英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

ascribe [ascribe 词源字典]: ascribe: see scribe
[ascribe etymology, ascribe origin, 英语词源]
crisscross: crisscross: [16] Crisscross is an alteration of Christscrosse, a term used from the 16th to 18th centuries for the figure of a cross (not specifically, as the name would seem to suggest, the crucifix). Gradually the original signification of the first syllable came to be lost, and the term fell into the pattern of reduplicated words (such as flipflop, singsong) in which a syllable is repeated with variation of the vowel. This may have contributed to the broadening of the word’s meaning to ‘pattern of repeated crossings’, which happened in the 19th century.
describe: describe: [15] To describe something is literally to ‘write it down’. The word comes from Latin dēscrībere, a compound verb formed from the prefix dē- ‘down’ and scrībere ‘write’ (source of English scribe, script, etc). English originally borrowed it via Old French descrivre in the 13th century as descrive, in which the metaphorical sense ‘give an account of’ had already developed, and this was grafted on to the Latin verb when it was reborrowed directly in the 15th century. The derivative nondescript was coined (originally as a term in biological classification) in the 17th century.
=> ascribe, scribe, script
discreet: discreet: [14] Discreet and discrete [14] are ultimately the same word. Both come from Latin discrētus, the past participle of discernere ‘distinguish’ (source of English discern). Discrete was borrowed direct from Latin, and retains its original meaning more closely: ‘distinct, separate’. The Latin abstract noun formed from the past participle, discrētiō (source of English discretion [14]), developed the sense ‘power to make distinctions’.

This fed back into the adjective, giving it the meaning ‘showing good judgment’, the semantic guise in which English acquired it from Old French discret. This was usually spelled discrete too until the 16th century, when discreet (based on the -ee- spelling commonly used in words like sweet and feet which rhymed with discrete) became the established form for the more widely used sense ‘judicious’.
=> certain, discern, discrete, secret
discriminate: discriminate: see discern
escrow: escrow: see scroll
miscreant: miscreant: see creed
postscript: postscript: see post
scrape: scrape: [14] Scrape is certainly of Germanic origin, but it is not clear whether it was borrowed from Old Norse skrapa (ancestor of Swedish skrapa and Danish skrabe) or Middle Dutch schrapen. Either way it goes back to a prehistoric Germanic base *skrap-, source also of Old English scrapian ‘scratch’, which survived into the 16th century as shrape. Scrap ‘small piece’ [14] was borrowed from Old Norse skrap ‘remnants, trifles’, a derivative of the same base as skrapa; and scrap ‘fight’ [17] may have originated as a variant of scrap.
=> scrap
scratch: scratch: [15] Early Middle English had two words for ‘scratch’ – scrat and cratch; and it seems likely that scratch represents a blend of them. Where exactly they came from is not clear, although cratch is no doubt related to German kratzen ‘scratch’, and both probably had their origins in imitation of the sound of scratching.
screen: screen: [15] Screen goes back ultimately to a Frankish *skrank ‘barrier’, a distant ancestor of German schrank ‘cupboard’. This was taken over into Old Northern French as escran, and it was a variant form of this, escren, that became English screen.
screw: screw: [15] Screw comes ultimately from a Latin word meaning ‘female pig’ – scrōfa (source also of English scrofula [14], a disease to which pigs were once thought to be particularly prone). By the medieval period scrōfa was being used for a ‘screw’, mainly no doubt in allusion to the pig’s curly, corkscrew-like tail, but also perhaps partly prompted by the resemblance to Latin scrobis ‘ditch, trench’, hence ‘cunt’, which was used in Vulgar Latin for the ‘groove in a screw-head’ (the use of the verb screw for ‘copulate’, first recorded in the early 18th century, is purely coincidental).

English got the word from Old French escroue, which came either directly from Latin scrōfa or via prehistoric West Germanic *scrūva (source of German schraube ‘screw’).
=> scrofula
scribe: scribe: [14] Scribe is at the centre of a large network of English words that go back to Latin scrībere ‘write’. Others include ascribe [15], describe, scribble [15], and shrive, while its past participle scriptus has contributed script [14], scripture [13], and transcript [13]. Scribe itself comes from the Latin derivative scrība ‘official writer’. Scrībere went back to an Indo-European base which meant ‘cut, incise’, reflecting the origins of writing in carving marks on stone, wood, or clay; this was *skreibh-, an extension of *sker-, from which English gets shear, short, etc.
=> ascribe, conscription, describe, scribble, script, share, shear, short, shrive, transcribe
scrimmage: scrimmage: see skirmish
scrofula: scrofula: see screw
scroll: scroll: [15] Scroll has no family connection with roll, although roll is largely responsible for its present-day form. Etymologically it is actually the same word as shred. Both go back to a prehistoric Germanic *skrautha ‘something cut’. This evolved in a straight line to give English shred, but it was also borrowed through medieval Latin scrōda into Old French as escroe, where its meaning ‘cut piece, strip’ narrowed to ‘strip of parchment’.

