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assert [assert 词源字典]: assert: [17] Assert comes ultimately from Latin asserere, which meant literally ‘join oneself to something’. It was a compound verb formed from the prefix ad- ‘to’ and serere ‘join’ (source of English series and serial), and it came to take on various metaphorical connotations: if one ‘joined oneself to’ a particular thing, one ‘declared one’s right to’ it, and if one ‘joined oneself to’ a particular point of view, one ‘maintained’ it, or ‘claimed’ it.

The verb was used in both these senses when English acquired it, from the Latin past participial stem assert-, but the former had more or less died out by the end of the 18th century.
=> serial, series[assert etymology, assert origin, 英语词源]
berserk: berserk: [19] Sir Walter Scott appears to be responsible for introducing this word to the English language. He mentions it in a footnote to his novel The pirate 1822, adopting it (in the form berserkar) from the Icelandic berserkr ‘frenzied Norse warrior’. Its etymology is not altogether clear. Its second syllable represents serkr ‘coat, shirt’ (a word English used to have, as sark: cutty sark meant ‘short shirt’), but the first is disputed.

Scott took it to mean ‘bare’ (which would have been Icelandic berr), and in fact the anglicized form baresark was quite commonly used in the mid 19th century; the plausible-sounding notion underlying this is that the original berserkr was so called because in his battle-crazed frenzy he tore off his armour and fought in his shirt-sleeves – ‘bare-shirted’. However, 20th-century etymologists have tended to prefer the theory that ber- is ‘bear’, representing Icelandic bern-, a by-form of bjorn ‘bear’.

The concept of warriors dressing themselves in animals’ skins is an ancient one, found in many mythologies. The modern use of the word as an adjective, meaning ‘in a violent frenzy’, appears to date from the third quarter of the 19th century.
censer: censer: see incense
conserve: conserve: [14] Latin servāre meant ‘keep, preserve’ (it was not related to servus ‘slave’, source of English serve and servant). Among the compounds formed from it were praeservāre ‘guard in advance’ and, using the intensive prefix com-, conservāre. This passed into English via Old French conserver. Amongst its derivatives are conservation [14], conservative [14] (first used in the modern political sense by J Wilson Croker in 1830), and conservatory [16] (whose French original, conservatoire, was reborrowed in the 18th century in the sense ‘musical academy’).
=> observe, preserve, reserve
desert: desert: English has three distinct words desert, which come from two separate sources. Desert ‘what one deserves’ [13] (now usually used in the plural) is related, as its meaning suggests, to the verb deserve. It comes from Old French desert or deserte, which were formed from the past participle of deservir ‘deserve’. (Dessert ‘sweet course’ [17] is its first cousin, coming from French desservir ‘clear the table’ – literally ‘unserve’ – a compound verb formed, like deserve, from the verb serve but with the prefix dis- rather than de-.) The noun desert ‘barren region’ [13] and the verb desert ‘abandon’ [15] both come ultimately from dēsertus, the past participle of Latin dēserere ‘abandon’.

This was a compound verb formed from the prefix dē- denoting reversal and serere ‘join’ (a derivative of which gave English ‘serried ranks’).
=> serve; serried
deserve: deserve: [13] Latin dēservīre meant ‘serve well or enthusiastically’ (it was a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix dē- and servīre ‘serve’). Hence in late Latin it came to mean ‘become entitled to because of meritorious service’, a sense which passed via Old French deservir into English. The more general modern English ‘be worthy of’ developed in the 15th century.
=> serve
dessert: dessert: see desert
geyser: geyser: see gust
insert: insert: see series
misery: misery: [14] Latin miser meant ‘miserable, wretched’. From it were derived miseria ‘wretchedness’, source of English misery, and miserābilis ‘pitiable’, source of English miserable [16]. Fitting in with the general semantic pattern, English miser [16] (a direct nominalization of the Latin adjective) originally meant ‘wretched person’. But people who hoarded money were evidently viewed as being basically unhappy, and so right from the beginning miser was used for an ‘avaricious person’.
=> miser
observe: observe: [14] Latin observāre meant ‘watch, pay attention to, look to, comply with’. It was a compound verb, formed with the prefix ob- ‘to’ from servāre ‘keep safe’, hence ‘guard, watch, heed’ (no relation to servīre, source of English serve and servant). The two semantic strands ‘seeing, noting’ and ‘complying’ have remained together in the English verb, but have diverged in its derived nouns, the former going to observation [14], the latter to observance [13].
=> conserve, reserve
preserve: preserve: [14] The -serve of preserve comes from Latin servāre ‘keep safe’ (no relation to servīre ‘serve’, but source also of English conserve, observe, and reserve). Combination with prae- ‘before’ produced medieval Latin praeservāre ‘guard beforehand, take steps to ward off possible harm’, which reached English via Old French preserver.
