英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

acoustic [acoustic 词源字典]: acoustic: [17] Appropriately enough, acoustic may be distantly related to hear. It first appeared in English in Francis Bacon’s Advancement of Learning 1605, borrowed from Greek akoustikós. This in turn was derived from the Greek verb for ‘hear’, akoúein, which, it has been speculated, may have some connection with *khauzjan, the original Germanic source of English hear, not to mention German hören and Dutch horen (as well as with Latin cavēre ‘be on one’s guard’, and hence with English caution and caveat).
=> caution, caveat, hear[acoustic etymology, acoustic origin, 英语词源]
alter: alter: [14] Alter comes from the Latin word for ‘other (of two)’, alter. In late Latin a verb was derived from this, alterāre, which English acquired via French altérer. Latin alter (which also gave French autre and English alternate [16], alternative [17], altercation [14], and altruism, not to mention alter ego) was formed from the root *al- (source of Latin alius – from which English gets alien, alias, and alibi – Greek allos ‘other’, and English else) and the comparative suffix *-tero-, which occurs also in English other.

Hence the underlying meaning of Latin alter (and, incidentally, of English other) is ‘more other’, with the implication of alternation between the two.
=> alias, alien, alternative, altruism, else
cow: cow: English has two completely distinct words cow. The commoner, ‘female of cattle’ [OE], is a word of very ancient ancestry. It goes back via West and North Germanic *kōuz to a hypothetical Indo-European *gwōus, which was also the source of Latin bōs (from which English gets bovine, beef, and bugle, not to mention Bovril). In modern English its plural is cows, but Old English cū had an anomalous plural, cy, which in the remodelled form kine survived dialectally into the 20th century. The other cow, ‘intimidate, daunt’ [17], probably comes from Old Norse kúga ‘oppress’.
=> beef, bovine, bugle
duct: duct: [17] Duct comes from Latin ductus, a noun formed from the past participle of the verb dūcere ‘lead’. This is among the most prolific Latin sources of English words. It appears in numerous prefixed forms, all containing to some extent the underlying meaning element ‘lead’, such as deduce, introduce, produce, and reduce, as well as educate and, in less obvious form, subdue.

Its past participle produced aqueduct and ductile [14], not to mention (via Vulgar Latin *ductiāre and Italian docciare) douche [18]. And furthermore it comes ultimately from the same Indo-European source as produced English team, teem, tie, tight, tow, and tug.
=> aqueduct, conduct, deduce, deduct, douche, duke, educate, introduce, produce, reduce, seduce, team, tie, tight, tow, tug
elk: elk: [OE] The Indo-European base *ol-, *elproduced a number of names for deerlike animals – Greek élaphos ‘stag’, for example, and Welsh elain ‘hind’, not to mention English eland. In its Germanic descendants, two main lines of development are evident: its extensions *olk- and *elk- produced respectively Germanic *algiz (whence Old Norse elgr) and Germanic *elkho(n)- (whence Old English colh).

It is not actually entirely clear which of these two is represented by modern English elk, which is first unequivocally recorded in the late 15th century. It is formally possible that it could be a survival of the Old English word, with its final /kh/ sound changed to /k/, but the long gap in the written record between Old English eolh and Middle English elk suggests that it could be an Old Norse borrowing.
=> eland
equal: equal: [14] Latin aequus (a word of unknown ancestry) meant ‘level’ or ‘even’. From it was derived the adjective aequālis ‘equal’, which has provided the term for ‘equal’ in all the modern Romance languages, including French égal (source of English egalitarian [19]), Italian uguale, and Spanish igual. English, however, is the only Germanic language in which it constitutes a major borrowing.

English also possesses, of course, a host of related words, including adequate [17], equanimity [17], equate [15], equation [14] equator [14] (etymologically the line of latitude that ‘equalizes’ day and night), and iniquity [14] (etymologically the equivalent of inequality), not to mention all those beginning with the prefix equi-, such as equidistant [16], equilibrium [17] (literally ‘equal balance’, from Latin lībra ‘balance’), equinox [14], equity [14], and equivalent [15].
=> adequate, egalitarian, equator, equity, iniquity
fact: fact: [16] A fact is literally ‘something that is done’. It comes from Latin factum ‘deed’, a noun based on the past participle of facere ‘do’. This verb, a distant relative of English do, has contributed richly to English vocabulary, from obvious derivatives like factitious [17] and factitive [19] to more heavily disguised forms such as difficult, effect, fashion, feasible, feature, and fetish, not to mention the -fic suffix of words like horrific and pacific, and the related verbal suffix -fy.

