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emolument [emolument 词源字典]: emolument: [15] Just as a salary was originally a ‘payment for salt’, so emolument appears to have been a particular kind of payment – in this case for flour – which later became generalized in meaning. Latin ēmolere meant ‘grind out’ (it was a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and molere ‘grind’, a relative of English mill and meal ‘ground grain’), and hence the derivative ēmolumentum was used originally for ‘fee paid to a miller for grinding grain’. The metaphorical sense ‘gain’ was already present in classical Latin.
=> meal, mill[emolument etymology, emolument origin, 英语词源]
emotion: emotion: [16] The semantic notion underlying emotion – of applying ‘physical movement’ metaphorically to ‘strong feeling’ – is an ancient one: Latin used the phrase mōtus animā, literally ‘movement of the spirit’, in this sense. Emotion itself is a post-classical Latin formation; it comes ultimately from Vulgar Latin *exmovēre, literally ‘move out’, hence ‘excite’, a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and movēre ‘move’ (source of English move).

In French this became émouvoir, and English borrowed its derived noun émotion, but at first used it only in the literal sense ‘moving, agitation’ (‘The waters continuing in the caverns … caused the emotion or earthquake’, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society 1758) and the metaphorically extended ‘political agitation or disturbance’ (a sense now preserved only in émeute [19], another derivative of French émouvoir).

It was not until the late 17th century that the sense ‘strong feeling’ really came to the fore. The back-formation emote is a 20th-century phenomenon, of US origin.
=> émeute, move
emperor: emperor: see empire
emphasis: emphasis: [16] In Greek, émphasis originally meant simply ‘appearance’. It was a derivative of emphaínein ‘exhibit, indicate’, a compound verb formed from the prefix en- ‘in’ and phaínein ‘show’ (source of English phase). It came to be used as a grammatical term denoting ‘implication’ (as opposed to ‘directly expressed meaning’) and passed in this sense via Latin emphasis into English. Its main modern use, ‘special importance placed on something’, derives from the stressing of a particular word or phrase in speech to show that it is intended to imply something other than its literal meaning might seem to suggest.
=> phase
empire: empire: [13] Empire and its close relatives emperor [13], imperial [14], imperious [16], and imperative [16] all come ultimately from the Latin verb imperāre ‘command’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix in- ‘in relation to’ and parāre ‘make ready’ (source of English prepare), and hence originally meant ‘make preparations for’ before shifting metaphorically to ‘issue commands for’.

Of its derivatives, imperātor (source of English emperor) was used originally for ‘commander of an army’, and only secondarily for the ruler of the Roman empire, while the primary sense of imperium (source of English empire) was ‘a command’, and hence ‘authority’.
=> imperative, imperial, prepare
empirical: empirical: [16] Despite their formal resemblance, empirical and empire are completely unrelated. Empirical comes ultimately from the Greek adjective émpeiros ‘skilled or experienced in’, a compound formed from the prefix en- ‘in’ and peira ‘attempt, trial’ (a relative of English expert, peril, pirate, and repertory). From this were derived successively the noun empeiría ‘experience’ and empeirikós, which English acquired via Latin empiricus.
=> expert, peril, pirate, repertory
employ: employ: [15] Essentially, employ is the same word as imply [14] and implicate [16]. All three come ultimately from Latin implicāre ‘enfold, involve’, a compound verb formed from the prefix in- ‘in’ and plicāre ‘fold’ (source of English ply and related to English fold). This passed into Old French as emplier, which in turn was transmitted into English as imply; this originally retained the literal sense ‘enfold’, and it was only gradually that the metaphorical ‘involve as a necessary condition’ developed.

