英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

acorn: acorn: [OE] Acorn has no etymological connection with oak; its nearest linguistic relative in English is probably acre. The Old English word was æcern, which may well have derived from æcer ‘open land’ (the related Middle High German ackeran referred to beech mast as well as acorns, and Gothic akran developed more widely still, to mean simply ‘fruit’).

There are cognate words in other, non- Germanic, Indo-European languages, such as Russian yagoda ‘berry’ and Welsh aeron ‘fruits’. Left to develop on its own, æcern would have become modern English achern, but the accidental similarity of oak and corn have combined to reroute its pronunciation.
=> acre
adder: adder: [OE] In Old English, the term for a snake (any snake, not just an adder) was nǣddre; there are or were related forms in many other European languages, such as Latin natrix, Welsh neidr, and German natter (but there does not seem to be any connection with the natterjack toad). Around the 14th century, however, the word began to lose its initial consonant. The noun phrase including the indefinite article, a nadder, became misanalysed as an adder, and by the 17th century nadder had disappeared from the mainstream language (though it survived much longer in northern dialects).
affect: affect: There are two distinct verbs affect in English: ‘simulate insincerely’ [15] and ‘have an effect on’ [17]; but both come ultimately from the same source, Latin afficere. Of compound origin, from the prefix ad- ‘to’ and facere ‘do’, this had a wide range of meanings. One set, in reflexive use, was ‘apply oneself to something’, and a new verb, affectāre, was formed from its past participle affectus, meaning ‘aspire or pretend to have’.

Either directly or via French affecter, this was borrowed into English, and is now most commonly encountered in the past participle adjective affected and the derived noun affectation. Another meaning of afficere was ‘influence’, and this first entered English in the 13th century by way of its derived noun affectiō, meaning ‘a particular, usually unfavourable disposition’ – hence affection.

The verb itself was a much later borrowing, again either through French or directly from the Latin past participle affectus.
=> fact
ash: ash: [OE] There are two distinct words ash in English: ash the tree and ash ‘burnt material’. The tree (Old English æsc) comes from a prehistoric Germanic *askiz, which in turn derived from the Indo-European base *os-; this was the source of several tree-names in other Indo-European languages, not all of them by any means corresponding to the ash: Latin ornus, for instance, meant ‘elm’, and Albanian ah is ‘beech’. Ash as in ‘cigarette ash’ is a descendant of Old English æsce.

It has cognate forms in other Germanic languages (German asche, Dutch asch, Swedish aska), pointing to a prehistoric Germanic *azgon, which may be related to the Latin verbs ārēre ‘be dry’ (source of English arid) and ārdēre ‘burn’ (source of English ardent, ardour, and arson).
=> ardent, arid, arson
baffle: baffle: [16] The etymology of baffle is appropriately baffling. Two main candidates have been proposed as a source. The first is the medieval Scots verb bawchill or bauchle, meaning ‘discredit publicly’. This fits in with the way baffle was first used: ‘I will baffull your good name, sound with the trumpet your dishonour, and paint your pictor with the heeles vpward, and beate it in despight of yourselfe’, Churchyardes chippes 1570.

The other strand is represented by French bafouer ‘hoodwink, deceive’, which perhaps comes from Old French beffer. This corresponds more closely to the present-day meaning of baffle, and it may well be that there are two distinct words here.
bail: bail: There are now three distinct words bail in English, although they may all be related. Bail ‘money deposited as a guarantee when released’ [14] comes from Old French bail, a derivative of the verb baillier ‘take charge of, carry’, whose source was Latin bājulāre ‘carry’, from bājulus ‘carrier’. Bail ‘remove water’ [13], also spelled bale, probably comes ultimately from the same source; its immediate antecedent was Old French baille ‘bucket’, which perhaps went back to a hypothetical Vulgar Latin *bājula, a feminine form of bājulus.

The bail on top of cricket stumps [18] has been connected with Latin bājulus too – this could have been the source of Old French bail ‘cross-beam’ (‘loadcarrying beam’), which could quite plausibly have been applied to cricket bails; on the other hand it may go back to Old French bail, baille ‘enclosed court’ (source of English bailey [13]), which originally in English meant the ‘encircling walls of a castle’ but by the 19th century at the latest had developed the sense ‘bar for separating animals in a stable’.
=> bailey
balk: balk: [OE] There are two separate strands of meaning in balk, or baulk, as it is also spelled. When it first entered English in the 9th century, from Old Norse bálkr, it meant a ‘ridge of land, especially one between ploughed furrows’, from which the modern sense ‘stumbling block, obstruction’ developed. It is not until about 1300 that the meaning ‘beam of timber’ appears in English, although it was an established sense of the Old Norse word’s Germanic ancestor *balkon (source also of English balcony).

The common element of meaning in these two strands is something like ‘bar’, which may have been present in the word’s ultimate Indo- European base *bhalg- (possible source of Greek phálagx ‘log, phalanx’).
=> balcony, phalanx
ball: ball: There are two distinct words ball in English. The ‘round object’ [13] comes via Old Norse böllr from a prehistoric Germanic *balluz (source also of bollock [OE], originally a diminutive form). A related form was Germanic *ballōn, which was borrowed into Italian to give palla ‘ball’, from which French probably acquired balle.

