英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

ambulance [ambulance 词源字典]: ambulance: [19] Originally, ambulance was a French term for a field hospital – that is, one set up at a site convenient for a battlefield, and capable of being moved on to the next battlefield when the army advanced (or retreated). In other words, it was an itinerant hospital, and the ultimate source of the term is the Latin verb ambulāre ‘walk’ (as in amble). The earliest recorded term for such a military hospital in French was the 17th-century hôpital ambulatoire.

This was later replaced by hôpital ambulant, literally ‘walking hospital’, and finally, at the end of the 18th century, by ambulance. This sense of the word had died out by the late 19th century, but already its attributive use, in phrases such as ambulance cart and ambulance wagon, had led to its being used for a vehicle for carrying the wounded or sick.
=> acid, alacrity, amble, perambulator[ambulance etymology, ambulance origin, 英语词源]
anathema: anathema: [16] Originally in Greek anáthēma was a ‘votive offering’ (it was a derivative of the compound verb anatithénai ‘set up, dedicate’, formed from the prefix ana- ‘up’ and the verb tithénai ‘place’, source of English theme and related to English do). But from being broadly ‘anything offered up for religious purposes’, the word gradually developed negative associations of ‘something dedicated to evil’; and by the time it reached Latin it meant ‘curse’ or ‘accursed person’.
=> do, theme
boycott: boycott: [19] The word boycott sprang into general use in the year 1880, to describe the activities of the Irish Land League. This was an organization set up in 1879 by the Irish nationalist Michael Davitt to press for agrarian reforms, rent reductions, etc. Those who did not agree with its aims, it subjected to an organized campaign of ostracism. One of the first to suffer from this was one Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott (1832–97), a British estate manager in County Mayo. Hence ‘to boycott’, which became a buzzword of the early 1880s, was quickly adopted by other European languages, and has remained in current use ever since.
burke: burke: [19] In present-day English burke means ‘avoid’, as in ‘burke an issue’, but it can be traced back semantically via ‘suppress, hush up’ to ‘suffocate so as to provide a body for surgical dissection’. In this sense it was a macabre adoption of the name of William Burke (1792– 1829), an Irishman who with his colleague William Hare set up a profitable but nefarious business in early 19th-century Edinburgh providing cadavers for surgeons to dissect.

To begin with they obtained their supplies by robbing graves, but eventually, in order to get higher-quality material, they took to murdering people, generally by suffocation or strangling. Burke was executed.
butt: butt: There are no fewer than four distinct words butt in English. The oldest, ‘hit with the head’ [12], comes via Anglo-Norman buter from Old French boter. This can be traced back through Vulgar Latin *bottāre ‘thrust’ (source of English button) to a prehistoric Germanic *buttan. Old French boter produced a derivative boteret ‘thrusting’, whose use in the phrase ars boterez ‘thrusting arch’ was the basis of English buttress [13]. Butt ‘barrel’ [14] comes via Anglo-Norman but and Old French bot or bout from late Latin buttis ‘cask’ (a diminutive form of which was the basis of English bottle).

