英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

acquaint [acquaint 词源字典]: acquaint: [13] Acquaint is connected with quaint, distant though they may seem in meaning. It comes via Old French acointer from medieval Latin accognitāre, which was based ultimately on cognitus, the past participle of cognoscere ‘know’. Cognitus gave English cognition, of course, but also quaint (cognitus developed into cointe, queinte in Old French, and came to mean ‘skilled, expert’; this led later to the notion of being skilfully made or elegant, which eventually degenerated into ‘agreeably curious’).
=> cognition, quaint[acquaint etymology, acquaint origin, 英语词源]
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
daft: daft: [13] Daft was not always a term of reproach. It originally meant ‘mild, gentle’, and only in late Middle English slid to ‘stupid’ (in a semantic decline perhaps paralleling that of silly, which started off as ‘happy, blessed’). Middle English dafte corresponds directly to an Old English gedæfte, whose underlying sense seems to have been ‘fit, suitable’ (the sense connection was apparently that mild unassuming people were considered as behaving suitably).

There is no direct evidence of its use with this meaning, but Old English had a verb gedæftan ‘make fit or ready, prepare’ which, together with the Gothic verb gedaban ‘be suitable’, points to its origin in a Germanic base *dab- ‘fit, suitable’. This ties in with the semantic development of deft, a variant of daft, which has moved from a prehistoric ‘fit, suitable’ to ‘skilful’.
=> deft
dextrous: dextrous: [17] Just as the left hand has always been associated with awkwardness or maladroitness (cack-handed), so the right hand has traditionally been credited with skill: hence dextrous, a derivative of Latin dexter, which meant ‘on the right side’ and thus by extension ‘skilful’. This came ultimately, like Greek dexiós, Gothic taihswa, Breton dehou, Russian desnoj, and many other related forms in the general semantic area ‘right-hand side’, from an Indo-European base *dek-. English acquired the Latin adjective itself as a heraldic term in the 16th century.
pretty: pretty: [OE] In Old English pretty (or prættig, as it was then) meant ‘clever’ in a bad sense – ‘crafty, cunning’. Not until the 15th century had it passed via ‘clever’, ‘skilfully made’, and ‘fine’ to ‘beautiful’. It was a derivative of prætt ‘trick, wile’, which came from a prehistoric West Germanic *pratt- (source also of Dutch part ‘trick’).
quaint: quaint: [13] Quaint was once a more wholehearted term of approval than it is now. In Middle English it meant ‘clever’ or ‘finely or skilfully made’. Its current sense ‘pleasantly curious’ did not emerge until the 18th century. It comes via Old French coint from Latin cognitus ‘known’, the past participle of cognōscere ‘know’ (source of English recognize). The word’s meaning evolved in Old French via the notion of someone who ‘knows’ about something, and hence is an expert at it or is skilful in doing it.
=> cognition, recognize
cleaver (n.): late 15c., "one who splits," agent noun from cleave (v.1). Originally "one who splits boards with a wedge instead of sawing;" attested as part of a surname from mid-14c. Meaning "butcher's chopper" is from mid-15c.
This last ["Marrowbones and Cleaver"] is a sign in Fetter Lane, originating from a custom, now rapidly dying away, of the butcher boys serenading newly married couples with these professional instruments. Formerly, the band would consist of four cleavers, each of a different tone, or, if complete, of eight, and by beating their marrowbones skilfully against these, they obtained a sort of music somewhat after the fashion of indifferent bell-ringing. When well performed, however, and heard from a proper distance, it was not altogether unpleasant. ... The butchers of Clare market had the reputation of being the best performers. ... This music was once so common that Tom Killigrew called it the national instrument of England. [Larwood & Hotten, "The History of Signboards from the Earliest Times to the Present Day," London, 1867]
craft (v.): Old English cræftan "to exercise a craft, build," from the same source as craft (n.). Meaning "to make skilfully" is from early 15c., obsolete from 16c., but revived c. 1950s, largely in U.S. advertising and commercial senses. Related: Crafted; crafting.
nelson (n.): type of wrestling hold, 1875, apparently from a proper or surname, but no one now knows whose.
Presently, Stubbs, the more skilful as well as the more powerful of the twain, seizes the luckless Jumper in a terrible gripe, known to the initiated as the Full Nelson. ["Lancashire Recreations," in "Chambers's Journal," April 24, 1875]
piece (n.): c. 1200, "fixed amount, measure, portion," from Old French piece "piece, bit portion; item; coin" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *pettia, probably from Gaulish *pettsi (compare Welsh peth "thing," Breton pez "piece, a little"), perhaps from an Old Celtic base *kwezd-i-, from PIE root *kwezd- "a part, piece" (cognates: Russian chast' "part"). Related: Pieces.