=> conserve, observe, reserve
seraglio: seraglio: see caravan
serenade: serenade: [17] A serenade is strictly a ‘song sung in the evening’, but in fact historically it has nothing to do with ‘night’ – etymologically it is a ‘serene’ piece of music. The word comes via French sérénade from Italian serenata, a derivative of sereno ‘serene’. The notion of a serenata as a piece of ‘night’ music arose through association with sera ‘evening’ (a relative of French soir ‘evening’, from which English gets soirée [19]). Italian sereno came from Latin serēnus ‘bright, clear’, which also produced English serene [16].
=> serene
serendipity: serendipity: [18] Serendipity – the ‘faculty of making lucky discoveries’ – was coined in 1754 by the British writer Horace Walpole (1717–97). He took it from The Three Princes of Serendip, the title of a fairy tale whose leading characters, in Walpole’s words, ‘were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of’. (Serendip is an old name for Sri Lanka.)
serene: serene: see serenade
serge: serge: [14] The textile term serge is first cousin to silk. It comes via Old French sarge from *sārica, a Vulgar Latin alteration of Latin sērica. This was short for lāna sērica, which meant literally ‘wool of the Seres’. Seres was a name given to a people living in what we would now call China, and it is also the ultimate source of the word silk.
=> silk
sergeant: sergeant: [12] A sergeant is etymologically simply a ‘servant’ – and indeed that is what the word originally meant in English. It comes via Old French sergent from Latin servient-, the present participial stem of servīre ‘serve’. It was subsequently incorporated into the terminology of the feudal system, roughly equivalent in application to esquire, and it was also used for various legal officers, but it does not seem to have become a specific military rank until the mid 16th century. ‘Sergeant’ then was a comparatively exalted position, but by the end of the century we see it settling into its modern niche as a senior noncommissioned officer.
=> servant, serve
series: series: [17] Latin seriēs (from which English got series) denoted a ‘succession of things connected together’. It was derived from serere ‘connect’, which has also given English assert and insert [16]. Serial [19] was coined specifically with reference to stories published in instalments.
=> assert, insert, serial
serious: serious: [15] Serious comes ultimately from Latin sērius ‘serious, grave’. From this was derived late Latin sēriōsus, which passed into English via Old French serieux. It is not clear where sērius came from, although some have linked it with German schwer ‘heavy’ (‘seriousness’ and ‘weightiness’ being semantically close).
sermon: sermon: [12] Latin sermō meant simply ‘talk, conversation, discourse’, but by the time it reached English via Anglo-Norman sermun it had narrowed down to an ‘address given from a pulpit on a religious topic’. It is not clear what its ultimate ancestry is, but probably the favourite candidate as its source is the Indo-European base *swer-, *swar-, which gave English answer and swear.
serpent: serpent: [14] The serpent is etymologically a ‘crawling’ animal. The word comes via Old French serpent from Latin serpēns, a noun use of the present participle of serpere ‘crawl, creep’. This was a close relative of Greek hérpein ‘creep’, from which English gets herpes [17] (etymologically the ‘creeping’ disease) and herpetology ‘study of reptiles’ [19].
=> herpes
serried: serried: [17] The phrase serried ranks is first recorded in William Wilkie’s Epigoniad 1757, but it was clearly inspired by Milton’s ‘Nor serv’d it to relax their serried files’ in Paradise Lost 1667. It means ‘rows crowded close together’, and serried is the past participle of a now obsolete verb serry ‘press together’. This was borrowed from serré, the past participle of Old French serrer ‘close’, which went back via Vulgar Latin *serrāre to Latin sērāre, a derivative of the noun sera ‘lock, bolt’.
serve: serve: [13] Latin servus ‘slave’ has been a rich source of English vocabulary. It is the direct ancestor of serf [15] (and of the second syllable of concierge [17]). but it is its derivatives that have made the most numerous contributions. From the verb servīre ‘serve’ come deserve, dessert, sergeant, servant [13], serve, and serviette [15] (but not, despite the similarity, conserve, observe, preserve, reserve, etc, which go back to the unrelated Latin servāre ‘keep, protect’). Servītium ‘slavery’ has provided service [12] and its derivative serviceable [14], while from servīlis ‘slavish’ comes servile [14].
=> concierge, deserve, dessert, serf, serviette, servile
trousers: trousers: [17] Trousers is a Gaelic contribution to English vocabulary. Irish trius and Scots Gaelic triubhas (singular nouns) denote ‘closefitting shorts’. They were borrowed into English in the 16th century as trouse or trews. The latter form has survived intact, but trouse, through the influence of drawers, was expanded into trousers.
