英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

acupressure (n.)[acupressure 词源字典]: 1859, from Latin acus "needle" (see acuity) + pressure (n.).[acupressure etymology, acupressure origin, 英语词源]
acupuncture (n.): 1680s, "pricking with a needle" to ease pain, from Latin acus "needle" (see acuity) + puncture. The verb is first recorded 1972.
acupuncturist (n.): 1843, from acupuncture + -ist.
acute (adj.): late 14c., originally of fevers and diseases, "coming and going quickly" (opposed to a chronic), from Latin acutus "sharp, pointed," figuratively "shrill, penetrating; intelligent, cunning," past participle of acuere "sharpen" (see acuity). Meaning "sharp, irritating" is from early 15c. Meaning "intense" is from 1727. Related: Acutely; acuteness.
ad (n.): 1841, shortened form of advertisement. Long resisted by those in the trade, and according to Mencken (1945) denounced by William C. D'Arcy (president of Associated Advertising Clubs of the World) as "the language of bootblacks, ... beneath the dignity of men of the advertising profession."
ad hoc: Latin, literally "for this (specific purpose)."
ad hominem: c. 1600, Latin, literally "to a man," from ad "to" (see ad-) + hominem, accusative of homo "man" (see homunculus).
ad infinitum: Latin, literally "to infinity" from ad "to" (see ad-) + infinitum "infinity," neuter of adjective infinitus "endless" (see infinite).
ad lib: 1811, shortened from Latin ad libitum "at one's pleasure, as much as one likes" (c. 1600), from ad "to" (see ad-) + libitum, accusative of libere "to please" (see libido). First recorded as one word 1919 (v.), 1925 (n.).
ad nauseam: "to a sickening extent," Latin, literally "to sickness," from ad "to" (see ad-) + nauseam, accusative of nausea (see nausea).
ad valorem: type of customs duties, 1711, Modern Latin, "(in proportion) to the value," from ad "to" (see ad-) + Late Latin valorem, accusative of valor "value" (see value (n.)).
ad-: word-forming element expressing direction toward or in addition to, from Latin ad "to, toward" in space or time; "with regard to, in relation to," as a prefix, sometimes merely emphatic, from PIE *ad- "to, near, at" (cognate with Old English æt; see at). Simplified to a- before sc-, sp- and st-; modified to ac- before many consonants and then re-spelled af-, ag-, al-, etc., in conformity with the following consonant (as in affection, aggression). In Old French, reduced to a- in all cases (an evolution already underway in Merovingian Latin), but written forms in French were refashioned after Latin in 14c. and English did likewise 15c. in words it had picked up from Old French. In many cases pronunciation followed the shift.
Ada: fem. proper name, from Hebrew Adha, literally "ornament."
adage (n.): "brief, familiar proverb," 1540s, Middle French adage, from Latin adagium "adage, proverb," apparently from adagio, from ad- "to" (see ad-) + *agi-, root of aio "I say," from PIE *ag- "to speak." But Tucker thinks the second element is rather ago "set in motion, drive, urge."
adagio (adv.): c. 1746, in music, "slowly, leisurely and gracefully," Italian, from ad agio, from ad "to, at" (see ad-) + agio "leisure," from Vulgar Latin adiacens, present participle of adiacere "to lie at, to lie near" (compare adjacent). In noun sense of "a slow movement," first attested 1784.
Adam: masc. proper name, Biblical name of the first man, progenitor of the human race, from Hebrew adam "man," literally "(the one formed from the) ground" (Hebrew adamah "ground"); compare Latin homo "man," humanus "human," humus "earth, ground, soil." To not know (someone) from Adam "not know him at all" is first recorded 1784.
Adam's apple (n.): 1731, corresponding to Latin pomum Adami, perhaps an inexact translation of Hebrew tappuah haadam, literally "man's swelling," from ha-adam "the man" + tappuah "anything swollen." The reference is to the legend that a piece of the forbidden fruit (commonly believed to be an apple) that Eve gave Adam stuck in his throat. The term is mentioned in early 15c. as the name of an actual oriental and Mediterranean fruit, a variety of lime with an indentation fancied to resemble the marks of Adam's teeth.
adamant (adj.): late 14c., "hard, unbreakable," from adamant (n.). Figurative sense of "unshakeable" first recorded 1670s. Related: Adamantly; adamance.
adamant (n.): mid-14c., from Old French adamant and directly from Latin adamantem (nominative adamas) "adamant, hardest iron, steel," also figuratively, of character, from Greek adamas (genitive adamantos) "unbreakable, inflexible" metaphoric of anything unalterable, also the name of a hypothetical hardest material, perhaps literally "invincible," from a- "not" + daman "to conquer, to tame" (see tame (adj.)), or else a word of foreign origin altered to conform to Greek.

Applied in antiquity to a metal resembling gold (Plato), white sapphire, magnet (by Ovid, perhaps via confusion with Latin adamare "to love passionately"), steel, emery stone, and especially diamond (see diamond). "The name has thus always been of indefinite and fluctuating sense" [Century Dictionary]. The word was in Old English as aðamans "a very hard stone."
adamantine (adj.): c. 1200, from Latin adamantinus "hard as steel, inflexible," from Greek adamantinos, from adamas (see adamant (n.)).