A derivative of the Anglo-Norman form was buterie ‘storeroom for casks of alcohol’, from which English gets buttery ‘food shop in a college’ [14]. Butt ‘target’ [14] probably comes from Old French but ‘goal, shooting target’, but the early English sense ‘mound on which a target is set up’ suggests association also with French butte ‘mound, knoll’ (which was independently borrowed into English in the 19th century as a term for the isolated steep-sided hills found in the Western states of the USA). Butt ‘thick end’ [15], as in ‘rifle butt’ and ‘cigarette butt’, appears to be related to other Germanic words in the same general semantic area, such as Low German butt ‘blunt’ and Middle Dutch bot ‘stumpy’, and may well come ultimately from the same base as produced buttock [13]. (The colloquial American sense of butt, ‘buttocks’, originated in the 15th century.) The verb abut [15] comes partly from Anglo- Latin abuttāre, a derivative of hutta ‘ridge or strip of land’, which may be related to English butt ‘thick end’, and partly from Old French aboter, a derivative of boter, from which English gets butt ‘hit with the head’.
=> button, buttress; bottle, butler, butte, début; buttock, abut
constitute: constitute: [15] Etymologically, that which is constituted is that which is ‘caused to stand’ or ‘set up’. The word comes from the past participle of Latin constituere ‘fix, establish’, a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix com- and statuere ‘set up’ (source of English statute). This was a derivative of Latin status (whence English state and status), which itself began life as the past participle of stāre ‘stand’ (a relative of English stand). The derivative constituent [17] comes (partly via French) from the Latin present participle constituēns.
=> stand, statue, status, statute
erect: erect: [14] Erect was borrowed from Latin ērectus, the past participle of ērigere ‘raise up, set up’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out, up’ and regere ‘keep straight, set, direct’ (source of English regent, region, etc). The use of the derivative erection [15] for the enlargement of the penis dates from the 16th century.
=> correct, direct, regent, region
institute: institute: [15] An institute is etymologically something ‘established’ or ‘set up’. Its ancestor is Latin instituere ‘establish’, a compound verb formed from the prefix in- and statuere ‘set up’ (itself a derivative of stāre ‘stand’ and source of English prostitute, statute, etc). The noun derived from this was institūtum, which meant ‘purpose, plan, practice’.

Word and senses were taken over as a package by English, but these meanings are now dead or dying, having been taken over since the 19th century by ‘organization that promotes a particular cause or pursuit’ (this originated in French at the end of the 18th century). The verb institute, however, remains far closer to the original Latin meaning.
=> prostitute, stand, station, statute
lynch: lynch: [19] This verb for ‘punishing someone without an official trial’ owes its existence to one William Lynch, a planter and justice of the peace of Pittsylvania, Virginia, USA, who at the beginning of the 19th century took it upon himself to set up unofficial tribunals to try suspects. His rough and ready method of administering justice was termed Lynch’s law, later lynch law, and the verb followed in the 1830s.
police: police: [16] Etymologically, the police are in charge of the administration of a ‘city’. In fact, police is essentially the same word as policy ‘plan of action’. Both go back to Latin polītīa ‘civil administration’, a descendant of Greek pólis ‘city’. In medieval Latin a variant polītia emerged, which became French police.

English took it over, and at first continued to use it for ‘civil administration’ (Edmund Burke as late as 1791 described the Turks as ‘a barbarous nation, with a barbarous neglect of police, fatal to the human race’). Its specific application to the administration of public order emerged in France in the early 18th century, and the first body of public-order officers to be named police in England was the Marine Police, a force set up around 1798 to protect merchandise in the Port of London.
=> politics
scaffold: scaffold: [14] Historically, scaffold and catafalque [17] ‘coffin-stand’ are virtually the same word. Catafalque comes via French catafalque and Italian catafalco from Vulgar Latin *catafalcum, a word of uncertain origin. Combination with the prefix ex- produced *excatafalcum, which passed into English via Old French eschaffaut and Anglo-Norman *scaffaut.

The word originally denoted any sort of platform, and did not narrow down to ‘platform for executions’ until the 16th century. The derivative scaffolding, a term which originally alluded to the platforms set up around a building rather than to poles supporting them, also dates from the 14th century.
=> catafalque
statue: statue: [14] A statue is etymologically something that has been ‘set up’ or ‘erected’. The word comes via Old French statue from Latin statua, a derivative of statuere ‘cause to stand, erect, establish’ (source of English constitute, destitute [14], institute, prostitute, restitution [13], statute [13], and substitute [16]).

This in turn was formed from status (source of English state and status), the past participle of Latin stāre ‘stand’ (source of English contrast [16], cost, stage, station, stay, etc). And stāre came ultimately from the Indo-European base *stā- ‘stand’, which is also the ancestor of English stable, stand, stead, stem, etc.

