英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

axel (n.)[axel 词源字典]: skating jump, 1930, named for Norwegian skater Axel Paulsen (1855-1938). The name is said to be derived from the Old Testament name Absalom.[axel etymology, axel origin, 英语词源]
Choctaw: 1722, from Choctaw Chahta, of uncertain meaning, but also said to be from Spanish chato "flattened," for the tribe's custom of flattening the heads of male infants. As a figure skating step, first recorded 1892. Sometimes used in 19c. American English as typical of a difficult or incomprehensible language (compare Greek in this sense from c. 1600).
figure (n.): c. 1200, "numeral;" mid-13c., "visible appearance of a person;" late 14c., "visible and tangible form of anything," from Old French figure "shape, body; form of a word; figure of speech; symbol, allegory" (10c), from Latin figura "a shape, form, figure; quality, kind, style; figure of speech," in Late Latin "a sketch, drawing," from PIE *dheigh- "to form, build" (see dough).

Philosophical and scientific senses are from use of Latin figura to translate Greek skhema. Meaning "lines forming a shape" is from mid-14c. From mid-14c. as "human body as represented by art;" late 15c. as "a body, the human form as a whole." The rhetorical use of figure, "peculiar use of words giving meaning different from usual," dates to late 14c.; hence figure of speech (by 1704). Figure-skating is from 1835. Figure eight as a shape was originally figure of eight (c. 1600). From late 14c. as "a cut or diagram inserted in text."
ice-skate (v.): 1690s, from ice (n.) + skate (n.2). The verb usually was simply skate until the advent of roller-skating mid-18c. made distinction necessary.
lutz (n.): type of skating jump, 1932, from the name Alois Lutz, "an obscure Austrian skater of the 1920s" [James R. Hines, "Historical Dictionary of Figure Skating," 2011], who is said to have first performed it in 1913.
rollerskate (n.): also roller-skate, 1861, American English, from roller + skate (n.). The verb is from 1885. Related: Rollerskated; rollerskating.
skate (n.2): "ice skate," 1660s, skeates "ice skates," from Dutch schaats (plural schaatsen), a singular mistaken in English for plural, from Middle Dutch schaetse. The word and the custom were brought to England after the Restoration by exiled followers of Charles II who had taken refuge in Holland.

The Dutch word is from Old North French escache "a stilt, trestle," related to Old French eschace "stilt" (French échasse), from Frankish *skakkja "stilt" or a similar Germanic source (compare Frisian skatja "stilt"), perhaps literally "thing that shakes or moves fast" and related to root of Old English sceacan "to vibrate" (see shake (v.)). Or perhaps [Klein] the Dutch word is connected to Middle Low German schenke, Old English scanca "leg" (see shank). Sense alteration in Dutch from "stilt" to "skate" is not clearly traced. Sense in English extended to roller-skates by 1876. Meaning "an act of skating" is from 1853.
skate (v.): 1690s, "to ice-skate," from skate (n.2). U.S. slang sense of "to get away with something" is attested from 1945. Related: Skated; skating. A modern Latinate word for an ice-skating rink is glaciarium (1876).
Zamboni (n.): proprietary name of a machine used to resurface ice skating rinks, 1957, trademark of Frank J. Zamboni & Co., Paramount, Calif.
clap skate: "In speed-skating: a type of ice skate designed for increased speed, consisting of a boot which lifts from the blade at the heel (affording the blade a longer time in contact with the ice) before snapping back into place", 1990s; earliest use found in The Montreal Gazette. From clap + skate, after Dutch klapschaats (from Dutch klap + schaats) with reference to the noise made by the skate when the blade snaps back into place.