英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

crimson [crimson 词源字典]: crimson: [14] The colour term crimson comes ultimately from the name of a small scale insect, the kermes, from whose dried bodies a red dyestuff is obtained. Kermes comes from Arabic qirmaz, which in turn was derived from Sanskrit krmi-ja ‘(dye) produced by a worm’, a compound formed from krmi- ‘worm’ and ja- ‘produced, born’. From qirmaz was derived Arabic qirmazī ‘red colour’, which passed into English via metathesized Old Spanish cremesin. The medieval Latin version carmesīnum is thought to have been the source of English carmine [18], through blending with minium ‘red lead’ (whence English miniature).
=> carmine[crimson etymology, crimson origin, 英语词源]
lintel: lintel: [14] Lintel is the result of the blending of two Latin words: līmes ‘boundary’ (source of English limit) and līmen ‘threshold’ (source of English subliminal and possibly also of sublime). Līmen had a derived adjective, līmināris ‘of a threshold’. In the post-classical period, under the influence of līmes, this became altered to *līmitāris, which was used in Vulgar Latin as a noun meaning ‘threshold’. This passed into English via Old French lintier, later lintel.
=> limit, subliminal
mandate: mandate: [16] Etymologically, mandate means ‘give one’s hand’. It comes from mandātum (source also of English maundy), a noun use of the past participle of Latin mandāre ‘commit, command’. This verb was formed by blending manus ‘hand’ and dāre ‘give’. English verbs derived from mandāre are command, commend, demand, and remand.
=> command, commend, date, demand, donation, manual, maundy, remand
thwart: thwart: [13] Thwart was originally an adverb and adjective, meaning ‘across, crosswise’. It was however used as a verb, meaning ‘obstruct’ (from the metaphorical notion of ‘crossing’ someone) as early as the 13th century. It was borrowed from Old Norse thvert, the neuter form of thverr ‘transverse’. This went back to a prehistoric Germanic *thwerkhwaz (possible source also of English queer), which in turn was descended from Indo-European *twork-, *twerk- ‘twist’ (source also of English torch, torment, torture, etc).

How the noun thwart ‘seat across a boat’ [18] fits into the picture is not altogether clear. Its modern meaning clearly connects it with thwart ‘across’, but the notion of ‘crosswise’ may have been a secondary development. For an earlier noun thought ‘seat in a boat’ existed, which came ultimately from Old English thofta ‘rower’s bench’, and it could be that thwart the modern English noun represents a blending, both formal and semantic, of thwart ‘across’ with the now obsolete thought.
=> queer, torch, torment, torture
allow (v.): early 14c., allouen, "to commend, praise; approve of, be pleased with; appreciate the value of;" also, "take into account or give credit for," also, in law and philosophy, "recognize, admit as valid" (a privilege, an excuse, a statement, etc.). From late 14c. as "sanction or permit; condone;" in business use from early 15c.

The Middle English word is from Anglo-French alouer, Old French aloer, alloiier (13c.) "allot, apportion, bestow, assign," from Latin allocare (see allocate). This word in Old French was confused and ultimately merged with aloer; alloer "to praise, commend," from Latin allaudare, adlaudare, compound of ad- "to" (see ad-) + laudare "to praise" (see laud). From the first word came the sense preserved in allowance as "money granted;" from the second came its meaning "permission based on approval."
Between the two primary significations there naturally arose a variety of uses blending them in the general idea of assign with approval, grant, concede a thing claimed or urged, admit a thing offered, permit, etc., etc. [OED].
Related: Allowed; allowing.
blend (v.): c. 1300, blenden, "to mix, mingle, stir up a liquid," in northern writers, from or akin to rare Old English blandan "to mix," blondan (Mercian) or Old Norse blanda "to mix," or a combination of the two; from Proto-Germanic *blandan "to mix," which comes via a notion of "to make cloudy" from an extended Germanic form of the PIE root *bhel- (1) "to shine, flash, burn" (see bleach (v.); also blind (adj.)). Compare Old Saxon and Old High German blantan, Gothic blandan, Middle High German blenden "to mix;" German Blendling "bastard, mongrel," and outside Germanic, Lithuanian blandus "troubled, turbid, thick;" Old Church Slavonic blesti "to go astray." Figurative use from early 14c. Related: Blended; blending.
blend (n.): "mixture formed by blending," 1690s, from blend (v.).
confusion (n.): late 13c., "overthrow, ruin," from Old French confusion (11c.) "disorder, confusion, shame," from Latin confusionem (nominative confusio) "a mingling, mixing, blending; confusion, disorder," noun of action from confundere "to pour together," also "to confuse" (see confound). Sense of "a putting to shame" (a sort of mental "overthrow") is late 14c. in English, while that of "mental perplexity" is from 1590s.
fade (v.): early 14c., "lose brightness, grow pale," from Old French fader "become weak, wilt, wither," from fade (adj.) "pale, weak; insipid, tasteless" (12c.), probably from Vulgar Latin *fatidus, which is said to be a blending of Latin fatuus "silly, tasteless" and vapidus "flat, flavorless." Related: Faded; fading. Of sounds, by 1819. Transitive sense from 1590s; in cinematography from 1918.
Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades
Past the near meadows, over the still stream,
Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep
In the next valley-glades:
Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
Fled is that music:--Do I wake or sleep?

