英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

baste [baste 词源字典]: 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.
[baste etymology, baste origin, 英语词源]
blindfold: blindfold: [16] The original term for covering someone’s eyes with a bandage was blindfell [OE], which survived until the 16th century. This meant literally ‘strike someone blind’, the second element being the fell of ‘felling trees’. It appears that its past form, blindfelled, came to be mistaken for a present form, and this, together with some perceived connection with fold (presumably the ‘folding’ of the bandage round somebody’s head), conspired to produce the new verb blindfold.
cancer: cancer: [14] Cancer comes from Latin cancer, which meant literally ‘crab’. It was a translation of Greek karkínos ‘crab’, which, together with its derivative karkínōma (source of English carcinoma [18]) was, according to the ancient Greek physician Galen, applied to tumours on account of the crablike pattern formed by the distended blood vessels around the affected part.

Until the 17th century, the term generally used for the condition in English was canker, which arose from an earlier borrowing of Latin cancer in Old English times; before then, cancer had been used exclusively in the astrological sense. The French derivative of Latin cancer, chancre, was borrowed into English in the 16th century for ‘syphilitic ulcer’.
=> canker, carcinoma
consonant: consonant: [14] Etymologically, consonant means ‘sounding together’. It comes via Old French consonant from Latin consonāns, the present participle of consonāre, a compound verb formed from the prefix com- ‘together’ and sonāre ‘sound’. Its application to particular speech sounds, contrasted with ‘vowels’, comes from the notion that they were ‘pronounced together with’ vowels, rather than independently.
=> sonorous, sound
crew: crew: [15] The idea originally underlying crew is ‘augmentation’. It comes from Old French creue, which was derived from the verb creistre ‘grow, increase, augment’, a descendant of Latin crēscere ‘grow’. At first in English it denoted a squad of military reinforcements. Soon its meaning had spread to any band of soldiers, and by the end of the 16th century the word was being used for any group of people gathered together with or without a particular purpose. The most familiar modern application, to the people manning a ship, emerged in the latter part of the 17th century.
=> crescent, croissant, increase
daft: daft: [13] Daft was not always a term of reproach. It originally meant ‘mild, gentle’, and only in late Middle English slid to ‘stupid’ (in a semantic decline perhaps paralleling that of silly, which started off as ‘happy, blessed’). Middle English dafte corresponds directly to an Old English gedæfte, whose underlying sense seems to have been ‘fit, suitable’ (the sense connection was apparently that mild unassuming people were considered as behaving suitably).

There is no direct evidence of its use with this meaning, but Old English had a verb gedæftan ‘make fit or ready, prepare’ which, together with the Gothic verb gedaban ‘be suitable’, points to its origin in a Germanic base *dab- ‘fit, suitable’. This ties in with the semantic development of deft, a variant of daft, which has moved from a prehistoric ‘fit, suitable’ to ‘skilful’.
=> deft
deal: deal: English has two words deal. The one which now means chiefly ‘distribute’ goes back to Old English dǣl ‘part’ and its verbal derivative dǣlan ‘divide’. The noun (together with its relatives German teil, Dutch deel, and Gothic dails) goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *dailiz, a derivative of the base *dail-, which also produced English dole and ordeal. The ultimate source of this base is not known. Deal ‘(plank of) pine’ [14] was borrowed from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German dele.
=> dole, ordeal
fig: fig: English has two words fig. Fig the fruit [13] comes via Old French figue, Provençal figua, and Vulgar Latin *fica from Latin ficus. This, together with its Greek relative súkon (source of English sycamore and sycophant), came from a pre-Indo-European language of the Mediterranean area, possibly Semitic. Greek súkon was, and modern Italian fica (a relative of fico ‘fig’) still is, used for ‘cunt’, apparently in reference to the appearance of a ripe fig when opened.

English adopted the term in the 16th and 17th centuries as fig, fico, or figo, signifying an ‘indecent gesture made by putting the thumb between two fingers or into the mouth’ (‘The figo for thee then!’ says Pistol to the disguised king in Shakespeare’s Henry V 1599). The now little used fig ‘dress, array’ [19], as in ‘in full fig’, probably comes from an earlier, now obsolete feague, which in turn was very likely borrowed from German fegen ‘polish’.

