英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

gettable (adj.)[gettable 词源字典]: 1550s, from get (v.) + -able.[gettable etymology, gettable origin, 英语词源]
Gettysburg: town in south-central Pennsylvania, U.S., 1800 (earlier it was Gettys-town), founded 1780s by Gen. James Gettys and named for him. Civil War battle there was fought July 1-3, 1863. The Gettysburg Address was given Nov. 19, 1863, and was being called that by 1865, though before President Lincoln's assassination the term tended to refer to Edward Everett's full oration that preceded Lincoln's short speech.
gewgaw (n.): early 13c., giuegaue, contemptuous reduplication, of uncertain origin, possibly connected with Old French gogue "rejoicing, jubilation; joke, prank, mockery, game;" or jou-jou "toy," baby-talk word, from jouer "to play," from Latin jocare (see joke (n.)).
gey (adj.): a Scottish variant of gay (compare gray/grey), used 18c.-19c. also with the Scottish sense of "considerable, pretty much, considerably."
geyser (n.): 1780, extended from Icelandic Geysir, name of a specific hot spring in the valley of Haukadal, literally "the gusher," from Old Norse geysa "to gush," from Proto-Germanic *gausjan, suffixed form of PIE *gheus-, extended form of the root *gheu- "to pour" (see found (v.2)). Taken by foreign writers as the generic name for spouting hot springs, for which the native Icelandic words are hverr "a cauldron," laug "a hot bath."
Ghana: since 1957 the name of the former Gold Coast; from the name of a former tribal chieftain, whose name itself is a form of a royal title, hence, "king." Related: Ghanian.
ghastly (adj.): c. 1300, gastlich, "inspiring fear or terror, hideous, shocking," with -lich (see -ly (2)) + gast (adj.) "afraid, frightened," past participle of gasten "to frighten," from Old English gæstan "to torment, frighten" (see ghost (n.)). Spelling with gh- developed 16c. from confusion with ghost. Middle English also had gastful in the same sense, but this is now obsolete. Sidney and Shakespeare also used ghastly as an adverb. Related: Ghastliness.
ghat (n.): also ghaut, from Hindi, "a pass of descent from a mountain," hence also "mountain range, chain of hills," also "stairway leading up from a river" (to a shrine, temple, etc.), from Sanskrit ghattah "landing place," of unknown origin.
ghawazee (n.): Egyptian dancing-girls, 1799, from Arabic gawazi, plural of gaziya. "In Egypt, a degraded class of public dancers, male and female, by some considered a race of Gipsies, devoted to the amusement of the lowest populace" [Century Dictionary, 1902].
ghazi (n.): Muslim warrior fighting the infidels, veteran soldier of Islam, 1735, from Arabic ghazi "warrior, champion, hero," properly participle of ghaza (stem gh-z-w) "he made war."
Ghent: city in Flanders, of uncertain origin; perhaps from Celtic *condate "confluence," or from a non-Indo-European word.
gherkin (n.): small cucumber used for pickling (either a small, prickly type of cucumber produced by a certain plant (Cucumis anguria), or a green or immature common cucumber), 1660s, from early modern Dutch gurken, augurken (late 16c.) "small pickled cucumber," from East Frisian augurk "cucumber," probably from a Balto-Slavic source (compare Polish ogórek "cucumber," Lithuanian agurkas, Russian oguretsŭ), possibly ultimately from Medieval Greek angourion "a kind of cucumber," which is said to be from Persian angarah [Klein, etc.], but OED seems to regard this as unlikely. A Dutch source says the Greek is from a word for "immature" and that the vegetable originated in northern India and came to Eastern Europe via the Byzantine Empire.