However, Old French emplier had a variant empleier, later emploier, which took a slightly different semantic route – from simply ‘involve’ to ‘involve in or apply to a particular purpose’. This was the sense in which English acquired it as employ.
=> fold, implicate, imply, ply
empty: empty: [OE] The original meaning of Old English ǣmtig appears to have been ‘unoccupied, at leisure’, and it was only secondarily that it developed the physical connotations of ‘not full’ which have come down to us in empty. (It also meant ‘unmarried’.) It was a derivative of the noun ǣmetta ‘rest, leisure’. This is a word of uncertain history, but it has been plausibly analysed as the negative prefix ǣ- plus a derivative of the root which produced modern English mete (as in ‘mete out’), meaning something like ‘not assigned’.
=> mete
emulate: emulate: see imitate
emulsion: emulsion: [17] An emulsion is an undissolved suspension of tiny drops of one liquid dispersed throughout another. The classic example of this is milk – whence its name. It comes from modern Latin ēmulsiō, a derivative of ēmulgēre ‘drain out, milk out’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and mulgēre ‘milk’, a distant relative of English milk. The word’s familiar modern application to paint dates from the 1930s.
=> milk
enamel: enamel: [14] The underlying meaning element in enamel is ‘melting’. It comes ultimately from a prehistoric Germanic base *smalt- (source of English schmaltz ‘sentimentality’ [20], borrowed via Yiddish from German schmalz ‘fat, dripping’), and related Germanic forms produced English smelt, melt, and malt. Old French acquired the Germanic word and turned it into esmauz; this in turn was re-formed to esmail, and Anglo-Norman adopted it as amail.

This formed the basis, with the prefix en- ‘in’, of a verb enamailler ‘decorate with enamel’. English borrowed it, and by the mid-15th century it was being used as a noun for the substance itself (the noun amel, a direct borrowing from Anglo-Norman, had in fact been used in this sense since the 14th century, and it did not finally die out until the 18th century).

Its application to the substance covering teeth dates from the early 18th century.
=> malt, melt, schmaltz, smelt
encaustic: encaustic: see ink
enclose: enclose: see include
encroach: encroach: [14] Something that encroaches on something else literally seizes it with its ‘hooks’. The word was borrowed from Old French encrochier ‘catch in a hook’, hence ‘seize’. This was a compound formed from the prefix en- and croc ‘hook’ (source of English crochet, crocket, and croquet), a noun borrowed from Old Norse krókr ‘hook’ (source of English crook). The verb’s original use in English was transitive, in the sense ‘seize wrongfully’; the modern sense ‘intrude, trespass’ did not develop until the 16th century.
=> crochet, crook, croquet
encyclopedia: encyclopedia: [16] Etymologically, encyclopedia means ‘general education’. It is a medieval formation, based on the Greek phrase egkúklios paideíā (egkúklios, a compound adjective formed from the prefix en- ‘in’ and kúklos ‘circle’ – source of English cycle – meant originally ‘circular’, and hence ‘general’, and is the ultimate source of English encyclical [17]; paideíā ‘education’ was a derivative of país ‘boy, child’, which has given English paederast [18], paedophilia [20], pedagogue [14], pedant [16], and paediatrician [20]).

This referred to the general course of education which it was customary to give a child in classical Greece, and after it was merged into a single word egkuklopaideíā and transmitted via medieval Latin encyclopedia into English, it retained that meaning at first. However, in the 17th century the term began to be applied to compendious reference works (the first, or at least the one which did most to establish the name, was perhaps that of J H Alsted in 1632).

The Encyclopedia Britannica was first published in 1768.
=> cycle, encyclical, paederast, pedagogue, pedant, pediatrician
end: end: [OE] End is an ancient word, that has been traced back to an Indo-European *antjó. This also produced Sanskrit ántas ‘end’, as well as Latin ante ‘before’ and Greek anti ‘opposite’. Its Germanic descendant was *andja, from which came Gothic andeis, German ende, Dutch einde, Swedish ända, and English end.
endeavour: endeavour: [14] Despite its plausible appearance, endeavour is not a borrowing from French or Latin but a purely English creation. It was coined from the Middle English phrase put in dever, which was a partial translation of Old French mettre en deveir, literally ‘put in duty’, hence ‘make it one’s duty to do something’ (deveir, ancestor of modern French devoir ‘duty’, came ultimately from Latin dēbēre ‘owe’, source of English debit and debt). In the 14th century the last two words were joined together to form the verb endeavour ‘make an effort’.
=> debit, debt
endorse: endorse: [16] To endorse something is literally to write ‘on the back’ of it. The word comes from medieval Latin indorsāre, a compound verb formed from the prefix in- ‘in’ and dorsum ‘back’ (source of English dorsal, doss, and dossier). (An earlier English version of the word was endoss [14], acquired via Old French endosser, which died out in the 17th century.)
=> dorsal, doss, dossier
endow: endow: see dowry
endure: endure: see during