英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

hut [hut 词源字典]: hut: [17] Etymologically, a hut is probably a ‘covering structure’. The word has plausibly been traced back to Germanic *khūd-, which also produced English hide and probably hoard, house, and huddle. This would have been the source of Middle High German hütte, which eventually found its way into French as hutte – whence English hut.
=> hide, hoard, house, huddle[hut etymology, hut origin, 英语词源]
hyacinth: hyacinth: [16] Greek huákinthos denoted a plant with deep red flowers which according to legend sprang from the blood of Hyacinthus, a beautiful youth whom Apollo loved but accidentally killed. It probably came from some pre-Hellenic Mediterranean language, and was remodelled in Greek on the basis of Hyacinthus’s name. It is not clear what sort of plant the original hyacinth was, but by the time the word reached English (via Latin hyacinthus and French hyacinthe) it had been adopted for the bluebell and its immediate relatives.

Greek huákinthos was also used for a variety of precious stone, probably originally the sapphire. This meaning too followed the word into English, but is now little used, having been taken over by jacinth [13] – itself a descendant of Latin hyacinthus.
=> jacinth
hydrogen: hydrogen: [18] Greek húdōr ‘water’ (a distant relative of English water) has been a prolific source of English vocabulary. Amongst its contributions are hydrangea [18] (literally ‘water-vessel’, so named from the cuplike shape of its seedpods), hydrant [19], hydrate [18], hydraulic [17] (literally ‘of a water-pipe’), hydrofoil [20], and hydroponics [20] (literally ‘water-culture’). Hydrogen itself means literally ‘generating water’, and was coined in French as hydrogène in the late 1780s for hydrogen’s property of forming water when oxidized. It is first recorded in English in 1791.
=> water
hyena: hyena: see sow
hygiene: hygiene: [19] Greek hugiés meant ‘healthy’. From it were formed the noun hugíeia ‘health’ (personified as Hygieia, the Greek goddess of health) and the adjective hugieinós ‘healthful’. This came to be used as a noun, hugieiné, ‘science of healthy living’, which passed via modern Latin hygieina and French hygiène into English.
hymen: hymen: see sew
hymn: hymn: [13] For the ancient Greeks, a húmnos was a ‘song of praise’ – but not necessarily a religious one. It could be used to celebrate the deeds of heroes as well as to compliment the gods. However, the Greek Septuagint uses it to render various Hebrew words meaning ‘song praising God’, and it was this meaning that was carried via Latin hymnus and Old French ymne into English as imne (the spelling hymn is a 16thcentury latinization).
hypnosis: hypnosis: [19] Húpnos was Greek for ‘sleep’. From it was derived the adjective hūpnotikós ‘sleepy, narcotic’, which English acquired via Latin and French as hypnotic [17]. At first this was used only with reference to sleep-inducing drugs, but then in the late 18th and early 19th centuries the techniques of inducing deep sleep or trance by suggestion were developed.

Early terms for the procedure included animal magnetism and mesmerism (see MESMERIZE), and then in 1842 Dr James Braid coined neurohypnotism for what he called the ‘condition of nervous sleep’. By the end of the 1840s this had become simply hypnotism. Hypnosis was coined in the 1870s as an alternative, on the model of a hypothetical Greek *hypnosis.
hypochondria: hypochondria: [16] Originally, hypochondria was an anatomical term, denoting the ‘area of the abdomen beneath the ribs’. It comes via Latin from Greek hupokhóndrion, a compound noun formed from the prefix hupo- ‘under’ and khóndros ‘cartilage’. This particular part of the body was formerly supposed to be the seat of melancholy, and so in the 17th century the word came to be used for ‘low spirits, depression’. The modern sense ‘belief of being ill’ originally be longed to the derived hypochondriasis [18], but was transferred in the 19th century to hypochondria.
hypocrite: hypocrite: [13] Etymologically, a hypocrite is someone who is ‘playing a part’, merely pretending. The word comes via Old French ypocrite and late Latin hypocrita from Greek hupokritēs ‘actor, hypocrite’. This was a derivative of hupokrínein, a compound verb formed from the prefix hupo- ‘under’ and krínein ‘separate’, which originally meant literally ‘separate gradually’, and eventually passed via ‘answer’ and ‘answer one’s fellow actor on stage’ to ‘play a part’, and hence ‘pretend’.
hypotenuse: hypotenuse: [16] The hypotenuse is etymologically a line that is ‘stretched under’ the right angle of a triangle. The word comes via Latin hypotēnūsa from Greek hupoteínousa, a derivative of hupoteínein. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix hupo- ‘under’ and teínein ‘stretch’ (a relative of English tend, tense, etc).
=> tend, tense
hysteria: hysteria: [19] Greek hustérā meant ‘womb’ (it is related to Latin uterus ‘womb’). The adjective derived from it was husterikós ‘suffering in the womb’. This passed into Latin as hystericus, which formed the basis of the modern Latin noun hysteria, a term coined in the 19th century for a neurotic condition supposedly peculiar to women (in popular parlance it was called ‘the vapours’). Hysterectomy ‘surgical removal of the womb’ dates from the late 19th century.
=> uterus
H: eighth letter of the alphabet; it comes from Phoenician, via Greek and Latin. In Phoenician it originally had a rough guttural sound like German Reich or Scottish loch. In Greek at first it had the value of Modern English -h-, and with this value it passed into the Latin alphabet via Greek colonies in Italy. Subsequently in Greek it came to be used for a long "e" sound; the "h" sound being indicated by a fragment of the letter, which later was reduced to the aspiration mark. In Germanic it was used for the voiceless breath sound when at the beginning of words, and in the middle or at the end of words for the rough guttural sound, which later came to be written -gh.

