英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

addled [addled 词源字典]: addled: [13] Addled may be traceable back ultimately to a confusion between ‘wind’ and ‘urine’ in Latin. In Middle English the term was adel eye ‘addled egg’. of which the first part derived from Old English adela ‘foul-smelling urine or liquid manure’. It seems possible that this may be a loan-translation of the Latin term for ‘addled egg’, ōvum ūrīnae, literally ‘urine egg’. This in turn was an alteration, by folk etymology, of ōvum ūrīnum, a partial loantranslation of Greek oúrion ōón, literally ‘wind egg’ (a wind egg is an imperfect or addled egg).
[addled etymology, addled origin, 英语词源]
diddle: diddle: [19] The current meaning of diddle, ‘to cheat or swindle’, was probably inspired by Jeremy Diddler, a character who was constantly borrowing money and neglecting to repay it in James Kenney’s play Raising the Wind (1803) (the expression raise the wind means ‘to procure the necessary money’). Diddler immediately caught on as a colloquialism for a ‘swindler’, and by at the latest 1806 the verb diddle was being used in the corresponding sense. It may be that Kenney based the name Diddler on another colloquial verb diddle current at that time, meaning ‘to move shakily’ or ‘to quiver’.
fiddle: fiddle: [OE] Like its distant cousin violin, fiddle comes ultimately from the name of a Roman goddess of joy and victory. This was Vītula, who probably originated among the pre-Roman Sabine people of the Italian peninsula. A Latin verb was coined from her name, vītulārī, meaning ‘hold joyful celebrations’, which in post-classical times produced the noun vītula ‘stringed instrument, originally as played at such festivals’.

In the Romance languages this went on to give viola, violin, etc, but prehistoric West and North Germanic borrowed it as *fithulōn, whence German fiedel, Dutch vedel, and English fiddle. In English, the word has remained in use for the instrument which has developed into the modern violin, but since the 16th century it has gradually been replaced as the main term by violin, and it is now only a colloquial or dialectal alternative.

The sense ‘swindle’ originated in the USA in the mid-to-late 19th century.
=> violin
huddle: huddle: [16] Huddle originally meant ‘hide’ (‘to chop off the head of the sentence, and slyly huddle the rest’, James Bell’s translation of Walter Haddon against Orosius 1581), suggesting that it could well be a derivative of the same base as produced English hide (its form indicates that it would have come via a Low German dialect). But virtually from the first huddling was more than just ‘hiding’ – it was ‘hiding in a heap or among a crowd’; and from this has developed the word’s modern meaning ‘crowd or draw together’.
meddle: meddle: see mix
middle: middle: [OE] Middle traces its ancestry back to Indo-European *medhjo-, which also produced Latin medius ‘middle’ (source of English mediate, medium, etc) and Greek mésos ‘middle’ (source of the English prefix meso-). Its prehistoric Germanic descendant was *mithja-, which has given English the adjective mid [OE] and the derived noun midst [14]. From *mithjawas formed in West Germanic the adjective *middila, which has given modern German mittel, Dutch middel, and English middle.
=> mediate, medium
puddle: puddle: [14] Old English pudd, a word of unknown origin but related to German dialect pfudel ‘puddle’, denoted ‘ditch, furrow’, and puddle was a diminutive formed from it. In Middle English, it was often used for quite large bodies of water, what we would now call a pond or pool, but by the 17th century it had largely narrowed down to its present-day meaning.
=> poodle
riddle: riddle: [OE] English has two separate words riddle. The ‘puzzling’ sort of riddle is etymologically something you ‘read’. For it originated as a derivative of Old English rǣdan, the ancestor of modern English read. One of its earlier meanings was ‘interpret’ – hence riddle. Riddle ‘sieve’ goes back to a prehistoric German khrid- ‘shake’, which also produced German dialect reiter ‘sieve’. It is also related to Latin crībrum ‘sieve’ and cernere ‘separate’ (source of English decree, discern, secret, etc).
