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abstruse [abstruse 词源字典]: abstruse: [16] It is not clear whether English borrowed abstruse from French abstrus(e) or directly from Latin abstrūsus, but the ultimate source is the Latin form. It is the past participle of the verb abstrūdere, literally ‘thrust’ (trūdere) ‘away’ (ab). (Trūdere contributed other derivatives to English, including extrude and intrude, and it is related to threat.) The original, literal meaning of abstruse was ‘concealed’, but the metaphorical ‘obscure’ is just as old in English.
[abstruse etymology, abstruse origin, 英语词源]
accoutre: accoutre: [16] Accoutre is related to both couture and sew. English borrowed it from French accoutrer, which meant ‘equip with something, especially clothes’. A stage earlier, Old French had acoustrer, formed from cousture (whence couture) and the prefix a-. This came from Vulgar Latin *consūtūra, literally ‘sewn together’, from con- ‘together’ and sūtūra ‘sewn’ (whence English suture); sūtūra in turn came from the past participial stem of Latin suere, which derived from the same Indo- European root as English sew.
=> couture, sew, suture
albatross: albatross: [17] The word albatross has a confused history. The least uncertain thing about it is that until the late 17th century it was alcatras; the change of the first element to albaseems to have arisen from association of the albatross’s white colour with Latin albus ‘white’. However, which particular bird the alcatras was, and where the word alcatras ultimately came from, are much more dubious.

The term was applied variously, over the 16th to the 19th centuries, to albatrosses, frigate birds, gannets, gulls, and pelicans. Its immediate source was Spanish and Portuguese alcatraz ‘pelican’ (hence Alcatraz, the prison-island in San Francisco Bay, USA, once the haunt of pelicans), which was clearly of Arabic origin, and it has been speculated that it comes from Arabic al qādūs ‘the bucket’, on the premise that the bucket of a water-wheel used for irrigation resembles a pelican’s beak.

Arabic qādūs itself comes from Greek kádos ‘jar’.
altruism: altruism: [19] Etymologically as well as semantically, altruism contains the notion of ‘other people’. It was borrowed from French altruisme, which was apparently coined in 1830 by the philosopher Auguste Comte on the basis of Italian altrui ‘that which belongs to other people’. This was the oblique case of altro ‘other’, from Latin alter. Littré’s Dictionnaire de la langue française suggests that the coinage was based on such French legal phrases as le bien d’autrui ‘the welfare of others’ and le droit d’autrui ‘the rights of others’ (autrui corresponds to Italian altrui).
=> alias, alter, else
ambidextrous: ambidextrous: [16] Ambidextrous means literally ‘right-handed on both sides’. It was formed in Latin from the prefix ambi- ‘both’ and the adjective dexter ‘right-handed’ (source of English dextrous). Ambi- corresponds to the Latin adjective ambo ‘both’, which derived ultimately from the Indo-European base *amb- ‘around’ (an element in the source of ambassador and embassy).

The second element in Latin ambo seems to correspond to Old English ba ‘both’, which is related to modern English both. Other English words formed with the prefix amb(i)- include ambient [16] (which came, like ambition, from Latin ambīre ‘go round’), ambit [16] (from Latin ambitus ‘circuit’), ambiguous, ambition, amble, and ambulance.
=> dextrous
apostrophe: apostrophe: [17] Apostrophe comes originally from the Greek phrase prosōidiā apóstrophos, literally ‘accent of turning away’, hence, a mark showing where a letter or sound has been omitted. Apóstrophos itself was derived from the compound verb apostréphein, formed from the prefix apo- ‘away’ and the verb stréphein ‘turn’ (related to the second element of catastrophe [16], whose Greek original meant literally ‘overturning’). English acquired the word via French and Latin.
=> catastrophe
arbitrary: arbitrary: [15] Arbitrary comes ultimately from Latin arbiter ‘judge’, via the derived adjective arbitrārius. It originally meant ‘decided by one’s own discretion or judgment’, and has since broadened, and ‘worsened’, in meaning to ‘capricious’. The Latin noun has of course contributed a large number of other words to English, including arbiter [15] itself, arbitrate [16] (via the Latin verb arbitrārī), and arbitrament [14]. Arbitrage in the sense ‘buying and selling shares to make a profit’ is a 19thcentury borrowing from French, where it means literally ‘arbitration’.
=> arbitrate
astronomy: astronomy: [13] Astronomy comes via Old French and Latin from Greek astronomíā, a derivative of the verb astronomein, literally ‘watch the stars’. Greek ástron and astér ‘star’ (whence English astral [17] and asterisk [17]) came ultimately from the Indo-European base *ster-, which also produced Latin stella ‘star’, German stern ‘star’, and English star.

