quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- pike



[pike 词源字典] - pike: English has two pikes now in common usage, which are probably ultimately the same word. Pike ‘spear’ [OE] goes back to an Old English pīc ‘pointed object’, which is closely related to English peak and pick ‘sharp implement’. It had various specific applications in Old and Middle English, now long defunct, including ‘pickaxe’, ‘spike’, ‘thorn’, ‘point of a shoe’, and ‘pitchfork’ (and pitchfork [13] itself was originally pickfork, a fork with ‘sharp points’; its current form, which emerged in the 16th century, is due to the association with ‘pitching’ or tossing hay on to a cart).
But the sense ‘weapon consisting of a long pole with a spike on top’ did not appear until the 16th century, partly inspired by the related Old French pique ‘pike’. Pike the fish [14] was probably also named with the descendant of Old English pīc, in allusion to its long pointed jaws (a similar inspiration can be seen in French brochet ‘pike’, a derivative of broche ‘spit’).
=> peak, pick, pitchfork[pike etymology, pike origin, 英语词源] - pitch (v.1)




- c. 1200, "to thrust in, fasten, settle," probably from an unrecorded Old English *piccean, related to prick (v.). The original past tense was pight. Sense of "set upright," as in pitch a tent (late 13c.), is from notion of "driving in" the pegs. Meaning to incline forward and downward" is from 1510s. Meaning "throw (a ball)" evolved late 14c. from that of "hit the mark." Musical sense is from 1670s. Of ships, "to plunge" in the waves, 1620s. To pitch in "work vigorously" is from 1847, perhaps from farm labor. Related: Pitched; pitching.
- queer (v.)




- "to spoil, ruin," 1812, from queer (adj.). Related: Queered; queering. Earlier it meant "to puzzle, ridicule, cheat" (1790). To queer the pitch (1846) is in reference to the patter of an itinerant tradesman or showman (see pitch (n.1)).
These wanderers, and those who are still seen occasionally in the back streets of the metropolis, are said to 'go a-pitching ;' the spot they select for their performance is their 'pitch,' and any interruption of their feats, such as an accident, or the interference of a policeman, is said to 'queer the pitch,'--in other words, to spoil it. [Thomas Frost, "Circus Life and Circus Celebrities," London, 1875]
- wind-up (n.)




- 1570s, "conclusion or final adjustment and settlement of some matter," from verbal phrase wind up (see wind (v.1)). Baseball pitching sense attested from 1906.