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baluster [baluster 词源字典]

baluster: [17] Etymologically, baluster and banister are the same word. Both come ultimately from Greek balāustion ‘pomegranate flower’, which reached English via Latin balaustium, Italian balaustro, and French balustre. The reason for the application of the term to the uprights supporting a staircase handrail is that the lower part of a pomegranate flower has a double curve, inwards at the top and then bulging outwards at the bottom, similar to the design of some early balusters.

A balustrade [17], from Italian balaustrata via French, is a row of balusters. Already by the mid 17th century a transformation of the l to an n had taken place, producing the parallel banister.
=> balustrade, banister[baluster etymology, baluster origin, 英语词源]

brace

brace: [14] English borrowed brace from Old French brace, which meant simply ‘(the length measured by) two arms’. It came from Latin bracchia, the plural of bracchium ‘arm’ (source of French bras ‘arm’, and also of various English technical terms, such as brachiopod [19], a type of shellfish, literally ‘arm-foot’). The word’s ultimate source was Greek brakhíōn ‘arm’, originally ‘upper arm’, which was formed from the comparative of brakhús ‘short’, a relative of English brief (the sense development is probably that the upper arm was named from being ‘shorter’ than the forearm).

Of the rather diverse range of meanings the word has in modern English, ‘pair’ derives from the original notion of ‘twoness’, while ‘strengthening or supporting structure’ owes much to the idea of ‘clasping’, mainly contained originally in the verb brace [14], from Old French bracier ‘put one’s arms around’ (a derivative of Old French brace). In English it now only means ‘support, strengthen’, the sense ‘clasp with the arms’ being reserved to embrace [14], from Old French embracer.
=> brief, embrace

console

console: [14] Console means literally ‘offer solace’. It comes from Latin consōlārī, a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix com- and sōlārī ‘comfort’ (source of the Latin noun sōlātium, from which English gets solace [13]). English acquired it either directly, or via French consoler. The Latin agent noun derived from consōlārī was consōlātor ‘comforter’, which passed into French as consolateur. This came to be used as an architectural term for a carved human figure supporting a cornice, shelf, etc, and was eventually shortened to console; this was borrowed into English in the 18th century.
=> solace

joist

joist: [14] Etymologically, a joist is a wooden beam on which boards ‘lie’ down. The word’s ultimate ancestor is the Latin verb jacēre ‘lie down’ (from which English also gets adjacent). Its neuter past participle jacitum was taken into Old French as a noun, giste, which denoted a ‘beam supporting a bridge’ (its modern French descendant, gîte ‘home’ – that is, ‘place where one lies down’ – is currently infiltrating English). Middle English took over the Old French word, which from the 15th century gradually began to change to joist.
=> adjacent

pillage

pillage: [14] The origins of pillage are disputed. It comes from Old French pillage, a derivative of piller ‘plunder’, but there the consensus breaks down. Some say that piller (which also meant ‘tear up’) was based on pille ‘rag, cloth’, which may have been descended from Latin pilleus ‘felt cap’; others that it came from a Vulgar Latin verb *pīliāre, a derivative of Latin pīlum ‘javelin’ (source of English pile ‘supporting stake’); and others again that it came from Latin pilāre ‘remove hair’ (source of English peel [13], which originally meant ‘plunder’), a derivative of pilus ‘hair’ (source of English pile ‘nap’), in which case it would be roughly parallel in inspiration to colloquial English fleece ‘rob’.

scaffold

scaffold: [14] Historically, scaffold and catafalque [17] ‘coffin-stand’ are virtually the same word. Catafalque comes via French catafalque and Italian catafalco from Vulgar Latin *catafalcum, a word of uncertain origin. Combination with the prefix ex- produced *excatafalcum, which passed into English via Old French eschaffaut and Anglo-Norman *scaffaut.

The word originally denoted any sort of platform, and did not narrow down to ‘platform for executions’ until the 16th century. The derivative scaffolding, a term which originally alluded to the platforms set up around a building rather than to poles supporting them, also dates from the 14th century.
=> catafalque

turncoat

turncoat: [16] A turncoat is someone who abandons or betrays a group or cause and joins its opponents. The story goes – probably apocryphally – that there was once a Duke of Saxony whose territories abutted those of France. Clearly anxious always to make the right impression, he had a coat made which was blue on one side and white on the other. When he wished to be seen to be supporting the French interest he wore it with the white side outwards, and when he did not, he wore it with the blue side outwards.

