英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

bewilder: bewilder: see wild
bigwig: bigwig: see wig
earwig: earwig: [OE] A colloquial Old English term for ‘insect’ was wicga (which would have been pronounced something like ‘widger’). It probably came from the same prehistoric Germanic base (*wig-) as produced English wiggle [13], and so is roughly equivalent in spirit to modern English creepy-crawly. There used to be a belief (perhaps still is) that earwigs creep into people’s ears and penetrate inside their heads, and so the Anglo-Saxons called them ēarwicga, literally ‘ear-insect’. The same notion lies behind French perceoreille, literally ‘pierceear’, and German ohrwurm, literally ‘earworm’, both of which stand for ‘earwig’.
=> wiggle
howitzer: howitzer: [17] Czech houfnice denotes a ‘large catapult’ for hurling stones at the enemy. It was borrowed into German as houfenitz, and this made its way into English as howitz at the end of the 17th century. This had died out within a hundred years, but at around the same time English acquired howitzer, probably via Dutch houwitser, which has stood the test of time.
lapwing: lapwing: [OE] The present-day form of the word lapwing is due to the notion that it describes the way the bird’s wings overlap in flight, but in fact although it did originally refer to the way the bird flies, it has no etymological connection with lap or wing. Its Old English form was hlēupwince, whose first element came from the ancestor of modern English leap, and whose second element went back to a base meaning ‘move from side to side’ that also produced English wink. So etymologically the lapwing is the ‘leapwink’, the bird that tumbles and jinks in flight – as indeed it does. Its alternative name peewit [13] describes its call.
midwife: midwife: [14] A midwife is etymologically a ‘with-woman’. The mid- element represents the long extinct preposition mid ‘with’ (its Germanic relatives are still alive and well: German mit, Dutch met, and Swedish and Danish med). Wife preserves the original meaning of Old English wīf, ‘woman’. The idea underlying the word is that a midwife is ‘with’ a woman giving birth.
peewit: peewit: see lapwing
periwig: periwig: see wig
sandwich: sandwich: [18] John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich (1718–92), is said to have been so addicted to the gambling table that in order to sustain him through an entire 24-hour session uninterrupted, he had a portable meal of cold beef between slices of toast brought to him. The basic idea was nothing new, of course, but the Earl’s patronage ensured it a vogue, and by the early 1760s we have the first evidence of his name being attached to it: the historian Edward Gibbon in 1762 recorded in his diary how he dined at the Cocoa Tree and saw ‘twenty or thirty of the best men in the kingdom … supping at little tables … upon a bit of cold meat, or a Sandwich’.
Siamese twins: Siamese twins: [19] The original ‘Siamese twins’ were two males, Chang and Eng (1811– 74), born in Siam (now Thailand), who were joined together at the hip. No attempt was made to separate them, and they lived to a respectable age; each married and fathered children. In an age unembarrassed to be interested in ‘freaks’, they gained considerable public attention, and by the 1850s Siamese twins seems to have established itself as a generic term. The late 20th century’s aversion from associating physical defects with racial or national groups has ousted it in favour of ‘conjoined twins’.
swift: swift: [OE] The etymological meaning of swift appears to be ‘moving along a course’; ‘speed’ is a secondary development. It goes back ultimately to the prehistoric Germanic base *swei- ‘swing, bend’, which also produced English sweep, swivel [14], and the long defunct swive ‘copulate with’ (a descendant of Old English swīfan ‘move in a course’). Its use as a name for the fast-flying swallow-like bird dates from the 17th century.
=> sweep, swivel
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
swine: swine: [OE] Swine is the ancestral English term for the ‘pig’, and it remained the main word until pig began to take over from it in the early modern English period. It came from a prehistoric Germanic *swīnam, which also produced German schwein, Dutch swijn, and Swedish and Danish svin. And this in turn went back to Indo-European *su-, source also of English hyena and sow.
=> hyena, sow
swing: swing: [OE] Swing goes back ultimately to a prehistoric Germanic base *swinggw-, which denoted ‘violent circulatory movement’. One of its specific applications was to the wielding of a whip, and indeed the English verb swing originally meant ‘flog’ (‘They bind him and swing him and spit on his face’, Blickling Homilies 971). Another Old English sense was ‘rush’, but the main modern meaning ‘oscillate’ did not emerge until as recently as the 16th century. The ancestral notion of ‘flogging’ or ‘beating’ is better preserved in the related swinge [16].
=> swinge
swipe: swipe: see sweep
switch: switch: [16] Switch originally denoted a ‘thin flexible twig’; it may have been borrowed from Middle Dutch swijch ‘bough, twig’. From the noun was derived the verb switch. This originally meant ‘beat with a switch’, but in the early 19th century the sense ‘bend or waggle to and fro like a flexible stick’ emerged, and this led on in the middle of the century via ‘divert’ to ‘turn off a train on to another track’ (the usage developed in American English, where the apparatus used for this is still known as a switch, as opposed to British English points).