[Keats, "Ode to a Nightingale"]
fusion (n.): 1550s, "act of melting by heat," from Middle French fusion or directly from Latin fusionem (nominative fusio) "an outpouring, effusion," noun of action from fusus, past participle of fundere "to pour, melt" (see found (v.2)). Meaning "union or blending of different things; state of being united or blended" is by 1776; used especially in 19c, of politics, in early 20c. of psychology, atoms, and jazz (in nuclear physics sense, first recorded 1947; in musical sense, by 1972).
galumph (v.): 1872, "to prance about in a self-satisfied manner," coined by Lewis Carroll in "Jabberwocky," apparently by blending gallop and triumph. "The sense in current use may vary according to different notions of what the sound expresses" [OED]. Related: Galumphing.
Greenland: translating Old Norse Groenland, so named by its discoverer (986 C.E.) because "it would induce settlers to go there, if the land had a good name":
Hann gaf nafn landinu ok kallaði Groenland, ok kvað menn þat myndu fysa þangat farar, at landit ætti nafn gott. [Islendingabok, 1122-1133]
See green (adj.) + land (n.). Related: Greenlander; Greenlandish.
guesstimate (v.): 1902, a blending of guess (v.) and estimate (v.). Related: Guesstimated; guesstimating. As a noun from 1906.
hag (n.): early 13c., "repulsive old woman" (rare before 16c.), probably from Old English hægtes, hægtesse "witch, sorceress, enchantress, fury," shortened on the assumption that -tes was a suffix. The Old English word is from Proto-Germanic *hagatusjon, which is of unknown origin. Dutch heks, German Hexe "witch" are similarly shortened from cognate Middle Dutch haghetisse, Old High German hagzusa.

The first element probably is cognate with Old English haga "enclosure, portion of woodland marked off for cutting" (see hedge (n.)). Old Norse had tunriða and Old High German zunritha, both literally "hedge-rider," used of witches and ghosts. The second element in the prehistoric compound may be connected with Norwegian tysja "fairy; crippled woman," Gaulish dusius "demon," Lithuanian dvasia "spirit," from PIE *dhewes- "to fly about, smoke, be scattered, vanish."

One of the magic words for which there is no male form, suggesting its original meaning was close to "diviner, soothsayer," which were always female in northern European paganism, and hægtesse seem at one time to have meant "woman of prophetic and oracular powers" (Ælfric uses it to render the Greek "pythoness," the voice of the Delphic oracle), a figure greatly feared and respected. Later, the word was used of village wise women.

Haga is also the haw- in hawthorn, which is an important tree in northern European pagan religion. There may be several layers of folk etymology here. Confusion or blending with heathenish is suggested by Middle English hæhtis, hægtis "hag, witch, fury, etc.," and haetnesse "goddess," used of Minerva and Diana.

