英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

bulk [bulk 词源字典]: bulk: [14] Formally, bulk comes from Old Norse búlki, which meant ‘cargo’ or ‘heap’: the original connotation of the English word in this sense was thus of goods loaded loose, in heaps, rather than neatly packed up. That is the source of the phrase in bulk. However, a certain similarity in form and meaning to the English word bouk ‘belly’ (from Old English būc, and ultimately a descendant of West and North Germanic *būkaz) led to the two being confused, so that bulk was used for ‘belly’, or more generally ‘body’.

Modern connotations of ‘great size’ seem to be a blend of these two. The bulk of bulkhead [15] is a different word; it may come from Old Norse bálkr ‘partition’.
[bulk etymology, bulk origin, 英语词源]
constipation: constipation: [15] Latin constīpātiō originally meant ‘condition of being closely packed or compressed’. Its English descendant constipation was briefly used in that literal sense in the 17th and 18th centuries, but for the most part it has been a medical term: at first for constriction of some internal organ, blood vessel, etc, and from the mid-16th century for impaired bowel function. The Latin past participle constīpātus passed into Old French as costive, which English acquired, via an unrecorded Anglo-Norman *costif ‘constipated’ [14].
=> costive, stevedore, stiff
drug: drug: [14] Drug is one of the mystery words of the language. It is clear that English acquired it from Old French drogue, but no one is certain where the French word came from. One suggestion is that it originated in Arabic dūrawā ‘chaff’; another, rather more likely, is that its source was Dutch droog ‘dry’, via either the phrase droge waere ‘dry goods’ or droge vate ‘dry barrels’, a common expression for ‘goods packed in barrels’. It has spread to many other European languages, including Italian and Spanish droga, German droge, and Swedish drog.
galaxy: galaxy: [14] The Greeks had a word for the ‘Milky Way’ – and indeed it was very much the same as ours. They called it galaxías, which was originally an adjective, ‘milky’, derived from the noun gála ‘milk’. English acquired it via late Latin galaxiās and Old French galuxie. (The term Milky Way, incidentally, which originated as a translation of Latin via lactea, is of roughly equal antiquity in English with galaxy. Their common inspiration is the white appearance of the myriad stars packed densely together.)
throng: throng: [13] The etymological notion underlying throng is of ‘pressing together’. It was borrowed from Old Norse throng ‘crowd’, which went back ultimately to the prehistoric Germanic base *thringg- ‘press’ (source also of German drang ‘crowd, pressure’ and dringen ‘press’). Amongst its non-Germanic relatives is Old Persian thraxta- ‘closely-packed’.
backpack: 1914 as a noun, 1916 as a verb, from back (n.) + pack (n.). Related: Backpacked; backpacking.
bank (n.1): "financial institution," late 15c., from either Old Italian banca or Middle French banque (itself from the Italian word), both meaning "table" (the notion is of the moneylender's exchange table), from a Germanic source (compare Old High German bank "bench"); see bank (n.2).

Bank holiday is from 1871, though the tradition is as old as the Bank of England. To cry all the way to the bank was coined 1956 by flamboyant pianist Liberace, after a Madison Square Garden concert that was packed with patrons but panned by critics.
mosh (v.): "to dance (with a certain amount of violence) to metal music in a tightly packed arena," 1987, perhaps a variant of mash. Related: Mosh pit.
pack (v.): c. 1300, "to put together in a pack," from pack (n.), possibly influenced by Anglo-French empaker (late 13c.) and Medieval Latin paccare "pack."

Some senses suggesting "make secret arrangement" are from an Elizabethan mispronunciation of pact. Sense of "to carry or convey in a pack" (1805) led to general sense of "to carry in any manner;" hence to pack heat "carry a gun," underworld slang from 1940s; "to be capable of delivering" (a punch, etc.), from 1921. Related: Packed; packing.
pentagon (n.): plane figure with five angles and five sides, 1560s, from Middle French pentagone or directly from Late Latin pentagonum "pentagon," from Greek pentagonon, noun use of neuter of adjective pentagonos "five-angled," from pente "five" (see five) + gonia "angle" (see -gon). The U.S. military headquarters Pentagon was completed 1942, so called for its shape; used allusively for "U.S. military leadership" from 1945. Related: Pentagonal.
In nature, pentagonal symmetry is rare in inanimate forms. Packed soap bubbles seem to strive for it but never quite succeed, and there are no mineral crystals with true pentagonal structures. But pentagonal geometry is basic to many living things, from roses and forget-me-nots to sea urchins and starfish. [Robert Bringhurst, "The Elements of Typographic Style," 1992]
portmanteau (n.): 1580s, "traveling case or bag for clothes and other necessaries," from Middle French portemanteau "traveling bag," originally "court official who carried a prince's mantle" (1540s), from porte, imperative of porter "to carry" (see porter (n.1)) + manteau "cloak" (see mantle (n.)).

Portmanteau word "word blending the sound of two different words" (1882), coined by "Lewis Carroll" (Charles L. Dodgson, 1832-1898) for the sort of words he invented for "Jabberwocky," on notion of "two meanings packed up into one word." As a noun in this sense from 1872.
sardine (n.): early 15c., from Latin sardina, from Greek sardine, sardinos, often said to be from Sardo "Sardinia" (see Sardinia), the Mediterranean island, near which the fish probably were caught and from which they were exported. But Klein writes, "It is hardly probable that the Greeks would have obtained fish from so far as Sardinia at a time relatively so early as that of Aristotle, from whom Athenaios quotes a passage in which the fish sardinos is mentioned." Colloquial phrase packed like sardines (in a tin) is recorded from 1911.
silage (n.): "fodder packed in a silo," 1884, alteration (probably by influence of silo) of ensilage.
soap-box (n.): also soapbox, 1650s, "box for holding soap," later especially a wooden crate in which soap may be packed; from soap (n.) + box (n.). Typical of a makeshift stand for a public orator since at least 1907. Also used by children to make racing carts, as in soap-box derby, annual race in Dayton, Ohio, which dates to 1933.
unpack (v.): late 15c., from un- (2) "reverse, opposite of" + pack (v.). Similar formation in Dutch ontpakken. Related: Unpacked; unpacking.
phellem: "The outermost, protective layer of the periderm of plant shoots and roots, typically composed of tightly packed, suberized cells; cork tissue", Late 19th cent.; earliest use found in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. From German Phellem from ancient Greek ϕελλός cork + German -em.