quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- wire
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[wire 词源字典] - wire: [OE] Wire probably goes back ultimately to the Indo-European base *wi- ‘plait’. Related forms in other Germanic languages have now largely died out. The adjective wireless is first recorded in 1894 (in the term wireless telephone); its use as a noun dates from around 1903.
[wire etymology, wire origin, 英语词源] - wire (n.)
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- Old English wir "metal drawn out into a fine thread," from Proto-Germanic *wira- (cognates: Old Norse viravirka "filigree work," Swedish vira "to twist," Old High German wiara "fine gold work"), from PIE *wei- (1) "to turn, twist, plait" (cognates: Old Irish fiar, Welsh gwyr "bent, crooked;" Latin viere "to bend, twist," viriæ "bracelets," of Celtic origin). A wire as marking the finish line of a racecourse is attested from 1883; hence the figurative down to the wire. Wire-puller in the political sense is 1848, American English, on the image of pulling the wires that work a puppet.
- wire (v.)
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- c. 1300, "adorn with (gold) wire," from wire (n.). From 1859 as "communicate by means of a telegraphic wire;" 1891 as "furnish with electrical wires and connections." Related: Wired; wiring.