quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- charge



[charge 词源字典] - charge: [13] The notion underlying the word charge is of a ‘load’ or ‘burden’ – and this can still be detected in many of its modern meanings, as of a duty laid on one like a load, or of the burden of an expense, which began as metaphors. It comes ultimately from Latin carrus ‘two-wheeled wagon’ (source also of English car). From this was derived the late Latin verb carricāre ‘load’, which produced the Old French verb charger and, via the intermediate Vulgar Latin *carrica, the Old French noun charge, antecedents of the English words.
The literal sense of ‘loading’ or ‘bearing’ has now virtually died out, except in such phrases as ‘charge your glasses’, but there are reminders of it in cargo [17], which comes from the Spanish equivalent of the French noun charge, and indeed in carry, descended from the same ultimate source. The origins of the verb sense ‘rush in attack’ are not altogether clear, but it may have some connection with the sense ‘put a weapon in readiness’.
This is now familiar in the context of firearms, but it seems to have been used as long ago as the 13th century with reference to arrows. The Italian descendant of late Latin carricāre was caricare, which meant not only ‘load’ but also, metaphorically, ‘exaggerate’. From this was derived the noun caricatura, which reached English via French in the 18th century as caricature.
=> car, cargo, caricature[charge etymology, charge origin, 英语词源] - crowd




- crowd: [OE] The notion underlying crowd is of ‘pushing’ or ‘pressing’ (a semantic element shared by throng and of course by the now obsolete use of press for ‘crowd’, and echoed in such current expressions as ‘there’s quite a crush in here’). The Old English verb crūdan meant simply ‘press’, and of its relatives Middle Dutch crūden meant ‘press, push’ and Middle High German kroten meant ‘oppress’. Old English also had a noun croda ‘crowd’, but this does not seem to be the direct ancestor of the modern English noun, which does not appear until as late as the 16th century, as a derivative of the verb.
- scour




- scour: [13] The notion of ‘cleaning’ implicit in scour evolved from an earlier ‘take care of’. For the word goes back ultimately to Latin cūrāre (source of English cure), which originally meant ‘take care of’, and only in medieval times came to mean ‘clean’. Combination with the prefix ex- ‘out’ produced excūrāre ‘clean out’, which reached English via Old French escurer and Middle Dutch scūren. Scour ‘search thoroughly’ [14] (as in ‘scour the countryside’) is a different word, and may come from Old Norse skýra ‘rush in’.
=> cure - stamp




- stamp: [12] Stamp originally meant ‘crush into small pieces, pound’. The sense ‘slam the foot down’ did not emerge until the 14th century, and ‘imprint with a design by pressure’ (which forms the semantic basis of postage stamp [19]) is as recent as the 16th century. The word comes, probably via an unrecorded Old English *stampian, from prehistoric Germanic *stampōjan (source also of German stampfen, Dutch stampen, Swedish stampa, and Danish stampe).
This was derived from the noun *stampaz ‘pestle’, which was formed from the base *stamp- (a non-nasalized version of which, *stap-, lies behind English step). The Germanic verb was borrowed into Vulgar Latin as *stampīre, whose past participle has given English, via Mexican Spanish, stampede [19].
=> stampede, step - break (v.)




- Old English brecan "to break, shatter, burst; injure, violate, destroy, curtail; break into, rush into; burst forth, spring out; subdue, tame" (class IV strong verb; past tense bræc, past participle brocen), from Proto-Germanic *brekan (cognates: Old Frisian breka, Dutch breken, Old High German brehhan, German brechen, Gothic brikan), from PIE root *bhreg- "to break" (see fraction). Most modern senses were in Old English. In reference to the heart from early 13c. Meaning "to disclose" is from early 13c.
Break bread "share food" (with) is from late 14c. Break the ice is c. 1600, in reference to the "coldness" of encounters of strangers. Break wind first attested 1550s. To break (something) out (1890s) probably is an image from dock work, of freeing cargo before unloading it. Ironic theatrical good luck formula break a leg has parallels in German Hals- und Beinbruch "break your neck and leg," and Italian in bocca al lupo. Evidence of a highly superstitious craft (see Macbeth). - charge (v.)




- early 13c., "to load, fill," from Old French chargier "to load, burden, weigh down," from Late Latin carricare "to load a wagon or cart," from Latin carrus "wagon" (see car). Senses of "entrust," "command," "accuse" all emerged in Middle English and were found in Old French. Sense of "rush in to attack" is 1560s, perhaps through earlier meaning "load a weapon" (1540s). Meaning "impose a burden of expense" is from mid-14c. Meaning "fill with electricity" is from 1748. Related: Charged; charging. Chargé d'affaires was borrowed from French, 1767, literally "(one) charged with affairs."
- grind (v.)




- Old English grindan "to rub together, crush into powder, grate, scrape," forgrindan "destroy by crushing" (class III strong verb; past tense grand, past participle grunden), from Proto-Germanic *grindanan (cognates: Dutch grenden), related to ground, from PIE *ghrendh- "to grind" (cognates: Latin frendere "to gnash the teeth," Greek khondros "corn, grain," Lithuanian grendu "to scrape, scratch"). Meaning "to make smooth or sharp by friction" is from c. 1300. Most other Germanic languages use a verb cognate with Latin molere (compare Dutch malen, Old Norse mala, German mahlen).
- scour (v.2)




- "move quickly in search of something," c. 1300, probably from Old Norse skyra "rush in," related to skur "storm, shower, shower of missiles" (see shower (n.)). Perhaps influenced by or blended with Old French escorre "to run out," from Latin excurrere (see excursion). Sense probably influenced by scour (v.1).