英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

accident [accident 词源字典]: accident: [14] Etymologically, an accident is simply ‘something which happens’ – ‘an event’. That was what the word originally meant in English, and it was only subsequently that the senses ‘something which happens by chance’ and ‘mishap’ developed. It comes from the Latin verb cadere ‘fall’ (also the source of such diverse English words as case, decadent, and deciduous).

The addition of the prefix ad- ‘to’ produced accidere, literally ‘fall to’, hence ‘happen to’. Its present participle was used as an adjective in the Latin phrase rēs accidēns ‘thing happening’, and accidēns soon took on the role of a noun on its own, passing (in its stem form accident-) into Old French and thence into English.
=> case, decadent, deciduous[accident etymology, accident origin, 英语词源]
affluent: affluent: [15] The meaning ‘rich’ is a fairly recent development for affluent; it is first recorded in the mid 18th century. Originally the adjective meant simply ‘flowing’. It came, via Old French, from Latin affluent-, the present participle of affluere, a compound verb formed from the prefix ad- ‘towards’ and fluere ‘flow’ (the source of English fluid, fluent, flux, fluctuate, and many other derivatives).
=> fluctuate, fluent, fluid, flux
arrogant: arrogant: [14] Etymologically, to be arrogant is to make great claims about oneself. It originated in the Latin compound verb arrogāre ‘claim for oneself’, formed from the prefix ad- ‘to’ and rogāre ‘ask’ (as in English interrogate). Already in Latin the present participle arrogāns was being used adjectivally, for ‘overbearing’, and this passed via Old French into English.
=> interrogate, prerogative
bond: bond: English has two distinct words bond, which started life very differently but have gradually grown together. Bond ‘something that binds’ [13] was originally the same word as band (from Old Norse band), and only gradually diverged from it in pronunciation, spelling, and meaning. The key modern legal and financial senses began to develop in the 16th century, the underlying notion being of something one is ‘bound’ or ‘tied’ to by a promise. Bond ‘bound in slavery’ [14], as in bondservant, is an adjectival use of the late Old English noun bonda ‘householder’, which came from Old Norse bóndi (the second element of húsbóndi, from which English gets husband).

This represented an earlier bóandi, which was originally the present participle of east Norse bóa ‘dwell’, a derivative of the Germanic base *bū- ‘dwell’, (from which English also gets be, boor, booth, bower, build, burly, byelaw, and byre). The semantic association of ‘tying up’ and ‘servitude’ has led to the merging of the two words, as shown in the derivative bondage.
=> band; be, boor, booth, build, byelaw, neighbour
booth: booth: [12] In common with a wide range of other English words, including bower and the -bour of neighbour, booth comes ultimately from the Germanic base *bū- ‘dwell’. From this source came the East Norse verb bóa ‘dwell’ (whose present participle produced English bond and the -band of husband); addition of the suffix -th produced the unrecorded noun bóth. ‘dwelling’, which came into Middle English as bōth.
=> be, boor, bower, husband, neighbour
brigade: brigade: [17] Brigade is one of a small set of words (others are brigand and brigantine) which go back to Italian briga ‘strife’. It is not clear where this came from; theories have centred either on a Celtic origin, comparing Old Irish brig ‘strength’, or on a derivation from the Indo- European base *bhreg-, which produced English break.

Either way, the noun briga produced the verb brigare ‘contend, brawl’, from which in turn came the noun brigata. This originally meant simply ‘crowd or gang of people’, but soon developed the special sense ‘military company’. English acquired the word via French brigade. Meanwhile, the present participle of the Italian verb had given brigante, which English borrowed via Old French as brigand [14], and the diminutive brigantino ‘fighting ship’, source of English brigantine [16] (abbreviated in the 18th century to brig). Brigadier is a 17th-century adoption, from French.
=> brig, brigand, brigantine
brilliant: brilliant: [17] Brilliant comes from French brilliant, the present participle of briller ‘shine’. French borrowed the verb from Italian brillare, but it is not altogether clear where Italian got it from. One theory is that it came from Vulgar Latin *bērillāre, a derivative of bērillus ‘precious stone’ (whence English beryl [13]). The source of the Latin noun was Greek bérullos, which may have come from one of the Indo-European languages of India (Sanskrit vaidūrya ‘cat’s-eye’ has been compared).
buoy: buoy: [13] Buoy is of disputed origin, as to both its immediate source and its ultimate derivation. One school of thought holds that English borrowed it directly from Old French boie ‘chain’, while another views Middle Dutch boeye as an intermediate stage. Again some etymologists maintain that its beginnings were amongst the Germanic languages, and have connected it with English beacon, while others would trace it via Latin boia ‘strap’ to Greek boeiai ‘ox-leather straps’, a derivative of bous ‘ox’ (which is related to English cow).

