英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

air [air 词源字典]: air: [13] Modern English air is a blend of three strands of meaning from, ultimately, two completely separate sources. In the sense of the gas we breathe it goes back via Old French air and Latin āēr to Greek áēr ‘air’ (whence the aero-compounds of English; see AEROPLANE). Related words in Greek were áērni ‘I blow’ and aúrā ‘breeze’ (from which English acquired aura in the 18th century), and cognates in other Indo-European languages include Latin ventus ‘wind’, English wind, and nirvana ‘extinction of existence’, which in Sanskrit meant literally ‘blown out’.

In the 16th century a completely new set of meanings of air arrived in English: ‘appearance’ or ‘demeanour’. The first known instance comes in Shakespeare’s 1 Henry IV, IV, i: ‘The quality and air of our attempt brooks no division’ (1596). This air was borrowed from French, where it probably represents an earlier, Old French, aire ‘nature, quality’, whose original literal meaning ‘place of origin’ (reflected in another derivative, eyrie) takes it back to Latin ager ‘place, field’, source of English agriculture and related to acre. (The final syllable of English debonair [13] came from Old French aire, incidentally; the phrase de bon aire meant ‘of good disposition’.) The final strand in modern English air comes via the Italian descendant of Latin āēr, aria.

This had absorbed the ‘nature, quality’ meanings of Old French aire, and developed them further to ‘melody’ (perhaps on the model of German weise, which means both ‘way, manner’ and ‘tune’ – its English cognate wise, as in ‘in no wise’, meant ‘song’ from the 11th to the 13th centuries). It seems likely that English air in the sense ‘tune’ is a direct translation of the Italian.

Here again, Shakespeare got in with it first – in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I, i: ‘Your tongue’s sweet air more tunable than lark to shepherd’s ear’ (1590). (Aria itself became an English word in the 18th century.)
=> acre, aeroplane, agriculture, aria, aura, eyrie, malaria, wind[air etymology, air origin, 英语词源]
area: area: [16] Area is a direct borrowing from Latin ārea, which simply meant ‘level piece of open ground, particularly one not built on in a city’. An alternative sense of the Latin word, ‘place where grain is threshed’, has suggested to some etymologists a derivation from the Latin verb ārēre ‘be dry’ (related to ardor and aridus, sources of English ardour and arid).
=> ardour, arid
asset: asset: [16] Originally, to have assets was simply to have ‘enough’ – as in French assez. The Anglo-Norman legal phrase aver asetz signified ‘have enough money to meet one’s debts’, and eventually asetz, later assets, passed from the general meaning ‘enough’ to the particular ‘financial resources’ (the final -s caused it to be regarded as a plural noun, but the analogical singular asset does not appear until the 19th century).

Anglo-Norman asetz itself goes back via Old French asez to Vulgar Latin *assatis, formed from the Latin phrase ad satis ‘to enough’ (satis is the source of English satisfy and satiate, and is related to sad).
=> sad, satiate, satisfy
bat: bat: Bat as in ‘cricket bat’ [OE] and bat the animal [16] come from entirely different sources. Bat the wooden implement first appears in late Old English as batt ‘cudgel’, but it is not clear where it ultimately came from. Some have postulated a Celtic source, citing Gaulish andabata ‘gladiator’, which may be related to English battle and Russian bat ‘cudgel’, but whatever the word’s origins, it seems likely that at some point it was influenced by Old French batte, from battre ‘beat’.

The flying bat is an alteration of Middle English backe, which was borrowed from a Scandinavian language. The word is represented in Old Swedish natbakka ‘night bat’, and appears to be an alteration of an earlier -blaka, as in Old Norse lethrblaka, literally ‘leatherflapper’. If this is so, bat would mean etymologically ‘flapper’, which would be of a piece with other names for the animal, particularly German fledermaus ‘fluttermouse’ and English flittermouse, which remained a dialectal word for ‘bat’ into the 20th century.

