英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

accomplice [accomplice 词源字典]: accomplice: [15] This word was borrowed into English (from French) as complice (and complice stayed in common usage until late in the 19th century). It comes from Latin complex, which is related to English complicated, and originally meant simply ‘an associate’, without any pejorative associations. The form accomplice first appears on the scene in the late 15th century (the first record of it is in William Caxton’s Charles the Great), and it probably arose through a misanalysis of complice preceded by the indefinite article (a complice) as acomplice. It may also have been influenced by accomplish or accompany.
=> complicated[accomplice etymology, accomplice origin, 英语词源]
accomplish: accomplish: see complete
Adam's apple: Adam's apple: [18] The original apple in question was the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which the serpent in the Garden of Eden tricked Eve into eating, and which she in turn persuaded Adam to eat. It was traditionally believed that a piece of it stuck in Adam’s throat, and so it became an appropriate and convenient metaphor for the thyroid cartilage of the larynx, which protrudes noticeably in men.
aeroplane: aeroplane: [19] The prefix aero- comes ultimately from Greek āér ‘air’, but many of the terms containing it (such as aeronaut and aerostat) reached English via French. This was the case, too, with aeroplane, in the sense of ‘heavier-than-air flying machine’. The word was first used in English in 1873 (30 years before the Wright brothers’ first flight), by D S Brown in the Annual Report of the Aeronautical Society – he refers vaguely to an aeroplane invented by ‘a Frenchman’.

The abbreviated form plane followed around 1908. (An earlier, and exclusively English, use of the word aeroplane was in the sense ‘aerofoil, wing’; this was coined in the 1860s, but did not long survive the introduction of the ‘aircraft’ sense.) Aeroplane is restricted in use mainly to British English (and even there now has a distinctly old-fashioned air). The preferred term in American English is airplane, a refashioning of aeroplane along more ‘English’ lines which is first recorded from 1907.
=> air
aplomb: aplomb: [18] Originally, aplomb meant literally ‘quality of being perpendicular’. It was borrowed from French, where it was a lexicalization of the phrase à plomb ‘according to the plumb line’ (plomb came from Latin plumbum ‘lead’, also the ultimate source of English plumb, plumber, plumbago, and plummet). The notion of ‘uprightness’ gave rise in the 19th century to the metaphorical sense ‘composure’.
=> plumb, plumber, plummet
apoplexy: apoplexy: [14] The Greek verb apopléssein meant ‘incapacitate by means of a stroke’. It was formed from the prefix apo- ‘away, off’ (here used as an intensive) and the verb pléssein ‘hit’ (source of English plectrum [17] and related to English complain, plangent, plankton, and plague). The derived noun, apoplēxíā, entered English via Latin and Old French.
=> complain, plague, plangent, plankton, plectrum
applaud: applaud: [15] English probably acquired this word directly from Latin applaudere, which meant literally ‘clap at’. It was a compound formed from the prefix ad- ‘to’ and the verb plaudere ‘clap’, source also of plaudit [17] and of explode, whose original sense seems to have been ‘drive from the stage by clapping’ (or, presumably, by any other signals of disapproval favoured by Roman audiences).
=> explode, plaudit
apple: apple: [OE] Words related to apple are found all over Europe; not just in Germanic languages (German apfel, Dutch appel, Swedish äpple), but also in Balto-Slavonic (Lithuanian óbuolas, Polish jabtko), and Celtic (Irish ubhall, Welsh afal) languages. The Old English version was æppel, which developed to modern English apple.