The meaning of Old French boie favours the latter explanation, the semantic link being that buoys are held in place by chains. Buoyant [16] comes from Spanish boyante, the present participle of boyar ‘float’, which was derived from boya ‘buoy’, a borrowing from Old French boie.
client: client: [14] The original status of a client was rather lowly: he was someone who was at another’s beck and call, and dependent on them. The word comes from Latin cliēns, an alteration of an earlier cluēns, the present participle of the verb cluēre ‘listen, follow, obey’; hence someone who was cliēns was always listening out for another’s orders, unable to take independent action (in ancient Rome it meant specifically a plebeian under the protection of a nobleman).

That sense is preserved in such English expressions as ‘client state’. The word’s more modern senses have developed through ‘person on whose behalf a lawyer acts’ in the 15th century to simply ‘customer’ in the 17th century.
cognizance: cognizance: [14] Latin gnōscere meant ‘know’ (it is related to know and notion). From it was derived the compound verb cognōscere ‘get to know, recognize, acknowledge’. Its present participial stem cognōscent- formed the basis of a Vulgar Latin noun *connōscentia, which passed into Old French as connoissance. English borrowed this as conisance, restoring the Latin g to the spelling in the 15th century, which eventually affected the word’s pronunciation.

Also from the Latin present participle came Italian conoscente, which in its latinized form was borrowed into English as cognoscente in the 18th century. Meanwhile, the past participial stem of the Latin verb, cognit-, produced the noun cognitiō, source of English cognition [15]. The infinitive form of the Latin verb passed into Old French as connoître, from which was derived the agent noun connoisseur, borrowed into English in the 18th century (modern French has connaisseur).
=> cognition, connoisseur, know, notion, recognize, reconnaissance, reconnoitre
complaisant: complaisant: [17] Complaisant and complacent [17] are virtual doublets. Both come from Latin complacēre ‘please greatly’ (a compound verb formed from placēre, source of English please), but they reached English along different routes. Complaisant came via French, from complaisant, the present participle of complaire ‘gratify’, but complacent was a direct borrowing from the Latin present participle. It originally meant simply ‘pleasant, delightful’, and did not take on its present derogatory connotations (at first expressed by the now obsolete complacential) until the mid 18th century.
=> complacent, please
compose: compose: [15] Etymologically, compose means simply ‘put together’; it comes, via Old French composer, from compos-, the perfect stem of Latin compōnere, a compound verb formed from the prefix com- ‘with’ and pōnere ‘place, put’, source of English position. Amongst its many descendants and derivatives are compound, component [17] (from the Latin present participle compōnent-), composite [16] (from the Latin past participle compositus), and compost [14] (which originally meant ‘stewed fruit’, like the later-borrowed compote [17]).
=> component, composite, compost, compote, compound, position
confide: confide: [15] To confide in somebody is literally to ‘put one’s trust or faith’ in them. The word comes from the Latin compound verb confidere, which was formed from the intensive prefix com- and fidere ‘trust’. This was a derivative of fides ‘trust’ (whence English faith). Confidant [16] and confidence [15] come from the Latin verb’s present participle, confīdēns, in which the secondary notion of ‘self-assurance’ was already present. The abbreviation con for confidence man, confidence trick, etc originated in the USA in the late 19th century.
=> confident, faith
congruent: congruent: [15] Etymologically, triangles that are congruent ‘come together’ or ‘agree’ – that is, are similar. The word comes from congruēns, the present participle of Latin congruere ‘come together, meet, agree’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix com- ‘together’ and a verb, *gruere, not found elsewhere (some have linked it with Latin ruere ‘fall’ – ultimate source of English ruin – in which case congruere would have meant literally ‘fall together’, but others have seen a connection with Greek zakhrēēs ‘attacking violently’). Incongruous is a 17thcentury adoption from Latin incongruus.
consonant: consonant: [14] Etymologically, consonant means ‘sounding together’. It comes via Old French consonant from Latin consonāns, the present participle of consonāre, a compound verb formed from the prefix com- ‘together’ and sonāre ‘sound’. Its application to particular speech sounds, contrasted with ‘vowels’, comes from the notion that they were ‘pronounced together with’ vowels, rather than independently.
=> sonorous, sound
constitute: constitute: [15] Etymologically, that which is constituted is that which is ‘caused to stand’ or ‘set up’. The word comes from the past participle of Latin constituere ‘fix, establish’, a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix com- and statuere ‘set up’ (source of English statute). This was a derivative of Latin status (whence English state and status), which itself began life as the past participle of stāre ‘stand’ (a relative of English stand). The derivative constituent [17] comes (partly via French) from the Latin present participle constituēns.
=> stand, statue, status, statute
construct: construct: [17] Construct comes from the present participle of Latin construere ‘pile up together, build’, a compound verb formed from the prefix com- and struere ‘pile up’ (source of English destroy and structure). English acquired the same verb somewhat earlier, in the 14th century, in the form construe.
=> construe, destroy, structure
continent: continent: [14] Continent comes via Old French from Latin continēns, the present participle of continēre ‘hold together, enclose, contain’ (source of English contain). From the beginning it meant in general ‘exercising self-restraint’; of the more specific senses, ‘chaste’ developed in the 14th century and ‘able to retain urine and faeces’ apparently in the early 19th century.

