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adolescent [adolescent 词源字典]: adolescent: [15] The original notion lying behind both adolescent and adult is of ‘nourishment’. The Latin verb alere meant ‘nourish’ (alimentary and alimony come from it, and it is related to old). A derivative of this, denoting the beginning of an action, was alēscere ‘be nourished’, hence ‘grow’. The addition of the prefix ad- produced adolēscere.

Its present participial stem, adolēscent- ‘growing’, passed into English as the noun adolescent ‘a youth’ (the adjective appears not to have occurred before the end of the 18th century). Its past participle, adultus ‘grown’, was adopted into English as adult in the 16th century.
=> adult, alimentary, alimony, coalesce, coalition, proletarian, prolific[adolescent etymology, adolescent origin, 英语词源]
bless: bless: [OE] Bless occurs in no other language than English, and originally meant ‘mark with blood’, from some sort of religious rite in which such marking conferred sanctity. It probably goes back to a prehistoric Germanic formation *blōthisōjan, a derivative of *blōtham ‘blood’, which was taken up by no Germanic language other than Old English. Here it produced blētsian, which by the 13th century had become blesse. The word’s connotations of ‘happiness’ and ‘well-being’, which go back at least to the year 1000, were probably influenced by the etymologically unrelated bliss.
=> blood
burlesque: burlesque: [17] French is the immediate source of English burlesque, but French got it from Italian burlesco, a derivative of burla ‘joke, fun’. This may come from Vulgar Latin *burrula, a derivative of late Latin burra ‘trifle’, perhaps the same word as late Latin burra ‘wool, shaggy cloth’.
coleslaw: coleslaw: [18] Cole is an ancient and now little used English word for plants of the cabbage family, such as cabbage or rape (it comes ultimately from Latin caulis ‘cabbage’, whose underlying meaning was ‘hollow stem’ – see CAULIFLOWER). It was used in the partial translation of Dutch koolsla when that word was borrowed into English in the late 18th century. Kool, Dutch for ‘cabbage’, became cole, but sla presented more of a problem (it represents a phonetically reduced form of salade ‘salad’), and it was rendered variously as -slaugh (now defunct) and -slaw. (Interestingly enough, the earliest record of the word we have, from America in the 1790s – it was presumably borrowed from Dutch settlers – is in the form cold slaw, indicating that even then in some quarters English cole was not a sufficiently familiar word to be used for Dutch kool. Coldslaw is still heard, nowadays as a folketymological alteration of coleslaw.)
=> cauliflower, cole, salad
convalesce: convalesce: [15] Latin valēre meant ‘be strong or healthy’ (from it English gets valiant, valid, valour, and value). Derived from it was valēscere ‘grow strong’, which, with the addition of the intensive prefix com- produced convalēscere, source of English convalesce. It was quite a commonly used word in Scottish English from earliest times, but does not seem to have established itself south of the border until the 19th century.
=> valiant, valid, valour, value
ecclesiastical: ecclesiastical: [15] In classical Greek, an ekklēsíā was an ‘assembly’ (the word was derived from ekkalein, a compound verb formed from the prefix ek- ‘out’ and kallein ‘call’). With the introduction of Christianity, it was adopted as the term for ‘church’, and an ekklēsiastés, originally ‘someone who addressed an assembly’, became a ‘preacher’ or ‘priest’. The derived adjective, ekklēsiastikos, passed into English via either French or Latin.
feckless: feckless: [16] From an etymological point of view, feckless is simply another way of saying ineffective. It originated in Scotland, where from the 15th century the local population economized on the pronunciation of effect, reducing it to feck (this survived into modern times in the sense ‘efficacy’). From it was formed feckless, literally ‘having no effect’, and also feckful ‘efficient, vigorous’, which never made it further south than northern England.
=> effect
flesh: flesh: [OE] The etymological notion underlying flesh, and its near relative flitch ‘side of bacon’ [OE], is of ‘slitting open and cutting up an animal’s carcase for food’. It, together with its continental cousins, German fleisch and Dutch vleesch ‘flesh’ and Swedish fläsk ‘bacon’, comes ultimately from Indo-European *pel- ‘split’. Consequently, the earliest recorded sense of the Old English word flǣsc is ‘meat’; the broader ‘soft animal tissue’, not necessarily considered as food, seems to have developed in the late Old English period.
=> flitch
gules: gules: see gullet
lesbian: lesbian: [16] Originally, and for many centuries, Lesbian simply meant ‘of Lesbos’, referring to the Aegean island of that name, off the Turkish coast. Then, in the second half of the 19th century, probably some time before 1870, it embarked on a more sensational career. The lyric poet Sappho (c. 600 BC) lived on Lesbos, and she was noted for the love poems she wrote to other women. Her name was invoked directly (in Sapphism) around this time as a genteel literary allusion to female homosexuality, but it was the even more deeply euphemistic lesbian that went on to become the main English term in this area.
less: less: [OE] In origin, less is a comparative form. It goes back ultimately to Indo-European *loiso- ‘small’, which in prehistoric Germanic had the comparative suffix added to it to produce *laisiz – whence English less. It is not found in any of the other modern Germanic languages.
