英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

abandon: abandon: [14] The Old French verb abandoner is the source of abandon. It was based on a bandon, meaning literally ‘under control or jurisdiction’, which was used in the phrase mettre a bandon ‘put someone under someone else’s control’ – hence ‘abandon them’. The word bandon came, in altered form, from Latin bannum ‘proclamation’, which is circuitously related to English banns ‘proclamation of marriage’ and is an ancestor of contraband.
=> banns, contraband
attorney: attorney: [14] Attorney was formed in Old French from the prefix a- ‘to’ and the verb torner ‘turn’. This produced the verb atorner, literally ‘turn to’, hence ‘assign to’ or ‘appoint to’. Its past participle, atorne, was used as a noun with much the same signification as appointee – ‘someone appointed’ – and hence ‘someone appointed to act as someone else’s agent’, and ultimately ‘legal agent’.

Borrowed into English, over the centuries the term came to mean ‘lawyer practising in the courts of Common Law’ (as contrasted with a solicitor, who practised in the Equity Courts); but it was officially abolished in that sense by the Judicature Act of 1873, and now survives only in American English, meaning ‘lawyer’, and in the title Attorney- General, the chief law officer of a government.
=> turn
debt: debt: [13] Debt originated as dēbita, the plural of Latin dēbitum ‘that which is owed’, a noun formed from the past participle of the verb dēbēre ‘owe’. In Vulgar Latin, dēbita was evidently viewed as a feminine singular noun, and it passed thus into Old French as dette, the form in which English originally acquired the word. From the 13th to the 16th centuries the French spelling was latinized as debte, a reform which English adopted in the 16th century.

In the 15th century English independently borrowed Latin dēbitum as debit. (Latin dēbēre ‘owe’, source also of English debenture, due, and duty, was originally a compound verb formed from the prefix dē- ‘away’ and habēre ‘have’, literally ‘have away’, that is, ‘keep in one’s possession what belongs to someone else’.)
=> debenture, due, duty, endeavour
defer: defer: English has two distinct verbs defer. The one meaning ‘delay’ [14] is ultimately the same words as differ. It comes via Old French differer from Latin differre ‘carry apart, delay’, a compound verb formed from the prefix dis- ‘apart’ and ferre ‘carry’ (related to English bear). The Latin verb’s past participle, dīlātus, is the source of English dilatory [15]. Defer ‘submit’ [15] comes via Old French deferer from Latin dēferre ‘carry away’, a compound verb formed from the prefix dē- ‘away’ and ferre.

The notion of submission seems to have arisen from an earlier application to referring, or ‘carrying’, a matter to someone else.
=> bear, dilatory
deliver: deliver: [13] To deliver something is etymologically to ‘set it free’. The word comes via Old French delivrer from late Latin dēlīberāre, a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix dē- and Latin līberāre ‘set free’, a derivative of the adjective līber ‘free’. Its meaning developed through ‘set free’ to ‘give up, surrender’ and finally ‘hand over to someone else’. (Classical Latin dēlīberāre, source of English deliberate [15], is an entirely different verb, derived from Latin lībra ‘scales’.)
=> liberate
deputy: deputy: [16] A deputy is literally ‘someone who has been deputed to act on someone else’s behalf’. It represents a reformulation of the Middle English noun depute. This was borrowed from the past participle of Old French deputer (source of the English verb depute [15] and hence of deputation [16]), which in turn came from late Latin dēputāre ‘assign, allot’.

In classical times this meant literally ‘cut off’ (it was a compound verb formed from the prefix dē- ‘off’ and putāre, which meant ‘cut’ – as in amputate – as well as ‘esteem, consider, reckon, think’ – as in compute, dispute, impute, and repute).
=> amputate, compute, count, dispute, impute, putative, repute
duty: duty: [13] Duty comes from Anglo-Norman dueté. This was a derivative of Old French deu ‘owed’ (source of English due [13]), which in turn came from Latin dēbitus, past participle of dēbēre ‘owe’ and source of English debit and debt. (Latin dēbēre was originally a compound verb formed from the prefix dē- ‘away’ and habēre ‘have’, literally ‘have away’, that is ‘keep in one’s possession what belongs to someone else’.) So etymologically one’s duty is what one ‘owes’ to others.
=> debit, debt, due
fellow: fellow: [11] Etymologically, a fellow is somebody who ‘lays money’. The word originated as an Old Norse compound félagi, formed from fé ‘money’ and *lag-, a verbal base denoting ‘lay’. Someone who puts down money with someone else in a joint venture is his or her associate: hence a fellow is a ‘companion’ or ‘partner’. When English adopted the Old Norse word in the 11th century, it translated its first element into Old English fēoh ‘property’, giving late Old English féolaga and eventually modern English fellow. (Both Old English fēoh and Old Norse fé originally meant ‘cattle’, and are probably related to modern English fee.)
=> fee, lay
handicap: handicap: [17] The word handicap originally denoted a sort of game of chance in which one person put up one of his or her personal possessions against an article belonging to someone else (for example one might match a gold watch against the other’s horse) and an umpire was appointed to adjudicate on the respective values of the articles. All three parties put their hands into a hat, together with a wager, and on hearing the umpire’s verdict the two opponents had to withdraw them in such a way as to indicate whether they wished to proceed with the game.