The second element of the compound, which came from the verb némein, meant originally ‘arrange, distribute’. At first, no distinction was made between astronomy and astrology. Indeed, in Latin astrologia was the standard term for the study of the stars until Seneca introduced the Greek term astronomia. When the two terms first coexisted in English (astrology entered the language about a century later than astronomy) they were used interchangeably, and in fact when a distinction first began to be recognized between the two it was the opposite of that now accepted: astrology meant simply ‘observation’, whereas astronomy signified ‘divination’.

The current assignment of sense was not fully established until the 17th century.
=> asterisk, astral, star
atrocious: atrocious: [17] Traced back to its ultimate source, atrocious meant something not too dissimilar to ‘having a black eye’. Latin āter was ‘black, dark’ (it occurs also in English atrabilious ‘melancholic’ [17] – Greek mélās meant ‘black’), and the stem *-oc-, *-ox meant ‘looking, appearing’ (Latin oculus ‘eye’ and ferox ‘fierce’ – based on ferus ‘wild’, and source of English ferocious – were formed from it, and it goes back to an earlier Indo-European base which also produced Greek ōps ‘eye’ and English eye).

Combined, they formed atrox, literally ‘of a dark or threatening appearance’, hence ‘gloomy, cruel’. English borrowed it (in the stem form atrōci-) originally in the sense ‘wantonly cruel’.
=> eye, ferocious, inoculate, ocular
attract: attract: [15] Etymologically, attract means literally ‘pull something towards one’. It comes from attract-, the past participial stem of the Latin verb attrahere, a compound formed from the prefix ad- ‘to’ and the verb trahere ‘pull’. It was quite a late formation, of around the mid 15th century, coined on the model of other English verbs, such as abstract and contract, deriving ultimately from Latin trahere.
=> abstract, contract, retract, subtract
attrition: attrition: see throw
betray: betray: [13] Betray is an English formation based on the Old French verb traïr ‘betray’, which came from Latin tradere ‘hand over, deliver up’ (originally a compound formed from trans- ‘across’ and dāre ‘give’). The noun formed from tradere was trāditiō, from which English gets, directly, tradition, and indirectly, via Old French and Anglo-Norman, the appropriate treason.
=> tradition, treason
betroth: betroth: see true
cartridge: cartridge: see chart
catastrophe: catastrophe: see apostrophe
centre: centre: [14] The word centre came originally from the spike of a pair of compasses which is stuck into a surface while the other arm describes a circle round it. Greek kéntron meant ‘sharp point’, or more specifically ‘goad for oxen’ (it was a derivative of the verb kentein ‘prick’), and hence was applied to a compass spike; and it was not long before this spread metaphorically to ‘mid-point of a circle’. The word reached English either via Old French centre or directly from Latin centrum. The derived adjective central is 16th-century.
=> eccentric
citrus: citrus: [19] Latin citrus signified the ‘citron’, a tree (Citrus medica) of Asian origin with a lemon-like fruit which was the earliest of the citrus fruits to become known in the West. Like the fruit itself, the name is presumably of Eastern origin – perhaps from a non-Indo- European language from around the eastern end of the Himalayas. Citron is a French derivative of citrus, coined on the model of French limon ‘lemon’; it was borrowed into English in the 16th century.
claustrophobia: claustrophobia: see cloister
cockatrice: cockatrice: [14] The name of the cockatrice, a mythical serpent whose glance could kill, has a bizarre history. It started life as medieval Latin calcātrix, which meant literally ‘tracker, hunter’ (it was formed from the verb calcāre ‘tread, track’, a derivative of calx ‘heel’). This was a direct translation of Greek ikhneúmōn (a derivative of ikhneúein ‘track’), a name given to a mysterious Egyptian creature in ancient times which was said to prey on crocodiles.