Apparently from earliest times the word was applied not just to the fruit we now know as the apple, but to any fruit in general. For example, John de Trevisa, in his translation of De proprietatibus rerum 1398 wrote ‘All manner apples that is, “fruit” that are enclosed in a hard skin, rind, or shell, are called Nuces nuts’. The term earth-apple has been applied to several vegetables, including the cucumber and the potato (compare French pomme de terre), and pineapple (which originally meant ‘pine cone’, with particular reference to the edible pine nuts) was applied to the tropical fruit in the 17th century, because of its supposed resemblance to a pine cone.
apple-pie bed: apple-pie bed: see ply
apply: apply: see ply
chaplain: chaplain: see chapel
complacent: complacent: see complaisant
complain: complain: [14] Complain goes back to the Latin in verb plangere, source also of English plangent. This was formed on a prehistoric base *plak- (from which we also get plankton), and it originally meant ‘hit’. Its meaning developed metaphorically through ‘beat one’s breast’ to ‘lament’, and in medieval Latin it was combined with the intensive prefix com- to produce complangere. When it entered English via Old French complaindre it still meant ‘lament’, and although this sense had died out by about 1700, traces of it remain in ‘complain of’ a particular illness. Complaint [14] came from Old French complainte.
=> plangent, plankton
complaisant: complaisant: [17] Complaisant and complacent [17] are virtual doublets. Both come from Latin complacēre ‘please greatly’ (a compound verb formed from placēre, source of English please), but they reached English along different routes. Complaisant came via French, from complaisant, the present participle of complaire ‘gratify’, but complacent was a direct borrowing from the Latin present participle. It originally meant simply ‘pleasant, delightful’, and did not take on its present derogatory connotations (at first expressed by the now obsolete complacential) until the mid 18th century.
=> complacent, please
complete: complete: [14] Complete first reached English as an adjective, either via Old French complet or direct from Latin complētus. This was the past participle of complēre ‘fill up, finish’, a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix com- and plēre ‘fill’, a word related to Latin plēnus ‘full’ (whence plenary, plenitude, plenty, etc) and indeed to English full.

The verb complēre itself came into Old French as the now obsolete complir (complete as a verb is a later formation from the adjective), and was prefixed with a- to produce accomplir. From its stem accompliss- English got accomplish [14].
=> accomplish, compliment, comply, expletive, plenary, plenty
compliant: compliant: see comply
complicate: complicate: see ply
compliment: compliment: [17] Compliment and complement, so often confused, are in effect doublets. They come from the same ultimate source, Latin complēmentum, a noun derived from complēre ‘fill up, finish’ (source of English complete and accomplish). English borrowed complement direct from Latin in the 14th century in the sense ‘fulfilment, accomplishment’, and by the 16th century this had developed the more specific metaphorical meaning ‘fulfilment of the obligation of politeness’ – hence ‘polite words of praise’.

But then in the 17th century came competition in the form of compliment, also meaning ‘polite words of praise’. This also came from Latin complēmentum, but along a circuitous route via Vulgar Latin *complimentum, Spanish cumplimiento, and French compliment. It gradually took over from complement in this ‘flattering’ sense, while complement went on to develop its leading current meaning, ‘counterpart’, in the 19th century.
=> accomplish, complement, complete, comply, expletive, plenary, plenty
comply: comply: [17] Like accomplish, complete, complement, and compliment, comply comes from Latin complēre ‘fill up, finish’. It was originally acquired in the 14th century, via Old French complire, but does not seem to have survived, and the sudden explosion in its use in the early 17th century represents a new borrowing, from Italian complire. Italian had the word from Spanish cumplir, in which the meaning ‘be courteous’ had developed. This passed into English, and though long defunct, seems to have been the basis of the modern English sense ‘be amenable or obedient’. Compliant [17] is an English development.
=> complete, compliant, compliment
contemplate: contemplate: [16] Etymologically, to contemplate something is to observe it in a ‘temple’. The word comes from the past participle of Latin contemplārī, a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix com- and templum. This word, source of course of English temple, originally signified a space marked out by augurs (priests in ancient Rome who interpreted omens) for making observations. Hence contemplārī originally meant ‘observe omens carefully’, but its application soon became more general.
=> temple
couple: couple: [13] The notion underlying couple is of ‘joining’. The noun came into English via Old French from Latin cōpula ‘tie, connection’. This was a compound noun formed from the prefix com- ‘together’ and the verb apere ‘fasten’ (source of English apt, adapt, adept, and inept). Derived from it was the verb cōpulāre, source of English copulate [17].
=> adapt, adept, apt, copulate, inept
cripple: cripple: [OE] The etymological sense of cripple appears to be ‘someone who creeps along’, for it probably goes back ultimately to the same Indo- European base, *greub-, as creep. The word is widespread in the Germanic languages: German has kruppel, Dutch kreupel, and Norwegian krypel.
=> creep
dapple: dapple: [14] Dapple is a puzzling word. It is presumably derived from or linked in some way to its contemporary dapple-grey (although this has never been proved), which has formal and semantic links with several colour terms in other Germanic languages (such as Old Norse apalgrár, German apfelgrau, and Dutch appelgrauw) that are surely too strong to be coincidental.

