英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

alternate (adj.)[alternate 词源字典]: 1510s, from Latin alternatus "one after the other," past participle of alternare "to do first one thing then the other; exchange parts," from alternus "one after the other, alternate, in turns, reciprocal," from alter "the other" (see alter). Alternate means "by turns;" alternative means "offering a choice." Both imply two kinds or things.[alternate etymology, alternate origin, 英语词源]
alternate (v.): 1590s, from Latin alternatus, past participle of alternare (see alternate (adj.)). Replaced Middle English alternen "to vary, alternate" (early 15c.). Related: Alternated; alternating.
alternate (n.): 1718, "that which alternates (with anything else)," from alternate (adj.). Meaning "a substitute" is first attested 1848.
alternately (adv.): early 15c., from alternate (adj.) + -ly (2).
alternating (adj.): 1550s, present participle adjective from alternate (v.). Alternating current is recorded from 1839.
alternation (n.): mid-15c., from Old French alternacion, from Latin alternationem (nominative alternatio), noun of action from past participle stem of alternare (see alternate (v.)).
alternative (adj.): 1580s, "offering one or the other of two," from Medieval Latin alternativus, from Latin alternatus, past participle of alternare (see alternate (v.)). Meaning "purporting to be a superior choice to what is in general use" was current by 1970 (earliest reference is to the media). Alternative energy is from 1975. Related: Alternatively.
alternative (n.): 1620s, in rhetoric, from Medieval Latin alternativus (see alternative (adj.)). Of courses of action, from 1814. Of objects, etc., "the other of two which may be chosen," by 1838.
alternator (n.): 1878, agent noun in Latin form from alternate (v.).
although (conj.): early 14c., althagh, compound of all + though, showing once-common emphatic use of all. "All though was originally more emphatic than though, but by 1400 it was practically only a variant of it, and all having thus lost its independent force, the phrase was written as one word" [OED].
altimeter (n.): 1918, from Modern Latin altimeter, from alti- "high" (from Latin altus; see old) + -meter.
altimetry (n.): 1690s, from Medieval Latin altimetria, from Latin alti- "high" (see old) + Greek -metria (see -metry).
altitude (n.): late 14c., from Latin altitudinem (nominative altitudo) "height, altitude," from altus "high" (see old).
alto (n.): 1784, "man with an alto voice," from Italian alto (canto), from Latin altus "high" (see old). Originally a "high" man's voice, now more commonly applied to the lower range of women's voices (which is more strictly the contralto), an extension first recorded in 1881.
The alto in a man is totally distinct from the contralto in a woman. The tone is utterly different -- the best notes of the one are certainly not the best notes of the other; and although in certain cases a contralto may sing with good effect music written for a male alto (e.g. in some oratorios), yet the converse is scarcely ever true. ["How to Sing," 1890]
As a type of saxophone, from 1869.
altogether: early 13c., altogedere, a strengthened form of all (also see together); used in the sense of "a whole" from 1660s. The altogether "nude" is from 1894.
altruism (n .): 1853, "unselfishness, opposite of egoism," from French altruisme, coined or popularized 1830 by French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798-1857), from autrui, from Old French altrui, "of or to others," from Latin alteri, dative of alter "other" (see alter). Apparently suggested to Comte by French legal phrase l'autrui, or in full, le bien, le droit d'autrui. The -l- is perhaps a reinsertion from the Latin word.
There is a fable that when the badger had been stung all over by bees, a bear consoled him by a rhapsodic account of how he himself had just breakfasted on their honey. The badger replied peevishly, "The stings are in my flesh, and the sweetness is on your muzzle." The bear, it is said, was surprised at the badger's want of altruism. ["George Eliot," "Theophrastus Such," 1879]
altruist (n.): 1842, from French; see altruism + -ist.
altruistic (adj.): 1853, from French altruiste (adj.), from altruisme (see altruism) + -ic.
alum (n.): late 14c., "whitish mineral salt used as an astringent, dye, etc.," from Old French alum, from Latin alumen "alum," literally "bitter salt," cognate with Greek aludoimos "bitter" and perhaps with English ale.
aluminium: see aluminum.