英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

plural [plural 词源字典]: plural: [14] Plural is one of a range of English words that go back ultimately to Latin plūs ‘more’, a descendant (like English full and Greek pólus ‘much’, source of the English prefix poly-) of the Indo-European base *plē- ‘full’. This was borrowed into English directly as plus [17], in the sense ‘with the addition of’. Plural comes via Old French plurel from the Latin derivative plūrālis ‘more than one’.

Other related words in English include nonplus [16] (etymologically ‘put in a position where “no more” – Latin nōn plūs – can be done’); pluperfect [16] (a lexicalization of the Latin phrase plūs quam perfectum ‘more than perfect’); and surplus.
=> nonplus, pluperfect, plus, surplus[plural etymology, plural origin, 英语词源]
plus fours: plus fours: [20] The term plus fours was introduced around 1920. It is an allusion to the fact that such trousers were made four inches longer in the leg than the standard knickerbockers or shorts of the time, which came to just above the knee.
plush: plush: see pluck
ply: ply: English has two distinct words ply, although ultimately they are related. The one meaning ‘fold, twist, layer’ [14], now mainly found in plywood [20] and in combinations such as twoply and three-ply, comes from Old French pli, a derivative of the verb plier ‘bend, fold’ (source of English apply [14], pliable [15], pliant [14], pliers [16], and reply).

This went back to Latin plicāre ‘fold’, a relative of English fold and source of accomplice, complicate [17], employ, explicit, imply, pleat, plight ‘predicament’, and supplicate. It was formed from a base that also produced English perplex [16] and the final syllables of simple and supple. The apple pie of apple-pie bed [18] is thought to be an alteration of French nappe pliée ‘folded sheet’. Ply ‘travel a route regularly’ or ‘solicit’ (as in ‘ply for hire’) [14] is short for apply, a relative of ply ‘fold’, and originally meant ‘apply, employ’ (as in ‘ply one’s needle’).
=> accomplice, apply, complicate, comply, double, employ, explicit, fold, imply, perplex, pleat, pliable, pliers, plight, reply, simple, supple, supplicate
pneumatic: pneumatic: [17] Pneumatic denotes etymologically ‘of the wind or breath’. It comes via Latin pneumaticus from Greek pneumatikós, a derivative of pneuma ‘wind, breath’ (which is distantly related to English sneeze). Despite its similarity, pneumonia [17] does not come ultimately from the same source. It goes back to Greek pleúmōn ‘lung’, a relative of Latin pulmō (source of English pulmonary), which was altered to pneumōn under the influence of pneuma. From this was derived pneumoníā, acquired by English via Latin pneumonia.
=> pneumonia, pulmonary
poach: poach: English has two words poach, both of which go back ultimately to Old French pocher ‘put in a bag’, a derivative of poche ‘bag’ (source of English pocket and pouch). The cookery term [15] is an allusion to the forming of little ‘bags’ or ‘pockets’ around the yolk of eggs by the coagulating white. Poach ‘steal’ [17] seems to mean etymologically ‘put in one’s pocket’.
=> pocket, pouch
pock: pock: see pox
pocket: pocket: [15] A pocket is etymologically a ‘small bag’. It comes from Anglo-Norman poket, a diminutive form of poke ‘bag’ (source of English poke ‘bag’ [13], now used only in the expression ‘buy a pig in a poke’). Its Old French equivalent was poche, source of English pouch [14] (and of poach). This was acquired from Frankish *pokka ‘bag’, a derivative of the same Germanic base (*puk-) as produced English pock (whose plural has become pox) and pucker.
=> poach, pock, poke, pouch, pucker
podium: podium: see pew
poem: poem: [16] A poem is etymologically ‘something created’. The word comes via Old French poeme and Latin poēma from Greek póēma, a derivative of poeín ‘make, create’. The original sense ‘something created’ developed metaphorically via ‘literary work’ to ‘poem’. From the same Greek verb was derived poētés ‘maker’, hence ‘poet’, which produced Latin poēta and in due course English poet [13] (the Old English word for ‘poet’ had been scop, a relative of modern English scoff). Poetry [14] originated as a medieval Latin derivative of poēta. Poesy ‘poetry, poems’ [14], like poem originally a derivative Greek poeín, now has an archaic air, but it has a living descendant in posy [16], which started life as a contraction of poesy.
=> poesy, poet, poetry, posy
poignant: poignant: see punctuation
point: point: [13] ‘Sharp end’ is the etymological notion underlying point. For it comes ultimately from Latin pungere ‘prick, pierce’ (source also of English expunge, poignant and pungent). The neuter form of its past participle, punctum, was used as a noun, meaning ‘small hole made by pricking, dot, particle, etc’ (it is the source of English punctual, punctuation, etc), which passed into Old French as point.

