英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

damp (v.)[damp 词源字典]: late 14c., "to suffocate," from damp (n.). Figurative meaning "to deaden (the spirits, etc.)" attested by 1540s. Meaning "to moisten" is recorded from 1670s. Related: Damped; damping.[damp etymology, damp origin, 英语词源]
dampen (v.): 1630s, "to dull or deaden" (of force, enthusiasm, ardor, etc.), from damp (adj.) + -en (1). Meaning "to moisten" is recorded from 1827. Related: Dampened; dampening.
dampener (n.): 1857, agent noun from dampen.
damper (n.): of a piano, 1783; of a chimney, 1788; agent noun from damp (v.). Either or both led to various figurative senses.
damsel (n.): late 12c., from Old French dameisele "woman of noble birth" (Modern French demoiselle "young lady"), modified (by association with dame) from earlier donsele, from Gallo-Roman *domnicella, diminutive of Latin domina "lady" (see dame). Archaic until revived by romantic poets, along with 16c.-17c. variant form damozel.
dan: title of address to members of religious orders, c. 1300, from Old French dan (Modern French dom), from Latin dominus "lord" (source of Portuguese don, Spanish don, Italian donno; see don (n.)).
Dan (1): familiar form of masc. proper name Daniel.
Dan (2): name of one of the 12 tribes of ancient Israel or its territory, named for its founder; literally "he who judges," related to Hebrew din "to judge." In the Old Testament, it occupied the northernmost part of Israel, hence its use proverbially for "utmost extremity," as in in from Dan to Beersheba (the southernmost region), 1738.
Dana: fem. proper name; in U.S. little used before c. 1925, then in top 100 for girls born from 1963 to 1984.
Danaid (n.): in Greek mythology, one of the 50 daughters of Danaus, king of Argos, from Greek Danaides (plural). On command of their father, all (except Hypermnestra) killed their husbands and consequently were condemned to draw water perpetually in bottomless buckets.
dance (v.): c. 1300, from Old French dancier (12c., Modern French danser), which is of unknown origin, perhaps from Low Frankish *dintjan and akin to Old Frisian dintje "tremble, quiver." A word of uncertain origin but which, through French influence in arts and society, has become the primary word for this activity from Spain to Russia (Italian danzare, Spanish danzar, Rumanian dansa, Swedish dansa, German tanzen).
In part the loanword from French is used mainly with reference to fashionable dancing while the older native word persists in use with reference to folk-dancing, as definitively Russ. pljasat' vs. tancovat' [Buck].
Replaced Old English sealtian, itself a borrowing from Latin saltare "to dance," frequentative of salire "to leap" (see salient (adj.); "dance" words frequently are derived from words meaning "jump, leap"). Related: Danced; dancing.
It is strange, and will, I am sure, appear to my readers almost incredible, that as far as I have ever read, there is no reference that can be identified as containing a clear allusion to dancing in any of our really ancient MS. books. [Eugene O'Curry, "On the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish," vol. 2, p.406, 1873]
dance (n.): c. 1300, from dance (v.).
dancer (n.): mid-15c., agent noun from dance. (Dancere as a surname is attested from early 12c.). Related: Danseuse "female dancer," from French fem. of danseur.
dandelion (n.): early 15c., earlier dent-de-lioun (late 14c.), from Middle French dent de lion, literally "lion's tooth" (from its toothed leaves), translation of Medieval Latin dens leonis. Other folk names, like tell-time refer to the custom of telling the time by blowing the white seed (the number of puffs required to blow them all off supposedly being the number of the hour), or to the plant's more authentic diuretic qualities, preserved in Middle English piss-a-bed and French pissenlit.
dander (n.): 1831, American English, "temper," of unknown origin; perhaps originally from figurative use of West Indies dander, dunder "fermentation of sugar," from Spanish redundar "to overflow," from Latin redundare (see redundant).
dandle (v.): 1520s, of unknown origin. Perhaps somehow felt to be imitative. Compare Italian dondolare "to dandle, swing," and French dandiner, from Old French dandin "small bell," imitative of its sound. Related: Dandled; dandling.
dandruff (n.): 1540s, first element obscure, second element is Northumbrian or East Anglian dialectal huff, hurf "scab," from Old Norse hrufa, from Proto-Germanic *hreufaz, source of Old English hreofla "leper."
dandy (n.): c. 1780, of uncertain origin; it first appeared in a Scottish border ballad:
I've heard my granny crack
O' sixty twa years back
When there were sic a stock of Dandies O
etc. In that region, Dandy is diminutive of Andrew (as it was in Middle English generally). The word was in vogue in London c. 1813-1819. His female counterpart was a dandizette (1821) with French-type ending. The adjective dandy first recorded 1792; very popular c. 1880-1900. Related: Dandified; dandify.
Dane (n.): "native of Denmark," from Danish Daner (replacing Old English Dene (plural)); used in Old English of Northmen generally. Perhaps ultimately from a source related to Old High German tanar "sand bank," in reference to their homeland; or from Proto-Germanic *den- "low ground," for the same reason.

Applied 1774 to a breed of large dogs. Danegeld not known by that name in Old English, or until 1086, long after the end of the Viking depredations. Supposedly originally a tax to pay for protection from the Northmen (either to outfit defensive armies or to buy peace). Danelaw (c.1050) was the Danish law in force over that large part of England under Viking rule after c.878; the application to the land itself is modern (1837).
dang (interj.): 1781 (in Sophia Lee's comedy "A Chapter of Accidents," which was acted first in 1780), euphemism for damn.