英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

chilblain (n.)[chilblain 词源字典]: 1540s, from chill (n.) + blain "inflamed swelling or sore on skin." Related: Chilblains.[chilblain etymology, chilblain origin, 英语词源]
child (n.): Old English cild "fetus, infant, unborn or newly born person," from Proto-Germanic *kiltham (cognates: Gothic kilþei "womb," inkilþo "pregnant;" Danish kuld "children of the same marriage;" Old Swedish kulder "litter;" Old English cildhama "womb," lit. "child-home"); no certain cognates outside Germanic. "App[arently] originally always used in relation to the mother as the 'fruit of the womb'" [Buck]. Also in late Old English, "a youth of gentle birth" (archaic, usually written childe). In 16c.-17c. especially "girl child."

The wider sense "young person before the onset of puberty" developed in late Old English. Phrase with child "pregnant" (late 12c.) retains the original sense. The sense extension from "infant" to "child" also is found in French enfant, Latin infans. Meaning "one's own child; offspring of parents" is from late 12c. (the Old English word was bearn; see bairn). Figurative use from late 14c. Most Indo-European languages use the same word for "a child" and "one's child," though there are exceptions (such as Latin liberi/pueri).

The difficulty with the plural began in Old English, where the nominative plural was at first cild, identical with the singular, then c.975 a plural form cildru (genitive cildra) arose, probably for clarity's sake, only to be re-pluraled late 12c. as children, which is thus a double plural. Middle English plural cildre survives in Lancashire dialect childer and in Childermas.

Child abuse is attested by 1963; child-molester from 1950. Child care is from 1915. Child's play, figurative of something easy, is in Chaucer (late 14c.).
child-bearing (n.): also childbearing, "bringing forth of a child," late 14c., from child + verbal noun of bear (v.). As an adjective from late 14c.
child-proof (adj.): 1933, from child (n.) + proof (n.). As a verb by 1951.
childbed (n.): also child-bed, c. 1200, "state of being in labor," from child + bed (n.). In reference to a bed, real or metaphorical, on which something is born, from 1590s.
childbirth (n.): also child-birth, mid-15c., from child + birth (n.).
childe (n.): "youth of gentle birth," used as a kind of title, late Old English, variant spelling of child (q.v.).
Childermas (n.): "festival of the Holy Innocents" (Dec. 28), late Old English *cildramæsse (c. 1000), from obsolete plural of child (q.v.) + mass (n.2).
childhood (n.): "period of life from birth to puberty," Old English cildhad; see child + -hood.
childish (adj.): Old English cildisc "proper to a child;" see child + -ish. Meaning "puerile, immature, like a child" in a bad sense is from early 15c. Related: Childishly; childishness.
childless (adj.): c. 1200, from child (n.) + -less. Related: Childlessness.
childlike (adj.): 1580s, "proper to a child," from child + like (adj.). Meaning "like a child" in a good sense (distinguished from childish) is from 1738.
children (n.): plural of child (q.v.)
Chile: South American country, probably named from a local native word subsequently confused with Mexican Spanish chile "chili pepper" (see chili). Suggestions are that the native word means "land's end" or else "cold, winter," which would make a coincidental convergence with English chilly. Related: Chilean.
chili (n.): also chilli, 1660s, from Nahuatl (Aztecan) chilli, native name for the peppers. Not named for the South American country. As short for chile con carne and similar dishes, attested by 1846.
chiliad (n.): "group of 1,000" (of the same sort), 1590s, from Latinized form of Greek khiliados, from khilioi "a thousand; the number 1,000" (see chiliasm).
chiliasm (n.): c. 1600, from Latinized form of Greek khiliasmos, from khilias, from khilioi "a thousand, the number 1,000," which is of unknown origin; supposed by some to be related to Latin mille. The doctrine of the millennium, the opinion that Christ will reign in bodily presence on earth for 1,000 years. Related: Chiliast; chiliastic.
chill (n.): Old English ciele, cele "cold, coolness, chill, frost," from Proto-Germanic *kal- "to be cold," from PIE root *gel- "cold" (see cold). According to OED, the word seems to have been obsolete after c. 1400 (displaced by cold) and the modern use is a back-formation since c. 1600 from the verb.
chill (v.): late 14c., intransitive, "to feel cold, grow cold;" c. 1400, transitive, "to make cold," from chill (n.). Related: Chilled; chilling; chillingly. Figurative use from late 14c. Meaning "hang out" first recorded 1985; from earlier chill out "relax" (1979).
Sheila E. sizzles in the new flick, Krush Groove, but some New York critics couldn't groove with it because many of the terms are unfamiliar to them. Examples: breakin' out (slang for leaving), chill (for cool down) and death (for something that's really good). ["Jet," Nov. 11, 1985]
chilly (adj.): 1560s, "causing a sensation of cold," from chill (n.) + -y (2). Meaning "feeling coldish" is attested from 1610s; figurative use is recorded by 1841. Related: Chilliness.