英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

gallon (n.)[gallon 词源字典]: English measure of capacity (containing four quarts), usually for liquids, late 13c., from Old North French galon, corresponding to Old French jalon, name of a liquid measure roughly equivalent to a modern gallon," which is related to (perhaps augmentative of) jale "bowl," from Medieval Latin or Vulgar Latin diminutive form galleta "bucket, pail," also "a measure of wine," a word of unknown origin, perhaps from Gaulish galla "vessel."[gallon etymology, gallon origin, 英语词源]
gallop (v.): "move or run by leaps," early 15c., from Old French galoper "to gallop" (12c.), central Old French form of Old North French waloper, probably from Frankish *wala hlaupan "to run well" (see wallop). Related: Galloped; galloping. Though the French word is Germanic, Dutch galopperen, German galoppiren, Swedish galoppera are from French.
gallop (n.): "a leaping gait," the most rapid movement of a horse, 1520s, from gallop (v.).
gallow: singular of gallows.
Galloway: district in southwestern Scotland (Medieval Latin Gallovidia), equivalent to Welsh Gallwyddel, Irish Gallgaidhil, literally "foreign Gaels," containing the Gal- element also common in Irish place-names (Irish Gaelic gall) and meaning there "a stranger, a foreigner," especially an Englishman. Related: Gallovidian, which is from the Latin form of the name. The adjective Galwegian is on analogy of Norwegian.
gallows (n.): c. 1300, plural of Middle English galwe "gallows" (mid-13c.), from Old Norse galgi "gallows," or from Old English galga (Mercian), gealga (West Saxon) "gallows;" all from Proto-Germanic *galgon "pole" (cognates: Old Frisian galga, Old Saxon galgo, Middle High German galge "gallows, cross," German Galgen "gallows," Gothic galga "cross"), from PIE *ghalgh- "branch, rod" (cognates: Lithuanian zalga "pole, perch," Armenian dzalk "pole"). In Old English, also used of the cross of the crucifixion. Plural because made of two poles. Gallows-tree is Old English galg-treow. Gallows humor (1881) translates German Galgenhumor.
gallstone (n.): 1758, from gall (n.1) + stone (n.).
Gallup poll: 1940, from George H. Gallup (1901-1984), U.S. journalist and statistician, who in 1935 set up the American Institute of Public Opinion.
galoot (n.): 1812, nautical, "raw recruit, green hand," apparently originally a sailor's contemptuous word for soldiers or marines, of unknown origin. "Dictionary of American Slang" proposes galut, Sierra Leone creole form of Spanish galeoto "galley slave." In general (non-nautical) use by 1866, "awkward or boorish man," but often a term of humorous contempt.
galore (adv.): 1670s, from Irish go leór, and equivalent Scottish Gaelic gu leóir "sufficiently, enough," from Old Irish roar "enough," from Proto-Celtic *ro-wero- "sufficiency." The particle go/gu usually means "to," but it also is affixed to adjectives to form adverbs, as here. Often used in English with the force of a predicate adjective.
galosh (n.): see galoshes.
galoshes (n.): mid-14c. (surname Galocher is attested from c. 1300), "kind of footwear consisting of a wooden sole fastened onto the foot with leather thongs," perhaps from Old French galoche "overshoe, galosh" (singular), 13c., from Late Latin gallicula, diminutive of gallica (solea) "a Gallic (sandal)" [Klein]. Alternative etymology [Barnhart, Hatz.-Darm.] is from Vulgar Latin *galopia, from Greek kalopodion, diminutive of kalopous "shoemaker's last," from kalon "wood" (properly "firewood") + pous "foot" (see foot (n.)). "The name seems to have been variously applied" [OED]. Modern meaning "rubber covering of a boot or shoe" is from 1853.
galumph (v.): 1872, "to prance about in a self-satisfied manner," coined by Lewis Carroll in "Jabberwocky," apparently by blending gallop and triumph. "The sense in current use may vary according to different notions of what the sound expresses" [OED]. Related: Galumphing.
galvanic (adj.): 1797; see galvanism + -ic. Perhaps from or based on French galvanique. Related: Galvanical.
galvanise (v.): chiefly British English spelling of galvanize; for suffix, see -ize. Related: Galvanised; galvanising.
galvanism (n.): "electricity produced by chemical action," 1797, from French galvanisme or Italian galvanismo, from Luigi Galvani (1737-1798), professor of anatomy at Bologna, who discovered it c. 1792 while running currents through the legs of dead frogs.
galvanization (n.): 1798, formed as a noun of state to go with the vocabulary of galvanism; perhaps immediately from French galvanisation (1797 in the "Annales de chimie et de physique").
galvanize (v.): 1801, "stimulate by galvanic electricity," from French galvaniser, from galvanisme (see galvanism). Figurative sense of "excite, stimulate (as if by electricity)" first recorded 1853 (galvanic was in figurative use in 1807). Meaning "to coat with metal by means of galvanic electricity" (especially to plate iron with tin, but now typically to plate it with zinc) is from 1839.
He'll swear that in her dancing she cuts all others out,
Though like a Gal that's galvanized, she throws her legs about.
[Thomas Hood, "Love has not Eyes," 1845]
Related: Galvanized; galvanizing.
galvanized (adj.): 1820, "subject to galvanism," past participle adjective from galvanize. As "coated with a metal by galvanism" from 1839, originally in galvanized iron.
Iron covered with zinc has been called galvanised iron, from the fact that we have two metals in different electrical conditions; the zinc, suffering chemical change, oxidising, and acting as a protecting agent to the iron. ["Hunt's Hand-Book to the Official Catalogues," 1851]
galvanometer (n.): instrument for detecting and measuring electric current, 1801, from galvano-, used as a comb. form of galvanism + -meter. Related: Galvanometric. Galvanoscope "instrument for detecting and determining the direction of electric current" is from 1832.