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together [together 词源字典]: together: [OE] The etymological notion underlying together is of ‘gathering’ things into one group. It was formed from the preposition to and the element *gad- denoting ‘association, company’, which also lies behind gather.
=> gather[together etymology, together origin, 英语词源]
toil: toil: English has two words toil, one of them now used only in the plural. Toil ‘work’ comes via Anglo-Norman toiler ‘stir, agitate, wrangle’ from Latin tudiculāre ‘stir around’. This was derived from tudicula ‘mill for crushing olives’, a diminutive form of tudes ‘hammer’, which went back to the prehistoric base *tud- ‘hit’, source also of Latin tundere ‘beat, crush’, which gave English abstruse, protrude, etc. Toils ‘entanglements’ represents a plural use of the now archaic toil ‘net’ [16].

This denoted etymologically ‘something woven’: it came via Old French toile from Latin tēla, a contraction of an earlier *texlā, which was derived from the base *tex- ‘weave’ (source of English text, textile, etc). Toilet [16] was borrowed from French toilette, a diminutive form of toile. It originally meant ‘cloth cover’, but it gradually evolved via ‘cloth cover for a dressing table’ to ‘the act of dressing and grooming oneself’.

The sense ‘lavatory’ emerged in mid 19th-century America, from the now obsolete ‘dressing room (with lavatory attached)’, inspired no doubt by the same delicacy that produced American English bathroom ‘lavatory’. Another member of the same word-family is tiller [15], which came via Anglo-Norman telier ‘weaver’s beam’ from medieval Latin tēlārium, a derivative of tēla.
=> abstruse, protrude; technical, text, textile, texture, tiller, tissue, toilet
token: token: [OE] A token is etymologically something that ‘shows’ you something. It comes from a prehistoric Germanic *taiknam, which also produced German zeichen ‘sign’. This in turn was formed from a base *taik- ‘show’, which also produced English teach.
=> teach
tolerate: tolerate: [16] To tolerate something is etymologically to ‘bear’ it. The word comes from the past participle of Latin tolerāre ‘bear, tolerate’. This in turn was formed from a base *tol- ‘lift, carry’, which also underlies English extol [15].
=> extol
toll: toll: Toll ‘charge, payment’ [OE] and toll ‘ring a bell’ [15] are distinct words. The former was borrowed into Old English from medieval Latin tolōneum ‘place where tolls are collected’, an alteration of late Latin telōneum. This in turn was borrowed from Greek telónion, a derivative of télos ‘tax’. The ancestry of toll ‘ring a bell’ is more conjectural. It may be the same word as the long-obsolete toll ‘pull’, which went back to an Old English *tollian.
tombola: tombola: see tumble
tomboy: tomboy: [16] Tomboy originally denoted a ‘rude or boisterous boy’, but before the end of the 16th century it was being applied to a ‘girl who behaves like a boisterous boy’. Tom (the familiar form of Thomas) is presumably being used to denote ‘maleness’ (here ‘typical male aggressiveness’).
tome: tome: [16] Tome comes via French tome and Latin tomus from Greek tómos. This originally meant ‘slice, piece’ (it went back to the prehistoric Indo-European base *tom-, *tem- ‘cut’, which is also responsible for English temple, tonsorial [19], tonsure [14], and the surgical suffix -tomy ‘cutting’), but it was extended metaphorically to a ‘cut roll of paper’ and eventually to a ‘volume, book’.
=> temple, tonsorial, tonsure
tommy gun: tommy gun: [20] The name of the tommy gun, a lightweight hand-held machine gun favoured by Chicago gangsters, commemorates its originator: as its full designation, the Thompson submachine gun, reveals, a man called Thompson. He was John T. Thompson (1860– 1940), a general in the US Army who had links with the Auto-Ordnance Corporation of New York City. The idea for the gun was originally his, and although it was actually designed by O.V. Payne, it was Thompson’s name that it carried when it came on the market in 1919. The substitution with the colloquial Tommy is first recorded in 1929.
tomorrow: tomorrow: [OE] Tomorrow was formed (following the model of today) from the preposition to (here in the sense ‘at, on’) and morgenne, the dative form of Old English morgen ‘morning’, which has evolved into modern English morn and morrow.