If they agreed, either in favour of proceeding or against, the umpire took the money; but if they disagreed, the one who wanted to proceed took it. It was the concealing of the hands in the hat that gave the game its name hand in cap, hand i’ cap, source of modern English handicap. In the 18th century the same term was applied to a sort of horse race between two horses, in which an umpire decided on a weight disadvantage to be imposed on a superior horse and again the owners of the horses signalled their assent to or dissent from his adjudication by the way in which they withdrew their hands from a hat.

Such a race became known as a handicap race, and in the 19th century the term handicap first broadened out to any contest in which inequalities are artificially evened out, and was eventually transferred to the ‘disadvantage’ imposed on superior contestants – whence the main modern meaning, ‘disadvantage, disability’.
lease: lease: [15] The etymological idea underlying lease is of ‘letting go’ – a notion more readily apparent in its close relative release. Its ultimate ancestor is the Latin adjective laxus ‘loose’, source of English lax [14]. From this was derived the verb laxāre ‘loosen, let go’, which passed into Old French as laissier (its modern descendant is laisser ‘leave, let’). Anglo- Norman took it over as lesser, and used it for ‘letting something go’ to someone else for a certain period under the terms of a legal contract. Hence English lease. The derivatives lessee [15] and lessor [15] also come from Anglo-Norman.
=> lax, release
liable: liable: [15] Today’s main meaning of liable, ‘likely to’, is a comparatively recent development. Its primary sense is ‘legally bound or obliged’ (as in ‘liable for someone else’s debts’), which goes right back to the word’s ultimate source, Latin ligāre ‘tie’. Its Old French descendant lier is assumed to have give rise to an Anglo-Norman derivative *liable, literally ‘bindable’, which English took over.

Other English words that come ultimately from ligāre include ally, liaison [17], lien [16] (etymologically a ‘bond’), ligament [14], ligature [14], oblige, religion, and rely.
=> ally, liaison, lien, ligament, ligature, oblige, religion, rely
procure: procure: [13] The -cure of procure goes back to Latin cūrāre ‘look after’, source of English cure. Combination with prō- ‘for’ produced prōcūrāre ‘look after on behalf of someone else, manage’, which English acquired via Old French procurer as procure. The main modern sense ‘obtain’ developed via ‘take care, take pains’ and ‘bring about by taking pains’. The agent noun derived from the Latin verb was prōcūrātor ‘manager, agent’; English adopted this as procurator [13], and subsequently contracted it to proctor [14]. A similar process of contraction lies behind proxy, which goes back to Latin prōcūrātiō.
=> cure, proctor, proxy
secretary: secretary: [14] A secretary was originally a ‘person in someone else’s confidence, sharing secret or private matters with them’ (‘[Christ] taking with him his three special secretaries, that is to say Peter and James and John’, Nicholas Love, Mirror of the life of Jesus Christ 1400). The word was adapted from late Latin sēcrētārius ‘confidential aide’, a derivative of Latin sēcrētus ‘secret’. The notion of writing letters and performing other clerical duties developed in the Latin word, and first emerged in English in the 15th century.
=> secret
spell: spell: English has three distinct words spell, although two of them come from the same ultimate source. Spell ‘name the letters of a word’ [13] was adapted from Old French espeler ‘read out’. This was descended from an earlier *espeldre, which was borrowed from prehistoric Germanic *spellōn. And it was a noun relative of this, *spellam, which gave English spell ‘magic formula’ [OE]. Spell ‘period of time’ [16] may go back ultimately to Old English spelian ‘substitute’; its original meaning was ‘replace someone else at a job’, and the main modern sense ‘period of time’ did not emerge, via ‘period of work’, until the 18th century.
sympathy: 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
treason: treason: [13] Treason and tradition are doublets – they have a common source. This was Latin trāditiō, a derivative of trādere ‘hand over, deliver’ (source also of English traitor). The notion of ‘handing something on to someone else’ lies behind tradition, but treason (acquired via Anglo-Norman treisoun) gets its meaning from the metaphorically extended Latin sense ‘hand over treacherously, betray’.
=> betray, tradition, traitor
vicar: vicar: [13] A vicar is etymologically a ‘substitute’ for or ‘representative’ of someone else: thus the pope is the vicar of God on Earth, and the vicar of a parish was originally someone who stood in for the parson or rector. The word comes via Old French vicaire from Latin vicārius ‘substitute, deputy’. This was a noun use of the adjective vicārius ‘substituting’ (source of English vicarious [17], which more closely preserves the meaning of its Latin original). And vicārius in turn was derived from vicis ‘change, turn, office’, source also of English vicissitude [16] and the prefix vice-.
=> vicarious, vicissitude
abandon (v.): late 14c., "to give up, surrender (oneself or something), give over utterly; to yield (oneself) utterly (to religion, fornication, etc.)," from Old French abandoner (12c.), from adverbial phrase à bandon "at will, at discretion," from à "at, to" (see ad-) + bandon "power, jurisdiction," from Latin bannum, "proclamation," from a Frankish word related to ban (v.).
Mettre sa forest à bandon was a feudal law phrase in the 13th cent. = mettre sa forêt à permission, i.e. to open it freely to any one for pasture or to cut wood in; hence the later sense of giving up one's rights for a time, letting go, leaving, abandoning. [Auguste Brachet, "An Etymological Dictionary of the French Language," transl. G.W. Kitchin, Oxford, 1878]
Etymologically, the word carries a sense of "put someone under someone else's control." Meaning "to give up absolutely" is from late 14c. Related: Abandoned; abandoning.
alienation (n.): "transfer of ownership," late 14c., from Old French alienacion and directly from Latin alienationem (nominative alienatio) "a transfer, surrender," noun of action from past participle stem of alienare (see alienate). It also meant "loss or derangement of mental faculties, insanity" (late 15c.), hence alienist. Phrase alienation of affection as a U.S. legal term in divorce cases for "falling in love with someone else" dates to 1861.
apartheid (n.): 1947 (policy begun 1948), from Afrikaans apartheid (1929 in a South African socio-political context), literally "separateness," from Dutch apart "separate" (from French àpart; see apart) + suffix -heid, cognate of English -hood. The official English synonym was separate development (1955).
"Segregation" is such an active word that it suggests someone is trying to segregate someone else. So the word "apartheid" was introduced. Now it has such a stench in the nostrils of the world, they are referring to "autogenous development." [Alan Paton, "New York Times," Oct. 24, 1960]
king (n.): Old English cyning "king, ruler," from Proto-Germanic *kuningaz (cognates: Dutch koning, Old Norse konungr, Danish konge, Old Saxon and Old High German kuning, Middle High German künic, German König). Possibly related to Old English cynn "family, race" (see kin), making a king originally a "leader of the people;" or from a related root suggesting "noble birth," making a king originally "one who descended from noble birth." The sociological and ideological implications render this a topic of much debate.