They all mean literally ‘applegrey’. Add to this such forms as French grispommelé, again literally ‘applegrey’, and Russian yablokakh ‘dappled’, a derivative of yábloko ‘apple’, and the inference becomes even more compelling – that dappled is related in some way as yet unexplained to apple. Many of the above terms were applied specifically to grey horses marked with round blotches, and so perhaps the word had its beginnings in a perceived resemblance in shape between such markings and apples.
deplete: deplete: see full
deplore: deplore: see explore
deploy: deploy: see display
dimple: dimple: [13] Dimple originally meant ‘pothole’, and was not applied to an ‘indentation in the flesh’ until the 14th century. There is no surviving record of the word in Old English, but it probably existed, as *dympel; Old High German had the cognate tumphilo, ancestor of modern German tümpel ‘pool, puddle’. Both go back to a Germanic *dump-, which may be a nasalized version of *d(e)up-, source of English deep and dip.
=> deep, dip
diploma: diploma: [17] Etymologically, a diploma is a ‘folded paper’. It comes via Latin diplōma from Greek díplōma; this was a derivative of the verb diploun ‘fold’, which in turn came from diplous ‘double’ (a distant cousin of English double). Since official letters tended to be folded over, díplōma eventually came to mean ‘document, especially one issued by the government’ – the sense in which the word was acquired by English.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the use of the derived Latin adjective diplōmaticus ‘relating to official documents’ with specific reference to the field of international relations led eventually to its French descendant, diplomatique, coming to mean ‘relating to international relations’. English acquired the word as diplomatic in the 18th century.
=> double
discipline: discipline: [13] The Latin word for ‘learner’ was discipulus, a derivative of the verb discere ‘learn’ (which was related to docēre ‘teach’, source of English doctor, doctrine, and document). English acquired the word in Anglo- Saxon times, as discipul, and it was subsequently reformulated as disciple on the model of Old French deciple. Derived from discipulus was the noun disciplīna ‘instruction, knowledge’. Its meaning developed gradually into ‘maintenance of order (necessary for giving instruction)’, the sense in which the word first entered English (via Old French discipline).
=> disciple, doctor, doctrine, document
display: display: [14] Display originally meant ‘unfold’, and it is related not to modern English play but to ply. It comes via Old French despleier (whose modern French descendant, déployer, is the source of English deploy [18]) from Latin displicāre. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix dis- ‘un-’ and plicāre ‘fold’ (source of or related to English accomplish, complicated, ply, and simple), and in classical Latin seems only to have had the metaphorical meaning ‘scatter’.

In medieval Latin, however, it returned to its underlying literal sense ‘unfold’, which was originally retained in English, particularly with reference to sails or flags. The notion of ‘spreading out’ is retained in splay, which was formed by lopping off the first syllable of display in the 14th century.
=> accomplish, complicate, deploy, ply, simple
duple: duple: see double
duplicate: duplicate: [15] Like its close relative double, duplicate comes ultimately from Latin duplus ‘two-fold’, a compound adjective based on Latin duo ‘two’ and an Indo-European element *plwhich denoted ‘folding’ (it is present also in English fold and ply). English acquired this in the 16th century, and its synonym duplex (based on the extended stem *plic-) in the 19th century. In Latin, duplus formed the basis of a verb duplicāre ‘make twofold, double’, from whose past participle English gets duplicate, while duplex has given us duplicity [15].
=> double, duplicity, fold, ply, two
employ: employ: [15] Essentially, employ is the same word as imply [14] and implicate [16]. All three come ultimately from Latin implicāre ‘enfold, involve’, a compound verb formed from the prefix in- ‘in’ and plicāre ‘fold’ (source of English ply and related to English fold). This passed into Old French as emplier, which in turn was transmitted into English as imply; this originally retained the literal sense ‘enfold’, and it was only gradually that the metaphorical ‘involve as a necessary condition’ developed.