It is unusual for the name of such a common animal not to go right back to Old English; in this case the Old English word was hrēremūs, which survived dialectally into the 20th century as rearmouse.
=> battle
bear: bear: [OE] The two English words bear ‘carry’ and bear the animal come from completely different sources. The verb, Old English beran, goes back via Germanic *ber- to Indo-European *bher-, which already contained the two central meaning elements that have remained with its offspring ever since, ‘carry’ and ‘give birth’. It is the source of a very large number of words in the Indo-European languages, including both Germanic (German gebären ‘give birth’, Swedish börd ‘birth’) and non-Germanic (Latin ferre and Greek phérein ‘bear’, source of English fertile and amphora [17], and Russian brat ‘seize’).

And a very large number of other English words are related to it: on the ‘carrying’ side, barrow, berth, bier, burden, and possibly brim; and on the ‘giving birth’ side, birth itself and bairn ‘child’ [16]. Borne and born come from boren, the Old English past participle of bear; the distinction in usage between the two (borne for ‘carried’, born for ‘given birth’) arose in the early 17th century.

Etymologically, the bear is a ‘brown animal’. Old English bera came from West Germanic *bero (whence also German bär and Dutch beer), which may in turn go back to Indo- European *bheros, related to English brown. The poetic name for the bear, bruin [17], follows the same semantic pattern (it comes from Dutch bruin ‘brown’), and beaver means etymologically ‘brown animal’ too.
=> amphora, bairn, barrow, berth, bier, born, burden, fertile, fortune, paraphernalia, suffer; brown
board: board: [OE] Old English bord had a wide range of meanings, whose two main strands (‘plank’ and ‘border, side of a ship’) reveal that it came from two distinct sources: Germanic *bortham and *borthaz respectively (despite their similarity, they have not been shown to be the same word). Related forms in other Germanic languages that point up the dichotomy are Dutch bord ‘shelf’ and boord ‘border, side of a ship’.

The second, ‘edge’ element of board (which is probably related to border) now survives in English only in seaboard (literally the ‘edge of the sea’) and in variations on the phrase on board ship (whose original reference to the ship’s sides is nowadays perceived as relating to the deck). Board ‘food’ (as in ‘board and lodging’), and hence boarder, are metaphorical applications of board ‘table’.
=> border
bowl: bowl: Bowl ‘round receptacle’ [OE] and bowl ‘ball used in bowls’ [15] come from different sources. The former (Old English bolle or bolla) comes ultimately from the Germanic base *bul-, *bal-, which was also the source of English ball, balloon, and ballot. The Middle Dutch form corresponding to Old English bolle was bolle, which was borrowed into English in the 13th century as boll, initially meaning ‘bubble’ but latterly ‘round seed-head’.

The other bowl was originally simply a synonym for ball, but its modern specialized uses in the game of bowls, and the verbal usage ‘deliver the ball’ in cricket and other games, had already begun their development in the 15th century. The word came via Old French boule from Latin bulla ‘bubble’, which also lies behind English boil, bull (as in ‘papal bull’), bullion, bullet, bulletin, and bully (as in ‘bully beef’), as well, perhaps, as bill.
=> ball, balloon, ballot; boil, bull, bullet, bulletin, bully
bruise: bruise: [OE] Modern English bruise is a blend of words from two sources. The main contributor is Old English brysan, which as well as ‘bruise’ meant ‘crush to pieces’, and is related to Latin frustum ‘piece broken or cut off’. But then in the early Middle English period we begin to see the influence of the unrelated Old French verb bruisier ‘break’ and its Anglo-Norman form bruser (which in modern French has become briser).