Amongst the host of other English words that come from the prolific Latin stāre are (via its present participle stāns) circumstance [13], constant, distant, instant, stance, stanza, substance, etc, and (via the derivative sistere ‘stand’) assist, consist, desist [15], exist, insist [16], persist [16], and resist [14].
=> assist, circumstance, consist, constant, contrast, cost, desist, destitute, distant, estate, exist, insist, instant, institute, persist, prostitute, resist, restitution, stable, stance, stand, stanza, state, station, statistic, status, statute, stay, stead, stem, stoic, substance, substitute
tent: tent: [13] A tent is etymologically something that is ‘stretched’ – over a frame to provide shelter. The word comes via Old French tente from Vulgar Latin *tenta, a noun derived from the past participial stem of Latin tendere ‘stretch’ (source of English tend, tendency, etc). It was supposedly inspired by the expression pelles tendere, literally ‘stretch skins’, that is, ‘stretch animal hides over a framework to make a tent’, which was used metaphorically for ‘set up a camp’.
=> tend
anathema (n.): 1520s, "an accursed thing," from Latin anathema "an excommunicated person; the curse of excommunication," from Greek anathema "a thing accursed," originally "a thing devoted," literally "a thing set up (to the gods)," from ana- "up" (see ana-) + tithenai "to put, place" (see theme).

Originally simply a votive offering, by the time it reached Latin the meaning had progressed through "thing devoted to evil," to "thing accursed or damned." Later applied to persons and the Divine Curse. Meaning "formal act or formula of consigning to damnation" is from 1610s.

Anathema maranatha, taken as an intensified form, is a misreading of the Syriac maran etha "the Lord hath come," which follows anathema in I Cor. xvi:22, but is not connected with it (see Maranatha).
ARPANET: acronym from Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, set up in 1969 by a branch of the U.S. Department of Defense in partnership with four universities; acknowledged as "the world's first operational packet switching network" and predecessor of the Internet.
barricade (v.): 1590s, from Middle French barricader "to barricade" (1550s), from barrique "barrel," from Spanish barrica "barrel," from baril (see barrel). Revolutionary associations began during 1588 Huguenot riots in Paris, when large barrels filled with earth and stones were set up in the streets. Related: Barricaded; barricading.
Cheka: early Soviet secret police, 1921, from Russian initials of Chrezvychainaya Komissiya "Extraordinary Commission (for Combating Counter-Revolution);" set up 1917, superseded 1922 by G.P.U.
clarendon (n.): a thickened Roman type face, 1845, evidently named for the Clarendon press at Oxford University, which was set up 1713 in the Clarendon Building, named for university Chancellor Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon.
Cointreau (n.): orange-flavored liqueur, named for founders Adolphe and Edouard-Jean Cointreau, brothers from Angers, France, who set up Cointreau Distillery in 1849. The orange liqueur dates from 1875.
commune (n.): 1792, from French commune "small territorial divisions set up after the Revolution," from Middle French commune "free city, group of citizens" (12c.), from Medieval Latin communia, noun use of neuter plural of Latin adjective communis, literally "that which is common," from communis (see common (adj.)). The Commune of Paris usurped the government during the Reign of Terror. The word later was applied to a government on communalistic principles set up in Paris in 1871. Adherents of the 1871 government were Communards.
constitute (v.): mid-15c., verb use of adjective constitute, "made up, formed" (late 14c.), from Latin constitutus "arranged, settled," past participle adjective from constituere "to cause to stand, set up, fix, place, establish, set in order; form something new; resolve," of persons, "to appoint to an office," from com-, intensive prefix (see com-), + statuere "to set," from PIE root *sta- "to stand," with derivatives meaning "place or thing that is standing" (see stet). Related: Constituted; constituting.
dollar (n.): 1550s, from Low German daler, from German taler (1530s, later thaler), abbreviation of Joachimstaler, literally "(gulden) of Joachimstal," coin minted 1519 from silver from mine opened 1516 near Joachimstal, town in Erzgebirge Mountains in northwest Bohemia. German Tal is cognate with English dale.

