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epidemic [epidemic 词源字典]: epidemic: [17] An epidemic is literally something that has an effect ‘among the people’. The word comes from French épidémique, a derivative of the noun épidémie, which goes back via late Latin epidēmia to Greek epidēmíā ‘disease prevalent among the people’. This was a noun use of epidémios, a compound adjective formed from the prefix epí- ‘among’ and demos ‘people’ (source of English democracy).
=> democracy[epidemic etymology, epidemic origin, 英语词源]
epiglottis: epiglottis: see gloss
epilepsy: epilepsy: [16] Etymologically, epilepsy is the Greek equivalent of English seizure or attack. The word comes, via French or Latin, from Greek epilēpsíā, a derivative of epilambánein ‘seize upon’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix epí- ‘on’ and lambánein ‘take hold of’.
episode: episode: [17] In modern English, an episode is a component in a series of connected events, but originally it was something incidental, coming in adventitiously from the side. The word comes from Greek epeisódion ‘addition’, a noun use of the adjective epeisódios ‘coming in besides’. This was a compound formed from the prefix epí- ‘besides’ and the noun eísodos ‘coming in, entrance’ – which in turn was a compound formed from the preposition eis ‘into’ and hodós ‘way’ (a relative of Russian chodit’ ‘go’).
=> exodus
epistle: epistle: [14] Epistle has never really caught on in English as a general term for a ‘letter’ – too highfalutin – but in fact from a semantic point of view its origins are quite simple. It comes ultimately from Greek epistolé, which meant ‘something sent to someone’. This was a derivative of epistéllein, a compound verb formed from the prefix epí- ‘to’ and stellein ‘send’ (as in apostle, literally ‘someone sent out’).

English actually acquired the word for the first time during the Anglo-Saxon period, directly from Latin epistola, and it survived into the 16th century in the reduced form pistle. In the 14th century, however, it was reborrowed, via Old French, as epistle.
=> apostle
epitaph: epitaph: [14] Greek táphos meant ‘tomb’, and so an oration that was epitáphios (an adjective formed with the prefix epí- ‘over’) was given ‘over the tomb’. Eventually the adjective was made into a noun, epitáphion, and this reached English via Latin epitaphium and Old French epitaphe.
epithet: epithet: [16] Etymologically, an epithet is a word that is ‘put on’ to or ‘added’ to another. The term comes from Greek epítheton, which meant literally ‘addition’, but was used by Greek grammarians for ‘adjective’. It was a derivative of epitithénai ‘put on, add’, a compound verb formed from the prefix epí- ‘on’ and tithénai ‘place, put’ (a relative of English do and theme). By the time the word reached English (via French or Latin) it had moved over from the vocabulary of the grammarian to that of the layman, in the sense ‘descriptive appellation’.
=> do, theme
epoch: epoch: [17] Historically, epoch means ‘point in time’, but its particular application to ‘point marking the beginning of a new period of time’ has led increasingly to its use in modern English for simply ‘historical period’. The word comes via modern Latin epocha from Greek epokhé, literally ‘pause, stoppage’, and hence ‘fixed point in time’. This was a derivative of epékhein ‘pause, hold back’, a compound verb formed from the prefix epí- ‘back’ and ékhein ‘hold’ (source of English hectic and related to scheme and sketch).
=> hectic, scheme, sketch
equal: equal: [14] Latin aequus (a word of unknown ancestry) meant ‘level’ or ‘even’. From it was derived the adjective aequālis ‘equal’, which has provided the term for ‘equal’ in all the modern Romance languages, including French égal (source of English egalitarian [19]), Italian uguale, and Spanish igual. English, however, is the only Germanic language in which it constitutes a major borrowing.

English also possesses, of course, a host of related words, including adequate [17], equanimity [17], equate [15], equation [14] equator [14] (etymologically the line of latitude that ‘equalizes’ day and night), and iniquity [14] (etymologically the equivalent of inequality), not to mention all those beginning with the prefix equi-, such as equidistant [16], equilibrium [17] (literally ‘equal balance’, from Latin lībra ‘balance’), equinox [14], equity [14], and equivalent [15].
=> adequate, egalitarian, equator, equity, iniquity
equerry: equerry: [16] Nowadays in Britain simply royal attendants, equerries’ long and traditional association with the royal stables has led to association of the word equerry with Latin equus ‘horse’, but in fact the two are quite unrelated. Equerry originally meant ‘stable’, and was borrowed from the obsolete French escuirie (now écurie). It is not clear where this came from: some etymologists have linked it with Old High German scūr ‘barn, shed’, while others have derived it from Old French escuier ‘groom’ (source of English esquire and squire), according to which view it would mean ‘place where a groom stayed or worked’. (Escuier itself came ultimately from Latin scūtārius ‘shieldbearer’.) Forms such as escurie remained current in English up until the 18th century, but already by the 17th century equus-influenced spellings had begun to appear.