The Dutch suffix is perhaps the diminutive -kin, though some regard it as a plural affix, with the Dutch word mistaken for a singular in English. The -h- was added 1800s to preserve the hard "g" pronunciation.
ghetto (n.): 1610s, "part of a city in which Jews are compelled to live," especially in Italy, from Italian ghetto "part of a city to which Jews are restricted," of unknown origin. The various theories trace it to: Yiddish get "deed of separation;" a special use of Venetian getto "foundry" (there was one near the site of that city's ghetto in 1516); a clipped form of Egitto "Egypt," from Latin Aegyptus (presumably in memory of the exile); or Italian borghetto "small section of a town" (diminutive of borgo, which is of Germanic origin; see borough). Extended by 1899 to crowded urban quarters of other minority groups (especially blacks in U.S. cities). As an adjective by 1903 (modern slang usage from 1999). Ghetto-blaster "large, portable stereo cassette-player" is from 1982.
Ghibelline (n.): adherent of the emperor in medieval Italy (as opposed to the temporal power of the pope), 1570s, from Italian Ghibellino, Italianized form of German Waiblingen, in Württemberg, seat of the Hohenstaufens at the time war began between that house and the Guelphs (q.v.).
ghost (n.): Old English gast "breath; good or bad spirit, angel, demon; person, man, human being," in Biblical use "soul, spirit, life," from Proto-Germanic *gaistaz (cognates: Old Saxon gest, Old Frisian jest, Middle Dutch gheest, Dutch geest, German Geist "spirit, ghost"). This is conjectured to be from a PIE root *gheis-, used in forming words involving the notions of excitement, amazement, or fear (cognates: Sanskrit hedah "wrath;" Avestan zaesha- "horrible, frightful;" Gothic usgaisjan, Old English gæstan "to frighten").

Ghost is the English representative of the usual West Germanic word for "supernatural being." In Christian writing in Old English it is used to render Latin spiritus (see spirit (n.)), a sense preserved in Holy Ghost. Sense of "disembodied spirit of a dead person," especially imagined as wandering among the living or haunting them, is attested from late 14c. and returns the word toward its likely prehistoric sense.

Most Indo-European words for "soul, spirit" also double with reference to supernatural spirits. Many have a base sense of "appearance" (such as Greek phantasma; French spectre; Polish widmo, from Old Church Slavonic videti "to see;" Old English scin, Old High German giskin, originally "appearance, apparition," related to Old English scinan, Old High German skinan "to shine"). Other concepts are in French revenant, literally "returning" (from the other world), Old Norse aptr-ganga, literally "back-comer." Breton bugelnoz is literally "night-child." Latin manes probably is a euphemism.

The gh- spelling appeared early 15c. in Caxton, influenced by Flemish and Middle Dutch gheest, but was rare in English before mid-16c. Sense of "slight suggestion, mere shadow or semblance" (in ghost image, ghost of a chance, etc.) is first recorded 1610s; sense of "one who secretly does work for another" is from 1884. Ghost town is from 1908. Ghost story is by 1811. Ghost-word "apparent word or false form in a manuscript due to a blunder" is from 1886 (Skeat). Ghost in the machine was British philosopher Gilbert Ryle's term (1949) for "the mind viewed as separate from the body." The American Indian ghost dance is from 1890. To give up the ghost "die" was in Old English.
ghost (v.): "to ghost-write," 1922, back-formation from ghost-writing (1919) "article written by one man upon material supplied in interview or otherwise by a second and which appears in print over the signature of such second party" ["The Ghost Writer and His Story" [Graves Glenwood Clark, in "The Editor," Feb. 25, 1920], from ghost (n.) "one who secretly does work for another (1884). Related: Ghost-written. Ghost-writing also was used from c. 1902 for secret writing using lemon juice, etc. A late 19c. term for "one whose work is credited to another" was gooseberry-picker.
ghostly (adj.): Old English gastlic "spiritual, holy, not of the flesh; clerical;" also "supernatural, spectral, pertaining to or characteristic of a ghost;" see ghost + -ly (1). Related: Ghostliness.
ghoul (n.): 1786, goul, in the English translation of William Beckford's Orientalist novel "Vathek" (which was written in French), from Arabic ghul, an evil spirit that robs graves and feeds on corpses, from ghala "he seized."
ghoulish (adj.): 1840, from ghoul + -ish. Related: Ghoulishly; ghoulishness.
giant (n.): c. 1300, "fabulous man-like creature of enormous size," from Old French geant, earlier jaiant "giant, ogre" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *gagantem (nominative gagas), from Latin gigas "a giant," from Greek Gigas (usually in plural, Gigantes), one of a race of divine but savage and monstrous beings (personifying destructive natural forces), sons of Gaia and Uranus, eventually destroyed by the gods. The word is of unknown origin, probably from a pre-Greek language. Derivation from gegenes "earth-born" is considered untenable.
In þat tyme wer here non hauntes Of no men bot of geauntes. [Wace's Chronicle, c. 1330]
It replaced Old English ent, eoten, also gigant (from Latin). The Greek word was used in Septuagint to refer to men of great size and strength, hence the expanded use in modern languages; in English of very tall and unusually large persons from 1550s; of persons who have any quality in extraordinary degree from 1530s. As a class of stars, from 1912. As an adjective from early 15c. Giant-killer is from 1726.