=> read; certain, decree, discern, secret
saddle: saddle: [OE] Saddle comes from a prehistoric Germanic *sathulaz, which also produced German sattel, Dutch zadel, and Swedish sadel. Etymologically it no doubt signifies something to ‘sit’ on, hailing ultimately from the Indo- European base *sed- ‘sit’, from which English gets sit.
=> sit
straddle: straddle: see stride
addle (v.): 1712, from addle (n.) "urine, liquid filth," from Old English adela "mud, mire, liquid manure" (cognate with Old Swedish adel "urine," Middle Low German adel, Dutch aal "puddle").

Used in noun phrase addle egg (mid-13c.) "egg that does not hatch, rotten egg," literally "urine egg," a loan-translation of Latin ovum urinum, which is itself an erroneous loan-translation of Greek ourion oon "putrid egg," literally "wind egg," from ourios "of the wind" (confused by Roman writers with ourios "of urine," from ouron "urine"). Because of this usage, from c. 1600 the noun in English was taken as an adjective meaning "putrid," and thence given a figurative extension to "empty, vain, idle," also "confused, muddled, unsound" (1706). The verb followed a like course. Related: Addled; addling.
befuddle (v.): "confuse," 1873, from be- + fuddle; originally "to confuse with strong drink or opium" (by 1832). An earlier word in the same sense was begunk (1725). Related: Befuddled; befuddling.
coddle (v.): c. 1600, "boil gently," probably from caudle "warm drink for invalids" (c. 1300), from Anglo-French caudel (c. 1300), ultimately from Latin calidium "warm drink, warm wine and water," neuter of calidus "hot," from calere "be warm" (see calorie). Verb meaning "treat tenderly" first recorded 1815 (in Jane Austen's "Emma"). Related: Coddled; coddling.
cuddle (v.): early 16c. (implied in cudlyng), perhaps a variant or frequentative form of obsolete cull, coll "to embrace" (see collar (n.)); or perhaps from Middle English *couthelen, from couth "known," hence "comfortable with." It has a spotty early history and seems to have been a nursery word at first. Related: Cuddled; cuddling.
cuddly (adj.): 1863, from cuddle + -y (2).
diddle (v.): "to cheat, swindle," 1806, from dialectal duddle, diddle "to totter" (1630s). Meaning "waste time" is recorded from 1825. Meaning "to have sex with" is from 1879; that of "to masturbate" (especially of women) is from 1950s. More or less unrelated meanings that have gathered around a suggestive sound. Related: Diddled; diddling.
faddle (v.): "to make much of a child," 1680s. Related: Faddled; faddling.
fiddle (n.): "stringed musical instrument, violin," late 14c., fedele, fydyll, fidel, earlier fithele, from Old English fiðele "fiddle," which is related to Old Norse fiðla, Middle Dutch vedele, Dutch vedel, Old High German fidula, German Fiedel "a fiddle;" all of uncertain origin.

The usual suggestion, based on resemblance in sound and sense, is that it is from Medieval Latin vitula "stringed instrument" (source of Old French viole, Italian viola), which perhaps is related to Latin vitularia "celebrate joyfully," from Vitula, Roman goddess of joy and victory, who probably, like her name, originated among the Sabines [Klein, Barnhart]. Unless the Medieval Latin word is from the Germanic ones.
FIDDLE, n. An instrument to tickle human ears by friction of a horse's tail on the entrails of a cat. [Ambrose Bierce, "The Cynic's Word Book," 1906]
Fiddle has been relegated to colloquial usage by its more proper cousin, violin, a process encouraged by phraseology such as fiddlesticks (1620s), contemptuous nonsense word fiddle-de-dee (1784), and fiddle-faddle. Century Dictionary reports that fiddle "in popular use carries with it a suggestion of contempt and ridicule." Fit as a fiddle is from 1610s.
fiddle (v.): late 14c., "play upon a fiddle," from fiddle (n.); the figurative sense of "to act nervously, make idle movements, move the hands or something held in them in an idle, ineffective way" is from 1520s. Related: Fiddled; fiddling.
