英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

lap (v.2)[lap 词源字典]: "to lay one part over another," early 14c., "to surround (something with something else)," from lap (n.). Figurative use, "to envelop (in love, sin, desire, etc.)" is from mid-14c. The sense of "to get a lap ahead (of someone) on a track" is from 1847, on notion of "overlapping." The noun in this sense is 1670s, originally "something coiled or wrapped up;" meaning "a turn around a track" (1861) also is from this sense. Related: Lapped; lapping; laps.[lap etymology, lap origin, 英语词源]
laparoscopy (n.): 1855, from -scopy + Greek lapara "flank," from laparos "soft," from PIE *lep- "to peel;" + -scopy. Related: Laparoscopic; laparoscope.
lapdog (n.): also lap-dog, 1640s, from lap (n.) + dog (n.); figurative sense of "subservient person" is by 1950.
Senator McCarthy (R-Wis) renewed his Communists-in-Government charges today and called Senator Tydings (D-Md) the Truman administration's "whimpering lap dog." [AP news story, Aug. 7, 1950]
lapel (n.): 1751 (implied in lapelled), from lap (n.) + -el (2), diminutive suffix. Compare lappet.
lapful (n.): 1610s, from lap (n.) + -ful.
lapidary (n.): "one skilled in working with precious stones," late 14c., from Old French lapidaire (12c.), from Latin lapidarius "stonecutter," originally an adjective "of or working with stone," from lapis (genitive lapidis) "stone." Meaning "a treatise on precious stones" is late 14c. Related: Lapidarist.
lapidation (n.): "stoning to death," 1610s, from Latin lapidationem (nominative lapidatio), noun of action from past participle stem of lapidare "to throw stones at," from the stem of lapis "stone."
lapis lazuli (n.): early 15c., from Middle Latin lapis lazuli, literally "stone of azure," from Latin lapis "stone" + Medieval Latin lazuli, genitive of lazulum, from Arabic lazuward (see azure).
Laplace: in scientific phrases, a reference to French astronomer and mathematician Pierre Simon, Marquis de Laplace (1749-1827).
Lapland: 1570s, from Lapp, the Swedish name for this Finnic people (their name for themselves was Sabme), which probably originally was an insulting coinage (compare Middle High German lappe "simpleton"). In English traditionally the home of witches and wizards who had power to conjure winds and tempests. Related: Laplander.
Lapp: 1859; see Lapland.
lappet (n.): "a small flap," 1570s; earlier "lobe of a body part" (early 15c.), from Middle English lappe "lap" (see lap (n.)) + -et, diminutive suffix.
lapse (n.): mid-15c., "elapsing of time, expiration;" also "temporary forfeiture of a legal right," from Middle French laps "lapse," from Latin lapsus "a slipping and falling, flight (of time), falling into error," from labi "to slip, glide, fall." Meaning "moral transgression, sin" is c. 1500; that of "slip of the memory" is 1520s; that of "a falling away from one's faith" is from 1650s.
lapse (v.): early 15c., said to be from lapse (n.) or from Latin lapsare "to lose one's footing." Related: Lapsed; lapses; lapsing.
laptop: also lap-top, as a type of portable computer, 1984, from lap (n.) + top (1), on model of desktop.
lapwing (n.): Middle English lappewinke (late 14c.), lapwyngis (early 15c.), folk etymology alteration of Old English hleapewince, probably literally "leaper-winker," from hleapan "to leap" + wince "totter, waver, move rapidly," related to wincian "to wink." Said to be so called from "the manner of its flight" [OED] "in reference to its irregular flapping manner of flight" [Barnhart], but the lapwing also flaps on the ground pretending to have a broken wing to lure egg-hunters away from its nest, which seems a more logical explanation. Its Greek name was polyplagktos "luring on deceitfully."
larboard (n.): "left-hand side of a ship" (to a person on board and facing the bow), 1580s, from Middle English ladde-borde (c. 1300), perhaps literally "the loading side," if this was the side on which goods were loaded onto a ship, from laden "to load" + bord "ship's side." Altered 16c. on influence of starboard, then largely replaced by the specialized sense of port (n.1). to avoid confusion of similar-sounding words. The Old English term was bæcboard, literally "back board" (see starboard).
larcenist (n.): 1803, from larceny + -ist. Earlier was larcener (1630s).
larcenous (adj.): 1742, from larceny + -ous.
larceny (n.): late 15c., with -y (3) + Anglo-French larcin (late 13c.), from Old French larrecin, larcin "theft, robbery" (11c.), from Latin latrocinium "robbery, freebooting, highway-robbery, piracy," from latro "robber, bandit," also "hireling, mercenary," ultimately from a Greek source akin to latron "pay, hire, wages," from a suffixed form of PIE root *le- (1) "to get."