英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

club [club 词源字典]: club: [13] The original meaning of club is ‘thick heavy stick for hitting people’; it was borrowed from Old Norse klubba. The sense ‘association’ developed in the 17th century, apparently originally as a verb. To club together seems to have been based on the notion of ‘forming into a mass like the thickened end of a club’: ‘Two such worlds must club together and become one’, Nathaniel Fairfax, The bulk and selvedge of the world 1674. Hence the noun club, which originally signified simply a ‘get-together’, typically in a tavern, but by the end of the 17th century seems to have become more of a formalized concept, with members and rules.
[club etymology, club origin, 英语词源]
ill: ill: [12] ‘Sick’ is not the original meaning of ill. To start with it meant ‘bad’ (a sense which survives, of course, in contexts such as ‘ill-will’, ‘illmannered’, etc), and ‘sick’ did not come on the scene until the 15th century. The word was borrowed from Old Norse illr, which is something of a mystery: it has other modern descendants in Swedish illa and Danish ilde ‘badly’, but its other relations are highly dubious (Irish olc has been compared) and no one knows where it originally came from. The sense ‘sick’ was probably inspired by an impersonal usage in Old Norse which meant literally ‘it is bad to me’.
=> like
malaria: malaria: [18] The original English term for an ‘attack of malarial fever’ was ague. The word malaria did not come on the scene until the mid- 18th century. It was borrowed from Italian mal’aria, a conflation of mala aria, literally ‘bad air’. This was an allusion to the former belief that malaria was caused by foul air, and particularly by vapours given off by swamps.
=> air, malign
scissors: scissors: [14] Scissors are etymologically a ‘cutting’ implement. The word comes via Old French cisoires from cīsōria, the plural of late Latin cīsōrium ‘cutting implement’, which was derived from Latin caedere ‘cut’ (source of English concise, decide, incision, etc). The original form of the word in English was sisoures; the sc- spelling did not come on the scene until the 16th century, presumably through association with Latin scindere ‘cut’ (source of English rescind [17] and scission ‘cutting’ [15], and related to Greek skhízein ‘split’, from which English gets schism and schizophrenia).
=> concise, decide, incision, rescind, schism, schizophrenia
coalesce (v.): 1540s, from Latin coalescere "to unite, grow together, become one in growth," from com- "together" (see co-) + alescere "to grow up" (see adolescent). Related: Coalesced; coalescing; coalescence; coalescent.
come (v.): Old English cuman "come, approach, land; come to oneself, recover; arrive; assemble" (class IV strong verb; past tense cuom, com, past participle cumen), from Proto-Germanic *kwem- (cognates: Old Saxon cuman, Old Frisian kuma, Middle Dutch comen, Dutch komen, Old High German queman, German kommen, Old Norse koma, Gothic qiman), from PIE root *gwa-, *gwem- "to go, come" (cognates: Sanskrit gamati "he goes," Avestan jamaiti "goes," Tocharian kakmu "come," Lithuanian gemu "to be born," Greek bainein "to go, walk, step," Latin venire "to come").

The substitution of Middle English -o- for Old English -u- before -m-, -n-, or -r- was a scribal habit before minims to avoid misreading the letters in the old style handwriting, which jammed letters. The practice similarly transformed some, monk, tongue, worm. Modern past tense form came is Middle English, probably from Old Norse kvam, replacing Old English cuom.

Remarkably productive with prepositions (NTC's "Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs" lists 198 combinations); consider the varied senses in come to "regain consciousness," come over "possess" (as an emotion), come at "attack," come on (interj.) "be serious," and come off "occur." For sexual senses, see cum.
decadent (adj.): "in a state of decline or decay (from a former condition of excellence)," 1837, from French décadent, back-formation from décadence (see decadence). In reference to literary (later, other artistic) schools that believed, or affected to believe, they lived in an age of artistic decadence, 1885 in French, 1888 in English. Usually in a bad sense:
"Bread, supposedly the staff of life, has become one of our most decadent foods -- doughy, gummy, and without the aroma, flavor, texture, taste and appearance that is typical of good bread." ["College and University Business" 1960]
Beckoning sense of "desirable and satisfying to self-indulgence" begins c. 1970 in commercial publications in reference to desserts.
gangbusters (n.): to come on like gangbusters (c. 1940) is from popular U.S. radio crime-fighting drama "Gang Busters" (1937-57) which always opened with a cacophony of sirens, screams, pistol shots, and jarring music.
journalism (n.): 1821, regarded as a French word at first, from French journalisme (1781), from journal (see journal).
Journalism will kill you, but it will keep you alive while you're at it. [Horace Greely (1811-1872), U.S. journalist]
Journalese "language typical of newspaper articles or headlines" is from 1882.
Where men are insulated they are easily oppressed; when roads become good, and intercourse is easy, their force is increased more than a hundred fold: when, without personal communication, their opinions can be interchanged, and the people thus become one mass, breathing one breath and one spirit, their might increases in a ratio of which it is difficult to find the measure or the limit. Journalism does this office .... ["New Monthly Magazine," London, 1831]

[Géo] London was in western France covering the trial of a parricide that began in mid-afternoon. Because he had an early deadline, he telephoned a story that he was certain would take place: an angry crowd cursing the accused as he was marched to the courthouse from his holding cell at the police station. London then relaxed over lunch until he saw with dismay the guards and the prisoner coming but "not even the shadow of a gawker." His reputation at stake, he stalked to the door, cried out, "Kill him!" and returned to his table. [Benjamin F. Martin, "France in 1938"]
strong (adv.): Old English strange "strongly, violently, severely, furiously" (alongside strongly), from the same source as strong (adj.). Going strong (1898) is from racing. To come on strong was originally come it strong (1812).
supervene (v.): 1640s, "come as something additional," from Latin supervenire "come on top of, come in addition to, come after, follow upon," from super "over, upon" (see super-) + venire "come" (see venue). Related: Supervened; supervening.
last straw: "The culminating fact or event in a series of unpleasant or unwelcome ones, causing an extreme reaction not experienced before", Mid 19th cent.; earliest use found in Calcutta Review. With allusion to the proverb it is the last straw that breaks the camel's back.