quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- improvise[improvise 词源字典]
- improvise: [19] Etymologically, if you improvise something, it is because it has not been ‘provided’ for in advance. The word comes via French improviser from the Italian adjective improvviso ‘extempore’, a descendant of Latin imprōvīsus ‘unforeseen’. This in turn was formed from the negative prefix in- and the past participle of prōvīdere ‘foresee’ (source of English provide).
The earliest recorded use of the verb in English is by Benjamin Disraeli in Vivian Grey 1826: ‘He possessed also the singular faculty of being able to improvise quotations’. (The closely related improvident ‘not providing for the future’ [16] preserves even more closely the sense of its Latin original.)
=> provide[improvise etymology, improvise origin, 英语词源] - improvise (v.)
- 1826, back-formation from improvisation, or else from French improviser (17c.), from Italian improvisare "to sing or speak extempore," from improviso, from Latin improvisus "unforeseen, unexpected" (see improvisation). Or possibly a back-formation from improvisation. Related: Improvised; improvising.