-er (2)youdaoicibaDictYouDict[-er 词源字典]
comparative suffix, from Old English -ra (masc.), -re (fem., neuter), from Proto-Germanic *-izon (cognates: Gothic -iza, Old Saxon -iro, Old Norse -ri, Old High German -iro, German -er), from PIE *-yos-, comparative adjective suffix. Originally also with umlaut change in stem, but this was mostly lost in Old English by historical times and has now vanished (except in better and elder).
For most comparatives of one or two syllables, use of -er seems to be fading as the oral element in our society relies on more before adjectives to express the comparative; thus prettier is more pretty, cooler is more cool [Barnhart].
[-er etymology, -er origin, 英语词源]
oneness (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
1590s, from one + -ness. A re-formation of Middle English onnesse, which vanished by 13c.
Underground Railroad (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
"network of U.S. anti-slavery activists helping runaways elude capture," attested from 1847, but said to date from 1831 and to have been coined in jest by bewildered trackers after their slaves vanished without a trace. Originally mostly the term for escape networks in the (then) western states of the U.S.
vanish (v.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
"disappear quickly," c. 1300, from shortened form of esvaniss-, stem of Old French esvanir "disappear; cause to disappear," from Vulgar Latin *exvanire, from Latin evanescere "disappear, pass away, die out," from ex- "out" (see ex-) + vanescere "vanish," inchoative verb from vanus "empty" (see vain). Related: Vanished; vanishing; vanishingly. Vanishing point in perspective drawing is recorded from 1797.
visceral (adj.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
1570s, "affecting inward feelings," from Middle French viscéral and directly from Medieval Latin visceralis "internal," from Latin viscera, plural of viscus "internal organ, inner parts of the body," of unknown origin. The bowels were regarded as the seat of emotion. The figurative sense vanished after 1640 and the literal sense is first recorded in 1794. The figurative sense was revived 1940s in arts criticism.
YugoslaviayoudaoicibaDictYouDict
1929 (earlier the country was Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes); from Yugoslav + -ia. The name vanished from the map in 2003.