英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

graptolite (n.)[graptolite 词源字典]: fossilized colonial animal from the Cambrian and later, 1838, from Modern Latin graptolithus, literally "written-stone," from Greek graptos "engraved, written, painted" (verbal adjective of graphein; see -graphy) + lithos "stone" (see litho-). So called because the fossils resemble pens. Related: Graptolitic.[graptolite etymology, graptolite origin, 英语词源]
grasp (v.): mid-14c., "to reach, grope, feel around," possibly a metathesis of grapsen, from Old English *græpsan "to touch, feel," from Proto-Germanic *grap-, *grab- (cognates: East Frisian grapsen "to grasp," Middle Dutch grapen "to seize, grasp," Old English grapian "to touch, feel, grope"), from PIE root *ghrebh- (1) "to seize, reach" (see grab (v.)). With verb-formative -s- as in cleanse. Sense of "seize" first recorded mid-16c. Transitive use by 17c. Figurative use from c. 1600; of intellectual matters from 1680s. Related: Grasped; grasping.
grasp (n.): 1560s, "a handle," from grasp (v.). As "act of grasping" from c. 1600; also "power of grasping." Meaning "power of intellect" is from 1680s.
Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?

[Browning, "Andrea del Sarto"]
grasping (adj.): "greedy, acquisitive," late 14c., present participle adjective from grasp (v.). Related: Graspingly.
grass (n.): Old English græs, gærs "herb, plant, grass," from Proto-Germanic grasan (cognates: Old Norse, Old Saxon, Dutch, Old High German, German, Gothic gras, Swedish gräs), from PIE *ghros- "young shoot, sprout," from root *ghre- "to grow, become green" (related to grow and green, but not to Latin gramen).

As a color name (especially grass-green, Old English græsgrene) by c. 1300. Sense of "marijuana" is recorded by 1932, American English. The grass skirt worn by people native to tropical regions is mentioned by 1874; the warning to keep off the grass by 1843 (in New York City's Central Park). Grass-fed of cattle, etc., (opposed to stall-fed) is from 1774.
grass roots (n.): 1650s, from grass + root (n.). The image of grass roots as the most fundamental level of anything is from 1901; U.S. political sense of "the rank and file of the electorate" (also grassroots) is attested from 1912; as an adjective by 1918.
grass widow (n.): 1520s, the earliest recorded sense is "mistress;" the allusion to grass is not clear, but it commonly was believed to refer to casual bedding (compare bastard and German Strohwitwe, literally "straw-widow," and compare the expression give (a woman) a grass gown "roll her playfully on the grass" (1580s), also euphemistic for the loss of virginity). Revived late 18c. as "one that pretends to have been married, but never was, yet has children;" in early 19c. use it could mean "married woman whose husband is absent" (and often presumed, but not certainly known to be, dead), also often applied to a divorced or discarded wife or an unmarried woman who has had a child. Both euphemistic and suggestive.
[G]rasse wydowes ... be yet as seuerall as a barbours chayre and neuer take but one at onys. [More, 1528]

GRASS WIDOW, s. a forsaken fair one, whose nuptials, not celebrated in a church, were consummated, in all pastoral simplicity, on the green turf. [Rev. Robert Forby, "Vocabulary of East Anglia," London, 1830]
grasshopper (n.): popular name of insects with hind legs suited to jumping, mid-14c. (late 13c. as a surname), earlier greshoppe (c. 1200), from Old English gærshoppa; see grass + hopper (n.1). Similar formation in Middle Swedish gräshoppare, German Grashüpfer. As a term of reproach, from Eccl. xii:5. Also recorded c. 1300 as a name for the hare.
grassland (n.): also grass-land, "land perpetually under grass," 1680s, from grass + land (n.).
grassy (adj.): "abounding in grass, covered in grass," mid-15c., from grass + -y (2).
grate (n.): late 14c., "grill for cooking;" early 15c., "iron bars or cagework across a door or window," from Anglo-Latin (mid-14c.), from Old French grate or directly from Medieval Latin grata "a grating, lattice," from Latin cratis "wickerwork, hurdle" (see hurdle (n.)). As a verb meaning "to fit with a grate," from mid-15c. Related: Grated; grating.
grate (v.): "to scrape, rub," late 14c. (implied in grated), from Old French grater "to scrape, scratch (out or off); erase; destroy, pull down" (Modern French gratter), from Frankish *kratton, from Proto-Germanic *krattojan (cognates: Old High German krazzon "to scratch, scrape," German kratzen "to scratch," Swedish kratta, Danish kratte "to rake, scrape"), probably of imitative origin. Senses of "sound harshly," and "annoy" are mid-16c. Italian grattare also is from Germanic. Related: Grated; grating.
grateful (adj.): 1550s, "pleasing to the mind," also "full of gratitude, disposed to repay favors bestowed," from obsolete adjective grate "agreeable, pleasant," from Latin gratus "pleasing" (see grace (n.)). "A most unusual formation" [Weekley]. Is there another case where English uses -ful to make an adjective from an adjective? Related: Gratefully (1540s); gratefulness.
Grateful often expresses the feeling and the readiness to manifest the feeling by acts, even a long time after the rendering of the favor; thankful refers rather to the immediate acknowledgment of the favor by words. [Century Dictionary]
Grateful Dead: San Francisco rock band, 1965, the name taken, according to founder Jerry Garcia, from a dictionary entry he saw about the folk tale motif of a wanderer who gives his last penny to pay for a corpse's burial, then is magically aided by the spirit of the dead person. A different version of the concept is found in the Egyptian Book of the Dead.
grater (n.): instrument for scraping (bread, ginger, etc.), late 14c., from Old French grateor, agent noun from grater "to scrape, scratch out or off" (see grate (v.)).
gratification (n.): 1590s, "act of gratifying," from Middle French gratification or directly from Latin gratificationem (nominative gratificatio) "obligingness, complaisance," noun of action from past participle stem of gratificari "to please, oblige, do favor to" (see gratify). Meaning "state of being gratified" is by 1712.
gratify (v.): c. 1400, "to bestow grace upon;" 1530s, "to show gratitude to," from Latin gratificari "to do favor to, oblige, gratify," from gratus "pleasing" (see grace (n.)) + root of facere "to make, do, perform" (see factitious). Meaning "to give pleasure to" is from 1560s. Related: Gratified; gratifying.
gratin (n.): light crust over a dish, 1806 (in au gratin), from French gratin "crust" (16c.), from gratter "to scrape, scratch" (see grate (v.)).
grating (adj.): "annoying, irritating," 1560s, figurative use of present participle adjective from grate (v.).
grating (n.): "partition or frame of parallel crossing bars," 1620s, from grate (n.).