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tow [tow 词源字典]: tow: English has two words tow. The older, ‘pull’ [OE], came from a prehistoric Germanic *togōjan (source also of Norwegian toga ‘pull’). This was derived from the base *tog-, variants of which gave English team, tug, etc, and it goes back ultimately to the same Indo-European base as produced Latin dūcere ‘pull, lead’ (source of English conduct, duke, etc). Tow ‘flax or hemp fibre’ [14] was borrowed from Middle Low German touw.

This probably went back to the prehistoric Germanic base *tōw-, *taw- ‘make, prepare’ (source also of English tool), in the specialized sense ‘make yarn from wool, spin’.
=> conduct, duct, duke, educate, team, teem, tie, tug; tool[tow etymology, tow origin, 英语词源]
towards: towards: [OE] The suffix -ward or -wards, which underlies towards, forward, and a host of other English adverbs and adjectives, comes from a prehistoric Germanic *-warth. This in turn goes back to the Indo-European base *wert- ‘turn’ (source also of English convert, version, etc) – so etymologically, towards denotes ‘turning to’ something.
=> convert, version
towel: towel: [13] A towel is etymologically something for ‘washing’ with. The word comes from Old French toaille, which was a borrowing from prehistoric Germanic *thwakhliō. This was derived from the verb *thwakhan ‘wash’, whose modern descendants include Swedish tvätta and Danish tvætte ‘wash’. Another relative is Swedish tvål ‘soap’.
tower: tower: [12] The ultimate source of tower is Greek túrris, a word probably from a pre-Indo- European language of the Mediterranean region. It passed into English via Latin turris and Old French tur, tor. Turret [14] comes from the Old French diminutive turet.
=> turret
town: town: [OE] The ancestral meaning of town is ‘enclosed place’ – amongst its relatives are German zaun ‘hedge, fence’ and Old Irish dūn ‘fort, camp, fortified place’. Its Old English forerunner tūn was used for an ‘enclosure’ or ‘yard’, and also for a ‘building or set of buildings within an enclosure’, hence a ‘farm’. This in due course evolved to a ‘cluster of dwellings’, and by the 12th century the modern English sense of the word was in place (the standard Old English term for ‘town’ was burg, ancestor of modern English borough).

The -ton ending of English place-names goes back in many cases to a time when the word meant ‘farmstead’.
toxic: toxic: [17] The etymological meaning underlying toxic is of ‘poisoned arrows’. Its ultimate source is Greek tóxon ‘bow’, which also gave English toxophily ‘archery’ [19]. From it was derived toxikós ‘of bows and arrows’, which formed the basis of a noun toxikón ‘poison for putting on arrows’. Latin took this over as toxicum ‘poison’, and the medieval Latin derivative toxicus gave English toxic.
=> toxophily
toy: toy: [14] Nothing is known for certain about the origins of toy. It originally meant ‘amorous dalliance’ (‘So said he, and forbore not glance or toy, of amorous intent, well understood of Eve’, Milton, Paradise Lost 1667), traces of which survive in the verbal sense ‘amuse oneself idly’. ‘Plaything’ first appeared towards the end of the 16th century.
trace: trace: English has two distinct words trace, but they come from the same ultimate ancestor. This was tractus (source also of English tract, tractor, treat, etc), the past participle of Latin trahere ‘pull’. This passed into Old French as trait ‘pulling, draught’, hence ‘harness-strap’, from which English gets trait [16]. Its plural trais was borrowed by English as trace ‘harness-strap’ [14]. Tractus also formed the basis of a Vulgar Latin verb *tractiāre ‘drag’, which evolved into Old French tracier ‘make one’s way’, source of the English verb trace [14].