Derivatives of this branch of the family to have reached English are balloon [16], from French ballon or Italian ballone, and ballot [16], from the Italian diminutive form ballotta (originally from the use of small balls as counters in secret voting). The Germanic stem form *bal-, *bul- was also the ultimate source of English bowl ‘receptacle’.

The ‘dancing’ ball [17] comes from French bal, a derivative of the now obsolete verb bal(l)er ‘dance’, which was descended via late Latin ballāre from Greek ballízein ‘dance’. Related words in English include ballad(e) [14], which came via Old French from Provençal balada ‘song or poem to dance to’, and ballet.
=> ballon, ballot, bollock; ballad, ballet
band: band: There are two distinct words band in English, but neither of them goes back as far as Old English. The one meaning ‘group of people’ [15] comes from Old French bande, but is probably Germanic in ultimate origin; the specific sense ‘group of musicians’ developed in the 17th century. Band ‘strip’ [13] comes from Germanic *bindan, source of English bind, but reached English in two quite separate phases.

It first came via Old Norse band, in the sense ‘something that ties or constrains’; this replaced Old English bend, also from Germanic *bindan (which now survives only as a heraldic term, as in bend sinister), but is now itself more or less obsolete, having been superseded by bond, a variant form. But then in the 15th century it arrived again, by a different route: Old French had bande ‘strip, stripe’, which can be traced back, perhaps via a Vulgar Latin *binda, to the same ultimate source, Germanic *bindan.
=> bend, bind, bond, bundle, ribbon
base: base: There are two distinct words base in English. Base meaning ‘lower part, foundation’ [14] came either via Old French base or was a direct anglicization of Latin basis (acquired by English in its unaltered form at around the same time). The Latin word in its turn came from Greek básis, which meant originally ‘step’ and came ultimately from the Indo-European base *gwm-, from which English gets come; the semantic progression involved was ‘going, stepping’ to ‘that on which one walks or stands’ to ‘pedestal’.

The derivative basement [18] is Italian in origin (Italian basamento means ‘base of a column’), but probably reached English via early modern Dutch basement ‘foundation’. Base meaning ‘low’ [14] comes via Old French bas from medieval Latin bassus ‘short, low’. The ultimate antecedents of this are uncertain, although some have suggested a connection with básson, the comparative form of Greek bathús ‘deep’.

The adjective bass is historically the same word as base, but since the 16th century has been distinguished from it by spelling.
=> basis; bass
baste: baste: There are two separate verbs baste in English, one meaning ‘sew loosely’ [14], the other ‘moisten roasting meat with fat’ [15]. The first comes from Old French bastir, which was acquired from a hypothetical Germanic *bastjan ‘join together with bast’. This was a derivative of *bastaz, from which English gets bast ‘plant fibre’ [OE]. The origin of the second is far more obscure. It may come from an earlier base, with the past form based being interpreted as the present tense or infinitive.
bay: bay: There are no fewer than six distinct words bay in English. The ‘sea inlet’ [14] comes via Old French baie from Old Spanish bahia. Bay as in bay leaf [14] comes from a different Old French word baie, whose source was Latin bāca ‘berry’. The ‘reddish-brown colour of a horse’ [14] comes via Old French bai from Latin badius, which is related to Old Irish buide ‘yellow’.

The ‘recessed area or compartment’ [14] comes from yet another Old French baie, a derivative of the verb bayer ‘gape, yawn’, from medieval Latin batāre (English acquired abash and abeyance from the same source, and it may also be represented in the first syllable of beagle). Bay ‘bark’ [14] comes from Old French abaiier, in which the element -bai- probably originated as an imitation of a dog howling.

And it is the source of bay as in at bay [13] (from Old French abai), the underlying idea of which is that of a hunted animal finally turning and facing its barking pursuers.
=> abash, abeyance, beagle
be: be: [OE] There are four distinct components that go to make up the modern English verb be. The infinitive form be comes ultimately from an Indo-European base *bheu-, *bhu-, which also produced, by other routes, future and physical. Its Germanic descendant was *bu-, which signified on the one hand ‘dwell’ (from which we get booth, bower, byre, build, burly, byelaw, and the final element of neighbour), and on the other hand ‘grow, become’, which led to its adoption as part of the verb expressing ‘being’ (in Old English particularly with the future sense of ‘coming to be’). Am and is go back to the ancient Indo- European verb ‘be’, *es- or *s-, which has contributed massively to ‘be’ verbs throughout all Indo-European languages (third person present singulars Greek esti, Latin est, French est, German ist, Sanskrit ásti, Welsh ys, for example) The Indo-European first and third person singular forms were, respectively, ésmi and ésti.

For the present plural Old English used the related sind(on) (as found in Latin sunt, French sont, and German sind), but this died out in the 12th century, to be replaced by are, which comes from a Germanic base *ar- of unknown origin. From the same source is the now archaic second person singular art. The past tense forms was, were come ultimately from an Indo-European base *weswhich meant ‘dwell, remain’.

