quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- burly
[burly 词源字典] - burly: [13] Burly has come down in the world over the centuries. Originally it meant ‘excellent, noble, stately’, and it appears to come from an unrecorded Old English adjective *būrlic, literally ‘bowerly’ – that is, ‘fit to frequent a lady’s apartment’. Gradually, connotations of ‘stoutness’ and ‘sturdiness’ began to take over, and by the 15th century the modern ‘heavily built’ had become well established.
=> boor, booth, bower[burly etymology, burly origin, 英语词源] - steer
- steer: Steer ‘control direction’ [OE] and steer ‘young ox’ [OE] are quite unrelated. The latter comes from a prehistoric Germanic *(s)teuraz, which also produced German and Dutch stier, Swedish tjur, and Danish tyr ‘bull’. It was descended from a base denoting ‘strength’ or ‘sturdiness’ (source also of Sanskrit somethingūra- ‘strong, thick’), and may be related to Latin taurus ‘bull’. Steer ‘control direction’ comes from a prehistoric Germanic *steurjan, source also of German steuern, Dutch stieren, Swedish styra, and Danish styre.
This in turn was derived from the noun *steurō ‘steering’, which also lies behind English stern and the first syllable of starboard.
=> starboard, stern - boilerplate (n.)
- newspaper (and now information technology) slang for "unit of writing that can be used over and over without change," 1893, from a literal meaning (1840) "metal rolled in large, flat plates for use in making steam boilers." The connecting notion is probably of sturdiness or reusability. From 1890s to 1950s, publicity items were cast or stamped in metal ready for the printing press and distributed to newspapers as filler. The largest supplier was Western Newspaper Union.
- sturdy (adj.)
- c. 1300, "hard to manage, reckless, violent," from Old French estordi (11c., Modern French étourdi) "violent," originally "dazed," past participle of estordiir "to daze, stun, stupefy," from Vulgar Latin *exturdire, which some presume to be from Latin intensive prefix ex- + turdus "thrush." Barnhart suggests the notion is of thrushes eating grape remnants at wineries and behaving as if drunk (Italian tordo "thrush" also means "simpleton," and French has the expression soûl comme une grive "drunk as a thrush"). OED, however, regards all this as "open to grave objection." Century Dictionary compares Latin torpidus "dull."
Sense of "solidly built, strong and hardy" first recorded late 14c. Related: Sturdily; sturdiness. Sturdy-boots "obstinate person" is from 1762; a sturdy beggar in old language was one capable of work (c. 1400).