acheyoudaoicibaDictYouDict[ache 词源字典]
ache: [OE] Of the noun ache and the verb ache, the verb came first. In Old English it was acan. From it was formed the noun, æce or ece. For many centuries, the distinction between the two was preserved in their pronunciation: in the verb, the ch was pronounced as it is now, with a /k/ sound, but the noun was pronounced similarly to the letter H, with a /ch/ sound.

It was not until the early 19th century that the noun came regularly to be pronounced the same way as the verb. It is not clear what the ultimate origins of ache are, but related forms do exist in other Germanic languages (Low German āken, for instance, and Middle Dutch akel), and it has been conjectured that there may be some connection with the Old High German exclamation (of pain) ah.

[ache etymology, ache origin, 英语词源]
alma materyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
alma mater: [17] Alma mater literally means ‘mother who fosters or nourishes’. The Latin adjective almus ‘giving nourishment’, derives from the verb alere ‘nourish’ (source of English alimony and alimentary). The epithet alma mater was originally applied by the Romans to a number of goddesses whose particular province was abundance, notably Ceres and Cybele.

In the 17th century it began to be used in English with reference to a person’s former school or college, thought of as a place of intellectual and spiritual nourishment (Alexander Pope was amongst its earliest users, although the reference is far from kind: ‘Proceed, great days! ’till Learning fly the shore … ’Till Isis’ Elders reel, their pupils’ sport, And Alma mater lie dissolv’d in Port!’ Dunciad 1718).

If that which nourishes is almus, those who are nourished are alumni (similarly derived from the verb alere). Alumnus was first applied in English to a pupil – and more specifically a former pupil or graduate – in the 17th century; an early reference combines the notions of alumnus and alma mater: ‘Lieutenant Governor … promised his Interposition for them, as become such an Alumnus to such an Alma Mater’, William Sewall’s Diary 12 October 1696.

The first example of the feminine form, alumna, comes in the 1880s.

=> alimentary, alimony, alumnus
alsoyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
also: [OE] Also was a late Old English compound formed from all ‘exactly, even’ and swa ‘so’; it meant ‘in just this way, thus’, and hence (recalling the meaning of German also ‘therefore’) ‘similarly’. These two uses died out in, respectively, the 15th and 17th centuries, but already by the 13th century ‘similarly’ was developing into the current sense ‘in addition’. As came from also in the 12th century. In Old English, the notion of ‘in addition’ now expressed by also was verbalized as eke.
=> as
atoneyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
atone: [16] As its spelling suggests, but its pronunciation disguises, atone comes from the phrase at one ‘united, in harmony’, lexicalized as atone in early modern English. It may have been modelled on Latin adūnāre ‘unite’, which was similarly compounded from ad ‘to, at’ and ūnum ‘one’.
=> at, one
bowdlerizeyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
bowdlerize: [19] In 1818 Dr Thomas Bowdler (1754–1825), an English editor, published his Family Shakespeare, an expurgated edition of the plays ‘in which those words and expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family’. This and other similarly censored versions of the English classics led to Bowdler’s name being cast as the epitome of Whitehousian suppression. The first recorded use of the verb was in a letter by General P Thompson in 1836.
cactusyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
cactus: [17] Cactus comes via Latin from Greek káktos, which was the name of the cardoon, a plant of the thistle family with edible leafstalks. Cactus originally had that meaning in English too, and it was not until the 18th century that the Swedish botanist Linnaeus applied the term to a family of similarly prickly plants.
careenyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
careen: [16] Careen comes ultimately from carīna, the Latin word for a ‘nutshell’, which is related to Greek káruon ‘nut’ and Sanskrit kárakas ‘coconut’. The idea of a ‘nut’ as a metaphor for a ‘boat’ is a fairly obvious one (shell is similarly used for a ‘rowing boat’), and the Latin word came to be used for a ‘ship’s keel’, the raised seam of a walnut perhaps suggesting the line of the timber along the ship’s bottom.

