英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

antelope [antelope 词源字典]: antelope: [15] Antelope comes from medieval Greek antholops. In the Middle Ages it was applied to an outlandish but figmentary beast, in the words of the Oxford English Dictionary, ‘haunting the banks of the Euphrates, very savage, hard to catch, having long saw-like horns with which they cut in pieces and broke all “engines” and even cut down trees’. The term was subsequently used for a heraldic animal, but it was not until the early 17th century that it was applied, by the naturalist Edward Topsell, to the swift-running deerlike animal for which it is now used.
[antelope etymology, antelope origin, 英语词源]
bruise: bruise: [OE] Modern English bruise is a blend of words from two sources. The main contributor is Old English brysan, which as well as ‘bruise’ meant ‘crush to pieces’, and is related to Latin frustum ‘piece broken or cut off’. But then in the early Middle English period we begin to see the influence of the unrelated Old French verb bruisier ‘break’ and its Anglo-Norman form bruser (which in modern French has become briser).

Their main effect has been on the spelling of the word, although the use of bruise for ‘break’ from the 14th to the 17th century seems to have been due to French influence too, rather than a survival of the Old English meaning: ‘Had his foot once slipped … he would have been bruised in pieces’, The most dangerous and memorable adventure of Richard Ferris 1590. Bruiser ‘large rough man’ originated in an 18th-century term for a prizefighter.
=> débris
clock: clock: [14] The clock appears to have been so named because it told the hours by the chiming of a ‘bell’, medieval Latin clocca. The Latin word, which emerged in the 7th century and may have been of Irish origin, probably reached English via Middle Dutch klocke. Besides being applied to time-pieces, it has also lent its name to two garments on account of their supposedly bell-like shape: cloak [13], which comes from the Old French dialect cloke or cloque, and cloche hat [20], from French cloche ‘bell’.
=> cloak, cloche
coin: coin: [14] Latin cuneus meant ‘wedge’ (from it we get cuneiform ‘wedge-shaped script’). It passed into Old French as coing or coin, where it developed a variety of new meanings. Primary amongst these was ‘corner-stone’ or ‘corner’, a sense preserved in English mainly in the now archaic spelling quoin. But also, since the die for stamping out money was often wedge-shaped, or operated in the manner of a wedge, it came to be referred to as a coin, and the term soon came to be transferred to the pieces of money themselves.
=> quoin
conker: conker: [19] A conker was originally a ‘snail shell’. Small boys tied them on to pieces of string and played a game involving trying to break their opponent’s shell (another method of playing was simply to press two shells together and see which one broke). The first record of the use of horse chestnuts instead of snail shells is from the 1880s, but in the succeeding century this has established itself as the word’s sole application.

It is not entirely clear where it originally came from. The connection with molluscs has inevitably suggested a derivation from conch (itself ultimately from Greek kónkhē), but early 19th-century spellings of the game as conquering, and of conker as conqueror, point to a simpler explanation, that the stronger snail shell defeated, or ‘conquered’, the weaker.
crash: crash: [14] Crash suddenly appeared from nowhere in Middle English (meaning ‘break in pieces noisily’), with apparently no relatives in other Germanic languages. Its form suggests that it originated in imitation of the sound of noisy breaking, but it has been further suggested that it may be a blend of craze and dash. The financial or business sense of the noun, ‘sudden collapse’, is first recorded in the early 19th century in the writings of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
cupboard: cupboard: [14] A cupboard was originally exactly that: a ‘board’, or table, on which cups (and other pieces of crockery or plate) were placed for display. Essentially, it was what we would now call a sideboard. The modern sense, ‘recess with doors and shelves’, did not develop until the 16th century. (An earlier, and now largely superseded, term for ‘cupboard’ was press [14]. Cabinet is roughly contemporary with cupboard in its modern sense, and closet developed this meaning in the 17th century.)
diminish: diminish: [15] Diminish is a hybrid verb, the result of a marriage between the now obsolete diminue [14] and the virtually obsolete minish [14], both of which meant ‘make smaller’. Diminue came via Old French diminuer from Latin dīminuere ‘break into small pieces’; it was a compound verb formed from the prefix dē- ‘from’ and minuere ‘lessen’ (source of English minute). Minish came via Old French menuiser from Vulgar Latin *minūtiāre, a derivative of Latin minūtus ‘small’; this, bringing the history of diminish full circle, was an adjectival use of the past participle of minuere.
=> minute
discuss: discuss: [14] The ultimate source of discuss meant ‘smash to pieces’. It comes from discuss-, the past participle stem of Latin discutere, a compound verb formed from the prefix dis- ‘apart’ and quatere ‘shake’ (from which English also gets concussion and quash). Its literal meaning was ‘smash apart, break up’, and this gradually developed via ‘scatter, disperse’ to, in post-classical times, ‘investigate, examine’ and eventually ‘debate’.