=> least
lessee: lessee: see lease
lesson: lesson: [13] Etymologically, a lesson is ‘something read’ – as indeed the lesson read in church still is. The word comes via Old French lecon from Latin lectiō ‘reading’, a derivative of the verb legere ‘read’ (from which English gets lectern, lecture, etc). The word’s educational sense arose from the notion of a passage of text that a child had to read and learn.
=> lectern, lecture, legible
listless: listless: see list
measles: measles: [14] Measles means literally ‘spots, blemishes’. The word was originally borrowed from Middle Dutch māsel ‘blemish’, which went back to a prehistoric Germanic base *mas- ‘spot, blemish, excrescence’. The earliest English form of the word was thus maseles, and the change to measles (which began in the 14th century) may have been due to association with the now obsolete mesel ‘leper’, a descendant of Latin miser ‘wretched, unfortunate’ (source of English misery).
piles: piles: see pellet
reckless: reckless: [OE] The reck- of reckless is the same word as the now virtually obsolete verb reck ‘care’. It is not clear where this ultimately came from, but the compound reckless itself evidently goes back to the prehistoric West Germanic period, for it also occurs in German (ruchlos) and Dutch (roekeloos).
Achilles: Greek hero of the Trojan War stories, son of Thetis and Peleus, his name is perhaps a compound of akhos "pain, grief" (see awe) + laos "the people, a people" (see lay (adj.)); or else it is from a pre-Greek language.
Achilles tendon: from Modern Latin tendo Achillis, first used by German surgeon Heister and so-called in reference to the one vulnerable spot of the great Greek hero Achilles, whose mother held him by the heel when she dipped him in the River Styx to render him invulnerable (though this story is not in Homer and not found before 1c. C.E.). Earlier Achilles' sinew, from Modern Latin chorda Achillis, coined 1693 by Dutch anatomist Philip Verheyden when dissecting his own amputated leg. Hence figurative use of heel of Achillies for "vulnerable spot" (1810).
adolescence (n.): "age following childhood" (especially the period from the 15th to the 21st year), early 15c., from Middle French adolescence (14c.), from Latin adolescentia "youth," noun of state from adolescentem (see adolescent (n.)).
adolescent (n.): mid-15c., "youth, young man," from Middle French adolescent (15c.) or directly from Latin adolescentem (nominative adolescens) "growing, near maturity, youthful," present participle of adolescere "grow up, come to maturity, ripen," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + alescere "be nourished," hence, "increase, grow up," inchoative of alere "to nourish" (see old). Adolesce was a back-formed verb used early 20c. by H.G. Wells, G.B. Shaw, Louis MacNeice, but it seems not to have taken.
adolescent (adj.): 1785, from Latin adolescentem (nominative adolescens) "growing, near maturity, youthful," present participle of adolescere "grow up, come to maturity, ripen" (see adolescent (n.)).
ageless (adj.): 1650s, from age + -less. Related: Agelessly; agelessness.
aimless (adj.): 1620s, from aim (n.) + -less. Related: Aimlessly; aimlessness.
Anopheles (n.): genus of mosquitoes, Modern Latin, coined 1818 by German entomologist Johann Wilhelm Meigen (1764-1845) from Greek anopheles "useless, hurtful, harmful," from an-, privative prefix, (see an- (1)) + ophelos "use, help, advantage" (see Ophelia). So called because it conveys malaria.
applesauce (n.): by 1739, American English, from apple + sauce. Slang meaning "nonsense" is attested from 1921 and was noted as a vogue word early 1920s. Mencken credits it to cartoonist T.A. ("Tad") Dorgan. DAS suggests the word was thus used because applesauce was cheap fare served in boardinghouses.
arbalest (n.): "crossbow," c. 1300, from Old French arbaleste "large crossbow with a crank" (12c., Modern French arbalète), from Vulgar Latin arbalista, from Late Latin arcuballista "catapult," from Latin arcus "bow" (see arc (n.)) + ballista "machine for throwing projectiles" (see ballistic). German armbrust is from the same French word but mangled by folk etymology.
armless (adj.): late 14c., of physical conditions, from arm (n.1) + -less. Meaning "without weapons" is attested from 1610s (from arm (n.2)), but that sense is more typically expressed by unarmed.
artless (adj.): 1580s, "unskillful," from art (n.) + -less. Later also "uncultured" (1590s); then "unartificial, natural" (1670s) and "guileless, ingenuous" (1714). Related: Artlessly; artlessness.
backless (adj.): 1926, in reference to women's clothing, from back (n.) + -less.
baseless (adj.): c. 1600, from base (n.) + -less. Related: Baselessly; baselessness.
battleship (n.): 1794, shortened from line-of-battle ship (1705), one large enough to take part in a main attack (formerly one of 74-plus guns); from battle (n.) + ship (n.). Later in U.S. Navy in reference to a class of ships that carried guns of the largest size. The last was decommissioned in 2006. Battleship-gray as a color is attested from 1916. Fighter and bomber airplanes in World War I newspaper articles were sometimes called battleplanes, but it did not catch on.
beardless (adj.): early 14c., from beard (n.) + -less.