Their main effect has been on the spelling of the word, although the use of bruise for ‘break’ from the 14th to the 17th century seems to have been due to French influence too, rather than a survival of the Old English meaning: ‘Had his foot once slipped … he would have been bruised in pieces’, The most dangerous and memorable adventure of Richard Ferris 1590. Bruiser ‘large rough man’ originated in an 18th-century term for a prizefighter.
=> débris
compact: compact: There are two distinct words compact in English; both are of Latin origin, but they come from completely different sources. The adjective, ‘compressed’ [14], comes from Latin compactus, the past participle of compingere, a compound verb formed from com- ‘together’ and pangere ‘fasten’. The noun use ‘small case for face powder’ is 20th-century and based on the notion of firmly compacted powder. Compact ‘agreement’ [16] comes from Latin compactum, a noun based on the past participle of the verb compacīscī ‘come to an agreement’. The unprefixed form pacīscī, a relative of Latin pax ‘peace’, gave English pact [15].
=> pact, peace
cream: cream: [14] Cream seems to have come from two distinct late Latin sources: crānum ‘cream’, which may be of Gaulish origin, and chrisma ‘ointment’ (from which English gets chrism [OE]). These two were probably blended together to produce Old French cresme or craime, immediate source of the English word. (Modern French crème was borrowed into English in the 19th century.)
=> chrism
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
drag: drag: [14] Drag has two possible sources, each with equally plausible claims: Old English dragan, source of modern English draw, or the related Old Norse draga. Both go back to a common Germanic source. Of the modern colloquial applications of the word, ‘women’s clothes worn by men’ seems to have originated in 19th-century theatrical slang, in reference to the ‘dragging’ of a woman’s long skirts along the ground (an unusual sensation for someone used to wearing trousers).
=> draw
dragon: dragon: [13] English acquired dragon via Old French dragon and Latin dracō from Greek drákōn. Originally the word signified simply ‘snake’, but over the centuries this ‘snake’ increased in size, and many terrifying mythical attributes (such as wings and the breathing of fire) came to be added to it, several of them latterly from Chinese sources. The Greek form is usually connected with words for ‘look at, glance, flash, gleam’, such as Greek drakein and Sanskrit darç, as if its underlying meaning were ‘creature that looks at you (with a deadly glance)’. Dragon is second time around for English as far as this word is concerned: it originally came by it in the Old English period, via Germanic, as drake. Dragoons [17] (an adaptation of French dragon) were originally mounted infantry, so called because they carried muskets nicknamed by the French dragon ‘fire-breather’.
=> dragoon, drake, rankle
duct: duct: [17] Duct comes from Latin ductus, a noun formed from the past participle of the verb dūcere ‘lead’. This is among the most prolific Latin sources of English words. It appears in numerous prefixed forms, all containing to some extent the underlying meaning element ‘lead’, such as deduce, introduce, produce, and reduce, as well as educate and, in less obvious form, subdue.

Its past participle produced aqueduct and ductile [14], not to mention (via Vulgar Latin *ductiāre and Italian docciare) douche [18]. And furthermore it comes ultimately from the same Indo-European source as produced English team, teem, tie, tight, tow, and tug.
=> aqueduct, conduct, deduce, deduct, douche, duke, educate, introduce, produce, reduce, seduce, team, tie, tight, tow, tug
economy: economy: [16] The underlying notion contained in the word economy is of ‘household management’. It comes, via French or Latin, from Greek oikonomíā, a derivative of oikonómos, a term for the ‘steward of a household’. This was a compound noun formed from oikos ‘house’ (a word related to the -wich element in many English place-names) and némein ‘manage’ (ultimate source of English antinomian and nomad).

The original sense ‘household management’ was carried through into English. It broadened out in the 17th century to the management of a nation’s resources (a concept at first termed more fully political economy), while the use of the derivative economics for the theoretical study of the creation and consumption of wealth dates from the early 19th century.
=> antinomian, ecology, nomad
exploit: exploit: [14] Latin explicāre (source of English explicate and explicit) meant ‘unfold’. A Vulgar Latin descendant of its past participle was *explictum ‘something unfolded’, which passed into Old French as exploit or esplait. In the process, the original sense of ‘unfolding’ had developed through ‘bringing out, development’ and ‘advantage, success’ to ‘achievement’.

In the case of the English noun, it is the latter meaning which has survived, and in fact originally the verb too denoted ‘achieve, accomplish’. This seems to have died out in the 18th century, however, and when the verb reappears in the 19th century it is closer to the earlier ‘develop’ in meaning, particularly as applied to ‘getting the most out of’ natural resources. The modern derogatory sense ‘use for one’s own selfish ends’ emerged from this.
=> explicit, fold, ply
fee: fee: [14] Fee is a word bequeathed to modern English by the feudal system (and indeed it is closely related etymologically to feudal). It came via Anglo-Norman fee from medieval Latin feodum or feudum (source also of feudal [17]). This denoted ‘land or other property whose use was granted as a reward for service’, a meaning which persists in its essentials in modern English ‘payment for work done’.

