英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

pinion [pinion 词源字典]: pinion: see pin, pine
[pinion etymology, pinion origin, 英语词源]
pink: pink: English has three distinct words pink. The colour term [18] appears to have come, by a bizarre series of twists, from an early Dutch word meaning ‘small’. This was pinck (source also of the colloquial English pinkie ‘little finger’ [19]). It was used in the phrase pinck oogen, literally ‘small eyes’, hence ‘half-closed eyes’, which was borrowed into English and partially translated as pink eyes.

It has been speculated that this was a name given to a plant of the species Dianthus, which first emerged in the abbreviated form pink in the 16th century. Many of these plants have pale red flowers, and so by the 18th century pink was being used for ‘pale red’. Pink ‘pierce’ [14], now preserved mainly in pinking shears, is probably of Low German origin (Low German has pinken ‘peck’).

And pink (of an engine) ‘make knocking sounds’ [20] is presumably imitative in origin.
pinnace: pinnace: see pine
pinnacle: pinnacle: see pin
pinnate: pinnate: see pin
pinyin: pinyin: [20] Pinyin is a system of writing Chinese in Roman characters which began to be introduced in China in the late 1950s. The term in Chinese means literally ‘spell-sound’.
pioneer: pioneer: [16] Pioneer was borrowed from French pionnier, a descendant of Old French paonier. This originally denoted a ‘foot soldier sent on ahead to clear the way’, and was a derivative of paon ‘foot soldier’ (whose Anglo-Norman version poun gave English pawn).
=> foot, pawn, pedal
pious: pious: [17] Pious is one of a nexus of English words descended from Latin pius, an adjective of unknown origin. Its derivative pietās has given English piety and pity, and the derived verb piāre ‘appease, atone’ lies behind English expiate [16]. Pious itself was probably borrowed direct from Latin.
=> expiate, piety, pity
pipe: pipe: [OE] The etymological notion underlying pipe is of a ‘piping’ sound. The word goes back to a Common Romance *pīpa, a derivative of the Latin verb pīpāre ‘chirp’. This was formed from the base *pīp-, imitative of the sounds made by young birds, which also lies behind English pigeon. Prehistoric Germanic took over *pīpa, and it has since evolved to German pfeife, Dutch pijp, Swedish pipa, and English pipe. By the time it reached English it had broadened out semantically from its original ‘tubular wind instrument which makes a piping sound’ to ‘tube’ in general.
=> pigeon
pique: pique: see pick
pirate: pirate: [15] A pirate is etymologically someone who makes an ‘attempt’ or ‘attack’ on someone. The word comes via Latin pīrāta (where the notion of a ‘sea-robber’ first emerged) from Greek peirātés ‘attacker, marauder’, a derivative of the verb peiran ‘attempt, attack’. This came from the same base, *per- ‘try’, as produced English experience, expert, peril, repertory, etc.
=> experience, expert, peril, repertory
piscatorial: piscatorial: see fish
Pisces: Pisces: see fish
piscina: piscina: see fish
piss: piss: [13] Piss probably originated in imitation of the sound of urinating. It has been traced back to a hypothetical Vulgar Latin *pisāre, which passed into English via Old French pisser. It has become widely distributed throughout the other European languages (Italian pisciare, for instance, German and Dutch pissen, and Welsh piso). Pee [18] started life as a euphemism for piss.
=> pee
pistil: pistil: see piston
pistol: pistol: [16] Pistol is one of a very small and select group of words contributed to English by Czech (others are howitzer and robot). It comes via German pistole from Czech pišt’ala, which literally means ‘pipe’ (it is related to Russian pischal ‘shepherd’s pipe’).
piston: piston: [18] The Latin verb pinsere meant ‘beat, pound’. Its past participial stem pist- formed the basis for the noun pistillum ‘grinding stick, pestle’ (from which English gets pistil ‘female flower part’ [18], an allusion to its shape). This passed into Italian as pestello, from which English gets pestle [14]. From the Italian stem pest- was formed pestone ‘rammer’, whose variant pistone gave French piston – whence English piston.
=> pestle, pistil
pit: pit: English has two words pit. The older, ‘hole’ [OE], comes ultimately from Latin puteus ‘pit, well’ (source also of French puits ‘well, shaft’), but reached English via a Germanic route. It was borrowed in prehistoric times into West Germanic as *putti, which has evolved into German pfütze ‘pool’, Dutch put ‘pit’, and English pit. Pit ‘fruit-stone’ [19] may have been borrowed from Dutch pit, which goes back to a prehistoric West Germanic *pithan, source of English pith [OE].
=> pith
pitcher: pitcher: see beaker