This was a derivative of the same prehistoric Germanic base, *feg-, as produced English fake.
=> sycamore, sycophant; fake
fight: fight: [OE] The deadly earnestness of fighting seems to have had its etymological origins in the rather petty act of pulling someone’s hair. Fight, together with German fechten and Dutch vechten, goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *fekhtan, which appears to come from the same ultimate source as Latin pectere ‘comb’ and Greek péko ‘comb’.

The missing links in the apparently far-fetched semantic chain between ‘fighting’ and ‘combing’ are provided by such words as Spanish pelear ‘fight, quarrel’, a derivative of pelo ‘hair’, which originally meant ‘pull hair’; German raufen ‘pull out, pluck’, which when used reflexively means ‘fight’; and English tussle, which originally meant ‘pull roughly’, and may be related to tousle.
flee: flee: [OE] Flee, like its close relatives German fliehe, Dutch vlieden, and Swedish and Danish fly, comes from a prehistoric Germanic *thleukhan, a word of unknown origin. In Old English, flee and fly had the same past tense and past participle (and indeed the same derivatives, represented in modern English by flight), and this, together with a certain similarity in meaning, has led to the two verbs being associated and often confused, but there is no reliable evidence that they are etymologically connected.
flesh: flesh: [OE] The etymological notion underlying flesh, and its near relative flitch ‘side of bacon’ [OE], is of ‘slitting open and cutting up an animal’s carcase for food’. It, together with its continental cousins, German fleisch and Dutch vleesch ‘flesh’ and Swedish fläsk ‘bacon’, comes ultimately from Indo-European *pel- ‘split’. Consequently, the earliest recorded sense of the Old English word flǣsc is ‘meat’; the broader ‘soft animal tissue’, not necessarily considered as food, seems to have developed in the late Old English period.
=> flitch
geezer: geezer: [19] Originally, a geezer seems to have been ‘someone who went around in disguise’. The word probably represents a dialectal pronunciation of the now obsolete guiser ‘someone wearing a masquerade as part of a performance, mummer’. This was a derivative of guise [13], which, together with disguise [14], goes back ultimately to prehistoric Germanic *wīsōn, ancestor of archaic English wise ‘manner’.
=> disguise, guise, wise
girdle: girdle: English has two words girdle. The more familiar, ‘belt’ [OE], goes back, together with its relatives garth, gird [OE], and girth [14], to a prehistoric Germanic *gurd-, *gard-, *gerdwhich denoted ‘surrounding’. From *gurdcame the verb *gurthjan, which produced both gird and girdle (as well as relatives in other Germanic languages, such as German gürtel, Dutch gordel, and Swedish gördel, all meaning ‘belt’), while *gerd- formed the basis of *gerdō, acquired by English via Old Norse gjorth as girth. Girdle ‘metal baking plate’ [15] (as in girdle cake) is a Scottish alteration of griddle (see GRID).
=> garth, gird, girth
grand: grand: [16] The original Latin word for ‘big’ was magnus (as in magnify, magnitude, etc). However, it also had grandis. This not only denoted great physical size; it also had connotations of moral greatness or sublimity, and in addition often carried the specialized meaning ‘full-grown’. This last, together with a possibly etymologically connected Greek brénthos ‘pride’ and Old Church Slavonic gradi ‘breast’ suggest that its underlying meaning may be ‘swelling’.

French (grand) and Italian and Spanish (grande) have taken it over as their main adjective for ‘big’, but in English it remains a more specialized word, for things or people that are ‘great’ or ‘imposing’. Its use for denoting family relationships separated by two generations, as in grandmother, was adopted from Old French, and goes back, in the case of grandame and grandsire, to the 13th century, well before the independent adjective grand itself was borrowed.