=> trews
abuser (n.): mid-15c., agent noun from abuse (v.).
advertiser (n.): 1560s, agent noun from advertise (v.).
adviser (n.): 1610s, agent noun from advise (v.). Meaning "military person sent to help a government or army in a foreign country" is recorded from 1915. Alternative form, Latinate advisor, is perhaps a back-formation from advisory.
appeaser (n.): mid-15c., agent noun from appease (v.). Political sense attested from 1940.
appraiser (n.): early 15c., agent noun from appraise (v.).
assert (v.): c. 1600, "declare," from Latin assertus, past participle of asserere "claim, maintain, affirm" (see assertion). Related: Asserted; asserting. To assert oneself "stand up for one's rights" is recorded from 1879.
assertion (n.): early 15c., assercioun, from Middle French assertion (14c.) or directly from Late Latin assertionem (nominative assertio), noun of action from past participle stem of Latin asserere "claim rights over something, state, maintain, affirm," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + serere "join" (see series). By "joining oneself" to a particular view, one "claimed" or "maintained" it.
assertive (adj.): 1560s, "declaratory, positive, full of assertion," from assert + -ive. Meaning "insisting on one's rights" is short for self-assertive (1865).
assertively (adv.): mid-15c., assertiveli; see assertive + -ly (2).
assertiveness (n.): "tendency toward self-assertion," 1881, from assertive + -ness.
berserk (adj.): 1844, from berserk (n.) "Norse warrior," by 1835, an alternative form of berserker (1822), a word which was introduced by Sir Walter Scott, from Old Norse berserkr (n.) "raging warrior of superhuman strength;" probably from *ber- "bear" + serkr "shirt," thus literally "a warrior clothed in bearskin." Thus not from Old Norse berr "bare, naked."
Thorkelin, in the essay on the Berserkir, appended to his edition of the Krisini Saga, tells that an old name of the Berserk frenzy was hamremmi, i.e., strength acquired from another strange body, because it was anciently believed that the persons who were liable to this frenzy were mysteriously endowed, during its accesses, with a strange body of unearthly strength. If, however, the Berserk was called on by his own name, he lost his mysterious form, and his ordinary strength alone remained. ["Notes and Queries," Dec. 28, 1850]
The adjectival use probably is from such phrases as berserk frenzy, or as a title (Arngrim the Berserk).
berserker (n.): alternative form of berserk (q.v.), from Old Norse berserkr, accusative of berserk. This is the oldest form of the word in its revival in Modern English (1822), and perhaps Scott, who introduced it, mistook the -r for an agent-noun suffix. Further compicated because it has the form of the Old Norse plural, and English berserker sometimes is plural.
bowser (n.): a dog's name, 1806, perhaps imitative of baying.
brasserie (n.): 1864, "brewery," from French brasserie, from Middle French brasser "to brew," from Latin brace "grain used to prepare malt," said by Pliny to be a Celtic word (compare Welsh brag "malt").
browser (n.): 1845, "animal which browses," agent noun from browse (v.). In the computer sense by 1982.
The first browser was invented at PARC by Larry Tesler, now a designer at Apple Computer. Tesler's first Smalltalk browser was a tree-structured device. It enabled programmers to hunt quickly for items in a Smalltalk dictionary. ["InfoWorld" magazine, vol. v., no. 4, Jan. 24, 1983]
bruiser (n.): "a pugilist," 1744, agent noun from bruise (v.).
caravanserai (n.): 1590s, carvanzara, "Eastern inn (with a large central court) catering to caravans," ultimately from Persian karwan-sarai, from karwan (see caravan) + sara'i "palace, mansion; inn," from Iranian base *thraya- "to protect" (see seraglio).
casserole (n.): 1706, "stew pan," from French casserole "sauce pan" (16c.), diminutive of Middle French casse "pan" (14c.), from Provençal cassa "melting pan," from Medieval Latin cattia "pan, vessel," possibly from Greek kyathion, diminutive of kyathos "cup for the wine bowl." Originally the pan, since c. 1930 also of the dishes cooked in it, via cookery phrases such as en casserole, à la casserole.
censer (n.): "vessel used for burning incense," mid-13c., from Old French censier, a shortened form of encensier, from encens "incense" (see incense (n.)).
chaser (n.): c. 1300, "horse trained for chasing," agent noun from chase (v.), probably in some cases from Old French chaceor "huntsman, hunter." Meaning "water or mild beverage taken after a strong drink" is 1897, U.S. colloquial. French had chasse (from chasser "to chase") "a drink of liquor taken (or said to be taken) to kill the aftertaste of coffee or tobacco," used in English from c. 1800.
civil service (n.): c. 1785, originally in reference to non-military staff of the East India Company. Civil servant is from 1800.
cleanser (n.): 1520s, "a purgative;" 1560s, "one who cleans," agent noun from cleanse (v.). Meaning "thing that cleanses" is from late 14c. Old English had clænsere "priest."
closer (n.): "one who closes" anything, 1610s, agent noun from close (v.).
commiserate (v.): c. 1600, from Latin commiseratus, past participle of commiserari "to pity, bewail" (see commiseration). Related: Commiserated; commiserating. An Old English loan-translation of commiserate was efensargian.
commiseration (n.): 1580s, from Middle French commisération, from Latin commiserationem (nominative commiseratio) "act or fact of pitying," noun of action from past participle stem of commiserari "to pity," from com- intensive prefix (see com-) + miserari "bewail, lament," from miser "wretched" (see miser).