It passed via the Genoese dialect carena into French, where a vessel en carène was turned over on its side so that its keel was exposed; hence the verb. The equation of careen with career ‘go wildly’ is 20th-century and of American origin.

cobyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
cob: [15] Cob has a bizarre range of meanings – ‘nut’, ‘horse’, ‘male swan’, ‘loaf’, ‘ear of maize’ – but a distillation of them points back to an original ‘head, or something similarly rounded’ (cobnuts and cobloaves, for example, are spherical, and the male swan is the ‘chief’ or ‘leader’). It is therefore tempting to see a connection with the now obsolete cop ‘top, head’ (probably represented in cobweb), and even with Latin caput ‘head’.
=> cobble
draweryoudaoicibaDictYouDict
drawer: [16] A drawer is literally something that is ‘drawn’ or ‘pulled’ out. The coinage was perhaps based on French tiroir ‘drawer’, which was similarly derived from the verb tirer ‘pull’. The same basic notion underlies the formation of drawers [16], a superannuated term for ‘knickers’, which were originally ‘garment pulled on’.
fenceyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
fence: [14] Fence is short for defence, and indeed until the 16th century meant ‘defence’ (‘Yet, for [that is, despite] the fence that he could make, she struck it from his hand’, Felon Sowe Rokeby 1500). Of its present-day meanings, ‘enclosing structure’ (originally a ‘defence’ against intruders) and ‘sword-fighting’ (originally the use of a sword for ‘self-defence’, now used only as a verb) developed in the 16th century.

The sense ‘dealer in stolen property’ came along in the 17th century; it arose from the notion that such transactions are carried out under the cover, or ‘defence’, of secrecy. Similarly, fend [13] and fender [15] came by loss of the initial syllable from defend.

=> defence, fend, fender
forgeyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
forge: Forge ‘make’ [13] and forge ahead [17] are two quite distinct and unrelated words in English. The former’s now common connotation of ‘faking’ is in fact a purely English development (dating from the late 14th century) in a word whose relatives in other languages (such as French forger) mean simply ‘make – especially by working heated metal’. It comes via Old French forger from Latin fabricāre ‘make’ (source also of English fabricate, which has similarly dubious connotations).

The related noun forge goes back to Latin fabrica (whence also English fabric), amongst whose specialized senses was ‘blacksmith’s workshop’. Forge ‘move powerfully’, as in forge ahead, may be an alteration of force.

=> fabric
leftyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
left: [13] The Old English word for ‘left’ was winestra. Etymologically this meant ‘friendlier’ (it is related to Swedish vän ‘friend’), and its euphemistic application to ‘left’ is a reminder that historically the left-hand side of the body has been superstitiously regarded as of ill omen. To call it ‘friendly’ (a usage which survives in Swedish vänster and Danish venstre ‘left’) was an attempt to placate the evil forces of the left. (Latin sinister ‘left’ is similarly fraught with negative connotations.

It too had euphemistic origins – it came from a source meaning ‘more useful’ – and it developed the figurative senses ‘unfavourable’, ‘injurious’, etc, taken over and extended by English in sinister [15].) An ancestor of left existed in Old English – left or *lyft. But it meant ‘weak’ or ‘foolish’, and it was not until the 13th century that it came to be used as the partner of right.

Its ultimate origins are not known.

lungyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
lung: [OE] Lungs, insubstantial air-filled sacs, got their name because they weigh so little. It comes ultimately from Indo-European *lnggh-, a variant of which produced English light ‘not heavy’. In prehistoric Germanic this became *lungg-, which over the centuries has differentiated to German lunge, Dutch long, Swedish lunga, and English lung. The similarly motivated use of the word lights for ‘lungs’ dates from the 12th century; it is now restricted to ‘animals’ lungs used as food’, but it was formerly a general term.
=> light
recoveryoudaoicibaDictYouDict
recover: [14] Recover and recuperate [16] are ultimately the same word. Both come from Latin recuperāre ‘recover, regain’, a compound verb based on the stem cup- ‘take’ (a variant of which produced capere ‘take’, source of English captive, capture, etc). Recuperate itself was acquired directly from the Latin verb’s past participle, whereas recover was routed via Old French recoverer. (Re-cover ‘cover again’, spelled similarly but pronounced differently, also dates from the 14th century.)
=> captive, capture, recuperate
saxophoneyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
saxophone: [19] The saxophone commemorates the name of its inventor, the Belgian musical instrument maker Adolphe Sax (1814–94) (his real Christian names were Antoine Joseph). He seems to have devised it around 1840, and the term saxophone first appeared in English in 1851, in the catalogue of the Great Exhibition. His father Charles Joseph Sax (1791–1865) was also an instrument maker, and similarly had an instrument of his invention named after him – the saxhorn [19].
snuffyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
snuff: English has three words snuff, all probably going back ultimately to a prehistoric Germanic base *snuf-, imitative of the sound of drawing air noisily in through the nose. Snuff ‘powdered tobacco for inhaling’ [17] was borrowed from Dutch snuf. This was probably short for snuftabak, etymologically ‘sniff-tobacco’, which in turn was derived from Middle Dutch snuffen ‘sniff, snuffle’, source of English snuff ‘sniff’ [16].

