英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

kielbasa (n.)[kielbasa 词源字典]: 1951, from Polish kiełbasa "sausage" (Russian kolbasa, Serbo-Croatian kobasica); perhaps from Turkish kulbasti, "grilled cutlet," literally "pressed on the ashes." Or perhaps, via Jewish butchers, from Hebrew kolbasar "all kinds of meat."[kielbasa etymology, kielbasa origin, 英语词源]
Kiev: Ukrainian Kyyiv, of unknown origin; explanation from the name of a founding prince named Kiy probably is folk etymology. Related: Kievan.
kike (n.): derogatory slang for "a Jew," by 1901, American English; early evidence supports the belief that it was used at first among German-American Jews in reference to newcomers from Eastern Europe, perhaps because the names of the latter ended in -ki or -ky.
There is no charity organization of any kind here [a small city in Pennsylvania] and, what is sadder to relate, the Jews in this city will not form one; that is, if the present temper of the people can be used as a criterion. The German Jews are bitterly opposed to the "Kikes," as they persist in calling the Russian Jews .... ["Report of the National Conference of Jewish Charities in the United States," Cleveland, 1912]
Philip Cowen, first editor of "The American Hebrew," suggests a source in Yiddish kikel "circle." According to him, Jewish immigrants, ignorant of writing with the Latin alphabet, signed their entry forms with a circle, eschewing the "X" as a sign of Christianity. On this theory, Ellis Island immigration inspectors began calling such people kikels, and the term shortened as it passed into general use.
kil: first element in many Celtic place names, literally "cell (of a hermit), church, burial place," from Gaelic and Irish -cil, from cill, gradational variant of ceall "cell, church, burial place," from Latin cella (see cell).
Kilimanjaro: mountain in Africa, from Swahili, literally "mountain of the god of cold," from kilima "mountain" + njaro "god of cold."
Kilkenny: county in Leinster, Ireland. The county is named for its town, from Irish Cill Chainnigh "Church of (St.) Kenneth." The story of the Kilkenny cats, a pair of which fought until only their tails were left, is attested from 1807.
kill (v.): c. 1200, "to strike, hit, beat, knock;" c. 1300, "to deprive of life," perhaps from an unrecorded variant of Old English cwellan "to kill" (see quell), but the earliest sense suggests otherwise. Sense in to kill time is from 1728. Related: Killed; killing. Kill-devil, colloquial for "rum," especially if new or of bad quality, is from 1630s.
kill (n.2): "stream," 1630s, American English, from Dutch kil, from Middle Dutch kille "riverbed," especially in place names (such as Schuylkill). A common Germanic word, the Old Norse form, kill, meant "bay, gulf" and gave its name to Kiel Fjord on the German Baltic coast and thence to Kiel, the port city founded there in 1240.
kill (n.1): early 13c., "a stroke, a blow," from kill (v.). Meaning "act of killing" is from 1814; that of "a killed animal" is from 1878. Lawn tennis serve sense is from 1903. The kill "the knockout" is boxing jargon, 1950.
killable (adj.): 1755, from kill (v.) + -able.
killdeer (n.): also killdee, 1731, American English, species of North American ring-plover, the name imitative of its cry.
killer (n.): late 15c., agent noun from kill (v.). But a surname, Ric[hard] Le Kyller is attested from 1288. Figurative use from 1550s. Meaning "impressive person or thing" is by 1900 (as an adjective, 1979); reduplicated form killer-diller attested by 1938. Killer whale is from 1725; killer instinct is attested from 1931, originally in boxing.
killing (adj.): mid-15c., present participle adjective from kill (v.). Meaning "very funny" is from 1844. As a noun, "large profit," 1886, American English slang.
killjoy (n.): also kill-joy, 1776, from kill (v.) + joy. Formerly used with other stems (such as kill-courtesy "boorish person," kill-cow "bully, big man," etc.).
kiln (n.): Old English cyln, cylen "kiln, oven," from Latin culina "kitchen, cooking stove," unexplained variant of coquere "to cook" (see cook (n.)). Old Norse kylna, Welsh cilin probably are from English.
kilo (n.): 1870, shortening of kilogram. Slang shortening key (in drug trafficking) is attested from 1968.
kilo-: word-forming element meaning "one thousand," introduced in French 1795, when the metric system was officially adopted there, from Greek khilioi "thousand," of unknown origin.
kilobyte (n.): 1970, from kilo- + byte.
kilogram (n.): "one thousand grams," 1797, from French kilogramme (1795); see kilo- + gram.
kilojoule (n.): 1893, from kilo- + joule.