A noun trace was also derived from tracier, and this too was acquired by English as trace [13]. At first it denoted a ‘path’ or ‘track’; the modern sense ‘visible sign’ did not develop until the 17th century.
=> attract, contract, tract, tractor, trait, treat
track: track: [15] Track was borrowed from Old French trac ‘trail, set of footprints, etc’. This too appears to have been a loanword, from Middle Dutch trek ‘pulling’ (ultimate source of English trek [19], via Afrikaans), which was derived from the verb trekken ‘pull’. The sense ‘path’ did not emerge until as recently as the 19th century.
=> trek
tracklements: tracklements: see dredge
tractor: tractor: [17] Tractor is one of a large family of English words that come from tractus, the past participle of Latin trahere ‘pull’ (others include abstract [14], attract, contract, detract [15], distract [14], extract [15], retract, subtract, trace, tract [14], tractable [16], traction [17], trait, treat, treatise, and treaty). Tractor itself was originally used in English for a device, invented by the 18th-century American doctor Elisha Perkins, for ‘pulling’ across the surface of the skin, which was supposed to relieve rheumatic pains.

It was not applied to a ‘vehicle for pulling loads’ until the end of the 19th century. From Latin trahere itself come English retreat and train; and drag may go back to the same ultimate source.
=> abstract, attract, contract, detract, distract, extract, retract, retreat, subtract, trace, tract, train, trait, treat, treaty
trade: trade: [14] Trade originally meant ‘way, track’. Not until the 16th century did the modern sense ‘buying and selling’ emerge, via ‘regular path followed by someone’ and ‘business pursued by someone’. Etymologically, it amounts to a ‘trodden’ path; for it was borrowed from Middle Low German trade ‘track’, which goes back ultimately to the prehistoric Germanic base *trad-, *tred-, source also of English tread and trot.
=> tread, trot
traffic: traffic: [16] The ultimate origins of traffic are not known. It was acquired from French traffique, which in turn was borrowed from Old Italian traffico, a derivative of the verb trafficare ‘trade’, but there the trail goes cold. It is generally assumed that the word’s first element goes back to the Latin prefix trāns- ‘across’.
tragedy: tragedy: [14] Etymologically, a tragedy is probably a ‘goat-song’. The word comes via Old French tragedie and Latin tragoedia from Greek tragōidíā, a compound formed from trágos ‘goat’ and ōidé ‘song’ (source of English ode, parody, rhapsody, etc). It is thought that the underlying reference may be to a sort of ancient Greek drama in which the chorus were dressed as satyrs, goatlike woodland deities.
=> melody, ode, parody, prosody, rhapsody
trail: trail: see trawl
train: train: [14] A train is etymologically something that is ‘pulled’ along. The word was borrowed from Old French train, a derivative of the verb trahiner ‘drag’. And this in turn went back to Vulgar Latin *tragināre, a derivative of Latin *tragere, a variant of trahere ‘pull’. It was first used in English for ‘delay’, from the notion of being ‘pulled’ back, and ‘part of a garment that trails behind’ dates from the 15th century.

When steam locomotives pulling carriages were introduced in the 1820s, the combined vehicle was called a train of carriages; the simple term train is first recorded in 1835. The use of the verb train for ‘instruct, school’, which dates from the 16th century, evolved from an earlier ‘direct the course of growth of a plant’, which in turn went back to the original notion of ‘pulling’.
=> tractor
trait: trait: see trace
traitor: traitor: [13] Traitor and tradition [14] come from the same ultimate source: Latin trādere. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix trāns- ‘across’ and dare ‘give’ (source of English data, date, etc). It originally meant ‘hand over, deliver’, and it is this sense that (via the derivative trāditiō) has given English tradition – etymologically something ‘handed over’ to succeeding generations. But it was also used metaphorically for ‘betray’, and this meaning has passed through into English in betray, traitor, and treason.
=> betray, tradition, traitor, treason
tram: tram: [16] Tram was borrowed from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch trame ‘balk of timber, beam’, a word of unknown origin. It was originally used in English for the ‘shafts’ of a cart, and then for the cart itself. The track on which such carts ran in mines and similar places came to be known as tramlines, and this term was adopted in the 19th century for a track used for passenger road vehicles. These in turn were called tramcars, or trams for short.
trance: trance: see transient