That base *snuf- also produced English snuffle [16], probably borrowed from Low German or Dutch snuffelen, and snivel [14], which may go back to an unrecorded Old English *snyflan; and sniff [14], if not directly related, was certainly similarly inspired by the sound of sniffing. Snuff ‘put out a candle’ was derived in the 15th century from the noun snuff ‘burnt candlewick’ [14].

The origins of this are not known, but the fact that the now obsolete verb snot was once used for ‘put out a candle’ as well as ‘blow one’s nose’ suggests that this snuff too may ultimately have connections with the inner workings of the nose (possibly a perceived resemblance between an extinguished candlewick and a piece of nasal mucus), and with the base *snuf-. Snuff it ‘die’ is first recorded in the late 19th century.

=> snivel
stunyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
stun: [13] Stun is virtually the same word as astonish and astound, and like them it denotes etymologically ‘leave thunderstruck’. It comes via Anglo-Norman estuner from Vulgar Latin *extonāre ‘stupefy’. This was a compound verb, formed from the Latin intensive prefix ex- and tonāre ‘thunder’ (a relative of English thunder) and based on the model of Latin attonāre ‘stupefy’, similarly formed from tonāre but with the prefix ad-. The variant *astoner produced English astonish and astound.
=> astonish, astound, thunder
sympathyyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
sympathy: [16] Sympathy is etymologically ‘feeling with’ someone else. The word comes via Latin sympathīa from Greek sumpátheia, a derivative of sumpathés ‘feeling with or similarly to someone else’. This was a compound adjective formed from the prefix sun- ‘together, with, like’ and páthos ‘feeling’ (source of English pathetic [16], pathology [17], pathos [17], etc).
=> pathetic, pathology, pathos
wiseyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
wise: English has two distinct words wise, but they come from the same ultimate source: the Indo-European base *woid-, *weid-, *wid-. This denoted ‘see’, and hence ‘know’, and it also produced English idea, vision, and wit. From it was formed the past participial adjective *wīttos, which passed into prehistoric Germanic as *wīsaz ‘knowing things, learned’.

And this has since evolved into German weise, Dutch wijs, Swedish and Danish vis, and English wise. Wisdom [OE] and wizard are derivatives. Meanwhile, another derivative of the same prehistoric base was the Germanic noun *wīsōn, *wīsō, whose original meaning ‘appearance’ (going back to the ancestral ‘see’ of the base) had developed via ‘for, shape’ and ‘kind, sort’ to ‘way, manner’.

This produced German weise, Dutch wijze, Swedish and Danish vis (used largely in compounds and phrases), and English wise (similarly nowadays restricted mainly to compounds, such as likewise and otherwise). Guise is ultimately the same word, filtered through Old French.

