英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

populous (adj.)[populous 词源字典]: early 15c., from post-classical Latin populosus "full of people, populous," from populus "people" (see people (n.)). Related: Populousness.[populous etymology, populous origin, 英语词源]
porcelain (n.): 1530s, from Middle French porcelaine and directly from Italian porcellana "porcelain" (13c.), literally "cowrie shell," the chinaware so called from resemblance of its lustrous transparency to the shiny surface of the shells. The shell's name in Italian is from porcella "young sow," fem. of Latin porcellus "young pig," diminutive of porculus "piglet," diminutive of porcus "pig" (see pork (n.)). According to an old theory, the connection of the shell and the pig is a perceived resemblance of the shell opening to the exposed outer genitalia of pigs.
porcelain is china & china is p.; there is no recondite difference between the two things, which indeed are not two, but one; & the difference between the two words is merely that china is the homely term, while porcelain is exotic & literary. [Fowler]
porch (n.): c. 1300, "covered entrance," from Old French porche "porch, vestibule," from Latin porticus "covered gallery, covered walk between columns, arcade, portico, porch," from porta "gate, entrance, door" (see port (n.2)). The Latin word was borrowed directly into Old English as portic.
porcine (adj.): early 15c., "pertaining to swine; swinish," from Old French porcin or directly from Latin porcinus "of a hog," from porcus "hog, pig" (see pork (n.)).
porcupine (n.): c. 1400, porke despyne, from Old French porc-espin (early 13c., Modern French porc-épic), literally "spiny pig," from Latin porcus "hog" + spina "thorn, spine" (see spine). The word had many forms in Middle English and early Modern English, including portepyn, porkpen, porkenpick, porpoynt, and Shakespeare's porpentine (in "Hamlet").
pore (v.): "gaze intently," early 13c., of unknown origin, with no obvious corresponding word in Old French. Perhaps from Old English *purian, suggested by spyrian "to investigate, examine," and spor "a trace, vestige." Related: Pored; poring.
pore (n.): "minute opening," late 14c., from Old French pore (14c.) and directly from Latin porus "a pore," from Greek poros "a pore," literally "passage, way," from PIE *por- "going, passage," from root *per- "to lead, pass over" (see port (n.1)).
porgy (n.): name given to various sea fishes, 1725, probably from pargo "sea bream" (1550s), from Spanish or Portuguese pargo, from Latin phagrum (nom. phager), from Greek phagros "sea bream."
Porifera (n.): 1843, Modern Latin, literally "bearing pores," neuter plural of porifer, from Latin porus "pore, opening" (see pore (n.)) + -fer "bearing" (see infer). Related: Poriferal; poriferous.
pork (n.): c. 1300 (early 13c. in surname Porkuiller), "flesh of a pig as food," from Old French porc "pig, swine, boar," and directly from Latin porcus "pig, tame swine," from PIE *porko- "young swine" (cognates: Umbrian purka; Old Church Slavonic prase "young pig;" Lithuanian parsas "pig;" and Old English fearh, Middle Dutch varken, both from Proto-Germanic *farhaz).

Pork barrel in the literal sense is from 1801, American English; meaning "state's financial resources (available for distribution)" is attested from 1907 (in full, national pork barrel); it was noted as an expression of U.S. President President William Howard Taft:
"Now there is a proposition that we issue $500,000,000 or $1,000,000,000 of bonds for a waterway, and then that we just apportion part to the Mississippi and part to the Atlantic, a part to the Missouri and a part to the Ohio. I am opposed to it. I am opposed to it because it not only smells of the pork barrel, but it will be the pork barrel itself. Let every project stand on its bottom." ["The Outlook," Nov. 6, 1909, quoting Taft]
The magazine article that includes the quote opens with:
We doubt whether any one knows how or when, or from what application of what story, the phrase "the National pork barrel" has come into use. If not a very elegant simile, it is at least an expressive one, and suggests a graphic picture of Congressmen eager for local advantage going, one after another, to the National pork barrel to take away their slices for home consumption.
Pork in this sense is attested from 1862 (compare figurative use of bacon). Pork chop is attested from 1858. Pork pie is from 1732; pork-pie hat (1855) originally described a woman's style popular c. 1855-65, so called for its shape.
porker (n.): 1650s, "young hog fattened for food," from pork (n.). Meaning "fat person" is from 1892.
porky (adj.): 1852, from pork (n.) + -y (2). Related: Porkiness.
porn (n.): 1962, abbreviation of pornography. Porno (adj.) is attested from 1952.
porno (adj.): 1952 (Norman Mailer), short for pornographic.
pornographer (n.): 1850, from pornography + -er (1).
pornographic (adj.): 1853, from pornography + -ic.
pornography (n.): 1843, "ancient obscene painting, especially in temples of Bacchus," from French pornographie, from Greek pornographos "(one) depicting prostitutes," from porne "prostitute," originally "bought, purchased" (with an original notion, probably of "female slave sold for prostitution"), related to pernanai "to sell," from PIE root *per- (5) "to traffic in, to sell" (see price (n.)) + graphein "to write" (see -graphy). A brothel in ancient Greek was a porneion.
Pornography, or obscene painting, which in the time of the Romans was practiced with the grossest license, prevailed especially at no particular period in Greece, but was apparently tolerated to a considerable extent at all times. Parrhasius, Aristides, Pausanias, Nicophanes, Chaerephanes, Arellius, and a few other [pornographoi] are mentioned as having made themselves notorious for this species of license. [Charles Anthon, "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities," New York, 1843]
In reference to modern works by 1859 (originally French novels), later as a charge against native literature; sense of "obscene pictures" in modern times is from 1906. Also sometimes used late 19c. for "description of prostitutes" as a matter of public hygiene. The "Medical Archives" in 1873 proposed porniatria for "the lengthy and really meaningless expression 'social evil hospital' ...."
I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description [hard-core pornography]; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that. [U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, concurring opinion, "Jacobellis v. Ohio," 1964]
In ancient contexts, often paired with rhypography, "genre painting of low, sordid, or unsuitable subjects." Pornocracy (1860) is "the dominating influence of harlots," used specifically of the government of Rome during the first half of the 10th century by Theodora and her daughters. Pornotopia (1966) was coined to describe the ideal erotic-world of pornographic movies.
porosity (n.): late 14c., from Old French porosité, from Medieval Latin porositas, from porus (see pore (n.)).
porous (adj.): late 14c., "full of pores," from Old French poros (14c., Modern French poreux), from Medieval Latin porosus; or directly from Latin porus "an opening" (see pore (n.)). Figurative use from 1640s.
porphyria (n.): metabolic disorder, 1923, from porphyrin (1910), the name of the type of chemical which, in imbalance, causes it, from German porphyrin, chemical name, from Greek porphyros "purple" (see purple) + -in (2). Some of the compounds are purple.