Related words in other Indo-European languages include Sanskrit vásati ‘dwell, remain’ and Gothic wisan ‘remain, continue’.
=> booth, bower, build, burly, byelaw, byre
beyond: beyond: [OE] Beyond is a lexicalization of the Old English phrase be geondan ‘from the farther side’. The second element comes from a prehistoric Germanic *jandana, formed on a base *jan- which also gave English the now largely dialectal yon [OE] and yonder [13]. To German it contributed the demonstrative adjective and pronoun jener ‘that’, and there are related demonstrative forms without the initial jin other Indo-European languages, including non-Germanic ones (Old Slavonic onu ‘that’, for instance, and Sanskrit āna- ‘this one’).
=> yon, yonder
bill: bill: There are three distinct words bill in English (not counting the proper name), and of them all, the most recent is the commonest. Bill ‘note of charges’ [14] comes from Anglo-Latin billa, which is probably a variant of Latin bulla ‘_document, seal’ (as in ‘papal bull’). English billet [15], as in ‘billeting soldiers on a house’, was originally a diminutive form of billa (French billet ‘letter’ comes from the same source). Bill ‘hook-bladed weapon’ [OE], now found mainly in billhook, comes from a prehistoric West Germanic *bilja, which may be based ultimately on Indo-European *bhid-, source of English bite. Bill ‘beak’ [OE] may be related to bill ‘weapon’, but this is not clear.

The verbal sense ‘caress’, as in ‘bill and coo’, is 16th-century; it arose from the courting behaviour of doves stroking each other’s beaks.
=> billet
bit: bit: There are three distinct nouns bit in English, but the two most ancient ones are probably both related ultimately to the verb bite. Bit as in ‘drill bit’ [OE] originally meant simply ‘bite’ or ‘biting’. The Old English word, bite, came from Germanic *bitiz, a derivative of the verb *bītan ‘bite’. The ‘drill bit’ sense did not develop until the 16th century.

The bit placed in a horse’s mouth is probably the same word. Bit meaning ‘small piece’ [OE] also comes from a Germanic derivative of *bītan, in this case *biton; this gave Old English bita ‘piece bitten off’. The more general sense, ‘small piece’, developed in the 16th century. The third bit, ‘unit of computer information’ [20], is a blend formed from ‘binary digit’.
=> bite
blaze: blaze: There are three distinct words blaze in English. The commonest, meaning ‘fire, flame’ [OE], comes from a prehistoric Germanic *blasōn. Its original signification was ‘torch’ (in the sense, of course, of a burning piece of wood or bunch of sticks), but by the year 1000 the main current meaning was established. The precise source of blaze ‘light-coloured mark or spot’ [17] is not known for certain, but there are several cognate forms in other Germanic languages, including Old Norse blesi and German blässe; perhaps the likeliest candidate as far as blaze is concerned is Middle Low German bles.

The verbal usage, as in ‘blaze a trail’ (that is, by making conspicuous marks on trees) originated in the mid 18th century. The related German adjective blass ‘pale’, which originally meant ‘shining’, points up the fact that ultimately these two words blaze are related, the primeval sense ‘shining’ having diverged on the one hand through ‘pale’, on the other through ‘glowing, burning’.

The third blaze, ‘proclaim’ [14], as in ‘blaze abroad’, is now seldom encountered. It originally meant ‘blow a trumpet’, and comes ultimately from the Indo-European base *bhlā- (source of blow). Its immediate source in English was Middle Dutch blāsen. Despite its formal and semantic similarity, it does not appear to have any connection with blazon [13], which comes from Old French blason ‘shield’, a word of unknown origin.

A blazer [19] got its name from being a brightly coloured jacket (from blaze meaning ‘fire, flame’). It originated among English university students in the late 19th century. According to a correspondent in the Daily News 22 August 1889, the word was originally applied specifically to the red jackets worn by members of the ‘Lady Margaret, St John’s College, Cambridge, Boat Club’.

But by the 1880s its more general application had become widely established: in the Durham University Journal of 21 February 1885 we read that ‘the latest novelty … for the river is flannels, a blazer, and spats’.
=> blow
blow: blow: There are three distinct blows in English. The commonest, the verb ‘send out air’ [OE], can be traced back to an Indo-European base *bhlā-. It came into English (as Old English blāwan) via Germanic *blǣ-, source also of bladder. The Indo-European base also produced Latin flāre ‘blow’, from which English gets flatulent and inflate.

The other verb blow, ‘come into flower’ [OE], now archaic, comes ultimately from Indo-European *bhlō-. It entered English (as Old English blōwan) via Germanic *blo-, from which English also gets bloom and probably blade. A variant form of the Indo-European base with -s- produced Latin flōs (source of English flower) and English blossom.