=> guise, idea, vision, wit, wizard
also (adv.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
Old English eallswa "just as, even as, as if, so as, likewise," compound of all + so. The demonstrative sense of "similarly" weakened to "in addition to" in 12c., replacing eke. The compound has parallel forms in German also, Dutch alzoo.
Anglo (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
"American, English-speaking white person," 1941, southwestern U.S., from Anglo-American. Anglo was used similarly of native, English-speakers in Canada from 1800 and Britain from 1964.
bittersweet (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
also bitter-sweet, late 14c., used especially in Middle English in reference to a type of apple, from bitter (adj.) + sweet (adj.). As an adjective, attested from 1610s. Greek had a similarly formed compound, glykypikros, literally "sweet-bitter."
come (v.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
Old English cuman "come, approach, land; come to oneself, recover; arrive; assemble" (class IV strong verb; past tense cuom, com, past participle cumen), from Proto-Germanic *kwem- (cognates: Old Saxon cuman, Old Frisian kuma, Middle Dutch comen, Dutch komen, Old High German queman, German kommen, Old Norse koma, Gothic qiman), from PIE root *gwa-, *gwem- "to go, come" (cognates: Sanskrit gamati "he goes," Avestan jamaiti "goes," Tocharian kakmu "come," Lithuanian gemu "to be born," Greek bainein "to go, walk, step," Latin venire "to come").

The substitution of Middle English -o- for Old English -u- before -m-, -n-, or -r- was a scribal habit before minims to avoid misreading the letters in the old style handwriting, which jammed letters. The practice similarly transformed some, monk, tongue, worm. Modern past tense form came is Middle English, probably from Old Norse kvam, replacing Old English cuom.

Remarkably productive with prepositions (NTC's "Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs" lists 198 combinations); consider the varied senses in come to "regain consciousness," come over "possess" (as an emotion), come at "attack," come on (interj.) "be serious," and come off "occur." For sexual senses, see cum.
encore (interj.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
1712, from French encore "still, yet, again, also, furthermore" (12c.), generally explained as being from Vulgar Latin phrase *hinc ad horam "from then to this hour," or (in) hanc horam "(to) this hour" (Italian ancora "again, still, yet" is said to be a French loan-word).
Whenever any Gentlemen are particularly pleased with a Song, at their crying out Encore ... the Performer is so obliging as to sing it over again. [Steele, "Spectator" No. 314, 1712]



There appears to be no evidence that either the Fr. or It. word was ever similarly used in its native country. The corresponding word both in Fr. and It. is bis; in It. da capo was formerly used. [OED]
As a noun, from 1763; as a verb, from 1748. Related: Encored.
fold (n.2)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
"a bend or ply in anything," mid-13c., from fold (v.). Compare similarly formed Middle Dutch voude, Dutch vouw, Old High German falt, German Falte, Old Norse faldr.
follower (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
Old English folgere "retainer, servant, disciple; successor," agent noun from follow. Compare similarly formed Old Frisian folgere, Dutch volger, German Folger. Related: Followers.
foremost (adj.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
Middle English formest, from Old English fyrmest, formest "earliest, first, most prominent," from Proto-Germanic *furmista-/*frumista- (related to Old English fruma "beginning"), from PIE *pre-mo-, suffixed (superlative) form of root *per- (1) "forward, through; before; first" (see per) + additional superlative suffix -est. For the -m-, see -most, and compare similarly formed Old Frisian formest, Gothic frumists. Altered on the assumption that it is a compound of fore and most. The same compound without the superlative -m- is first. Also in Old English as an adverb, "first of all, at first, in the first place."
hag (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
early 13c., "repulsive old woman" (rare before 16c.), probably from Old English hægtes, hægtesse "witch, sorceress, enchantress, fury," shortened on the assumption that -tes was a suffix. The Old English word is from Proto-Germanic *hagatusjon, which is of unknown origin. Dutch heks, German Hexe "witch" are similarly shortened from cognate Middle Dutch haghetisse, Old High German hagzusa.

The first element probably is cognate with Old English haga "enclosure, portion of woodland marked off for cutting" (see hedge (n.)). Old Norse had tunriða and Old High German zunritha, both literally "hedge-rider," used of witches and ghosts. The second element in the prehistoric compound may be connected with Norwegian tysja "fairy; crippled woman," Gaulish dusius "demon," Lithuanian dvasia "spirit," from PIE *dhewes- "to fly about, smoke, be scattered, vanish."

One of the magic words for which there is no male form, suggesting its original meaning was close to "diviner, soothsayer," which were always female in northern European paganism, and hægtesse seem at one time to have meant "woman of prophetic and oracular powers" (Ælfric uses it to render the Greek "pythoness," the voice of the Delphic oracle), a figure greatly feared and respected. Later, the word was used of village wise women.