The word’s noun use developed from the Latin phrase terra continēns ‘continuous land’ (for this sense of Latin continēre see CONTINUE). It was at first applied in the 16th century to any large continuous expanse of territory, and from the early 17th century specifically to any of the Earth’s major landmasses (the English use of ‘the Continent’ for mainland Europe is roughly contemporary with this).
=> contain, content, continue, countenance
convenient: convenient: [14] Convenient comes from Latin conveniēns, the present participle of convenire ‘come together, be suitable, agree’, a compound verb formed from the prefix com- ‘together’ and venire ‘come’ (a distant relative of English come). Convenient reflects the more figurative of convenire’s meanings, as ultimately does covenant, but its original literal sense ‘assemble’ is preserved in convene [15], convention [15], convent, and coven.
=> convent, convention, coven, covenant, venue
count: count: There are two distinct words count in English. Count ‘enumerate’ [14] comes ultimately from Latin computāre ‘calculate’ (source of English compute). It came into English from Old French conter, which had, via the notion of ‘adding up and rendering an account’, developed the sense ‘tell a story’ (preserved in English in the derivatives account and recount).

The derivative counter [14] began life as medieval Latin computātōrium ‘place of accounts’, and entered English via Anglo- Norman counteour. Its modern sense ‘surface for transactions in a shop’ does not seem to have become firmly established until the early 19th century, although it was applied to similar objects in banks from the late 17th century. The noble title count [16] comes via Old French conte from Latin comes, which originally meant ‘companion, attendant’ (it was a compound noun, formed from the prefix com- ‘with’ and īre ‘go’, and so its underlying etymological meaning is ‘one who goes with another’).

In the Roman empire it was used for the governor of a province, and in Anglo- Norman it was used to translate English earl. It has never been used as an English title, but the feminine form countess was adopted for the wife of an earl in the 12th century (and viscount was borrowed from Anglo-Norman viscounte in the 14th century). The Latin derivative comitātus was originally a collective noun denoting a ‘group of companions’, but with the development of meaning in comes it came to mean first ‘office of a governor’ and latterly ‘area controlled by a governor’.

