英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

algorithm [algorithm 词源字典]: algorithm: [13] Algorithm comes from the name of an Arab mathematician, in full Abu Ja far Mohammed ibn-Musa al-Khwarizmi (c. 780–c. 850), who lived and taught in Baghdad and whose works in translation introduced Arabic numerals to the West. The last part of his name means literally ‘man from Khwarizm’, a town on the borders of Turkmenistan, now called Khiva. The Arabic system of numeration and calculation, based on 10, of which he was the chief exponent, became known in Arabic by his name – al-khwarizmi.

This was borrowed into medieval Latin as algorismus (with the Arabic -izmi transformed into the Latin suffix -ismus ‘-ism’). In Old French algorismus became augorime, which was the basis of the earliest English form of the word, augrim. From the 14th century onwards, Latin influence gradually led to the adoption of the spelling algorism in English.

This remains the standard form of the word when referring to the Arabic number system; but in the late 17th century an alternative version, algorithm, arose owing to association with Greek árithmos ‘number’ (source of arithmetic [13]), and this became established from the 1930s onwards as the term for a stepby- step mathematical procedure, as used in computing. Algol, the name of a computer programming language, was coined in the late 1950s from ‘algorithmic language’.
=> allegory, allergy, arithmetic[algorithm etymology, algorithm origin, 英语词源]
aphorism: aphorism: see horizon
calorie: calorie: see cauldron
chlorine: chlorine: [19] Chlorine is a greenish-yellow gas, and was named for its colour. The term was coined by the British chemist Sir Humphry Davy in 1810, from the Greek khlōrós ‘greenishyellow’. Of other words containing this element, chlorophyll [19] too was based on the notion of colour (in reference to the green colouring matter of leaves: the Greek elements literally mean ‘green leaf’), but chloroform [19], originally French, is a secondary formation based ultimately on chlorine (since it was originally regarded as a trichloride of formyl).
=> yellow
florid: florid: see flower
florin: florin: [14] Florin came via Old French florin from Italian fiorino, a diminutive of fiore ‘flower’. This was used as the name of a gold coin first issued in Florence, Italy in 1252, which had the figure of a lily on its obverse side. In the 15th century it was adopted as the term for an English gold coin worth variously 6 shillings and 6 shillings and 8 pence, issued in the reign of Edward III, and it was revived in 1849 when a new 2 shilling silver coin was issued.
=> flower
florist: florist: see flower
gorilla: gorilla: [19] The first we hear of gorilla is as a word used in a Greek translation of the 5thcentury BC Carthaginian explorer Hanno’s account of a voyage to West Africa. He reported encountering there a tribe of wild hairy people, whose females were, according to a local interpreter, called goríllas. In 1847 the American missionary and scientist Thomas Savage adopted the word as the species name of the great ape Troglodytes gorilla, and by the 1850s it had passed into general use.
gubernatorial: gubernatorial: see govern
horizon: horizon: [14] Etymologically, the horizon is simply a ‘line forming a boundary’. The word comes via Old French orizon and late Latin horīzōn from Greek horízōn, a derivative of the verb horīzein ‘divide, separate’ (source also of English aphorism [16], originally a ‘definition’). This in turn came from the noun hóros ‘boundary, limit’. Horizontal [16], which came either from French or directly from late Latin, originally meant simply ‘of the horizon’; it was not until the 17th century that it began to be used in its modern sense ‘flat, level’.
=> aphorism
liquorice: liquorice: [13] Liquorice, or licorice as it is usually spelled in American English, has no direct etymological connection with liquor (although liquor has played a significant role in its development). It goes back to Greek glukúrrhiza, which meant literally ‘sweet root’ (it was a compound of glukús ‘sweet’, source of English glycerine, and rhíza ‘root’, source of English rhizome [19]). Under the influence of liquor, this was borrowed into post-classical Latin as liquiritia, which passed into English via Old French licoresse and Anglo-Norman lycorys.
=> glycerine, rhizome
moratorium: moratorium: see demur
notorious: notorious: [16] Notorious originally meant simply ‘well known’. It was borrowed from medieval Latin nōtōrius, which was a derivative of nōtus ‘known’, the past participle of Latin nōscere ‘know’ (source also of English notice, notion, etc). The English word very soon came to be used in association with derogatory nouns (as in ‘a notorious liar’), and by the early 17th century the adjective itself had taken on negative connotations. (Noble, which comes from the same ultimate source and likewise etymologically means ‘known’, has gone up in the world as far as notorious has gone down.)
=> notice
orient: orient: English has two separate words orient, but they come ultimately from the same source: Latin orīrī ‘rise’ (from which English also gets abort and origin). Its present participle, oriēns ‘rising’, was used for the direction of the ‘rising sun’, and hence for the ‘east’, and passed into English via Old French as the adjective and noun orient [14].

