英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

cotton [cotton 词源字典]: cotton: [14] As with knowledge of the plant, its name cotton came to Europe from the Middle East. It originated in Arabic qutn, which passed via Spanish into the other languages of Europe. English acquired it via Old French coton. The verbal idiom cotton (on) to ‘come to understand’ developed in the 20th century from an earlier ‘harmonize, agree’. This in turn has been traced back to a still earlier ‘prosper’, which seems to have originated in the 16th century with the notion of the successful raising of the nap on cotton cloth.
[cotton etymology, cotton origin, 英语词源]
couch grass: couch grass: see quick
cough: cough: [14] Although it is largely disguised by the modern English pronunciation, cough is of onomatopoeic origin. It came from a prehistoric Germanic base *kokh- (the kh pronounced not unlike the ch of loch), which initiated the sound of coughing. This has no recorded Old English descendant (although one probably existed, *cohhian), and first appears in the language as Middle English coughen.
could: could: [16] Could began life as cūthe, the past tense of Old English cunnan ‘can’. By Middle English times this had become couthe, and in the 14th century it developed to coude under the influence of the standard past tense ending (e)de. The l was introduced in the 16th century, to bring coude into line with would and should.
=> kith, uncouth
coulter: coulter: see cutlass
council: council: [12] Etymologically, a council is a body that has been ‘called together’ or ‘summoned’. Latin concilium meant ‘assembly, meeting’; it was formed from the prefix com- ‘together’ and calāre ‘call, summon’. It passed into English via Anglo-Norman cuncile. It has no direct etymological connection with counsel, but the two are so similar that their meanings have tended to merge at various points down the centuries. Latin concilium also formed the basis of the verb conciliāre, which originally meant ‘bring together, unite’. Its metaphorical sense ‘make more friendly, win over’ is preserved in English conciliate [16].
=> conciliate
counsel: counsel: see consult
count: count: There are two distinct words count in English. Count ‘enumerate’ [14] comes ultimately from Latin computāre ‘calculate’ (source of English compute). It came into English from Old French conter, which had, via the notion of ‘adding up and rendering an account’, developed the sense ‘tell a story’ (preserved in English in the derivatives account and recount).

The derivative counter [14] began life as medieval Latin computātōrium ‘place of accounts’, and entered English via Anglo- Norman counteour. Its modern sense ‘surface for transactions in a shop’ does not seem to have become firmly established until the early 19th century, although it was applied to similar objects in banks from the late 17th century. The noble title count [16] comes via Old French conte from Latin comes, which originally meant ‘companion, attendant’ (it was a compound noun, formed from the prefix com- ‘with’ and īre ‘go’, and so its underlying etymological meaning is ‘one who goes with another’).

In the Roman empire it was used for the governor of a province, and in Anglo- Norman it was used to translate English earl. It has never been used as an English title, but the feminine form countess was adopted for the wife of an earl in the 12th century (and viscount was borrowed from Anglo-Norman viscounte in the 14th century). The Latin derivative comitātus was originally a collective noun denoting a ‘group of companions’, but with the development of meaning in comes it came to mean first ‘office of a governor’ and latterly ‘area controlled by a governor’.

In England, this area was the ‘shire’, and so county [14], acquired via Anglo-Norman counte, came to be a synonym for ‘shire’. Another descendant of Latin comes is concomitant [17], from the present participle of late Latin concomitārī.
=> account, compute, putative, recount; concomitant, county
countenance: countenance: [13] A person’s countenance has nothing to do with computation. Etymologically, it is how they ‘contain’ themselves, or conduct themselves, and the word itself is a parallel construction with continence. It was borrowed from Old French contenance (a derivative of the verb contenir ‘contain’), which meant ‘behaviour’, ‘demeanour’, or ‘calmness’ as well as ‘contents’, and originally had this somewhat abstract sense in English.

It was not until the 14th century that the meaning began to develop through ‘facial expression’ to the now familiar ‘face’ (traces of the original sense survive in such expressions as ‘put someone out of countenance’, meaning to make them lose their cool).
=> contain, continence
counter: counter: see count
counterpane: counterpane: see quilt
country: country: [13] Etymologically, the meaning of country is virtually ‘surroundings’. It originated in medieval Latin contrātus ‘lying on the opposite side’, an adjective formed from the proposition contrā ‘against, opposite’. This was used in the phrase terra contrāta ‘land opposite or before one, spread out around one’, and soon broke free to act as a noun in its own right.