But the underlying notion is as old as the Greeks and Romans, who used mégas and magnus in the same way.
gull: gull: [15] Gull is a Celtic contribution to English. It was probably borrowed from Welsh gwylan, which together with Cornish guilan, Breton gwelan, and Old Irish foilenn, goes back to a prehistoric Old Celtic *voilenno-. (The Old English word for ‘gull’ was mǣw, as in modern English sea mew.)
hail: hail: Not surprisingly, hail ‘frozen rain’ [OE] and hail ‘call out’ [12] are quite unrelated. The former, together with its German and Dutch relative hagel, comes from a prehistoric West Germanic *hagalaz, which is related ultimately to Greek kákhlēx ‘pebble’. The verb hail is closely related to hale and whole. It comes from the noun hail, which in turn was a nominal use of the now obsolete adjective hail ‘healthy’ (preserved in wassail, literally ‘be healthy’). This was borrowed from heill, the Old Norse counterpart of English whole.
=> hale, wassail, whole
handicap: handicap: [17] The word handicap originally denoted a sort of game of chance in which one person put up one of his or her personal possessions against an article belonging to someone else (for example one might match a gold watch against the other’s horse) and an umpire was appointed to adjudicate on the respective values of the articles. All three parties put their hands into a hat, together with a wager, and on hearing the umpire’s verdict the two opponents had to withdraw them in such a way as to indicate whether they wished to proceed with the game.

If they agreed, either in favour of proceeding or against, the umpire took the money; but if they disagreed, the one who wanted to proceed took it. It was the concealing of the hands in the hat that gave the game its name hand in cap, hand i’ cap, source of modern English handicap. In the 18th century the same term was applied to a sort of horse race between two horses, in which an umpire decided on a weight disadvantage to be imposed on a superior horse and again the owners of the horses signalled their assent to or dissent from his adjudication by the way in which they withdrew their hands from a hat.

Such a race became known as a handicap race, and in the 19th century the term handicap first broadened out to any contest in which inequalities are artificially evened out, and was eventually transferred to the ‘disadvantage’ imposed on superior contestants – whence the main modern meaning, ‘disadvantage, disability’.
handle: handle: [OE] Etymologically, a handle is nothing more or less than ‘something to be held in the hand’. Likewise the verb handle, together with Germanic relatives like German handeln and Swedish handla, began life as ‘hold, touch, feel with the hands’ (the German and Swedish verbs have since lost this original literal meaning, and now have only the metaphorical senses ‘deal with’, ‘trade’, etc).
=> hand
hold: hold: Hold ‘grasp, clasp’ [OE] and hold ‘cargo store’ [16] are not the same word. The verb goes back to a prehistoric Germanic source which meant ‘watch, guard’. This ancestral sense is preserved in the derivative behold [OE], but the simple verb hold, together with its relatives German halten (source of English halt), Dutch houden, Swedish hålla, and Danish holde, has moved on via ‘keep’ to ‘have in the hands’. The cargo hold, on the other hand, is simply an alteration (influenced by the verb hold) of an earlier hole or holl – which was either the English word hole or a borrowing of its Dutch relative hol.
=> behold, halt; hole
hole: hole: [OE] Etymologically, a hole is a ‘hollow’ place. It originated as a noun use of the Old English adjective hol ‘hollow’ which, together with German hohl, Dutch hol, and Danish hul, all meaning ‘hollow’, goes back to a prehistoric German *khulaz. The source of this is disputed, but it may be related to Indo-European *kel- ‘cover, hide’ (source of English apocalypse, cell, cellar, conceal, hall, hell, helmet, hull ‘pod’, and occult). The semantic connection is presumably that a place that is ‘deep’ or ‘hollowed out’ is also ‘hidden’.
=> apocalypse, cell, conceal, hall, hell, helmet, occult
lie: lie: [OE] English has two words lie. The verb ‘recline’ goes back, together with its Germanic relatives (German liegen, Dutch liggen, Swedish ligga. Danish ligge), to a prehistoric base *leg-, a variant of the base *lag- which produced lay. Both come ultimately from Indo-European *legh-, *logh-, whose other English descendants include litter and low. The verb ‘tell untruths’ and its related noun come from a Germanic base *leug-, *loug-, represented also in German lügen, Dutch liegen, Swedish ljuga, and Danish lyve. The second syllable of English warlock comes from the same source.
=> lay, lig, litter, low; warlock
nasty: nasty: [14] Nasty, now such a widespread term of disapproval, is not that ancient a word in English, and it is not too certain where it came from. In the 14th and 15th centuries it was often spelled naxty, and this, together with one early 17th-century example of nasky, has suggested some connection with Swedish dialect naskug ‘dirty, nasty’. And a link has also been proposed with Dutch nestig ‘dirty’, which may denote etymologically ‘made dirty like a bird’s nest’. ‘Dirty’ was the original sense of the English adjective; the more general ‘unpleasant’ did not begin to emerge until the end of the 17th century.
quintessence: quintessence: [15] Just as modern particle physicists search for the ultimate constituent of matter, the common denominator of all known forces, so medieval alchemists tried to find a fifth primary essence, which together with earth, air, fire, and water formed the substance of all heaven and earth. This fifth essence, higher and more ethereal than the other four, was postulated by Aristotle, who called it aithēr ‘either’.