To begin with, English adopted the word in its original Latin sense ‘deed’, but this now survives only in legal contexts, such as ‘accessory after the fact’. There is sporadic evidence in classical Latin, however, of its use for ‘something that happens, event’, and this developed in post-classical times to produce ‘what actually is’, the word’s main modern sense in French fait and Italian fatto as well as in their English relative fact. Feat is essentially the same word as fact, filtered through Old French.
=> difficult, do, effect, fashion, feasible, feature, fetish
give: give: [OE] Give is part of a widespread Germanic family of verbs, including also German geben, Dutch geven, Swedish giva, and Danish give, not to mention Gothic giban. They all come from a prehistoric Germanic *geban, a verb of uncertain ancestry (it has been suggested that it was related to Latin habēre ‘have’, their opposite meaning being accounted for by a shared notion of ‘reaching out the hands’ – either to ‘take and have’ or to ‘give’).
goose: goose: [OE] Goose has relatives throughout the Indo-European languages: Latin ānser, Greek khén, Sanskrit hansás, Russian gus’, Czech husa, German and Dutch gans, and Swedish gåas (not to mention Irish Gaelic gēis ‘swan’) all go back to a prehistoric Indo-European *ghans-, which probably originated as an imitation of the honking of geese. (The only major exceptions to this cosy family are French ole and Italian and Spanish oca, which come from Latin avicula ‘little bird’.) A Germanic extension of the base was *ganit- or *ganot-, which produced not only English gander ‘male goose’ but also gannet. Gosling [15] was borrowed from the Old Norse diminutive gáeslingr, literally ‘little goose’; and goshawk [OE] is a compound of goose and hawk.

The verb goose ‘jab between the buttocks’, first recorded in the 1870s, may come from a supposed resemblance between the upturned thumb with which such jabbing may be done and the neck of a goose.
=> gooseberry, goshawk
grace: grace: [12] Latin grātus meant ‘pleasing’. Its most obvious English descendants are grateful, gratify, gratuity, etc, but it is also responsible for grace (not to mention the even better disguised agree). Its derived noun grātia ‘pleasure, favour, thanks’ passed into English via Old French grace. Gracious [13] comes ultimately from Latin grātiōsus; grateful [15] is an English formation. (The apparently similar gracile ‘slender’ [17], incidentally, is not etymologically related; it comes from Latin gracilis ‘slender’.)
=> agree, grateful
heart: heart: [OE] Heart is part of a widespread Indo- European family of words for the ‘cardiac muscle’, which all go back to the common ancestor *kerd-. From it come Greek kardíā (source of English cardiac [17]), Latin cor (whence French coeur, Italian cuor, Spanish corazón, not to mention a wide range of English descendants, including concord, cordial, courage, quarry ‘hunted animal’, and record), modern Irish croidhe, Russian serdce, and Latvian sirds.

Its Germanic off-spring was *khertōn, which produced German herz, Dutch hart, Swedish hjärta, Danish hjerte, and English heart. The only major Indo-European languages to have taken a different path are Romanian, whose inima ‘heart’ comes from Latin anima ‘soul’, and Welsh, which keeps craidd for the metaphorical sense ‘centre’, but for the bodily organ has calon, a descendant of Latin caldus ‘warm’.
=> cardiac, concord, cordial, courage, quarry, record
hound: hound: [OE] Until superseded around the 16th century by dog, hound was the main English word for ‘dog’ (and indeed its relatives in the other Germanic languages remain so – German, Swedish, and Danish hund, for instance, and Dutch hond). It goes back ultimately to Indo- European *kuntos, a derivative of the base which also produced Greek kúōn ‘dog’ (source of English cynic and, according to some etymologists, quinsy), Latin canis ‘dog’ (whence French chien and Italian cane, not to mention English canine, canary, chenille, and kennel), Welsh ci ‘dog’ (as in corgi [20], literally ‘dwarf dog’), and Russian sobaka ‘dog’.