At one point Latin calcātrix, later caucātrix, came to be used for the crocodile itself, but this application never gained much currency in English (which adopted the word via Old French cocatris). Instead, it was adopted as another name for the basilisk, a mythical serpent. The accidental similarity of the first syllable to cock led both to the embroidering of the basilisk/cockatrice legend, so that it was said to have been born from a cock’s egg, and to the word’s 16th-century rerouting as a heraldic term for a beast with the head, wings, and body of a cock and the tail of a serpent.
constrain: constrain: see strain
construct: construct: [17] Construct comes from the present participle of Latin construere ‘pile up together, build’, a compound verb formed from the prefix com- and struere ‘pile up’ (source of English destroy and structure). English acquired the same verb somewhat earlier, in the 14th century, in the form construe.
=> construe, destroy, structure
contraband: contraband: [16] Contraband means literally ‘proclamation against’ – hence ‘prohibition’. It comes via French contrebande from Italian contrabbando, a compound formed from contra ‘against’ (see CONTRARY) and bando ‘proclamation’ (whose source was late Latin bannus, bannum, a relative of English ban). The sense ‘dealing in prohibited goods’ had already developed before English acquired the word, and rapidly developed through ‘smuggling’ to ‘smuggled goods’.
=> ban, contrary
contract: contract: [14] English acquired the word contract in stages, although in all cases the ultimate source was contractus, the past participle of Latin contrahere, a compound verb formed from the prefix com- ‘together’ and trahere ‘pull, draw’ (source of English traction and tractor). This meant literally ‘pull together’, but it had a variety of metaphorical senses, including ‘bring about’ and ‘enter into an agreement’, and it was the latter which first passed into English via Old French as a noun meaning ‘mutual agreement’.

The arrival of the verb contract did not happen until the 16th century; it developed from an earlier adjective contract, which came again from Old French contract. This introduced a further sense of Latin contrahere; ‘become narrowed, get smaller’.
=> distract, retract, traction, tractor
contrary: contrary: [14] Contrary originated as a Latin adjectival formation based on the preposition contrā ‘against’, which historically was a derivative of com or cum ‘with’. Latin contrārius passed into English via Old French contraire and Anglo-Norman contrarie. Originally contrary was pronounced with the main stress on its middle syllable, but this survives only in the sense ‘obstinately self-willed’; from the 18th century onwards, the stress has usually been placed on the first syllable.
contrast: contrast: see statue
contribute: contribute: see tribe
contrition: contrition: see throw
contrive: contrive: [14] In Middle English, contrive was controve; it was not transformed into contrive (perhaps under the influence of Scottish pronunciation) until the 15th century. It came via Old French controver from Latin contropāre ‘represent metaphorically, compare’, a compound verb based on the prefix com- ‘too’ and tropus ‘figure of speech’ (source of English trope). The word’s meaning has progressed through ‘compare via a figure of speech’ and Old French ‘imagine’ to ‘devise’.
=> trope
control: control: [15] Implausible as it may seem, control’s closest relative in English is contrarotating. It has its origins in a medieval method of checking accounts which involved a duplicate register, or ‘counter-roll’, as it was known (contrārotulus in medieval Latin, contrā meaning ‘opposite’ and rotulus being the diminutive of rota ‘wheel’).

