英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

atlas [atlas 词源字典]: atlas: [16] In Greek mythology, Atlas was a Titan who as a punishment for rebelling against the gods was forced to carry the heavens on his shoulders. Hence when the term was first used in English it was applied to a ‘supporter’: ‘I dare commend him to all that know him, as the Atlas of Poetry’, Thomas Nashe on Robert Greene’s Menaphon 1589. In the 16th century it was common to include a picture of Atlas with his onerous burden as a frontispiece in books of maps, and from this arose the habit of referring to such books as atlases (the application is sometimes said to have arisen specifically from such a book produced in the late 16th century by the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator (1512–94), published in England in 1636 under the title Atlas).

Atlas also gave his name to the Atlantic ocean. In ancient myth, the heavens were said to be supported on a high mountain in northwestern Africa, represented as, and now named after, the Titan Atlas. In its Greek adjectival form Atlantikós (later Latin Atlanticus) it was applied to the seas immediately to the west of Africa, and gradually to the rest of the ocean as it came within the boundaries of the known world.
=> atlantic[atlas etymology, atlas origin, 英语词源]
goblin: goblin: [14] Goblin probably came via Anglo- Norman from medieval Latin gobelīnus, which was reported by the 12th-century English chronicler Ordericus Vitalis as haunting the area around Évreux in northwestern France. It is thought that this could have been based on German kobold ‘goblin’, source of English cobalt.
=> cobalt
pump: pump: [15] The precise origins of pump have never been established. It is now widespread throughout the European languages, by dint of assiduous borrowing (French pompe, for instance), but its epicentre appears to have been northwestern Europe, with Middle Low German pumpe or Middle Dutch pompe. It started out, no doubt, as a vocal imitation of the sound of pumping.
Appalachian: in reference to the North American mountain range, c. 1600, Mountaynes Apalatsi; written apalachen by Spanish explorers and originally in reference only to the southern end of the range. Originally the name of the Apalachee, a Muskogean people of northwestern Florida, perhaps from Apalachee abalahci "other side of the river" or Hitchiti (Muskogean) apalwahči "dwelling on one side." Spelling shifted under influence of adjectives in -ian.
artesian (adj.): 1830, from French puits artésien "wells of Artois," French province where such wells were first bored 18c. by French engineer Bernard Forest de Bélidor (1698-1761). The place name is from Old French Arteis, from Atrebates, a tribe that lived in northwestern Gallia. Compare Arras.
Bactrian: "inhabitant of Bactria," late 14c.; as a type of camel, c. 1600, from Latin Bactria, ancient region in what is now northwestern Afghanistan, literally "the western province," from Persian bakhtar "the west."
Basel: city in northwestern Switzerland, founded 44 C.E. as Robur (from Latin roburetum "oak grove"); renamed 374 as Basilia (from Greek basilea "royal") when it became the "royal" fortress of Valentinian I.
Galicia: region in Central Europe, perhaps ultimately from Lithuanian galas "end, peak," in reference to the Carpathian Mountains which rise there, or from the root of Gaul. The region in northwestern Spain of the same name is from the ancient Roman province of Gallaecia, which is perhaps from the Celtic root cala "watercourse," or else it, too, might be from the root of Gaul. Related: Galician (1749 of Spain, 1835 of Eastern Europe).
jodhpurs (n.): 1913 (earlier as jodhpur breeches, 1899), from Jodhpur, former state in northwestern India. The city at the heart of the state was founded 1459 by Rao Jodha, a local ruler, and is named for him.
Klondike: tributary of the Yukon River in northwestern Canada, from Kutchin (Athabaskan) throndiuk, said to mean "hammer-water" and to be a reference to the practice of driving stakes into the riverbed to support fish traps. Scene of a gold rush after 1896.
Leon: medieval kingdom in northwestern Spain, said to be from Latin legionis (septimae) "of the Seventh Legion," which was founded in Spain in 65 B.C.E.; the name probably then conformed to Spanish leon "lion." Related: Leonese.
malamute (n.): also malemute, Eskimo dog, 1874, from name of Alaska Eskimo tribe in northwestern Alaska that developed the breed. The native form is malimiut.
Navajo: Athabaskan people and language, 1780, from Spanish Apaches de Nabaju (1629), from Tewa (Tanoan) Navahu, said to mean literally "large field" or "large planted field," containing nava "field" and hu "valley." Spanish Navajo was used 17c. in reference to the area now in northwestern New Mexico.
northwest: Old English norðwest (adv.); from north + west. As a noun from late 14c. Related: Northwestern; northwesterly; northwestward. Northwest Passage first attested c. 1600.
Permian: 1841, "pertaining to the uppermost strata of the Paleozoic era," named by British geologist Sir Roderick Impey Murchison (1792-1871) for the region of Perm in northwestern Russia, where rocks from this epoch are found.
Siberia: region in northwestern Asia, the name said to come from Sibir, ancient Tatar fortress at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh rivers. As a typical place of miserable banishment, it is attested from 1841. Related: Siberian.
Slave: Indian tribe of northwestern Canada, 1789, from slave (n.), translating Cree (Algonquian) awahkan "captive, slave."
SWAK: acronym for sealed with a kiss, attested from 1911, in a legal publication quoting a letter from 1909:
"... Well Kid I don't know nothing else to say only that I hope to see your sweet face Sat. Good by from your Dear Husban to his sweet little wife. P. S. excuse bad writing and mispelled words take all mistakes as kisses. S.W.A.K. * * *" This letter was postmarked at Des Moines October 20, 1909, addressed to Carrie Sprague at Jefferson, Iowa, and reached the latter place October 21, 1909. [State v. Manning (a conspiracy-to-lure-women-to-prostitution case), Supreme Court of Iowa, Nov. 16, 1910, reported in "Northwestern Reporter," Volume 128, 1911]
Popularized in soldiers' letters home in World War I. It probably is meant also to echo the sound of a kiss. Compare Middle English swack "a hard blow" (late 14c.).
Yukon: territory of northwestern Canada, named for the river, from Athabaskan, perhaps Koyukon yookkene or Lower Tanana yookuna, said to mean "big river."