quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- caber (n.)
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[caber 词源字典] - pole used in housebuilding, especially as an object tossed in the Highland games, 1510s, from Gaelic cabar "pole, spar," cognate with Irish cabar "lath," Welsh ceibr "beam, rafter."[caber etymology, caber origin, 英语词源]
- cabernet (n.)
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- family of grapes, or wine made from them, 1833, from French. Supposedly the best of them, cabernet sauvignon is attested in English from 1846.
- cabin (n.)
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- mid-14c., from Old French cabane "hut, cabin," from Old Provençal cabana, from Late Latin capanna "hut" (source of Spanish cabana, Italian capanna), of doubtful origin. French cabine (18c.), Italian cabino are English loan-words. Meaning "room or partition of a vessel" (set aside for use of officers) is from late 14c. Cabin fever first recorded by 1918 in the "need to get out and about" sense; earlier (1820s) it was a term for typhus.
- cabinet (n.)
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- 1540s, "secret storehouse, treasure chamber," from Middle French cabinet "small room" (16c.), diminutive of Old French cabane "cabin" (see cabin); perhaps influenced by (or rather, from) Italian gabbinetto, diminutive of gabbia, from Latin cavea "stall, stoop, cage, den for animals" (see cave (n.)).
Meaning "case for safe-keeping" (of papers, liquor, etc.) is from 1540s, gradually shading to mean a piece of furniture that does this. Sense of "private room where advisors meet" (c. 1600) led to modern political meaning (1640s); perhaps originally short for cabinet council (1630s); compare board (n.1) in its evolution from place where some group meets to the word for the group that meets there. - cabinet-maker (n.)
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- 1680s, from cabinet + maker.
- cabinetry (n.)
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- 1857, from cabinet + -ry.
- cable (n.)
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- c. 1200, from Old North French cable, from Medieval Latin capulum "lasso, rope, halter for cattle," from Latin capere "to take, seize" (see capable). Technically, in nautical use, a rope 10 or more inches around, to hold the ship when at anchor; in non-nautical use, a rope of wire (not hemp or fiber). Given a new range of senses in 19c.: Meaning "message received by telegraphic cable" is from 1883 (short for cable message). Cable car is from 1879. Cable television first attested 1963; shortened form cable is from 1972.
- cable (v.)
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- c. 1500, "to tie up with cables;" 1871, American English, "to transmit by cable;" from cable (n.). Related: Cabled; cabling.
- cablese (n.)
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- 1895, from cable in the telegraphic sense + -ese as a language name suffix. "Since cablegrams had to be paid for by the word and even press rates were expensive the practice was to affix Latin prefixes and suffixes to make one word do the work of several" [Daniel Schorr], such as exLondon and Londonward to mean "from London," "to London" (non-Latin affixes also were used). Hence the tale, famous in the lore of the United Press International, of the distinguished but harried foreign correspondent who reached his breaking point and wired headquarters UPSTICK JOB ASSWARD. Its economy and expressive power fascinated Hemingway in his newspapering days.
- cabochon (n.)
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- 1570s, from French cabochon (14c.), augmentative of caboche (12c.), augmentative or pejorative formation, ultimately from Latin caput "head" (see capitulum). Essentially the same word as cabbage.
- caboodle (n.)
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- c. 1848, see kit.
- caboose (n.)
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- 1747, "ship's cookhouse," from Middle Dutch kambuis "ship's galley," from Low German kabhuse "wooden cabin on ship's deck;" probably a compound whose elements correspond to English cabin and house (n.). Railroading sense is by 1859.
- cabriolet (n.)
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- "light two-wheeled chaise," 1766, from French cabriolet (18c.), derivative of cabriole (see cab). So called from its light, leaping motion.
- caca (n.)
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- "excrement," a nursery word but a very ancient one (PIE *kakka-), forming the base word for "excrement, to void excrement" in many Indo-European languages, such as Greek kakke "human excrement," Latin cacare, Irish caccaim, Serbo-Croatian kakati, Armenian k'akor; Old English cac-hus "latrine."
Etymologists dispute whether the modern Germanic words (Dutch kakken, Danish kakke, German kacken), are native cognates or student slang borrowed from Latin cacare. The word in this form appears in English slang c. 1870, and could have been taken from any or several of the languages that used it (Spanish, Modern Greek). - cacao (n.)
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- seed from which cocoa and chocolate are made, 1550s, from Spanish cacao, from Nahuatl (Aztecan) cacaua, root form of cacahuatl "bean of the cocoa-tree."
- cacciatore (adj.)
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- by 1973, from Italian, literally "hunter," from past participle of cacciare "to hunt, chase" (see chase (v.)).
- cache (n.)
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- 1797, "hiding place," from French Canadian trappers' slang, "hiding place for stores" (1660s), a back-formation from French cacher "to hide, conceal" (13c., Old French cachier), from Vulgar Latin *coacticare "store up, collect, compress," frequentative of Latin coactare "constrain," from coactus, past participle of cogere "to collect" (see cogent). Sense extended by 1830s to "anything stored in a hiding place."
- cache-sexe (n.)
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- 1926, French, from cacher "to hide" (see cache) + sexe "genitals" (fem.); see sex (n.).
- cachectic (adj.)
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- 1630s, from Latinized form of Greek kakhektikos "in a bad habit of body" (see cachexia).
- cachet (n.)
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- 1630s, Scottish borrowing of French cachet "seal affixed to a letter or document" (16c.), from Old French dialectal cacher "to press, crowd," from Latin coactare "constrain" (see cache). Meaning evolving through "(letter under) personal stamp (of the king)" to "prestige." Compare French lettre de cachet "letter under seal of the king."