By the end of the century this had broadened out to ‘connect or disconnect by pushing a contact to or fro’. The notion of ‘exchanging’ or ‘swopping’ did not emerge until as recently as the 1890s.
swivel: swivel: see swift
twice: twice: [12] Twice was formed from Old English twige ‘twice’ (itself based on twi-, the combining form of two) and the genitive ending -s, which was used for creating adverbs, such as always, nowadays, once, thrice, etc.
=> two
twig: twig: English has two separate words twig. The older, ‘small branch’ [OE], which has relatives in German zweig and Dutch tijg, appears to have been formed from the Germanic base *twi- ‘two’, and so etymologically it presumably denotes a ‘forked branch’. The origins of twig ‘catch on, understand’ [18] are uncertain. It may be the same word as the contemporary but now defunct twig ‘pull’. This was presumably related to tweak [17] and twitch [12], which go back to a prehistoric Germanic base *twik-.
=> tweak, twitch, two
twilight: twilight: [15] Twilight is etymologically ‘light between day and night’. The word was compounded from the prefix twi- ‘two’, apparently used here in the sense ‘between’ (between itself comes from the same ultimate source as two) and light. German has the parallel zwielicht.
=> two
twill: twill: see drill
twin: twin: [OE] Twin originally meant simply ‘double’, but the specific application to ‘two people born at the same birth’ had already evolved by the end of the Old English period. The word goes back via prehistoric Germanic *twisnaz to Indo- European *dwisno-, a derivative of the base *dwi- ‘double’ (other derivatives formed with the same -n suffix include English between and twine [OE] – etymologically thread of ‘two’ strands).
=> between, twine, two
twist: twist: [OE] Twist appears to come ultimately from prehistoric Germanic base *twi- ‘double’, which also underlies English twice, twig, twin, etc. In Old English it is found only in compound words, denoting such things as ‘rope’ (presumably originally made from ‘two’ strands) and ‘forked objects’. It does not appear as an independent word until the 14th century, by which time its association with ‘rope’ had given it the sense ‘wrench, wind’.
=> two
twit: twit: Twit was originally, and still is, a verb, meaning ‘taunt’ [16]. It is a shortened version of the now defunct atwite. This went back to Old English ætwītan, a compound verb formed from the prefix æt-, denoting ‘opposition’, and wītan ‘reproach’. It is not altogether clear whether the noun twit ‘fool’ is the same word. There is an isolated example of what could be twit ‘fool’ recorded from the early 18th century, but it did not really begin to proliferate as a mild term of abuse until the 1950s.

Semantically, the connection is plausible – a ‘fool’ could be a ‘person who is taunted’ (presumably for being foolish) – but an alternative theory is that it is an alteration of twat [17]. This originally meant ‘cunt’, and is not recorded as a term of abuse until the 1920s. It is not known where it came from. (It was, incidentally, the object of one of the more ludicrous misapprehensions in English literature.

