英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

light [light 词源字典]: light: [OE] English has two distinct words light. The one meaning ‘illumination’ comes ultimately from Indo-European *leuk-, *louk-, *luk-, which also produced Greek leukós ‘white’ (source of English leukaemia [20]) and Latin lūx ‘light’ (from which English gets lucifer [OE], literally ‘light-bearer’), lūmen ‘light’ (whence English luminous [15]), lūcēre ‘shine’ (source of English lucid [16]), lūstrāre ‘light up’ (whence English illustrate and lustre [16]), and lūna ‘moon’ (source of English lunar).

Its main prehistoric West Germanic derivative was *leukhtam, from which come German and Dutch licht and English light. The word lynx may be related. Light ‘not heavy’ comes from a prehistoric Germanic *lingkhtaz, a close relative of which produced English lung (the word lung thus etymologically denotes ‘something full of air and not heavy’, and indeed lungs were, and animal lungs still are called lights in English).
=> illustrate, leukaemia, lucid, luminous, lunar, lustre, lynx; lung[light etymology, light origin, 英语词源]
lightning: lightning: [14] Etymologically, lightning is simply something that illuminates, or ‘lightens’, the sky. The word is a contraction of an earlier lightening, a derivative of lighten ‘make light’. The Old English word for ‘lightning’ was lēget, which is related to light. In Middle English it became leit, and later leiting, but in the 14th century lightning took over as the main form.
=> light
like: like: English has a diverse group of words spelled like, but they all come ultimately from the same source. This was prehistoric Germanic *līkam ‘appearance, form, body’ (source also of the lych- of English lych-gate [15], which originally signified the gate through which a coffin was carried into a churchyard). From it was derived the verb *līkōjan, which passed into English as like.

It originally meant ‘please’, but by the 12th century had done a semantic somersault to ‘find pleasing’. The same Germanic *likam produced English alike, literally ‘similar in appearance’, whose Old Norse relative líkr was borrowed into English as the adjective like [12]. Its adverbial and prepositional uses developed in the later Middle Ages. Also from Old Norse came the derived adjective likely [13].

English each and such were formed from the ancestor of like.
=> each, such
lilac: lilac: [17] Like the river Nile, the lilac gets its name from its colour. The Sanskrit word for ‘dark blue’ was nīla. This passed into Persian as nīl, from which was derived nīlak ‘bluish’. This developed a variant līlak, which English acquired via Arabic līlak, Spanish lilac, and early modern French lilac. Along the way it was applied to a shrub of the genus Syringa, on account of its mauve flowers.
lily: lily: [OE] Lily probably originated in a pre-Indo- European language of the Mediterranean seaboard. Latin acquired it (either independently or via Greek leírion) as līlium, and passed it on to English in the 10th century. It is now common to virtually all western European languages, including German (lilie), Dutch (lelie), Swedish (lilja), Spanish (lirio), Italian (the more radically altered giglio), and French (lis, acquired by English in fleur-de-lis, literally ‘lily flower’ [19]).
limb: limb: [OE] The Old English word for ‘limb’ was lim. Like thumb, it later (in the 16th century) acquired an intrusive b, which has long since ceased to be pronounced. It has cognates in Swedish and Danish lem, and Dutch lid ‘limb’ is probably related too.
limbo: limbo: English has two distinct and probably unrelated words limbo. By far the older is the theological limbo [14], referring originally to that condition in which the souls of the dead exist that are neither in heaven nor in hell. It comes from Latin limbus ‘border, edge’, which in the Middle Ages was used to refer to a region on the borders of, but not actually inside, hell.

It very often turned up in the ablative case, in the phrase in limbo, which is how English adopted it. The other limbo [20], denoting a West Indian dance that involves passing underneath a progressively lowered bar, probably comes from limber ‘flexible, supple’ [16], which in turn might be from limb or possibly from limber ‘detachable forward part of a gun-carriage’ [15] (although spellings of that with a b do not occur before the 17th century).

