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banjo [banjo 词源字典]: banjo: [18] The origins of banjo are uncertain, but its likeliest source seems to be bandore, the name of a 16th-century stringed instrument similar to the lute. It has been argued that in the speech of Southern US blacks, amongst whom the banjo originated, bandore became banjo, perhaps under the influence of mbanza, a term for a similar instrument in the Kimbundu language of Northern Angola (although it might be more plausible to suggest that mbanza is the immediate source, altered by English-speakers more familiar with bandore). Bandore itself appears to be a variant of pandore or pandora, which comes from Greek pandoura ‘three-stringed lute’.

A more farreaching modification produced mandore, likewise a term for a lutelike instrument. The Italian version of the word, mandola, is familiar in English from its diminutive form, which has given us mandolin [18].
=> mandolin[banjo etymology, banjo origin, 英语词源]
flux: flux: [14] Flux denotes generally ‘flowing’, and comes from Latin fluxus, a derivative of the past participle of fluere ‘flow’. This verb, similar in form and meaning to English flow but in fact unrelated to it, is responsible for a very wide range of English words: its past participle has given us fluctuate [17], its present participle fluent [16] and a spectrum of derived forms, such as affluent, effluent [18], and influence, and other descendants include fluid [15] (literally ‘flowing’, from Latin fluidus), mellifluous (literally ‘flowing with honey’), superfluous [15], and fluvial [14] (from Latin fluvius ‘river’, a derivative of fluere).

Latin fluxus also produced the card-playing term flush [16].
=> affluent, effluent, fluctuate, fluent, fluid, influence, mellifluous, superfluous
god: god: [OE] Similar in form though it may be, and appropriate as the semantic connection would be, god is not etymologically related to good. It probably comes from an Indo-European *ghut-. This may be related to Sanskrit havate and Old Church Slavonic zovetu, both meaning ‘call’, and if so the underlying etymological meaning of god would be ‘that which is invoked’. The English word’s immediate ancestor was prehistoric Germanic *guth-, which also produced German gott, Dutch god, and Swedish and Danish gud.
hamburger: hamburger: [19] As its inherent beefiness amply demonstrates, the hamburger has nothing to do with ham. It originated in the German city and port of Hamburg. The fashioning of conveniently sized patties was a common way of dealing with minced beef in northern Europe and the Baltic in the 19th century, and it appears that German sailors or emigrants took the delicacy across the Atlantic with them to America.

There it was called a Hamburg steak or, using the German adjectival form, a Hamburger steak. That term is first recorded in the late 1880s, and by the first decade of the 20th century the steak had been dropped. By the 1930s the hamburger had become an American fast-food staple, and products similar in concept but with different ingredients inspired variations on its name: beefburger, cheeseburger, steakburger, and so on; and by the end of the decade plain burger was well established in the language.
like: like: English has a diverse group of words spelled like, but they all come ultimately from the same source. This was prehistoric Germanic *līkam ‘appearance, form, body’ (source also of the lych- of English lych-gate [15], which originally signified the gate through which a coffin was carried into a churchyard). From it was derived the verb *līkōjan, which passed into English as like.

It originally meant ‘please’, but by the 12th century had done a semantic somersault to ‘find pleasing’. The same Germanic *likam produced English alike, literally ‘similar in appearance’, whose Old Norse relative líkr was borrowed into English as the adjective like [12]. Its adverbial and prepositional uses developed in the later Middle Ages. Also from Old Norse came the derived adjective likely [13].

English each and such were formed from the ancestor of like.
=> each, such
mildew: mildew: [OE] Mildew originally meant ‘honeydew’ (which is a sort of sticky substance exuded by aphids and similar insects on to leaves). It is a compound noun formed in the prehistoric Germanic period from *melith ‘honey’ (a relative of Latin mel ‘honey’, source of English mellifluous and molasses) and *daw-waz, ancestor of English dew. The metaphorical transference from ‘honey-dew’ to a less pleasant, fungal growth on plants, etc took place in the 14th century.
=> dew, mellifluous, molasses
pike: pike: English has two pikes now in common usage, which are probably ultimately the same word. Pike ‘spear’ [OE] goes back to an Old English pīc ‘pointed object’, which is closely related to English peak and pick ‘sharp implement’. It had various specific applications in Old and Middle English, now long defunct, including ‘pickaxe’, ‘spike’, ‘thorn’, ‘point of a shoe’, and ‘pitchfork’ (and pitchfork [13] itself was originally pickfork, a fork with ‘sharp points’; its current form, which emerged in the 16th century, is due to the association with ‘pitching’ or tossing hay on to a cart).