Documentation of this tale is lacking, and probably the expression had a much less specific origin (the phrase turn one’s coat for ‘betray one’s loyalties’ is contemporaneous).

B movie (n.)

by 1939, usually said to be so called from being the second, or supporting, film in a double feature. Some film industry sources say it was so called for being the second of the two films major studios generally made in a year, and the one cast with less headline talent and released with less promotion. And early usage varies with grade-B movie, suggesting a perceived association with quality.

coelacanth (n.)

1857, from Modern Latin Coelacanthus (genus name, 1839, Agassiz), from Greek koilos "hollow" (from PIE root *kel- (2); see cell) + akantha "spine" (see acrid). So called from the hollow fin rays supporting the tail. Known only as a fossil, the most recent one from 70 million years ago, until discovered living in the sea off the east coast of South Africa Dec. 22, 1938. The specimen was described by Marjorie Courtney-Latimer, who wrote about it to S.African ichthyologist J.L.B. Smith.

I stared and stared, at first in puzzlement. I did not know any fish of our own, or indeed of any seas like that; it looked more like a lizard. And then a bomb seemed to burst in my brain, and beyond that sketch and the paper of the letter, I was looking at a series of fishy creatures that flashed up as on a screen, fishes no longer here, fishes that had lived in dim past ages gone, and of which only fragmentary remains in rock are known. [J.L.B. Smith, "Old Fourlegs: The Story of the Coelacanth," 1956]

console (n.)

1706, "a cabinet; an ornamental base structure," from French console "a bracket" (16c.), which is of uncertain origin, possibly from Middle French consolateur, literally "one who consoles," word used for carved human figures supporting cornices, shelves or rails in choir stalls. Another guess connects it to Latin consolidare. Sense evolved to "body of a musical organ" (1881), "radio cabinet" (1925), then "cabinet for a TV, stereo, etc." (1944).

corset (n.)

c. 1300, "kind of laced bodice," from Old French corset (13c.) "bodice, tunic," diminutive of cors "body" (see corps). Meaning "stiff supporting and constricting undergarment" is from 1795.

dolmen (n.)

1859, from French dolmin applied 1796 by French general and antiquarian Théophile Malo Corret de La Tour d'Auvergne (1743-1800), perhaps from Cornish tolmen "enormous stone slab set up on supporting points," such that a man may walk under it, literally "hole of stone," from Celtic men "stone."

Some suggest the first element may be Breton taol "table," a loan-word from Latin tabula "board, plank," but the Breton form of this compound would be taolvean. "There is reason to think that this [tolmen] is the word inexactly reproduced by Latour d'Auvergne as dolmin, and misapplied by him and succeeding French archaeologists to the cromlech" [OED]. See cromlech, which is properly an upright flat stone, often arranged as one of a circle.

finding (n.)

c. 1300, "act of discovering" (by chance or after searching; also an instance of this); verbal noun from find (v.). From c. 1400 as "what the mind discovers; knowledge attained by human effort" (as distinct from revelation or authority). Late 14c. as "act of sustaining, supporting, or providing the necessities of life; that which is provided by way of sustenance and support." Legal sense "proceedings leading to a verdict in an inquisition, etc.," is from mid-15c. Old English finding meant "invention." Related: Findings.

framework (n.)

1640s, "structure for enclosing or supporting," from frame (n.) + work (n.). Figurative sense "adjusted arrangement" is from 1816.

gable (n.)

"end of a ridged roof cut off in a vertical plane, together with the wall from the level of the eaves to the apex," mid-14c., "a gable of a building; a facade," from Old French gable "facade, front, gable," from Old Norse gafl "gable, gable-end" (in north of England, the word probably is directly from Norse), according to Watkins, probably from Proto-Germanic *gablaz "top of a pitched roof" (cognates: Middle Dutch ghevel, Dutch gevel, Old High German gibil, German Giebel, Gothic gibla "gable"). This is traced to a PIE *ghebh-el- "head," which seems to have yielded words meaning both "fork" (such as Old English gafol, geafel, Old Saxon gafala, Dutch gaffel, Old High German gabala "pitchfork," German Gabel "fork;" Old Irish gabul "forked twig") and "head" (such as Old High German gibilla, Old Saxon gibillia "skull").

