英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

air freshener (n.)[air freshener 词源字典]: 1949, from air (n.1) + agent noun from freshen.[air freshener etymology, air freshener origin, 英语词源]
air mail (n.): also air-mail, 1913, from air (n.1) + mail (n.1).
air raid (n.): 1914, from air (n.1) + raid (n.); originally in reference to British attacks Sept. 22, 1914, on Zeppelin bases at Cologne and Düsseldorf in World War I. The German word is Fliegerangriff "aviator-attack," and if Old English had survived into the 20th century our word instead might be fleogendeongrype.
One didn't dare to inhale for fear of breathing it in. It was the sound of eighteen hundred airplanes approaching Hamburg from the south at an unimaginable height. We had already experienced two hundred or even more air raids, among them some very heavy ones, but this was something completely new. And yet there was an immediate recognition: this was what everyone had been waiting for, what had hung for months like a shadow over everything we did, making us weary. It was the end. [Hans Erich Nossack, "Der Untergang," 1942]
airborne (adj.): 1640s, "carried through the air," from air (n.1) + borne. Of military units, from 1937.
aircraft (n.): 1851, originally in reference to airships and balloons, from air (n.1) + craft (n.); a term from boating, as were many early aviation words. Of airplanes from 1907 and since 1930s exclusively of them. Aircraft carrier is attested from 1919 (H.M.S. Hermes, launched September 1919, was the first ship to be built from the hull up as an aircraft carrier).
Airedale: type of terrier, 1880, named for Airedale, a district in West Riding, Yorkshire.
Name registered by Kennel Club (1886), for earlier Bingley (where first bred), or broken-haired terrier. [Weekley]
airfoil (n.): 1922, U.S. form of aerofoil.
airhead (n.): "empty-headed person," 1972, from air (n.1) + head (n.). Earlier as a term in mining (mid-19c.) and as a military term based on beachhead (1950).
airily (adv.): 1766, from airy "with ostentatious air" (see air (n.2)) + -ly (2).
airing (n.): "action of exposing to air," c. 1600, from present participle of air (v.). Meaning "display, public exposure is from 1870.
airlift (n.): also air-lift, 1893 as a type of pumping device; 1945 in the sense "transportation of supplies by air," from air (n.1) + lift (n.). As a verb by 1949; popularized in reference to the response to the West Berlin blockade. Related: Air-lifted; air-lifting.
airline (n.): also air-line, 1813, "beeline, straight line between two points on the earth's surface" (as through the air, rather than over terrain; from 1853 and in later 19c. especially in reference to railways that ran directly between big cities in the U.S. instead of meandering from town to town in search of stock subscriptions as early railways typically did), from air (n.1) + line (n.). Meaning "public aircraft transportation company" is from 1914.
airplane (n.): 1907, from air (n.1) + plane (n.1); though the original references are British, the word caught on in American English, where it largely superseded earlier aeroplane (1873 in this sense and still common in British English). Aircraft "airplane" also is from 1907. Lord Byron, speculatively, used air-vessel (1822).
airplay (n.): 1950 in radio sense, from air (n.1) + play.
airport (n.): 1919, from air (n.1) + port (n.1). First reference is to Bader Field, outside Atlantic City, New Jersey, U.S., which opened in 1910.
airship (n.): also air-ship, 1888, translating German Luftschiff "motor-driver dirigible;" see air (n.1) + ship (n.).
airtight (adj.): also air-tight, "impervious to air," 1760, from air (n.1) + tight. Figurative sense of "incontrovertible" (of arguments, alabis, etc.) is from 1929.
airy (adj.): late 14c., "of the air, made of air," from air (n.1) + -y (2). Meaning "breezy" is attested from 1590s; that of "lively" is from 1640s. Sense of "vain, unsubstantial" is from 1580s. Disparaging airy-fairy is attested from 1920 (earlier in a sense of "delicate or light as a fairy," which is how Tennyson used it in 1830).
aisle (n.): late 14c., ele, "lateral division of a church (usually separated by a row of pillars), from Old French ele "wing (of a bird or an army), side of a ship" (12c., Modern French aile), from Latin ala, related to axilla "wing, upper arm, armpit; wing of an army," from PIE *aks- "axis" (see axis), via a suffixed form *aks-la-. The root meaning in "turning" connects it with axle and axis.

Confused from 15c. with unrelated ile "island" (perhaps from notion of a "detached" part of a church), and so it took an -s- when isle did, c. 1700; by 1750 it had acquired an a-, on the model of French cognate aile. The word also was confused with alley, which gave it the sense of "passage between rows of pews or seats" (1731), which was thence extended to railway cars, theaters, etc.
ajar: 1718, perhaps from Scottish dialectal a char "slightly open," earlier on char (early 16c.), from Middle English char, from Old English cier "a turn."