Finnish kuningas "king," Old Church Slavonic kunegu "prince" (Russian knyaz, Bohemian knez), Lithuanian kunigas "clergyman" are loans from Germanic.
As leon is the king of bestes. [John Gower, "Confessio Amantis," 1390]
In Old English, used for names of chiefs of Anglian and Saxon tribes or clans, then of the states they founded. Also extended to British and Danish chiefs they fought. The chess piece so called from early 15c.; the playing card from 1560s; use in checkers/draughts first recorded 1820. Applied in nature to species deemed remarkably big or dominant (such as king crab, 1690s). In marketing, king-size is from 1939, originally of cigarettes.
[I]t was [Eugene] Field who haunted the declining years of Creston Clarke with his review of that actor's Lear. ... Said he, "Mr. Clarke played the King all the evening as though under constant fear that someone else was about to play the Ace." ["Theatre Magazine," January 1922]
masher (n.): "thing that mashes," c. 1500, agent noun from mash (v.). Meaning "would-be lady-killer" is from 1875, American English, perhaps in use from 1860, probably from mash (v.) on notion either of "pressing one's attentions," or of "crushing someone else's emotions" (compare crush).
He was, to use a Western expression, a 'regular heart-smasher among the women; and it may not be improper to state, just here, that no one had a more exalted opinion of his capabilities in that line than the aforesaid 'Jo' himself. ["Harper's New Monthly Magazine," March 1861]

He had a weakness to be considered a regular masher of female hearts and a very wicked young man with the fair sex generally, but there was not a well-authenticated instance of his ever having broken a heart in his life, nor likely to be one. [Gilbert A. Pierce, "Zachariah, The Congressman," Chicago, 1880]
Also in use late 19c were mash (n.) "a romantic fixation, crush" (1884); mash (v.) "excite sentimental admiration" (1882); mash-note "love letter" (1890).
part (v.): c. 1200, "to divide into parts; separate oneself," from Old French partir "to divide, separate" (10c.), from Latin partire, partere "to share, part, distribute, divide," from pars (see part (n.)).

Sense of "to separate (someone from someone else)" is from early 14c.; that of "to take leave" is from early 15c. Meaning "to separate the hair" is attested from 1610s. Related: Parted; parting. To part with "surrender" is from c. 1300.
someone (pron.): c. 1300, sum on; from some + one. Someone else "romantic rival" is from 1914.
locum: "A person who stands in temporarily for someone else of the same profession, especially a cleric or doctor", Early 20th century: short for locum tenens.