英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

madrigal (n.)[madrigal 词源字典]: "short love poem," also "part-song for three or more voices," 1580s, from Italian madrigale, probably from Venetian dialect madregal "simple, ingenuous," from Late Latin matricalis "invented, original," literally "of or from the womb," from matrix (genitive matricis) "womb" (see matrix).[madrigal etymology, madrigal origin, 英语词源]
Mae West: type of inflatable life jacket, 1940, military slang, in reference to the screen name of the buxom U.S. film star (1892-1980).
Maecenas: "a generous patron of literature or the arts," 1560s, from name of Gaius Clinius Maecenas (died 8 B.C.E.), Roman patron of Horace and Virgil.
maelstrom (n.): 1680s (Hakluyt, 1560s, has Malestrand), name of a famous whirlpool off the northwest coast of Norway, from Danish malstrøm (1673), from older Dutch Maelstrom (modern maalstroom), literally "grinding-stream," from malen "to grind" (see meal) + stroom "stream" (see stream (n.)). The name was used by Dutch cartographers (for example Mercator, 1595). OED says perhaps originally from Færoic mal(u)streymur. Popularized as a synonym for "whirlpool" c. 1841, the year of Poe's "A Descent into the Maelstrom."
maenad (n.): "Bacchante," 1570s, from Greek mainas (genitive mainados) "priestess of Bacchus," literally "madwoman," from stem of mainesthai "to rage, go mad" (see mania).
maestro (n.): "master of music, great teacher or composer," 1797, from Italian maestro, literally "master," from Latin magisterium, accusative of magister (see master (n.)). Applied in Italian to eminent musical composers. Meaning "conductor, musical director" is short for maestro di cappella (1724), literally "master of the chapel" (compare German kapellmeister).
maffick (v.): "to celebrate boisterously," 1900, from Mafficking, a nonce-verb formed punningly from Mafeking, British garrison town in South Africa whose relief on May 17, 1900, during the Boer War, was celebrated wildly in London. OED reports the word "confined to journalistic use." By now it might as well write, "confined to dictionaries." The place name (properly Mafikeng) is from Tswana and is said to mean "place of rocks," from mafika, plural of lefika "rock, cliff" + -eng "place of."
mafia (n.): 1875, from Italian Mafia "Sicilian secret society of criminals" (the prevailing sense outside Sicily), earlier, "spirit of hostility to the law and its ministers," from Italian (Sicilian) mafia "boldness, bravado," probably from Arabic mahjas "aggressive, boasting, bragging." Or perhaps from Old French mafler "to gluttonize, devour." A member is a mafioso (1870), fem. mafiosa, plural mafiosi.
mag: "car wheel made of magnesium alloy," 1969. As an abbreviation of magazine, it dates from 1801.
Mag: common pet form of the fem. proper name Margaret, attested since Middle English. Compare magpie.
magazine (n.): 1580s, "place for storing goods, especially military ammunition," from Middle French magasin "warehouse, depot, store" (15c.), from Italian magazzino, from Arabic makhazin, plural of makhzan "storehouse" (source of Spanish almacén "warehouse, magazine"), from khazana "to store up." The original sense is almost obsolete; meaning "periodical journal" dates from the publication of the first one, "Gentleman's Magazine," in 1731, which was so called from earlier use of the word for a printed list of military stores and information, or in a figurative sense, from the publication being a "storehouse" of information.
magdalen (n.): "reformed prostitute," 1690s, so called for Mary Magdalene, disciple of Christ (Luke viii:2), who often is identified with the penitent woman in Luke vii:37-50. See Magdalene.
Magdalene: fem. proper name, from Latin (Maria) Magdalena, from Greek Magdalene, literally "woman of Magdala," from Aramaic Maghdela, place on the Sea of Galilee, literally "tower." The vernacular form of the name, via French, has come to English as maudlin.
mage (n.): "magician," c. 1400, anglicized form of Latin magus "magician" (see magi). An "archaic" word by late 19c. (OED), revived by fantasy games.
Magellan: anglicized name of Portuguese navigator Fernão de Magalhães (c. 1470-1521).
Magellanic clouds: 1680s, from Modern Latin Magellanicus, from Latinized name of Portuguese navigator Fernão de Magalhães (c. 1470-1521), the first European to round the tip of South America. He described them c. 1520, hence the name in Europe; but at least the larger of the two had been mentioned by Anghiera in 1515. In English they were earlier the Cape Clouds, because they became prominent as sailors neared the Cape of Good Hope; "but after Magellan became noted and fully described them they took and have retained his name." [Allen]
Coompasinge abowte the poynt thereof, they myght see throughowte al the heaven about the same, certeyne shynynge whyte cloudes here and there amonge the starres, like unto theym whiche are scene in the tracte of heaven cauled Lactea via, that is the mylke whyte waye. [Richard Eden, translation of "Decades of the New World," 1555]
magenta (n.): 1860, in honor of the Battle of Magenta in Italy, where the French and Sardinians defeated the Austrians in 1859, which advanced the cause of Italian independence and fired the imagination of European liberals. The brilliant crimson aniline dye was discovered shortly after the battle. The town's name traces back to Roman general and emperor Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius (d.312), who supposedly had a headquarters here.
maggot (n.): late 15c., probably an unexplained variant of Middle English maðek, from Old English maða "maggot, grub," from Proto-Germanic *mathon (cognates: Old Norse maðkr, Old Saxon matho, Middle Dutch, Dutch made, Old High German mado, German Made, Gothic maþa "maggot"). Figurative use "whim, fancy, crotchet" is 1620s, from the notion of a maggot in the brain.
magi (n.): c. 1200, "skilled magicians, astrologers," from Latin magi, plural of magus "magician, learned magician," from Greek magos, a word used for the Persian learned and priestly class as portrayed in the Bible (said by ancient historians to have been originally the name of a Median tribe), from Old Persian magush "magician" (see magic). Related: Magian.
magic (n.): late 14c., "art of influencing events and producing marvels using hidden natural forces," from Old French magique "magic, magical," from Late Latin magice "sorcery, magic," from Greek magike (presumably with tekhne "art"), fem. of magikos "magical," from magos "one of the members of the learned and priestly class," from Old Persian magush, possibly from PIE *magh- (1) "to be able, to have power" (see machine). Transferred sense of "legerdemain, optical illusion, etc." is from 1811. Displaced Old English wiccecræft (see witch); also drycræft, from dry "magician," from Irish drui "priest, magician" (see druid).