The apparently wide semantic discrepancy between ‘scatter, disperse’ and ‘examine’ was probably bridged by some such intermediate notion as ‘disperse or separate in the mind so as to distinguish and identify each component’.
=> concussion, quash
essay: essay: [15] Essay and assay [14] are fundamentally the same word, and only began to diverge in the 15th century. Both come via Old French assaier from Vulgar Latin *exagiāre ‘weigh out’, a verb derived from late Latin exagium ‘weighing’; this in turn was formed from the Latin verb exigere ‘weigh’ (source of English exact and examine).

Accordingly, both originally had underlying connotations of ‘testing by weighing’. But while these have become more concrete in assay ‘analyse precious metals’, essay has, under the influence of French essayer, gone down the more metaphorical route from ‘test’ to ‘try’. The verb now survives only in fairly formal use, but the noun is much more frequent, owing to its application to a ‘short nonfictional literary composition’.

It was first used thus in English by Francis Bacon in 1597 as the title of a collection of such pieces, and it is generally assumed that he borrowed the idea from the Essais of Montaigne, published in 1580.
=> assay, exact, examine
ostracism: ostracism: [16] In ancient Greece, when it was proposed that a particular person should be sent into exile for a period, because he was becoming a danger to the state, a democratic vote was taken on the matter. The method of registering one’s vote was to inscribe the name of the prospective banishee on a piece of broken pottery. The pieces were counted, and if enough votes were cast against him away he would go for ten years.

The fragment of pottery was called an óstrakon, a word related to Greek ostéon ‘bone’ (source of the English prefix osteo-) and óstreon ‘oyster’ (source of English oyster). To cast such a vote was therefore ostrakízein (whence English ostracize [17]), and the abstract now derived from this was ostrakismós, source of English ostracism.
quash: quash: [14] Quash goes back ultimately to Latin quatere ‘shake’ (source also of English rescue [14], which etymologically means ‘shake off, drive away’, and of concussion and percussion). From it evolved quassāre ‘shake to pieces, break’, which passed into Old French as quasser (its modern descendant is casser, from which English gets cashier ‘dismiss from the army’). English took quasser over as quash. Squash [16] comes ultimately from the Vulgar Latin derivative *exquassāre.
=> concussion, percussion, rescue, squash
repertory: repertory: [16] A repertory is etymologically a list of things ‘found’. The word was adopted from late Latin repertōrium, a derivative of reperīre ‘find out’. This was formed from the base *per- ‘attempt’, which has also given English experience, expert, peril, pirate, etc. The sense ‘list of plays, pieces of music, etc performed’ was introduced from French in the 19th century, along with the French form repertoire.
=> experience, expert, peril, pirate
rigmarole: rigmarole: [18] Rigmarole is a corruption of an earlier ragman roll, a term first encountered in the late 13th century. It denoted a roll of parchment used in a gambling game. The roll had things written on it, such as names, with pieces of string attached to them, and participants had to select a string at random. The word ragman may have been a contraction of ragged man, perhaps in allusion to the appearance of the roll, with all its bits of string hanging from it. Ragman roll eventually came to be used for any ‘list’ or ‘catalogue’, and ragman itself denoted a ‘long rambling discourse’ in 16th-century Scottish English – the meaning which had somehow transferred itself to rigmarole when it emerged in the early 18th century.
rosary: rosary: [14] Rosary comes from Latin rosārium ‘rose garden’, a derivative of rosa ‘rose’. It was a common conceit in the Middle Ages to name collections of verse or similar short pieces after bunches of flowers (anthology comes from the Greek word for ‘flower’, and a similar inspiration underlies florilegium, while a 13thcentury volume of the collected works of the Persian poet Sa’di was called the Rose garden).