Beatles (n.): seminal rock and pop group formed in Liverpool, England; named as such 1960 (after a succession of other names), supposedly by then-bassist Stuart Sutcliffe, from beetles (on model of Buddy Holly's band The Crickets) with a pun on the musical sense of beat. Their global popularity dates to 1963.
belles-lettres (n.): "elegant literature, aesthetics," 1710, French, literally "fine letters," from belles, plural of belle, fem. of beau "fine, beautiful" (see beau) + lettres, plural of lettre "letter" (see letter (n.)). The literary equivalent of beaux arts.
beltless (adj.): 1884, from belt (n.) + -less.
blameless (adj.): late 14c., from blame (n.) + -less. Related: Blamelessly; blamelessness. Seldom-used blameful is recorded from late 14c.
bless (v.): Old English bletsian, bledsian, Northumbrian bloedsian "to consecrate, make holy, give thanks," from Proto-Germanic *blodison "hallow with blood, mark with blood," from *blotham "blood" (see blood (n.)). Originally a blood sprinkling on pagan altars. This word was chosen in Old English bibles to translate Latin benedicere and Greek eulogein, both of which have a ground sense of "to speak well of, to praise," but were used in Scripture to translate Hebrew brk "to bend (the knee), worship, praise, invoke blessings." L.R. Palmer ("The Latin Language") writes, "There is nothing surprising in the semantic development of a word denoting originally a special ritual act into the more generalized meanings to 'sacrifice,' 'worship,' 'bless,'" and compares Latin immolare (see immolate). Meaning shifted in late Old English toward "pronounce or make happy," by resemblance to unrelated bliss. No cognates in other languages. Related: Blessed; blessing.
blessed (adj.): late 12c., "supremely happy," also "consecrated" (c. 1200), past participle adjective from bless (v.). Reversed or ironic sense of "cursed, damned" is recorded from 1806. Related: Blessedly; blessedness.
blessing (n.): Old English bletsunga, bledsunge; see bless. Meaning "gift from God" is from mid-14c. In sense of "religious invocation before a meal" it is recorded from 1738. Phrase blessing in disguise is recorded from 1746.
blest: alternative past tense and past participle of bless.
bloodless (adj.): Old English blodleas; see blood (n.) + -less. The figurative sense in Middle English was "powerless." Related: Bloodlessly.
bootless (adj.2): late Old English botleas "unpardonable, not to be atoned for, without help or remedy," from boot (n.2) + -less. Meaning "useless, unprofitable" is from early 15c.
bootless (adj.1): "lacking boots," late 14c., from boot (n.1) + -less.
bottomless (adj.): early 14c., from bottom + -less.
boundless (adj.): 1590s, from bound (n.) + -less. Related: Boundlessly; boundlessness.
breathless (adj.): late 14c., "unable to breathe," from breath + -less. Meaning "out of breath, panting" is from mid-15c. Used from 1590s in the sense "dead." Meaning "forgetting to breathe due to excitement, awe, anticipation, etc." is recorded from 1802. Related: Breathlessly; breathlessness.
burlesque (n.): 1660s, "derisive imitation, grotesque parody," from French burlesque (16c.), from Italian burlesco, from burla "joke, fun, mockery," possibly ultimately from Late Latin burra "trifle, nonsense," literally "flock of wool." Modern sense of "variety show featuring striptease" is American English, 1870. Originally (1857) "the sketches at the end of minstrel shows." As a verb, from 1670s.
cablese (n.): 1895, from cable in the telegraphic sense + -ese as a language name suffix. "Since cablegrams had to be paid for by the word and even press rates were expensive the practice was to affix Latin prefixes and suffixes to make one word do the work of several" [Daniel Schorr], such as exLondon and Londonward to mean "from London," "to London" (non-Latin affixes also were used). Hence the tale, famous in the lore of the United Press International, of the distinguished but harried foreign correspondent who reached his breaking point and wired headquarters UPSTICK JOB ASSWARD. Its economy and expressive power fascinated Hemingway in his newspapering days.
candlestick (n.): Old English candelsticca; see candle + stick (n.).