Since the 16th century, English hound has been used largely for ‘hunting dog’.
=> canary, canine, chenille, cynic, kennel, quinsy
lunar: lunar: [17] Latin lūna ‘moon’ came from an Indo- European base which also produced English light (not to mention a range of Latin ‘light’- words, such as lūx and lūmen, which have given English illustrate, lucid, luminous, lustre, etc). It had two adjectival derivatives: lūnāris, which simply meant ‘of the moon’, and was borrowed by English as lunar; and lūnāticus.

This was originally used for ‘living on the moon’, but subsequently came to employed in the sense ‘crazy’, from the notion that certain sorts of periodic madness were caused by the phases of the moon. English acquired it via Old French lunatique as lunatic [13].
=> illustrate, light, luminous, lunatic, lustre
near: near: [12] Historically, near is a comparative form, and its ancestor originally meant ‘nearer’. It was borrowed from Old Norse náer, the comparative of ná- ‘near’, which came from the same prehistoric Germanic source as produced English nigh [OE] and next (not to mention German nah ‘near’). By the time it reached English it had lost its comparative force, and simply meant ‘close’ (which is also the sense of its modern Scandinavian descendants, Swedish nära and Danish nær).
=> neighbour, next, nigh
philosophy: philosophy: [14] Greek phílos (a word of uncertain origin) meant ‘loving’. It has entered into an enormous range of English compounds, including philander [17] (adopted from a Greek word meaning ‘loving men’), philanthropy [17], philately, and philology [17], not to mention all the terms suffixed with -phil or -phile, such as Anglophile [19] and paedophile [20]. Philosophy itself means etymologically ‘loving wisdom’. It comes via Old French filosofie and Latin philosophia from Greek philosophíā, whose second element was a derivative of sophós ‘wise’ (source of English sophisticate).
=> sophisticate
prey: prey: [13] Prey comes via Old French preie from Latin praeda ‘booty’ (from which was derived the verb praedārī ‘plunder’, source of English depredation [15] and predatory [16]). This was a contraction of an earlier praeheda, a noun formed with the prefix prae- ‘before’ from the same base (*hed- ‘seize’, source also of English get) as produced the verb praehendere ‘seize’.

This has been a rich source of English vocabulary, contributing through different channels such a varied assortment as prehensile [18], prison, and prize ‘something seized in war’, not to mention prefixed forms like apprehend. comprehend [14], comprise [15], impregnable [15], reprehensible, reprieve, and surprise. It is also the ancestor of French prendre ‘take’.
=> apprehend, comprehend, comprise, depredation, impregnable, predatory, prehensile, prison, reprehensible, reprieve, surprise
quarter: quarter: [13] Quarter is one of a large family of English words that go back ultimately to Latin quattuor ‘four’ and its relatives. Direct descendants of quattuor itself are actually fairly few – among them quatrain [16] and quatrefoil [15] (both via Old French). But its ordinal form quārtus ‘fourth’ has been most prolific: English is indebted to it for quart [14], quarter (via the Latin derivative quartārius ‘fourth part’), quartet [18], and quarto [16].

In compounds quattuor assumed the form quadr-, which has given English quadrangle [15] (and its abbreviation quad [19]), quadrant [14], quadratic [17], quadrille [18], quadruped [17], quadruplet [18] (also abbreviated to quad [19]), quarantine, quarrel ‘arrow’, not to mention the more heavily disguised cadre [19], carfax [14] (which means etymologically ‘four-forked’), squad, and square.