There is a passage in Vanity of Vanities 1660 that reads ‘They talked of his having a cardinal’s hat, they’d send him as soon an old nun’s twat’. Robert Browning took ‘twat’ as meaning some item of nun’s clothing, and so wrote in his Pippa Passes 1841 ‘Sing to the bats’ sleek sisterhoods full complines with gallantry: Then, owls and bats, cowls and twats, monks and nuns, in a cloister’s moods, adjourn to the oakstump pantry!’).
twitch: twitch: see twig
unwieldy: unwieldy: [14] Unwieldy originally meant ‘weak, feeble’ (‘a toothless, old, impotent, and unwieldy woman’, Reginald Scot, Discovery of Witch-craft 1584). The meaning ‘awkward to handle’ developed in the 16th century. The word was based on the now seldom encountered wieldy, which evolved from Old English wielde ‘active, vigorous’. This in turn went back to the Germanic base *walth- ‘have power’, source also of English herald and wield.
=> herald, wield
wick: wick: [OE] Wick ‘burning fibre in a candle or lamp’ has West Germanic relatives in German wieche and Dutch wiek, but its ultimate ancestry is uncertain (a connection has been suggested with Old Irish figim ‘I weave’). The wick of get on someone’s wick ‘annoy someone’, incidentally (first recorded in 1945), is probably a different word. It appears to be short for Hampton Wick, rhyming slang for ‘prick, penis’ (Hampton Wick is a district in southwest London; its wick means historically ‘village, town’, and is the same word ultimately as the -wich, -wick of English place-names).
wicked: wicked: [13] Wicked and witch are closely related. Wicked is an extension, using the suffix -ed, of the now obsolete adjective wick ‘wicked’. And this in turn originated as an adjectival use of Old English wicca ‘wizard’, whose feminine form is the ancestor of modern English witch.
=> witch
wicket: wicket: [13] A wicket was originally a ‘small gate’, and etymologically the word appears to denote something that ‘turns’ – presumably on a hinge in opening and closing. It was borrowed from Old Northern French wiket, which in turn came from a Germanic source represented also by modern Swedish vika ‘fold, turn’. The set of stumps originally used for cricket resembled a gate – indeed the game’s first batsmen may have defended an actual gate in a sheep pen – and so it came to be known as a wicket. This was in the 18th century; the extension of the term to the ‘pitch’ dates from the mid 19th century.
wide: wide: [OE] Wide is a general Germanic word, with relatives in German weit, Dutch wijd, and Swedish and Danish vid. All are descended from prehistoric Germanic *wīdaz, which may go back ultimately to the Indo-European base *wi- ‘apart, away’ (source also of Sanskrit vitarám ‘further’). Width was coined in the early 17th century, probably on the analogy of breadth.
widow: widow: [OE] A widow is etymologically a woman who has been ‘separated’, left ‘solitary’. The word goes back ultimately to Indo- European *widhewo, an adjective formed from the base *weidh- ‘separate’ (source also of English divide and Sanskrit vidhu- ‘solitary’). This produced a large number of words for ‘widow’ in the Indo-European languages, including Latin vidua (source of French veuve, Italian vedova, and Spanish viuda), Russian and Czech vdova, and Welsh gweddr. To the Germanic languages it has given German witwe and Dutch weduwe as well as English widow. Widower was coined in the 14th century.
=> divide, individual
width: width: see wide
wield: wield: [OE] To wield something is etymologically to ‘command’ or ‘rule’ it. Indeed, that is what the word originally meant in English. ‘Handle, use’ is a secondary development. It goes back to a prehistoric base *wald-, which also produced German walten, Lithuanian valdyti, Czech vládnouti, and Polish władać ‘rule, govern’ and Russian vladet’ ‘possess, own’. And this in turn was probably an extension of Indo-European *wal-, source also of Latin valēre ‘be strong’, from which English gets valid, value, etc.
=> valid, value
wife: wife: [OE] Wife originally meant simply ‘woman’, but the semantic restriction to ‘married woman’ began in the Old English period and has become more and more firmly established as the centuries have passed. Of the word’s Germanic relatives, German weib has largely been replaced by frau, and Dutch wijf, Swedish vif, and Danish viv are no longer front-line words. It is not known what its ultimate source was. A woman is etymologically a ‘wife-man’, that is, a ‘womanperson’, a ‘female-person’.
wig: wig: [17] Wig is short for periwig [16], which in turn is an alteration of perwike, a now defunct variant of peruke [16]; and peruke came via French perruque from Italian perrucca, a word of unknown origin. Wigging ‘scolding’, first recorded at the beginning of the 19th century, may have been inspired by the notion of being told off by a bigwig [18], etymologically a ‘highranking bewigged dignitary’.
=> periwig, peruke
wiggle: wiggle: see earwig
wild: wild: [OE] Wild is a general Germanic word, shared by German and Dutch (wild) and Swedish and Danish (vild). All go back to a prehistoric ancestor *wilthijaz, which in turn was probably descended from Indo-European *ghwelt- (source of Welsh gwyllt ‘wild’). The derivative wilderness [OE] etymologically denotes the ‘condition of being a wild animal’.

