英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

motor (v.)[motor 词源字典]: 1896, from motor (n.). Related: Motored; motoring.[motor etymology, motor origin, 英语词源]
motor-: element used extensively in 20c. word formation to indicate motorcar.
motor-boat (n.): also motorboat, 1902, from motor (n.) + boat (n.).
motorcade (n.): 1909, from motor- + suffix from cavalcade.
motorcar (n.): also motor-car, 1895 from motor (n.) + car.
motorcycle (n.): 1895, a hybrid from motor + -cycle, from bicycle. Motocycle also was used late 19c.
The horse follows the crooks of a country road, but then the training of the "motorcycle" (horrid name) will inevitably straighten out the crooks in the country road, and afford long ranges of straight tracks. [Payson Burleigh, "The Age of Steel," Oct. 12, 1895]
Related: Motorcyclist.
motorist (n.): "motor-car driver," 1896, from motor- + -ist. Earlier as a name for electric railway drivers (1889). Other early alternatives included motorneer.
"Motorer" we have given our reasons for rejecting, and there only remains "motorist" or a compound like "motor-man" or "motor-driver." Mr. C.P.G. Scott, the etymologist of the Century Dictionary, strongly favors "motor-man" or "motor-driver," though he would not object to "motorist" and prefers it above any other single word. ["Electric Power," October 1889]
motorize (v.): "to furnish with a motor or motors," 1901, from motor (n.) + -ize. Related: Motorized; motorizing; motorization.
motorway (n.): 1903, from motor- + way (n.).
Motown: recording label launched 1960 by Berry Gordy Jr., from Mo(tor) Town, perhaps based on Motor City, a nickname for Detroit attested by 1911.
mottle (n.): 1670s, probably a back-formation from motley.
mottle (v.): 1670s; see mottle (n.). Related: Mottled; mottling.
mottled (adj.): 1670s, past participle adjective; see mottle (v.).
motto (n.): 1580s, from Italian motto "a saying, legend attached to a heraldic design," from Late Latin muttum "grunt, word," from Latin muttire "to mutter, mumble, murmur" (see mutter).
moue (n.): "pout," 1850, from French moue "mouth, lip, pout," from Old French moe, perhaps from Middle Dutch mouwe, with the same senses, but this could as easily be from French. As a verb from 1909.
mould: chiefly British English spelling of mold in various senses. Related: Moulded; moulding.
moulder: see molder. Related: Mouldered; mouldering.
mouldy (adj.): see moldy.
moult: see molt.
mound (n.): 1550s, "hedge, fence," also "embankment, dam" (a sense probably influenced by mount (n.)). The relationship between the noun and the verb is uncertain. Commonly supposed to be from Old English mund "hand, protection, guardianship" (cognate with Latin manus), but this is not certain (OED discounts it on grounds of sense). Perhaps a confusion of the native word and Middle Dutch mond "protection," used in military sense for fortifications of various types, including earthworks. From 1726 as "artificial elevation" (as over a grave); 1810 as "natural low elevation." As the place where the pitcher stands on a baseball field, from 1912.