Sense of "portable firearm" first recorded 1580s; that of "chessman" is from 1560s. Meaning "person regarded as a sex object" is first recorded 1785 (compare piece of ass, human beings colloquially called piece of flesh from 1590s; also compare Latin scortum "bimbo, anyone available for a price," literally "skin"). Meaning "a portion of a distance" is from 1610s; that of "literary composition" dates from 1530s. Piece of (one's) mind is from 1570s. Piece of work "remarkable person" echoes Hamlet. Piece as "a coin" is attested in English from 1570s, hence Piece of eight, old name for the Spanish dollar (c. 1600) of the value of 8 reals.
PIECE. A wench. A damned good or bad piece; a girl who is more or less active and skilful in the amorous congress. Hence the (Cambridge) toast, may we never have a PIECE (peace) that will injure the constitution. ["Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit and Pickpocket Eloquence," London, 1811]
skillful (adj.): also skilful, early 14c., from skill + -ful. Related: Skillfully; skilfully.
tweed (n.): 1839, a trade name for a type of woolen fabric:
MICHAEL NOWAK, alias John Mazurkiewiez, was indicted for stealing on the 15th of April 2 ¼ yards of woollen cloth, called tweed, value 12s., and 2 ¼ yards of woollen cloth, called doe skin, value 17s., the goods of George Priestley Heap. [London Central Criminal Court minutes of evidence from 1839]
This apparently developed from the "Tweed Fishing or Travelling Trousers" advertised in numerous publications from 1834-1838 by the clothing house of Doudney & Son, 49 Lombard Street.
So celebrated has amateur rod-fishing in the Tweed become, that the proper costume of the sportsman has now become an object of speculation among the London tailors, one of whom advertises among other articles of dress "Tweed Fishing Trousers." The anglers who have so long established their head-quarters at Kelso, for the purpose of enjoying the amusement of salmon fishing in the Tweed, have had excellent sport lately : some of the most skilful having caught five or six salmon a day, weighing from six to fourteen pounds each. ["New Sporting Magazine," June 1837]
Thus ultimately named for the River Tweed in Scotland. The place name has not been explained, and it is perhaps pre-Celtic and non-Indo-European.
unskillful (adj.): also unskilful, late 14c., "foolish," from un- (1) "not" + skillful (adj.). Meaning "inexpert" is from 1560s. Related: Unskillfully.
Arachne: "A woman of Colophon in Lydia, a skilful weaver who challenged Athene to a contest. Athene destroyed Arachne’s work and Arachne tried to hang herself, but Athene changed her into a spider", From Greek arakhnē 'spider'.
concinnity: "The skilful and harmonious arrangement or fitting together of the different parts of something", Mid 16th century: from Latin concinnitas, from concinnus 'skilfully put together'.
habile: "Deft; skilful", Late Middle English: variant of able. The spelling change in the 16th and 17th cents was due to association with French habile and Latin habilis.
Homo habilis: "An extinct hominid that is the earliest and most primitive known member of the human genus Homo, living in Africa between about 2.3 and 1.4 million years ago", 1960s; earliest use found in Louis Leakey (1903–1972), archaeologist and palaeoanthropologist. From scientific Latin Homo habilis, species name from Homo, genus name + scientific Latin habilis, specific name, specifically use classical Latin habilis skilful, able.