quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- flash



[flash 词源字典] - flash: [14] The earliest recorded use of flash is as a verb, referring to the swift turbulent splashing movement of water (a memory of which is probably preserved in modern English flash flood). The glints of light on the splashing surface of such water seems to have given rise in the 16th century, or perhaps before, to the main present-day sense of the word ‘burst out with sudden light’. It was presumably originally imitative of the sound of splashing water.
[flash etymology, flash origin, 英语词源] - slush




- slush: [17] Like the very similar (and perhaps ultimately identical) slosh [19] and sludge [17], slush probably originated in imitation of the sound of squelching or splashing. The similarity of early modern Danish slus ‘sleet, mud’ and Norwegian slusk ‘slushy’ suggests the possibility of a Scandinavian borrowing rather than a native formation. Slush fund [19] comes from the use of slush for ‘grease that is a byproduct of cooking in a ship’s galley’, the allusion being to the ‘greasing’ of people’s palms with money.
- swashbuckle




- swashbuckle: [19] Swashbuckle is a backformation from swashbuckler [16], which originally denoted a warrior who struck his shield with his sword as a sign of aggression and machismo, rather like a gorilla beating its chest. It was a compound formed from swash ‘hit’ [16], a word of imitative origin which is now restricted to the sound of water splashing against a surface, and buckler ‘shield’. It was used broadly for a ‘swaggering fellow’, but the word’s modern associations of romantic swordplay and high adventure did not begin to emerge until the early 19th century.
- dabble (v.)




- 1550s, probably a frequentative of dab. Original meaning was "wet by splashing;" modern figurative sense of "do superficially" first recorded 1620s. Related: Dabbled; dabbling. An Ellen Dablewife is in the Lancashire Inquests from 1336.
- dashing (adj.)




- 1801, "given to cutting a dash" (1786), which was a colloquial expression for "acting brilliantly," from dash (n.) in the sense of "showy appearance," which is attested from 1715. The sense of "splashing" is recorded from mid-15c.
- flashy (adj.)




- "showy, cheaply attractive," 1680s, from flash (n.1) + -y (2). Earlier it meant "splashing" (1580s); "sparkling, giving off flashes" (c. 1600), but those senses have become rare. Related: Flashily; flashiness.
- plash (n.)




- "small puddle, shallow pool, wet ground," Old English plæsc "pool of water, puddle," probably imitative (compare Dutch plass "pool"). Meaning "noise made by splashing" is first recorded 1510s.
- splash (v.)




- 1715 (intransitive); 1722 (transitive), probably an alteration of plash with an intensive s-. Related: Splashed; splashing. Splash-board attested from 1826. Splash-down (n.) in the spacecraft sense is attested from 1961.
- swash (n.)




- 1530s, "the fall of a heavy body or blow," probably imitative. It also meant "pig-wash, filth, wet refuse" (1520s) and may have been imitative of the sound of water dashing against solid objects. The meaning "a body of splashing water" is first found 1670s; that of "a dashing or splashing" is from 1847. Swash-letters (1883) are italic capitals with flourished projections.