Its Anglo- Norman version escrowe was acquired by English, where it split in two. It survives in full as escrow [16], a legal term for a sort of deed, but a shortened form, scrow, also emerged, and association with roll (in the sense ‘roll of parchment’) led to its being altered to scrowle or scroll.
=> escrow, shred
scrummage: scrummage: see skirmish
scruple: scruple: [16] Latin scrūpus meant ‘sharp stone’, and the notion of something troubling the mind like a painful stone in the shoe led to its metaphorical use for ‘anxiety, doubt, particularly over a moral issue’. Both meanings were carried over into the diminutive form scrūpulus, which also came to be used for a very small unit of weight. This passed into English via French scrupule as scruple, on the way losing the literal sense ‘small stone’.
scrutinize: scrutinize: [17] The etymological notion underlying scrutinize is of ragpickers searching through piles of garbage looking for anything of use or value. For its ultimate source is Latin scrūta ‘rubbish’. From this was formed the verb scrūtārī ‘rummage through rubbish’, hence broadly ‘search, examine’. This in turn formed the basis of the noun scrūtinium, source of English scrutiny [15], from which scrutinize was derived.
transcript: transcript: see scribe
ascribable (adj.): 1670s, from ascribe + -able. Related: Ascribably; ascribability.
ascribe (v.): mid-14c., ascrive, from Old French ascrivre "to inscribe; attribute, impute," from Latin ascribere "to write in, to add to in a writing," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + scribere "to write" (see script (n.)). Spelling restored by 16c. Related: Ascribed; ascribing.
ascription (n.): 1590s, "action of adding in writing;" c. 1600, "attribution of authorship or origin," from Latin ascriptionem (nominative ascriptio) "an addition in writing," noun of action from past participle stem of ascribere (see ascribe).
circumscribe (v.): late 14c., from Latin circumscribere "to make a circle around, encircle, draw a line around; limit, restrain, confine, set the boundaries of," from circum- "around" (see circum-) + scribere "write" (see script (n.)). Related: Circumscribed; circumscribing.
circumscription (n.): 1530s, from Latin circumscriptionem (nominative circumscriptio) "an encircling; fact of being held to set limits," noun of action from past participle stem of circumscribere (see circumscribe). Figurative sense of "setting limits of meaning" is earliest in English.
conscript (n.): 1800, perhaps a back-formation (influenced by French adjective conscrit) from conscription.
conscript (v.): 1813, American English, from conscript (n.). A word from the militia drafts in the War of 1812. Popularized (or unpopularized) during U.S. Civil War, when both sides resorted to it in 1862. Related: Conscripted; conscripting.
conscript (adj.): 1530s, from Latin conscriptus, past participle of conscribere "to draw up, list," literally "to write together" (see conscription).
conscription (n.): late 14c., "a putting in writing," from Middle French conscription, from Latin conscriptionem (nominative conscriptio) "a drawing up of a list, enrollment, a levying of soldiers," from conscribere "to enroll," from com- "with" (see com-) + scribere "to write" (see script (n.)).