In England, this area was the ‘shire’, and so county [14], acquired via Anglo-Norman counte, came to be a synonym for ‘shire’. Another descendant of Latin comes is concomitant [17], from the present participle of late Latin concomitārī.
=> account, compute, putative, recount; concomitant, county
covenant: covenant: [13] The notion of ‘agreement’ in covenant comes originally from a literal ‘coming together’. It was borrowed from Old French covenant, a noun use of the present participle of the verb covenir ‘agree’, which was descended from Latin convenire ‘come together’ (source also of English convene, convenient, convention, convent, and coven). (Modern French has restored the n, giving convenir.)
=> convenient, convent, convention, coven, venue
creed: creed: [OE] Creed was the first of a wide range of English words borrowed from Latin crēdere ‘believe’. Others include credible [14] (from Latin crēdibilis), credence [14] (from Old French credence), credential [16] (from medieval Latin crēdentiālis), credit [16] (from French crédit), and credulous [16] (from Latin crēdulus). Also ultimately from the same source are grant and miscreant [14] (from Old French mescreant, the present participle of mescroire ‘disbelieve’).
=> credible, credit, grant, miscreant
cunning: cunning: [13] Cunning did not always have its present-day negative connotations. At first it was a term of approval, meaning ‘learned’. It is connected in some way to the verb can, which originally meant ‘know’, although it is not altogether clear whether it is a direct use of the present participle of the English verb, or whether it was borrowed from the related Old Norse kunnandi, present participle of kunna ‘know’. Either way, it is a parallel formation to canny [16]. The sense ‘skilfully deceitful’ developed towards the end of the 16th century.
=> canny
current: current: [13] Current literally means ‘running’. It comes from Old French corant, the present participle of courre ‘run’, which in turn was descended from Latin currere ‘run’. This has been traced back to a prehistoric root denoting ‘swift movement’, which probably also produced car, career, carry, and charge. The Latin verb itself has a wide range of descendants in English, from the obvious courier [16] to the more heavily disguised corridor [16] (originally literally ‘a run’), occur and succour.

For the English offspring of its past participle cursus see COURSE. The sense ‘of the present time’ (first recorded in the 17th century) comes from the notion of ‘running in time’ or ‘being in progress’.
=> car, carry, charge, corridor, courier, course, occur, succour
distance: distance: [13] Etymologically, things that are distant stand far apart from each other. The word comes via Old French from Latin distantia, an abstract noun formed from distāns, the present participle of distāre ‘be remote’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix dis- ‘apart’ and stāre ‘stand’ (source of English state, station, statue, etc and related to English stand).
=> stand, state, station, statue
dormant: dormant: [14] Like dormitory and dormer, dormant comes ultimately from Latin dormīre ‘sleep’, which is related to Sanskrit drā- ‘sleep’ and Russian dremat’ ‘doze’. Dormant was borrowed from French dormant, the present participle of dormir ‘sleep’, while dormitory [15] comes from Latin dormītōrium, a derivative of the past participle of dormīre. Dormer [16], from Old French dormeor, a derivative of dormir, originally signified a ‘dormitory window’. (It is not clear whether dormouse [15] is related, but if it is it would mean literally ‘sleeping mouse’, or conceivably even ‘sleeper’, from French dormeuse, the feminine of dormeur ‘sleeper’.)
=> dormer, dormitory
during: during: [14] During, like durable [14], durance [15], duration [14], duress, and endure [14], comes ultimately from the Latin adjective dūrus ‘hard’. This goes back to an earlier *drūros, which is related to Irish dron ‘solid’, Lithuanian drūtas ‘strong, solid’, and Sanskrit dāruna- ‘strong, hard’, and links with Irish daur ‘oak’ (a possible relative of druid) and Greek drus ‘oak’ suggest that its original underlying meaning was ‘oak wood’, from which ‘hard’ developed as a metaphorical extension.

The Latin verb dūrāre meant originally literally ‘harden’, but this widened (perhaps with memories of an underlying sense ‘strong, resilient’) to ‘continue in existence, last’. It is these notions of ‘continuance’, ‘strength’, and ‘perseverance’ that emerge in different proportions in durable, duration, and endure, and indeed in during, which is a translation of Old French durant, the present participle of durer ‘last’: phrases such as ‘during the day’ mean etymologically ‘as long as the day lasts’. Durance, an archaic term for ‘imprisonment’, originally denoted ‘length of sentence’, and so is virtually equivalent to the modern ‘for the duration’.
=> durable, duration, duress, endure
easy: easy: [12] Easy comes via Anglo-Norman aise from Old French aisie, the past participle of aisier ‘put at ease’, which in turn was a derivative of aise. This noun (source of English ease [13]) originally meant ‘convenience’ rather than ‘comfort’. It came from *adjaces, the Vulgar Latin descendant of Latin adjacēns ‘nearby’ (source of English adjacent and related to adjective), which was the present participle of the verb adjacēre ‘lie near’.