If the hægtesse once was a powerful supernatural woman (in Norse it is an alternative word for Norn, any of the three weird sisters, the equivalent of the Fates), it might originally have carried the hawthorn sense. Later, when the pagan magic was reduced to local scatterings, it might have had the sense of "hedge-rider," or "she who straddles the hedge," because the hedge was the boundary between the civilized world of the village and the wild world beyond. The hægtesse would have a foot in each reality. Even later, when it meant the local healer and root collector, living in the open and moving from village to village, it may have had the mildly pejorative Middle English sense of hedge- (hedge-priest, etc.), suggesting an itinerant sleeping under bushes. The same word could have contained all three senses before being reduced to its modern one.
Jewish (adj.): 1540s, from Jew + -ish. Old English had Iudeisc; early Middle English used Judewish, Judeish (late 12c.). Figurative use in reference to extortionate money-lending attested by c. 1600.
meddling (n.): "action of blending," mid-14c., from present participle of meddle (v.). Meaning "action of taking part, interference" is late 14c. As a past participle adjective, from 1520s. Related: Meddlingly.
portmanteau (n.): 1580s, "traveling case or bag for clothes and other necessaries," from Middle French portemanteau "traveling bag," originally "court official who carried a prince's mantle" (1540s), from porte, imperative of porter "to carry" (see porter (n.1)) + manteau "cloak" (see mantle (n.)).

Portmanteau word "word blending the sound of two different words" (1882), coined by "Lewis Carroll" (Charles L. Dodgson, 1832-1898) for the sort of words he invented for "Jabberwocky," on notion of "two meanings packed up into one word." As a noun in this sense from 1872.
preprocess (v.): also pre-process, 1956, from pre- + process (v.). Related: Preprocessed; preprocessing.
Preprocessed foods are not only here but are gaining such a tremendous acceptance that soon there will be little else on the market. This eliminates the need for mixing, peeling, blending and other devices used in the preparation of raw foods. "Popular Mechanics" October 1956]
taupe (n.): "dark brownish-gray color" (the color of moleskin), 1906, from French taupe, the color, originally "a mole," Old French, from Latin talpa "a mole." The story below lacks evidence appears to be a fanciful attempt to divert the origin of the color name to something more appealing:
Before the season advances very far you will find that taupe, pronounced "tope," will be the most favored color in the entire category of shades and blendings. The original word is taken from the German word "taube" pronounced "tob-a," which is the name for the dove, but the French have twisted the b into a p and give us taupe. ["The Illustrated Milliner," August, 1906]
troll (n.1): supernatural being in Scandinavian mythology and folklore, 1610s (with an isolated use mid-14c.), from Old Norse troll "giant being not of the human race, evil spirit, monster." Some speculate that it originally meant "creature that walks clumsily," and derives from Proto-Germanic *truzlan, from *truzlanan (see troll (v.)). But it seems to have been a general supernatural word, such as Swedish trolla "to charm, bewitch;" Old Norse trolldomr "witchcraft."

The old sagas tell of the troll-bull, a supernatural being in the form of a bull, as well as boar-trolls. There were troll-maidens, troll-wives, and troll-women; the trollman, a magician or wizard, and the troll-drum, used in Lappish magic rites. The word was popularized in literary English by 19c. antiquarians, but it has been current in the Shetlands and Orkneys since Viking times. The first record of the word in modern English is from a court document from the Shetlands, regarding a certain Catherine, who, among other things, was accused of "airt and pairt of witchcraft and sorcerie, in hanting and seeing the Trollis ryse out of the kyrk yeard of Hildiswick."

Originally conceived as a race of malevolent giants, they have suffered the same fate as the Celtic Danann and by 19c. were regarded by peasants in in Denmark and Sweden as dwarfs and imps supposed to live in caves or under the ground.
They are obliging and neighbourly; freely lending and borrowing, and elsewise keeping up a friendly intercourse with mankind. But they have a sad propensity to thieving, not only stealing provisions, but even women and children. [Thomas Keightley, "The Fairy Mythology," London, 1850]
usury (n.): c. 1300, "practice of lending money at interest," later, at excessive rates of interest, from Medieval Latin usuria, alteration of Latin usura "payment for the use of money, interest," literally "a usage, use, enjoyment," from usus, from stem of uti (see use (v.)). From mid-15c. as "premium paid for the use of money, interest," especially "exorbitant interest."
crasis: "A contraction of two adjacent vowels into one long vowel or diphthong, for example the reduction of words in ancient Greek from three syllables to two", Mid 16th century (as a medical term denoting the blending of physical qualities giving rise to a particular state of health): from Greek krasis 'mixture'.
prest: "A payment or wages in advance; money paid on account to enable a person to proceed with an undertaking", Late Middle English. From Anglo-Norman and Middle French prest (French prêt) action of putting a thing at a person's disposal, action of lending, a thing lent, an advance of money, money allocated in advance to soldiers and non-commissioned officers for petty expenses, wages paid in advance, in Anglo-Norman also alms, a gift from prester.