英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

danger [danger 词源字典]: danger: [13] Etymologically, danger is a parallel formation to dominion. It comes ultimately from Vulgar Latin *domniārium ‘power or sway of a lord, dominion, jurisdiction’, a derivative of Latin dominus ‘lord, master’. English acquired the word via Old French dangier and Anglo- Norman daunger, retaining the word’s original sense until the 17th century (‘You stand within his [Shylock’s] danger, do you not?’ says Portia to Antonio in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice).

But things had been happening to its meaning in Old French, particularly in the phrase estre en dangier ‘be in danger’. The notions of being in someone’s danger (that is, ‘in his power, at his mercy’) and of being in danger of something (that is, ‘liable to something unpleasant, such as loss or punishment’ – a sense preserved in the 1611 translation of the Sermon on the Mount: ‘Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment’, Matthew 5:22) led directly to the sense ‘peril’, acquired by English in the 14th century.
=> dame, dome, dominate, dominion, dungeon[danger etymology, danger origin, 英语词源]
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
pander: pander: [16] Pandaro was a character in Boccaccio’s Filostrato. He was the cousin of Cressida, and acted as go-between in her affair with Troilus. Chaucer took him over in his Troilus and Criseyde as Pandarus, changing him from cousin to uncle but retaining his role. His name came to be used as a generic term for an ‘arranger of sexual liaisons’ (‘If ever you prove false to one another, since I have taken such pains to bring you together, let all pitiful goersbetween be call’d to the world’s end after my name: call them all Panders’, says Pandarus in Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida 1606), and by the mid-16th century was already well on the downward slope to ‘pimp, procurer’.

Its modern use as a verb, meaning ‘indulge’, dates from the 19th century.
abstention (n.): 1520s, from Middle French abstention (Old French astencion), from Late Latin abstentionem (nominative abstentio) "the act of retaining," noun of action from past participle stem of Latin abstinere "keep back, keep off, hold off" (see abstain).
amid (prep.): late 14c., from amidde (c. 1200), from Old English on middan "in the middle," from dative singular of midde "mid, middle" (see middle); the phrase evidently was felt as "in (the) middle" and thus followed by a genitive case, and if this had endured we would follow it today with of. (See amidst for further evolution along this line).

The same applies to equivalents in Latin (in medio) and Greek (en meso), both originally adjective phrases which evolved to take the genitive case. But in later Old English on middan also was treated as a preposition and followed by dative. Used in compounds from early 13c. (such as amidships, attested from 1690s and retaining the genitive, as the compounds usually did in early Middle English, suggesting this one is considerably older than the written record of it.)
Christmas (n.): late Old English Cristes mæsse, from Christ (and retaining the original vowel sound) + mass (n.2).

Written as one word from mid-14c. As a verb from 1590s. Father Christmas first attested in a carol attributed to Richard Smart, Rector of Plymtree (Devon) from 1435-77. Christmas tree in modern sense first attested 1835 in American English, from German Weihnachtsbaum. Christmas cards first designed 1843, popular by 1860s. Christmas Eve is Middle English Cristenmesse Even (c. 1300).
economic (adj.): 1590s, "pertaining to management of a household," perhaps shortened from economical, or else from French économique or directly from Latin oeconomicus "of domestic economy," from Greek oikonomikos "practiced in the management of a household or family" (also the name of a treatise by Xenophon on the duties of domestic life), hence, "frugal, thrifty," from oikonomia "household management" (see economy (n.)). Meaning "relating to the science of economics" is from 1835 and now is the main sense, economical retaining the older one of "characterized by thrift."
exact (v.): mid-15c., from Latin exactus, past participle of exigere "require, enforce, demand, collect (money);" see exact (adj.). Older in English than the adjective and retaining the literal sense of the Latin source. Related: Exacted; exacting.
indite (v.): late 14c., "put down in writing," from Old French enditer, from Vulgar Latin *indictare, from Latin in- "in, into, on, upon" (see in- (2)) + dictare âto declareâ (see dictate). The same word as indict but retaining a French form. Related: Indited; inditing.
retain (v.): late 14c., "hold back, restrain;" c. 1400, "continue keeping, keep possession of," from Old French retenir "keep, retain; take into feudal service; hold back; remember" (12c.), from Latin retinere "hold back, keep back, detain, restrain," from re- "back" (see re-) + tenere "to hold" (see tenet). Meaning "keep (another) attached to one's person, keep in service" is from mid-15c.; specifically of lawyers from 1540s. Meaning "keep in the mind" is from c. 1500. Related: Retained; retaining.
retention (n.): late 14c., from Latin retentionem (nominative retentio) "a retaining, a holding back," noun of action from past participle stem of retinere (see retain). Originally medical; mental sense is from late 15c.
saucer (n.): mid-14c., from Anglo-Latin saucerium and Old French saussier (Modern French saucière) "sauce dish," from Late Latin salsarium, neuter of salsarius "of or for salted things," from Latin salsus (see sauce (n.)). Originally a small dish or pan in which sauce is set on a table. Meaning "small, round, shallow vessel for supporting a cup and retaining any liquid which might be spilled" is attested from c. 1702.
shabby (adj.): 1660s, of persons, "poorly dressed," with -y (2) + shab "a low fellow" (1630s), literally "scab" (now only dialectal in the literal sense, in reference to a disease of sheep), from Old English sceabb (the native form of the Scandinavian word that yielded Modern English scab; also see sh-). Similar formation in Middle Dutch schabbich, German schäbig "shabby."

Of clothes, furniture, etc., "of mean appearance, no longer new or fresh" from 1680s; meaning "inferior in quality" is from 1805. Figurative sense "contemptibly mean" is from 1670s. Related: Shabbily; shabbiness. Shabby-genteel "run-down but trying to keep up appearances, retaining in present shabbiness traces of former gentility," first recorded 1754. Related: Shabaroon "disreputable person," c. 1700.
tally (n.): mid-15c., "stick marked with notches to indicate amount owed or paid," from Anglo-French tallie (early 14c., Old French taille "notch in a piece of wood signifying a debt"), Anglo-Latin talea (late 12c.), from Medieval Latin tallia, from Latin talea "a cutting, rod, stick" (see tailor (n.), and compare sense history of score). Meaning "a thing that matches another" first recorded 1650s, from practice of splitting a tally lengthwise across the notches, debtor and creditor each retaining one of the halves; the usual method of keeping accounts before writing became general (the size of the notches varied with the amount). Sports sense of "a total score" is from 1856. Also in 19c. British provincial verbal expression live tally, make a tally bargain "live as husband and wife without marrying."
humectant: "Retaining or preserving moisture", Early 19th century (denoting a moistening agent): from Latin humectant- 'moistening', from the verb humectare, from humectus 'moist, wet', from humere 'be moist'.
retinaculum: " Anatomy . A structure that holds (or appears to hold) something in place; specifically †(a) = proligerous disc ( obsolete ); (b) a ligamentous band retaining tendons in place, especially in the region of the wrist and ankle (frequently with distinguishing English or scientific Latin word or words)", Mid 17th cent.; earliest use found in Thomas Johnson (d. 1644), apothecary and soldier. From classical Latin retināculum rope that holds a thing fast, cable, tether, animal's rein, towing rope, in post-classical Latin also surgical clamp from retinēre + -culum.