The progression of senses is thus ‘nearby’, ‘handy’, ‘convenient’, and eventually ‘comfortable’. The subsequent development to ‘not difficult’, which took place in the 14th century, is purely English, although Breton took the parallel step of borrowing French aise, as aes, to mean ‘not difficult’.
=> adjacent, adjective
effluent: effluent: [19] Effluent is that which ‘flows out’. The word comes from the present participle of Latin effluere, a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and fluere ‘flow’ (source of English fluctuate, fluent, fluid, flux, and a host of derivatives). English originally acquired it as an adjective in the 18th century, but did not begin to use it in its present-day noun senses until the mid 19th century. From the same source come effluvium [17] and efflux [17].
=> fluctuate, fluent, fluid, flux
elegant: elegant: [15] Someone who made careful, fastidious choices was termed in Latin ēlegāns. This was the present participle of a hypothetical verb *ēlegāre, a derivative of ēligere ‘pick out, select’ (source of English elect). Originally it seems to have been a derogatory term – ‘fussy, foppish’ – but by classical times it signified more approvingly ‘making refined choices’, and was also transferred to the things chosen – ‘choice, tasteful’. English probably acquired the word via French.
=> elect
eminent: eminent: [15] Someone who is eminent literally ‘stands out’. The word comes from the present participle of Latin ēminēre ‘stand out’, a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and a verbal element -minēre ‘stand, project’ which occurs also in imminent and prominent and may be related ultimately to Latin mōns ‘mountain’, source of English mount and mountain.
=> imminent, mount, mountain, prominent
evident: evident: [14] Something that is evident is literally something that can be ‘seen’. The word comes via Old French from Latin ēvidēns ‘clear, obvious’, a compound formed from the intensive prefix ex- and the present participle of videre ‘see’ (source of English vision). The Latin derivative ēvidentia (from which English gets evidence [13]) meant originally ‘distinction’ and later ‘proof’, basis of the main current sense of evidence, ‘testimony which establishes the facts’.
=> view, vision
excellent: excellent: [14] The underlying notion of excellent is of physically ‘rising above’ others. It comes via Old French from the present participle of Latin excellere. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and a hypothetical verbal element *cellere, which evidently meant something like ‘rise, be high’: it derived ultimately from an Indo-European base *kol-, *kel- which also produced English column, culminate, and hill.

There is little evidence of its literal use in Latin; the metaphorical ‘be outstanding’ evidently elbowed it aside at an early stage. (English acquired excel itself in the 15th century, incidentally.)
=> column, culminate, hill
extravagant: extravagant: [14] An extravagant person is literally one who ‘wanders out of’ the proper course. The word comes from the present participle of medieval Latin extrāvagārī, a compound formed from the prefix extrā- ‘outside’ and vagārī ‘wander’ (source of English vagabond, vagary, and vagrant), which seems originally to have been used adjectivally with reference to certain uncodified or ‘stray’ papal decrees. This was the word’s original application in English, and the present-day meanings ‘wildly excessive’ and ‘spending too lavishly’ did not really establish themselves before the early 18th century.
=> vagabond, vagary, vagrant
exuberant: exuberant: [15] Exuberant comes via French from the present participle of Latin exūberāre ‘be abundant’. This was a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix ex- and ūberāre ‘be productive’, a derivative of ūber ‘fertile’. This in turn was an adjectival use of the noun ūber ‘udder’, which came from the same ultimate source (Indo-European *ūdhr-) as English udder.
=> udder
fervent: fervent: [14] Fervent comes from the present participle of Latin fervēre ‘boil’. This verb also produced English effervescent [17] and comfrey [15], a plant-name which means literally ‘boil together’, and moreover its derivative fermentum led to English ferment [14]. It goes back ultimately to the Indo-European base *bhreu- or *bhru-, from which English also gets brew, broth, and fry, and possibly bread and burn.
=> brew, broth, comfrey, effervescent, ferment, fry
flagrant: flagrant: [15] Etymologically, flagrant means ‘burning, blazing’. It comes, via French, from the present participle of Latin flagrāre ‘burn’ (source of English conflagration [16]). This in turn went back to Indo-European *bhleg-, which also produced English flame. The use of flagrant for ‘shameless, shocking’, an 18th-century development, comes from the Latin phrase in flagrante delicto ‘red-handed’, literally ‘with the crime still blazing’.
=> conflagration, flame
flux: flux: [14] Flux denotes generally ‘flowing’, and comes from Latin fluxus, a derivative of the past participle of fluere ‘flow’. This verb, similar in form and meaning to English flow but in fact unrelated to it, is responsible for a very wide range of English words: its past participle has given us fluctuate [17], its present participle fluent [16] and a spectrum of derived forms, such as affluent, effluent [18], and influence, and other descendants include fluid [15] (literally ‘flowing’, from Latin fluidus), mellifluous (literally ‘flowing with honey’), superfluous [15], and fluvial [14] (from Latin fluvius ‘river’, a derivative of fluere).