Possibly the primitive meaning of the words may have been 'top', 'vertex'; this may have given rise to the sense of 'gable', and this latter to the sense of 'fork', a gable being originally formed by two pieces of timber crossed at the top supporting the end of the roof-tree." [OED]

Related: Gabled; gables; gable-end.

girder (n.)

"main supporting wooden beam that carries flooring," 1610s, agent noun from gird, on notion of something that "holds up" something else. Used of iron bridge supports from 1853.

jingo (n.)

"mindless, gung-ho patriot," 1878, picked up from the refrain of a music hall song written by G.W. Hunt, and sung by "Gilbert H. MacDermott" (1845-1901), supporting aggressive British policy toward Russia at a time of international tension. ("We don't want to fight, But by Jingo! if we do, We've got the ships, we've got the men, We've got the money too.")

Hunt's patriotic song of 1878, with a swinging tune ... became at Macdermott's instigation the watchword of the popular supporters of England's bellicose policy. The "Daily News" on 11 March 1878 first dubbed the latter 'Jingoes' in derision .... ["Dictionary of National Biography," London, 1912]

As an asseveration, it was in colloquial use since 1690s, and is apparently yet another euphemism for Jesus, influenced by conjurer's gibberish presto-jingo (1660s). The frequent suggestion that it somehow derives from Basque Jinko "god" is "not impossible," but "as yet unsupported by evidence" [OED].

joist (n.)

early 14c. (late 13c. in Anglo-Latin), from Old French giste "beam supporting a bridge" (Modern French gîte), noun use of fem. past participle of gesir "to lie," from Latin iacere "to lie, rest," related to iacere "to throw" (see jet (v.)). Notion is of wooden beam on which boards "lie down."

mantel (n.)

c. 1200, "short, loose, sleeveless cloak," variant of mantle (q.v.). Sense of "movable shelter for soldiers besieging a fort" is from 1520s. Meaning "timber or stone supporting masonry above a fireplace" first recorded 1510s, a shortened form of Middle English mantiltre "mantletree" (late 15c.).

packsaddle (n.)

also pack-saddle, "saddle for supporting packs on the back of a mount," late 14c., pakke sadil; from pack (n.) + saddle (n.).

patience (n.)

c. 1200, "quality of being willing to bear adversities, calm endurance of misfortune, suffering, etc.," from Old French pacience "patience; sufferance, permission" (12c.) and directly from Latin patientia "patience, endurance, submission," also "indulgence, leniency; humility; submissiveness; submission to lust;" literally "quality of suffering." It is an abstract noun formed from the adjective patientem (nominative patiens) "bearing, supporting; suffering, enduring, permitting; tolerant," but also "firm, unyielding, hard," used of persons as well as of navigable rivers, present participle of pati "to suffer, endure," from PIE root *pe(i)- "to damage, injure, hurt" (see passion).

Patience, n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue. [Ambrose Bierce, "Devil's Dictionary," 1911]

Meaning "constancy in effort" is attested from 1510s. Meaning "card game for one person" is from 1816.

patient (adj.)

mid-14c., "enduring without complaint," from Old French pacient and directly from Latin patientem "bearing, supporting, suffering, enduring, permitting" (see patience). Meaning "pertaining to a medical patient" is late 14c., from the noun. Related: Patiently.

patriotic (adj.)

1650s, "of one's own country," from French patriotique or directly from Late Latin patrioticus, from Greek patriotikos, from patriotes (see patriot). Meaning "loyal, supporting one's own country" is from 1757. Related: Patriotical.

pedestal (n.)

1560s, "base supporting a column, statue, etc.," from Middle French piédestal (1540s), from Italian piedistallo "base of a pillar," from pie "foot" + di "of" + stallo "stall, place, seat," from a Germanic source (see stall (n.1)). Spelling in English influenced by Latin pedem "foot." An Old English word for it was fotstan, literally "foot-stone." Figurative sense of put (someone) on a pedestal "regard as highly admirable" is attested from 1859.

saucer (n.)

mid-14c., from Anglo-Latin saucerium and Old French saussier (Modern French saucière) "sauce dish," from Late Latin salsarium, neuter of salsarius "of or for salted things," from Latin salsus (see sauce (n.)). Originally a small dish or pan in which sauce is set on a table. Meaning "small, round, shallow vessel for supporting a cup and retaining any liquid which might be spilled" is attested from c. 1702.

shroud (n.)