fiddle-faddle: 1570s, "trifles" (n.); 1630s "busy oneself with trifles; talk nonsense" (v.), apparently a reduplication of obsolete faddle "to trifle," or of fiddle in its contemptuous sense.
fiddle-head (n.): also fiddlehead, "one with a head as hollow as a fiddle," 1854 (fiddleheaded), from fiddle (n.) + head (n.). As a name for young fern fronds, from 1877, from resemblance to a violin's scroll. Earliest use is nautical, "carved ornamental work at the bow of a ship in the form of a scroll or volute" (1799).
There are three kinds of heads,--1st The Figure-head is one on which is placed the figure of a man, woman, or the like, &c.; 2d, The Billet-head, or Scroll-head is one finished with two scrolls or volutes ...; and 3d, the Fiddle-head, which is finished with only one scroll or volute, having the spirals turning inwards to the vessel. [Peter Hedderwick, "Treatise on Marine Architecture," Edinburgh, 1830]
fiddler (n.): late 13c., from Old English fiðelere "fiddler" (fem. fiðelestre), agent noun from fiddle (v.). Similar formation in Dutch vedelaar, German Fiedler, Danish fidler. Fiddler's Green "sailor's paradise" first recorded 1825, nautical slang. Fiddler crab is from 1714.
fiddlestick (n.): 15c., originally "the bow of a fiddle," from fiddle (n.) and stick (n.). Meaning "nonsense" (usually fiddlesticks) is from 1620s. As an exclamation, c. 1600.
fuddle (v.): 1580s, "to get drunk" (intransitive); c. 1600, "to confuse as though with drink" (transitive), of obscure origin, perhaps from Low German fuddeln "work in a slovenly manner (as if drunk)," from fuddle "worthless cloth." The more common derivative befuddle dates only to 1873. Related: Fuddled; fuddling. A hard-drinker in 17c. might be called a fuddle-cap (1660s).
griddle (n.): shallow frying pan, early 13c., apparently from Anglo-French gridil, Old North French gredil, altered from Old French graille "grill, grating," from Latin craticula "small griddle" (see grill (n.)). Griddle-cake is from 1783.
huddle (v.): 1570s, "to heap or crowd together," probably from Low German hudern "to cover, to shelter," from Middle Low German huden "to cover up," from Proto-Germanic *hud- (see hide (v.)). Compare also Middle English hoderen "heap together, huddle" (c. 1300). Related: Huddled; huddling. The noun is from 1580s. U.S. football sense is from 1928.
intermeddle (v.): late 14c., from Latin inter- (see inter-) + Anglo-French medler (see meddle (v.)).
meddle (v.): early 14c., "to mingle, blend, mix," from Old North French medler (Old French mesler, 12c., Modern French mêler) "to mix, mingle, to meddle," from Vulgar Latin *misculare (source of Provençal mesclar, Spanish mezclar, Italian mescolare, meschiare), from Latin miscere "to mix" (see mix (v.)). From late 14c. as "busy oneself, be concerned with, engage in;" also disparagingly "interfere, be officious, make a nuisance of oneself" (the notion is of meddling too much). From mid-14c. to 1700, it also was a euphemism for "have sexual intercourse." Related: Meddled; meddling.
meddler (n.): late 14c., "practitioner," agent noun from meddle (v.). Meaning "one who interferes, a nuisance" is mid-15c.
meddlesome (adj.): 1610s, from meddle + -some (1). Earlier was medlous "quarrelsome, meddlesome" (mid-15c.). Related: Meddlesomely. Character name Meddlesome Mattie attested from 1814.
meddling (n.): "action of blending," mid-14c., from present participle of meddle (v.). Meaning "action of taking part, interference" is late 14c. As a past participle adjective, from 1520s. Related: Meddlingly.
middle (adj.): Old English middel, from West Germanic *middila (cognates: Old Frisian middel, Old Saxon middil, Middle Low German, Dutch middel, Old High German mittil, German mittel), from Proto-Germanic *medjaz (see mid). Middle name attested from 1815; as "one's outstanding characteristic," colloquial, from 1911, American English.
