on the front." So called because it was originally pinned to a dress front.
- Three Rs (n.)
- 1824; said to have been given as a toast by Sir William Curtis (1752-1829), a beloved lord mayor of London in the 1820s, who seems to have been a figure of fun to whom many mangled phrases were attributed. Among the toasts he is alleged to have given at public dinners were "The Female Ladies of London;" "The three C's--Cox, King, and Curtis;" and "The three R's--Reading, Writing, and Rithmetic."
It has been very much the fashion amongst a class of persons to attribute to Sir W. C. ... a vulgarity and ignorance of speech which are by no means consistent with his character and conduct. The worthy and hospitable baronet has a rapid mode of speech, but it is always correct ; and although some eccentricities are mixed up in his composition, he is highly honourable, and has been a very useful member of society, particularly to his London constituents. ["The Mirror," Jan. 29, 1825]
After listing some examples, the article continues:
It is, however, very certain, that at a city festival some years ago, having indulged very freely, he fell asleep, when some wag, choosing to consider him dead, wrote his epitaph, which was found next morning pinned to the baronet's dress coat:--
"Here lies the great Curtis,
Of London, Lord May'r:
He's left this here world,
And gone to that there."
- underpin (v.)
- "support or prop," 1520s (figurative); 1530s (literal), from under + pin (v.). Related: Underpinned; underpinning.