That was the background against which a collection of Roman Catholic prayers, consisting of Aves, Paternosters, and Glorias, came to be known as a rosary. A string of beads of varying sizes came to be used for counting off how far one has got in saying these prayers (English bead itself comes from a word meaning ‘prayer’), and this too was termed rosary.
=> rose
satire: satire: [16] A satire is etymologically a ‘verse medley’, an ‘assortment of pieces on various subjects’. The word comes via Old French satire from Latin satira ‘mixture’, an alteration of an earlier satura. This is said to have been derived from satus ‘full’ (a relative of satis ‘enough’, source of English satisfy), and the link in the semantic chain from ‘full’ to ‘mixture’ is ‘plateful of assorted fruit’, the earliest recorded meaning of satura.

By classical times, Latin satira had moved on from being a general literary miscellany to its now familiar role as a ‘literary work ridiculing or denouncing people’s follies or vices’. The word has no etymological connection, incidentally, with satyr ‘Greek woodland god’ [14], which comes ultimately from Greek sáturos, a word of unknown origin.
scarf: scarf: English has two words scarf. The older, but now less frequent, is ‘joint between two pieces of wood’ [14]. This may have been borrowed from an Old French *escarf, which itself was possibly based ultimately on a Scandinavian source (Swedish has skarf ‘joint between pieces of wood’). The scarf that is worn [16] comes from Old Northern French escarpe. This was equivalent to central Old French escarpe, escherpe, which originally denoted a ‘pilgrim’s bag hung round the neck’. It came via a Frankish *skirpja from Latin scirpea ‘basket made from rushes’, a derivative of scirpus ‘rush’.
sequin: sequin: [17] When English first adopted sequin, it was the name of a coin. Its ultimate ancestor was Arabic sikkah, which denoted a die from which coins were minted (in Anglo-Indian English from the 17th to the 19th century, a sicca was a newly minted rupee). Italian took the word over as zecca, and created a diminutive form zecchino, referring to a gold coin.

The original application was specifically to a Venetian coin, but this subsequently broadened out, and the term was also used for a Turkish coin (alternatively known as a sultanin). In French, zecchino became sequin, which is the form in which English acquired it. The word might well have followed the coin into oblivion, but in the late 19th century it managed to get itself applied to the small round shiny pieces of metal applied to clothing, and its continued existence was guaranteed.
slack: slack: [OE] In common with Dutch and Swedish slak, slack comes from a prehistoric Germanic *slakaz. This was derived from the same ultimate source that produced Latin laxus ‘loose’ (source of English lax, relax, release, and relish) and languēre ‘languish’ (source of English languish). The plural noun slacks was first used for ‘trousers’ in the early 19th century. (The noun slack ‘small pieces of coal’ [15] is a different word, probably borrowed from Middle Dutch slacke ‘waste produced by smelting metal’.)
=> languish, lax, relax, release, relinquish
stamp: stamp: [12] Stamp originally meant ‘crush into small pieces, pound’. The sense ‘slam the foot down’ did not emerge until the 14th century, and ‘imprint with a design by pressure’ (which forms the semantic basis of postage stamp [19]) is as recent as the 16th century. The word comes, probably via an unrecorded Old English *stampian, from prehistoric Germanic *stampōjan (source also of German stampfen, Dutch stampen, Swedish stampa, and Danish stampe).

This was derived from the noun *stampaz ‘pestle’, which was formed from the base *stamp- (a non-nasalized version of which, *stap-, lies behind English step). The Germanic verb was borrowed into Vulgar Latin as *stampīre, whose past participle has given English, via Mexican Spanish, stampede [19].
=> stampede, step
stirrup: stirrup: [OE] A stirrup is etymologically a ‘climbing rope’. The word goes back to a prehistoric Germanic compound formed from the base *stig- ‘climb’ (source also of English stair and stile) and *raipaz (ancestor of English rope). The earliest stirrups were looped pieces of rope.
=> rope, stair, stile
stock: stock: [OE] The word stock originally denoted a ‘tree-trunk’. It came from a prehistoric Germanic *stukkaz, which also produced German stock ‘stick’ and Swedish stock ‘log’. The lineal semantic descent to the stocks [14], a punishment device made from large pieces of wood, is clear enough, but how stock came to be used for a ‘supply, store’ (a sense first recorded in the 15th century) is more of a mystery.

