英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

deadline [deadline 词源字典]: deadline: [19] Originally, in US military parlance, a ‘deadline’ was a literal line drawn round a military prison, which the inmates were not allowed to cross. If they did, they risked being shot. The modern figurative application of the word, to a time-limit (originally for the submission of material for a particular edition of a newspaper), dates from around 1920.
[deadline etymology, deadline origin, 英语词源]
deaf: deaf: [OE] Ultimately, deaf and dumb come from the same source, and moreover they are related to a Greek word for ‘blind’. The common denominator ‘sensory or mental impairment’ goes back to an Indo-European base *dheubh-, which denoted ‘confusion, stupefaction, dizziness’. It produced Greek tuphlós ‘blind’; English dumb; and a prehistoric Germanic adjective *daubaz ‘dull, stupefied, slow’.

Many of the modern descendants of *daubaz retain this general sense – Danish doven means ‘lazy’ – but English has specialized it to ‘dull in hearing’. Duffer may ultimately be derived from Old Norse daufr ‘deaf’ in which the sense ‘dull, stupid’ is preserved.
=> duffer, dumb
deal: deal: English has two words deal. The one which now means chiefly ‘distribute’ goes back to Old English dǣl ‘part’ and its verbal derivative dǣlan ‘divide’. The noun (together with its relatives German teil, Dutch deel, and Gothic dails) goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *dailiz, a derivative of the base *dail-, which also produced English dole and ordeal. The ultimate source of this base is not known. Deal ‘(plank of) pine’ [14] was borrowed from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German dele.
=> dole, ordeal
dean: dean: [14] Etymologically, a dean is someone in charge of a group of ten people. That was the meaning of its ancestor, Greek dekānós, a word formed from déka ‘ten’. This eventually came to designate specifically someone in charge of ten monks, and this sense passed via late Latin decānus, Old French deien, and Anglo-Norman deen into English as the ‘head of a cathedral’. The modern French descendant of deien, doyen, was reborrowed into English in the 17th century.
=> doyen
dear: dear: [OE] Dear is one of the English language’s more semantically stable words. By the 11th century it had already developed its two major present-day senses, ‘much-loved’ and ‘expensive’, which are shared by its Germanic relative, German teuer (Dutch has differentiated dier ‘much loved’ from duur ‘expensive’). All these words go back to a prehistoric West and North Germanic *deurjaz, whose ultimate origin is not known.

In the 13th century an abstract noun, dearth, was derived from the adjective. It seems likely that this originally meant ‘expensiveness’ (although instances of this sense, which has since disappeared, are not recorded before the late 15th century). This developed to ‘period when food is expensive, because scarce’, and eventually to ‘scarcity’ generally.
=> dearth
death: death: [OE] Like dead, death comes from a Germanic verb base *dau-, which also produced English die. To it was added the abstract noun suffix *-tus, later *-thuz, meaning ‘act, process, condition’. This produced prehistoric Germanic *dauthuz, source of Gothic dauthus, Old Norse dauthr, and Old English dēath. Its modern English descendant, death, thus means literally ‘act or process of dying’, in the same way as birth means ‘act or process of bearing’ and strength means ‘condition of being strong’.
=> dead, die
débâcle: débâcle: [19] A débâcle is etymologically an ‘act of unbarring’, the notion behind it being that once a restraining bar is removed, a rush of disasters follows. It was borrowed at the start of the 19th century (originally in the technical geological sense of a ‘sudden violent surge of water in a river’) from French, where it was a derivative of débâcler, a verb formed from dé- ‘de-, un-’ and bâcler ‘bar’. This was acquired from Provençal baclar ‘bar a door’, which came from medieval Latin *bacculāre, a derivative of Latin bacculus ‘stick’ (responsible also for English bacillus and bacterium).
=> bacillus, bacterium
debenture: debenture: [15] Debenture is simply an anglicization of Latin dēbentur, literally ‘they are due’, the third person plural present passive of the verb dēbēre ‘owe’. It supposedly arose from the practice of writing debentur on IOUs in the late Middle Ages. The English word originally signified such IOUs issued by the government or the Crown – certificates of indebtedness, to give them their formal designation – and it was not until the mid-19th century that the modern meaning, ‘unsecured bond backed by the general credit of a company’, came into use.
=> debt, due, duty
debility: debility: [15] Despite the passing similarity, debility has no connection with ability. It comes via Old French debilite from Latin dēbilitās, a derivative of the adjective dēbilis ‘weak’. This was a compound formed from the prefix de- ‘not’ and a second element meaning ‘strong’, represented also in Sanskrit bálam ‘strength’, Greek beltíon ‘better’, and Old Slavic bolij ‘larger’ (ultimate source of bolshevik).
debt: debt: [13] Debt originated as dēbita, the plural of Latin dēbitum ‘that which is owed’, a noun formed from the past participle of the verb dēbēre ‘owe’. In Vulgar Latin, dēbita was evidently viewed as a feminine singular noun, and it passed thus into Old French as dette, the form in which English originally acquired the word. From the 13th to the 16th centuries the French spelling was latinized as debte, a reform which English adopted in the 16th century.