Meaning "enlistment of soldiers" is from 1520s; the sense "compulsory enlistment for military service" (1800) is traceable to the French Republic act of Sept. 5, 1798. Technically, a conscription is the enrollment of a fixed number by lot, with options of providing a substitute.
corkscrew (n.): 1720, from cork (n.) + screw (n.). Given various figurative or extended senses from c. 1815; the verb is attested from 1837.
crisscross (v.): 1818, from Middle English crist(s)-crosse "Christ's cross" (late 15c.), earlier cros-kryst (late 14c.), "referring to the mark of a cross formerly written before the alphabet in hornbooks. The mark itself stood for the phrase Christ-cross me speed ('May Christ's cross give me success'), a formula said before reciting the alphabet" [Barnhart]. Used today without awareness of origin. As an adjective, 1846; as a noun, 1848.
describe (v.): early 13c., descriven, from Old French descrivre, descrire (13c.), from Latin describere "to write down, copy; sketch, represent" (see description). Reconstructed with Latin spelling 16c. Related: Describable; described, describes, describing.
description (n.): late 14c., from Old French description (12c.) and directly from Latin descriptionem (nominative descriptio) "representation, description, copy," noun of action from past participle stem of describere "write down, transcribe, copy, sketch," from de- "down" (see de-) + scribere "write" (see script (n.)).
descriptive (adj.): 1751, from Late Latin descriptivus, from descript-, past participle stem of describere (see description). Related: Descriptively; descriptiveness.
descry (v.1): "to see, discern," c. 1300, probably from Old French descrier "publish" (Modern French décrier), from Latin describere (see describe).
descry (v.2): "to proclaim," mid-14c., from Old French descrier, from des- (see dis-) + crier, from Latin quiritare (see cry (v.)).
discredit (v.): 1550s, from dis- "opposite of" + credit (v.). Related: Discredited; discrediting; discreditable; discreditably.
discreet (adj.): mid-14c., "morally discerning, prudent, circumspect," from Old French discret "discreet, sensible, intelligent, wise," from Latin discretus "separated, distinct," in Medieval Latin "discerning, careful," past participle of discernere "distinguish" (see discern). Meaning "separate, distinct" in English is late 14c.

Spellings discrete and nativized discreet co-existed until after c. 1600, when discreet became the common word for "careful, prudent," and discrete was maintained in philosophy, medicine, music and other disciplines that remembered Latin and made effort to obey it. Related: Discreetly.
discrepancy (n.): mid-15c. (discrepance), from Latin discrepantia "discordance, discrepancy," from discrepantem (nominative discrepans), present participle of discrepare "sound differently, differ," from dis- "apart, off" (see dis-) + crepare "to rattle, crack" (see raven). Related: Discrepancies.
discrete (adj.): late 14c., see discreet. Related: Discretely.
discretion (n.): c. 1300, dyscrecyun, "moral discernment," from Old French discrecion or directly from Late Latin discretionem (nominative discretio) "discernment, power to make distinctions," in classical Latin "separation, distinction," noun of state from past participle stem of discernere "to separate, distinguish" (see discern). Phrase at (one's) discretion attested from 1570s, from sense of "power to decide or judge" (late 14c.); the age of discretion (late 14c.) in English law was 14.
discretionary (adj.): 1680s (implied in discretionarily); see discretion + -ary.
discriminate (v.): 1620s, from Latin discriminatus, past participle of discriminare "to divide, separate," from discrimen (genitive discriminis) "interval, distinction, difference," derived noun from discernere (see discern). The adverse (usually racial) sense is first recorded 1866, American English. Positive sense remains in discriminating. Related: Discriminated. Also used 17c. and after as an adjective meaning "distinct."
discriminating (adj.): "possessing discernment," 1792, present participle adjective from discriminate (v.).
discrimination (n.): 1640s, "the making of distinctions," from Late Latin discriminationem (nominative discriminatio), noun of action from past participle stem of discriminare (see discriminate). Especially in a prejudicial way, based on race, 1866, American English. Meaning "discernment" is from 1814.
It especially annoys me when racists are accused of 'discrimination.' The ability to discriminate is a precious facility; by judging all members of one 'race' to be the same, the racist precisely shows himself incapable of discrimination. [Christopher Hitchens]
discriminatory (adj.): 1828; see discriminate + -ory.
escritoire (n.): "piece of furniture with conveniences for writing," 1706, from French écritoire (Old French escritoire, 12c., "desk, carrel"), from Late Latin scriptorium "place for writing" (see scriptorium).
escrow (n.): 1590s, from Anglo-French escrowe, from Old French escroe "scrap, small piece, rag, tatter, single parchment," from a Germanic source akin to Old High German scrot "a scrap, shred, a piece cut off" (see shred (n.)). Originally a deed delivered to a third person until a future condition is satisfied, which led to sense of "deposit held in trust or security" (1888).
hardscrabble (n.): in popular use from c. 1826 as a U.S. colloquial name for any barren or impoverished place "where a livelihood may be obtained only under great hardship and difficulty" [OED]; from hard (adj.) + noun from scrabble (v.). Noted in 1813 as a place-name in New York state; first recorded in journals of Lewis and Clark (1804) as the name of a prairie. Perhaps the original notion was "vigorous effort made under great stress," though this sense is recorded slightly later (1812). As an adjective by 1845.
imperscriptable (adj.): "unrecorded, without written authority," 1832, used only with right. From assimilated form of Latin in- "not, opposite of" (see in- (1)) + perscribere "to write down."