Another Greek term for it was pemptē ousíā ‘fifth essence’, which was translated into medieval Latin as quinta essentia – whence, via French, English quintessence. The metaphorical sense ‘most perfect or characteristic embodiment’ began to emerge in the second half of the 16th century. Other English words based on quintus ‘fifth’, the ordinal form of Latin quinque ‘five’, include quintet [19] and quintuple [16].
rash: rash: English has two words rash. The older, ‘impetuous’ [14], probably comes from an unrecorded Old English *ræsc, which together with its relatives German rasch ‘quick’ and Swedish rask ‘active, vigorous’ goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *raskuz. This was probably derived from the same base as produced English rather, which originally meant ‘more quickly’. Rash ‘skin condition’ [18] may have been borrowed from the now obsolete French rache, a descendant of Old French rasche, whose Old Northern French counterpart *rasque is the possible source of English rascal.
=> rather; rascal
reason: reason: [13] Reason, together with rational, represent in English the ‘thinking’ aspects of the Latin verb rērī (it also meant ‘calculate’, and in that guise has given English rate, ration, etc). From it was derived the noun ratiō ‘thinking, calculation’ (source of English ratio and the rest). This spawned a Vulgar Latin variant *ratiōne, which passed into Old French as reisun – whence English reason.
=> rate, ratio, ration
rely: rely: [14] Rely comes via Old French relier from Latin religāre ‘tie back, tie tightly’ (source also of English religion). It was a compound verb formed from the prefix re- ‘back’ and ligāre ‘tie’ (source of English ally, liable, ligament, etc). It was originally used for ‘assemble’, which by the 16th century had developed via ‘come together with one’s friends’ to ‘depend’. The derivative reliable is first recorded in 16th-century Scottish English, but did not enter general usage until the mid 19th century.
=> ally, liable, ligament, ligature, religion
sharp: sharp: [OE] Sharp, together with its close relatives German scharf, Dutch scherp, and Swedish and Danish skarp, goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *skarpaz. This was probably descended from an extension of the Indo-European base *sker- ‘cut’ (source of English score, share, shear, etc). Welsh has borrowed sharp as siarp.
=> shear
side: side: [OE] The etymological meaning of side appears to be the ‘long’ surface of something (as opposed to the ends or the top or bottom, which are the ‘shorter’ or ‘narrower’ surfaces). The word goes back, together with German seite, Dutch zijde, Swedish sida, and Danish side, to a prehistoric Germanic *sīthō, which was probably derived from the adjective *sīthaz ‘long, deep, low’ (source of Swedish sid ‘long’).
single: single: [14] Single comes via Old French sengle or single from Latin singulus. This was formed from sim-, the stem of simplus ‘single’ (which came from the same Indo-European base that produced English same and similar), together with the diminutive suffix *-go and a further element *-lo. Singlet ‘vest’ [18] was coined on the model of doublet, in allusion to its being an unlined garment, made from a ‘single’ layer of material.
=> same, similar, simple
sir: sir: [13] In common with many other European terms of address for men (such as monsieur and señor), sir goes back ultimately to Latin senior ‘older’ (source also of English senior). This was reduced in Vulgar Latin to *seior, which found its way into Old French as *sieire, later sire. English borrowed this as sire [13], which in weakly-stressed positions (prefixed to names, for instance) became sir.

