quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- plump (adj.)



[plump 词源字典] - late 15c., "blunt, dull" (in manners), from Dutch plomp "blunt, thick, massive, stumpy," probably related to plompen "fall or drop heavily" (see plump (v.)). Meaning "fleshy, of rounded form" is from 1540s in English. Danish and Swedish plump "rude, coarse, clumsy" are from the Low German word and represent a different sense development.[plump etymology, plump origin, 英语词源]
- plump (v.1)




- c. 1300, "to fall or strike with a full impact," common Low German word, from or related to Middle Dutch and Dutch plompen, East Frisian plumpen, Middle Low German plumpen, probably more or less imitative of something hard striking something soft. Hence plump (n.) "a firm blow," in pugilism usually one to the stomach.
To plump; to strike, or shoot. I'll give you a plump in the bread basket, or the victualling office; I'll give you a blow in the stomach. [Grose, "Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue," London, 1785]
Or, even if any of them should suspect me, I know how to bring myself off. It is but pretending to be affronted, stripping directly, challenging him to fight, and before he can be on his guard, hitting him a plump in the bread-basket, that shall make him throw up his accounts; and I'll engage he will have but very little stomach to accuse me after. ["The Reverie: or A Flight to the Paradise of Fools," London, 1763]
- plump (v.2)




- "to become plump," 1530s, from plump (adj.). Meaning "to plump (something) up, to cause to swell" is from 1530s. Related: Plumped; plumping.
- plumpness (n.)




- 1540s, from plump (adj.) + -ness.
- plunder (n.)




- "goods taken by force; act of plundering," 1640s, from plunder (v.).
- plunder (v.)




- 1630s, from German plündern, from Middle High German plunderen "to plunder," originally "to take away household furniture," from plunder (n.) "household goods, clothes," also "lumber, baggage" (14c.; compare Modern German Plunder "lumber, trash"), which is related to Middle Dutch plunder "household goods;" Frisian and Dutch plunje "clothes." A word acquired by English via the Thirty Years War and applied in native use after the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642. Related: Plundered; plundering. Plunderbund was a U.S. colloquial word from 1914 referring to "a corrupt alliance of corporate and financial interests," with German Bund "alliance, league."
- plunge (v.)




- late 14c., "to put or thrust violently into," also intransitive, from Old French plongier "plunge, sink into; plunge into, dive in" (mid-12c., Modern French plonger), from Vulgar Latin *plumbicare "to heave the lead," from Latin plumbum "lead" (see plumb (n.)). Original notion perhaps is of a sounding lead or a fishing net weighted with lead. Related: Plunged; plunging. Plunging neckline attested from 1949.
- plunge (n.)




- c. 1400, "deep pool," from plunge (v.). From late 15c. as "a sudden pitch forward;" meaning "act of plunging" is from 1711. Figurative use in take the plunge "commit oneself" is from 1845, from earlier noun sense of "point of being in trouble or danger" (1530s).
- plunger (n.)




- 1610s, "one who plunges," agent noun from plunge (v.). As a mechanism, 1777.
- plunk (v.)




- 1805, "to pluck a stringed instrument;" 1808 in sense of "drop down abruptly;" 1888 as "to hit, wound, shoot." Probably of imitative origin in all cases. Related: Plunked; plunking.
- pluperfect (adj.)




- 1520s, shortened from Latin (tempus praeteritum) plus (quam) perfectum "(past tense) more (than) perfect." Translates Greek khronos hypersyntelikos. See plus and perfect.
- plural (adj.)




- late 14c., from Old French plurel "more than one" (12c., Modern French pluriel), from Latin pluralis "of or belonging to more than one," from plus (genitive pluris) "more" (see plus). The noun meaning "a plural number" is from late 14c.
- pluralism (n.)




- 1818, as a term in church administration, from plural + -ism. Attested from 1882 as a term in philosophy for a theory which recognizes more than one ultimate principle. In political science, attested from 1919 (in Harold J. Laski) in sense "theory which opposes monolithic state power." General sense of "toleration of diversity within a society or state" is from 1933. Related: Pluralist (1620s, in the church sense); pluralistic.
- plurality (n.)




- late 14c., "state of being plural," from Old French pluralite (14c.), from Late Latin pluralitatem (nominative pluralitas), from Latin pluralis (see plural). Meaning "fact of there being many, multitude" is from mid-15c. Church sense of "holding of two or more offices concurrently" is from mid-14c. Meaning "greater number, more than half" is from 1570s but is etymologically improper, perhaps modeled on majority. U.S. sense of "excess of votes over rival candidate(s)," especially when none has an absolute majority, is from 1828.
- pluri-




- word-forming element meaning "more than one, several, many," from Latin pluri-, from stem of plus (genitive pluris); see plus.
- pluripotential (adj.)




- 1925, from pluri- + potential. Related: Pluripotent; pluripotency.
- plus (n.)




- 1570s, the oral rendering of the arithmetical sign +, from Latin plus "more, in greater number, more often" (comparative of multus "much"), altered (by influence of minus) from *pleos, from PIE *pele- (1) "to fill" (see poly-).
As a preposition, between two numbers to indicate addition, from 1660s. [Barnhart writes that this sense "did not exist in Latin and probably originated in commercial language of the Middle Ages."] Placed after a whole number to indicate "and a little more," it is attested from 1902. As a conjunction, "and," it is American English colloquial, attested from 1968. As a noun meaning "an advantage" from 1791. Plus fours (1921) were four inches longer in the leg than standard knickerbockers, to produce an overhang, originally a style associated with golfers. The plus sign itself has been well-known since at least late 15c. and is perhaps an abbreviation of Latin et (see et cetera). - plus ca change




- 1903, French, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose (1849), literally "the more it changes, the more it stays the same."
- plush (adj.)




- "swank, luxurious," 1927, from plush (n.). Plushy in this sense is recorded from 1923. Related: Plushly; plushness.
- plush (n.)




- "soft fabric," 1590s, from Middle French pluche "shag, plush," contraction of peluche "hairy fabric," from Old French peluchier "to pull, to tug, to pluck" (the final process in weaving plush), from Vulgar Latin *piluccare "remove hair" (see pluck (v.)). Related: Plushy; plushness.