The noun blow ‘hard hit’ [15] is altogether more mysterious. It first appears, in the form blaw, in northern and Scottish texts, and it has been connected with a hypothetical Germanic *bleuwan ‘strike’.
=> bladder, flatulent, inflate; blade, bloom, blossom, flower
bounce: bounce: [13] Bounce is something of a mystery word. When it first appears in Middle English it means ‘hit’, and it does not acquire its modern sense ‘rebound’ until the late 16th century. There are similar words in other Germanic languages, such as Dutch bons ‘thump’, but there is no reason to suppose that any of them is actually the source of the English word. Many etymologists incline to the view that bounce is an independent onomatopoeic formation.
bow: bow: There are three distinct words bow in English, although two of them, ‘arrow-shooter’ [OE] and ‘bend the body’ [OE], are ultimately related. Bow for arrows comes from Old English boga, which also meant more generally ‘arch’; its source was Germanic *bugon, a derivative of *bug-, the short stem of *beugan. This *beugan was also the source of Old English bōgan, antecedent of modern English bow ‘bend the body’, while the short stem lies additionally behind bright [OE] and bout [16]. Buxom, which originally meant ‘flexible’ and ‘obedient’, derived from bow ‘bend the body’.

The other bow ‘front of a boat’ [15] was probably borrowed from Dutch boeg, a word related to English bough.
=> bight, bout, buxom; bough
brake: brake: There are two distinct words brake in English. By far the older is that meaning ‘overgrown area, thicket’ [OE]. Its source is uncertain, but it has been speculated that it is ultimately related to break, its original meaning perhaps having been something like ‘broken wood’. Brake ‘decelerating mechanism’ [15] meant ‘bridle’ for stopping a horse’s progress, and may have been borrowed from Middle Dutch braeke, a word which was used for a wide variety of crushing implements but also apparently for a ring put through the nose of a draught ox. There may well be some ultimate connection with break here too.
=> break
briar: briar: There are two distinct words briar in English, both of which can also be spelled brier, and as their meanings are fairly similar, they are often confused. The older [OE] is a name given to the wild rose, although in fact this usage is as recent as the 16th century, and in Old English times the word was used generally for any prickly bush, including particularly the bramble.

The Old English form was brēr, but it is not known where this came from. The other briar, ‘wild heather’ [19], is the one whose root is used for making briar pipes. The word comes from French bruyère, and was spelled bruyer when first introduced into English in the third quarter of the 19th century; the current spelling is due to assimilation to the other briar.

The French form comes from Gallo-Roman *brūcaria, a derivative of *brūcus, which was borrowed from Gaulish brūko. It appears to be related to the Greek word for ‘heather’, ereikē, from which English gets the technical botanical term ericaceous [19].
brook: brook: [OE] There are two distinct words brook in English. The one meaning ‘stream’ is comparatively isolated; it apparently has relatives in other Germanic languages (such as German bruch), but they mean ‘swamp’, and there the story ends. The now rather archaic verb brook, however, meaning ‘stand for, tolerate’, can be traced right back to an Indo-European base *bhrug-, from which English also gets fruit and frugal.

Its Germanic descendant was *brūk- ‘use’, which has given rise to a range of current verbs in the Germanic languages, including German brauchen ‘use, need’. The Old English version was brūcan, which also meant ‘use’. A particular application to food (‘use’ in the sense ‘eat’, and later ‘be able to digest’) started to develop in the late Old English period, and by the 16th century this had come to be used more generally (rather like stomach) for ‘tolerate’.
=> frugal, fruit
bull: bull: There are three distinct words bull in English. The oldest is the animal name, which first appears in late Old English as bula. Related forms occur in other Germanic languages, including German bulle and Dutch bul. The diminutive bullock is also recorded in late Old English. The second bull is ‘edict’ [13], as in ‘papal bull’. This comes from medieval Latin bulla ‘sealed document’, a development of an earlier sense ‘seal’, which can be traced back to classical Latin bulla ‘bubble’ (source also of English bowl, as in the game of bowls; of boil ‘heat liquid’; of budge [16], via Old French bouger and Vulgar Latin *bullicāre ‘bubble up, boil’; and probably of bill ‘statement of charges’).

And finally there is ‘ludicrous or selfcontradictory statement’ [17], usually now in the phrase Irish bull, whose origins are mysterious; there may be a connection with the Middle English noun bul ‘falsehood’ and the 15th-to 17th-century verb bull ‘mock, cheat’, which has been linked with Old French boler or bouller ‘deceive’. The source of the modern colloquial senses ‘nonsense’ and ‘excessive discipline’ is not clear.

Both are early 20th-century, and closely associated with the synonymous and contemporary bullshit, suggesting a conscious link with bull the animal. In meaning, however, the first at least is closer to bull ‘ludicrous statement’. Bull’s-eye ‘centre of a target’ and ‘large sweet’ are both early 19th-century. Bulldoze is from 1870s America, and was apparently originally applied to the punishment of recalcitrant black slaves; it has been conjectured that the underlying connotation was of ‘giving someone a dose fit for a bull’.