The secondary signification of fee, ‘feudal estate’, is no longer a live sense, but it is represented in the related fief [17], a descendant of feodum, which English acquired through French rather than Anglo-Norman. The ultimate derivation of the medieval Latin term itself is not altogether clear, although it is usually assigned to an unrecorded Frankish *fehuōd, literally ‘cattle-property’ (*fehu has related forms in Old English féoh ‘cattle, property’ and Old Norse fé ‘cattle, money’ – joint sources of the first syllable of English fellow – and in modern German viehe ‘cattle’; they all go back ultimately to Indo- European *peku-, ancestor of a wide range of words meaning ‘cattle’ which, since in former times cattle were symbolic of wealth, in many cases came to signify ‘property’ too).
=> fellow, feudal, fief
finance: finance: [14] Finance comes ultimately from Latin fīnis ‘end’, and its present-day monetary connotations derive from the notion of ‘finally settling a debt by payment’. Its immediate source is Old French finance, a derivative of the verb finer ‘end, settle’, which when it was originally acquired by English still meant literally ‘end’: ‘God, that all things did make of nought … puttest each creature to his finance’, Coventry Mystery Plays 1400. The debt-settling sense had already developed by that time, but this did not broaden out into the current ‘management of monetary resources’ until the 18th century.
=> final, fine, finish
horn: horn: [OE] Horn belongs to a very large Indo- European word-family that has made an enormous number of contributions to English. Its ultimate source is Indo-European *ker-, whose offspring predominantly denote ‘animal’s horn’, but also include words for ‘top’ and ‘head’. Its Germanic descendant, *khornaz, has not been that prolific (it has produced English, German, Swedish, and Danish horn and Dutch hoorn, and hornet is probably a derivative), but other branches of the family have been more fruitful sources.

From Latin cornū ‘horn’, for example, come English corn ‘hard skin’, cornea, corner, cornet, cornucopia, unicorn, and possibly scherzo and scorn; Greek kéras ‘horn’ has given English keratin, rhinoceros, and triceratops; while Sanskrit śrngam ‘horn’ lies behind English ginger.

And besides these, English hart ‘male deer’ [OE] goes back to a derivative of *ker-.
=> corn, corner, cornet, ginger, hart, hornet, keratin, rhinoceros, triceratops
loo: loo: [20] Loo presents one of the more celebrated puzzles of English etymology. Not the least of its problematical points is that there is no reliable evidence of its existence before the 1920s, whereas most of its suggested sources have a more dated air than that. Amongst them, the most widely touted is of course gardy loo!, a shout of warning (based on French gardez l’eau ‘beware of the water’) supposedly used when emptying chamber pots from upper-storey windows in the days before modern plumbing; but that is chronologically most unlikely.

Other possibilities are that it is short for Waterloo, which was a trade name for cast-iron lavatory cisterns in the early part of the 20th century (‘O yes, mon loup. How much cost? Waterloo. Watercloset’, James Joyce, Ulysses 1922), and that it comes from louvre, from the use of slatted screens for a makeshift lavatory. But perhaps the likeliest explanation is that it derives from French lieux d’aisances, literally ‘places of ease’, hence ‘lavatory’ (perhaps picked up by British servicemen in France during World War I).
mill: mill: [OE] Mill is one of a large family of English words that go back ultimately to the Indo- European base *mel-, *mol-, *ml-, denoting ‘grind’. It includes meal ‘flour’, mollify, mollusc, mould ‘earth’, and (via the extended form *meld-, *mold-) melt and mild. One particular subset of the family comes from closely related Latin sources: the verb molere ‘grind’ has produced emolument and ormolu [18] (etymologically ‘ground gold’); the noun mola ‘grindstone’ has given molar [16] and (via a later sense ‘flour mixed with salt, sprinkled on sacrificial victims’) immolate [16]; and late Latin molīnus ‘grindstone’, which replaced classical Latin mola, was borrowed into Old English as mylen, from which we get modern English mill.
=> emolument, meal, melt, mild, molar, mollify, mollusc, mould, ormolu
no: no: English has three words no, which come from quite distinct sources (although they all, of course, contain the ancient negative particle ne). No the negative reply [OE] means etymologically ‘not ever, never’. It originated as a compound of ne and ā ‘ever’ (a relative of archaic modern English aye ‘ever’, whose own negative form is nay [12]) and the resulting nā became in the 13th century no.

