quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- bottleneck (n.)



[bottleneck 词源字典] - also bottle-neck, "narrow entrance, spot where traffic becomes congested," 1896; from bottle (n.) + neck (n.). Meaning "anything which obstructs a flow" is from 1922; the verb in this sense is from 1928.[bottleneck etymology, bottleneck origin, 英语词源]
- bottom (n.)




- Old English botm, bodan "ground, soil, foundation, lowest part," from Proto-Germanic *buthm- (cognates: Old Frisian boden "soil," Old Norse botn, Dutch bodem, Old High German bodam, German Boden "ground, earth, soil"), from PIE root *bhu(n)d(h)- (cognates: Sanskrit budhnah, Avestan buna- "bottom," Greek pythmen "foundation," Latin fundus "bottom, piece of land, farm," Old Irish bond "sole of the foot"). Meaning "posterior of a person" is from 1794. Bottom dollar "the last dollar one has" is from 1882. Bottom-feeder, originally of fishes, is from 1866.
- bottom (v.)




- 1540s, "to put a bottom on," from bottom (n.). Meaning "to reach the bottom of" is from 1808 (earlier figuratively, 1785). Related: Bottomed; bottoming.
- bottom line (n.)




- figurative sense is attested from 1967, from profit and loss accounting, where the final figure after both are calculated is the bottom line on the page. Also (especially as an adjective) bottomline.
- bottomless (adj.)




- early 14c., from bottom + -less.
- botulism (n.)




- 1878, from German Botulismus (1878), coined in German from Latin botulus "sausage" (see bowel) + -ismus suffix of action or state (see -ism). Sickness first traced to eating tainted sausage (sausage poisoning was an old name for it).
- bouche (n.)




- French, literally "mouth" (Old French boche, 11c.), from Latin bucca "cheek," which in Late Latin replaced os (see oral) as the word for "mouth" (and also is the source of Italian bocca, Spanish boca). Borrowed in English in various senses, such as "king's allowance of food for his retinue" (mid-15c.); "mouth" (1580s); "metal plug for a cannon's vent" (1862; verb in this sense from 1781).
- boudoir (n.)




- 1777, "room where a lady may retire to be alone," from French boudoir (18c.), literally "pouting room," from bouder "to pout, sulk," which, like pout, probably ultimately is imitative of puffing.
- bouffant (adj.)




- 1869, from French bouffant, present participle of bouffer "to puff out," from Old French bouffer (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *buffare, probably ultimately imitative of puffing. As a noun by 1870. Earlier as a French word in English. First used of hairdo style 1955.
- bougainvillaea (n.)




- see bougainvillea.
- bougainvillea (n.)




- type of woody vine, 1866, named for French navigator Louis Bougainville (1729-1811).
- bough (n.)




- Old English bog "shoulder, arm," extended in Old English to "twig, branch" (compare limb (n.1)), from Proto-Germanic *bogaz (cognates: Old Norse bogr "shoulder," Old High German buog, German Bug "shoulder, hock, joint"), from PIE *bhagus "elbow, forearm" (cognates: Sanskrit bahus "arm," Armenian bazuk, Greek pakhys "forearm"). The "limb of a tree" sense is peculiar to English.
- bought




- past tense and past participle of buy (v.).
- boughten (adj.)




- irregular past participle of buy; as an adjective from 1793, especially in colloquial U.S. usage, of clothing and other items, opposed to "made."
BOUGHTEN. Which is bought. This is a common word in the interior of New England and New York. It is applied to articles purchased from the shops, to distinguish them from similar articles of home manufacture. [Bartlett, "Dictionary of Americanisms," 1848]
- bougie (n.)




- "wax candle," 1755, from French bougie "wax candle," from Bugia, Algeria, (Arabic Bijiyah), a town with a long-established wax trade.
- bouillabaisse (n.)




- fish stew, 1845, from French bouillabaisse (19c.), from Provençal bouiabaisso, boulh-abaisso, a compound of two verbs corresponding to English boil-abase (the latter in the original sense of "to lower").
- bouillon (n.)




- 1650s, from French bouillon (11c.), noun use of past participle of bouillir "to boil," from Old French bolir (see boil (v.)).
- boulder (n.)




- 1670s, variant of Middle English bulder (c. 1300), from a Scandinavian source akin to Swedish dialectal bullersten "noisy stone" (large stone in a stream, causing water to roar around it), from bullra "to roar" + sten "stone." Or the first element might be from *buller- "round object," from Proto-Germanic *bul-, from PIE *bhel- (2) "to inflate, swell" (see bole).
- boulevard (n.)




- 1769, from French boulevard (15c.), originally "top surface of a military rampart," from a garbled attempt to adopt Middle Dutch bolwerc "wall of a fortification" (see bulwark) into French, which at that time lacked a -w- in its alphabet. The notion is of a promenade laid out atop demolished city walls, a way which would be much wider than urban streets. Originally in English with conscious echoes of Paris; since 1929, in U.S., used of multi-lane limited-access urban highways. Early French attempts to digest the Dutch word also include boloart, boulever, boloirque, bollvercq.
- boulevardier (n.)




- 1856, French, "one who frequents the boulevard;" i.e.: man-about-town, one fond of urban living and society.