Haga is also the haw- in hawthorn, which is an important tree in northern European pagan religion. There may be several layers of folk etymology here. Confusion or blending with heathenish is suggested by Middle English hæhtis, hægtis "hag, witch, fury, etc.," and haetnesse "goddess," used of Minerva and Diana.

If the hægtesse once was a powerful supernatural woman (in Norse it is an alternative word for Norn, any of the three weird sisters, the equivalent of the Fates), it might originally have carried the hawthorn sense. Later, when the pagan magic was reduced to local scatterings, it might have had the sense of "hedge-rider," or "she who straddles the hedge," because the hedge was the boundary between the civilized world of the village and the wild world beyond. The hægtesse would have a foot in each reality. Even later, when it meant the local healer and root collector, living in the open and moving from village to village, it may have had the mildly pejorative Middle English sense of hedge- (hedge-priest, etc.), suggesting an itinerant sleeping under bushes. The same word could have contained all three senses before being reduced to its modern one.
Hezbollah (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
extremist Shiite group active in Lebanon, founded c. 1982, from Persian hezbollah, Arabic hizbullah, literally "Party of God," from hezb/hizb "party" + allah "God." An adherent is a Hezbollahi. The name of various Islamic groups in modern times, the name itself is attested in English by 1960 in referense to an Indonesian guerilla battalion of 1945 that "grew out of a similarly named organization formed by the Japanese to give training in military drill to young Moslems."
In Modjokuto (like Masjumi itself, Hizbullah was Indonesia-wide but, also like Masjumi, it had little effective central organization) this group was led by the present head of Muhammadijah -- the same man who a year or so before was going to Djakarta for propaganda training and studying to be a kamikaze. [Clifford Geertz, "The Religion of Java," Chicago, 1960]
-iayoudaoicibaDictYouDict
word-forming element in names of countries, diseases, flowers, from Latin and Greek -ia, which forms abstract nouns of feminine gender. In paraphernalia, Mammalia, etc. it represents the Latin and Greek plural suffix of nouns in -ium or -ion.

Chinese forms country names by adding guo "country" to the stressed syllable of the place name, hence Meiguo "America," from mei, the stressed syllable of America (minus -r-, which does not exist in Chinese). Similarly Yingguo "England," Faguo "France." Continent names are similarly formed, with zhou "continent" (such as Meizhou "America (continent)," Feizhou "Africa," Ouzhou "Europe").
landscape (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
c. 1600, "painting representing natural scenery," from Dutch landschap, from Middle Dutch landscap "region," from land "land" (see land) + -scap "-ship, condition" (see -ship). Originally introduced as a painters' term. Old English had cognate landscipe, and compare similarly formed Old High German lantscaf, German Landschaft, Old Norse landskapr. Meaning "tract of land with its distinguishing characteristics" is from 1886.
man (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
Old English man, mann "human being, person (male or female); brave man, hero; servant, vassal," from Proto-Germanic *manwaz (cognates: Old Saxon, Swedish, Dutch, Old High German man, German Mann, Old Norse maðr, Danish mand, Gothic manna "man"), from PIE root *man- (1) "man" (cognates: Sanskrit manuh, Avestan manu-, Old Church Slavonic mozi, Russian muzh "man, male").

