quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- fattening (adj.)[fattening 词源字典]
- "that makes fat," 1690s, present participle adjective from fatten. Earlier word was fatting (1530s).[fattening etymology, fattening origin, 英语词源]
- fatty (adj.)
- late 14c., from fat + -y (2). As a name for a fat person, attested by 1797 (with -y (3)).
- fatuity (n.)
- 1640s, from Middle French fatuité (14c.), from Latin fatuitatem (nominative fatuitas) "foolishness, folly," from fatuus "foolish, insipid" (see fatuous).
- fatuous (adj.)
- "foolish, stupid," 1530s, from Latin fatuus "foolish, insipid, silly;" which is of uncertain origin. Buck suggests originally "stricken" in the head. But de Vaan says from Proto-Italic *fatowo- "of speech," from the PIE root of fame (n.).
[I]f we connect the fact that Fatuus is said to be an alternative name for Faunus, and that he predicted the future, and that this god is attested on an Etruscan mirror as Fatuvs in a clear oracular function (Weiss 2007b), we may venture a derivation from forfor 'to say' (Untermann 2000). The name of the god would then have come to be used pejoratively as 'silly'. [de Vaan]
Related: Fatuously; fatuousness. - fatwa (n.)
- 1620s, from Arabic fetwa "a decision given by a mufti," related to fata "to instruct by a legal decision." Popularized in English 1989 when Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran issued a ruling sentencing author Salman Rushdie to death for publishing "The Satanic Verses" (1988). This was lifted 1998.
- faubourg (n.)
- "suburb," late 15c., from Middle French faux bourg, said by French authorities to be from Old French forsbourc (12c.) "suburbs, outskirts," literally "that which is outside the town," from fors "outside" (from Latin foris; see foreign) + bourc "town" (a word of Frankish origin cognate with English borough), and altered in Middle French by folk-etymology to faux bourg "false town" (suburbs were seen as inauthentic).
- fauces (n.)
- "throat, gullet," 1540s, from Latin fauces "throat, gullet." Related: Faucal; faucial.
- faucet (n.)
- c. 1400, from Old French fausset (14c.) "breach, spigot, stopper, peg (of a barrel)," which is of unknown origin; perhaps diminutive of Latin faux, fauces "upper part of the throat, pharynx, gullet." Not in Watkins, but Barnhart, Gamillscheg, and others suggest the Old French word is from fausser "to damage, break into," from Late Latin falsare (see false).
Spigot and faucet was the name of an old type of tap for a barrel or cask, consisting of a hollow, tapering tube, which was driven at the narrow end into a barrel, and a screw into the tube which regulated the flow of the liquid. Properly, it seems, the spigot was the tube, the faucet the screw, but the senses have merged or reversed over time. OED reports that faucet is now the common word in American English for the whole apparatus. - faugh (interj.)
- exclamation of disgust, by 1540s.
- fault (n.)
- late 13c., faute, "deficiency," from Old French faute, earlier falte, "opening, gap; failure, flaw, blemish; lack, deficiency" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *fallita "a shortcoming, falling," from Latin falsus "deceptive, feigned, spurious," past participle of fallere "deceive, disappoint" (see fail (v.)).
The -l- was restored 16c., probably in imitation of Latin, but the letter was silent until 18c. Sense of "physical defect" is from early 14c.; that of "moral culpability" (milder than sin or vice, but more serious than an error) is first recorded late 14c. Geological sense is from 1796. The use in tennis (c. 1600) is closer to the etymological sense. - fault (v.)
- "find fault with," mid-15c. from fault (n.). Earlier it was used in an intransitive sense of "be deficient" (late 14c., Scottish). Related: Faulted; faulter; faulting.
- fault-finding (n.)
- 1620s, from verbal phrase find fault (with) (late 14c.); see fault (n.) + find (v.). Related: Fault-finder (1560s).
- faultless (adj.)
- mid-14c., "having no blemishes or imperfections," from fault (n.) + -less. Meaning "having no blame, culpability, or guilt" is from 1570s. Related: Faultlessly; faultlessness.
- faulty (adj.)
- "containing faults, errors, or defects," late 14c., from fault (n.) + -y (2). Related: Faultily; faultiness.
- faun (n.)
- "rustic woodland spirit or demigod part human, part goat," late 14c., from Latin Faunus, the name of a god of the countryside, worshipped especially by farmers and shepherds, equivalent of Greek Pan. The faunalia were held in his honor. Formerly somewhat assimilated to satyrs, but they have diverged again lately.
The faun is now regarded rather as the type of unsophisticated & the satyr of unpurified man; the first is man still in intimate communion with Nature, the second is man still swayed by bestial passions. [Fowler]
The plural is fauni. The word is of uncertain origin. De Vaan suggests Proto-Italic *fawe/ono-, from a PIE word meaning "favorable," with cognates in Old Irish buan "good, favorable; firm," Middle Wensh bun "maiden, sweetheart." - fauna (n.)
- 1771, "the total of the animal life of a certain region or time, from Late Latin Fauna, a rustic Roman fertility goddess who was wife, sister, or daughter (or some combination) of Faunus (see faun).
Popularized by Linnaeus, who adopted it as a companion word to flora and used it in the title of his 1746 catalogue of the animals of Sweden, "Fauna Suecica." First used in English Gilbert White (1720-1793) the parson-naturalist. - faunal (adj.)
- "of or pertaining to a fauna," 1840, from fauna + -al (1).
- Fauntleroy
- in various usages, from the gentle boy hero of Frances Hodgson Burnett's popular novel "Little Lord Fauntleroy" (1885). The family name is recorded from mid-13c., literally "son of the king" (Anglo-French Le Enfant le Roy), from faunt, a Middle English variant of enfaunt (see infant). Middle English also had fauntekin "a little child" (late 14c.).
- Faustian (adj.)
- 1870, in reference to Johann Faust (c. 1485-1541), German wandering astrologer and wizard, who was reputed to have sold his soul to the Devil. Fantastic tales of his life were told as early as the late 16c., and he was the hero of dramas by Marlowe and Goethe. The Latinized form of his name, faustus, means "of favorable omen."
- Fauvist
- movement in painting associated with Henri Matisse, 1915, from French fauve, "wild beast," a term applied in contempt to these painters by French art critic Louis Vauxcelles at Autumn Salon of 1905. The movement was a reaction against impressionism, featuring vivid use of colors. French fauve (12c.) in Old French meant "fawn-colored horse, dark-colored thing, dull," and is from Frankish *falw- or some other Germanic source, cognate with German falb "dun, pale yellowish-brown" and English fallow "brownish-yellow." Related: Fauvism (1912).