=> morning
ton: ton: [14] Ton originated as a variant of tun ‘barrel’ [OE]. At first it was used for a unit of capacity, equal to the space occupied by a tun of wine, but by the end of the 15th century we find it being applied to a unit of weight. Tun itself was acquired from medieval Latin tunna, which was probably of Gaulish origin. Another of its descendants was Old French tonne, whose diminutive tonel was borrowed into English as tunnel [15]. This was originally used for a ‘tubular net for catching birds’, and then for a ‘chimney flue’ or ‘funnel’. It was not applied to an ‘underground passage’ until as recently as the late 18th century.
=> tun, tunnel
tone: tone: [14] English acquired tone via Old French ton and Latin tonus from Greek tónos ‘stretching, tension’, hence ‘sound’. This in turn went back to the Indo-European base *ton-, *ten- ‘stretch’, which also produced English tend, tense, thin, etc. The semantic transference from ‘tension’ to ‘sound’ may have arisen from the notion of tightening the strings of a musical instrument, but it could also be due to association with another Indo-European base *ton-, meaning ‘resound’ (source of English thunder). The derivative tonic [17] comes ultimately from Greek tonikós. Tune is an unexplained variant of tone.
=> tend, tense, tenuous, thin, tune
tongs: tongs: [OE] The etymological notion underlying the word tongs is of ‘biting’. It comes from a prehistoric Germanic *tanguz (source also of German zange, Dutch and Danish tang, and Swedish tång), which went back ultimately to the Indo-European base *dank- ‘bite’ (ancestor of Greek dáknein ‘bite’). (Tong ‘Chinese secret society’ [19], incidentally, comes from Cantonese tong ‘assembly hall’.)
tongue: tongue: [OE] Tongue is a general Germanic word, with relatives in German zunge, Dutch tong, Swedish tonga, and Danish tonge. These all evolved from a prehistoric Germanic *tunggōn, whose ultimate ancestor was Indo- European *dnghwā-. This also produced Latin lingua ‘tongue, language’ (source of English language, linguistic, etc), Welsh tafod ‘tongue’, Russian jazyk ‘tongue’, etc.
=> language, linguistic
tonsorial: tonsorial: see tome
tonsure: tonsure: see tome
too: too: [16] Too is historically the same word as to, but the two were not differentiated orthographically until the 16th century. The sense ‘also’ comes from the notion of addition implicit in putting something ‘to’ something else; and ‘addition’ led on to ‘excess’.
=> to
tool: tool: [OE] A tool is etymologically an implement used to ‘make’ something. It came from a prehistoric Germanic *tōwlam. This was derived from a base *tōw-, *taw-, which produced a variety of other words with the general sense ‘make, prepare, do’ (most of them have now died out, but survivors include Dutch touwen and English taw ‘make leather’).
=> taw, tow
tooth: tooth: [OE] Etymologically, a tooth is an ‘eater’. Its ultimate source is the prehistoric Indo- European base *ed- ‘eat’, which also lies behind English eat and edible. From this was formed the noun *dont-, *dent- ‘tooth’, whose descendants include Latin dēns ‘tooth’ (source of English dentist, indent, trident [16], etc), Greek odón ‘tooth’, (source of English odontology [19]), Welsh dant ‘tooth’, and prehistoric Germanic *tanthuz. This evolved into German zahn, Dutch, Swedish, and Danish tand, and English tooth. A variant of *tanthuz may lie behind English tusk.
=> dentist, eat, edible, indent, odontology, trident, tusk
top: top: English apparently has two distinct words top. The one meaning ‘uppermost part’ [OE] came from a prehistoric Germanic *toppaz, whose original meaning seems to have been ‘tuft of hair on top of the head, topknot’: this sense survived into English, although it has now died out, and amongst the other descendants of *toppaz are German zopf ‘plait’.

The Germanic word was borrowed into Old French as top or toup ‘tuft of hair’, which is the ultimate source of English toupee [18]. And a variant of the base from which it was formed may lie behind English tip. Topple [16] is a derivative of top. It is generally assumed that top ‘spinning toy’ [11] is a different word, but it is not known where it came from.
=> tip, topple, toupée