It originated as an abstract noun formed from Old English wild dēor ‘wild animal’. But by the time it appears in texts, the modern sense ‘wild land’ is complete. The noun is thought to have been the source of the now defunct verb wilder, which probably served as the basis of bewilder [17]. Wildebeest [19] was acquired from Afrikaans.
=> bewilder, wilderness
will: will: Will the noun [OE] and the two verbs will [OE] all go back ultimately to the Indo- European base *wel-, *wol- ‘be pleasing’, which also produced English voluntary, voluptuous, wealth, well ‘satisfactorily’, etc. From it was derived a noun, *weljon, which evolved into English will, and also German wille, Dutch wil, Swedish vilja, and Danish vilje.

The verb will ‘decide on or resolve by force of the will’ was formed in the prehistoric Germanic period from the noun. The auxiliary verb will, expressing intention or future time, comes from a prehistoric Germanic *weljan. Would evolved from its original Old English past form wolde.
=> voluntary, voluptuous, wealth, will, would
willy-nilly: willy-nilly: [17] Willy-nilly originated in the expression will I, nill I, literally ‘whether I wish it or do not wish it’ (nill ‘be unwilling’, long defunct as an independent verb, was formed from will and the negative prefix ne-)
wimp: wimp: [20] The first record of the word wimp ‘feeble ineffectual person’ is from as long ago as 1920, but it was not used at all widely until the early 1960s. Its origins have never been satisfactorily explained. It is tempting to link it with J. Wellington Wimpy, a curious little man with a moustache who featured in the Popeye cartoons, but he was not around in the 1920s.

Nor is it altogether plausible that it came from American slang gimp ‘lame or handicapped person’. Perhaps the least unlikely suggestion is that it is short for whimper. No connection with the now obsolete slang wimp ‘woman’ [20] (perhaps an alteration of women) has ever been demonstrated. In the 1980s WIMP was used as an acronym for ‘weakly interacting massive particle’ and for ‘widows/icon/mouse/pointer’, a computer term.
win: win: [OE] Win probably goes back ultimately to the Indo-European base *van- ‘overcome, conquer’, which also produced Sanskrit van- ‘gain, acquire’. Its Germanic relatives include German gewinnen ‘gain’ and Swedish vinna ‘win’.
wind: wind: English has three distinct words wind. The noun, ‘moving air’ [OE], came from a prehistoric Germanic *windaz, which also produced German and Dutch wind and Swedish and Danish vind. This in turn went back to Indo- European *went-, whose other descendants include Latin ventus (source of English vent, ventilate, etc) and Welsh gwynt.

And *wentitself was derived from the base *we- ‘blow’, source also of Greek aétēs ‘wind’ and áēr ‘air’ (from which English gets air), Sanskrit vátas ‘wind’, and Russian vejat’ ‘blow’. The now archaic verb wind ‘blow a horn’ [16], for all that it rhymes with wind ‘wrap round’, was derived from the noun wind. Wind ‘wrap round’ [OE] originally meant ‘go in a particular direction’; ‘wrap’ did not emerge until the 14th century, via an intermediate ‘go in a circle’.