No one knows where that limber came from, although it might ultimately be Celtic. Alternatively, if the bar is viewed as a sort of boundary that the dancer must cross, the terpsichorean limbo could be related to the theological limbo.
lime: lime: English has three distinct words lime, of which by far the oldest is lime the ‘chalky substance’ [OE]. It goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *līm- (shared also by German leim, Dutch lijm, and Swedish limma), a variant of which also produced English loam [OE]. Lime the ‘citrus fruit’ [17] comes via French lime and Provençal limo from Arabic līmah ‘citrus fruit’, which was also the source of English lemon [14].

And lime the ‘tree’ [17] is an alteration of an earlier line, a variant of lind ‘lime tree’ (the closely related linden was acquired in the 16th century, from German lindenbaum or early modern Dutch lindenboom ‘lime tree’).
=> loam; lemon; linden
limerick: limerick: [19] The best-known writer of limericks is of course Edward Lear, but ironically the term limerick was not born until after Lear was dead. It is first recorded in 1896, and is said to have come from a Victorian custom of singing nonsense songs at parties, in the limerick rhymescheme (aabba), which always ended with the line ‘Will you come up to Limerick?’ (Limerick of course being a county and town in Ireland).
limit: limit: [14] Latin līmes originally denoted a ‘path between fields’, but it became extended metaphorically to any ‘boundary’ or ‘limit’, and that was the sense in which English acquired it (in its stem form līmit-).
=> lintel
limousine: limousine: [20] Limousin is a former province of central France. Its inhabitants commonly wore a distinctive style of cloak, and when at the beginning of the 20th century a new and luxurious type of car was designed with a closed passenger compartment and an open but roofed seat for the driver, it evidently struck someone that the roof resembled a Limousin cloak, and so the car was named a limousine. The American abbreviation limo is first recorded from the 1960s.
limp: limp: English has two words limp, which perhaps share a common ancestry. Neither is particularly old. The verb first crops up in the 16th century (until then the word for ‘walk lamely’ had been halt, which now survives, barely, as an adjective). It was probably adapted from the now obsolete adjective limphalt ‘lame’, a descendant of Old English lemphealt (which goes back ultimately to Indo-European *lomb-). The adjective limp is first recorded in the 18th century, and in view of the common meaning element ‘lack of firmness, infirmity’ it seems likely that it is related to the verb.
limpet: limpet: see lamprey
limpid: limpid: see lymph
linden: linden: see lime
line: line: [OE] The closest modern English line comes to its ancestor is probably in the fisherman’s ‘rod and line’ – a ‘string’ or ‘chord’. For it goes back to Latin līnea ‘string’. This was a derivative of līnum ‘flax’ (source of English linen), and hence meant etymologically ‘flaxen thread’. English acquired it in two separate phases.

First of all it was borrowed directly from Latin in the Old English period, and then it made a return appearance via Old French ligne in the 14th century; the two have coalesced to form modern English line. Derived forms include lineage [14], lineal [15], lineament [15], and liner [19]. The last is based on the sense ‘shipping line’, which goes back to the notion of a ‘line’ or succession of ships plying between ports.
=> align, lineal, linen, liner
linen: linen: [OE] The word for ‘flax’ is an ancient one, shared by numerous Indo-European languages: Greek līnon, Latin līnum (source of English line), and prehistoric West Germanic *līnam among them. The latter passed into Old English as līn, but now survives only in the compound linseed (literally ‘flax-seed’). Its adjectival derivative, however, *līnīn, lives on in the form linen, nowadays used as a noun meaning ‘cloth made from flax’.

The Latin word, or its French descendants lin or linge, have contributed several other derivatives to English, including crinoline, lingerie [19] (literally ‘linen garments’), linnet [16] (etymologically a ‘flaxeating bird’), linoleum [19], and lint [14].
=> crinoline, line, lingerie, linnet, linoleum, lint
liner: liner: see line
linger: linger: [13] Etymologically, to linger is to remain ‘longer’ than one should. Like its relatives, German längen and Dutch lengen, it goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *langgjan ‘lengthen’. In Old Norse this became lengja, which was borrowed into English in the 10th century as leng. By now, ‘lengthen’ had progressed metaphorically via ‘prolong’ to ‘delay’, which is what it meant when linger was derived from it in the 13th century.
=> long
lingerie: lingerie: see linen