Latin fluxus also produced the card-playing term flush [16].
=> affluent, effluent, fluctuate, fluent, fluid, influence, mellifluous, superfluous
friend: friend: [OE] Etymologically, friend means ‘loving’. It and its Germanic relatives (German freund, Dutch vriend, Swedish frände, etc) go back to the present participle of the prehistoric Germanic verb *frijōjan ‘love’ (historically, the German present participle ends in -nd, as in modern German -end; English -ng is an alteration of this). *Frijōjan itself was a derivative of the adjective *frijaz, from which modern English gets free, but which originally meant ‘dear, beloved’.
=> free
gallant: gallant: [14] Gallant originated as the present participle of Old French galer ‘make merry, rejoice’. This probably came from Gallo- Romance *walāre, a derivative of Frankish *wala ‘well’ (of which English well is a relative). Following its French model, the English adjective originally meant ‘showy, splendid, gorgeous’ as well as ‘spirited, brave’ and ‘courteous, polished’ (the last of which led in the 17th century to ‘courteously attentive to women’ and ‘amorous’). Regale [17] too goes back to Old French galer.
=> regale, well
grant: grant: [13] To grant something etymologically implies an element of ‘belief’ or ‘trust’, although there is virtually no semantic trace of these left in the word today. Its ultimate source was crēdens, the present participle of Latin crēdere ‘believe’ (source of English credence, credible, etc). This was used as the basis of a new Vulgar Latin verb *crēdentāre, which passed into Old French as creanter ‘insure, guarantee’. Its later variant greanter or granter gave English grant.
=> credence, credible, credit
grovel: grovel: [16] Old and Middle English had a suffix -ling, used for making adverbs denoting direction or condition. Few survive, and of those that do, most have had their -ling changed to the more logical-sounding -long (headlong and sidelong, for instance, used to be headling and sideling; darkling still hangs on – just – unchanged).

Among them was grovelling, an adverb meaning ‘face downwards’ based on the phrase on grufe ‘on the face or stomach’, which in turn was a partial translation of Old Norse á grúfu, literally ‘on proneness’ (grúfu may be related to English creep). It was not long before grovelling came to be regarded as a present participle, and the new verb grovel was coined from it.
=> creep
husband: husband: [OE] The Anglo-Saxons used wer ‘man’ (as in werewolf) for ‘husband’, and not until the late 13th century was the word husband drafted in for ‘male spouse’. This had originally meant ‘master of a household’, and was borrowed from Old Norse húsbóndi, a compound formed from hús ‘house’ and bóndi. Bóndi in turn was a contraction of an earlier bóandi, búandi ‘dweller’, a noun use of the present participle of bóa, búa ‘dwell’, This was derived from the Germanic base *bū- ‘dwell’, which also produced English be, boor, booth, bound ‘intending to go’, bower, build, burly, byelaw, byre, and the -bour of neighbour.

