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abominable [abominable 词源字典]: abominable: [14] The Latin original of this word meant ‘shun as an evil omen’. The prefix ab- ‘away’ was added to ōmen (source of English omen) to produce the verb abōminārī. From this was created the adjective abōminābilis, which reached English via Old French. From the 14th to the 17th century there was a general misapprehension that abominable was derived from Latin ab hominem ‘away from man’, hence ‘beastly, unnatural’.

This piece of fanciful folk etymology not only perpetuated the erroneous spelling abhominable throughout this period, but also seems to have contributed significantly to making the adjective much more strongly condemnatory.
=> omen[abominable etymology, abominable origin, 英语词源]
agglutinate: agglutinate: see glue
angina: angina: see anguish
cardinal: cardinal: [12] The ultimate source of cardinal is Latin cardō ‘hinge’, and its underlying idea is that something of particular, or ‘cardinal’, importance is like the hinge on which all else depends. English first acquired it as a noun, direct from ecclesiastical Latin cardinālis (originally an adjective derived from cardō), which in the early church denoted simply a clergyman attached to a church, as a door is attached by hinges; it only gradually rose in dignity to refer to princes of the Roman Catholic church. The adjective reached English in the 13th century, via Old French cardinal or Latin cardinālis.
contaminate: contaminate: [15] Contaminate appears to come from the same ultimate source as contact, a base *tag- ‘touch’, which produced the Latin verb tangere ‘touch’ (whence English tactile, tangent, and tangible). It seems also to have formed the basis of a compound Latin noun *contagmen ‘contact, pollution’, which became altered to contāmen. From this was derived the verb contamināre, whose past participle gave English contaminate.
=> contact, tactile, tangible
culinary: culinary: see kiln
discriminate: discriminate: see discern
disseminate: disseminate: see seed
eliminate: eliminate: [16] To eliminate somebody is literally to ‘kick them out of doors’. The word comes from the past participle of Latin ēlīnāre, a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and līmen ‘threshhold’ (source also of English subliminal and probably sublime). At first it was used in English with its original Latin sense (‘the secounde sorte thearfore, that eliminate Poets out of their citie gates’, Giles Fletcher, Christ’s Victorie 1610), and it was not until the early 18th century that the more general modern notion of ‘exclusion’ began to develop.
=> sublime, subliminal
extraordinary: extraordinary: see extra
farinaceous: farinaceous: see farrago
fascinate: fascinate: [16] To fascinate somebody is literally to ‘bewitch’ them. The word comes from the past participle of the Latin verb fascināre, which was a derivative of fascinum ‘witchcraft’. The Roman phallic deity, incidentally, was named Fascinus, because an amulet in the shape of a penis was hung around children’s necks in ancient times to ward off evil spells.
final: final: [14] Of all the English descendants of Latin finis ‘final moment, end’ or ‘limit’ (see FINANCE, FINE, and FINISH), final, which comes via Old French final from Latin finālis ‘last’, preserves most closely the meaning of its source. But although by classical times finis denoted a temporal conclusion, its original use was for a physical boundary, and it appears to be related to figere ‘fix’ (source of English fix) – as if its underlying meaning were ‘fixed mark’.
=> finance, fine, finish
finance: finance: [14] Finance comes ultimately from Latin fīnis ‘end’, and its present-day monetary connotations derive from the notion of ‘finally settling a debt by payment’. Its immediate source is Old French finance, a derivative of the verb finer ‘end, settle’, which when it was originally acquired by English still meant literally ‘end’: ‘God, that all things did make of nought … puttest each creature to his finance’, Coventry Mystery Plays 1400. The debt-settling sense had already developed by that time, but this did not broaden out into the current ‘management of monetary resources’ until the 18th century.