Then in the post-classical period a further noun was created, from the feminine past participle puncta, meaning ‘sharp tip’, and this gave Old French pointe. The two have remained separate in French, but in English they have coalesced in point. The Spanish descendant of Latin punctum, punta, has given English punt ‘bet’.
=> compunction, expunge, poignant, punctual, punctuation, punt
poise: poise: see ponder
poison: poison: [13] Etymologically, poison is simply something you ‘drink’. The word comes via Old French poison from Latin pōtiō ‘drink’ (source also of English potion), a derivative of the verb pōtāre ‘drink’ (from which English gets potable). The specialization in meaning from ‘drink’ to ‘poisonous drink’ took place in classical Latin, but the further progression to ‘any poisonous substance’ is a later development. Another probable relative is pot.
=> potable, potion, symposium
poke: poke: see pocket
poker: poker: English has two words poker. The earlier, poker for a fire [16], is simply the agent noun formed from poke [14], a verb borrowed from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German poken ‘thrust, hit’. The card-game name [19] originated in the USA, but it is not clear where it came from: one suggestion is that it is connected with German pochen ‘brag’.
pole: pole: There are two separate words pole in English. Pole ‘long thin piece of wood’ [OE] comes from a pre- historic Germanic *pāl- (source also of German pfahl, Dutch paal, and Swedish påla). This was borrowed from Latin pālus ‘stake’, from which English gets pale ‘stake’. Pole ‘extremity’ [14] was acquired from Latin polus, which in turn went back to Greek pólos ‘axis of a sphere’. This was a descendant of Indo-European *qwolo- ‘turn round’ (source of English wheel), and has also given English pulley. The derivative polar [16] is an anglicization of the modern Latin coinage polāris.
=> pale; polar, pulley, wheel
police: police: [16] Etymologically, the police are in charge of the administration of a ‘city’. In fact, police is essentially the same word as policy ‘plan of action’. Both go back to Latin polītīa ‘civil administration’, a descendant of Greek pólis ‘city’. In medieval Latin a variant polītia emerged, which became French police.

English took it over, and at first continued to use it for ‘civil administration’ (Edmund Burke as late as 1791 described the Turks as ‘a barbarous nation, with a barbarous neglect of police, fatal to the human race’). Its specific application to the administration of public order emerged in France in the early 18th century, and the first body of public-order officers to be named police in England was the Marine Police, a force set up around 1798 to protect merchandise in the Port of London.
=> politics
policy: policy: English has two distinct and completely unrelated words policy. The one meaning ‘plan of action’ [14] comes via Old French policie from Latin polītīa ‘civil administration’, source also of English police and the now archaic polity [16]. This in turn came from Greek polīteíā, a derivative of pólis ‘city’ (source of English politics).

But the insurance policy [16] comes via French police ‘document’ and Provençal polissa from medieval Latin apodissa, an alteration of Latin apodīxis ‘proof, demonstration’, which in turn was acquired from Greek apódeixis, a compound noun derived ultimately from the verb deiknúnai ‘show’.
=> politics; diction
polio: polio: [20] Polio is an abbreviation of poliomyelitis [19], a term coined in modern Latin from Greek poliós ‘grey’ and muelós ‘marrow’ (a derivative of mūs ‘muscle’) – hence ‘inflammation of the ‘grey matter’ of the spinal chord’