It may be that a tradesman’s supply of goods was thought of metaphorically as the trunk of a tree, from which profits grew like branches; and another possibility is that the usage was inspired by an unrecorded application of stock to a wooden storage chest or money box. Stock ‘broth’ was so named (in the 18th century, apparently) because one keeps a ‘stock’ of it on hand in the stockpot, for use at need.

The original notion of a stout piece of wood is preserved in the derivative stocky [14], and also in stock-still [15] – literally ‘as still as a log’.
torch: torch: [13] A torch is etymologically something ‘twisted’. The word comes via Old French torche from Vulgar Latin *torca, which was derived from the Latin verb torquēre ‘twist’ (source also of English torment, torture, etc). The notion underlying the word is of pieces of straw or similar material ‘twisted’ together and then dipped in some inflammable material. That is what it still denotes in American English, but in British English it has been reapplied to a battery-driven alternative to this.
=> torment, torque, torture
ambulance (n.): 1798, "mobile or field hospital," from French (hôpital) ambulant, literally "walking (hospital)," from Latin ambulantem (nominative ambulans), present participle of ambulare "to walk" (see amble).
AMBULANCE, s. f. a moveable hospital. These were houses constructed in a manner so as to be taken to pieces, and carried from place to place, according to the movements of the army; and served as receptacles in which the sick and wounded men might be received and attended. ["Lexicographica-Neologica Gallica" (The Neological French Dictionary), William Dupré, London, 1801]
The word was not common in English until the meaning transferred from "field hospital" to "vehicle for conveying wounded from field" (1854) during the Crimean War. In late 19c. U.S. the word was used dialectally to mean "prairie wagon." Ambulance-chaser as a contemptuous term for a type of lawyer dates from 1897.
arabesque (n.): 1610s, "Moorish or Arabic ornamental design," from French arabesque (16c.), from Italian arabesco, from Arabo "Arab," with reference to Moorish architecture. As a ballet pose, first attested 1830. Musical sense, in reference to an ornamented theme, is from 1864, originally the title given by Robert Schumann to one of his piano pieces.
backgammon (n.): 1640s, baggammon, the second element from Middle English gamen, ancestor of game; the first element apparently because pieces sometimes are forced to go "back." Known 13c.-17c. as tables.
barnstorm (v.): 1815, in reference to a theatrical troupe's performances in upstate New York barns (usually featuring short action pieces to suit vulgar tastes); extended 1896 to electioneering, 1928 to itinerant airplane pilots who performed stunts at fairs and races. Related: Barnstormed; barnstorming.
bread (n.): Old English bread "bit, crumb, morsel; bread," cognate with Old Norse brauð, Danish brød, Old Frisian brad, Middle Dutch brot, Dutch brood, German Brot. According to one theory [Watkins, etc.] from Proto-Germanic *brautham, which would be from the root of brew (v.) and refer to the leavening.

But OED argues at some length for the basic sense being not "cooked food" but "piece of food," and the Old English word deriving from a Proto-Germanic *braudsmon- "fragments, bits" (cognate with Old High German brosma "crumb," Old English breotan "to break in pieces") and being related to the root of break (v.). It cites Slovenian kruh "bread," literally "a piece."