From the medieval Latin noun a verb was formed, contrārotulāre, meaning ‘check accounts by such means’, and hence ‘exert authority’. This passed into English via Anglo-Norman contreroller. The spelling of the agent noun controller as comptroller, still encountered in certain official designations, arises from an erroneous 16th-century association of the first syllable with count, from late Latin computus.
=> rota, rotate
controversy: controversy: see verse
country: country: [13] Etymologically, the meaning of country is virtually ‘surroundings’. It originated in medieval Latin contrātus ‘lying on the opposite side’, an adjective formed from the proposition contrā ‘against, opposite’. This was used in the phrase terra contrāta ‘land opposite or before one, spread out around one’, and soon broke free to act as a noun in its own right.

In Old French it became cuntree, the form in which it was borrowed into English. Its original notion of ‘area of land’ had quickly become narrowed down to ‘district controlled or occupied by a particular people’, hence ‘nation’, but its use for ‘rural areas as opposed to cities’ does not seem to have developed until the 16th century. The compound countryside originated in Scotland and northern England, probably in the 17th century.
demonstrate: demonstrate: see monster
destroy: destroy: [13] As in the case of demolish, to destroy something is almost literally to ‘unbuild’ it. The word comes via Old French destruire from *dēstrūgere, a Vulgar Latin alteration of Latin dēstrūere. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix dē-, denoting reversal of a previous state, and strūere ‘pile up, build’ (source of English construct and structure). Its past participle, dēstructus, has produced English destruction [14], destructive [15], and the verb destruct (recorded once in the 17th century but revived in the 1950s by backformation from destruction).
=> construct, destruction, structure
detriment: detriment: [15] Etymologically, detriment denotes damage caused by ‘wearing away’. The word comes via Old French from Latin dētrīmentum, a derivative of dēterere ‘wear away’ (whose past participle is the source of English detritus [18]). This was a compound verb formed from the prefix dē- ‘away’ and terere ‘rub’ (from which English gets attrition and trite). The generalized metaphorical sense ‘harm’ had already developed in classical Latin.
=> attrition, detritus, trite
dextrous: dextrous: [17] Just as the left hand has always been associated with awkwardness or maladroitness (cack-handed), so the right hand has traditionally been credited with skill: hence dextrous, a derivative of Latin dexter, which meant ‘on the right side’ and thus by extension ‘skilful’. This came ultimately, like Greek dexiós, Gothic taihswa, Breton dehou, Russian desnoj, and many other related forms in the general semantic area ‘right-hand side’, from an Indo-European base *dek-. English acquired the Latin adjective itself as a heraldic term in the 16th century.
diatribe: diatribe: [16] Diatribe’s connotations of acrimoniousness and abusiveness are a relatively recent (19th-century) development. Originally in English it meant simply ‘learned discourse or disquisition’. It comes via Latin diatriba from Greek diatribé ‘that which passes, or literally wears away, the time’, and hence, in scholarly circles, ‘study’ or ‘discourse’. This was a derivative of diatribein ‘pass, waste, while away’, a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix dia- and tríbein ‘rub’.
=> attrition, detriment, trite
distraught: distraught: see straight
distribute: distribute: see tribe
district: district: [17] District started life as the past participle of the verb which gave English distrain [13] and strain. It came via French district from medieval Latin districtus; this meant literally ‘seized, compelled’, and hence was used as a noun in the sense ‘seizure of offenders’, and hence ‘exercise of justice’, and finally ‘area in which justice is so exercised (in the feudal system)’.

This was the word’s meaning when it was first borrowed into English, and it was not really until the early 18th century that its much more general modern application developed. Districtus was the past participle of Latin distringere, a compound verb formed from the prefix dis- ‘apart’ and stringere ‘pull tight’ (source of English strain, strict, stringent, stress, etc).