The history of no ‘not’ [OE] (which is now used virtually only in the expression ‘whether or no’) is almost exactly parallel: it was formed from Old English ō ‘ever’, a variant of ā. The adjective no ‘not any’ [13] is a reduced form of none, its final n originally dispensed with before consonants.
=> aye, nay; none
principle: principle: [14] Frequently confused, principal [13] and principle come from distinct sources – but both sources were derived ultimately from Latin princeps ‘chief’ (from which English gets prince). Principal goes back via Old French principal to Latin principālis ‘first, original’, while principle comes from *principle, an assumed Anglo-Norman variant of Old French principle, which went back to Latin principium ‘beginning, foundation’.
=> first, prime, prince
spend: spend: [OE] Spend is a blend of verbs from two distinct sources, but both going back ultimately to Latin pendere ‘weigh, pay’. The earlier was Latin expendere ‘pay out’ (later to give English expend [15]), which Old English took over as spendan. (It was also the source of German spenden.) This was later reinforced by dispend, a borrowing from Old French despendre which now survives only in dispense.
=> dispense, expend, pendant, pendulum
thrive: thrive: [13] Thrive was borrowed from Old Norse thrífask ‘grasp for oneself’, hence ‘prosper’, the reflexive form of thrífa ‘grasp, seize’ (whose origins are not known). The word’s semantic development from ‘grasp for oneself’ to ‘prosper’ was presumably inspired by the notion of ‘accumulating resources’. Thrift [13], borrowed from the Old Norse derivative thrift, originally meant ‘thriving’; the modern sense ‘frugality’ evolved in the 16th century – frugality being thought of as a prerequisite for prosperity.
=> thrift
aficionado (n.): 1845, from Spanish aficionado "amateur," specifically "devotee of bullfighting," literally "fond of," from afición "affection," from Latin affectionem (see affection). "Most sources derive this word from the Spanish verb aficionar but the verb does not appear in Spanish before 1555, and the word aficionado is recorded in the 1400's" [Barnhart]. In English, originally of devotees of bullfighting; in general use by 1882.
air (n.2): 1590s, "manner, appearance" (as in an air of mystery); 1650s, "assumed manner, affected appearance" (especially in phrase put on airs, 1781), from French air "look, appearance, mien, bearing, tone" (Old French aire "reality, essence, nature, descent, extraction," 12c.; compare debonair), from Latin ager "place, field" (see acre) on notion of "place of origin."

But some French sources connect this Old French word with the source of air (n.1), and it also is possible these senses in English developed from or were influenced by air (n.1); compare sense development of atmosphere and Latin spiritus "breath, breeze," also "high spirit, pride," and the extended senses of anima.
amyl (n.): hydrocarbon radical, 1850, from Latin amylum, from Greek amylon "fine meal, starch," noun use of neuter of adjective amylos "not ground at the mill, ground by hand," from a-, privative prefix, "not" + myle "mill" (see mill (n.1)). So called because first obtained from the distilled spirits of potato or grain starch (though it also is obtained from other sources).
angel (n.): 14c. fusion of Old English engel (with hard -g-) and Old French angele, both from Latin angelus, from Greek angelos "messenger, envoy, one that announces," possibly related to angaros "mounted courier," both from an unknown Oriental word (Watkins compares Sanskrit ajira- "swift;" Klein suggests Semitic sources). Used in Scriptural translations for Hebrew mal'akh (yehowah) "messenger (of Jehovah)," from base l-'-k "to send." An Old English word for it was aerendgast, literally "errand-spirit."