Either way, by c. 1200 it had replaced the usual Old English word for "bread," which was hlaf (see loaf (n.)). Slang meaning "money" dates from 1940s, but compare breadwinner. Bread-and-butter in the figurative sense of "basic needs" is from 1732. Bread and circuses (1914) is from Latin, in reference to food and entertainment provided by governments to keep the populace happy. "Duas tantum res anxius optat, Panem et circenses" [Juvenal, Sat. x.80].
breccia (n.): "rock of angular pieces," 1774, from Italian breccia, "marble of angular pieces," from a Germanic source akin to Old High German brecha "a breaking," from Proto-Germanic *brekan, from PIE *bhreg- "to break" (see fraction).
brittle (adj.): late 14c., britel, perhaps from an unrecorded Old English adjective *brytel, related to brytan "to crush, pound, to break to pieces," from Proto-Germanic stem *brutila- "brittle," from *breutan "to break up" (cognates: Old Norse brjota "to break," Old High German brodi "fragile"), from PIE *bhreu- "to cut, break up" (see bruise (v.)). With -le, suffix forming adjectives with meaning "liable to."
camouflage: 1917, noun, verb, and adjective, from French camoufler, Parisian slang, "to disguise," from Italian camuffare "to disguise," which is of uncertain origin, perhaps a contraction of capo muffare "to muffle the head." Probably altered by influence of French camouflet "puff of smoke," on the notion of "blow smoke in someone's face." The British navy in World War I called it dazzle-painting.
Since the war started the POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY has published photographs of big British and French field pieces covered with shrubbery, railway trains "painted out" of the landscape, and all kinds of devices to hide the guns, trains, and the roads from the eyes of enemy aircraft.

Until recently there was no one word in any language to explain this war trick. Sometimes a whole paragraph was required to explain this military practice. Hereafter one word, a French word, will save all this needless writing and reading. Camouflage is the new word, and it means "fooling the enemy." ["Popular Science Monthly," August 1917]
castle (v.): move in chess, recorded under this name from 1650s, from castle (n.), as an old alternative name for the rook, one of the pieces moved. Related: Castled; castling.
Cheshire: 1086, Cestre Scire, from Chester + scir "district" (see shire). Cheshire cat and its proverbial grin are attested from 1770, but the signification is obscure.
I made a pun the other day, and palmed it upon Holcroft, who grinned like a Cheshire cat. (Why do cats grin in Cheshire?--Because it was once a county palatine, and the cats cannot help laughing whenever they think of it, though I see no great joke in it.) I said that Holcroft, on being asked who were the best dramatic writers of the day, replied, "HOOK AND I." Mr Hook is author of several pieces, Tekeli, &c. You know what hooks and eyes are, don't you? They are what little boys do up their breeches with. [Charles Lamb, letter to Thomas Manning, Feb. 26, 1808]
chess (n.): 13c., from Old French esches "chessmen," plural of eschec "game of chess, chessboard; checkmate" (see check (n.1)), from the key move of the game. Modern French still distinguishes échec "check, blow, rebuff, defeat," from plural échecs "chess."