The term bulldozer was applied to the vehicle in the 1930s.
=> phallic; bill, bowl, budge
bum: bum: There are two distinct words bum in English. By far the older, ‘buttocks’, is first recorded in John de Trevisa’s translation of Ranulph Higden’s Polychronicon 1387: ‘It seemeth that his bum is out that hath that evil [piles]’. It is not clear where it comes from. The other, ‘tramp, loafer’, and its associated verb ‘spend time aimlessly’ [19], chiefly American, probably come from an earlier bummer, derived from the German verb bummeln ‘loaf around, saunter’ (familiar to English speakers from the title of Jerome K Jerome’s novel Three Men on the Bummel 1900, about a jaunt around Germany).
burden: burden: There are two distinct words burden in English. By far the older, ‘load’, comes from Old English byrthen. Like bear, birth, bairn, bier, barrow, and berth it goes back ultimately to an Indo-European base *bher-, which signified both ‘carry’ and ‘give birth’. Its immediate Germanic ancestor was *burthi-, which also gave German bürde ‘load’. The other burden, ‘refrain’, and hence ‘main theme’, is an alteration of an earlier bourdon [14], which was borrowed from Old French bourdon ‘bass pipe’.
=> bairn, barrow, bear, berth, bier, birth
bust: bust: There are two different words bust in English. The one meaning ‘break’ [18] is simply an alteration of burst. Bust ‘sculpture of head and chest’ [17] comes via French buste from Italian busto ‘upper body’, of uncertain origin (Latin had the temptingly similar bustum ‘monument on a tomb’, but this does not seem to fit in with the word’s primary sense ‘upper body’).

In English, application of the word to the human chest probably developed in the 18th century (one of the earliest examples is from Byron’s Don Juan 1819: ‘There was an Irish lady, to whose bust I ne’er saw justice done’), although as late as the early 19th century it could still be used with reference to men’s chests, and had not become particularized to female breasts: ‘His naked bust would have furnished a model for a statuary’, Washington Irving, A tour on the prairies 1835.
butt: butt: There are no fewer than four distinct words butt in English. The oldest, ‘hit with the head’ [12], comes via Anglo-Norman buter from Old French boter. This can be traced back through Vulgar Latin *bottāre ‘thrust’ (source of English button) to a prehistoric Germanic *buttan. Old French boter produced a derivative boteret ‘thrusting’, whose use in the phrase ars boterez ‘thrusting arch’ was the basis of English buttress [13]. Butt ‘barrel’ [14] comes via Anglo-Norman but and Old French bot or bout from late Latin buttis ‘cask’ (a diminutive form of which was the basis of English bottle).

A derivative of the Anglo-Norman form was buterie ‘storeroom for casks of alcohol’, from which English gets buttery ‘food shop in a college’ [14]. Butt ‘target’ [14] probably comes from Old French but ‘goal, shooting target’, but the early English sense ‘mound on which a target is set up’ suggests association also with French butte ‘mound, knoll’ (which was independently borrowed into English in the 19th century as a term for the isolated steep-sided hills found in the Western states of the USA). Butt ‘thick end’ [15], as in ‘rifle butt’ and ‘cigarette butt’, appears to be related to other Germanic words in the same general semantic area, such as Low German butt ‘blunt’ and Middle Dutch bot ‘stumpy’, and may well come ultimately from the same base as produced buttock [13]. (The colloquial American sense of butt, ‘buttocks’, originated in the 15th century.) The verb abut [15] comes partly from Anglo- Latin abuttāre, a derivative of hutta ‘ridge or strip of land’, which may be related to English butt ‘thick end’, and partly from Old French aboter, a derivative of boter, from which English gets butt ‘hit with the head’.
=> button, buttress; bottle, butler, butte, début; buttock, abut
canon: canon: There are today two distinct words canon in English, although ultimately they are related. The older, ‘(ecclesiastical) rule’ [OE], comes via Latin canōn from Greek kanón ‘rule’, which some have speculated may be related to Greek kánnā ‘reed’, source of English cane (the semantic link is said to be ‘reed’ – ‘rod’ – ‘measuring rod’ – ‘rule’).

The derived adjective, kanonikós, passed into ecclesiastical Latin as canonicus, which was used as a noun, ‘clergyman’; in Old French this became canonie or chanonie, and as it crossed into English its last syllable dropped off (owing to the influence of canon ‘rule’). The underlying sense of canon ‘clergyman’ [13] is thus ‘one living according to the rules of religious life’.
cape: cape: There are two distinct words cape in English, but they may come from the same ultimate source. The earlier, ‘promontory, headland’ [14], comes via Old French cap and Provençal cap from Vulgar Latin *capo, a derivative of Latin caput ‘bead’. Cape ‘cloak’ [16] comes via French cape and Provençal capa from late Latin cappa ‘hood’, source of English cap; this too may be traceable back to Latin caput. (Other English descendants of caput include achieve, cadet, capital, captain, chapter, and chief; and cappa was also the precursor of chapel, chaperone, and cope).
=> achieve, cadet, capital, cappuccino, captain, chapel, chaperon, chapter, chief, escape
case: case: [13] There are two distinct words case in English, both acquired via Old French from Latin and both members of very large families. Case ‘circumstance’ was borrowed from Old French cas, which in turn came from Latin cāsus ‘fall, chance’. This was formed from the base of the verb cadere ‘fall’. The progression of senses is from the concrete ‘that which falls’ to the metaphorical ‘that which befalls, that which happens (by chance)’ (and English chance is also derived ultimately from Latin cadere).