And the derivative quater ‘four times’ has contributed carillon [18] (etymologically a peal of ‘four’ bells), quaternary [15], and quire of paper [15] (etymologically a set of ‘four’ sheets of paper).
=> cadre, carfax, carillon, quad, quarrel, quarry, quire, squad, square
quiet: quiet: [14] The Latin noun quiēs meant ‘quiet’ (it came from a prehistoric Indo-European base *qwi- ‘rest’, which also produced English while and the final syllable of tranquil). From it was derived the verb quiēscere ‘be still’ (source of English quiescent [17]). Its past participle quiētus has given English quiet (and its Siamese twin coy), quit, and quite, not to mention the derived forms acquit and requite.
=> acquit, coy, quit, quite, requite, tranquil, while
ring: ring: [OE] English has two distinct words ring. The one meaning ‘circle’ goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *khrenggaz, which also produced German, Dutch, Swedish, and Danish ring (not to mention the Finnish borrowing rengas). It may be related to Old Church Slavonic kragu ‘circle’. The Germanic form was taken over by Old French as ranc, from which English gets rank, and also as renc, which may be the source of English rink [18]. Ring ‘chime’ presumably goes back to a prehistoric Germanic ancestor that imitated the sound of clanging, and also produced German and Dutch ringen, Swedish ringa, and Danish ringe (the suggestion that it contains some reference to the circular motion of tolling bells is attractive, but has no basis in fact).
=> range, rank, rink
row: row: There are three distinct words row in English. The one meaning ‘use oars’ [OE] goes back to a prehistoric Germanic base *rō- ‘steer’, which also produced Dutch roeijen and Swedish ro, not to mention English rudder. Row ‘orderly line’ [OE] comes from a prehistoric Germanic *raigwa, and is probably related to German reihe ‘row’. Row ‘noisy quarrel’ [18] seems to have originated in the late 18th century as a piece of Cambridge University slang, but where it came from is not known.
=> rudder
score: score: [11] The etymological notion underlying score is of ‘cutting’ – for it is related to English shear. It was borrowed from Old Norse skor, which went back to the same prehistoric Germanic base – *skur-, *sker- ‘cut’ – that produced shear (not to mention share, shore, and short). It had a range of meanings, from ‘notch’ to ‘record kept by cutting notches’, but it was specifically the ‘number twenty’ (presumably originally ‘twenty recorded by cutting notches’) that English at first took over.

The other senses followed, perhaps as a result of reborrowing, in the 14th century, but the main modern meaning, ‘number of points made in a game’ (originally as recorded by cutting notches), is a purely English development of the 18th century. Roughly contemporary is ‘written music’, which is said to come from the linking together of related staves with a single common bar line or ‘score’ (in the sense ‘mark’).

The verb score ‘mark with lines’ was borrowed in the 14th century from Old Norse skora.
=> share, shear, shirt, short, skirt
sister: sister: [OE] Sister is one of a widespread family of ‘sister’-words that go back ultimately to Indo- European *swesor. Amongst its other descendants are Latin soror (source of French soeur, Italian sorella, and Romanian sora, not to mention English sorority [16]), Russian, Czech, and Serbo-Croat sestra, Polish siostra, Welsh chwaer, Breton c’hoar, Lithuanian sesuo, and Sanskrit svasar-. To prehistoric Germanic it contributed *swestr, which has evolved into German schwester, Dutch zuster, Swedish syster, Danish søster, and English sister. English cousin goes back ultimately to a compound based on *swesor, the Old Latin antecedent of soror.
=> sorority
spectacle: spectacle: [14] Spectacle is one of a large family of English words that go back ultimately to Latin specere ‘look’ (a descendant of the Indo- European base *spek- ‘look’, of which a reversed Greek version *skep- gave English sceptic and scope). Others include special, species, spectator [16], spectre [17] (etymologically an ‘appearance’ or ‘image’), spectrum [17] (from Latin spectrum ‘appearance’, ultimate source also of spectre, and first used for the ‘band of colours’ by Isaac Newton around 1671), speculate [16], spite, and spy, not to mention prefixed forms such as aspect [14], auspice, conspicuous [16], espionage, expect, frontispiece, inspect [17], respect, and suspect. Spectacle itself comes via Old French spectacle from the Latin derivative spectāculum ‘show, sight’.