However, Old French emplier had a variant empleier, later emploier, which took a slightly different semantic route – from simply ‘involve’ to ‘involve in or apply to a particular purpose’. This was the sense in which English acquired it as employ.
=> fold, implicate, imply, ply
esplanade: esplanade: [17] Essentially, esplanade is the same word as explain, but whereas explain has lost its underlying literal meaning, esplanade has retained at least a memory of it. It comes ultimately from Latin explānāre, which meant ‘flatten out’, and so esplanade (acquired via French from the Spanish past participle esplanada) was originally simply a ‘large level area’. Its application to the ‘promenade’ at seaside towns is a comparatively recent development.
=> explain
example: example: [14] Etymologically, an example is something that has been ‘taken out’, so that it can be considered separately. The word comes via Old French example from Latin exemplum ‘example’, a derivative of eximere ‘take out’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and emere ‘take, buy’ (source of English peremptory, pre-empt, premium, and prompt), and also yielded English exempt [14]. (An earlier Old French version of the word, essample, was borrowed into English in the 13th century as asample, which was the ancestor of modern English sample.)
=> exempt, peremptory, premium, prompt, sample
explain: explain: [15] To explain a matter is literally to ‘make it plain’. The word comes from Latin explānāre, a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix ex- and the adjective plānus ‘flat’ (source of English plain). This originally meant ‘flatten out, make smooth’, but the metaphorical sense ‘make clear’ soon took over, and accompanied the verb into English (although in the 16th and 17th centuries a few scholars attempted to revive the literal sense: ‘He must calm and explain his forehead’, Sir Thomas Chalenor, translation of Desiderus Erasmus’ Praise of Folly 1549).
=> esplanade, plain
expletive: expletive: [17] Originally, an expletive word was simply one used to ‘fill up’ a line of verse, to complete its metrical pattern (expletive comes from Latin explētus, the past participle of explēre ‘fill out’, a compound formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and plēre ‘fill’, source of English complete and related to English fill).

Hence the term came to be used for a redundant word, not contributing anything to the meaning of the sentence: “The Key my loose, powerless fingers forsook”, a lame and expletive way of saying “I dropt the key”, Robert Southey 1804. The first recorded example of its euphemistic application as a noun to ‘profanities’ is by Sir Walter Scott in Guy Mannering 1815: ‘retaining only such of their expletives as are least offensive’.
=> complete, full
explicit: explicit: [17] Something that is explicit has literally been ‘unfolded’. Like the earlier borrowing explicate [16], the word comes from the past participle of Latin explicāre, a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘un-’ and plicāre ‘fold’ (source of English ply and related to English fold). At first, in the 16th and 17th centuries, English retained the literal sense of the original, but gradually it dropped out in favour of the metaphorical ‘make clear, distinct, and open’ (already present in Latin).
=> exploit, fold, ply
explode: explode: [16] The use of explode to mean ‘burst with destructive force’ is a comparatively recent, late 19th-century development. The Latin verb explōdere, from which it comes, signified something quite different – ‘drive off the stage with hisses and boos’ (it was a compound formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and plaudere ‘clap’, source of English applaud and plaudits).

