英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

naivete (n.)[naivete 词源字典]: 1670s, from French naïveté, from Old French naiveté "genuineness, authenticity," literally "native disposition" (see naive). Englished form naivety is attested from 1708.[naivete etymology, naivete origin, 英语词源]
nake (v.): "to make naked," early 14c., from naked, perhaps with misapprehension of the -d as a past tense suffix. Marked as "Obs[olete] exc[ept] Sc[ottish]" in OED. Earlier was naken "to strip naked" (mid-13c.); a later generation coined nakedize (1858).
naked (adj.): Old English nacod "nude, bare; empty," also "not fully clothed," from Proto-Germanic *nakwadaz (cognates: Old Frisian nakad, Middle Dutch naket, Dutch naakt, Old High German nackot, German nackt, Old Norse nökkviðr, Old Swedish nakuþer, Gothic naqaþs "naked"), from PIE root *nogw- "naked" (cognates: Sanskrit nagna, Hittite nekumant-, Old Persian *nagna-, Greek gymnos, Latin nudus, Lithuanian nuogas, Old Church Slavonic nagu-, Russian nagoi, Old Irish nocht, Welsh noeth "bare, naked"). Related: Nakedly; nakedness. Applied to qualities, actions, etc., from late 14c. (first in "The Cloud of Unknowing"); phrase naked truth is from 1585, in Alexander Montgomerie's "The Cherry and the Slae":
Which thou must (though it grieve thee) grant
I trumped never a man.
But truely told the naked trueth,
To men that meld with mee,
For neither rigour, nor for rueth,
But onely loath to lie.
[Montgomerie, 1585]
Phrase naked as a jaybird (1943) was earlier naked as a robin (1879, in a Shropshire context); the earliest known comparative based on it was naked as a needle (late 14c.). Naked eye is from 1660s, unnecessary in the world before telescopes and microscopes.
Nam (n.): colloquial shortening of Vietnam, 1969, originally among U.S. troops sent there.
namaste (n.): "salutatory gesture," 1948, from Hindi, from Sanskrit namas "bowing" + te, dative of tuam "you" (singular). Used as a word of greeting from 1967.
namby-pamby (adj.): "weakly sentimental, insipidly pretty," 1745, from satiric nickname of English poet Ambrose Philips (1674-1749) mocking his sentimental pastorals addressed to infant members of the nobility. Used first in 1726 in a farce credited to Carey. Related: Namby-pambical.
name (n.): Old English nama, noma "name, reputation," from Proto-Germanic *namon (cognates: Old Saxon namo, Old Frisian nama, Old High German namo, German Name, Middle Dutch name, Dutch naam, Old Norse nafn, Gothic namo "name"), from PIE *nomn- (cognates: Sanskrit nama; Avestan nama; Greek onoma, onyma; Latin nomen; Old Church Slavonic ime, genitive imene; Russian imya; Old Irish ainm; Old Welsh anu "name").

Meaning "famous person" is from 1610s. Meaning "one's reputation" is from c. 1300. As a modifier meaning "well-known," first attested 1938. Name brand is from 1944; name-calling attested from 1846; name-dropper first recorded 1947. name-tag is from 1903; name-child attested from 1845. The name of the game "the essential thing or quality" is from 1966; to have one's name in lights "be a famous performer" is from 1929.
He who once a good name gets,
May piss a bed, and say he sweats.

["Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit and Pickpocket Eloquence," London, 1811]
name (v.): Old English namian "to name, call; nominate, appoint," from source of name (n.). Related: Named; naming.
nameless (adj.): early 14c., "undistinguished," from name (n.) + -less. Meaning "having no name" is early 15c.; that of "too abominable to be named" is from 1610s. Similar formation in Dutch naamloos, German namenlos. Related: Namelessly; namelessness.
namely (adv.): "particularly, especially" (i.e. "by name"), late 12c., from name (n.) + -ly (2).
nameplate (n.): 1882, from name (n.) + plate (n.).
namesake (n.): "person named for the sake of someone," 1640s, probably originally (for the) name's sake.
Nan: fem. proper name, usually a familiar form of Ann before the 20c. rise in popularity of Nancy. From c. 1700 as a characteristic name for a serving maid. As short for nanny, etc., from 1940.
nana: child's word for "grandmother" or, sometimes, "nurse," first recorded c. 1844 (see nanny).
nance (n.): "effeminate man, homosexual," 1904, from female name Nancy (q.v.), which was in use as an adjective meaning "effeminate" (applied to men) from 1883, a shortening of earlier Miss Nancy.
Nancy, Miss, an opprobrious epithet for an exceedingly effeminate, over-nice young man. The original Miss Nancy, however, was a Mrs. Anna Old field, a celebrated actress, who died in 1730 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. She was extremely vain and nice about her dress, and as she lay in state, attended by two noblemen, she was attired, as she had directed shortly before her death, in "a very fine Brussels lace head-dress, a Holland shift with a tucker and double ruffles of the same lace, a pair of new kid gloves," etc., a circumstance alluded to by Pope .... [William S. Walsh, "Handy-Book of Literary Curiosities," 1892]
Nancy boy "effeminate male homosexual" is attested by 1958.
Nancy: fem. proper name, probably a pet form of Ancy, diminutive of Middle English Annis "Agnes" (see Agnes). As an adjective meaning "effeminate" (with reference to men) it is from 1904. Among the top 10 popular names for girls born in U.S. between 1935 and 1955.
nankeen (n.): kind of cotton cloth, 1755, from Nanking, China, where it originally was made.
Nanking: city in China, literally "southern capital," from nan "south" + jing "capital."
nanny (n.): "children's nurse," 1795, from widespread child's word for "female adult other than mother" (compare Greek nanna "aunt"). The word also is a nickname form of the fem. proper name Ann, which probably is the sense in nanny goat (1788, compare billy goat). Nanny-house "brothel" is slang from c. 1700. Nanny state, in reference to overintrusive government policies is attested by 1987, the term associated with British political leader Margaret Thatcher, who criticized the tendency.
nanny (v.): "to be unduly protective," 1954, from nanny (n.). Related: Nannied; nannying.