英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

key (n.2)[key 词源字典]: "low island," 1690s, from Spanish cayo "shoal, reef," from Taino cayo "small island;" spelling influenced by Middle English key "wharf" (c. 1300), from Old French kai "sand bank" (see quay).[key etymology, key origin, 英语词源]
keyboard (n.): 1819, from key (n.1) in sense of "mechanism of a musical instrument" + board (n.1). Originally of pianos, organs, etc., extended to other machines 1846. The verb is first recorded 1926 (implied in keyboarding).
keyhole (n.): 1590s, from key (n.1) + hole (n.).
Keynesian: 1937 (adj.), 1942 (n.), from name of British economist John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946).
keynote (n.): also key-note, "lowest note of a musical scale, basis of a scale," 1776, from key (n.1) in sense of "musical scale" + note (n.). Figurative sense of "leading idea" is from 1783; keynote address is 1905, American English.
keypad (n.): 1975, from key (n.1) + pad (n.).
keypunch (n.): 1933, from keyboard (which operated it) + punch (v.), which is what it did to the cards inserted in it to record date.
keystone (n.): "stone in the middle of an arch, which holds up the others," 1630s, from key (n.1) in figurative sense of "that which holds together other parts" + stone. Figurative sense is from 1640s. Pennsylvania was called the Keystone State because of its position (geographical and political) in the original American confederation, between northern states and southern ones. Keystone cops were the bumbling police in the slapstick silent movies produced by Keystone Company, formed by Canadian-born U.S. film director Mack Sennett (1884-1960) in 1912.
keystroke (n.): 1902, from key (n.1) + stroke (n.). Not in common use until the rise of computers. As a verb, by 1966 (implied in keystroking).
keyword (n.): also key-word, 1807, from key (n.1) + word (n.). Originally in reference to codes and ciphers.
Keziah: fem. proper name, biblical daughter of Job, from Hebrew Qetzi'ah, literally "cassia," the aromatic tree that produces cinnamon.
KGB: national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991, attested from 1955 in English, initialism (acronym) of Russian Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti "Committee for State Security."
khaki (n.): "dust-colored cloth," 1857, from Urdu khaki, literally "dusty," from khak "dust," from Persian. First introduced in uniforms of British cavalry in India (the Guide Corps, 1846); widely adopted for camouflage purposes in the Boer Wars (1899-1902). As an adjective from 1863. Related: Khakis.
khan (n.): c. 1400, from Turkic, literally "lord, prince," contraction of khaqan "ruler, sovereign." Known in Europe since 13c.; compare Medieval Latin chanis, Greek kanes, Old French chan.
khanate (n.): 1799, from khan + -ate (1).
khedive (n.): Turkish viceroy of Egypt, 1867, from French khédive, from Turkish khidiv, from Persian khidiw "prince," derivative of khuda "master, prince," from Old Persian khvadata- "lord," from compound *khvat-data-, literally "created from oneself," from khvat- (from PIE *swe-tos "from oneself," ablative of root *s(w)e-; see idiom) + data- "created."
Khmer: 1867, native name. Khmer Rouge, communist party of Cambodia, literally "Red Khmer," is with French rouge (see rouge (n.)).
kibble (n.): "ground-up meat used as dog food, etc.," apparently from the verb meaning "to bruise or grind coarsely," attested from 1790, first in milling, but of unknown origin. The same or an identical word was used in the coal trade in the late 19c. and in mining from the 1670s for "bucket used to haul up ore or waste."
kibbutz (n.): "Israeli collective settlement," 1931, from Modern Hebrew qibbus "gathering," earlier "a gathering together," verbal noun from root of qibbetz "he gathered together." Plural is kibbutzim. Related to Arabic quabada "he grasped, seized."
kibitz (v.): 1927, from Yiddish kibitsen "to offer gratuitous advice as an outsider," from German kiebitzen "to look on at cards, to kibitz," originally in thieves' cant "to visit," from Kiebitz, name of a shore bird (European pewit, lapwing) with a folk reputation as a meddler, from Middle High German gibitz "pewit," imitative of its cry. Young lapwings are proverbially precocious and active, and were said to run around with half-shells still on their heads soon after hatching.