英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

honest: honest: [13] Honest comes via Old French honeste from Latin honestus, a derivative of honōs, from which English gets honour. The new Latin noun formed from honestus was *honestitās, literally ‘honestness’, recorded only in the later contracted form honestās. From it English acquired honesty [14], whose application to plants of the genus Lunaria was inspired by their nearly transparent seed-pods.
=> honour
hydrogen: hydrogen: [18] Greek húdōr ‘water’ (a distant relative of English water) has been a prolific source of English vocabulary. Amongst its contributions are hydrangea [18] (literally ‘water-vessel’, so named from the cuplike shape of its seedpods), hydrant [19], hydrate [18], hydraulic [17] (literally ‘of a water-pipe’), hydrofoil [20], and hydroponics [20] (literally ‘water-culture’). Hydrogen itself means literally ‘generating water’, and was coined in French as hydrogène in the late 1780s for hydrogen’s property of forming water when oxidized. It is first recorded in English in 1791.
=> water
abdomen (n.): 1540s, "belly fat," from Latin abdomen "belly," which is of unknown origin, perhaps from abdere "conceal," with a sense of "concealment of the viscera," or else "what is concealed" by proper dress. De Vaan, however, finds this derivation "unfounded." Purely anatomical sense is from 1610s. Zoological sense of "posterior division of the bodies of arthropods" first recorded 1788.
arachnid (n.): "a spider," 1869, from French arachnide (1806) or Modern Latin Arachnida, introduced as name for this class of arthropods 1815 by French biologist Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet de Lamarck (1744-1829), from Greek arakhne (fem.) "spider; spider's web," which probably is cognate with Latin aranea "spider, spider's web" (borrowed in Old English as renge "spider"), from aracsna. The Latin word could be a Greek borrowing or both could be from a common root. An earlier noun form was arachnidian (1828).
automatic (adj.): "self-acting, moving or acting on its own," 1812, from Greek automatos, used of the gates of Olympus and the tripods of Hephaestus (also "without apparent cause, by accident"), from autos "self" (see auto-) + matos "thinking, animated" (see automaton). Of involuntary animal or human actions, from 1748, first used in this sense by English physician and philosopher David Hartley (1705-1757). In reference to a type of firearm, from 1877; specifically of machinery that imitates human-directed action from 1940.
educrat (n.): 1968, usually pejorative; first element from education, second from bureaucrat. Said to have been coined by Claude R. Kirk Jr. (1926-2011), governor of Florida 1967-71.
While political leaders and corporate CEOs, focusing as usual on the quarterly return, call for "workers for the new economy," their educational reforms are producing just that: students with a grab-bag of minor skills and competencies and minds that are sadly uneventful, incapable of genuine intellectual achievement and lacking any sense of continuity with the historical and cultural traditions of our society. Their world is small, bleak, and limited; their world will become ours. [David Solway, "The Turtle Hypodermic of Sickenpods," Quebec, 2000]
geranium (n.): 1540s, from Latin geranium, from Greek geranion, the plant name, diminutive of geranos "crane" (cognate with Latin grus; see crane (n.)). So called from shape resemblance of seed pods to cranes' bills; the native name in English also was cranebill. As a color name from 1842.
hull (n.2): "body of a ship," 1550s, perhaps from hull (n.1) on fancied resemblance of ship keels to open peapods (compare Latin carina "keel of a ship," originally "shell of a nut;" Greek phaselus "light passenger ship, yacht," literally "bean pod;" French coque "hull of a ship; shell of a walnut or egg"). Alternative etymology is from Middle English hoole "ship's keel" (mid-15c.), from the same source as hold (n.).
hydrangea (n.): 1753, coined in Modern Latin by Linnæus as compound of Greek hydr-, stem of hydor "water" (see water (n.1)) + angeion "vessel, capsule" (see angio-); so called from the shrub's cup-shaped seed pods.
locust (n.2): North American tree, 1630s, originally "carob tree" (1610s), whose fruit supposedly resembled the insect (see locust (n.1)). Greek akris "locust" often was applied in the Levant to carob pods. Soon applied in English to other trees as well.
loofah (n.): 1879, from Egyptian Arabic lufah, the name of the plant (Luffa ægyptiaca) with fibrous pods from which flesh-brushes are made.