Plural men (German Männer) shows effects of i-mutation. Sometimes connected to root *men- "to think" (see mind), which would make the ground sense of man "one who has intelligence," but not all linguists accept this. Liberman, for instance, writes, "Most probably man 'human being' is a secularized divine name" from Mannus [Tacitus, "Germania," chap. 2], "believed to be the progenitor of the human race."
So I am as he that seythe, `Come hyddr John, my man.' [1473]
Sense of "adult male" is late (c. 1000); Old English used wer and wif to distinguish the sexes, but wer began to disappear late 13c. and was replaced by man. Universal sense of the word remains in mankind and manslaughter. Similarly, Latin had homo "human being" and vir "adult male human being," but they merged in Vulgar Latin, with homo extended to both senses. A like evolution took place in Slavic languages, and in some of them the word has narrowed to mean "husband." PIE had two stems: *uiHro "freeman" (source of Sanskrit vira-, Lithuanian vyras, Latin vir, Old Irish fer, Gothic wair) and *hner "man," a title more of honor than *uiHro (source of Sanskrit nar-, Armenian ayr, Welsh ner, Greek aner).
MANTRAP, a woman's commodity. [Grose, "Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue," London, 1785]
Man also was in Old English as an indefinite pronoun, "one, people, they." The chess pieces so called from c. 1400. As an interjection of surprise or emphasis, first recorded c. 1400, but especially popular from early 20c. Man-about-town is from 1734; the Man "the boss" is from 1918. To be man or mouse "be brave or be timid" is from 1540s. Men's Liberation first attested 1970.
At the kinges court, my brother, Ech man for himself. [Chaucer, "Knight's Tale," c. 1386]
milk of magnesia (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
1880, proprietary name for white suspension of magnesium hydroxide in water, taken as an antacid, invented by U.S. chemist Charles Henry Phillips. Herbal or culinary preparations resembling milk had been similarly named (for example milk of almond) since early 15c.
oriole (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
1776, from French oriol "golden oriole," Old Provençal auriol, from Medieval Latin oryolus, from Latin aureolus "golden," from PIE *aus- (2) "gold" (see aureate). Originally in reference to the golden oriole (Oriolus galbula), a bird of black and yellow plumage that summers in Europe (but is uncommon in England). Applied from 1791 to the unrelated but similarly colored North American species Icterus baltimore.
paronomasia (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
"pun," 1570s, from Latin, from Greek paronomasia "play upon words which sound similarly," from paronomazein "to alter slightly, to call with slight change of name," literally "to name beside," from par- (see para- (1)) + onomasia "naming," from onoma "name" (see name (n.)).
paternoster (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
"the Lord's Prayer," Old English Pater Noster, from Latin pater noster "our father," first words of the Lord's Prayer in Latin. Meaning "set of rosary beads" first recorded mid-13c. Paternoster Row, near St. Paul's in London (similarly named streets are found in other cathedral cities), reflects the once-important industry of rosary bead-making.
rage (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
c. 1300, "madness, insanity; fit of frenzy; anger, wrath; fierceness in battle; violence of storm, fire, etc.," from Old French rage, raige "spirit, passion, rage, fury, madness" (11c.), from Medieval Latin rabia, from Latin rabies "madness, rage, fury," related to rabere "be mad, rave" (compare rabies, which originally had this sense), from PIE *rebh- "violent, impetuous" (cognates: Old English rabbian "to rage"). Similarly, Welsh (cynddaredd) and Breton (kounnar) words for "rage, fury" originally meant "hydrophobia" and are compounds based on the word for "dog" (Welsh ci, plural cwn; Breton ki). In 15c.-16c. it also could mean "rabies." The rage "fashion, vogue" dates from 1785.
similar (adj.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
"having characteristics in common," 1610s (earlier similary, 1560s), from French similaire, from a Medieval Latin extended form of Latin similis "like, resembling," from Old Latin semol "together," from PIE root *sem- (1) "one, as one, together with" (see same). The noun meaning "that which is similar" is from 1650s. Related: Similarly.
slave (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
late 13c., "person who is the chattel or property of another," from Old French esclave (13c.), from Medieval Latin Sclavus "slave" (source also of Italian schiavo, French esclave, Spanish esclavo), originally "Slav" (see Slav); so used in this secondary sense because of the many Slavs sold into slavery by conquering peoples.
This sense development arose in the consequence of the wars waged by Otto the Great and his successors against the Slavs, a great number of whom they took captive and sold into slavery. [Klein]
Meaning "one who has lost the power of resistance to some habit or vice" is from 1550s. Applied to devices from 1904, especially those which are controlled by others (compare slave jib in sailing, similarly of locomotives, flash bulbs, amplifiers). Slave-driver is attested from 1807; extended sense of "cruel or exacting task-master" is by 1854. Slate state in U.S. history is from 1812. Slave-trade is attested from 1734.

