quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- instrument[instrument 词源字典]
- instrument: [13] Instrument comes from the same source as instruct: the Latin verb instruere ‘build, prepare, equip, teach’. From it was derived the noun instrūmentum, which meant ‘tool, equipment’. When introduced into English via Old French at the end of the 13th century it was used for a ‘musical instrument’, but the more general ‘implement’ and the metaphorical ‘means’ soon followed in the 14th century.
=> construct, destroy, instruct, structure[instrument etymology, instrument origin, 英语词源] - instrument (n.)
- late 13c., "musical instrument," from Old French instrument "means, device; musical instrument" (14c., earlier estrument, 13c.) and directly from Latin instrumentem "a tool, apparatus, furniture, dress, document," from instruere "arrange, furnish" (see instruct). Meaning "tool, implement, utensil" is early 14c. in English; meaning "written document by which formal expression is given to a legal act" is from early 15c.