The verb orient [18] was borrowed from French orienter, a derivative of the adjective orient. It originally meant ‘turn to face the east’, and was not used for ‘ascertain or fix the direction of’ until the 19th century. Orientate emerged in the mid-19th century, probably as a back-formation from orientation [19], itself a derivative of orient.
=> abort, origin
orifice: orifice: see oral
origin: origin: [14] Etymologically, origin denotes literally an ‘arising’. The word was borrowed from Latin orīgō ‘source’, a derivative of the verb orīrī ‘rise’. This also produced English abort [16] (etymologically ‘be born badly’) and orient.
=> abort, orient
orison: orison: see orator
piscatorial: piscatorial: see fish
rhetoric: rhetoric: [14] In ancient Greece, a rhétōr was a ‘public speaker’, an ‘orator’. The word went back to a prehistoric Indo-European base *wer- ‘speak, say’, which also produced English verb and word. From it was derived the adjective rhētorikós, which passed into English as a noun via Latin rhētorica and Old French rethorique.
=> verb, word
sanatorium: sanatorium: see sane
stentorian: stentorian: [17] Stentor was a Greek warrior in the Trojan war, whose abnormally loud voice earned him the job of herald (his name was derived from the Greek verb sténein ‘groan, moan’). Stentorian, based on late Latin stentoreus or Greek stentóreios, commemorates his carrying tones.
tonsorial: tonsorial: see tome
vainglorious: vainglorious: see glory
a posteriori: Latin, literally "from what comes after" (see posterior).
a priori: 1710, "from cause to effect" (a logical term, in reference to reasoning), Latin, literally "from what comes first," from priori, ablative of prior "first" (see prior (adj.)). Used loosely for "in accordance with previous knowledge" (1834).
aboriginal (adj.): 1660s, "first, earliest," especially in reference to inhabitants of lands colonized by Europeans, from aborigines (see aborigine) + -al (1); specific Australian sense is from 1820. The noun is attested from 1767. Related: Aboriginally.
aborigine (n.): 1858, mistaken singular of aborigines (1540s; the correct singular is aboriginal), from Latin Aborigines "the first ancestors of the Romans; the first inhabitants" (especially of Latium), possibly a tribal name, or from or made to conform to ab origine, literally "from the beginning." Extended 1789 to natives of other countries which Europeans have colonized. Australian slang shortening Abo attested from 1922.
accessorize (v.): 1939, from accessory + -ize. Related: Accessorized; accessorizing.
adoring (adj.): 1650s, "worshipping," present participle adjective from adore. Related: Adoringly.
ahistoric (adj.): "not historical, lacking in historical background or justification," 1911, from a- (2) "not" + historic.
ahistorical (adj.): "without reference to or regard for history," 1950, from a- (2) "not" + historical.
algorithm (n.): 1690s, from French algorithme, refashioned (under mistaken connection with Greek arithmos "number") from Old French algorisme "the Arabic numeral system" (13c.), from Medieval Latin algorismus, a mangled transliteration of Arabic al-Khwarizmi "native of Khwarazm," surname of the mathematician whose works introduced sophisticated mathematics to the West (see algebra). The earlier form in Middle English was algorism (early 13c.), from Old French.
algorithmic (adj.): by 1799, from algorithm + -ic. In reference to symbolic rules or language, by 1881.
allegorical (adj.): 1520s, from French allégorique, from Latin allegoricus, from Greek allegorikos (see allegory). Earlier form was allegoric (late 14c.). Related: Allegorically.
ambassadorial (adj.): 1759, from ambassador + -al (1).
anagnorisis (n.): c. 1800, from Latin, from Greek anagnorisis "recognition," from anagnorizein "to recognize."
anaphoric (adj.): 1914, coined by Danish linguist Otto Jespersen (1860-1943) in the grammatical sense; see anaphora + -ic. In the sentence, "Here are some apples; take one," the one is anaphoric.
anchorite (n.): mid-15c., "hermit (especially those of the Eastern deserts), recluse, one who withdraws from the world for religious reasons," from Medieval Latin anchorita, from Greek anakhoretes, literally "one who has retired," agent noun from anakhorein "to retreat, go back, retire," from ana- "back" (see ana-) + khorein "withdraw, give place," from khoros "place, space, free space, room." Replaced Old English ancer, from Late Latin anchoreta.
aorist (n.): 1580s, the simple past tense of Greek verbs, from Greek aoristos (khronos) "indefinite (tense)," from privative prefix a- "not" (see a- (3)) + horistos "limited, defined," verbal adjective from horizein "to limit, define," from horos "boundary, limit, border" (see horizon).
aphorism (n.): 1520s (especially in reference to the "Aphorisms of Hippocrates"), from Middle French aphorisme (14c., aufforisme), from Late Latin aphorismus, from Greek aphorismos "definition, pithy sentence," from aphorizein "to mark off, divide," from apo- "from" (see apo-) + horizein "to bound" (see horizon).

An aphorism is a short, pithy statement containing a truth of general import; an axiom is a statement of self-evident truth; a theorem is a demonstrable proposition in science or mathematics; an epigram is like an aphorism, but lacking in general import. Maxim and saying can be used as synonyms for aphorism.
aphoristic (adj.): 1753, from Greek aphoristikos (see aphorism). Aphoristically is from 1650s.
aporia (n.): 1580s, from Latin, from Greek aporia, noun of state from aporos (see aporetic).
arborist (n.): 1570s, from Latin arbor "tree," which is of unknown origin, + -ist. In early use probably from French arboriste.
armorial (adj.): 1570s, from armory + -al (1).
Armorica: ancient name for Brittany, from Gallo-Roman Are-mor-ica, literally "before the sea," with a Celtic prefix meaning "before" (compare Old Irish ar) + mare "sea" (see mere (n.)).
auditorium (n.): 1727, from Latin auditorium "lecture room," literally "place where something is heard," neuter of auditorius (adj.) "of or for hearing," from auditus, past participle of audire "to hear" (see audience); also see -ory. Earlier in the same sense was auditory (late 14c.).
authorial (adj.): 1796, from author (n.) + -al (1).
authorisation (n.): chiefly British English spelling of authorization (q.v.); for spelling, see -ize.
authorise (v.): chiefly British English spelling of authorize (q.v.); for suffix, see -ize. Related: Authorised; authorising.
authoritarian (adj.): 1862, "favoring imposed order over freedom," from authority + -an. Compare authoritative, which originally had this meaning to itself. Noun in the sense of one advocating or practicing such governance is from 1859.