英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

ant [ant 词源字典]: ant: [OE] The word ant appears to carry the etymological sense ‘creature that cuts off or bites off’. Its Old English form, æmette, was derived from a hypothetical Germanic compound *aimaitjōn, formed from the prefix *ai- ‘off, away’ and the root *mait- ‘cut’ (modern German has the verb meissen ‘chisel, carve’): thus, ‘the biter’.

The Old English word later developed along two distinct strands: in one, it became emmet, which survived into the 20th century as a dialectal form; while in the other it progressed through amete and ampte to modern English ant. If the notion of ‘biting’ in the naming of the ant is restricted to the Germanic languages (German has ameise), the observation that it and its nest smell of urine has been brought into play far more widely.

The Indo-European root *meigh-, from which ultimately we get micturate ‘urinate’ [18], was also the source of several words for ‘ant’, including Greek múrmēx (origin of English myrmecology ‘study of ants’, and also perhaps of myrmidon [14] ‘faithful follower’, from the Myrmidons, a legendary Greek people who loyally followed their king Achilles in the Trojan war, and who were said originally to have been created from ants), Latin formīca (hence English formic acid [18], produced by ants, and formaldehyde [19]), and Danish myre.

It also produced Middle English mire ‘ant’, the underlying meaning of which was subsequently reinforced by the addition of piss to give pismire, which again survived dialectally into the 20th century.
[ant etymology, ant origin, 英语词源]
bikini: bikini: [20] For Frenchmen, the sight of the first minimal two-piece swimming costumes for women produced by fashion designers in 1947 was as explosive as the test detonation of an atom bomb by the USA at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, in the western Pacific Ocean, in July 1946. Hence their naming it the ‘Bikini’, the first record of which is in the August 1947 issue of Le Monde Illustré. English acquired the word in 1948. The monokini, essentially a braless bikini, first appeared in 1964, the inspiration for its name being the accidental resemblance of the element bi- in bikini to the prefix bi- ‘two’.
buffalo: buffalo: [16] English probably acquired buffalo from Portuguese bufalo, originally naming the ‘water buffalo’, Bubalis bubalis, a large oxlike animal of Asia and Africa, and subsequently extended to the ‘Cape buffalo’ of South Africa, Syncerus caffer. The Portuguese word came from late Latin bufalus, an alteration of Latin bubalus, which was borrowed from Greek boúbalos. The Greek word, which seems to have named a type of African gazelle, may have been formed from bous ‘ox’. The application of the word to the North American bison, which is still regarded as ‘incorrect’, dates from the late 18th century.
=> buff
nylon: nylon: [20] English has a long history of naming fabrics after their places of origin: denim from Nîmes, for instance, muslin from Mosul, and calico from Calicut in India. It is not surprising, therefore, that the popular myth has grown up that nylon took its name from New York (ny-) and London (-lon). The truth, however, is more prosaic. Du Pont, nylon’s inventors, took the element -on (as in cotton and rayon) and simply added the arbitrary syllable nyl-. The word was coined in 1938, and its plural was in use for ‘nylon stockings’ as early as 1940.
sundae: sundae: [19] The ice-cream concoction known as a ‘sundae’ first appeared on the scene in America, at the end of the 19th century. It is generally agreed that its name is an alteration of Sunday, but the why and the how remain unclear. As far as the change in spelling is concerned (sundi was another early variant), it seems plausible that it was intended to placate those who might have been offended by naming a dessert after the Lord’s day.