The thaler was a large silver coin of varying value in the German states (and a unit of the German monetary union of 1857-73 equal to three marks); it also served as a currency unit in Denmark and Sweden. English colonists in America used the word in reference to Spanish pieces of eight. Due to extensive trade with the Spanish Indies and the proximity of Spanish colonies along the Gulf Coast, the Spanish dollar was probably the coin most familiar in the American colonies and the closest thing to a standard in all of them; it was used in the government's records of public debt and expenditures; it had the added advantage of not being British. The Continental Congress in 1786 adopted dollar as a unit when it set up the modern U.S. currency system, which was based on the suggestion of Gouverneur Morris (1782) as modified by Thomas Jefferson. None were circulated until 1794 .
When William M. Evarts was Secretary of State he accompanied Lord Coleridge on an excursion to Mount Vernon. Coleridge remarked that he had heard it said that Washington, standing on the lawn, could throw a dollar clear across the Potomac. Mr. Evarts explained that a dollar would go further in those days than now. [Walsh]
Phrase dollars to doughnuts attested from 1890; dollar diplomacy is from 1910. The dollar sign ($) is said to derive from the image of the Pillars of Hercules, stamped with a scroll, on the Spanish piece of eight. However, according to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing of the U.S. Department of the Treasury:
[T]he most widely accepted explanation is that the symbol is the result of evolution, independently in different places, of the Mexican or Spanish "P's" for pesos, or piastres, or pieces of eight. The theory, derived from a study of old manuscripts, is that the "S" gradually came to be written over the "P," developing a close equivalent of the "$" mark. It was widely used before the adoption of the United States dollar in 1785.
dolmen (n.): 1859, from French dolmin applied 1796 by French general and antiquarian Théophile Malo Corret de La Tour d'Auvergne (1743-1800), perhaps from Cornish tolmen "enormous stone slab set up on supporting points," such that a man may walk under it, literally "hole of stone," from Celtic men "stone."

Some suggest the first element may be Breton taol "table," a loan-word from Latin tabula "board, plank," but the Breton form of this compound would be taolvean. "There is reason to think that this [tolmen] is the word inexactly reproduced by Latour d'Auvergne as dolmin, and misapplied by him and succeeding French archaeologists to the cromlech" [OED]. See cromlech, which is properly an upright flat stone, often arranged as one of a circle.
domino (n.): 1801, from French domino (1771), perhaps (on comparison of the black tiles of the game) from the meaning "hood with a cloak worn by canons or priests" (1690s), from Latin dominus "lord, master" (see domain), but the connection is not clear. Klein thinks it might be directly from dominus, "because he who has first disposed his pieces becomes 'the master.' " Metaphoric use in geopolitics is from April 1954, first used by U.S. President Eisenhower in a "New York Times" piece, in reference to what happens when you set up a row of dominos and knock the first one down.
dress (v.): early 14c., "make straight; direct, guide, control, prepare for cooking," from Old French dresser, drecier "raise (oneself), address, prepare, lift, raise, hoist, set up, arrange, set (a table), serve (food), straighten, put right, direct," from Vulgar Latin *directiare, from Latin directus "direct, straight" (see direct (v.)).

