英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

guinea [guinea 词源字典]: guinea: [17] Guinea first emerged as the name of a section of the West Africa continent in the late 16th century (its origins are not known, but presumably it was based on an African word). In 1663 the Royal Mint began to produce a gold coin valued at 20 shillings ‘for the use of the Company of Royal Adventurers of England trading with Africa’. It had the figure of an elephant on it.

Straightaway it became known as a guinea, both because its use was connected with the Guinea coast and because it was made from gold obtained there. And what is more, the coins soon came to be much in demand for domestic use: on 29 October 1666 Samuel Pepys recorded ‘And so to my goldsmith to bid him look out for some gold for me; and he tells me that Ginnys, which I bought 2000 of not long ago, and cost me but 18½d. change, will now cost me 22d., and but very few to be had at any price.

However, some more I will have, for they are very convenient – and of easy disposal’. Its value fluctuated, and was not fixed at 21 shillings until 1717. The last one was minted in 1813, but guinea as a term for the amount 21 shillings stayed in use until the early 1970s, when the decimalization of British currency dealt it the deathblow. The guinea pig [17], incidentally, comes from South America, and its name probably arose from a confusion between Guinea and Guiana, on the northern coast of South America.
[guinea etymology, guinea origin, 英语词源]
hot: hot: [OE] Hot is the English member of a family of adjectives widespread in Germanic, but with very few outside relatives. Its first cousins are German heiss, Dutch heet, Swedish het, and Danish hed, which point back to a prehistoric Germanic ancestor *khaitaz (the English noun and verb heat come from the same source). Lithuanian kaisti and Latvian kaist ‘become hot’ are allied forms.
=> heat
talisman: talisman: [17] Talisman, one of the very few English nouns ending in -man which does not turn into -men in the plural (dragoman is another), denotes etymologically an ‘object consecrated by the completion of a religious ritual’. It comes via French talisman from medieval Greek télesmon, an alteration of late Greek télesma ‘consecrated object’. This in turn was derived from the verb teleín ‘complete’, hence ‘perform a ritual’, hence ‘consecrate’, which was based on télos ‘aim, result’ (source of English teleology [18]).
=> teleology, television
congeries (n.): 1610s, from Latin congeries "heap, pile, collected mass," from congerere "to carry together" (see congest). False singular congery is from 1866.
Man should have some sense of responsibility to the human congeries. As a matter of observation, very few men have any such sense. No social order can exist very long unless a few, at least a few, men have such a sense. [Ezra Pound, "ABC of Economics," 1933]
culture (n.): mid-15c., "the tilling of land," from Middle French culture and directly from Latin cultura "a cultivating, agriculture," figuratively "care, culture, an honoring," from past participle stem of colere "tend, guard, cultivate, till" (see colony). The figurative sense of "cultivation through education" is first attested c. 1500. Meaning "the intellectual side of civilization" is from 1805; that of "collective customs and achievements of a people" is from 1867.
For without culture or holiness, which are always the gift of a very few, a man may renounce wealth or any other external thing, but he cannot renounce hatred, envy, jealousy, revenge. Culture is the sanctity of the intellect. [William Butler Yeats]
Slang culture vulture is from 1947. Culture shock first recorded 1940.
Pig Latin (n.): childish deformed language (there are many different versions), by 1889 (hog Latin in same sense by 1807).
The animals play quite an important part in the naming [of children's languages], as the hog, dog, fly, goose, pigeon, pig, all give names, with Mr. Hog leading. Among the names the Latins take the lead, and Hog Latin leads the list, being accredited as naming nearly as many languages as all the other names combined. Besides Hog Latin, there is Dog Latin, Pig Latin, Goose Latin, and Bum Latin. Then there is Greekish and Peddlers' French and Pigeon English. ... Very few can give any reason for the naming of the languages. In fact, no one can fully say where the great majority of names came from, for in most cases in the naming the following pretty well expresses the difficulty: "It was born before I was. I can't tell how young I was when I first heard of it." ["The Secret Language of Children," in "The North Western Monthly," October 1897]
vestal (adj.): "chaste, pure, virgin," 1590s, originally (early 15c.) "belonging to or dedicated to Vesta," Roman goddess of hearth and home, from Latin vestalis. The noun is recorded from 1570s, short for Vestal virgin, one of four (later six) priestesses (Latin virgines Vestales) in charge of the sacred fire in the temple of Vesta in Rome. From 1580s in reference to any virgin or chaste woman.
They entered the service of the goddess at from six to ten years of age, their term of service lasting thirty years. They were then permitted to retire and to marry, but few did so, for, as vestals, they were treated with great honor, and had important public privileges. Their persons were inviolable, any offense against them being punished with death, and they were treated in all their relations with the highest distinction and reverence. A vestal who broke her vow of chastity was immured alive in an underground vault amid public mourning. There were very few such instances; in one of them, under Domitian, the chief of the vestals was put to death under a false charge trumped up by the emperor.
El Niño: "An irregularly occurring and complex series of climatic changes affecting the equatorial Pacific region and beyond every few years, characterized by the appearance of unusually warm, nutrient-poor water off northern Peru and Ecuador, typically in late December. The effects of El Niño include reversal of wind patterns across the Pacific, drought in Australasia, and unseasonal heavy rain in South America", Spanish, literally 'the (Christ) child', because of the occurrence near Christmas.