According to Mr. H.A. Hamilton, in his "Quarter Sessions from Queen Elizabeth," the practice of giving children two Christian names was unknown in England before the period of the Stuarts, was rarely adopted down to the time of the Revolution, and never became common until after the Hanoverian family was seated on the throne. "In looking through so many volumes of county records," he says, "I have, of course, seen many thousands and tens of thousands of proper names, belonging to men of all ranks and degrees,--to noblemen, justices, jurymen, witnesses, sureties, innkeepers, hawkers, paupers, vagrants, criminals, and others,--and in no single instance, down to the end of the reign of Anne, have I noticed any person bearing more than one Christian name ...." [Walsh]
Middle school attested from 1838, originally "middle-class school, school for middle-class children;" the sense in reference to a school for grades between elementary and high school is from 1960. Middle management is 1957. Middle-of-the-road in the figurative sense is attested from 1894; edges of a dirt road can be washed out and thus less safe. Middle finger so called from c. 1000.
middle (n.): Old English middel, from middle (adj.).
middle age (n.): "period between youth and old age," late 14c.; middle-aged (adj.) first recorded c. 1600.
Middle Ages (n.): "period between ancient and modern times" (formerly roughly 500-1500 C.E., now more usually 1000-1500), attested from 1610s, translating Latin medium aevum (compare German mittelalter, French moyen âge).
middle class (n.): 1766; as an adjective, "characteristic of the middle class" (depreciative) it dates from 1893.
Middle East (n.): 1899; never defined in a generally accepted way. Early use with reference to British India. Hence Middle-Eastern (1903).
middle passage (n.): 1788, in reference to the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
middlebrow: 1911 (adj.), 1912 (n.), from middle + brow (compare highbrow, lowbrow).
[T]here is an alarmingly wide chasm, I might almost say a vacuum, between the high-brow, who considers reading either as a trade or as a form of intellectual wrestling, and the low-brow, who is merely seeking for gross thrills. It is to be hoped that culture will soon be democratized through some less conventional system of education, giving rise to a new type that might be called the middle-brow, who will consider books as a source of intellectual enjoyment. ["The Nation," Jan, 25, 1912]
middleman (n.): in the trading sense, 1795, from middle + man. From mid-15c. as the name of some type of workman in wire-making. From 1741 as "one who takes a middle course."
middlemost (adj.): early 14c., "middle; the middle one of three," from middle + -most.
Middlesex: literally "(land of the) Middle Saxons" (those between Essex and Wessex); originally a much larger region. See middle + Saxon.
Middletown: "typical U.S. middle class community," 1929. The U.S. Geological Survey lists 40 towns by that name, not counting variant spellings.
middleweight (n.): also middle weight, 1842, from middle + weight.
middling (adj.): 1540s, from Scottish mydlyn (mid-15c.), from middle + suffix -ing. Used to designate the second of three grades of goods. As an adverb by 1719.
mollycoddle (v.): also molly-coddle, 1870, from a noun (1833) meaning "one who coddles himself," from Molly (pet name formation from Mary), which had been used contemptuously since 1754 for "a milksop, an effeminate man," + coddle (q.v.). Related: Mollycoddled; mollycoddling.
muddle (v.): 1590s, "destroy the clarity of" (a transferred sense); literal sense ("to bathe in mud") is from c. 1600; perhaps frequentative formation from mud, or from Dutch moddelen "to make (water) muddy," from the same Proto-Germanic source. Sense of "to make muddy" is from 1670s; that of "make confused" first recorded 1680s. Meaning "to bungle" is from 1885. Related: Muddled; muddling.
muddle (n.): 1818, from muddle (v.).
oddly (adv.): c. 1300, from odd + -ly (2).
packsaddle (n.): also pack-saddle, "saddle for supporting packs on the back of a mount," late 14c., pakke sadil; from pack (n.) + saddle (n.).