quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- stifle
- stifle: [14] Stiffle was probably adapted from Old French estouffer ‘choke, smother’. This in turn went back to a Vulgar Latin *extuffāre, which may have been a blend of *extūfāre ‘take a steam bath’ (source of English stew) and late Latin stuppāre ‘stop up, plug’ (source of English stop and stuff).
=> stew, stop, stuff - stifle (v.)
- late 14c., "to choke, suffocate, drown," of uncertain origin, possibly an alteration of Old French estouffer "to stifle, smother" (Modern French étouffer), itself of uncertain origin, perhaps from a Germanic source (compare Old High German stopfon "to plug up, stuff"). Metaphoric sense is from 1570s. Related: Stifled; stifling.