Of persons, "loving; lovely," by 1590s. The medieval gold coin (a new issue of the noble, first struck 1465 by Edward VI) was so called for the image of archangel Michael slaying the dragon, which was stamped on it. It was the coin given to patients who had been "touched" for the King's Evil. Angel food cake is from 1881; angel dust "phencyclidine" is from 1968.
anise (n.): Levantine plant cultivated for its seeds, which were important sources of chemical oils and flavoring, c. 1300, from Old French anis (13c.), from Latin anisum, from Greek anison. By the Ancients, somewhat confused with dill.
axe (n.): Old English æces (Northumbrian acas) "axe, pickaxe, hatchet," later æx, from Proto-Germanic *akusjo (cognates: Old Saxon accus, Old Norse ex, Old Frisian axe, German Axt, Gothic aqizi), from PIE *agw(e)si- (cognates: Greek axine, Latin ascia).
The spelling ax is better on every ground, of etymology, phonology, and analogy, than axe, which became prevalent during the 19th century; but it is now disused in Britain. [OED]

The spelling ax, though "better on every ground, of etymology, phonology, & analogy" (OED), is so strange to 20th-c. eyes that it suggests pedantry & is unlikely to be restored. [Fowler]
Meaning "musical instrument" is 1955, originally jazz slang for the saxophone; rock slang for "guitar" dates to 1967. The axe in figurative sense of cutting of anything (expenses, workers, etc.), especially as a cost-saving measure, is from 1922, probably from the notion of the headman's literal axe (itself attested from mid-15c.). To have an axe to grind is from an 1815 essay by U.S. editor and politician Charles Miner (1780-1865) in which a man flatters a boy and gets him to do the chore of axe-grinding for him, then leaves without offering thanks or recompense. Misattributed to Benjamin Franklin in Weekley, OED print edition, and many other sources.
B movie (n.): by 1939, usually said to be so called from being the second, or supporting, film in a double feature. Some film industry sources say it was so called for being the second of the two films major studios generally made in a year, and the one cast with less headline talent and released with less promotion. And early usage varies with grade-B movie, suggesting a perceived association with quality.
bachelor (n.): c. 1300, "young man;" also "youthful knight, novice in arms," from Old French bacheler, bachelor, bachelier (11c.) "knight bachelor," a young squire in training for knighthood, also "young man; unmarried man," and as a university title, of uncertain origin, perhaps from Medieval Latin baccalarius "vassal farmer, adult serf without a landholding," one who helps or tends a baccalaria "field or land in the lord's demesne" (according to old French sources, perhaps from an alteration of vacca "a cow" and originally "grazing land" [Kitchin]). Or from Latin baculum "a stick," because the squire would practice with a staff, not a sword. "Perhaps several independent words have become confused in form" [Century Dictionary]. Meaning in English expanded early 14c. to "young unmarried man," late 14c. to "one who has taken the lowest degree in a university." Bachelor party as a pre-wedding ritual is from 1882.
bain-marie (n.): 1822, from French bain-marie, from Medieval Latin balneum Mariae, literally "bath of Mary." According to French sources, perhaps so called for the gentleness of its heating. Middle English had balne of mary (late 15c.). French bain is from baigner "to bathe," from Latin balneare.
bicycle (n.): 1868, coined from bi- "two" + Greek kyklos "circle, wheel" (see cycle (n.)), on the pattern of tricycle; both the word and the vehicle superseding earlier velocipede. The English word probably is not from French, though often said to be (many French sources say the French word is from English). The assumption apparently is because Pierre Lallement, employee of a French carriage works, improved Macmillan's 1839 pedal velocipede in 1865 and took the invention to America. See also pennyfarthing. As a verb, from 1869.
That ne plus ultra of snobbishness -- bicyclism. [1876]
bigot (n.): 1590s, "sanctimonious person, religious hypocrite," from French bigot (12c.), which is of unknown origin. Earliest French use of the word is as the name of a people apparently in southern Gaul, which led to the now-doubtful, on phonetic grounds, theory that the word comes from Visigothus. The typical use in Old French seems to have been as a derogatory nickname for Normans, the old theory (not universally accepted) being that it springs from their frequent use of the Germanic oath bi God. But OED dismisses in a three-exclamation-mark fury one fanciful version of the "by god" theory as "absurdly incongruous with facts." At the end, not much is left standing except Spanish bigote "mustache," which also has been proposed but not explained, and the chief virtue of which as a source seems to be there is no evidence for or against it.