=> final, fine, finish
fulminate: fulminate: [15] Etymologically, fulminate means ‘strike with lightning’. It comes from Latin fulmināre, a derivative of fulmen ‘lightning’. In medieval Latin its literal meaning gave way to the metaphorical ‘pronounce an ecclesiastical censure on’, and this provided the semantic basis for its English derivative fulminate, although in the 17th and 18th centuries there were sporadic learned reintroductions of its original meteorological sense: ‘Shall our Mountains be fulminated and thunder-struck’, William Sancroft, Lex ignea 1666.
germinate: germinate: see germ
illuminate: illuminate: [16] Etymologically, illuminate is a parallel construction to enlighten. It was formed in the late Latin period from the prefix in- and lūmen ‘light’ (source of English luminous). The past participle of the resulting illumināre gave English illuminate. The medieval-sounding sense ‘illustrate manuscripts’ is actually quite recent, replacing in the 18th century the parallel formation enlumine, acquired by English in the 14th century via Old French enluminer from medieval Latin inlūmināre. Illumine [14] came via Old French illuminer. Illustrate is closely related.
=> illustrate, luminous
inaugurate: inaugurate: see augur
laminate: laminate: see omelette
marinade: marinade: [17] Etymologically, to put food in a marinade is virtually to dunk it in the ‘sea’; for the word comes via French from Spanish marinada, a derivative of marina ‘of the sea’. It originally signified strictly a ‘brine pickle’ (hence the reference to the sea), and only gradually broadened out to include vinegar and other preservatives. The related verb marinate [17] comes from French mariner or Italian marinare.
=> marine
nominate: nominate: [16] Nominate is one of a small band of English words descended from nōmen, the Latin representative of the Indo-European ‘name’ word family that also includes English name. It was based on the derived verb nōmināre ‘name’, which has also given English, via French, nominee [17]. Other English words from the same source include nominal [15], nomenclature [17] (from Latin nōmenclātūra, whose second element was based on the verb calāre ‘call’), noun, and renown.
=> name, noun, renown
ocarina: ocarina: [19] The ocarina, a primitive sort of musical instrument played by blowing, gets its name from a supposed resemblance to a goose (it is shaped like an elongated egg, with a neck-like mouthpiece). Italian ocarina means literally ‘little goose’. It is a diminutive form of oca ‘goose’, which in turn goes back to Latin auca, a derivative of avis ‘bird’.
=> aviary
ordinary: ordinary: [14] Latin ōrdinārius meant ‘following the usual course’; it was a derivative of ōrdō, source of English order. It was originally used in English as a noun, meaning ‘someone with jurisdiction in ecclesiastical cases’, and right up until the 19th century the noun ordinary was common, with an amazingly wide range of meanings (including ‘post, mail’, ‘fixed allowance’, ‘priest who visited people in the condemned cell’, and ‘tavern’). Nowadays, however, the only (quasi-)nominal use at all frequently encountered is in the phrase out of the ordinary. English first took the word up as an adjective in the 15th century.
=> order
ordination: ordination: see order
patina: patina: see pan
piscina: piscina: see fish
procrastinate: procrastinate: [16] Crās was Latin for ‘tomorrow’ (its antecedents are uncertain). The adjective derived from it was crāstinus ‘of tomorrow’, which in turn formed the basis of a verb prōcrāstināre ‘put forward to tomorrow’ (prō- denotes ‘forward’). By the time it reached English it had broadened out to simply ‘delay’.
seminar: seminar: see seed
semolina: semolina: [18] Latin simila meant ‘fine flour’ (it has given English the simnel [13] of simnel cake, which originally denoted ‘bread made from fine flour’). From it was descended Italian semola ‘bran’, whose diminutive form semolino was adapted into English as semolina.
=> simnel
spinach: spinach: [16] The ultimate origin of the word spinach is Persian aspanākh, which passed via Arabic isfināj, medieval Latin spinachia, and Spanish espinaca into Old French as espinache. Middle Dutch borrowed this as spinaetse, the probable source of English spinach. It has been speculated that the change of form from Arabic to Latin may have been partly motivated by the ‘spiny’ seeds of certain types of spinach.
stamina: stamina: [17] Etymologically, stamina is the plural of stamen ‘male reproductive part of a flower’ [17]. The ultimate source of both is Latin stāmen ‘thread of woven cloth’, which went back to Indo-European *stāmen-, a derivative of the base *stā- ‘stand’ (source also of English stand). The application to the plant-part appears to go back to the Roman naturalist Pliny, who used stāmen for the stamens of a sort of lily, which resembled threads of cloth. The Latin plural stāmina was borrowed into English in the metaphorical sense ‘threads of human life, vital capacities’, and by the 18th century it had broadened out to ‘vigour’.
