quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- cess (n.)



[cess 词源字典] - "tax, levy," 1530s, short for assess (q.v.).[cess etymology, cess origin, 英语词源]
- cessation (n.)




- mid-15c., cessacyoun "interruption, abdication," from Latin cessationem (nominative cessatio) "a delaying, ceasing, tarrying," noun of action from past participle stem of cessare "delay" (see cease (n.)).
- cession (n.)




- late 14c., "a relinquishing," from Old French cession "cession; death" (13c.), from Latin cessionem (nominative cessio) "a giving up, surrendering," noun of action from past participle stem of cedere "to go away, yield" (see cede). Related: Cessionary.
- cesspit (n.)




- 1864, from cess (see cesspool) + pit (n.).
- cesspool (n.)




- also cess-pool, 1670s, the first element perhaps an alteration of cistern, perhaps a shortened form of recess [Klein]; or the whole may be an alteration of suspiral (c. 1400), "drainpipe," from Old French sospiral "a vent, air hole," from sospirer "breathe," from Latin suspirare "breathe deep" [Barnhart]. Meaning extended to "tank at the end of the pipe," which would account for a possible folk-etymology change in final syllable.
Other possible etymologies: Italian cesso "privy," from Latin secessus "place of retirement" (in Late Latin "privy, drain"); dialectal suspool, from suss, soss "puddle;" or cess "a bog on the banks of a tidal river." - Cestrian




- 1703, from Cester, Old English form of Chester, + -ian.
- Cetacea (n.)




- order of marine mammals containing whales, 1830, Modern Latin, from Latin cetus "any large sea creature" (whales, seals, dolphins), from Greek ketos "a whale, a sea monster," which is of unknown origin, + -acea. Hence cetology "the study of whales," first attested 1851 in "Moby Dick."
- cetacean (n.)




- 1836, from Cetacea, name of the order of marine mammals, + -an. As an adjective from 1839.
- ceteris paribus




- Modern Latin, literally "other things being equal."
- cetyl (n.)




- univalent alcohol radical found in spermaceti, beeswax, etc., 1842, from Latin cetus "whale" (see Cetacea) + -yl.
- Ceylon




- Portuguese form of Sri Lanka (q.v.). Related: Ceylonese.
- cf




- see cf.
- cf.




- abbreviation of Latin confer "compare" (see confer).
- cgi




- by 2004, initialism (acronym) for computer-generated imagery.
- ch




- digraph used in Old French for the "tsh" sound. In some French dialects, including that of Paris (but not that of Picardy), Latin ca- became French "tsha." This was introduced to English after the Norman Conquest, in words borrowed from Old French such as chaste, charity, chief (adj.). Under French influence, -ch- also was inserted into Anglo-Saxon words that had the same sound (such as bleach, chest, church) which in Old English still was written with a simple -c-, and into those that had formerly been spelled with a -c- and pronounced "k" such as chin and much.
As French evolved, the "t" sound dropped out of it, so in later loan-words from France ch- has only the sound "sh-" (chauffeur, machine (n.), chivalry, etc.).
It turns up as well in words from classical languages (chaos, echo, etc.). Most uses of -ch- in Roman Latin were in words from Greek, which would be pronounced correctly as "k" + "h," as in blockhead, but most Romans would have said merely "k." Sometimes ch- is written to keep -c- hard before a front vowel, as still in modern Italian.
In some languages (Welsh, Spanish, Czech) ch- can be treated as a separate letter and words in it are alphabetized after -c- (or, in Czech and Slovak, after -h-). The sound also is heard in more distant languages (as in cheetah, chintz), and the digraph also is used to represent the sound in Scottish loch.
- cha (n.)




- "tea," 1590s, also chaw, ultimately from the Mandarin ch'a "tea;" used in English alongside tea when the beverage was introduced.
- cha-cha (n.)




- also cha-cha-cha, type of Latin-American 3-beat ballroom dance, 1954, echoic of the music.
- Chablis (n.)




- light, white Burgundy wine, 1660s, named for town of Chablis southeast of Paris. Made only of Chardonnay grapes. The French word chablis (16c.) is literally "deadwood," fallen from a tree through age or brought down by wind, short for bois chablis, from Old French *chableiz.
- chad (n.1)




- also Mr. Chad, graffiti drawing of a head peering over a fence or wall, with the caption, "Wot, no ______?" (the U.S. version usually had "Kilroy was here"), in reaction to shortages and rationing, 1945, British, of unknown origin.
- Chad (n.2)




- African nation, former French colony (Tchad), independent since 1960, named for Lake Chad, which is from a local word meaning "lake, large expanse of water." An ironic name for such a desert country.