Sense of "decorate, adorn" is late 14c., as is that of "put on clothing." Original sense survives in military meaning "align columns of troops." Dress up "attire elaborately" is from 1670s; dressing down "wearing clothes less formal than expected" is from 1960. To dress (someone) down (1769) is ironical. Related: Dressed; dressing.
duma (n.): Russian national assembly, 1870 (in reference to city councils; the national one was set up in 1905), literally "thought," from a Germanic source (compare Gothic doms "judgment," English doom, deem).
erect (adj.): late 14c., "upright, not bending," from Latin erectus "upright, elevated, lofty; eager, alert, aroused; resolute; arrogant," past participle of erigere "raise or set up," from e- "up, out of" + regere "to direct, keep straight, guide" (see regal).
erectile (adj.): 1822, "pertaining to muscular erection," from French érectile, from Latin erect-, past participle stem of erigere "to raise or set up" (see erect (adj.)).
erection (n.): mid-15c., "establishment; advancement," from Late Latin erectionem (nominative erectio), noun of action from past participle stem of erigere "to set up, erect" (see erect (adj.)). Meanings "the putting up" (of a building, etc.), "stiffening of the penis" (also sometimes of the turgidity and rigidity of the clitoris) are both from 1590s.
establish (v.): late 14c., from Old French establiss-, present participle stem of establir "cause to stand still, establish, stipulate, set up, erect, build" (12c., Modern French établir), from Latin stabilire "make stable," from stabilis "stable" (see stable (adj.)). For the excrescent e-, see e-. Related: Established; establishing. An established church or religion is one sanctioned by the state.
explore (v.): 1580s, "to investigate, examine," a back-formation from exploration, or else from Middle French explorer (16c.), from Latin explorare "investigate, search out, examine, explore," said to be originally a hunters' term meaning "set up a loud cry," from ex- "out" (see ex-) + plorare "to weep, cry." Compare deplore. Second element also is explained as "to make to flow," from pluere "to flow." Meaning "to go to a country or place in quest of discoveries" is first attested 1610s. Related: Explored; exploring.
firm (v.): c. 1300, fermen "make firm, establish," from Old French fermer "consolidate; fasten, secure; build, set up; fortify" (12c.) or directly from Latin firmare "make firm; affirm; strengthen, fortify, sustain; establish, prove, declare," from firmus "strong, steadfast, stable" (see firm (adj.)). Intransitive use, "become firm" is from 1879; with up (adv.) from 1956. Related: Firmed; firming.
flat (n.): 1801, "a story of a house," from Scottish flat "floor or story of a house," from Old English flett "a dwelling; floor, ground," from the same source as flat (adj.). Meaning "floor or part of a floor set up as an apartment" is from 1824. Directly from flat (adj.) come the senses "level ground near water" (late 13c.); "a flat surface, the flat part of anything" (1374), and "low shoe" (1834).
Gallup poll: 1940, from George H. Gallup (1901-1984), U.S. journalist and statistician, who in 1935 set up the American Institute of Public Opinion.
Gestapo: Nazi secret state police, 1934, from German Gestapo, contracted from "Geheime Staats-polizei," literally "secret state police," set up by Hermann Göring in Prussia in 1933, extended to all Germany in January 1934.
gulag (n.): system of prisons and labor camps, especially for political detainees, in the former Soviet Union; rough acronym from Russian Glavnoe upravlenie ispravitel'no-trudovykh lagerei "Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps," set up in 1931.
histo-: medical word-forming element, from Greek histos "warp, web," literally "anything set upright," from histasthai "to stand," from PIE *sta- "to stand" (see stet). Taken by 19c. medical writers as the best Greek root from which to form terminology for "tissue."
Hollywood: region near Los Angeles, named for the ranch that once stood there, which was named by Deida Wilcox, wife of Horace H. Wilcox, Kansas City real estate man, when they moved there in 1886. They began selling off building lots in 1891 and the village was incorporated in 1903. Once a quiet farming community, by 1910 barns were being converted into movie studios. The name was used generically for "American movies" from 1926, three years after the giant sign was set up, originally Hollywoodland, another real estate developer's promotion.
institute (v.): early 14c., "to establish in office, appoint," from Latin institutus, past participle of instituere "to set up," from in- "in" (see in- (2)) + statuere "establish, to cause to stand," from PIE root *sta- "to stand," with derivatives meaning "place or thing that is standing" (see stet). General sense of "set up, found, introduce" first attested late 15c. Related: Instituted; instituting.
landmark (n.): Old English landmearc, from land (n.) + mearc (see mark (n.1)). Originally "object set up to mark the boundaries of a kingdom, estate, etc.;" general sense of "conspicuous object in a landscape" is from 1560s. Modern figurative sense of "event, etc., considered a high point in history" is from 1859.
law (n.): Old English lagu (plural laga, comb. form lah-) "law, ordinance, rule, regulation; district governed by the same laws," from Old Norse *lagu "law," collective plural of lag "layer, measure, stroke," literally "something laid down or fixed," from Proto-Germanic *lagan "put, lay" (see lay (v.)).

