英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

bureaucracy (n.)[bureaucracy 词源字典]: 1818, from French bureaucratie, coined by French economist Jean Claude Marie Vincent de Gournay (1712-1759) on model of democratie, aristocratie, from bureau "office," literally "desk" (see bureau) + Greek suffix -kratia denoting "power of" (see -cracy).
That vast net-work of administrative tyranny ... that system of bureaucracy, which leaves no free agent in all France, except for the man at Paris who pulls the wires. [J.S. Mill, "Westminster Review" XXVIII, 1837]

bureaucrat, &c. The formation is so barbarous that all attempt at self-respect in pronunciation may perhaps as well be abandoned. [Fowler]
[bureaucracy etymology, bureaucracy origin, 英语词源]
cross (v.): c. 1200, "make the sign of a cross," from cross (n.) and in part from French croiser. Sense of "to go across, pass from side to side of, pass over" is from c. 1400; that of "to cancel by drawing crossed lines over" is from mid-15c.

From late 14c. as "lie across; intersect;" also "place (two things) crosswise of each other; lay one thing across another." From early 15c. as "mark a cross on." Also in Middle English in now-archaic sense "crucify" (mid-14c.), hence, figuratively, crossed "carrying a cross of affliction or penance." Meaning "thwart, obstruct, hinder, oppose" is from 1550s; that of "cause to interbreed" is from 1754. In telegraphy, electricity, etc., in reference to accidental contact of two wires on different circuits or different parts of a circuit that allows part of the current to flow from one to the other, from 1884. Meaning "to cheat" is by 1823.

Cross my heart as a vow is from 1898. To cross over as euphemistic for "to die" is from 1930. To cross (someone's) path is from 1818. Of ideas, etc., to cross (someone's) mind is from 1768; the notion is of something entering the mind as if passing athwart it. Related: Crossed; crossing.
network (n.): "net-like arrangement of threads, wires, etc.," 1550s, from net (n.) + work (n.). Extended sense of "any complex, interlocking system" is from 1839 (originally in reference to transport by rivers, canals, and railways). Meaning "broadcasting system of multiple transmitters" is from 1914; sense of "interconnected group of people" is from 1947.
puppet (n.): "doll moved by strings or wires" (later applied to puppets in glove form), 1530s, later form of Middle English popet "doll" (c. 1300; see poppet), from Old French popette "little doll, puppet," diminutive of popee "doll, puppet" (13c., Modern French poupée), from Vulgar Latin *puppa, from Latin pupa "girl; doll" (see pupil (n.1)).

Metaphoric extension to "one whose actions are manipulated by another" first recorded 1540s (as poppet). Puppet show attested from 1650s, earlier puppet-play (1550s). Puppet government is attested from 1884 (in reference to Egypt).
pylon (n.): 1823, "gateway to an Egyptian temple," from Greek pylon "gateway," from pyle "gate, wing of a pair of double gates; an entrance, entrance into a country; mountain pass; narrow strait of water," of unknown origin. Meaning "tower for guiding aviators" (1909) led to that of "steel tower for high-tension wires" (1923).
sag (n.): 1580s, in nautical use, from sag (v.). From 1727 of landforms; 1861 of wires, cables, etc.
solid (adj.): late 14c., "not empty or hollow," from Old French solide "firm, dense, compact," from Latin solidus "firm, whole, undivided, entire," figuratively "sound, trustworthy, genuine," from PIE *sol-ido-, suffixed form of root *sol- "whole" (cognates: Greek holos "whole," Latin salus "health," salvus "safe;" see safe (adj.)).