Other related words in English include accident, cadence, cadaver, cheat, chute, coincide, decadent, decay, deciduous, and occasion. Case ‘container’ comes via Old French casse from Latin capsa ‘box’, a derivative of the verb capere ‘hold’ (which is related to English heave).

At various points during its history it has produced offshoots which in English have become capsule [17], a diminutive form, cash, chassis, and perhaps capsicum [18] and chase ‘engrave’.
=> accident, cadaver, cheat, chute, decay, deciduous, occasion, occident; capsicum, capsule, cash, chassis
castor: castor: There are two distinct words castor in English. The older originally meant ‘beaver’ [14], and was early used with reference to a bitter pungent substance secreted by glands near the beaver’s anus, employed in medicine and perfumery. The term castor oil [18] probably comes from the use of this oil, derived from the seed of a tropical plant, as a substitute for castor in medicine.

The more recent castor [17] is simply a derivative of the verb cast; it was originally (and still often is) spelled caster. Its use for sprinkling or ‘throwing’ sugar is obvious (the term castor sugar dates back to the mid 19th century), but its application to a ‘small swivelling wheel’ is less immediately clear: it comes from a now obsolete sense of the verb, mainly nautical, ‘veer, turn’: ‘Prepare for casting to port’, George Nares, Seamanship 1882.
=> cast
cave: cave: There are two English words cave which, despite their apparent similarity, are probably unrelated. The earlier, ‘underground chamber’ [13], comes via Old French cave from Latin cavea, a nominal use of the adjective cavus ‘hollow’ (source also of cavern [14], via Old French caverne or Latin caverna, and of cavity [16], from the late Latin derivative cavitās).

The verb cave [18], however, as in ‘cave in’, seems to come from an earlier dialectal calve ‘collapse, fall in’, once widespread in the eastern counties of England; it has been speculated that this was borrowed from a Low German source, such as Flemish inkalven. It has subsequently, of course, been much influenced by the noun cave.
=> cavern, cavity, decoy
champagne: champagne: [17] Champagne comes (as does campaign) from late Latin campānia, a derivative of Latin campus ‘open field’ (source of English camp). This passed into Old French as champagne ‘open country’, a word borrowed into English in the 14th century as champaign (now archaic). It came to be applied specifically to a province of northeastern France (an area largely of open rolling countryside) and hence to the wine produced in that area.

There are references to ‘brisk Champagne’ and ‘sparkling Champagne’ in English from the 1660s and 1670s, but it was not until about two hundred years ago that modern champagne, produced by secondary fermentation in bottle, was invented (according to legend, by the monk Dom Perignon).
=> camp, campaign, champion
chap: chap: There are four distinct words chap in English. The oldest, ‘sore on the skin’ [14], originally meant more generally ‘crack, split’, and may be related to Middle Low German kappen ‘chop off’; it seems ultimately to be the same word as chop ‘cut’. Chap ‘jaw’ [16] (as in Bath chaps) is probably a variant of chop (as in ‘lick one’s chops’). Chap ‘fellow’ [16] originally meant ‘customer’; it is an abbreviation of chapman ‘trader’ [OE] (source of the common surname, but now obsolete as an ordinary noun), whose first element is related to English cheap. Chaps ‘leggings’ [19] is short for Mexican Spanish chaparreras, a derivative of Spanish chaparro ‘evergreen oak’; they were named from their use in protecting the legs of riders from the low thick scrub that grows in Mexico and Texas (named with another derivative of chaparro, chaparral). Chaparro itself probably comes from Basque txapar, a diminutive of saphar ‘thicket’.
=> chop; cheap; chaparral
charcoal: charcoal: [14] The words char and charcoal are related, but not in the way commonsense might lead one to suppose: for the verb char [17], originally apparently a charcoal-burner’s term, appears to derive from charcoal. So etymologically, the element char has nothing to do with ‘burning’. There are two main suggestions as to charcoal’s origins: firstly that it comes from Old French charbon ‘charcoal’ (related to English carbon); and secondly that it represents the now obsolete English verb chare (see CHARWOMAN), which in Old English times (cerran) meant ‘turn’.

On the basis of this theory, the etymological meaning of the word would be ‘turning into charcoal’ (for in Old English, coal meant ‘charcoal’ as well as ‘coal’).
charge: charge: [13] The notion underlying the word charge is of a ‘load’ or ‘burden’ – and this can still be detected in many of its modern meanings, as of a duty laid on one like a load, or of the burden of an expense, which began as metaphors. It comes ultimately from Latin carrus ‘two-wheeled wagon’ (source also of English car). From this was derived the late Latin verb carricāre ‘load’, which produced the Old French verb charger and, via the intermediate Vulgar Latin *carrica, the Old French noun charge, antecedents of the English words.