But the sense ‘weapon consisting of a long pole with a spike on top’ did not appear until the 16th century, partly inspired by the related Old French pique ‘pike’. Pike the fish [14] was probably also named with the descendant of Old English pīc, in allusion to its long pointed jaws (a similar inspiration can be seen in French brochet ‘pike’, a derivative of broche ‘spit’).
=> peak, pick, pitchfork
rosary: rosary: [14] Rosary comes from Latin rosārium ‘rose garden’, a derivative of rosa ‘rose’. It was a common conceit in the Middle Ages to name collections of verse or similar short pieces after bunches of flowers (anthology comes from the Greek word for ‘flower’, and a similar inspiration underlies florilegium, while a 13thcentury volume of the collected works of the Persian poet Sa’di was called the Rose garden).

That was the background against which a collection of Roman Catholic prayers, consisting of Aves, Paternosters, and Glorias, came to be known as a rosary. A string of beads of varying sizes came to be used for counting off how far one has got in saying these prayers (English bead itself comes from a word meaning ‘prayer’), and this too was termed rosary.
=> rose
sneeze: sneeze: [15] The Old English word for ‘sneeze’ was fnēsan, a distant relative of Greek pneuma ‘breath’ (source of English pneumatic). This survived into Middle English as fnese. The letters f and s were very similar in medieval script, so it could have played a part in the late 15th-century emergence of sneeze. Fnese had largely died out by the early 15th century, and it could well be that when printing got into full swing in the 1490s, with many old manuscript texts being reissued in printed form, printers unfamiliar with the old word fnese assumed it had the much more common initial consonant cluster sn-.

Another factor in the equation is the now obsolete verb neeze ‘sneeze’. This was borrowed in the 14th century from Old Norse hnósja, a descendant of the Indo-European base *ksneu-, which also produced German niesen, Dutch niezen, Swedish nysa, Danish nyse, and Russian chikhat’ ‘sneeze’. It bridged the gap between fnese and sneeze, and the new sneeze no doubt struck people as a more expressive alternative to the old neeze. (Both fnese and neeze go back ultimately to an imitation of the sound of breathing, blowing, or sneezing.)
=> pneumatic
spike: spike: English has two etymologically distinct words spike, although they are so similar in meaning that they are commonly regarded as one and the same. Spike ‘long sharp piece’ [13] was probably borrowed from Middle Dutch spīker. It has another relative in Swedish spik ‘nail’, and goes back ultimately to prehistoric Germanic *speik-, *spaik- (source also of English spoke).

The spick of spick and span [17] is a variant of spike. The expression is an elaboration of an earlier span-new ‘brand-new’, which was borrowed from Old Norse spánnýr ‘as new as a new chip of wood’ (spánn ‘chip’ is related to English spoon, which originally meant ‘chip’). The spick was added in imitation of Dutch spiksplinter nieuw ‘spike-splinter new’. Spike ‘ear of corn, arrangement of flowers on a stalk similar to this’ [14] was borrowed from Latin spīca, a close relative of spīna ‘thorn’ (source of English spine). Spīca is also ultimately responsible for English spigot [14], perhaps via the diminutive spiculum; and it forms the first syllable of spikenard [14], the name of a sort of ancient aromatic ointment or of the plant that probably produced it.
=> spick; spigot, spine, spoke
sue: sue: [13] Sue, like its close relative pursue, originally meant ‘follow’ (‘My wickednesses ever follow me, as men may see the shadow a body sue’, Thomas Hoccleve, Complaint 1421). It comes via Anglo-Norman suer from Vulgar Latin *sequere ‘follow’, an alteration of Latin sequī ‘follow’ (source also of English consecutive, ensue [14], persecute, pursue, sequence, sect, set, suit, etc). Its legal use, which emerged in the 14th century, is based on the notion of ‘following’ up a matter in court (a similar inspiration underlies the related prosecute).
=> consecutive, ensue, persecute, prosecute, pursue, sect, sequence, set, suit
trench: trench: [14] A trench is etymologically something ‘cut’ or ‘sliced’. The word was borrowed from Old French trenche ‘slice, cutting, ditch’, a derivative of trenchier ‘cut’ (from which English gets trenchant [14]). And this in turn went back to Latin truncāre ‘cut, mutilate’ (source of English truncate [15]), a derivative of truncus ‘tree-trunk, torso’ (source of English trunk) – the semantic link being the ‘cutting’ of branches from a tree or of limbs from a body.