Replaced Old English æ and gesetnes, which had the same sense development as law. Compare also statute, from Latin statuere; German Gesetz "law," from Old High German gisatzida; Lithuanian istatymas, from istatyti "set up, establish." In physics, from 1660s. Law and order have been coupled since 1796.
living room (n.): "room set up for ordinary social use," 1795 (as opposed to bedroom, dining room, etc.); from living (n.) + room (n.).
lodge (v.): c. 1200, loggen, "to encamp, set up camp;" c. 1300 "to put in a certain place," from Old French logier "lodge; find lodging for" (Modern French loger), from loge (see lodge (n.)). From late 14c. as "to dwell, live; to have temporary accomodations; to provide (someone) with sleeping quarters; to get lodgings." Sense of "to get a thing in the intended place, to make something stick" is from 1610s. Related: Lodged; lodging.
Medicaid: 1966, U.S. medical assistance program set up by Title XIX of the Social Security Act of 1965. See medical + aid (n.).
mounted (adj.): 1580s, "on horseback," past participle adjective from mount (v.). From 1854 as "set up for display."
NASA: U.S. space agency, acronym of National Aeronautics and Space Administration, set up in 1958.
NATO: acronym of North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which was set up in 1949.
open (adj.): Old English open "not closed down, raised up" (of gates, eyelids, etc.), also "exposed, evident, well-known, public," often in a bad sense, "notorious, shameless;" from Proto-Germanic *upana, literally "put or set up" (cognates: Old Norse opinn, Swedish öppen, Danish aaben, Old Saxon opan, Old Frisian epen, Old High German offan, German offen "open"), from PIE *upo "up from under, over" (cognates: Latin sub, Greek hypo; see sub-). Related to up, and throughout Germanic the word has the appearance of a past participle of *up (v.), but no such verb has been found. The source of words for "open" in many Indo-European languages seems to be an opposite of the word for "closed, shut" (such as Gothic uslukan).

Of physical spaces, "unobstructed, unencumbered," c. 1200; of rooms with unclosed entrances, c. 1300; of wounds, late 14c. Transferred sense of "frank, candid" is attested from early 14c. Of shops, etc., "available for business," it dates from 1824. Open door in reference to international trading policies is attested from 1856. Open season is first recorded 1896, of game; and figuratively 1914 of persons. Open book in the figurative sense of "person easy to understand" is from 1853. Open house "hospitality for all visitors" is first recorded 1824. Open-and-shut "simple, straightforward" first recorded 1841 in New Orleans. Open marriage, one in which the partners sleep with whomever they please, is from 1972. Open road (1817, American English) originally meant a public one; romanticized sense of "traveling as an expression of personal freedom" first recorded 1856, in Whitman.
pasquinade (n.): "a lampoon," 1650s, from Middle French, from Italian pasquinata (c. 1500), from Pasquino, name given to a mutilated ancient statue (now known to represent Menelaus dragging the dead Patroclus) set up by Cardinal Caraffa in his palace in Rome in 1501; the locals named it after a schoolmaster (or tailor, or barber) named Pasquino who lived nearby. A custom developed of posting satirical verses and lampoons on the statue.
peace (n.): mid-12c., "freedom from civil disorder," from Anglo-French pes, Old French pais "peace, reconciliation, silence, permission" (11c., Modern French paix), from Latin pacem (nominative pax) "compact, agreement, treaty of peace, tranquility, absence of war" (source of Provençal patz, Spanish paz, Italian pace), from PIE *pag-/*pak- "fasten," related to pacisci "to covenant or agree" (see pact).

Replaced Old English frið, also sibb, which also meant "happiness." Modern spelling is 1500s, reflecting vowel shift. Sense in peace of mind is from c. 1200. Used in various greetings from c. 1300, from Biblical Latin pax, Greek eirene, which were used by translators to render Hebrew shalom, properly "safety, welfare, prosperity."

Sense of "quiet" is attested by 1300; meaning "absence or cessation of war or hostility" is attested from c. 1300. As a type of hybrid tea rose (developed 1939 in France by François Meilland), so called from 1944. Native American peace pipe is first recorded 1760. Peace-officer attested from 1714. Peace offering is from 1530s. Phrase peace with honor first recorded 1607 (in "Coriolanus"). The U.S. Peace Corps was set up March 1, 1962. Peace sign, both the hand gesture and the graphic, attested from 1968.