In classical times it meant ‘draw apart, detain, hinder’, but by the Middle Ages this had moved on to ‘seize, compel’, which were the main senses in which it entered English as distrain (via Old French destreindre). Latin districtus was also the source of a Vulgar Latin noun *districtia ‘narrowness’, which passed via Old French destresse into English as distress [13].
=> distrain, distress, strain, stress, strict, stringent
electricity: electricity: [17] The earliest manifestation of electricity was that produced by rubbing amber, and hence the name, based on ēlectrum, Latin for ‘amber’ (which in turn derives from Greek ēlektron). The first evidence of this in a Latin text is in William Gilbert’s De magnete 1600, but by the middle of the century we find the word being used in English treatises, notably Sir Thomas Browne’s Pseudodoxia epidemica 1646. (At this early stage, of course, it referred only to the ability of rubbed amber, etc to attract light bodies, the only property of electricity then known about; it was not until later that the full range of other electrical phenomena came to be included under the term.)
entrails: entrails: [13] Entrails means literally just ‘insides’ – and indeed there is an unbroken semantic undercurrent to the word from earliest times to the present day signifying exactly that (as in ‘entrails of the earth’). It comes ultimately from the Latin adjective interāneus ‘internal’, a derivative of the adverb and preposition inter ‘inside, among’. Its neuter plural form interānea came to be used as a noun, and at some point underwent a metamorphosis to medieval Latin intrālia ‘inner parts, intestines’. English acquired the word via Old French entrailles.
entrance: entrance: see enter
entrechat: entrechat: [18] An entrechat has no connection with cats, despite the passing resemblance to French chat. It comes from French, indeed, but there the original form was not entrechat but entrechas, a derivative of the verb entrechasser ‘chase in and out’, the notion being that the dancer’s feet cross, or ‘chase’, each other several times while she or he is in the air. The verb is a compound formed from entre ‘between’ and chasser ‘pursue’, a relative of English chase.
=> chase
entropy: entropy: [19] The term entropy was coined (as entropie) in 1865 by the German physicist Rudolph Clausius (1822–88), formulator of the second law of thermodynamics. It was he who developed the concept of entropy (a measure of the disorder of a system at atomic or molecular level), and he created the name for it (on the model of energy) from Greek en- ‘in’ and tropé ‘turning, transformation’ (source of English trophy and tropical). The first record of the English version of the word is from 1868.
=> trophy, tropical
entry: entry: see enter
equestrian: equestrian: [17] Equestrian was adapted from Latin equester, an adjective derived from eques ‘horseman’. Eques in turn was based on equus ‘horse’ (source of English equine [18]). This was the Latin descendant of *ekwos, the prehistoric Indo-European term for ‘horse’, which was once found in all the daughter languages of Indo- European except for the Slavic branch: Old English had eoh, for example, Old Irish ech, Sanskrit avás, and ancient Greek híppos (source of English hippodrome and hippopotamus).

It is a remarkable circumstance, however, that over the past thousand years equus and its relatives have (other than in derivatives such as equine) died out, to be replaced by secondary terms such as French cheval (from Latin caballus, probably a non-Indo-European borrowing), German pferd (from late Latin paraverēdus ‘extra post-horse’, source also of English palfrey), and English horse.
=> equine, hippopotamus
estrange: estrange: see strange
extra: extra: [18] In its modern English use, ‘beyond what is normal’ or ‘additional’, extra is probably an abbreviation of extraordinary [15], in which the prefix represents Latin extrā ‘outside, beyond’. This in turn was short for exterā, the ablative feminine case of the adjective exterus ‘outer’ (from which English gets exterior [16]). And exterus itself began life as a compound form based on Latin ex ‘out’.
=> exterior, extreme
extradite: extradite: [19] Extradite is a back-formation from extradition [19]. This was borrowed from French extradition, which was a coinage (apparently of Voltaire’s) based on Latin ex ‘out’ and tradītiō ‘handing over, deliverance’ (source of English tradition).
=> tradition, treason
extraneous: extraneous: see strange