In the 15th century English independently borrowed Latin dēbitum as debit. (Latin dēbēre ‘owe’, source also of English debenture, due, and duty, was originally a compound verb formed from the prefix dē- ‘away’ and habēre ‘have’, literally ‘have away’, that is, ‘keep in one’s possession what belongs to someone else’.)
=> debenture, due, duty, endeavour
decade: decade: see decimal
decant: decant: [17] The word decant depends on a metaphorical connection perceived in the ancient world between the ‘corner of someone’s eye’ (Greek kānthos) and the ‘lip of a jug’. On the basis of this, Latin acquired the word canthus ‘lip of a jug’. From this was formed in medieval Latin the verb dēcanthāre ‘pour out’, a word originally used by alchemists to denote the careful pouring off of a liquid from its sediment. English probably acquired the verb direct from Latin.
decay: decay: [15] The notion underlying decay and its close relative decadence is of a ‘falling off’ from a condition of health or perfection. Decay comes from Old Northern French decair, a descendant of Vulgar Latin *dēcadere, which in turn came from Latin dēcidere, a compound verb formed from the prefix dē- ‘down, off, away’ and cadere ‘fall’ (source of English case and a wide range of related words). Decadence [16] was acquired via the medieval derivative dēcadentia. To the same word-family belongs deciduous [17], from Latin dēciduus, literally denoting the ‘falling off’ of leaves from trees.
=> accident, case, chance, decadence, deciduous
decease: decease: see predecessor
deceive: deceive: [13] Etymologically, to deceive someone is to ‘catch’ or ‘ensnare’ them. The word comes ultimately from Latin dēcipere ‘ensnare, take in’, a compound verb formed from the pejorative prefix dē- and capere ‘take, seize’ (source of English capture and a wide range of related words). It passed into English via Old French deceivre and decevoir. English has two noun derivatives of deceive: deceit [13] comes ultimately from the past participle of Old French decevoir, while deception [14] comes from dēcept-, the past participial stem of Latin dēcipere.
=> capable, capture, conceive, deceit, receive
December: December: [13] December was originally so named by the ancient Romans (Latin December) because it was the tenth month of their calendar (which began with March). The term was derived from Latin decem ‘ten’. It reached English via Old French decembre.
=> decimal, ten
decent: decent: [16] Decent comes ultimately from Latin decere ‘be fitting or suitable’, close relatives of which have produced decorate, dignity, and (from Greek) orthodox. Its present participial stem decent- was acquired by English, either directly or via French décent.
=> dainty, decorate, dignity, orthodox
decide: decide: [14] Etymologically, decide denotes a resolving of alternatives or difficulties by cutting through them as if with a knife or a sword – dealing with them ‘at a stroke’. The word comes, perhaps via French décider, from Latin dēcidere, a compound verb formed from the prefix dē- ‘off’ and caedere ‘cut, strike’. It is not clear where this comes from, although Sanskrit khid- ‘press, tear’ has been compared.

Its other descendants in English include chisel, cement, concise, and scissors. (Other verbs for ‘decide’ which contain the basic meaning element ‘cut through’ or ‘separate’ include Latin dēcernere and German entscheiden.)
=> cement, chisel, concise, excise, incision, precise, scissors
deciduous: deciduous: see decay
decimal: decimal: [17] Decimal comes from decimālis, a medieval Latin coinage based on decimus ‘tenth’, the ordinal derivative of Latin decem ‘ten’ (a relative of English ten). Other descendants of decem include December, decimate, dime, and the prefix deci-, while its Greek cousin déka has given us decade [15] and the prefix deca-.
=> decade, december, decimate, dime, ten, tithe