Meaning "firm, hard, compact" is from 1530s. Meaning "entirely of the same stuff" is from 1710. Of qualities, "well-established, considerable" c. 1600. As a mere intensifier, 1830. Slang sense of "wonderful, remarkable" first attested 1920 among jazz musicians. As an adverb, "solidly, completely," 1650s. Solid South in U.S. political history is attested from 1858. Solid state as a term in physics is recorded from 1953; meaning "employing printed circuits and solid transistors" (as opposed to wires and vacuum tubes) is from 1959. Related: Solidly.
subway (n.): 1825, "underground passage" (for water pipes or pedestrians, later for electrical wires), from sub- + way (n.). The sense of "underground railway in a city" is first recorded 1892, in reference to London.
tap (v.2): "to supply with a tap," late Old English tæppian, from source of tap (n.1); compare German zapfen "to tap." Meaning "to draw liquor with a tap" is from mid-15c. Extended sense "make use of" is first recorded 1570s. Meaning "listen in secretly" (1869), originally was with reference to telegraph wires. Tapped out "broke" is 1940s slang, perhaps from the notion of having tapped all one's acquaintances for loans already (compare British slang on the tap "begging, making requests for loans," 1932).
television (n.): 1907, as a theoretical system to transmit moving images over telegraph or telephone wires; formed in English or borrowed from French télévision, from tele- + vision.
Television is not impossible in theory. In practice it would be very costly without being capable of serious application. But we do not want that. On that day when it will be possible to accelerate our methods of telephotography by at least ten times, which does not appear to be impossible in the future, we shall arrive at television with a hundred telegraph wires. Then the problem of sight at a distance will without doubt cease to be a chimera. ["Telegraphing Pictures" in "Windsor Magazine," 1907]
Other proposals for the name of a then-hypothetical technology for sending pictures over distance were telephote (1880) and televista (1904). The technology was developed in the 1920s and '30s. Nativized in German as Fernsehen. Shortened form TV is from 1948. Meaning "a television set" is from 1941. Meaning "television as a medium" is from 1927.
Television is the first truly democratic culture -- the first culture available to everyone and entirely governed by what the people want. The most terrifying thing is what people do want. [Clive Barnes, "New York Times," Dec. 30, 1969]
tension (n.): 1530s, "a stretched condition," from Middle French tension (16c.) or directly from Latin tensionem (nominative tensio) "a stretching" (in Medieval Latin "a struggle, contest"), noun of state from tensus, past participle of tendere "to stretch," from PIE root *ten- "stretch" (see tenet). The sense of "nervous strain" is first recorded 1763. The meaning "stress along lines of electromotive force" (as in high-tension wires) is recorded from 1785.
trolley (n.): 1823, in Suffolk dialect, "a cart," especially one with wheels flanged for running on a track (1858), probably from troll (v.) in the sense of "to roll." Sense transferred to "device used to transmit electric current to streetcars, consisting of a trolley wheel which makes contact with the overhead wires" (1888), then "streetcar drawing power by a trolley" (1891), which probably is short for trolley-car, attested from 1889.
wire (n.): Old English wir "metal drawn out into a fine thread," from Proto-Germanic *wira- (cognates: Old Norse viravirka "filigree work," Swedish vira "to twist," Old High German wiara "fine gold work"), from PIE *wei- (1) "to turn, twist, plait" (cognates: Old Irish fiar, Welsh gwyr "bent, crooked;" Latin viere "to bend, twist," viriæ "bracelets," of Celtic origin). A wire as marking the finish line of a racecourse is attested from 1883; hence the figurative down to the wire. Wire-puller in the political sense is 1848, American English, on the image of pulling the wires that work a puppet.
wire (v.): c. 1300, "adorn with (gold) wire," from wire (n.). From 1859 as "communicate by means of a telegraphic wire;" 1891 as "furnish with electrical wires and connections." Related: Wired; wiring.
wire-tapping (n.): also wiretapping, "surreptitiously obtaining information by connecting wires to telegraph (later telephone) lines and establishing an intermediate station between two legitimate ones," 1878, from wire (n.) + agent noun from tap (v.2). Earliest references often are to activity during the American Civil War, but the phrase does not seem to have been used at that time. Related: Wire-tap; wire-tapper.
wired (adj.): Old English wired "made of wire," past participle adjective from wire (v.). From early 15c. as "stiffened by wires." Meaning "nervous, jittery" is by 1970s; earlier (1959, perhaps early 1950s) "using narcotic drugs, addicted to drugs."
wiring (n.): "wires collectively," 1809, later especially "electrical wirework" (1887), from present participle of wire (v.).