Old English scrud "a garment, clothing, dress," from West Germanic *skruthan, from Proto-Germanic *skrud- "cut" (cognates: Old Norse skruð "shrouds of a ship, tackle, gear; furniture of a church," Danish, Swedish skrud "dress, attire"), from PIE *skreu- "to cut" (see shred (n.)).

Specific meaning "winding-sheet, cloth or sheet for burial," to which the word now is restricted, first attested 1560s. Sense of "strong rope supporting the mast of a ship" (mid-15c.) is from the notion of "clothing" a spar or mast; one without rigging was said to be naked.

sideman (n.)

"supporting musician," 1936, from side (adj.) + man (n.). Earlier it meant "assistant to a church warden" (1560s).

strut (n.)

"supporting brace," 1580s, perhaps from strut (v.), or a cognate word in Scandinavian (compare Norwegian strut "a spout, nozzle") or Low German (compare Low German strutt "rigid"); ultimately from Proto-Germanic *strutoz-, from root *strut- (see strut (v.)).

suffragan (n.)

late 14c., "bishop who assists another bishop," especially one with no right of ordinary jurisdiction, from Anglo-French and Old French suffragan (13c.), from Medieval Latin suffraganeus "an assistant," noun use of adjective, "assisting, supporting," applied especially to a bishop, from Latin suffragium "support" (see suffrage). Related: Suffragant.

support (v.)

late 14c., "to aid," also "to hold up, prop up, put up with, tolerate," from Old French suporter "to bear, endure, sustain, support" (14c.), from Latin supportare "convey, carry, bring up, bring forward," from sub "up from under" (see sub-) + portare "to carry" (see port (n.1)). Related: Supported; supporting.

testis (n.)

(plural testes), 1704, from Latin testis "testicle," usually regarded as a special application of testis "witness" (see testament), presumably because it "bears witness to male virility" [Barnhart]. Stories that trace the use of the Latin word to some supposed swearing-in ceremony are modern and groundless.

Compare Greek parastatai "testicles," from parastates "one that stands by;" and French slang témoins, literally "witnesses." But Buck thinks Greek parastatai "testicles" has been wrongly associated with the legal sense of parastates "supporter, defender" and suggests instead parastatai in the sense of twin "supporting pillars, props of a mast," etc. Or it might be a euphemistic use of the word in the sense "comrades." OED, meanwhile, points to Walde's suggestion of a connection between testis and testa "pot, shell, etc." (see tete).

tolerance (n.)

early 15c., "endurance, fortitude" (in the face of pain, hardship, etc.), from Old French tolerance (14c.), from Latin tolerantia "a bearing, supporting, endurance," from tolerans, present participle of tolerare "to bear, endure, tolerate" (see toleration). Of individuals, with the sense "tendency to be free from bigotry or severity in judging other," from 1765. Meaning "allowable amount of variation" dates from 1868; and physiological sense of "ability to take large doses" first recorded 1875.

toleration (n.)

1510s, "permission granted by authority, license," from Middle French tolération (15c.), from Latin tolerationem (nominative toleratio) "a bearing, supporting, enduring," noun of action from past participle stem of tolerare "to endure, sustain, support, suffer," literally "to bear," from PIE *tele- "to bear, carry" (see extol).

Meaning "forbearance, sufferance" is from 1580s. The specific religious sense is from 1609; as in Act of Toleration (1689), statute granting freedom of religious worship (with conditions) to dissenting Protestants in England. In this it means "recognition of the right of private judgment in matters of faith and worship; liberty granted by the government to preach and worship as one pleases; equality under the law without regard to religion."