noli me tangere: late 14c., "type of facial ulcer, lupus," Latin, literally "touch me not," from noli, imperative of nolle "to be unwilling" + me (see me) + tangere "to touch" (see tangent (adj.)). Used over the years of various persons or things that must not be touched, especially "picture of Jesus as he appeared to Mary Magdalene" (1670s, see John 20:17) and "plant of the genus Impatiens" (1560s, so called because the ripe seed pods burst when touched).
vanilla (n.): 1660s, "pod of the vanilla plant," from Spanish vainilla "vanilla plant," literally "little pod," diminutive of vaina "sheath," from Latin vagina "sheath of an ear of grain, hull of a plant" (see vagina). So called from the shape of the pods. European discovery 1521 by Hernando Cortes' soldiers on reconnaissance in southeastern Mexico. Meaning "flavoring extracted from the vanilla bean" is attested by 1728. Meaning "conventional, of ordinary sexual preferences" is 1970s, from notion of whiteness and the common choice of vanilla ice cream.
myriapod: "An arthropod of a group that includes the centipedes, millipedes, and related animals. Myriapods have elongated bodies with numerous leg-bearing segments", Early 19th century: from modern Latin Myriapoda, from Greek murias (see myriad) + pous, pod- 'foot'.
ecdysis: "The process of shedding the old skin (in reptiles) or casting off the outer cuticle (in insects and other arthropods)", Mid 19th century: from Greek ekdusis, from ekduein 'put off', from ek- 'out, off' + duein 'put'.
chilli: "A small hot-tasting pod of a variety of capsicum, used in sauces, relishes, and spice powders. There are various forms with pods of differing size, colour, and strength of flavour", Early 17th century: from Spanish chile, from Nahuatl chilli.
Arachnida: "A class of chelicerate arthropods that includes spiders, scorpions, mites, and ticks. They have become adapted for a terrestrial life and possess both lungs and tracheae, and many have silk or poison glands", Modern Latin (plural), from Greek arakhnē 'spider'.
lablab: "An Asian plant of the pea family, which is widely grown in the tropics for its edible seeds and pods and as a fodder crop", Early 19th century: from Arabic lablāb.
pentadactyl: "(Of a vertebrate limb) having five toes or fingers, or derived from such a form, as characteristic of all tetrapods", Early 19th century: from penta- 'five' + Greek daktulos 'finger'.
pectoralis: "Any of the major pectoral muscles in tetrapods; specifically = pectoralis major", Early 17th cent.; earliest use found in Helkiah Crooke (1576–1648), physician and anatomist. From post-classical Latin pectoralis, use as noun (short for pectoralis musculus) of classical Latin pectorālis, adjective.
edamame: "A Japanese dish of salted green soybeans boiled in their pods, typically served as a snack or appetizer", Japanese, literally 'beans on a branch'.
haemocyanin: "A protein containing copper, responsible for transporting oxygen in the blood plasma of arthropods and molluscs", Mid 19th century: from haemo- 'of blood' + cyan + -in¹.
arthrozoic: "(In some former classifications) designating a division of the Metazoa including arthropods and segmented worms (corresponding broadly to the Articulata of Cuvier); relating to this group", Late 19th cent.; earliest use found in Thomas Huxley (1825–1895), biologist and science educationist. From arthro- + -zoic, after scientific Latin Arthrozoa, former group name.
siphuncle: "(In shelled cephalopods such as nautiloids and ammonoids) a calcareous tube containing living tissue running through all the shell chambers, serving to pump fluid out of vacant chambers in order to adjust buoyancy", Mid 18th century: from Latin siphunculus 'small tube'.
alphavirus: "Any member of the genus Alphavirus of antigenically related togaviruses that infect a wide range of mammals, birds, and other vertebrates, are transmitted by mosquitoes (or, rarely, other arthropods), and typically cause either a syndrome of fever, rash, and arthralgia (Old World alphaviruses) or a potentially fatal encephalitis (New World alphaviruses, or equine encephalitis viruses). Also (in form Alphavirus): the genus itself", 1970s. From alpha + virus; compare earlier name Arbovirus group A.