The sound became totally silent in Vulgar Latin and in the languages that emerged from it; thus the letter was omitted in Old French and Italian, but it was restored pedantically in French and Middle English spelling, and often later in English pronunciation. Thus Modern English has words ultimately from Latin with missing -h- (able, from Latin habile); with a silent -h- (heir, hour); with a formerly silent -h- now often vocalized (humble, humor, herb); and even a few with an excrescent -h- fitted in confusion to words that never had one (hostage, hermit). Relics of the formerly unvoiced -h- persist in pedantic insistence on an historical (object) and in obsolete mine host.

The pronunciation "aitch" was in Old French (ache "name of the letter H"), and is from a presumed Late Latin *accha (compare Italian effe, elle, emme), with the central sound approximating the rough, guttural value of the letter in Germanic. In earlier Latin the letter was called ha. The use in digraphs (as in -sh-, -th-) goes back to the ancient Greek alphabet, which used it in -ph-, -th-, -kh- until -H- took on the value of a long "e" and the digraphs acquired their own characters. The letter passed into Roman use before this evolution, and thus retained there more of its original Semitic value.
ha (interj.): natural expression of surprise, distress, etc.; early 14c., found in most European languages (including Latin and Old French) but not in Old English (which did, however, have ha-ha).
ha-ha: also haha, used of laughter since ancient times; Old English ha ha. Also in Greek (ha ha, in Euripides, Aristophanes), Latin (hahae). A different attempt at representation in English is py-hy (1580s). Sometimes interchanged with ah and expressing surprise, distress, etc. A ha-ha (1712), from French, was "an obstacle interrupting one's way sharply and disagreeably;" so called because it "surprizes ... and makes one cry Ah! Ah!" [Alexander Le Blond, "The Theory and Practice of Gardening," 1712].
habanera (n.): type of Cuban dance, 1874, literally "of Havana."
habeas corpus (n.): writ requiring a person to be brought before a court, mid-15c., Latin, literally "(you should) have the person," in phrase habeas corpus ad subjiciendum "produce or have the person to be subjected to (examination)," opening words of writs in 14c. Anglo-French documents to require a person to be brought before a court or judge, especially to determine if that person is being legally detained. From habeas, second person singular present subjunctive of habere "to have, to hold" (see habit (n.)) + corpus "person," literally "body" (see corporeal). In reference to more than one person, habeas corpora.
haberdasher (n.): early 14c. (late 13c. as a surname), "seller of small articles of trade" (caps, purses, beads, thread, stationery, etc.), from Anglo-French, where apparently it was an agent noun formation from hapertas "small wares," also a kind of fabric, a word of unknown origin. Sense of "dealer in men's wares" is 1887 in American English, via intermediate sense of "seller of caps." Middle English haberdash (n.) "small articles of trade sold by a haberdasher" appears to be a back-formation from this word, and the verb haberdash is late (1630s) and rare.
haberdashery (n.): early 15c., Anglo-French, "goods sold by a haberdasher," from haberdasher + -y (2). Meaning "a haberdasher's shop" is recorded from 1813, with perceived meaning shading to -ery.
habiliment (n.): often habiliments, early 15c., "munitions, weapons," from Middle French habillement, from abiller "prepare or fit out," probably from abile, habile "fit, suitable" (see able). Alternative etymology [Barnhart, Klein] makes the French verb originally mean "reduce a tree by stripping off the branches," from a- "to" + bille "stick of wood." Sense of "clothing, dress" developed late 15c., by association with habit (n.).