In support of the "by God" theory, as a surname Bigott, Bygott are attested in Normandy and in England from the 11c., and French name etymology sources (such as Dauzat) explain it as a derogatory name applied by the French to the Normans and representing "by god." The English were known as goddamns 200 years later in Joan of Arc's France, and during World War I Americans serving in France were said to be known as les sommobiches (see also son of a bitch). But the sense development in bigot is difficult to explain. According to Donkin, the modern use first appears in French 16c. This and the earliest English sense, "religious hypocrite," especially a female one, might have been influenced by beguine and the words that cluster around it. Sense extended 1680s to other than religious opinions.
blockbuster (n.): also block-buster, big bomb (4,000 pounds or larger, according to some sources), 1942, from block (n.) in the "built-up city square" sense. Entertainment sense is attested from 1957. U.S. sense of "real estate broker who sells a house to a black family on an all-white neighborhood," thus sparking an exodus, is from 1955.
board (n.2): "side of ship," Old English bord "border, rim, ship's side," from Proto-Germanic *bordaz (cognates: Old Saxon bord, Dutch boord, German Bord, Old High German bart, Old Norse barð), perhaps from the same source as board (n.1), but not all sources accept this. Connected to border; see also starboard.

If not etymologically related to board (n.1), the two forms represented in English by these words were nonetheless confused at an early date in most Germanic languages, a situation made worse in English because this Germanic root also was adopted as Medieval Latin bordus (source of Italian and Spanish bordo). It also entered Old French as bort "beam, board, plank; side of a ship" (12c., Modern French bord), either from Medieval Latin or Frankish, and from thence it came over with the Normans to mingle with its native cousins. By now the senses are inextricably tangled. Some etymology dictionaries treat them as having been the same word all along.
bogey (n.2): in golfing, c. 1891, originally "number of strokes a good player is supposed to need for a given hole or course;" later, "score one over par" (1946); from the same source as bogey (n.1), on the notion of a "phantom" opponent, represented by the "ground score." The word was in vogue at the time in Britain because of the popularity of a music hall tune "Hush, Hush, Hush, Here Comes the Bogey Man."
One popular song at least has left its permanent effect on the game of golf. That song is 'The Bogey Man.' In 1890 Dr. Thos. Browne, R.N., the hon. secretary of the Great Yarmouth Club, was playing against a Major Wellman, the match being against the 'ground score,' which was the name given to the scratch value of each hole. The system of playing against the 'ground score' was new to Major Wellman, and he exclaimed, thinking of the song of the moment, that his mysterious and well-nigh invincible opponent was a regular 'bogey-man.' The name 'caught on' at Great Yarmouth, and to-day 'Bogey' is one of the most feared opponents on all the courses that acknowledge him. [1908, cited in OED]
Other early golfing sources give it an American origin. As a verb, attested by 1948.
bogus: 1838, "counterfeit money, spurious coin," American English, apparently from a slang word applied (according to some sources first in Ohio in 1827) to a counterfeiter's apparatus.
One bogus or machine impressing dies on the coin, with a number of dies, engraving tools, bank bill paper, spurious coin, &c. &c. making in all a large wagon load, was taken into possession by the attorney general of Lower Canada. [Niles' Register, Sept. 7, 1833, quoting from Concord, New Hampshire, "Statesman," Aug. 24]
Some trace this to tantrabobus, also tantrabogus, a late 18c. colloquial Vermont word for any odd-looking object, in later 19c. use "the devil," which might be connected to tantarabobs, recorded as a Devonshire name for the devil. Others trace it to the same source as bogey (n.1).
boss (n.1): "overseer," 1640s, American English, from Dutch baas "a master," Middle Dutch baes, of obscure origin. If original sense was "uncle," perhaps it is related to Old High German basa "aunt," but some sources discount this theory. The Dutch form baas is attested in English from 1620s as the standard title of a Dutch ship's captain. The word's popularity in U.S. may reflect egalitarian avoidance of master (n.) as well as the need to distinguish slave from free labor. The slang adjective meaning "excellent" is recorded in 1880s, revived, apparently independently, in teen and jazz slang in 1950s.
brag (v.): mid-14c., braggen "to make a loud sound," also "to talk boastfully," of obscure origin, perhaps related to bray of a trumpet, or related to the Middle English adjective brag "ostentatious, proud; spirited, brave" (early 14c.), which probably is from Celtic. Other sources suggest Old Norse bragr "the best, the toast (of anything)," also "poetry." Also see braggart for another possibility. Related: Bragged; bragging.
bribe (n.): late 14c., "thing stolen," from Old French bribe "bit, piece, hunk; morsel of bread given to beggars" (14c., compare Old French bribeor "vagrant, beggar"), from briber, brimber "to beg," a general Romanic word (Gamillscheg marks it as Rotwelsch, i.e. "thieves' jargon"), of uncertain origin; old sources suggest Celtic (compare Breton breva "to break"). Shift of meaning to "gift given to influence corruptly" is by mid-15c.
buck (n.1): "male deer," c. 1300, earlier "male goat;" from Old English bucca "male goat," from Proto-Germanic *bukkon (cognates: Old Saxon buck, Middle Dutch boc, Dutch bok, Old High German boc, German Bock, Old Norse bokkr), perhaps from a PIE root *bhugo (cognates: Avestan buza "buck, goat," Armenian buc "lamb"), but some speculate that it is from a lost pre-Germanic language. Barnhart says Old English buc "male deer," listed in some sources, is a "ghost word or scribal error."