The ancient link between ‘dwelling in a place’ and ‘farming the land’ comes out in husbandman [14] and husbandry [14], reflecting a now obsolete sense of husband, ‘farmer’. The abbreviated form hubby dates from the 17th century.
=> be, boor, booth, bower, build, byre, house
important: important: [16] Important and import (the opposite of export) come from the same source – Latin importāre, a compound verb formed from the prefix in- and portāre ‘carry’ (as in English portable). Its original literal sense (as represented in the English verb import [16]) was ‘bring in’, but in the Middle Ages this developed metaphorically to ‘imply, mean’ (which is what French importer and Italian importare signify), and its present participle importāns gave English important.
=> import, port, portable
infant: infant: [14] Etymologically, an infant is ‘someone who cannot yet speak’. The word comes via Old French enfant from Latin infāns ‘young child’, a noun use of the adjective infāns, originally ‘unable to speak’, which was formed from the negative prefix in- and the present participle of fārī ‘speak’ (source of English fable, fame, fate, etc).

The somewhat improbable derivative infantry [16] comes via French from Italian infanteria; this was based on infante, whose original meaning ‘young person’ had shifted to ‘foot soldier’ (a development distantly reminiscent of the use of British English lads for ‘male members of a group, team, etc’).
=> fable, fame, fate
influence: influence: [14] Influence began life as an astrological term. It was coined in medieval Latin as influentia from the present participle of Latin influere ‘flow in’, a compound verb based on fluere ‘flow’, and to begin with denoted a sort of fluid that was supposed to be given off by the stars and to influence human life. English originally acquired the word with this meaning, and it was not until the end of the 16th century that the main current sense ‘power to produce effects’ started to establish itself.

The more concrete notion of an ‘emanation’ that affected people also lay behind the use of Italian influenza for ‘epidemic’, from which English got influenza (see FLU). Another English acquisition from Latin influere is influx [17], which comes from its past participle.
=> flu, fluent, influx
ingredient: ingredient: [15] The -gredi- of ingredient represents the Latin verb gradī ‘step, go’ (whose past participial stem gress- has given English aggression, congress, digress, etc). From it was formed ingredī ‘go in, enter’, whose present participle ingrediēns became English ingredient. The word’s etymological meaning is thus ‘that which “enters into” a mixture’. It was originally used mainly with reference to medicines, and its current application to food recipes seems to be a comparatively recent development.
=> aggression, congress, grade, gradual
innocent: innocent: [14] Someone who is innocent is literally ‘harmless’. The word comes, partly via Old French, from Latin innocēns, an adjective formed with the negative prefix in- from the present participle of nocēre ‘harm’ (source of English nuisance) – hence, ‘not harming’. The slight semantic shift from ‘not harming’ to ‘blameless, guiltless’ took place in Latin.
=> nuisance
instant: instant: [15] Latin instāre meant ‘be present’ (it was a compound verb formed from the prefix in- ‘upon’ and stāre ‘stand’). Its present participle instāns was used adjectivally for ‘present’, and hence by extension for ‘urgent’. The latter was actually the meaning originally taken up by English, but it has now virtually died out. ‘Present’ was introduced in the mid-16th century (it now survives in the abbreviation inst, used in giving dates to signify ‘the present month’), and by the end of the century this had evolved into the main current sense ‘immediate’.

The noun instant ‘moment’ comes from medieval Latin tempus instāns ‘present time’. Derived from instāns was the Latin noun instantia ‘presence, urgency’. Again it was the latter that originally came into English with instance [14]. The main modern sense ‘example’, first recorded in the 16th century, appears to come ultimately from a semantic progression in medieval Latin from ‘urgency’ to ‘eager solicitation’ and hence to ‘legal pleading’.

Further metaphoricization took it on to ‘new argument or example adduced to counter a previous one’, and hence in due course to simply ‘example’.
=> instance, stand, station, statue
intellect: intellect: [14] Intellect and intelligent come from the same ultimate source: Latin intelligere ‘perceive, choose between’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix inter- ‘between’ and legere ‘gather, choose, read’ (source of English lecture, legible, etc). Its past participle intellectus came to be used as a noun meaning ‘perception, comprehension’, which English acquired as intellect via Old French; while its present participle intelligēns gave English intelligent [16].

The derivative intelligentsia [20] was borrowed from Russian intelligyentsia, which in turn came via Polish inteligiencja from Latin intelligentia ‘intelligence’.
=> intelligent, lecture, legible