英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

Aceldama [Aceldama 词源字典]: late 14c., potter's field near Jerusalem purchased with the blood-money given to Judas Iscariot, literally "place of bloodshed," from Greek Akeldama, from an Aramaic phrase akin to Syriac haqal dema "the field of blood."[Aceldama etymology, Aceldama origin, 英语词源]
acephalous (adj.): "headless," 1731, from French acéphale + -ous, or directly from Late Latin acephalus, from Greek akephalos, from a- "not" + kephale "head" (see cephalo-).
acerbic (adj.): 1865, originally, and usually, figurative: "sour, harsh, severe" (of speech, manners, etc.), from Latin acerbus "harsh to the taste, sharp, bitter, sour" (see acerbity) + -ic.
acerbity (n.): 1570s, from Middle French acerbité, from Latin acerbitatem (nominative acerbitas) "harshness, sharpness, bitterness," from acerbus "bitter to taste, sharp, sour, tart" (related to acer "sharp;" compare Latin superbus "haughty," from super "above"), from Proto-Italic *akro-po- "sharp," from PIE *ak- "sharp" (see acrid). Earliest use in English is figurative, of "sharp and bitter" persons. Of tastes, from 1610s.
acetaminophen (n.): U.S. name for "para-acetylaminophenol," 1960, composed of syllables from the chemical name; in Britain, the same substance is paracetamol.
acetate (n.): 1827, "salt formed by combining acetic acid with a base," from Latin acetum "vinegar" (see acetic) + chemical suffix -ate (3). As a type of synthetic material, it is attested from 1920, short for acetate silk, etc.
acetic (adj.): 1808, from French acétique "pertaining to vinegar," from Latin acetum "vinegar" (properly vinum acetum "wine turned sour;" see vinegar), originally past participle of acere "be sour," related to acer "sharp" (see acrid).
aceto-: before vowels acet-, word-forming element from comb. form of acetic and generally indicating compounds from or related to acetic acid.
acetone (n.): colorless volatile liquid, 1839, literally "a derivative of acetic acid," from Latin acetum "vinegar" (see acetic) + Greek-based chemical suffix -one, which owes its use in chemistry to this word.
acetylene (n.): gaseous hydrocarbon, 1864, from French acétylène, coined by French chemist Marcelin-Pierre-Eugène Berthelot (1823-1907) from chemical ending -ene + acetyl, which was coined from acetic in 1839 by German chemist Justus von Liebig; see acetic. Liebig's coinage was in reference to a different radical; acetyl was transferred to its current sense in 1850s, but Berthelot's coinage was based on the original use of acetyl.
The name acetylene is an unfortunate one as the hydrocarbon is not directly related to the modern acetyl radical and the molecule ... contains a triple bond, not a double bond which the suffix -ene (q.v.) implies. [Flood, "Origins of Chemical Names," 1963]
ach (interj.): aspirated form of ah; in English often used to represent German or Celtic speech.
Achates: armor-bearer and faithful friend of Aeneas in the "Aeneid," hence sometimes used figuratively for "faithful friend." The name is from Greek akhates "agate" (see agate).
ache (v.): Old English acan "to ache, suffer pain," from Proto-Germanic *akanan, perhaps from a PIE root *ag-es- "fault, guilt," represented also in Sanskrit and Greek, perhaps imitative of groaning. The verb was pronounced "ake," the noun "ache" (as in speak/speech) but while the noun changed pronunciation to conform to the verb, the spelling of both was changed to ache c. 1700 on a false assumption of a Greek origin (specifically Greek akhos "pain, distress," which is rather a distant relation of awe (n.)). Related: Ached; aching.
ache (n.): early 15c., æche, from Old English æce, from Proto-Germanic *akiz, from same source as ache (v.).
Acheron: 1580s, fabled river of the Lower World in Greek mythology. The name perhaps means "marsh-like" (compare Greek akherousai "marshlike water"); the derivation from Greek akhos "woe" is considered folk etymology.
achieve (v.): early 14c., from Old French achever (12c.) "to finish, accomplish, complete," from phrase à chef (venir) "at an end, finished," or Vulgar Latin *accapare, from Late Latin ad caput (venire); both the French and Late Latin phrases meaning literally "to come to a head," from stem of Latin caput "head" (see capitulum).
The Lat. caput, towards the end of the Empire, and in Merov[ingian] times, took the sense of an end, whence the phrase ad caput venire, in the sense of to come to an end .... Venire ad caput naturally produced the Fr. phrase venir à chef = venir à bout. ... From this chief, O.Fr. form of chef (q.v.) in sense of term, end, comes the Fr. compd. achever = venir à chef, to end, finish. [Auguste Brachet, "An Etymological Dictionary of the French Language," transl. G.W. Kitchin, Oxford, 1878]
Related: Achieved; achieving.
achievement (n.): late 15c., "act of completing" (something), from Middle French achèvement "a finishing," noun of action from Old French achever (see achieve). Meaning "thing achieved" is recorded from 1590s.
Achilles: Greek hero of the Trojan War stories, son of Thetis and Peleus, his name is perhaps a compound of akhos "pain, grief" (see awe) + laos "the people, a people" (see lay (adj.)); or else it is from a pre-Greek language.
Achilles tendon: from Modern Latin tendo Achillis, first used by German surgeon Heister and so-called in reference to the one vulnerable spot of the great Greek hero Achilles, whose mother held him by the heel when she dipped him in the River Styx to render him invulnerable (though this story is not in Homer and not found before 1c. C.E.). Earlier Achilles' sinew, from Modern Latin chorda Achillis, coined 1693 by Dutch anatomist Philip Verheyden when dissecting his own amputated leg. Hence figurative use of heel of Achillies for "vulnerable spot" (1810).
achromatic (adj.): 1766, from Latinized form of Greek akhromatos "colorless," from a-, privative prefix (see a- (3)), + khromat-, comb. form of khroma "color" (see chroma) + -ic.