英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

antiquity (n.)[antiquity 词源字典]: late 14c., "olden times," from Old French antiquitet (11c.; Modern French antiquité) "olden times; great age; old age," from Latin antiquitatem (nominative antiquitas) "ancient times, antiquity, venerableness," noun of quality from antiquus (see antique (adj.)). Specific reference to ancient Greece and Rome is from mid-15c.; meaning "quality of being old" is from about the same time. Antiquities "relics of ancient days" is from 1510s.[antiquity etymology, antiquity origin, 英语词源]
chapel (n.): early 13c., from Old French chapele (12c., Modern French chapelle), from Medieval Latin cappella "chapel, sanctuary for relics," literally "little cape," diminutive of Late Latin cappa "cape" (see cap (n.)); by tradition, originally in reference to the sanctuary in France in which the miraculous cape of St. Martin of Tours, patron saint of France, was preserved; meaning extended in most European languages to "any sanctuary." (While serving Rome as a soldier deployed in Gaul, Martin cut his military coat in half to share it with a ragged beggar. That night, Martin dreamed Christ wearing the half-cloak; the half Martin kept was the relic.)
collectible (adj.): also collectable, 1650s, "that may be collected," from collect + -ible. Meaning "sought-after by collectors of relics, souveniers, etc." is recorded from 1888.
H: eighth letter of the alphabet; it comes from Phoenician, via Greek and Latin. In Phoenician it originally had a rough guttural sound like German Reich or Scottish loch. In Greek at first it had the value of Modern English -h-, and with this value it passed into the Latin alphabet via Greek colonies in Italy. Subsequently in Greek it came to be used for a long "e" sound; the "h" sound being indicated by a fragment of the letter, which later was reduced to the aspiration mark. In Germanic it was used for the voiceless breath sound when at the beginning of words, and in the middle or at the end of words for the rough guttural sound, which later came to be written -gh.

The sound became totally silent in Vulgar Latin and in the languages that emerged from it; thus the letter was omitted in Old French and Italian, but it was restored pedantically in French and Middle English spelling, and often later in English pronunciation. Thus Modern English has words ultimately from Latin with missing -h- (able, from Latin habile); with a silent -h- (heir, hour); with a formerly silent -h- now often vocalized (humble, humor, herb); and even a few with an excrescent -h- fitted in confusion to words that never had one (hostage, hermit). Relics of the formerly unvoiced -h- persist in pedantic insistence on an historical (object) and in obsolete mine host.

The pronunciation "aitch" was in Old French (ache "name of the letter H"), and is from a presumed Late Latin *accha (compare Italian effe, elle, emme), with the central sound approximating the rough, guttural value of the letter in Germanic. In earlier Latin the letter was called ha. The use in digraphs (as in -sh-, -th-) goes back to the ancient Greek alphabet, which used it in -ph-, -th-, -kh- until -H- took on the value of a long "e" and the digraphs acquired their own characters. The letter passed into Roman use before this evolution, and thus retained there more of its original Semitic value.
reliquary (n.): "receptacle for keeping relics," 1650s, from French reliquaire (14c.), from relique (see relic).
shrine (n.): Old English scrin "ark (of the covenant); chest, coffer; case for relics," from Latin scrinium "case or box for keeping papers," of unknown origin. From late 14c. as "a tomb of a saint" (usually elaborate and large). A widespread word, compare Dutch schrijn, German Schrein, French écrin, Russian skrynya, Lithuanian skrine.
translation (n.): mid-14c., "removal of a saint's body or relics to a new place," also "rendering of a text from one language to another," from Old French translacion "translation" of text, also of the bones of a saint, etc. (12c.) or directly from Latin translationem (nominative translatio) "a carrying across, removal, transporting; transfer of meaning," noun of action from past participle stem of transferre (see transfer (v.)).
martyrion: "A shrine, oratory, or church built in memory of a martyr; a building marking the place of a martyrdom or the site of a martyr's relics", Mid 17th cent.; earliest use found in Christopher Cartwright (bap. 1602, d. 1658), Church of England clergyman and religious controversialist. From post-classical Latin martyrium and its etymon ancient Greek μαρτύριον: see martyre.