The person in charge of such a stable was formerly termed in French escuier d’escuirie ‘squire of the stable’, and in English groom of the equerry, and there are records from quite early in the 16th century indicating that equerry was being used on its own as the term for such a groom.
=> esquire, squire
equestrian: equestrian: [17] Equestrian was adapted from Latin equester, an adjective derived from eques ‘horseman’. Eques in turn was based on equus ‘horse’ (source of English equine [18]). This was the Latin descendant of *ekwos, the prehistoric Indo-European term for ‘horse’, which was once found in all the daughter languages of Indo- European except for the Slavic branch: Old English had eoh, for example, Old Irish ech, Sanskrit avás, and ancient Greek híppos (source of English hippodrome and hippopotamus).

It is a remarkable circumstance, however, that over the past thousand years equus and its relatives have (other than in derivatives such as equine) died out, to be replaced by secondary terms such as French cheval (from Latin caballus, probably a non-Indo-European borrowing), German pferd (from late Latin paraverēdus ‘extra post-horse’, source also of English palfrey), and English horse.
=> equine, hippopotamus
equip: equip: [16] Etymologically, equip means ‘fit out or provide crew for a ship’. Its immediate source was French équiper, but this appears to have been a borrowing from Old Norse skipa ‘fit out a ship’, a verb derived from skip ‘ship’ (first cousin of English ship). The carliest examples of its use in English are in the much broader sense ‘supply with necessary materials’, and its specific links with the sea were soon severed.
=> ship
era: era: [17] In ancient Rome, small discs or tokens made of ‘brass’ (Latin aes, a descendant, like English ore [OE], of Indo-European *ajes) used for counting were known as area. In due course this developed the metaphorical meaning ‘number as a basis for calculation’, and from around the 5th century AD it came to be used in Spain, North Africa, and southern Gaul as a prefix for dates, some what analogous to modern English AD.

By extension it was then applied to a ‘system of chronological notation, as dated from a particular event or point in time’, the sense in which English acquired the word. The more general ‘historical period’ is an 18thcentury semantic development.
=> ore
eradicate: eradicate: [16] Semantically, eradicate is an analogous formation to uproot. It comes from the past participle of Latin ērādicāre ‘pull out by the roots’, a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and rādix ‘root’ (source of English radical and radish and related to English root). In the 16th and 17th centuries it was often used literally (‘oaks eradicated by a prodigious whirlwind’, Thomas Nabbes, Hannibal and Scipio 1637), but since then the metaphorical ‘remove totally’ has taken over.
=> radish, root
erase: erase: [17] Like abrade, rascal, rase and razor, erase comes ultimately from Latin rādere ‘scrape’. This formed the basis of a compound verb ērādere ‘scrape out, scrape off’ (its first element is the Latin prefix ex- ‘out’). Eraser ‘rubber’ seems to be a 19th-century coinage.
=> abrade, rascal, rase, razor
erect: erect: [14] Erect was borrowed from Latin ērectus, the past participle of ērigere ‘raise up, set up’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out, up’ and regere ‘keep straight, set, direct’ (source of English regent, region, etc). The use of the derivative erection [15] for the enlargement of the penis dates from the 16th century.
=> correct, direct, regent, region
ermine: ermine: [12] The term ermine was introduced to English from Old French as a name for the ‘stoat’, but as in the case of other words of French origin like mutton and pork which soon came to be used for the dead animals’ product rather than the live animals themselves, it was not long (about a hundred years in fact) before ermine was being applied to the stoat’s fur, and specifically to its white winter fur.

The source of the French word is not entirely clear. One school of thought derives it from medieval Latin mūs Armenius ‘Armenian mouse’, on the assumption that this denoted a ‘stoat’ or ‘weasel’, but an alternative possibility is Germanic origin.
erode: erode: see rostrum
erotic: erotic: [17] Érōs was the Greek word for ‘sexual love’ (as opposed to agápē ‘brotherly love’ and philía ‘friendship’). The concept was personified in Greek mythology as Érōs, the boy-god of love. Its adjectival derivative erōtikós arrived in English via French érotique.
err: err: [14] Err, erratic [14], erroneous [14], and error [13] all go back to a prehistoric base *er-, which meant ‘wandering about’ (the semantic progression from ‘wandering’ to ‘making mistakes’ is reproduced in several other quite unrelated word groups in the Indo-European language family). This produced Gothic airzei ‘error’, Old High German irri ‘astray’ (source of modern German irre ‘angry’), Old English ierre ‘astray’, and Latin errāre ‘wander, make mistakes’ – from which, via Old French errer, English got err.
=> erratic, error