Other titles based on senior that have found their way into English include French monsieur [15] (literally ‘my sire’), together with its plural messieurs [17], abbreviated to messrs [18]; French seigneur [16]; Spanish señor [17]; and Italian signor [16]. Surly [16] is an alteration of an earlier sirly ‘lordly’, a derivative of sir.

The meaning ‘grumpy’ evolved via an intermediate ‘haughty’.
=> senator, senior, sire, surly
south: south: [OE] South, together with its relatives German süd, Dutch zuid, Swedish söder, and Danish syd, goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *suntha-. This may have been derived from the base of *sunnōn ‘sun’ – in which case south would mean etymologically ‘region of the sun, side on which the sun appears’. French sud ‘south’ was borrowed from English.
starling: starling: [OE] Starling is a diminutive form. The original Old English name of the bird was stær, which together with German star, Swedish stare, and Danish stær goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *staraz. This was related to Latin sturnus ‘starling’.
step: step: [OE] Step, together with its relatives German stapfen and Dutch steppen, comes from a prehistoric West Germanic base *stap- ‘tread’ (a nasalized version of which produced English stamp). (Russian step, source of English steppe [17], is not related.) The prefix step- [OE], as in stepdaughter, stepfather, etc, originated in a word meaning ‘orphan’. It is related to Old High German stiufen ‘bereave’.
=> stamp
swim: swim: [OE] Together with German schwimmen, Dutch zwemmen, Swedish simma, and Danish svømme, swim goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *swemjan, a derivative of the same base as produced Old Norse sund ‘swimming’ (source of English sound ‘channel, strait’). A link with Welsh chwyfio ‘stir, wave, brandish’ has been suggested.
=> sound
tamper: tamper: [16] Tamper began life as a variant of temper. It originally meant ‘mix clay together with water to make it suitable for use’. However, the notion of ‘mixing’ seems to lead on naturally to ‘interference’ (meddle originally meant ‘mix’), and by the end of the 16th century we find that ‘tampering with clay’ had moved on to ‘tampering with anything’ – ‘interfering’ with it.
=> temper
tear: tear: English has two separate words tear, both of ancient ancestry. The sort of tear that one weeps [OE] goes back (together with its Germanic relatives German träne, Dutch traan, Swedish tår, and Danish taare) to prehistoric Indo- European *dakru-, a word of uncertain origin which also produced Welsh deigryn and Latin lacrima (source of English lachrymal [16] and lachrymose [17]). Tear ‘rip’ [OE] comes from an Indo- European base *der- ‘tear’, which also produced Russian drat’ and Polish drzeć ‘tear’.

The base *der- denoted the concept of ‘flaying’ as well as ‘tearing’, in which sense it produced English turd and Greek dérma ‘skin’ (source of English dermatitis, epidermis, etc).
=> lachrymose; dermatitis, epidermis, turd
thigh: thigh: [OE] The thigh is etymologically the ‘plump’ part of the leg. Together with Dutch dij, it evolved from a prehistoric Germanic *theukham. This went back to Indo-European *teuk-, *tauk-, *tuk-, which also produced Lithuanian táukas ‘fat’. And these in turn were extensions of the base *tu- ‘swell’, source of English thousand, thumb, tumour, etc.
=> thousand, thumb, tumour
trust: trust: [13] Trust was probably borrowed from Old Norse traust ‘help, confidence, firmness’. This, together with its modern German and Dutch relatives trost and troost ‘consolation’, goes back to the same prehistoric Germanic base as produced English true and truth. Tryst [14] is probably closely related. It was borrowed from Old French triste ‘appointed place for positioning oneself during a hunt’, which itself was very likely acquired from a Scandinavian source connected with traust.
=> true
volition: volition: [17] Volition comes via French volition from medieval Latin volitiō, a noun derived from Latin volō ‘I will’. Together with English will, this went back ultimately to Indo-European *wel-, *wol- ‘be pleasing’, which also produced English volunteer and voluptuous.
=> voluntary, volunteer, voluptuous, will
wander: wander: [OE] To wander is etymologically to ‘turn’ off the correct path. The word comes, together with German wandern, from a prehistoric West Germanic *wandrōjan, which was derived from the base *wand-, *wend- ‘turn’ (source also of English wand, went, etc). The German compound wanderlust, literally ‘traveldesire’, was borrowed into English at the beginning of the 20th century.
=> wand, went
wax: wax: Wax ‘soft oily substance’ [OE] and the now archaic wax ‘grow, become’ [OE] are distinct words. The former comes (together with German wachs, Dutch was, Swedish vax, and Danish vox) from a prehistoric Germanic *wakhsam. This in turn was descended from the Indo-European *weg- ‘weave’ (source also of English veil). Wax originally referred specifically to ‘bees-wax’, and the word’s underlying etymological reference is to the combs ‘woven’ from wax by bees.

