英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

destiny [destiny 词源字典]: destiny: [14] Etymologically, one’s destiny is that which has been firmly established or determined for one (as if by fate). The word comes from destinee, the Old French descendant of Latin dēstinātus. This was the past participle of dēstināre ‘make firm, establish’, a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix dē- and *stanāre ‘fix’ (source also of English obstinate). This in turn was a derivative of stare ‘stand’, a relative of English stand. The Latin verb also gave English destine [14] and hence destination [15], whose current use comes from an earlier place of destination ‘place for which one is bound’.
=> destination, obstinate, stand[destiny etymology, destiny origin, 英语词源]
destitute: destitute: see statue
destroy: destroy: [13] As in the case of demolish, to destroy something is almost literally to ‘unbuild’ it. The word comes via Old French destruire from *dēstrūgere, a Vulgar Latin alteration of Latin dēstrūere. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix dē-, denoting reversal of a previous state, and strūere ‘pile up, build’ (source of English construct and structure). Its past participle, dēstructus, has produced English destruction [14], destructive [15], and the verb destruct (recorded once in the 17th century but revived in the 1950s by backformation from destruction).
=> construct, destruction, structure
desultory: desultory: [16] Latin dēsultor designated a circus trick-rider who jumped from the back of one horse to another while they were galloping along (it was a derivative of dēsilīre, a compound verb formed from dē- ‘down’ and salīre ‘jump’, source of or related to English assail, assault, insult, salacious, salient, and sally). From it was derived an adjective dēsultōrius ‘jumping from one thing to another like a dēsultor’, hence ‘superficial’, and eventually ‘unmethodical, irregular’, the sense which survives in English.
=> assail, assault, insult, salacious, salient
detail: detail: [17] Etymologically, a detail is a ‘little piece cut off’. It comes from French détail, a derivative of détailler ‘cut up’. This was a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix dé- and tailler ‘cut’ (a relative of English tailor and tally). English acquired the word via the French phrase en détail ‘piece by piece, item by item’, source of the central modern meaning ‘individual item, particular’.
=> tailor, tally
detect: detect: see protect
détente: détente: [20] English originally acquired this word from French in the 17th century as detent, which denotes a catch that regulates the movement of a clock. French détente, which originally signified a device for releasing a crossbow string, came from the past participle of Old French destendre ‘release’, a compound verb formed from the prefix des- ‘apart’ and tendre ‘stretch’ (related to English tension).

