英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

onyx [onyx 词源字典]: onyx: [13] Greek ónux meant ‘claw, fingernail’ (it is distantly related to English nail). Certain sorts of onyx are pink with white streaks, and a resemblance to pink fingernails with their paler crescent-shaped mark at the base led the Greeks to name the stone ónux. The word travelled to English via Latin onyx and Old French onix.
=> nail[onyx etymology, onyx origin, 英语词源]
open: open: [OE] Etymologically, open means ‘turned up’ or ‘put up’. It comes ultimately from a prehistoric Germanic *upanaz, an adjective based on the ancestor of up, and therefore presumably denoted originally the raising of a lid or cover. The German verb aufmachen ‘open’, literally ‘make up’, contains the adverb auf, the German equivalent to English up. The English verb open [OE] is a derivative of the adjective.
=> up
operate: operate: [17] Operate belongs to a small family of English words that trace their history back to Latin opus ‘work’, which may be related to Sanskrit ápas ‘work’, Old English afol ‘power’, and Latin ops ‘wealth’ (source of English copious, copy, and opulent [17]). Its most direct English descendant is of course opus [18] itself, which was originally adopted in the phrase magnum opus ‘great work’. Opera [17] goes back to the Latin plural, which came to be regarded as a feminine singular noun meaning ‘that which is produced by work’.

Italian gave it its musical sense, and passed it on to English. Operate itself came from the past-participial stem of the derived Latin verb operārī ‘work’. It was originally used in English for ‘produce an effect’, and the transitive sense, as in ‘operate a machine’, did not emerge until as recently as the mid-19th century, in American English. The surgical sense is first recorded in the derivative operation [16] at the end of the 16th century.

Other English descendants of opus include cooperate [17] and manoeuvre.
=> copious, copy, manoeuvre, opera, opulent
opinion: opinion: [13] Opinion comes via Old French from Latin opīniō, a derivative of opīnārī ‘think’. It is not certain where this came from, although some have linked it with Latin optāre ‘choose’, source of English adopt [16], co-opt [17], opt [19], and option [17].
=> adopt, opt, option
opium: opium: [14] Etymologically, opium means ‘little juice’. It comes via Latin from Greek ópion ‘poppy juice’, which originated as a diminutive form of opós ‘juice’. This in turn may be related to Persian āb ‘water’. The derivative opiate [16] comes via medieval Latin opiātus.
opossum: opossum: [17] Opossum comes from aposoum, a word in Virginia Algonquian meaning literally ‘white animal’. The shortened form possum is virtually contemporary with it. When referring to the animal, opossum is now the more usual term, but possum holds its own in the expression play possum ‘feign death or sleep’. Dating from the early 19th century, it alludes to the opossum’s habit of pretending to be dead when threatened.
opportunity: opportunity: [14] Opportunity has its origins in a Latin nautical term denoting ‘favourable winds’. This was opportūnus, a compound adjective formed from the prefix ob- ‘to’ and portus ‘harbour’ (source of English port). It was used originally for winds, ‘blowing towards the harbour’, and since it is good when such advantageous winds arrive, it developed metaphorically to ‘coming at a convenient time’. From it English got opportune [15] and the derived opportunity. Opportunism [19] is a much more recent introduction, which originated in the world of Italian politics.
=> port
oppose: oppose: [14] Oppose is in origin an Old French re-formation of Latin oppōnere, based on poser (source of English pose). Oppōnere was a compound verb formed from the prefix ob- ‘against’ and pōnere ‘put’ (source also of English position, posture, etc). It originally meant literally ‘set against’, but developed various figurative senses, including ‘oppose in argument’, which is how it was originally used when it arrived in English.

The notions of ‘contention’ and ‘prevention’ have remained uppermost in the English verb, as they have in opponent [16], which comes from the present participle of the Latin verb. But opposite [14] (from the Latin past participle) retains another metaphorical strand that began in Latin, of ‘comparison’ or ‘contrast’.
=> pose, position, posture
oppress: oppress: see press
opt: opt: see opinion
optical: optical: [16] Greek optós meant ‘visible’ (it was presumably related to ophthalmós ‘eye’, source of English ophthalmic [17], and belonged to the general Indo-European family of ‘eye’/‘see’- words – including English eye itself – that goes back to the base *oqw-). From it was derived optikós, which has given English optic [16] and optical. Optician [17] originated as a French coinage.
=> ophthalmic
optimism: optimism: [18] Etymologically as well as semantically, optimism means hoping for ‘the best’. It was coined in French (as optimisme) in 1737 as a term for the doctrine of the German philosopher Leibnitz (1646–1716) that the world is as good as it could possibly be. It was based on Latin optimum (source also of English optimum [19]), the neuter case of optimus ‘best’. This may have been formed from the preposition ob ‘in front of’ and a superlative suffix.
option: option: see opinion
opulent: opulent: see operate
opus: opus: see operate
or: or: [12] The Old English word for ‘or’ was oththe. This appears to have been altered in the early Middle English period to other, probably due to the influence of similar words denoting ‘choice between alternatives’ and ending in -er (notably either and whether). Other was soon contracted to or, but it did not finally die out until the 15th century.
oracle: oracle: see orator
oral: oral: [17] Oral comes from Latin ōs ‘mouth’. This went back to a prehistoric Indo-European *ōs- or *ōus-, which also produced Sanskrit ās-, ‘mouth’ and Old Norse óss ‘mouth of a river’. Its other contributions to English include orifice [16] (etymologically ‘forming a mouth’), oscillate, osculate ‘kiss’ [17], and usher.
=> orifice, oscillate, osculate, usher
orange: orange: [14] The name of the orange originated in northern India, as Sanskrit nāranga. This passed westwards via Persian nārang and Arabic nāranj to Spain. The Spanish form naranj filtered up to France, and became altered (perhaps under the influence of Orange, the name of a town in southeastern France which used to be a centre of the orange trade) to orenge, later orange – whence the English word.
orang-utan: orang-utan: [17] Malay ōrang ūtan means literally ‘wild man’. It probably originated as a term used by those who lived in open, more densely populated areas for the ‘uncivilized’ tribes who lived in the forest, but was taken by early European travellers to refer to the large red-haired ape that inhabits the same forests. The word may well have reached English via Dutch.