Old English Wealh "Briton" also began to be used in the sense of "serf, slave" c.850; and Sanskrit dasa-, which can mean "slave," apparently is connected to dasyu- "pre-Aryan inhabitant of India." Grose's dictionary (1785) has under Negroe "A black-a-moor; figuratively used for a slave," without regard to race. More common Old English words for slave were þeow (related to þeowian "to serve") and þræl (see thrall). The Slavic words for "slave" (Russian rab, Serbo-Croatian rob, Old Church Slavonic rabu) are from Old Slavic *orbu, from the PIE root *orbh- (also source of orphan), the ground sense of which seems to be "thing that changes allegiance" (in the case of the slave, from himself to his master). The Slavic word is also the source of robot.

thin (v.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
Old English þynnian "to make thin, lessen, dilute," also intransitive, "become thin," from thin (adj.). Intransitive sense of "to become less numerous" is attested from 1743; that of "to become thinner" is recorded from 1804. Compare similarly formed German dünnen, Dutch dunnen. Related: Thinned; thinning.
undated (adj.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
"left without indication of date," 1560s, from un- (1) "not" + past participle of date (v.1) "assign a date to." Compare similarly formed German undatirt, Dutch ongedateerd, Swedish odaterad.
underfoot (adv.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
c. 1200, underfot "under the feet," from under + foot (n.). Compare similarly formed Middle Dutch ondervoete. As an adjective, attested from 1590s; in reference to persons, "continually in the way," it is recorded from 1891. Middle English under fot meant "vanquished, overcome."
undergo (v.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
Old English undergan "obtain, get; undertake," from under + gan (see go (v.)). Compare similarly formed Middle Dutch ondergaen, Old High German untarkun, German untergehen, Danish undergaa. Sense of "submit to, endure" is attested from c. 1300. Meaning "to pass through" (an alteration, etc.) is attested from 1630s. Related: Undergone; underwent.
underlay (v.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
Old English under lecgan "to support by placing something beneath;" see under + lay (v.). Related: Underlaid; underlaying. Compare similarly formed Old High German Related: untarleccan, German unterlegen.
upheaval (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
1834 in reference to convulsions in society; 1836 in geology, from verb upheave (c. 1300, from up (adv.) + heave (v.)) + -al (2). Similarly formed verbs are Old Frisian upheva, Old High German ufhevan, German aufheben.
utterly (adv.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
early 13c., "truly, plainly, outspokenly," from utter (v.) + -ly (1); meaning "to an absolute degree" is late 14c., from utter (adj.)). Cf similarly formed German äusserlich. Old English uterlic (adj.) meant "external."
raggayoudaoicibaDictYouDict
"A style of dance music originating in Jamaica and derived from reggae, in which a DJ improvises lyrics over a sampled or electronic backing track", 1990s: from ragamuffin, because of the style of clothing worn by its followers. More rag from Middle English:A Scandinavian word for ‘tufted’ probably lies behind rag. In lose your rag (early 20th century) ‘to lose your temper’, rag is probably an old slang term for the tongue—the phrase was originally get your rag out. This sense of rag may well be behind the student rag or prank, found from the early 19th century, and the dated verb meaning ‘to tease, play a joke on’. From rags to riches describes someone's rise from a state of extreme poverty to great wealth, as in a fairytale like Cinderella. The concept is ancient, but the phrase was not recorded until the late 19th century, when a play called From Rags to Riches was mentioned in a US newspaper. A group of people regarded as disreputable or undesirable may be described as ragtag and bobtail. Bobtail (early 17th century) was an established term for a horse or dog with a docked tail, but rag and tag (LME of unknown origin) were separate words conveying the same meaning of ‘tattered or ragged clothes’. Putting them together gives you the literal sense of ‘people in ragged clothes together with their dogs and horses’. In one traditional folk song a lady leaves her house, land, and ‘new-wedded lord’ to run away with ‘the raggle-taggle gypsies’. Raggle-taggle (late 19th century) here is an elaboration of ragtag. Similarly ragamuffin is probably an elaboration of rag. The word is found once c.1400 as the name of a devil, but then not until 1586. The 1990s term ragga for a style of dance music is taken from ragamuffin, because of the style of clothing worn by its fans. Rug (mid 16th century), once a name for a type of coarse woollen cloth, is probably from the same root. The sense ‘small carpet’ dates from the early 19th century. So too is rugged (Middle English). ‘Shaggy’ was an early sense of rugged as was ‘rough-coated’ (in descriptions of horses).