The literal sense of ‘loading’ or ‘bearing’ has now virtually died out, except in such phrases as ‘charge your glasses’, but there are reminders of it in cargo [17], which comes from the Spanish equivalent of the French noun charge, and indeed in carry, descended from the same ultimate source. The origins of the verb sense ‘rush in attack’ are not altogether clear, but it may have some connection with the sense ‘put a weapon in readiness’.

This is now familiar in the context of firearms, but it seems to have been used as long ago as the 13th century with reference to arrows. The Italian descendant of late Latin carricāre was caricare, which meant not only ‘load’ but also, metaphorically, ‘exaggerate’. From this was derived the noun caricatura, which reached English via French in the 18th century as caricature.
=> car, cargo, caricature
chase: chase: There are two distinct words chase in English, although they may come from the same ultimate source. The commoner, and older, ‘pursue’ [13], comes via Old French chacier from Vulgar Latin *captiāre (which also produced Anglo-Norman cachier, source of English catch). This was an alteration of Latin captāre ‘try to seize’, which was formed from captus, the past participle of capere ‘take’ (source of a wide range of English words, including capture, capable, and cater, and distantly related to heave).

The other, ‘engrave’ [14], may come from Old French chas ‘enclosure’, which in turn came from Latin capsa ‘box’ (source of English case and related ultimately to Latin capere). The semantic connection would seem to be between putting a jewel in its setting, or ‘enclosure’, and decorating jewellery or precious metal by other means such as engraving or embossing.
=> capable, capture, case, catch, cater, heave, purchase
check: check: There are two distinct words check in English, although by very involved pathways they are related. Check ‘verify’ [14] is originally a chess term meaning ‘threaten the king’. It comes from Old French eschequier, a derivative of the noun eschec (source also of English chess), which goes back via Vulgar Latin *scaccus and Arabic shāh to Persian shāh ‘king’ (whence also, of course, English shah). (Checkmate [14] comes via Old French eschec mat from Persian shāh māt ‘the king is left helpless’; the second element turns up again in mat or matt ‘lustreless’.) From the very specific chess sense there developed more general applications such as ‘attack’, ‘arrest’, ‘stop’, ‘restrict’, and ‘verify’.

Among these in the 18th century was ‘token used as a counterfoil for verifying something, such as an amount’. As check this survives mainly in American English (as in ‘hat-check’), but in the specific financial sense of ‘written money order’ it was transformed in British English into cheque, perhaps under the influence of exchequer. Check ‘pattern of squares’ [14] is probably short for chequer, which in turn is a reduced form of exchequer, a word derived ultimately from Vulgar Latin *scaccus ‘check’.
=> cheque, chess, exchequer
chop: chop: There are three distinct words chop in English. The oldest [14] originally meant ‘trade, barter’, but it is now found only in the phrase chop and change. It appears to come from Old English cēapian ‘trade’, which is related to English cheap. Chop ‘jaw, jowl’ [15] (now usually in the plural form chops) is of unknown origin; the now archaic chap is a variant. Chop ‘cut’ [16] seems ultimately to be the same word as chap (as in ‘chapped lips’), and may be related to Middle Low German kappen ‘chop off’. The specific noun sense ‘meat cutlet’ dates from the 15th century.
=> chap, cheap
cleave: cleave: [OE] There are two distinct verbs cleave in English, both of Germanic origin. Cleave ‘cut’ comes from Germanic *kleuban, which goes back to an Indo-European base *gleubh- (this also produced Greek glúphein ‘carve’, source of English hieroglyphics). Cleave ‘adhere’ can be traced back ultimately to an Indo-European base *gloi-, *glei-, *gli- ‘stick’, from which English also gets glue and gluten. Its Germanic descendant *klai- produced English clay and clammy, and *kli- developed into cleave.
=> clammy, clay, climb, glue, hieroglyphics
clove: clove: There are two distinct words clove in English. In clove of garlic [OE] the underlying notion is of ‘cutting’; the head of garlic is as it were ‘divided up’ into separate sections. The word goes back ultimately to the Indo-European base *gleubh- ‘cut, carve’, which also produced English cleave and its now archaic past tense clove. Clove the spice [14] originated in the Old French phrase clou de girofle, which meant literally ‘nail of the clove-tree’.

