quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- 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 - than
- than: [OE] Than is ultimately the same word as then, and the two were used interchangeably until the end of the 17th century. It is not clear how the adverb came to be used as a conjunction denoting comparison, although it is possible that the comparison implicit in expressions like ‘This one is better; then there is that one’ may have led on to ‘This one is better than that one’.
=> then - amid (prep.)
- late 14c., from amidde (c. 1200), from Old English on middan "in the middle," from dative singular of midde "mid, middle" (see middle); the phrase evidently was felt as "in (the) middle" and thus followed by a genitive case, and if this had endured we would follow it today with of. (See amidst for further evolution along this line).
The same applies to equivalents in Latin (in medio) and Greek (en meso), both originally adjective phrases which evolved to take the genitive case. But in later Old English on middan also was treated as a preposition and followed by dative. Used in compounds from early 13c. (such as amidships, attested from 1690s and retaining the genitive, as the compounds usually did in early Middle English, suggesting this one is considerably older than the written record of it.) - Anglian
- "of the Angles," 1726; see Angle. The Old English word was Englisc, but as this came to be used in reference to the whole Germanic people of Britain, a new word was wanted to describe this one branch of them.
- cloture (n.)
- 1871, the French word for "closure, the action of closing," applied to debates in the French Assembly ("action of closing (debate) by will of a majority"), then to the House of Commons and U.S. Congress, from French clôture, from Old French closture (see closure). It was especially used in English by those opposed to the tactic.
In foreign countries the Clôture has been used notoriously to barricade up a majority against the "pestilent" criticism of a minority, and in this country every "whip" and force is employed by the majority to re-assert its continued supremacy and to keep its ranks intact whenever attacked. How this one-sided struggle to maintain solidarity can be construed into "good for all" is inexplicable in the sense uttered. ["The clôture and the Recent Debate, a Letter to Sir J. Lubbock," London, 1882]
- doo-wop
- 1958, from the nonsense harmony phrases sung under the vocal lead (this one attested from mid-1950s).
- gloomy (adj.)
- 1580s, probably from gloom (n.) even though that word is not attested as early as this one. Shakespeare used it of woods, Marlowe of persons. Gloomy Gus has been used in a general sense of "sullen person" since 1902, the name of a pessimistic and defeatist newspaper comics character introduced about that time by U.S. illustrator Frederick Burr Opper. Related: Gloomily; gloominess.
- mercury (n.)
- silver-white fluid metallic element, late 14c., from Medieval Latin mercurius, from Latin Mercurius (see Mercury). Prepared from cinnabar, it was one of the seven metals (bodies terrestrial) known to the ancients, which were coupled in astrology and alchemy with the seven known heavenly bodies. This one probably so associated for its mobility. The others were Sun/gold, Moon/silver, Mars/iron, Saturn/lead, Jupiter/tin, Venus/copper. The Greek name for it was hydrargyros "liquid silver," which gives the element its symbol, Hg. Compare quicksilver.
- tarry (v.)
- early 14c., "to delay, retard" (transitive), of uncertain origin. Some suggest a connection to Latin tardare "to delay," or Old English tergan, tirgan "to vex, irritate, exasperate, provoke," which yielded a Middle English verb identical in form to this one. Intransitive meaning "to linger" is attested from late 14c. Related: Tarried; tarrying; tarrysome.
- wrack (n.)
- late 14c., "wrecked ship, shipwreck," probably from Middle Dutch wrak "wreck," from Proto-Germanic *wrakaz-, from root *wreg- "to push, shove drive" (see wreak). The root sense perhaps is "that which is cast ashore." Sense perhaps influenced by Old English wræc "misery, punishment," and wrecan "to punish, drive out" (source of modern wreak). The meaning "damage, disaster, destruction" (in wrack and ruin) is from c. 1400, from the Old English word, but conformed in spelling to this one. Sense of "seaweed, etc., cast up on shore" is recorded from 1510s, probably an alteration of wreck (n.) in this sense (mid-15c.). Wrack, wreck, rack and wretch were utterly tangled in spelling and somewhat in sense in Middle and early modern English.
- zymurgy (n.)
- branch of chemistry which deals with wine-making and brewing, 1868, from Greek zymo-, comb. form of zyme "a leaven" (from PIE root *yeue-; see juice) + -ourgia "a working," from ergon "work" (see organ).
The last word in many standard English dictionaries (and this one); but Century Dictionary ends with Zyxomma ("A genus of Indian dragon-flies") and in the OED [2nd ed.] the last word is zyxt, an obsolete Kentish form of the second person singular of see (v.).
At the dictionary's letter A
Mr. Brandt is young and gay
But when at last he reaches zed
He's in his wheelchair, nearly dead
[Einar Haugen]