Russian and Czech vosk ‘wax’ come from the same ultimate source. The verb wax goes back to the Indo- European base *woks-, a variant of which has given English auction and augment. Although it has largely died out in English, its relatives in the other Germanic languages (meaning ‘grow’) are still very much alive: German wachsen, Dutch wassen, Swedish vāxa, and Danish vokse.
=> veil; auction, augment
west: west: [OE] Etymologically, the west may be the direction in which the sun goes ‘down’. Together with German and Dutch west, Swedish väster, and Danish vest, it comes from a prehistoric Germanic *westaz. This in turn was descended from the Indo-European base *wes-, which also produced Latin vesper (source of English vespers) and Greek hesperos ‘evening’ and was related to Sanskrit avas ‘down’. French ouest and Spanish oeste were borrowed from English west, Romanian vest from German west.
=> vespers
wet: wet: [OE] Wet is closely related to water. Together with Swedish våat, Danish vaad, Norwegian vaat, Ice-landic votur, and Frisian wiet, wiat, it was formed from the same prehistoric base as produced English water.
=> water
acolyte (n.): early 14c., "inferior officer in the church," from Old French acolite or directly from Medieval Latin acolytus (Late Latin acoluthos), from Greek akolouthos "following, attending on," literally "having one way," from a- "together with," copulative prefix, + keleuthose "a way, road, path, track," from PIE *qeleu- (cognates: Lithuanian kelias "way"). In late Old English as a Latin word.
Adelphia: district of London, so called because it was laid out by four brothers of a family named Adam, from Greek adelphos "brother," literally "from the same womb," from copulative prefix a- "together with" + delphys "womb," perhaps related to dolphin. The district was the site of a popular theater c. 1882-1900, which gave its name to a style of performance.
baste (v.1): "sew together loosely," c. 1400, from Old French bastir "build, construct, sew up (a garment), baste, make, prepare, arrange" (12c., Modern French bâtir "to build"), probably from Frankish or some other Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *bastjan "join together with bast" (source also of Old High German besten; see bast).
chock-a-block (adj.): nautical, said of two blocks of tackle run so closely they touch; from chock + block (n.) in the nautical sense "a pulley together with its framework."
coetaneous (adj.): "having the same age," c. 1600, from Late Latin coaetanus "one of the same age," from com- "with, together with" (see co-) + aetat- "age" (see age (n.)) + adjectival suffix -aneus.
cohabit (v.): euphemism since 1530s to describe a couple living together without benefit of marriage; back-formation from cohabitation. Related: Cohabited; cohabiting.
com-: word-forming element usually meaning "with, together," from Latin com, archaic form of classical Latin cum "together, together with, in combination," from PIE *kom- "beside, near, by, with" (compare Old English ge-, German ge-). The prefix in Latin sometimes was used as an intensive.

Before vowels and aspirates, reduced to co-; before -g-, assimilated to cog- or con-; before -l-, assimilated to col-; before -r-, assimilated to cor-; before -c-, -d-, -j-, -n-, -q-, -s-, -t-, -v- assimilated to con-.