Meaning "dollar" is 1856, American English, perhaps an abbreviation of buckskin, a unit of trade among Indians and Europeans in frontier days, attested in this sense from 1748. Pass the buck is first recorded in the literal sense 1865, American English:
The 'buck' is any inanimate object, usually knife or pencil, which is thrown into a jack pot and temporarily taken by the winner of the pot. Whenever the deal reaches the holder of the 'buck', a new jack pot must be made. [J.W. Keller, "Draw Poker," 1887]
Perhaps originally especially a buck-handled knife. The figurative sense of "shift responsibility" is first recorded 1912. Buck private is recorded by 1870s, of uncertain signification.
Bulgaria (n.): Medieval Latin, from Bulgari "Bulgarians," perhaps literally "the men from the Bolg," the River Volga, upon whose banks they lived until 6c. But the people's name for themselves in Old Bulgarian was Blugarinu, according to OED, which suggests a different origin. In other sources [such as Room], the name is said to be ultimately from Turkic bulga "mixed," in reference to the nature of this people of Turko-Finnish extraction but Slavic language.
bung (n.): mid-15c., "large stopper for a cask," from Middle Dutch bonge "stopper;" or perhaps from French bonde "bung, bunghole" (15c.), which may be of Germanic origin (or the Germanic words may be borrowed from Romanic), or it may be from Gaulish *bunda (compare Old Irish bonn, Gaelic bonn, Welsh bon "base, sole of the foot"). It is possible that either or both of these sources is ultimately from Latin puncta in the sense of "hole." Transferred to the cask-mouth itself (also bung-hole) from 1570s.
burgeon (v.): early 14c., "grow, sprout, blossom," from Anglo-French burjuner, Old French borjoner "to bud, sprout," from borjon "a bud, shoot, pimple" (Modern French bourgeon), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Vulgar Latin *burrionem (nominative *burrio), from Late Latin burra "flock of wool," itself of uncertain origin. Some sources (Kitchin, Gamillscheg) say either the French word or the Vulgar Latin one is from Germanic. The English verb is perhaps instead a native development from burjoin (n.) "a bud" (c. 1300), from Old French. Related: Burgeoned; burgeoning.
cahoots (n.): 1829, American English, of unknown origin; said to be perhaps from French cahute "cabin, hut" (12c.), but U.S. sources credit it to French cohorte (see cohort), a word said to have been in use in the U.S. South and West with a sense of "companions, confederates."
calyx (n.): 1680s, from Latin calyx, from Greek kalyx "seed pod, husk, outer covering" (of a fruit, flower bud, etc.), from root of kalyptein "to cover, conceal" (see cell). The proper plural is calyces. Some sources connect the word rather with Greek kylix "drinking cup."
canoodle (v.): "to indulge in caresses and fondling endearments" [OED], by 1850s, said to be U.S. slang, of uncertain origin. The earliest known sources are British, but they tend to identify the word as American. In the 1830s it seems to have been in use in Britain in a sense of "cheat" or "overpower." Related: Canoodled; canoodling.