The original word for "chess" is Sanskrit chaturanga "four members of an army" -- elephants, horses, chariots, foot soldiers. This is preserved in Spanish ajedrez, from Arabic (al) shat-ranj, from Persian chatrang, from the Sanskrit word.
The chess pieces are the block alphabet which shapes thoughts; and these thoughts, although making a visual design on the chessboard, express their beauty abstractly, like a poem. [Marcel Duchamp, address to New York State Chess Association, Aug. 30, 1952]
chevron (n.): late 14c., from Old French chevron "rafter; chevron" (13c.), the accent mark so called because it looks like rafters of a shallow roof, from Vulgar Latin *caprione, from Latin caper "goat" (see cab); the hypothetical connection between goats and rafters being the animal's angular hind legs. Compare Latin capreolus "props, stays, short pieces of timber for support," lit. "wild goat, chamoix."
clastic (adj.): "consisting of broken pieces," 1875, in geology, from Latinized form of Greek klastos "broken in pieces," from klan, klaein "to break," from PIE *kla-, variant of root *kel- (1) "to strike" (see holt).
cloak (n.): late 13c., "long, loose outer garment," from Old North French cloque (Old French cloche, cloke) "travelling cloak," from Medieval Latin clocca "travelers' cape," literally "a bell," so called from the garment's bell-like shape (the word is thus a doublet of clock (n.1)). An article of everyday wear in England through 16c., somewhat revived 19c. as a fashion garment. Cloak-and-dagger (adj.) attested from 1848, said to be ultimately translating French de cape et d'épée, suggestive of stealthy violence and intrigue.
Other "cloak and dagger pieces," as Bouterwek tells us the Spaniards call their intriguing comedies, might be tried advantageously in the night, .... ["Levana; or the Doctrine of Education," English translation, London, 1848]
clog (n.): early 14c., clogge "a lump of wood," origin unknown. Also used in Middle English of large pieces of jewelry and large testicles. Compare Norwegian klugu "knotty log of wood." Meaning "anything that impedes action" is from 1520s. The sense of "wooden-soled shoe" is first recorded late 14c.; they were used as overshoes until the introduction of rubbers c. 1840. Originally all wood (hence the name), later wooden soles with leather uppers for the front of the foot only. Later revived in fashion (c. 1970), primarily for women. Clog-dancing is attested from 1863.
concise (adj.): 1580s, from Latin concisus "cut off, brief," past participle of concidere "to cut off, cut up, cut through, cut to pieces," from com-, intensive prefix (see com-), + caedere "to cut" (see -cide). Related: Concisely.
contrite (adj.): c. 1300, from Old French contrit and directly from Latin contritus, literally "worn out, ground to pieces," past participle of conterere "to grind," from com- "together" (see com-) + terere "to rub" (see throw (v.)). Used in English in figurative sense of "crushed in spirit by a sense of sin." Related: Contritely.
contusion (n.): c. 1400, from Middle French contusion, from Latin contusionem (nominative contusio) "crushing, bruising," from contus-, past participle stem of contundere "to beat, break to pieces," from com-, intensive prefix (see com-), + tundere "to beat" (see obtuse).
crash (v.): late 14c., crasschen "break in pieces;" probably imitative. Meaning "break into a party, etc." is 1922. Slang meaning "to sleep" dates from 1943; especially from 1965. Computing sense is from 1973. Related: Crashed; crashing.
craze (v.): late 14c., crasen, craisen "to shatter, crush, break to pieces," probably Germanic and perhaps ultimately from a Scandinavian source (such as Old Norse *krasa "shatter"), but entering English via an Old French crasir (compare Modern French écraser). Original sense preserved in crazy quilt pattern and in reference to cracking in pottery glazing (1815). Mental sense (by 1620s) perhaps comes via transferred sense of "be diseased or deformed" (mid-15c.), or it might be an image. Related: Crazed; crazing.
... there is little assurance in reconciled enemies: whose affections (for the most part) are like unto Glasse; which being once cracked, can neuer be made otherwise then crazed and vnsound. [John Hayward, "The Life and Raigne of King Henrie the IIII," 1599]
dash (v.): c. 1300, probably from a Scandinavian source (compare Swedish daska, Danish daske "to beat, strike"), somehow imitative. The oldest sense is that in dash to pieces and dashed hopes. Intransitive meaning "move quickly" appeared c. 1300, that of "to write hurriedly" is 1726. Related: Dashed; dashing.
detail (n.): c. 1600, from French détail, from Old French detail "small piece or quantity," literally "a cutting in pieces," from detaillier "cut in pieces," from de- "entirely" (see de-) + taillier "to cut in pieces" (see tailor).

Modern sense is from French en détail "piece by piece, item by item" (as opposed to en gros), a commercial term used where we would today use retail. Military sense is 1708, from notion of "distribution in detail of the daily orders first given in general," including assignment of specific duties.
detail (v.): 1630s, from French détailler "cut up in pieces; narrate in particulars," from Old French detaillier, from detail (see detail (n.)). Related: Detailed; detailing.
diffraction (n.): 1670s, from French diffraction (17c.) or directly from Modern Latin diffractionem (nominative diffractio), noun of action from past participle stem of Latin diffringere "break apart in pieces," from dis- "apart" (see dis-) + frangere "to break" (see fraction).
diminish (v.): early 15c., from merger of two obsolete verbs, diminue and minish. Diminue is from Old French diminuer "make small," from Latin diminuere "break into small pieces," variant of deminuere "lessen, diminish," from de- "completely" + minuere "make small" (see minus).

Minish is from Old French menuisier, from Latin minuere. Related: Diminished; diminishes; diminishing.
discuss (v.): mid-14c., "to examine, investigate," from Latin discuss-, past participle stem of discutere "to dash to pieces, agitate," in Late Latin and Vulgar Latin also "to discuss, investigate" (see discussion). Meaning "examine by argument, debate" is from mid-15c. Related: Discussed; discussing.
disruption (n.): early 15c., from Latin disruptionem (nominative disruptio) "a breaking asunder," noun of action from past participle stem of disrumpere "break apart, split, shatter, break to pieces," from dis- "apart" (see dis-) + rumpere "to break" (see rupture (n.)).