The term ‘nail’ was applied to the tree’s dried unopened flower bud because of a perceived resemblance in shape. (French clou ‘nail’ comes from Latin clāvus, source of English cloy, and French girofle – whence English gillyflower [14], which originally meant ‘clove’ – goes back via medieval Latin caryophyllum to Greek karuóphullon, which literally meant ‘nut leaf’.)
=> cleave; cloy, gillyflower
colon: colon: There are two distinct words colon in English. Colon ‘part of the large intestine’ [16] comes via Latin from Greek kólon, which meant ‘food, meat’ as well as ‘large intestine’. Colon the punctuation mark [16] comes via Latin from Greek kōlon, which originally meant literally ‘limb’. It was applied metaphorically (rather like foot) to a ‘unit of verse’, and hence to a ‘clause’ in general, meanings which survive in English as technical terms. From there it was a short step to the main present-day meaning, ‘punctuation mark’.
comely: comely: [13] Old English had an adjective cymlic ‘beautiful’ (no relation at all to come), but this seems to have died out around the year 1000, and it is likely that comely, which first appears in the early 13th century, represents a reduced version of becomely, an adjective long since defunct of which there are a few records towards the end of the 12th century. This meant ‘suitable, becoming’ (it was formed, of course, from the verb become), an early meaning of comely; its other semantic strand, ‘beautiful’, is probably a memory of Old English cymlic.
=> become
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
compound: compound: There are two distinct words compound in English. The one meaning ‘combine’ [14] comes ultimately from Latin compōnere ‘put together’. Old French took two verbs from this: the perfect stem composproduced composer (whence English compose) while the infinitive became compondre, source of English compound. Its original Middle English form was compoune; the final d came from the adjectival use of the past participle compouned. Compound ‘enclosure’ [17] is of Eastern origin: it comes from Malay kampong ‘group of buildings, village’, and was borrowed via Portuguese campon or Dutch campoeng.

The English form was no doubt remodelled on the basis of compound ‘combine’.
=> compose, composite, position
cope: cope: There are two distinct words cope in English. The now more familiar one, ‘deal with’ [14], comes from Old French coper, and originally meant ‘hit, punch’. The Old French verb was a derivative of the noun cop ‘blow’, which in turn was a variant of colp (from which modern French gets coup, borrowed into English in the 18th century). This came via medieval Latin colpus (ultimate source of English coppice) and Latin colaphus from Greek kólaphos ‘blow, punch’.

The modern English sense of the verb developed via ‘come to blows with’ and ‘contend with’ to ‘handle successfully’. Cope ‘cloak’ [13] was borrowed from medieval Latin cāpa, a variant of cappa, which produced English cap and cape as well as chapel and chaperone. It may ultimately be descended from Latin caput ‘head’.
=> coppice, coup; cap, cape, chapel, chaperon
count: count: There are two distinct words count in English. Count ‘enumerate’ [14] comes ultimately from Latin computāre ‘calculate’ (source of English compute). It came into English from Old French conter, which had, via the notion of ‘adding up and rendering an account’, developed the sense ‘tell a story’ (preserved in English in the derivatives account and recount).

The derivative counter [14] began life as medieval Latin computātōrium ‘place of accounts’, and entered English via Anglo- Norman counteour. Its modern sense ‘surface for transactions in a shop’ does not seem to have become firmly established until the early 19th century, although it was applied to similar objects in banks from the late 17th century. The noble title count [16] comes via Old French conte from Latin comes, which originally meant ‘companion, attendant’ (it was a compound noun, formed from the prefix com- ‘with’ and īre ‘go’, and so its underlying etymological meaning is ‘one who goes with another’).

In the Roman empire it was used for the governor of a province, and in Anglo- Norman it was used to translate English earl. It has never been used as an English title, but the feminine form countess was adopted for the wife of an earl in the 12th century (and viscount was borrowed from Anglo-Norman viscounte in the 14th century). The Latin derivative comitātus was originally a collective noun denoting a ‘group of companions’, but with the development of meaning in comes it came to mean first ‘office of a governor’ and latterly ‘area controlled by a governor’.

In England, this area was the ‘shire’, and so county [14], acquired via Anglo-Norman counte, came to be a synonym for ‘shire’. Another descendant of Latin comes is concomitant [17], from the present participle of late Latin concomitārī.
=> account, compute, putative, recount; concomitant, county
cunt: cunt: [13] The first known reference to the word cunt is in an early medieval Oxford street-name: Gropecuntlane (it was afterwards renamed Magpie lane). This was around 1230, and from later in the same century there are records of a street of the same name (presumably the haunt of prostitutes) in London, probably around the area of modern Cheapside. York, too, had its Grapcunt lane in the 15th century. Cunt has a number of Germanic cognates, including Old Norse kunta, Middle Dutch kunte, and possibly Middle High German kotze ‘prostitute’, which point to a prehistoric Germanic ancestor *kunton ‘female genitals’, but beyond that its origins are not known.

A link has been suggested with Latin cuneus ‘wedge’.
decline: decline: [14] The notion underlying decline is of ‘bending away’. It comes via Old French decliner from Latin dēclināre ‘turn aside, go down’, a compound verb formed from the prefix dē-, ‘away, aside’ and clināre ‘bend’, which also produced English incline and recline and is related to lean. Its Latin nominal derivative dēclinātiō has bifurcated in English, to produce declination [14] and, via Old French declinaison, declension [15].

The latter is used only in the specialized grammatical sense ‘set of inflectional endings of a noun’, already present in Latin, which derives from the concept that every inflected form of a word represents a ‘falling away’ from its uninflected base form (the same underlying notion appears in the term oblique case ‘any grammatical sense other than the nominative or vocative’, and indeed the word case itself, whose etymological meaning is ‘fall’; and there are perhaps traces of it in inflection, literally ‘bending’).
=> declension, incline, lean, recline