From this developed the figurative sense ‘reject, disapprove’, which was how the word was used when it was first taken over into English: ‘Not that I wholly explode Astrology; I believe there is something in it’, Thomas Tryon, Miscellanea 1696 (the modern notion of ‘exploding a theory’ is descended from this usage). In the 17th century, however, the Latin verb’s original sense was reintroduced, and it survived into the 19th century: ‘In the playhouse when he doth wrong, no critic is so apt to hiss and explode him’, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones 1749.

Towards the end of the 17th century we find the first traces of a metaphorical use that combines the notion of ‘driving out, expelling’ with ‘loud noise’ (‘the effects of Lightning, exploded from the Clouds’, Robert Plot, Natural History of Staffordshire 1679), but it was not to be for more than a century that the meaning element ‘drive out’ was replaced by the ‘burst, shatter’ of present-day English explode (Dr Johnson makes no mention of it in his Dictionary 1755, for example) Today the notion of ‘bursting violently’ is primary, that of ‘loud noise’ probably secondary, although still present.
=> applause, plaudits
exploit: exploit: [14] Latin explicāre (source of English explicate and explicit) meant ‘unfold’. A Vulgar Latin descendant of its past participle was *explictum ‘something unfolded’, which passed into Old French as exploit or esplait. In the process, the original sense of ‘unfolding’ had developed through ‘bringing out, development’ and ‘advantage, success’ to ‘achievement’.

In the case of the English noun, it is the latter meaning which has survived, and in fact originally the verb too denoted ‘achieve, accomplish’. This seems to have died out in the 18th century, however, and when the verb reappears in the 19th century it is closer to the earlier ‘develop’ in meaning, particularly as applied to ‘getting the most out of’ natural resources. The modern derogatory sense ‘use for one’s own selfish ends’ emerged from this.
=> explicit, fold, ply
explore: explore: [16] Etymologically, to explore is to look for something by shouting. The word comes ultimately from Latin explorare ‘investigate’, which was based on the verb plorare ‘wail, cry out’ (source also of English deplore [16] and implore [16]), and it is thought that the word’s original scenario may have been hunters shouting to flush out (Latin ex- ‘out’) their quarry.
=> deplore, implore
implacable: implacable: see please
implement: implement: [15] The idea underlying implement is of ‘filling up’. It comes ultimately from Latin implēre, a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix in- and plēre ‘fill’ (as in English complete). This originally meant ‘fill up’, and hence ‘fulfil’, but in post-classical times, under the influence of implicāre (source of English employ) it came to mean ‘use, employ’, and so the derived plural noun implēmenta denoted ‘things used, equipment’.

It was originally used in the plural in English too, and it was not until the 16th century that the singular ‘tool’ emerged. The original Latin sense ‘fulfil’ is preserved much more closely in the verb implement, which was an independent and considerably later introduction, first recorded in Scottish English in the 19th century. (From the same source come English complement and supplement.)
=> complement, complete, supplement
implicate: implicate: see employ
implore: implore: see explore
imply: imply: see employ
manciple: manciple: see emancipate
multiply: multiply: [13] Multiply is one of a large family of English words based on Latin multus ‘much’, a word of uncertain origin which may be related to Greek mála ‘very’ and Latin melior ‘better’. Multiply itself comes from the Latin derivative multiplicāre, formed with the element plic- ‘fold’ found also in complicated, explicit, etc, and therefore very closely parallel to the native English compound manifold.

Other members of the family include multiple [17], from late Latin multiplus (the -plus is a relative of the -plic- in multiplicāre); multitude [14], from Latin multitūdō ‘crowd’, formed with the abstract noun suffix -tūdō; and of course the host of words formed since the 16th century with the prefix multi-, including multifarious [17] (based on Latin -fārius ‘doing’), multilateral [17], multinational [20], multiracial [20], and multistorey [20].
=> fold
nonplus: nonplus: see plural
panoply: panoply: [17] Panoply originally meant a ‘full suit of armour’; the modern sense ‘impressive array’ is a metaphorical extension that did not emerge until the 19th century. The word comes via French from Greek panoplíā, a compound formed from the prefix pan- ‘all’ and hópla ‘arms, weapons’.