quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- charge[charge 词源字典]
- charge: [13] The notion underlying the word charge is of a ‘load’ or ‘burden’ – and this can still be detected in many of its modern meanings, as of a duty laid on one like a load, or of the burden of an expense, which began as metaphors. It comes ultimately from Latin carrus ‘two-wheeled wagon’ (source also of English car). From this was derived the late Latin verb carricāre ‘load’, which produced the Old French verb charger and, via the intermediate Vulgar Latin *carrica, the Old French noun charge, antecedents of the English words.
The literal sense of ‘loading’ or ‘bearing’ has now virtually died out, except in such phrases as ‘charge your glasses’, but there are reminders of it in cargo [17], which comes from the Spanish equivalent of the French noun charge, and indeed in carry, descended from the same ultimate source. The origins of the verb sense ‘rush in attack’ are not altogether clear, but it may have some connection with the sense ‘put a weapon in readiness’.
This is now familiar in the context of firearms, but it seems to have been used as long ago as the 13th century with reference to arrows. The Italian descendant of late Latin carricāre was caricare, which meant not only ‘load’ but also, metaphorically, ‘exaggerate’. From this was derived the noun caricatura, which reached English via French in the 18th century as caricature.
=> car, cargo, caricature[charge etymology, charge origin, 英语词源] - easel
- easel: [17] Easel was borrowed from Dutch ezel, which means literally ‘donkey’ (it is related to English ass). The notion of loading a painting on to a stand, much as a burden is loaded on to a donkey, is echoed in the use of clotheshorse for a stand for hanging clothes on to dry or air.
=> ass - plimsoll
- plimsoll: [20] The British politician and social reformer Samuel Plimsoll (1824–98) was one of the leading instigators of the Merchant Shipping Act 1876. Amongst its provisions was that a line should be painted round the hulls of ships to indicate a safe limit for loading. This was Plimsoll’s idea, and it became known as the Plimsoll line. It is thought that the word plimsoll was applied to ‘gym shoes’ in allusion to the line running round the shoes formed by the rubber welt or trimming.
- break (v.)
- Old English brecan "to break, shatter, burst; injure, violate, destroy, curtail; break into, rush into; burst forth, spring out; subdue, tame" (class IV strong verb; past tense bræc, past participle brocen), from Proto-Germanic *brekan (cognates: Old Frisian breka, Dutch breken, Old High German brehhan, German brechen, Gothic brikan), from PIE root *bhreg- "to break" (see fraction). Most modern senses were in Old English. In reference to the heart from early 13c. Meaning "to disclose" is from early 13c.
Break bread "share food" (with) is from late 14c. Break the ice is c. 1600, in reference to the "coldness" of encounters of strangers. Break wind first attested 1550s. To break (something) out (1890s) probably is an image from dock work, of freeing cargo before unloading it. Ironic theatrical good luck formula break a leg has parallels in German Hals- und Beinbruch "break your neck and leg," and Italian in bocca al lupo. Evidence of a highly superstitious craft (see Macbeth). - caricature (n.)
- 1748 (figurative), 1750 (literal), from French caricature (18c.), from Italian caricatura "satirical picture; an exaggeration," literally "an overloading," from caricare "to load; exaggerate," from Vulgar Latin carricare "to load a car" (see charge (v.)). The Italian form had been used in English from 1680s and was common 18c.
- chassepot (n.)
- bolt-action breechloading rifle used by French forces in the Franco-Prussian War, 1870, named for French inventor Antonine-Alphonse Chassepot (1833-1905).
- download
- 1977 (n.), 1980 (v.), from down (adv.) + load (v.). Related: Downloaded; downloading.
- easel (n.)
- 1590s, from Dutch ezel "easel," originally "ass," from Middle Dutch esel, from Latin asinus "ass" (see ass (n.1)); the comparison being of loading a burden on a donkey and propping up a painting or canvas on a wooden stand (compare sawhorse, French chevalet, Italian cavalletto).
- exoneration (n.)
- 1630s, from Late Latin exonerationem (nominative exoneratio) "an unloading, lightening," noun of action from past participle stem of exonerare "free from a burden" (see exonerate).
- freeloader (n.)
- also free-loader, by 1939, from free (adj.) + agent noun from load (v.). Related: Freeloading. As a verb, freeload is attested by 1967 and probably is a back-formation from this.
- Instamatic
- 1962, proprietary name (reg. Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N.Y.) for a type of self-loading camera, from instant + automatic.
- lading (n.)
- "act of loading a boat," early 15c., verbal noun from lade (v.).
- larboard (n.)
- "left-hand side of a ship" (to a person on board and facing the bow), 1580s, from Middle English ladde-borde (c. 1300), perhaps literally "the loading side," if this was the side on which goods were loaded onto a ship, from laden "to load" + bord "ship's side." Altered 16c. on influence of starboard, then largely replaced by the specialized sense of port (n.1). to avoid confusion of similar-sounding words. The Old English term was bæcboard, literally "back board" (see starboard).
- lighter (n.1)
- "barge," late 15c., agent noun from light (adj.1), with a sense of lightening a load, or else from Dutch lichter, from lichten "to lighten, unload," on the same notion. They are used in loading or unloading ships that cannot approach a wharf.
- load (v.)
- late 15c., "to place in or on a vehicle," from load (n.). Transitive sense of "to put a load in or on" is from c. 1500; of firearms from 1620s. Of a vehicle, "to fill with passengers," from 1832. Related: Loaded; loaden (obs.); loading.
- overload (v.)
- 1550s, "to place too great a burden on," from over- + load (v.). Intransitive sense from 1961. Related: Overloaded; overloading. The noun is attested from 1640s; of electrical current, from 1904. Middle English had overlade (v.) in this sense.
- reload (v.)
- 1778, from re- "back, again" + load (v.). Of a firearm from 1853. Related: Reloaded; reloading.
- Sharps (n.)
- type of breech-loading single-shot rifle, 1850, from J. Christian Sharps (1811-1874), U.S. gunsmith.
- unload (v.)
- 1520s, in reference to cargo, from un- (2) + load (v.). Figurative sense (in reference to feelings, etc.) is recorded from 1590s. Used in reference to sales of stocks by 1870, hence U.S. colloquial sense "dispose of property the holding of which is risky" (1881). Related: Unloaded; unloading.
- upload (v.)
- by 1980, from up (adv.) + load (v.). Related: Uploaded; uploading.
- Winchester
- city in Hampshire, capital of Wessex and later of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom, Old English Uintancæstir (c.730), from Ouenta (c. 150), from Venta, a pre-Celtic name perhaps meaning "favored or chief place" + Old English ceaster "Roman town" (see Chester). As the name of a kind of breech-loading repeating rifle it is from the name of Oliver F. Winchester (1810-1880), U.S. manufacturer.