quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- akimbo[akimbo 词源字典]
- akimbo: [15] Akimbo was borrowed from Old Norse. Its original English spelling (which occurs only once, in the Tale of Beryn 1400) was in kenebowe, which suggests a probable Old Norse precursor *i keng boginn (never actually discovered), meaning literally ‘bent in a curve’ (Old Norse bogi is related to English bow); hence the notion of the arms sticking out at the side, elbows bent. When the word next appears in English, in the early 17th century, it has become on kenbow or a kenbo, and by the 18th century akimbo has arrived.
=> bow[akimbo etymology, akimbo origin, 英语词源] - ticket
- ticket: [16] Ticket was adapted from early modern French étiquet ‘ticket, label’, whose present-day descendant étiquette has given English etiquette. The etymological notion underlying étiquet was of ‘sticking’ a label on, for it was derived ultimately from the Old French verb estiquier ‘stick’, a borrowing from Middle Dutch steken ‘stick’ – to which English stick is related.
=> etiquette, stick - tout
- tout: [14] The etymological notion underlying tout is of ‘sticking out, projecting’. It goes back ultimately to the prehistoric Germanic base *tūt- ‘project’, whose other descendants include Dutch tuit ‘spout’. It is assumed to have produced an Old English *tūtian, but it does not turn up in the written record until the Middle English period, by which time the notion of ‘poking out’ had moved on to ‘peeking’ or ‘peeping’. It progressed further to ‘spy on’, but the modern ‘look for business’ did not emerge until the 18th century.
- adhesion (n.)
- 1620s, from French adhésion or directly from Latin adhaesionem (nominative adhaesio) "a sticking to," noun of action from past participle stem of adhaerare (see adherent (adj.)).
Adhesion is generally used in the material, and adherence in the metaphysical sense. [Johnson]
- adipose (adj.)
- 1743, from Modern Latin adiposus "fatty," from Latin adipem (nominative adeps, genitive adipis) "soft fat of animals, fat, lard," from Greek aleipha "unguent, fat," related to lipos "grease, fat" (see leave (v.)). Change of -l- to -d- "prob. due to Umbrian influence" [Klein]. But it could as well be a native Italic formation from the same roots, *ad-leip-a "sticking onto."
- cohesion (n.)
- 1670s, from French cohésion, from Latin cohaesionem (nominative cohaesio) "a sticking together," noun of action from past participle stem of cohaerere "to stick together" (see cohere).
- dressy (adj.)
- 1760s, from dress (v.) + -y (2).
"For as her natural face decays, her skill improves in making the artificial one. Well, nothing diverts me more than one of those fine, old, dressy things, who thinks to conceal her age by everywhere exposing her person; sticking herself up in the front of a side-box; trailing through a minuet at Almack's; and then, in the public gardens looking, for all the world, like one of the painted ruins of the place." [Goldsmith, "The Good Natured Man," 1768].
- hidebound (adj.)
- 1550s, from hide (n.1) + past tense of bind (v.). Original reference is to emaciated cattle with skin sticking closely to backbones and ribs; metaphoric sense of "restricted by narrow attitudes" is first recorded c. 1600.
- stick (v.)
- Old English stician "to pierce, stab, transfix, goad," also "to remain embedded, stay fixed, be fastened," from Proto-Germanic *stik- "pierce, prick, be sharp" (cognates: Old Saxon stekan, Old Frisian steka, Dutch stecken, Old High German stehhan, German stechen "to stab, prick"), from PIE *steig- "to stick; pointed" (cognates: Latin instigare "to goad," instinguere "to incite, impel;" Greek stizein "to prick, puncture," stigma "mark made by a pointed instrument;" Old Persian tigra- "sharp, pointed;" Avestan tighri- "arrow;" Lithuanian stingu "to remain in place;" Russian stegati "to quilt").
Figurative sense of "to remain permanently in mind" is attested from c. 1300. Transitive sense of "to fasten (something) in place" is attested from late 13c. Stick out "project" is recorded from 1560s. Slang stick around "remain" is from 1912; stick it as a rude item of advice is first recorded 1922. Related: Stuck; sticking. Sticking point, beyond which one refuses to go, is from 1956; sticking-place, where any thing put will stay is from 1570s. Modern use generally is an echo of Shakespeare. - sycophant (n.)
- 1530s (in Latin form sycophanta), "informer, talebearer, slanderer," from Middle French sycophante and directly from Latin sycophanta, from Greek sykophantes "false accuser, slanderer," literally "one who shows the fig," from sykon "fig" (see fig) + phainein "to show" (see phantasm). "Showing the fig" was a vulgar gesture made by sticking the thumb between two fingers, a display which vaguely resembles a fig, itself symbolic of a vagina (sykon also meant "vulva"). The modern accepted explanation is that prominent politicians in ancient Greece held aloof from such inflammatory gestures, but privately urged their followers to taunt their opponents. The sense of "mean, servile flatterer" is first recorded in English 1570s.
The explanation, long current, that it orig. meant an informer against the unlawful exportation of figs cannot be substantiated. [OED]
- toreador (n.)
- "bullfighter on horseback" (as opposed to a torero, who kills on foot), 1610s, from Spanish toreador, from torear "to participate in a bullfight," from toro "bull," from Latin taurus (see Taurus).
A toreador is, or rather was, a gentleman who killed bulls for his own amusement on horseback and with the spear. He was a sportsman, and his sport was as manly and respectable as pig-sticking. A professional fighter who performs in a ring and for money is a torero. ["Saturday Review," Jan. 22, 1887]
- unstick (v.)
- 1706, from un- (2) "reverse, opposite of" + stick (v.). Related: Unsticking.