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errand [errand 词源字典]: errand: [OE] Despite the passing similarity, errand has no etymological connection with err and error. It comes from a prehistoric Germanic *ǣrundjam, which meant ‘message’ – a sense which in fact survived in English until as recently as the 18th century (Miles Coverdale, for example, in his 1535 translation of 1 Samuel 11:5 wrote ‘So they told him the errand of the men of Jabesh’ – where the Authorized Version has ‘tidings’).

The main modern meaning, ‘task one goes to perform’, developed in the 13th century (in American English it has latterly gained specific connotations of ‘shopping’). The source of the Germanic word is not known, but it is no doubt related to Swedish ärende and Danish ærinde ‘errand, message, business’.
[errand etymology, errand origin, 英语词源]
error: error: see err
eructate: eructate: see reek
erudite: erudite: [15] To be erudite is literally to be the opposite of ‘rude’. Latin rudis (source of English rude) meant ‘rough, unpolished’, and so ērudīre, a compound verb formed with the prefix ex- ‘out of, from’, signified ‘take the roughness out of’, hence ‘polish, teach’. Its past participle formed the basis of an adjective, ērudītus ‘(well) taught’, which as borrowed into English has acquired the greater gravitas of ‘learned’.
=> rude
erupt: erupt: [17] Etymologically, erupt means simply ‘break out’. It comes from the past participle of Latin ērumpere, a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out, from’ and rumpere ‘break’ (source of English rout, route, routine, and rupture, and related to bereave, rob, and robe). English actually acquired the derived noun eruption [15] before the verb.
=> bereave, corrupt, disrupt, rob, rout, route, routine, rupture
erythrocyte: erythrocyte: see red
escalate: escalate: [20] Escalate is a back-formation from escalator [20], which was originally a tradename for a moving staircase first made in the USA around 1900 by the Otis Elevator Company. This in turn seems to have been coined (probably on the model of elevator) from escalade [16], a term in medieval warfare signifying the scaling of a fortified wall, which came via French and Spanish from medieval Latin scalāre, source of English scale ‘climb’. Escalate originally meant simply ‘ascend on an escalator’; the metaphorical sense ‘increase’ developed at the end of the 1950s.
escape: escape: [14] Originally, escape meant literally ‘take off one’s cloak’, and signified metaphorically ‘throw off restraint’ – much as we might say unbutton. The word appears to come ultimately from Vulgar Latin *excappāre, a hypothetical compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out, off’ and cappa ‘cloak’ (source of English cape). This passed into Old Northern French as escaper (immediate source of the English word), by which time the metaphor had progressed from ‘throwing off restraint’ to ‘gaining one’s liberty’.
=> cape
eschew: eschew: [14] Eschew is ultimately of Germanic origin, although it reached English via French. Its remote ancestor is prehistoric Germanic *skeukhwaz, source also of English shy. A verb based on this, *skeukhwan, was borrowed into Vulgar Latin as *skīvāre, which in Old French became eschiver or eschuer – whence English eschew. An Old Northern French variant of the Old French form, eskiuer, gave English skew [14] (which originally meant ‘escape’), while modern French esquiver ‘dodge’ (actually a reborrowing from Italian schivare rather than a direct descendant of Old French eschiver) could be the source of English skive [20], a probable borrowing by British servicemen in France during World War I.
=> skew, skive
escort: escort: [16] The notion underlying escort is of ‘guidance’, of ‘showing the right path’. The word comes via French from Italian scorta ‘guide’, a noun use of the past participle of scorgere ‘show, guide’. This in turn came from Vulgar Latin *excorrigere, a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and Latin corrigere ‘put right’ (source of English correct).
=> correct
escrow: escrow: see scroll
escutcheon: escutcheon: see squire
especial: especial: see special
espionage: espionage: see spy
esplanade: esplanade: [17] Essentially, esplanade is the same word as explain, but whereas explain has lost its underlying literal meaning, esplanade has retained at least a memory of it. It comes ultimately from Latin explānāre, which meant ‘flatten out’, and so esplanade (acquired via French from the Spanish past participle esplanada) was originally simply a ‘large level area’. Its application to the ‘promenade’ at seaside towns is a comparatively recent development.
=> explain
espouse: espouse: [15] Etymologically, to espouse something is the same as to sponsor it. Both words go back ultimately to Latin spondēre ‘promise solemnly’. From it developed late Latin spōnsāre, which produced Old French espouser, source of the English verb. It originally meant ‘promise to marry’, but this particular semantic strand has survived only in the related noun spouse, and by the 17th century the now familiar metaphorical sense ‘adopt and support a cause’ had developed.
=> sponsor, spouse
espresso: espresso: [20] Etymologically, espresso is coffee that has been ‘pressed out’. The word comes from Italian caffè espresso, literally ‘pressed-out coffee’, which refers to the way in which the coffee is made by forcing pressurized steam or boiling water through the finely ground beans. Espresso is the past participle of esprimere ‘press out’, from Latin exprimere – which is also the source of English express.
espy: espy: see spy
esquire: esquire: see squire
essay: essay: [15] Essay and assay [14] are fundamentally the same word, and only began to diverge in the 15th century. Both come via Old French assaier from Vulgar Latin *exagiāre ‘weigh out’, a verb derived from late Latin exagium ‘weighing’; this in turn was formed from the Latin verb exigere ‘weigh’ (source of English exact and examine).

Accordingly, both originally had underlying connotations of ‘testing by weighing’. But while these have become more concrete in assay ‘analyse precious metals’, essay has, under the influence of French essayer, gone down the more metaphorical route from ‘test’ to ‘try’. The verb now survives only in fairly formal use, but the noun is much more frequent, owing to its application to a ‘short nonfictional literary composition’.

It was first used thus in English by Francis Bacon in 1597 as the title of a collection of such pieces, and it is generally assumed that he borrowed the idea from the Essais of Montaigne, published in 1580.
=> assay, exact, examine