英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

kohlrabi [kohlrabi 词源字典]: kohlrabi: see cauliflower, rape
[kohlrabi etymology, kohlrabi origin, 英语词源]
kowtow: kowtow: [19] The approved Chinese method of signifying respect for the emperor or other august personages was to prostrate oneself so that one’s forehead touched the ground. This was expressed in Mandarin Chinese by the term ke tóu (ke means ‘knock, bump’ and tóu ‘head’). English took the word over in the early 19th century and spelled it in various experimental ways (koo-too, ka-tou, kotow, etc) before settling on kowtow in the early 20th century.

The first writer on record as using the word in the metaphorical sense ‘defer servilely’ was Benjamin Disraeli in his Vivian Grey 1826: ‘The Marqess kotooed like a first-rate Mandarin, and vowed “that her will was his conduct”.’
kraal: kraal: see corral
K: Roman letter, from Greek kappa, ultimately from Phoenician and general Semitic kaph, said to be literally "hollow of the hand," so called for its shape. For more on the history of its use, see C. As a symbol for potassium, it represents Latin kalium "potash." Slang meaning "one thousand dollars" is 1970s, from kilo-. K as a measure of capacity (especially in computer memory) meaning "one thousand" also is an abbreviation of kilo-. As an indication of "strikeout" in baseball scorekeeping it dates from 1874, said to be from last letter of struck, perhaps because first letter already was being used as abbreviation for sacrifice. The invention of the scorecard symbols is attributed to U.S. newspaperman Henry Chadwick (1824-1908) of the old New York "Clipper."
Smith was the first striker, and went out on three strikes, which is recorded by the figure "1" for the first out, and the letter K to indicate how put out, K being the last letter of the word "struck." The letter K is used in this instance as being easier to remember in connection with the word struck than S, the first letter, would be. [Henry Chadwick, "Chadwick's Base Ball Manual," London, 1874]
k.p. (n.): "kitchen duty," 1935, apparently short for kitchen police (duties), itself attested from 1933 as part of Boy Scouting and other camping activities; the expression's sense sometimes shifted to kitchen patrol (1940) during World War II.
Kaaba (n.): 1734, Caaba, cube-shaped building in the Great Mosque of Mecca, containing the Black Stone, from Arabic ka'bah "square house," from ka'b "cube."
kabbalah (n.): see cabbala.
kabuki (n.): 1896, from Japanese, popular theater (as opposed to shadow puppet-plays or lyrical Noh dramas), literally "art of song and dance," from ka "song" + bu "dance" + ki "art, skill" [Barnhart, OED]. Alternative etymology (in Webster's) is from nominal form of kabuku "to be divergent, to deviate," from early opinion of this form of drama. Since c. 1650, all parts are played by males.
Kabul: capital of Afghanistan, named for its river, which carries a name of unknown origin.
Kabyle: Berber of Algeria and Tunisia, 1738, also of their language, from French, from Arabic qaba'il, plural of qabilah "tribe."
kaddish (n.): "doxology of the Jewish ritual," 1610s, from Aramaic qaddish "holy, holy one," from stem of q'dhash "was holy," ithqaddash "was sanctified," related to Hebrew qadhash "was holy," qadhosh "holy." According to Klein, the name probably is from the second word of the text veyithqaddash "and sanctified be."
kaffeeklatsch (n.): "gossip over cups of coffee," 1877, from German Kaffeeklatsch, from kaffee "coffee" (see coffee) + klatsch "gossip" (see klatsch).
THE living-room in a German household always contains a large sofa at one side of the room, which is the seat of honor accorded a guest. At a Kaffeeklatsch (literally, coffee gossip) the guests of honor are seated on this sofa, and the large round table is wheeled up before them. The other guests seat themselves in chairs about the table. [Mary Alden Hopkins, "A 'Kaffeeklatsch,'" "Boston Cooking-School Magazine of Culinary Science and Domestic Economics," May 1905]
Kaffir (n.): 1790, from Arabic kafir "unbeliever, infidel, impious wretch," with a literal sense of "one who does not admit the blessings of God," from kafara "to cover up, conceal, deny, blot out." Technically, "non-Muslim," but in Ottoman times it came to be used almost exclusively for "Christian." Early English missionaries used it as an equivalent of "heathen" to refer to Bantus in South Africa (1792), from which use it came generally to mean "South African black" regardless of ethnicity, and to be a term of abuse since at least 1934.
Kafkaesque (adj.): 1947, resembling situations from the writings of Franz Kafka (1883-1924), German-speaking Jewish novelist born in Prague, Austria-Hungary. The surname is Czech German, literally "jackdaw," imitative.
kafuffle (n.): variant of kerfuffle.
Kahlua: Mexican coffee-flavored liqueur, produced from 1936, the name said to be from the native Acolhua people, allies of the Aztecs.
kahuna (n.): 1886, in a report in English by the Hawaiian government, which defines the word as "doctor and sorcerer," from Hawaiian, where it was applied as well to priests and navigators. In surfer slang, for "a god of surfing," it is attested from 1962 (but big kahuna in same sense is said to date from 1950s.
kaiser (n.): "an emperor," Old English casere, fallen from use after Middle English, but revived 1858 in reference to the German emperors of Austria and, after 1870, Germany, from German Kaiser, from Bavarian and Austrian spelling of Middle High German keisar, from Old High German keisar "emperor," an early borrowing of Latin cognomen Caesar. The Germanic and Slavic peoples seem to have called all Roman emperors "caesar" (compare Old English casere, Old Norse keisari). Said to be the earliest Latin loan word in Germanic.
kakistocracy (n.): 1829, "government by the worst element of a society," coined on analogy of its opposite, aristocracy, from Greek kakistos "worst," superlative of kakos "bad" (which perhaps is related to the general IE word for "defecate;" see caco-) + -cracy.
Kalashnikov (n.): type of rifle or submachine gun made in the U.S.S.R., 1968, from Russian Kalashnikov, weapon developed in Soviet Union c. 1946 and named for Mikhail Kalashnikov, gun designer and part of the team that built it. In AK-47, the AK stands for Avtomat Kalashnikov.