英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

engine [engine 词源字典]: engine: [13] The underlying etymological meaning of engine is ‘natural talent’. It comes ultimately from Latin ingenium (source also of English ingenious) which was formed from the base *gen- (as in genetic) denoting ‘reproduction’ and meant literally ‘skill or aptitude one was born with’. Abstract meanings related to this (such as ‘ingenuity’ and ‘genius’) have now died out in English (which acquired the word via Old French engin), but what remains is a more specific strand of meaning in the Latin word – ‘clever device, contrivance’.

Originally this was an abstract concept (often used in a bad sense ‘trick, cunning ruse’), but as early as about 1300 there is evidence of a more concrete application in English to a ‘mechanical device’. The word’s modern use for ‘machine producing motion’ originates in its early 19thcentury application to the steam engine. Engineer [14] comes via Old French engigneor from medieval Latin ingeniātōr, a derivative of the verb ingeniāre ‘contrive’, which in turn came from ingenium.
=> gin, ingenious[engine etymology, engine origin, 英语词源]
boiler (n.): 1540s, agent noun from boil (v.). Meaning "vessel for boiling" is from 1725; steam engine sense is from 1757.
chauffeur (n.): 1896, originally "a motorist," from French chauffeur, literally "stoker," operator of a steam engine, French nickname for early motorists, from chauffer "to heat," from Old French chaufer "to heat, warm up; to become hot" (see chafe). The first motor-cars were steam-driven. Sense of "professional or paid driver of a private motor car" is from 1902.
The '95 Duryea wagon, which won the Chicago contest Fall, was exhibited at the Detroit Horse Show last week. Charles B. King, treasurer of the American Motor League, acted as "chauffeur," as the French say. ["The Horseless Age," April 1896]
chug (n.): 1866, echoic of a working steam engine. As a verb, from 1884. Related: Chugged; chugging. Drinking sense attested by 1940s (chug-a-lug), probably imitative of the sound of swallowing.
engine (n.): c. 1300, "mechanical device," especially one used in war; "manner of construction," also "skill, craft, innate ability; deceitfulness, trickery," from Old French engin "skill, wit, cleverness," also "trick, deceit, stratagem; war machine" (12c.), from Latin ingenium "inborn qualities, talent" (see ingenious), in Late Latin "a war engine, battering ram" (Tertullian, Isidore of Seville). Sense of "device that converts energy to mechanical power" is 18c.; in 19c. especially of steam engines.
exhaust (n.): "waste gas," 1848, originally from steam engines, from exhaust (v.). In reference to internal combustion engines by 1896. Exhaust pipe is from 1889.
fire-engine (n.): 1680s, "engine designed to throw a stream of water through a hose onto a fire for the purpose of extinguishing it," from fire (n.) + engine (n.). Also an early name for a steam engine (1722).
fireman (n.): also fire-man, late 14c., "tender of a fire," from fire (n.) + man (n.). From 1650s as "furnace-tender" of a early steam engine. As "person hired to put out (rather than tend) fires" it is attested from 1714. For "stoker," Old English had fyrbeta.
throttle (n.): 1540s, "throat;" it appears to be an independent formation from throat, perhaps a diminutive form, not derived directly from the verb. The mechanical sense is first recorded 1872, short for throttle-valve (1824). Full-throttle (allowing maximum speed) is from 1848 in reference to steam engines.