The sense ‘ditch’ for trench comes of course from the notion of ‘cutting’ a long narrow hole in the ground (a similar inspiration underlies cutting ‘excavation for a railway, road, etc’). Trencher ‘platter’ [14] came from the Anglo-Norman derivative trenchour, and originally denoted both a board for ‘cutting’ food up on and a ‘slice’ of bread used as a plate.
=> trenchant, trencher, truncate, trunk
clearing-house (n.): also clearinghouse, 1832, from clearing + house (n.). The original was established 1775 in London by the bankers for the adjustment of their mutual claims for checks and bills; later the word was extended to similar institutions.
conformity (n.): early 15c., conformyte, from Middle French conformité (14c.), from Late Latin conformitatem (nominative conformitas), from conformis "similar in shape," from conformare (see conform). Modern form is from 17c.
oral (adj.): 1620s, from Late Latin oralis, from Latin os (genitive oris) "mouth, opening, face, entrance," from PIE *os- "mouth" (cognates: Sanskrit asan "mouth," asyam "mouth, opening," Avestan ah-, Hittite aish, Middle Irish a "mouth," Old Norse oss "mouth of a river," Old English or "beginning, origin, front"). Psychological meaning "of the mouth as the focus of infantile sexual energy" (as in oral fixation) is from 1910. The sexual sense is first recorded 1948, in Kinsey. As a noun, "oral examination," attested from 1876. Related: Orally (c. 1600); orality. Os was the usual word for "mouth" in Latin, but as the vowel distinction was lost it became similar in sound to os "bone" (see osseous). Thus bucca, originally "cheek" but used colloquial as "mouth," because the usual word for "mouth" (see bouche).
recycling (n.): 1924, verbal noun from recycle (v.). Originally a technical term in oil-refining and similar industries; its broader consumer sense dates from 1960.
tabloid (n.): 1884, Tabloid, "small tablet of medicine," trademark name (by Burroughs, Wellcome and Co.) for compressed or concentrated chemicals and drugs, a hybrid formed from tablet + Greek-derived suffix -oid. By 1898, it was being used figuratively to mean a compressed form or dose of anything, hence tabloid journalism (1901), and newspapers that typified it (1917), so called for having short, condensed news articles and/or for being small in size. Associated originally with Alfred C. Harmsworth, editor and proprietor of the "London Daily Mail."
Mr. Harmsworth entered a printing office twenty years ago as office-boy, and today owns thirty periodicals besides The Mail. Upon a friendly challenge from Mr. Pulitzer of The New York World, the English journalist issued the first number of The World for the new century in the ideal form. The size of the page was reduced to four columns and the general make-up was similar in appearance to that of one of the weekly magazines. Current news was presented in condensed and tabulated form, of which the editor says: "The world enters today upon the twentieth or time-saving century. I claim that by my system of condensed or tabloid journalism hundreds of working hours can be saved each year." ["The Twentieth Century Newspaper," in "The Social Gospel," February 1901]
otaku: "(In Japan) a young person who is obsessed with computers or particular aspects of popular culture to the detriment of their social skills", Japanese, literally 'your house', in formal speech also meaning 'you', used by some anime and manga fans as an affectedly formal way of addressing others with similar interests.