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patent[patent 词源字典]

patent: [14] Etymologically, patent means simply ‘open’. Its ultimate source is patēns, the present participle of the Latin verb patēre ‘be open’ (a relative of English fathom and petal). It was used particularly in the term letters patent, which denoted an ‘open letter’, particularly an official one which gave some particular authorization, injunction, etc.

It soon came to be used as a noun in its own right, signifying such a letter, and by the end of the 16th century it had acquired the meaning ‘exclusive licence granted by such a letter’. This gradually passed into the modern sense ‘official protection granted to an invention’.
=> fathom, petal[patent etymology, patent origin, 英语词源]