If any man err from the right way, it is his own misfortune, no injury to thee; nor therefore art thou to punish him in the things of this life because thou supposest he will be miserable in that which is to come. Nobody, therefore, in fine, neither single persons nor churches, nay, nor even commonwealths, have any just title to invade the civil rights and worldly goods of each other upon pretence of religion. [John Locke, "Letter Concerning Toleration," 1689]

Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governour of the Universe: And if a member of Civil Society, do it with a saving of his allegiance to the Universal Sovereign. We maintain therefore that in matters of Religion, no man's right is abridged by the institution of Civil Society and that Religion is wholly exempt from its cognizance. [James Madison, "Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments," 1785]

Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. [Karl Popper, "The Open Society and Its Enemies," 1962]

truss (n.)

c. 1200, "collection of things bound together," from Old French trousse, torse "parcel, package, bundle," of uncertain origin, perhaps from Vulgar Latin *torciare "to twist," from Late Latin torquere (see torque (n.)). Meaning "surgical appliance to support a rupture, etc." first attested 1540s. Sense of "framework for supporting a roof or bridge" is first recorded 1650s.

underpinning (n.)

late 15c., "action of supporting or strengthening from beneath," from under + present participle of pin (v.). Figurative sense of "prop, support" is recorded from 1580s.

Zionism (n.)

"movement for forming (later supporting) a Jewish national state in Palestine," 1896, from German Zionismus (from Zion + Latin-derived suffix -ismus; see -ism); first recorded 1886 in "Selbstemancipation," by "Matthias Acher" (pseudonym of Nathan Birnbaum (1864-1937)).

pygostyle

"(In a bird) a triangular plate formed of the fused caudal vertebrae, typically supporting the tail feathers", Late 19th century: from Greek pugē 'rump' + stulos 'column'.

eutrophic

"(Of a lake or other body of water) rich in nutrients and so supporting a dense plant population, the decomposition of which kills animal life by depriving it of oxygen", Early 18th century (denoting a medicine promoting good nutrition): from Greek eutrophia, from eu 'well' + trephein 'nourish'. The current sense dates from the 1930s.

sustentaculum

"A supporting part or structure; especially the sustentaculum tali; Zoology a short spine present on each tarsus of the fourth pair of legs in many orb-weaving spiders (family Araneidae)", Mid 18th cent.; earliest use found in The Gentleman's Magazine. From post-classical Latin sustentaculum nourishment, food, crutch, prop from classical Latin sustentāre + -culum.

Unix

"An operating system analogous to DOS and Windows, supporting multiple concurrent users", 1970s: from uni- 'one' + a respelling of -ics, on the pattern of an earlier less compact system called Multics.

substruction

" Architecture . The foundations or substructure of a building or other construction, especially (in classical architecture) a substructure which raises the floor of a building above ground level", Early 17th cent.; earliest use found in Henry Wotton (1568–1639), diplomat and writer. From classical Latin substructiōn-, substructiō building of a foundation or substructure, supporting structure, substructure from substruct-, past participial stem of substruere + -iō.

edaphosaurus

"A large herbivorous synapsid reptile of the late Carboniferous and early Permian periods, with long knobbly spines on its back supporting a sail-like crest", Modern Latin, from Greek edaphos 'floor' + sauros 'lizard'.

staddle

"A platform or framework supporting a stack or rick", Old English stathol 'base, support', of Germanic origin; related to the verb stand.

acousma

"In Pythagoreanism: any one of a collection of maxims, precepts, or propositions, often cryptic in nature, accepted on authority without supporting justification or proof. Frequently in plural Compare acousmatic", Mid 17th cent.; earliest use found in Thomas Stanley (1625–1678), poet and classical scholar. Originally in plural from post-classical Latin acousmata or its etymon ancient Greek ἀκούσματα, plural of ἄκουσμα anything heard, rumour, report, oral instruction from ἀκούειν to hear + -μα.

acousma

B

second letter of the Latin alphabet, corresponding to Greek beta, Phoenician beth, literally "house." It "has nothing of that variety of pronunciation shown by most English letters" [Century Dictionary]. The Germanic "b" is said to represent a "bh" sound in Proto-Indo-European, which continued as "bh" in Sanskrit, became "ph" in Greek (brother/Greek phrater; bear (v.)/Greek pherein) and "f" in Latin (frater, ferre).

Often indicating "second in order." B-movie is by 1939, usually said to be so called from being the second, or supporting, film in a double feature. Some film industry sources say it was so called for being the second of the two films major studios generally made in a year, and the one cast with less headline talent and released with less promotion. And early usage varies with grade-B movie, suggesting a perceived association with quality.

B-side of a gramophone single is by 1962 (flip-side is by 1949). B-girl, abbreviation of bar girl, U.S. slang for a woman paid to encourage customers at a bar to buy her drinks, is by 1936.