英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

half-shirt (n.)[half-shirt 词源字典]: 1660s, "shirt front," from half + shirt. In modern use, "shirt cropped high at the waist," 2000.[half-shirt etymology, half-shirt origin, 英语词源]
half-sister (n.): c. 1200, from half- + sister.
half-time (n.): also halftime, half time, indicating "half of the time," 1640s, from half + time (n.). Tempo sense is by 1880. In football, from 1867.
half-track (n.): also halftrack, type of military vehicle with traction-chains as well as wheels, 1927, from half + track (n.).
half-truth (n.): 1650s, from half + truth.
half-wit (n.): "simpleton" (one lacking all his wits), 1755, from half + wit (n.). Earlier "a would-be wit whose abilities are mediocre" (1670s).
Half-wits are fleas; so little and so light,
We scarce could know they live, but that they bite.
[Dryden, "All for Love"]
Phrase out of half wit "half out of one's mind" was in Middle English (late 14c.). Half-witted "lacking common sense" is from 1640s.
halfling (n.): "one not fully grown," 1794, from half + -ling.
halfpenny (n.): mid-13c. (though implied in Old English healfpenigwurð "halfpenny-worth"); see half + penny.
halfway (adv.): also half-way, Old English healfweg; see half + way (n.). Halfway house originally was a common name for inns midway between cities or stages.
hali-: word-forming element meaning "salt, a lump of salt," from Greek hali-, comb. form of hals (genitive halos) "a lump of salt, salt generally," and in Homer, "the sea," from PIE *sal- (1) "salt" (see salt (n.)).
halibut (n.): large flatfish, early 15c., perhaps from hali "holy" (see holy) + butte "flatfish;" supposedly so called from its being eaten on holy days (compare cognate Dutch heilbot, Low German heilbutt, Swedish helgeflundra, Danish helleflynder). For second element see butt (n.4).
halide (n.): a compound of a halogen and a metal radical, 1844, from Swedish (Berzelius, 1825), from halo- + chemical suffix -ide.
halieutic (adj.): "pertaining to fishing," 1854, from Latin halieuticus, from Greek halieutikos "pertaining to fishing," from halieuein "to fish," from hals "the sea," literally "salt" (see hali-). Halieutics "writing on the art of fishing" is from 1640s (Latin Halieutica was the title of a poem on fishing by Ovid).
Halifax: place in West Yorkshire, late 11c., from Old English halh "secluded spot, nook of land" (cognate with Old English holh "hole, cavity") + feax "rough grass," literally "hair." In popular expressions coupled with Hull and Hell since at least 1620s. "In the 16th cent. the name was wrongly interpreted as OE halig-feax, 'holy hair', and a story invented of a maiden killed by a lustful priest whose advances she refused." [Victor Watts, "English Place-Names"]
halite (n.): "rock-salt, natural sodium chloride," 1868, coined as Modern Latin halites in 1847 by German mineralogist Ernst Friedrich Glocker (1793-1858), from Greek hals "salt" (see halo-) + chemical noun suffix -ite (2).
halitosis (n.): "bad breath," 1874, coined in Modern Latin from Latin halitus "breath, exhalation, steam, vapor" (which is related to halare "to breathe, emit vapor") + Greek-based noun suffix -osis.
hall (n.): Old English heall "spacious roofed residence, house; temple; law-court," any large place covered by a roof, from Proto-Germanic *hallo "covered place, hall" (cognates: Old Saxon, Old High German halla, German halle, Dutch hal, Old Norse höll "hall;" Old English hell, Gothic halja "hell"), from PIE root *kel- (2) "to hide, cover, conceal" (see cell).

Sense of "passageway in a building" evolved 17c., from the time when the doors to private rooms opened onto the large public room of the house. Older sense preserved in town hall, music hall, etc., in use of the word in Britain and Southern U.S. for "manor house," also "main building of a college" (late 14c.). French halle, Italian alla are from Middle High German. Hall of fame attested by 1786 as an abstract concept; in sporting sense first attested 1901, in reference to Columbia College; the Baseball Hall of Fame opened in 1939. Related: Hall-of-famer.
hallelujah: also halleluiah, 1530s, from Late Latin hallelujah, alleluia, from Greek allelouia, from Hebrew hallalu-yah "praise ye Jehovah," from hallalu, plural imperative of hallel "to praise" also "song of praise," from hillel "he praised," of imitative origin, with primary sense being "to trill." Second element is yah, shortened form of Yahweh, name of God. Earlier English form alleluia (12c.) is from Old French alleluie.
hallmark (n.): 1721, official stamp of purity in gold and silver articles, from Goldsmiths' Hall in London, site of the assay office; see hall + mark (n.1). General sense of "mark of quality" first recorded 1864. As a verb from 1773.
hallo (interj.): shout to call attention, 1781, earlier hollo, holla (see hello). "Such forms, being mere syllables to call attention, are freely varied for sonorous effect" [Century Dictionary]. Old English had ea la. Halow as a shipman's cry to incite effort is from mid-15c.; Halloo as a verb, "to pursue with shouts, to shout in the chase," is from late 14c. Compare also harou, cry of distress, late 13c., from French.