In Old French it became cuntree, the form in which it was borrowed into English. Its original notion of ‘area of land’ had quickly become narrowed down to ‘district controlled or occupied by a particular people’, hence ‘nation’, but its use for ‘rural areas as opposed to cities’ does not seem to have developed until the 16th century. The compound countryside originated in Scotland and northern England, probably in the 17th century.
county: county: see count
coupé: coupé: [19] Coupé is the past participle of the French verb couper ‘cut’, and it was originally applied in the early 19th century to a type of four-wheeled covered carriage (in full a carrosse coupé ‘cut-off carriage’). The notion behind the term is a truncated version of an earlier type of coach, known as a berlin, achieved by removing the rear seat. The first record of its application to closed two-door cars comes in 1908.

The French verb couper is a derivative of the noun coup ‘blow’ (itself borrowed into English in the 18th century), which in turn came from medieval Latin colpus (ultimate source of English coppice, which etymologically denotes the ‘cutting down’ of trees). Earlier in time the word can be traced back via Latin colaphus to Greek kólaphos ‘blow, punch’.

A related word is coupon, borrowed from French in the 19th century.
=> coppice, copse, coup
couple: couple: [13] The notion underlying couple is of ‘joining’. The noun came into English via Old French from Latin cōpula ‘tie, connection’. This was a compound noun formed from the prefix com- ‘together’ and the verb apere ‘fasten’ (source of English apt, adapt, adept, and inept). Derived from it was the verb cōpulāre, source of English copulate [17].
=> adapt, adept, apt, copulate, inept
courage: courage: [13] Modern English uses heart as a metaphor for ‘innermost feelings or passions’, but this is nothing new. Vulgar Latin took the Latin word cor ‘heart’ and derived from it *corāticum, a noun with just this sense. Borrowed into English via Old French corage, it was used from earliest times for a wide range of such passions, including ‘anger’ or ‘lust’, and it was not until the early 17th century that it became narrowed down in application to ‘bravery’.
=> cordial
courier: courier: see current
course: course: [13] Etymologically, course denotes ‘running’. It comes via Old French cours from Latin cursus, a derivative of the verb currere ‘run’ (from which English gets current and a wide range of other words, from courier to occur). Its earliest meaning in English was ‘onward movement in a particular direction’, but over the centuries it has developed a network of additional senses.

From the same Latin base curs- are concourse [14], cursory [17] (from Latin cursōrius), discourse [14] (and the related discursive [16]), excursion [16], incursion [15], precursor [16], and recourse [14]. The derived noun courser [13] is a doublet of corsair.
=> corsair, courier, current, discourse, excursion, occur
court: court: [12] Latin cohors designated an ‘enclosed yard’ (it was formed from the prefix com- ‘with’ and an element hort- which also appears in English horticulture). By extension it came to stand for those assembled in such a yard – a crowd of attendants or company of soldiers; hence the meaning of cohort familiar today. But both in its original sense and as ‘retinue’ the word took another and rather more disguised path into English.

In late Latin the accusative form cohortem had already become cortem, and this passed into English via Old French cort and Anglo-Norman curt. It retains the underlying notion of ‘area enclosed by walls or buildings’ (now reinforced in the tautological compound courtyard [16]), but it seems that an early association of Old French cort with Latin curia ‘sovereign’s assembly’ and ‘legal tribunal’ has contributed two of the word’s commonest meanings in modern English.

The Italian version of the word is corte. From this was derived the verb corteggiare ‘attend court, pay honour’, which produced the noun corteggio, borrowed into English via French as cortège [17]. Other derivatives include courtesy [13], from Old French cortesie (of which curtsey [16] is a specialized use) and courtesan [16], via French courtisane from Italian cortigiana.
=> cohort, courtesy, curtsey, horticulture
cousin: cousin: [13] The word cousin is etymologically related to sister. It comes via Old French cosin from Latin consobrīnus, which meant literally ‘child of one’s mother’s sister’ – that is, ‘cousin on one’s mother’s side’ (consobrīnus was a compound noun formed from the prefix com- ‘together’ and sobrīnus ‘maternal cousin’, a derivative of soror ‘sister’ and relative of English sister).

By the time it entered English, it had already broadened out in meaning to cover paternal as well as maternal cousins, and indeed in the Middle Ages it was applied more generally still to any relative other than one’s parents or brother and sister (probably through association with Latin consanguineus ‘blood relative’).
=> sister