quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- burk[burk 词源字典]
- burk: [20] Although burk is now the commoner spelling, presumably under the influence of the proper name Burk, the original form of the word was berk. It is short for Berkeley (or perhaps Berkshire) hunt, rhyming slang for cunt. (The Berkeley hunt chases foxes in Gloucestershire.) The pronunciation of the word represents, of course, the dialectal or nonstandard version of Berkeley/Berkshire, rather than the /ba:k/ which became standard in southern British English from the 15th century.
[burk etymology, burk origin, 英语词源] - affair (n.)
- c. 1300, "what one has to do," from Anglo-French afere, Old French afaire "business, event; rank, estate" (12c., Modern French affaire), from the infinitive phrase à faire "to do," from Latin ad "to" (see ad-) + facere "to do, make" (see factitious).
A Northern word originally, brought into general use and given a French spelling by Caxton (15c.). General sense of "vague proceedings" (in romance, war, etc.) first attested 1702. Meaning "an affair of the heart; a passionate episode" is from French affaire de coeur (itself attested in English from 1809); to have an affair with someone in this sense is by 1726, earlier have an affair of love:
'Tis manifeſtly contrary to the Law of Nature, that one Woman ſhould cohabit or have an Affair of Love with more than one Man at the ſame time. ["Pufendorf's Law of Nature and Nations," transl. J. Spavan, London, 1716]
Thus, in our dialect, a vicious man is a man of pleasure, a sharper is one that plays the whole game, a lady is said to have an affair, a gentleman to be a gallant, a rogue in business to be one that knows the world. By this means, we have no such things as sots, debauchees, whores, rogues, or the like, in the beau monde, who may enjoy their vices without incurring disagreeable appellations. [George Berkeley, "Alciphron or the Minute Philosopher," 1732]
- berk (n.)
- "fool," 1936, abbreviation of Berkshire Hunt (or Berkeley Hunt), rhyming slang for cunt but typically applied only to contemptible persons, not to the body part.
This is not an objective, anatomical term, neither does it imply coitus. It connects with that extension of meaning of the unprintable, a fool, or a person whom one does not like. ["Dictionary of Rhyming Slang," 1960]
- Limburger (n.)
- 1870, short for Limburger cheese (1817), from Limburg, province in northeast Belgium, where the cheese is made.
Some frauds a few years ago started a Limburger cheese factory down in Keyport, New Jersey, but the imposition was soon exposed. A man could come within 300 yards of the spurious article without being knocked down, and as the smell never had any effect on the town clock the business was soon discontinued. [John E. Boyd, "The Berkeley Heroine and Others Stories"]
The place name is from Germanic *lindo "lime tree" + *burg "fortification." - plutonium (n.)
- transuranic element, 1942, from Pluto, the planet, + element ending -ium. Discovered at University of California, Berkeley, in 1941, the element named on suggestion of Seaborg and Wahl because it follows neptunium in the periodic table as Pluto follows Neptune in the Solar System. The name plutonium earlier had been proposed for barium and was sometimes used in this sense early 19c.
- technocracy (n.)
- 1919, coined by W.H. Smyth as a name for a new system of government by technical experts, from techno- + -cracy.
William Henry Smyth, a distinguished engineer of Berkeley, California, wrote at the close of the war a series of thoughtful papers for the New York magazine "Industrial Management", on the subject of "Technocracy". His thesis was the need of a Supreme National Council of Scientists to advise us how best to live, and how most efficiently to realize our individual aspirations and our national purpose. ["The Bookman," March 1922]
- berkelium
- "The chemical element of atomic number 97, a radioactive metal of the actinide series. Berkelium does not occur naturally and was first made by bombarding americium with helium ions", 1949: from Berkeley (where it was first made) + -ium.
- olfactible
- "Capable of being smelled", Early 18th cent.; earliest use found in George Berkeley (1685–1753), Church of Ireland bishop of Cloyne and philosopher. From classical Latin olfact-, past participial stem of olfacere to smell + -ible.