英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

trench: trench: [14] A trench is etymologically something ‘cut’ or ‘sliced’. The word was borrowed from Old French trenche ‘slice, cutting, ditch’, a derivative of trenchier ‘cut’ (from which English gets trenchant [14]). And this in turn went back to Latin truncāre ‘cut, mutilate’ (source of English truncate [15]), a derivative of truncus ‘tree-trunk, torso’ (source of English trunk) – the semantic link being the ‘cutting’ of branches from a tree or of limbs from a body.

The sense ‘ditch’ for trench comes of course from the notion of ‘cutting’ a long narrow hole in the ground (a similar inspiration underlies cutting ‘excavation for a railway, road, etc’). Trencher ‘platter’ [14] came from the Anglo-Norman derivative trenchour, and originally denoted both a board for ‘cutting’ food up on and a ‘slice’ of bread used as a plate.
=> trenchant, trencher, truncate, trunk
trunk: trunk: [15] Trunk came via Old French tronc from Latin truncus (source also of English trench and truncate). This denoted ‘something with its protruding parts torn off’, hence ‘something regarded separately from its protruding parts’ – the stem of a tree without its branches, or a body without its limbs. The application of the English word to an ‘elephant’s proboscis’, which dates from the 16th century, apparently arose from some confusion with trump ‘trumpet’.
=> trench, truncate
bronco (n.): also broncho, 1850, American English, "untamed or half-tamed horse," from noun use of Spanish bronco (adj.) "rough, rude," originally a noun meaning "a knot in wood," perhaps from Vulgar Latin *bruncus "a knot, projection," apparently from a cross of Latin broccus "projecting" (see broach (n.)) + truncus "trunk of a tree" (see trunk (n.)). Bronco-buster is attested from 1886.
jonquil (n.): 1660s, species of narcissus, from French jonquille (17c.), from Spanish junquillo, diminutive of junco "rush, reed," from Latin iuncus "rush;" so called in reference to its leaves. The type of canary bird (1865) is so called for its pale yellow color, which is like that of the flower.
junk (n.1): "worthless stuff," mid-14c., junke "old cable or rope" (nautical), of uncertain origin, perhaps from Old French junc "rush, reed," also used figuratively as a type of something of little value, from Latin iuncus "rush, reed" (but OED finds "no evidence of connexion"). Nautical use extended to "old refuse from boats and ships" (1842), then to "old or discarded articles of any kind" (1884). Junk food is from 1971; junk art is from 1966; junk mail first attested 1954.
junket (n.): late 14c., "basket in which fish are caught or carried," from Medieval Latin iuncata "rush basket," perhaps from Latin iuncus "rush." Shifted meaning by 1520s to "feast, banquet," probably via notion of a picnic basket, which led to extended sense of "pleasure trip" (1814), and then to "tour by government official at public expense for no discernable public benefit" (by 1886, American English). Compare Italian cognate giuncata "cream cheese" (originally made in a rush basket), a sense of junket also found in Middle English and preserved lately in dialects.
truncate (v.): late 15c., from Latin truncatus "cut off," past participle of truncare "to maim, mutilate, cut off," from truncus "mutilated, cut off, deprived of branches or limbs" (see trunk). Related: Truncated; truncating.
truncheon (n.): c. 1300, "shaft of a spear," also "short stick, cudgel," from Old North French tronchon, Old French tronchon (11c., Modern French tronçon) "a piece cut off, thick stick, stump," from Vulgar Latin *truncionem (nominative *truncio), from Latin truncus "trunk of a tree" (see trunk). Meaning "staff as a symbol of office" is recorded from 1570s; sense of "policeman's club" is recorded from 1880.
trunk (n.1): mid-15c., "box, case," from Old French tronc "alms box in a church," also "trunk of a tree, trunk of the human body, wooden block" (12c.), from Latin truncus "trunk of a tree, trunk of the body," of uncertain origin, perhaps originally "mutilated, cut off." The meaning "box, case" is likely to be from the notion of the body as the "case" of the organs. English acquired the "main stem of a tree" and "torso of the body" senses from Old French in late 15c. The sense of "luggage compartment of a motor vehicle" is from 1930. Railroad trunk line is attested from 1843; telephone version is from 1889.
trunnion (n.): "either of two round projections of a cannon," 1620s, from French trognon "core of fruit, stump, tree trunk," from Middle French troignon (14c.), probably from Latin truncus (see trunk).
aduncate: "Hooked, bent inward", Mid 17th cent.; earliest use found in Robert Lovell (?1630–1690), naturalist. From post-classical Latin aduncatus, past participle of aduncare to bend, curve from classical Latin ad- + uncus hooked, crooked, curved.