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mêlée [mêlée 词源字典]: mêlée: see mix
[mêlée etymology, mêlée origin, 英语词源]
omelette: omelette: [17] The omelette seems to have been named for its thinness, like a sheet of metal. The word was borrowed from French omelette, the modern descendant of Old French amelette. This meant literally ‘thin sheet of metal’, and was an alteration, by metathesis (the reversal of sounds) of alumette. This in turn was a variant of alumelle, which arose through the mistaking of la lemelle ‘the blade’ as l’alemelle. And lemelle goes back to Latin lāmella ‘thin sheet of metal’, a diminutive form of lāmina ‘plate, layer’ (from which English gets laminate [17]).
=> laminate
blameless (adj.): late 14c., from blame (n.) + -less. Related: Blamelessly; blamelessness. Seldom-used blameful is recorded from late 14c.
cameleon (n.): obsolete form of chameleon.
chameleon (n.): mid-14c., camelion, from Old French caméléon, from Latin chamaeleon, from Greek khamaileon "the chameleon," from khamai "on the ground" (also "dwarf"), akin to chthon "earth" (see chthonic) + leon "lion" (see lion). Perhaps the large head-crest on some species was thought to resemble a lion's mane. The classical -h- was restored in English early 18c. Figurative sense of "variable person" is 1580s. It formerly was supposed to live on air (as in "Hamlet" III.ii.98).
homeless (adj.): 1610s, from home (n.) + -less. Old English had hamleas, but the modern word probably is a new formation. As a noun meaning "homeless persons," by 1857.
homelessness (n.): 1814, from homeless + -ness.
melee (n.): 1640s, from French mêlée, from Old French meslee "brawl, confused fight; mixture, blend" (12c.), noun use of fem. past participle of mesler "to mix, mingle" (see meddle). See also medley. Borrowed in Middle English as melle but lost and then reborrowed 17c.
nameless (adj.): early 14c., "undistinguished," from name (n.) + -less. Meaning "having no name" is early 15c.; that of "too abominable to be named" is from 1610s. Similar formation in Dutch naamloos, German namenlos. Related: Namelessly; namelessness.
omelet (n.): 1610s, from French omelette (16c.), metathesis of alemette (14c.), from alemele "omelet," literally "blade (of a knife or sword)," probably a misdivision of la lemelle (mistaken as l'alemelle), from Latin lamella "thin, small plate," diminutive of lamina "plate, layer" (see laminate). The food so called from its flat shape. The proverb "you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs" (1859) translates French On ne saurait faire une omelette sans casser des oeufs. Middle English had hanonei "fried onions mixed with scrambled eggs" (mid-15c.).
Semele: daughter of Cadmus and mother of Dionysus, from Latin, from Greek Semele, a Thraco-Phrygian earth goddess, from Phrygian Zemele "mother of the earth," probably cognate with Old Church Slavonic zemlja "earth," Latin humus "earth, ground, soil" (see chthonic).
shameless (adj.): Old English scamleas "shameless, impudent, immodest;" see shame (n.) + -less. Related: Shamelessly; shamelessness. Similar formation in Old Norse skammlauss, Dutch schaamteloos, Old High German scamalos, German schamlos.
timeless (adj.): "eternal," 1620s, from time (n.) + -less. Earlier it meant "ill-timed" (1550s). Related: Timelessly; timelessness.
untrammeled (adj.): also untrammelled, 1795, from un- (1) "not" + past participle of trammel (v.).