It came from a prehistoric Germanic *windon (source also of German and Dutch winden, Swedish vinda, and Danish vinde), which was formed from a variant of the base which produced English wand, wander, and wend.
=> air, vent, ventilate, weather, winnow; wand, wander, went
window: window: [13] A window is etymologically a ‘wind-eye’ – that is, an ‘eye’-like opening for admitting the air. The word was borrowed from Old Norse vindauga, a compound noun formed from vindr ‘wind’ and auga ‘eye’. Danish vindue is descended from the Old Norse form, which was also taken over by Irish as fuinneog.
=> eye, wind
wine: wine: [OE] Wine comes from Latin vīnum. This was borrowed into prehistoric Germanic as *wīnam, which subsequently evolved into German wein, Dutch wijn, Swedish and Danish vin, and English wine. It also gave French vin and Italian and Spanish vino, and was extensively acquired by other Indo-European languages, including Russian and Serbo-Croat vino, Polish wino, Lithuanian vynas, and Welsh gwin.

The Latin word itself came from an ancient Mediterranean source, possibly non- Indo-European, which also produced Greek oínos ‘wine’ (source of English oenology [19]), Albanian vēne ‘wine’, and Armenian gini ‘wine’. The same ancestral term also fed into the Semitic languages, giving Arabic wain, Hebrew yayin, and Assyrian īnn ‘wine’.

Latin vīnum additionally gave English vintage and vintner, and its derivative vīnea ‘vineyard, vine’ produced English vine [13].
=> oenology, vine, vintage, vintner
wing: wing: [12] Wing was borrowed from Old Norse vængir, source also of Swedish and Danish vinge and Norwegian veng. This came ultimately from the Indo-European base *we- ‘blow’, and the missing semantic link with ‘wing’ may be ‘flutter’.
winnow: winnow: [OE] Etymologically, to winnow grain is to separate it from the chaff by means of the ‘wind’. The verb was coined in the Old English period from wind. The same notion underlay Latin ventilāre ‘winnow’ (source of English ventilate), which was derived from ventus ‘wind’ (a relative of English wind).
=> wind
winsome: winsome: see wish
winter: winter: [OE] Winter is a general Germanic word (German and Dutch spell it the same, Swedish and Danish have vinter). Its prehistoric ancestor was *wentrus, but the ultimate source of this is uncertain. It could well go back to a nasalized version of the Indo-European base *wed-, *wod-, *ud- ‘wet’ (source also of English otter, water and wet), in which case winter would be etymologically the ‘wet’ season. But an alternative theory traces it back to Indo- European *wind- ‘white’ (source of Breton gwenn, Welsh gwyn – which may underlie English penguin – and Irish fionn ‘white’), in which case it would denote the ‘white’ season.
wire: wire: [OE] Wire probably goes back ultimately to the Indo-European base *wi- ‘plait’. Related forms in other Germanic languages have now largely died out. The adjective wireless is first recorded in 1894 (in the term wireless telephone); its use as a noun dates from around 1903.
wise: wise: English has two distinct words wise, but they come from the same ultimate source: the Indo-European base *woid-, *weid-, *wid-. This denoted ‘see’, and hence ‘know’, and it also produced English idea, vision, and wit. From it was formed the past participial adjective *wīttos, which passed into prehistoric Germanic as *wīsaz ‘knowing things, learned’.

And this has since evolved into German weise, Dutch wijs, Swedish and Danish vis, and English wise. Wisdom [OE] and wizard are derivatives. Meanwhile, another derivative of the same prehistoric base was the Germanic noun *wīsōn, *wīsō, whose original meaning ‘appearance’ (going back to the ancestral ‘see’ of the base) had developed via ‘for, shape’ and ‘kind, sort’ to ‘way, manner’.

This produced German weise, Dutch wijze, Swedish and Danish vis (used largely in compounds and phrases), and English wise (similarly nowadays restricted mainly to compounds, such as likewise and otherwise). Guise is ultimately the same word, filtered through Old French.
=> guise, idea, vision, wit, wizard