But why Sunday? Perhaps, it has been speculated, because ice cream was a dessert that could be eaten on Sunday without offending propriety; or because it was a special sort of ice cream that could be sold on Sundays without breaking the Sabbath trading laws; or because it was made of assorted odds and ends of ice cream left over from Sunday. The jury is still out.
Sunday: Sunday: [OE] Sunday is part of the general system of naming days of the week after heavenly bodies inherited by the Germanic peoples from the ancient Mediterranean world. The Romans called the day diēs sōlis ‘day of the sun’, which in translation has become German sonntag, Dutch zondag, Swedish söndag, Danish söndag, and English sunday. Welsh retains the term (dydd sul), but the Romance languages have gone over to variations on ‘Lord’s day’ (French dimanche, Spanish domingo, etc).
Thursday: Thursday: [OE] The Romans called the fourth day of the week diēs Iovis ‘Jupiter’s day’. When the Germanic peoples took over their system of naming days after the gods, or the planets they represented, they replaced Jupiter, the Roman sky-god, with the Germanic god of thunder, Thor, whose name comes from the same source as English thunder. This produced a prehistoric Germanic *thonaras daga-, which evolved into Old English thunresdæg. The modern form Thursday is partly due to association with Old Norse thórsdagr.
=> thunder
Tuesday: Tuesday: [OE] Tiu was the Germanic god of war and the sky (his name came from the same source as produced Latin deus ‘god’, from which English gets deity). When the Germanic peoples took over the Roman system of naming the days of the week after the gods, they replaced the term for the second day of the week, diēs Martis ‘day of Mars, the war-god’ (source of French Mardi ‘Tuesday’) with ‘Tiu’s day’ – hence Tuesday. The Norse version of the god’s name appears in Swedish tisdag and Danish tirsdag.
=> deity
uranium: uranium: [18] Ouranós was an ancient sky god in Greek mythology, consort of Gaea and father of Cronos and the Titans (his name was a personification of Greek ouranós ‘heaven’). The Romans called him ūranus, and the name soon came to be applied to the seventh planet from the sun after it was discovered in 1781. (Its discoverer, the German-born British astronomer Sir William Herschel, originally named it Georgium sidus ‘Georgian planet’, as an obsequious compliment to King George III, and others suggested that it should be called Herschel after the man who found it, but in the end the customary practice of naming after a classical deity prevailed.) The term uranium was derived from the planet’s name in 1789 by the German chemist Martin Klaproth, and is first recorded in English in 1797.
-ase: word-forming element used in naming enzymes, from ending of diastase.
denomination (n.): late 14c., "a naming, act of giving a name to," from Old French denominacion "nominating, naming," from Latin denominationem (nominative denominatio) "a calling by anything other than the proper name, metonymy," from denominare "to name," from de- "completely" (see de-) + nominare "to name" (see nominate). Meaning "a class" is from mid-15c. Monetary sense is 1650s; meaning "religious sect" is 1716.
Hobson-Jobson: 1690s, hossen gossen, said to have been British soldiers' mangled Englishing of the Arabic cry they heard at Muharram processions in India, Ya Hasan! Ya Husayn! ("O Hassan! O Husain!"), mourning two grandsons of the Prophet who died fighting for the faith. Title of Yule & Burnell's 1886 glossary of Anglo-Indian words, and taken by linguists in naming the law of Hobson-Jobson, describing the effort to bring a new and strange word into harmony with the language.
Macbeth: masc. proper name, Gaelic, literally "son of life." The first reference to bad luck associated with Shakespeare's "Macbeth," and to avoidance of naming it, is from 1896, alludes to an incident of 1885, and says the tradition goes back "so far as modern memory can recall." The original superstition seems to have pertained particularly to the witches' scenes, which were played up dramatically in 19c. productions, and especially to Matthew Locke's 17c. music to accompany the witches' song, which was regularly played through the 19th century.
It is strange how the effect of this music has exerted such a long surviving influence on members of the dramatic profession. It is still considered most unlucky to sing, hum, or whistle the witch airs in the theatre except in the ways of business. [Young-Stewart, "The Three Witches," in "The Shakespearean," Sept. 15, 1896]

