英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

settle [settle 词源字典]: settle: [OE] Although now far less common, the noun settle ‘bench’ is older than the verb, and indeed was the source of it. It evolved (along with German sessel) from a prehistoric Germanic *setlaz, which was derived from the same base that produced English sit. (Saddle comes from a variant of the same base.) In Old English times it was setl, and still meant simply ‘seat’. This formed the basis of a verb setlan ‘put in a position of repose’, ancestor of modern English settle.
=> saddle, sit[settle etymology, settle origin, 英语词源]
seven: seven: [OE] The Indo-European term for ‘seven’ was *septm. This evolved into Latin septem (source of English September), Greek heptá (source of English heptathlon [20]), and Germanic *sebun. And *sebun in turn has diversified into German sieben, Dutch zeven, Swedish sju, Danish syv, and English seven.
=> heptathlon, september
several: several: [15] Etymologically, several means ‘separate’. It comes via Anglo-Norman several from medieval Latin sēparālis, a derivative of Latin sēpar ‘separate’. This in turn was formed from sēparāre ‘separate’ (source of English separate), whose Vulgar Latin descendant *sēperāre passed into English via Anglo- Norman severer as sever [14]. Several’s original sense ‘separate, individual’ survives in legal terminology, but it has been superseded in the general language by ‘many’, which emerged in the 16th and 17th centuries via ‘different, various’.
=> prepare, separate, sever
severe: severe: [16] Severe is a descendant, via Old French severe, of Latin sevērus, a word of uncertain origin. English asseveration ‘firm declaration’ [16] comes from its Latin derivative asseverāre ‘assert earnestly’.
=> asseveration
sew: sew: [OE] Sew comes, with its relatives Swedish sy and Danish sye, from a prehistoric Germanic *siwjan. This was descended from an Indo- European base *siw-, *sju- that also produced Latin suere ‘sew’ (source of English suture [16]), Greek humén ‘membrane’ (source of English hymen [17]), and English seam. It is no relation to sow.
=> hymen, seam, suture
sewer: sewer: [15] Etymologically, sewer denotes the ‘removal of water’. The word comes via Anglo- Norman sever from Vulgar Latin *exaquāria, a derivative of *exaquāre ‘remove water, drain’. This was a compound verb formed from Latin ex- ‘out’ and aqua ‘water’. The derivatives sewage [19] and sewerage [19] are both native English formations.
=> aquatic
sex: sex: [14] Sex comes via Old French sexe from Latin sexus. This has traditionally been explained as a relative of Latin secāre ‘cut’ (source of English section, sector, etc), as if it denoted etymologically that ‘section’ of the population which is male or female, but that view is no longer generally held. The use of sex for ‘sexual intercourse’ (first recorded in the works of D H Lawrence) and the derivative sexy are both 20th-century developments.
sextant: sextant: [17] A sextant is etymologically an instrument based on a ‘sixth’ of a circle. Sextants measure off the angle between the horizon and a celestial body on a graduated scale that is marked on an arc equal to one sixth of a circle. They were first named at the beginning of the 17th century by the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, who used the term sextāns ‘sixth part’, a derivative of Latin sextus ‘sixth’ (to which English six is closely related). The anglicized version sextant is first recorded in 1628.
=> six
sexton: sexton: [14] Sexton and sacristan [14] are doublets: that is to say, they started out as the same word, but have diverged over the centuries. Both come from medieval Latin sacristānus, a derivative of sacrista ‘person in charge of holy vessels’ (which in turn was based on Latin sacer ‘holy’, source of English sacred), but whereas sacristan was borrowed directly from Latin, sexton came via the roundabout route of Anglo- Norman segerstaine.
=> sacred, sacristan, saint
shabby: shabby: [17] Etymologically, shabby means ‘scabby’. It comes from a now obsolete shab, which denoted ‘scab’, and also metaphorically ‘disreputable fellow’. It was the native equivalent to Old Norse *skabbr ‘scab’, from which English gets scab.
=> scab
shaddock: shaddock: [17] The shaddock is a large citrus fruit, similar to a grapefruit. Its name commemorates one Captain Shaddock, the commander of an East India Company ship who at some point in the late 17th century stopped off at Jamaica en route from the East Indies to England and left some seeds of the shaddock tree there.
shade: shade: [OE] Shade and shadow [12] are ultimately the same word. Both originated in Old English sceadu. Shade is the direct descendant of this, whereas shadow comes from its inflected form sceaduwe. Sceadu itself went back via prehistoric Germanic *skathwō (source also of German schatten and Dutch schaduw) to Indo- European *skotwá (whence also Greek skótos ‘darkness’ and Welsh cysgod ‘shade’). Shed ‘hut’ probably originated as a variant of shade.
=> shadow, shed
shaft: shaft: [OE] Shaft is a general Germanic word, shared by German and Dutch schaft and Swedish and Danish skaft. These point back to a common prehistoric ancestor *skaftaz, which may have been descended from the Indo-European base *scap- ‘support’ (source of English sceptre [13]).
=> sceptre
shag: shag: [OE] Shag originally meant ‘rough untidy hair’, a sense now more familiar in its derivative shaggy [16]. Related Old Norse forms such as skegg ‘beard’, skagi ‘promontory’, and skaga ‘project’ suggest that its underlying meaning is ‘something that sticks out’. The bird-name shag, which denotes a relative of the cormorant and was first recorded in the 16th century, may be an allusion to the bird’s shaggy crest. The origins of the verb shag ‘copulate with’, which dates from the late 18th century, are not known, although it may be distantly related to shake.
shagreen: shagreen: see chagrin
shake: shake: [OE] Shake is a general Germanic verb, although today its only surviving relatives are Swedish skaka and Norwegian skage. It comes from a prehistoric Germanic *skakan, which goes back to the Indo-European base *skeg-, *skek- (source also of Sanskrit khajati ‘agitate, churn’ and Welsh ysgogi ‘move’).
shale: shale: see scale
shall: shall: [OE] The etymological meaning of shall is ‘owe’. It goes back to a prehistoric Germanic base *skal-, *skul- which also produced German sollen ‘ought to’ and schuld ‘debt’. Its use in English as an auxiliary verb denoting future time evolved via the intermediate senses ‘ought to, must’ and ‘be to’. The notion of obligation survives in should, which originated as its past tense.
=> should
shallot: shallot: [17] The shallot is etymologically the onion from ‘Ascalon’, an ancient port in southern Palestine. The Romans called it Ascalōnia caepa ‘Ascalonian onion’, or ascalōnia for short. In Vulgar Latin this became *escalonia, which passed into Old French as escaloigne (source of English scallion [14], still used for ‘spring onion’ in America and elsewhere). The variant form eschalotte developed. English took this over as eschalot (‘Eschalots are now from France become an English plant’, John Mortimer, Whole Art of Husbandry 1707), and soon lopped off the first syllable to produce shallot.
=> scallion
sham: sham: see shame