The application to a ‘device for seeing with’, which lies behind English spectacles [15] and its abbreviation specs [19], is a post-Latin development.
=> auspice, conspicuous, espionage, expect, frontispiece, inspect, respect, special, species, suspect
strict: strict: [16] Strict was acquired direct from strictus, the past participle of Latin stringere ‘pull tight, tighten’ (source also of English prestige, strain, and stringent). The original literal sense ‘tight’ survived into English (‘She wildly breaketh from their strict embrace’, Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis 1592), but it has since given way to various metaphorical extensions.

Routed via Old French, strictus has given English strait, and English is also indebted to it for stress [14] (via the Vulgar Latin derivative *strictia) and stricture [14], not to mention prefixed forms such as constrain, constrict [18], distrain, distress, district, restrain, and restrict [16].
=> constrain, constrict, distrain, distress, district, prestige, restrain, restrict, strain, stress, stricture, stringent
sun: sun: [OE] Not surprisingly, considering the central importance of the sun to human life, the word for it in the vast majority of modern European languages goes back to a common Indo-European source – *sāu- or *su-. These variants have however differentiated into several distinct camps. The *sāu- form adopted an -lsuffix, and evolved into Greek hélios (source of English heliotrope), Latin sōl (whence French soleil, Italian sole, and Spanish sol, not to mention English solar, solarium, etc), Welsh haul, and Swedish and Danish sol.

The *suform with an -l- ending has given Russian solnce, Czech slunce, Serbo-Croat sunce, etc. But the modern West Germanic languages have inherited the *su- form with an -n- suffix, giving German sonne, Dutch zon, and English sun.
=> heliotrope, solar, solarium
tenant: tenant: [14] A tenant is etymologically a ‘holder’. The word comes from Old French tenant, a noun use of the present participle of tenir ‘hold’. This in turn went back to Latin tenēre ‘hold’, a descendant of the Indo-European base *ten- ‘stretch, extend’ (source also of English tend, tense, thin, etc). Also from Latin tenēre come English tenacious [16], tenement [14], tenet [17], and tenor, not to mention contain, continue, detain, maintain, obtain, retain, etc, while French tenir has additionally produced tenable [16], tenon [15], tenure [15], and probably tennis.
=> contain, continue, detain, maintain, obtain, retain, tenable, tenacious, tend, tenement, tenet, tennis, tenon, tenor, tense, tenure, thin
throat: throat: [OE] Throat comes from a prehistoric Germanic base *thrut- or *thrūt-. This also produced Old English thrūtian ‘swell’, and a related base *strut- was the source of the now defunct Middle English strouten ‘bulge, swell’ (not to mention Dutch strot ‘throat’), so it has been speculated that the underlying etymological meaning of throat is ‘swollen part’ – an allusion no doubt to the bulge of the Adam’s apple. Throttle [14] is probably a derivative of throat.
=> throttle
worth: worth: [OE] Worth is a general Germanic adjective, with relatives in German wert, Dutch waard, Swedish värd, and Danish værd (worth ‘value’ [OE] is a noun use of the adjective). Its ultimate ancestry is uncertain, although it has been speculated that it may go back to the Indo- European base *wer- ‘turn’, which also produced Latin vertere (source of English convert, version, etc), German werden ‘become’, and the now obsolete English verb worth ‘become’, not to mention English weird and possibly worm. Derived from worth are worship and worthy [13].
=> worship, worthy
let (v.): Old English lætan "to allow to remain; let go, leave, depart from; leave undone; to allow; bequeath," also "to rent" (class VII strong verb; past tense let, past participle læten), from Proto-Germanic *letan (cognates: Old Saxon latan, Old Frisian leta, Dutch laten, German lassen, Gothic letan "to leave, let"), from PIE *le- (2) "to let go, slacken" (cognates: Latin lassus "faint, weary," Lithuanian leisti "to let, to let loose;" see lenient). If that derivation is correct, the primary sense would be "let go through weariness, neglect."

Of blood, from late Old English. To let (something) slip originally (1520s) was a reference to hounds on a leash; figurative use from 1540s. To let (someone) off "allow to go unpunished" is from 1814. To let on "reveal, divulge" is from 1725; to let up "cease, stop" is from 1787. Let alone "not to mention" is from 1812.