If you number an actor or actress among your friends, and desire to retain his or her friendship, there are three things you positively must not do, especially if the actor is of the old school. Do not whistle in the theatre, do not look over his shoulder into the glass while he is making up, and do not hum the witch's song from "Macbeth." ... [O]lder actors would almost prefer to lose their salary than go on in "Macbeth" on account of this song. They believe that it casts spells upon the members of the company. ["Some Odd Superstitions of the Stage," "Theatre" magazine, July 1909]
misname (v.): c. 1500 "to call (someone) a bad name;" see mis- (1) + name (v.). Related: Misnamed; misnaming.
Myanmar: an old name for a part of Burma and a word for the country in native speech, officially chosen by military rulers of Burma in 1989. Reasons given include casting off a relic of colonialism, or downplaying of the connection to the Burman ethnic majority.
It should be pointed out that this renaming has virtually no impact on Burmese citizens speaking in Burmese, who continue to refer to both Myanma as well as Bama (this not unlike formal reference in the English language to 'The Netherlands' while informally using 'Holland'). [Gustaaf Houtman, "Mental Culture in Burmese Crisis Politics," 1999]
name (v.): Old English namian "to name, call; nominate, appoint," from source of name (n.). Related: Named; naming.
nickname (n.): mid-15c., misdivision of ekename (c. 1300), an eke name, literally "an additional name," from Old English eaca "an increase," related to eacian "to increase" (cognate with Old Norse auknafn, Swedish öknamn, Danish ögenavn; see eke; also see N). As a verb from 1530s. Related: Nicknamed; nicknaming.
nomenclature (n.): c. 1600, "a name," from Middle French nomenclature (16c.), from Latin nomenclatura "calling of names," from nomenclator "namer," from nomen "name" (see name (n.)) + calator "caller, crier," from calare "call out" (see claim (v.)).

Nomenclator in Rome was the title of a steward whose job was to announce visitors, and also of a prompter who helped a stumping politician recall names and pet causes of his constituents. Meaning "list or catalogue of names" first attested 1630s; that of "system of naming" is from 1660s; sense of "terminology of a science" is from 1789.
nomination (n.): early 15c., "act of mentioning by name," from Middle French nomination (14c.), and directly from Latin nominationem (nominative nominatio) "a naming, designation," from nominare "to name" (see nominate (v.)). Meaning "fact of being proposed as a candidate" is attested from late 15c.
nominative (adj.): late 14c., "pertaining to the grammatical case dealing with the subject of a verb," from Old French nominatif, from Latin nominativus "pertaining to naming," from nominatus, past participle of nominare (see nominate). As a noun from 1620s.
onomastic (adj.): 1716, from French onomastique (17c.), from Greek onomastikos "of or belonging to naming," from onomastos "named," verbal adjective of onomazein "to name," from onoma "name" (see name).
onomastics (n.): "scientific study of names and naming," 1936, from onomastic; also see -ics.
paronomasia (n.): "pun," 1570s, from Latin, from Greek paronomasia "play upon words which sound similarly," from paronomazein "to alter slightly, to call with slight change of name," literally "to name beside," from par- (see para- (1)) + onomasia "naming," from onoma "name" (see name (n.)).
Pig Latin (n.): childish deformed language (there are many different versions), by 1889 (hog Latin in same sense by 1807).
The animals play quite an important part in the naming [of children's languages], as the hog, dog, fly, goose, pigeon, pig, all give names, with Mr. Hog leading. Among the names the Latins take the lead, and Hog Latin leads the list, being accredited as naming nearly as many languages as all the other names combined. Besides Hog Latin, there is Dog Latin, Pig Latin, Goose Latin, and Bum Latin. Then there is Greekish and Peddlers' French and Pigeon English. ... Very few can give any reason for the naming of the languages. In fact, no one can fully say where the great majority of names came from, for in most cases in the naming the following pretty well expresses the difficulty: "It was born before I was. I can't tell how young I was when I first heard of it." ["The Secret Language of Children," in "The North Western Monthly," October 1897]