英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

quiche (n.)[quiche 词源字典]: 1949, from French quiche (1810), from Alsatian German Küche, diminutive of German Kuchen "cake" (see cake (n.)). Became fashionable 1970s; became contemptible 1980s.[quiche etymology, quiche origin, 英语词源]
quick (adj.): Old English cwic "living, alive, animate," and figuratively, of mental qualities, "rapid, ready," from Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz (cognates: Old Saxon and Old Frisian quik, Old Norse kvikr "living, alive," Dutch kwik "lively, bright, sprightly," Old High German quec "lively," German keck "bold"), from PIE root *gweie- (1) "to live" (see bio-). Sense of "lively, swift" developed by late 12c., on notion of "full of life."
NE swift or the now more common fast may apply to rapid motion of any duration, while in quick (in accordance with its original sense of 'live, lively') there is a notion of 'sudden' or 'soon over.' We speak of a fast horse or runner in a race, a quick starter but not a quick horse. A somewhat similar feeling may distinguish NHG schnell and rasch or it may be more a matter of local preference. [Buck]
Of persons, "mentally active," from late 15c. Also in Middle English used of soft soils, gravel pits, etc. where the ground is shifting and yielding (mid-14c., compare quicksand). As an adverb from c. 1300. To be quick about something is from 1937. Quick buck is from 1946, American English. Quick-change artist (1886) originally was an actor expert in playing different roles in the same performance of a show. Quick-witted is from 1520s.
quick (n.): "living persons," Old English cwic, from quick (adj.); frequently paired with the dead, as in Old English cwicum & deadum. The quick "tender part of the flesh" (under a nail, etc.) is from 1520s, as is the figurative use of it.
quick-march (n.): 1752, from quick (adj.) + march (n.1).
quick-step (n.): 1802, from quick (adj.) + step (n.). From 1906 as a verb. Related: quick-stepped; quick-stepping.
quicken (v.): c. 1300, "come to life; give life to," from quick (adj.) + -en (1). Meaning "become faster" is from 1805. Related: Quickened; quickening. An earlier verb was simply quick (c. 1200), from Old English gecwician.
quickie (n.): "sex act done hastily," 1940, from quick (adj.) + -ie. As "alcoholic drink meant to be taken hurriedly," from 1941 (quick one in this sense from 1928). From 1926 as "motion picture made in a short time."
quicklime (n.): late 14c., from quick (adj.) "living" + lime (n.1). A loan-translation of Latin calx viva. So called perhaps for being unquenched, or for the vigorousness of its qualities; compare Old English cwicfyr "sulfur."
quickly (adv.): late Old English cwiculice "vigorously, keenly;" see quick (adj.) + -ly (2). Meaning "rapidly, in a short space of time" is from c. 1200.
quickness (n.): c. 1200, "state of being alive," from quick (adj.) + -ness. Early 15c. as "alacrity;" mid-15c. as "readiness of perception."
quicksand (n.): c. 1300, from Middle English quyk "living" (see quick (adj.)) + sond "sand" (see sand (n.)). Old English had cwecesund, but this might have meant "lively strait of water."
quickset (adj.): "formed of living plants," 1530s, from quick (adj.) + set (v.).
quicksilver (n.): Old English cwicseolfor, literally "living silver," translating Latin argentum vivum (source also of Italian argento vivo), literally "living silver;" so called from its liquid mobility. See quick (adj.) + silver (n.). Similar formation in Dutch kwikzilver, Old High German quecsilbar, German quecksilber, French vif-argent, Italian argenta viva.
quid (n.1): "bite-sized piece" (of tobacco, etc.), 1727, dialectal variant of Middle English cudde, from Old English cudu, cwidu (see cud).
quid (n.2): "one pound sterling," 1680s, British slang, possibly from quid "that which is, essence," (c. 1600, see quiddity), as used in quid pro quo (q.v.), or directly from Latin quid "what, something, anything." Compare French quibus, noted in Barrêre's dictionary of French argot (1889) for "money, cash," said to be short for quibus fiunt omnia.
quid pro quo: 1560s, from Latin, literally "something for something, one thing for another," from nominative and ablative neuter singulars of relative pronoun qui "who" (see who) + pro "for" (see pro-) + quo, ablative of quid.
quiddity (n.): "a trifling nicety in argument, a quibble," 1530s, from Medieval Latin quidditas "the essence of things," in Scholastic philosophy, "that which distinguishes a thing from other things," literally "whatness," from Latin quid "what," neuter of indefinite pronoun quis "somebody, someone or other" (see who). Sense developed from scholastic disputes over the nature of things. Original classical meaning "real essence or nature of a thing" is attested in English from late 14c.
quidnunc (n.): "gossip-monger," 1709, formed from Latin quid "what?" (neuter of interrogative pronoun quis "who?;" see who) and nunc "now" (see now), to describe someone forever asking "What's the news?"
quiesce (v.): 1821, from Latin quiescere (see quiescent).
quiescence (n.): 1630s, from Latin quiescentia, from quiescere (see quiescent).