英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

official (adj.)[official 词源字典]: late 14c., "performing a service; required by duty," from Old French oficial "official; main, principal" (14c., Modern French officiel) or directly from Late Latin officialis "of or belonging to duty, service, or office," from Latin officium (see office). Meaning "pertaining to an office or official position" is from c. 1600.[official etymology, official origin, 英语词源]
officialese (n.): "language of officialdom," 1881, from official + -ese.
officiant (n.): 1844, from noun use of Medieval Latin officiantem (nominative officians), present participle of officiare "perform religious services," from Latin officium (see office).
officiate (v.): 1630s, "to perform a duty," especially "to perform the duty of a priest," from Medieval Latin officiatum, from present participle of officiare "perform religious services," from Latin officium (see office). Related: Officiated; officiating.
officinal (adj.): "kept in stock by a druggist," c. 1720, from French officinal, from Medieval Latin officinalis, literally "of or belonging in an officina," a storeroom (of a monastery) for medicines and necessaries, in classical Latin "workshop, manufactory, laboratory," contraction of *opificina, from opifex (genitive opificis) "worker, workman, maker, doer" (from opus "work;" see opus) + -fex, -ficis "one who does," from facere "to make, do, perform" (see factitious). Related: Officinally.
officious (adj.): 1560s, "zealous, eager to serve," from Latin officiosus "full of courtesy, dutiful, obliging," from officium "duty, service" (see office). Sense of "meddlesome, doing more than is asked or required" had emerged by 1600 (in officiously). An officious lie (1570s) is one told to do good to another person (from Latin mendocium officiosum or French mensonge officieux). Related: Officiousness.
offing (n.): in phrase in the offing, 1779, from nautical term offing "the more distant part of the sea as seen from the shore" (1620s), from off (q.v.) + noun suffix -ing (1). Originally the phrase meant "in the distant future;" modern sense of "impending" developed 1914.
offset (n.): 1550s, "act of setting off" (on a journey, etc.), from off + set (adj.). Meaning "something 'set off' against something else, a counterbalance" is from 1769; the verb in this sense is from 1792. As a type of printing, in which the inked impression is first made on a rubber roller then transferred to paper, it is recorded from 1906.
offshoot (n.): 1670s, in figurative sense, of family trees; 1801 in general sense of "a derivative;" 1814 in literal sense, in reference to plants. From off + shoot (n.).
offshoring (n.): in the economic sense, as a form of outsourcing, attested by 1988, from offshore.
offside: also off-side, 1867, in various sporting senses, originally in English football; from off + side (n.).
offspring (n.): Old English ofspring "children or young collectively, descendants," literally "those who spring off (someone,)" from off + springan "to spring" (see spring (v.)). The figurative sense is first recorded c. 1600.
oft (adv.): Old English oft "often, frequently," from Proto-Germanic *ufta- "frequently" (cognates: Old Frisian ofta, Danish ofte, Old High German ofto, German oft, Old Norse opt, Gothic ufta "often"), of unknown origin. Archaic except in compounds (such as oft-told), and replaced by its derivative often.
often (adv.): c. 1300, extended form of oft, originally before vowels and h-, probably by influence of Middle English selden "seldom." In common use from 16c., replacing oft.
oftentimes: extended form of often, attested from early 15c.
ogee (n.): "S-shaped molding," 1670s, from French ogive "diagonal rib of a vault," earlier augive, of unknown origin. Related: ogival.
ogham (n.): also ogam, ancient Irish form of writing, 1620s, from Irish ogham, from Old Irish ogam, said to be from name of its inventor, Ogma Mac Eladan. But this appears to be from Celt. *Ogmios, perhaps from PIE *og-mo- "furrow, track," thus metaphorically "incised line." This could be the source of the name of the writing style, which looks like a series of cuts or incised lines, and the inventor's name thus might be folk etymology. Related: Oghamic.
ogle (v.): 1680s, probably from Low German oeglen, frequentative of oegen "look at," from oege "eye," from Proto-Germanic *augon-, from PIE *okw- "to see" (see eye (n.)). Related to Dutch ogen "to look at," from oog "eye." Related: Ogled; ogling. The noun meaning "an amorous glance" is attested from 1711; earlier it meant "an eye" (1700).
ogre (n.): "man-eating giant," 1713, hogre (in a translation of a French version of the Arabian Nights), from French ogre, first used in Perrault's "Contes," 1697, and perhaps formed by him from Italian orco "demon, monster," from Latin Orcus "Hades," perhaps via an Italian dialect. In English, more literary than colloquial. The conjecture that it is from Byzantine Ogur "Hungarian" or some other version of that people's name (perhaps via confusion with the bloodthirsty Huns), lacks historical evidence. Related: Ogrish; ogrishness.
Ogygian (adj.): 1843, "of great antiquity or age," from Greek Ogygos, name of a mythical Attic or Boeotian king who even in classical times was thought to have lived very long ago. Also sometimes with reference to a famous flood said to have occurred in his day.