=> stamen, stand
vagina: vagina: see vanilla
abdominal (adj.): 1550s, from medical Latin abdominalis, from abdomen (genitive abdominis); see abdomen.
abdominals (n.): short for "abdominal muscles," attested by 1980; see abdominal.
abominable (adj.): mid-14c., from Old French abominable (12c.) and directly from Late Latin abominabilis "deserving abhorrence," from stem of Latin abominari "deplore as an evil omen" (see abomination). Sometimes misdivided in earlier centuries as a bominable. Also often abhominable 14c.-17c. Related: Abominably.
abominable snowman (n.): 1921, translating Tibetan meetaoh kangmi.
abominate (v.): 1640s, back-formation from abomination or from Latin abominatus, past participle of abominari "shun as an ill omen" (see abomination). Related: Abominated; abominating.
abomination (n.): early 14c., "abominable thing or action;" late 14c., "feeling of disgust, hatred, loathing," from Old French abominacion "abomination, horror, repugnance, disgust" (13c.), from Latin abominationem (nominative abominatio) "abomination," noun of action from past participle stem of abominari "shun as an ill omen," from ab- "off, away from" (see ab-) + omin-, stem of omen (see omen). Meaning intensified by folk etymology derivation from Latin ab homine "away from man," thus "beastly."
Doubtless, the life of an Irregular is hard; but the interests of the Greater Number require that it shall be hard. If a man with a triangular front and a polygonal back were allowed to exist and to propagate a still more Irregular posterity, what would become of the arts of life? Are the houses and doors and churches in Flatland to be altered in order to accommodate such monsters? [Edwin Abbot, "Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions," 1885]
aboriginal (adj.): 1660s, "first, earliest," especially in reference to inhabitants of lands colonized by Europeans, from aborigines (see aborigine) + -al (1); specific Australian sense is from 1820. The noun is attested from 1767. Related: Aboriginally.
agglutinate (v.): 1580s (from 1540s as a past participle adjective), from Latin agglutinatus, past participle of agglutinare (see agglutination). Related: Agglutinated; agglutinating.
agglutination (n.): 1540s, from Latin agglutinationem (nominative agglutinatio), noun of action from past participle stem of agglutinare "fasten with glue," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + glutinare "to glue," from gluten "glue," from PIE *glei- (see glue (n.)). Philological sense first recorded 1650s, in agglutinative.
agglutinative (adj.): 1630s, in a medical sense, from Latin agglutinat-, past participle stem of agglutinare (see agglutination). Philological sense is from 1650s.
Angelina: fem. proper name, diminutive of Angela.
angina (n.): 1570s, from Latin angina "infection of the throat," from Greek ankhone "a strangling" (see anger); probably influenced in Latin by angere "to throttle." Angina pectoris is from 1744, from Latin pectoris, genitive of pectus "chest" (see pectoral (adj.)).
Argentina: South American nation, from Latin argentinus "of silver" (see argent); a Latinized form of (Rio) de la Plata, from Spanish plata "silver."
ascertainable (adj.): 1783, from ascertain + -able. Related: Ascertainably.
assassinate (v.): 1610s, from past participle stem of Medieval Latin assassinare (see assassin). Of reputations, characters, etc., from 1620s. Related: Assassinated; assassinating.
assassination (n.): c. 1600, noun of action from assassinate (v.).
attainable (adj.): 1640s; see attain + -able. Related: Attainability.
attitudinal (adj.): 1831, from Italian attitudine (see attitude) + -al (1).