But English-speakers, mistakenly associating it with detain [15] (a verb of completely different origin, via Old French detenir from Latin dētinēre ‘keep back’) completely reversed its meaning, applying to a restraining catch rather than a releasing one. French, the language of diplomacy, re-lent détente to English in the first decade of the 20th century in the sense ‘relaxation of international tension’.
=> tension
deter: deter: see terror
detergent: detergent: [17] A detergent is literally something that ‘wipes away’. The word comes from dētergent-, the present participial stem of Latin dētergēre, a compound verb formed from dē- ‘away’ and tergēre ‘wipe’ (its past participle produced English terse). English detergent originally meant simply ‘cleansing agent’ (used particularly in a medical or surgical context); the specific application to a cleanser made from synthetic chemical compounds (as opposed to soap, which is made from fats and lye) is a 20thcentury development.
=> terse
deteriorate: deteriorate: [16] The meaning of deteriorate resides etymologically in its first syllable, which represents the Latin preposition dē ‘down’. To this was added the adjectival suffix -ter, to produce *dēter ‘bad’, and this in turn was modified with the comparative suffix -ior to dēterior ‘worse’. Dēterior formed the basis of the verb dēteriorāre ‘get worse’, source of English deteriorate.
determine: determine: [14] The central meaning of determine is ‘fix a limit to’, as in ‘determine the scope of an enquiry’. It comes via Old French determiner from Latin dētermināre, a compound verb formed from the prefix dē- ‘off’ and termināre ‘limit’ (source of English terminate). Its connotations of ‘firm resolve’, a 17th-century development, came via an intermediate sense ‘come to a firm decision on’.
=> terminate
detest: detest: [16] Latin dētestārī, source of detest, meant ‘denounce’. It was a compound verb formed from the pejorative prefix dē- and testārī ‘bear witness’. This in turn was a derivative of testis ‘witness’, source of English testify, testimony, and testicle. It retained its original sense of ‘cursing’ or ‘execration’ when first borrowed into English, but by the 18th century this had weakened from open denunciation to internal ‘loathing’.
=> testicle, testify, testimony
detonate: detonate: [18] Detonate is related to thunder. It comes from the past participle of Latin dētonāre, a compound verb formed from the prefix dē- ‘down’ and tonāre ‘thunder, roar’, which goes back to the same Indo-European base (*ten-, *ton-) as thunder. Latin dētonāre never actually meant ‘cause to explode’, though; that sense comes from its French descendant détoner.
=> thunder
detriment: detriment: [15] Etymologically, detriment denotes damage caused by ‘wearing away’. The word comes via Old French from Latin dētrīmentum, a derivative of dēterere ‘wear away’ (whose past participle is the source of English detritus [18]). This was a compound verb formed from the prefix dē- ‘away’ and terere ‘rub’ (from which English gets attrition and trite). The generalized metaphorical sense ‘harm’ had already developed in classical Latin.
=> attrition, detritus, trite
deuce: deuce: [15] The underlying meaning of deuce emerges most clearly in its application to playing cards and dice: the number two. It comes from Old French deus ‘two’, which goes back to duōs, the accusative case of Latin duo ‘two’ (English two comes ultimately from the same source). Its use in tennis comes from the French phrase à deux, literally ‘at two’, which signifies that a player must score two successive points to win a game. It is generally thought that the mild oath deuce came from duus, the Low German descendant of Latin duōs, which gamblers supposedly cried out in disgust when they threw the lowest score, a two.
devastate: devastate: [17] Etymologically as well as semantically, devastate is related to ‘lay waste’. It comes from the past participle of Latin dēvāstāre, a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix dē- and vāstāre ‘lay waste’. This was a derivative of vāstus ‘waste’, source of English waste.
=> vast, waste
develop: develop: [17] The history of develop and its close relative envelop is hazy. English acquired it from développer, the modern French descendant of Old French desveloper. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix des- ‘un-’ and voloper ‘wrap’. But where did voloper come from? Some have proposed a hypothetical Celtic base *vol- ‘roll’, while others have pointed to similarities, formal and semantic, with Italian viluppo ‘bundle’ and viluppare ‘wrap’, which come from an assumed late Latin *faluppa ‘husk’. Beyond that, however, the trail has gone cold.
=> envelop
deviate: deviate: see devious
device: device: [13] A device is something which has been devised – which, etymologically speaking, amounts to ‘something which has been divided’. For ultimately devise and divide come from the same source. The noun device comes in the first instance from Old French devis ‘division, contrivance’ and latterly (in the 15th century) from Old French devise ‘plan’, both of which were derivatives of the verb deviser ‘divide, devise’ (source of English devise [13]).

This in turn came from Vulgar Latin *dīvisāre, a verb based on the past participial stem of Latin dīvidere, source of English divide. The semantic development by which ‘divide’ passed to ‘contrive’, presumably based on the notion that dividing something up and distributing it needs some planning, happened before the word reached English, and English device has never meant ‘division’.

The sense ‘simple machine’ essentially evolved in the 16th century.
=> devise, divide, individual, widow
devil: devil: [OE] English acquired devil in the 8th century via late Latin diabolus from Greek diábolos, which originally meant ‘slanderer’. It was a derivative of diabállein ‘slander’, a compound verb literally meaning ‘throw across’, formed from diá ‘across’ and bállein ‘throw’ (whence English ballistics). The Greek word has reached most European languages: for example French diable, Italian diavolo, German teufel, Dutch duivel, Swedish djāvul, and Russian djavol. It has also given English diabolical [16], and indeed diabolo [20], a game played by spinning a top (named from a variant of Italian diavolo) on a string.
=> ballistics, diabolical