英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

proximity [proximity 词源字典]: proximity: [15] Latin proximus meant ‘nearest, next’ (it was the superlative form of an unrecorded *proqe ‘near’, a variant of prope, from which English gets approach and propinquity [14]). From it were formed the verb proximāre ‘come near’, ultimate source of English approximate [15], and the noun proximitās ‘nearness’, from which English gets proximity.
=> approximate[proximity etymology, proximity origin, 英语词源]
proxy: proxy: [15] Proxy has no etymological connection with ‘closeness’. It is a much contracted form of prōcūrātia, the medieval version of Latin prōcūrātiō ‘caring for, taking care of’. This was a noun derived from prōcūrāre, source of English procure. It originally entered English in the 13th century as procuracy, and gradually shrank via procracy and prokecye to proxy. The semantic notion underlying it is of ‘taking care of another’s interests’.
=> procure
prude: prude: [18] Old French prudefemme ‘virtuous woman’ meant literally ‘fine thing of a woman’. It was a lexicalization of the phrase *preu de femme, in which preu meant ‘fine, brave, virtuous’ (its variant prud gave English proud). In the 17th century it was shortened to prude (Molière is the first writer on record as using it), with distinctly negative connotations of ‘overvirtuousness’. It was borrowed into English at the beginning of the 18th century, and for a couple of hundred years continued to be used almost exclusively with reference to women.
=> proud
prudent: prudent: [14] Prudent and provident are as it were two separate goes at the same word. Both were formed from the Latin prefix prō- ‘before, in advance’ and vidēns, the present participle of vidēre ‘see’ (and hence etymologically mean ‘foreseeing’). The pre-classical coinage was contracted to prūdēns ‘farsighted, wise’, which reached English via Old French prudent. Provident comes from the uncontracted prōvidēns, part of the paradigm of prōvidēre (source of English provide).
=> provide
prune: prune: English has two distinct words prune. The older, ‘dried plum’ [14], is ultimately the same word as plum, and indeed in the 16th and 17th century was often used for ‘plum’. It comes via Old French prune from Vulgar Latin *prūna, which also gave English (through Germanic) plum. Prune ‘cut off unneeded parts’ [15] denotes etymologically ‘cut in a rounded shape in front’. It comes via Old French proignier from Vulgar Latin *prōrotundiāre, a compound verb formed from the Latin prefix prō- ‘in front’ and rotundus ‘round’ (source of English rotund and round).
=> plum; rotund, round
pry: pry: see prize
psalm: psalm: [OE] The Greek verb psállein originally meant ‘pluck’, but it was extended figuratively to ‘pluck harpstrings’, and hence ‘sing to the accompaniment of the harp’. From it was derived the noun psalmós ‘harp-song’, which was used in the Greek Septuagint to render Hebrew mizmōr ‘song (of the sort sung to the harp by David)’. It passed into Old English via late Latin psalmus. Another derivative of Greek psállein was psaltérion ‘stringed instrument played by plucking’, which has given English psalter [OE] and psaltery [13].
psephology: psephology: [20] The term psephology ‘study of voting patterns’ was coined in the early 1950s by R B McCallum from Greek pséphos ‘pebble’. Pebbles were used in ancient Greece for casting votes, and so pséphos came to mean metaphorically ‘vote’ – hence psephology.
pseudonym: pseudonym: [19] Pseudonym comes via French pseudonyme from Greek pseudónumon, a compound formed from pseudés ‘false’ and ónoma ‘name’. Pseudés, a derivative of the verb pseúdein ‘lie’, has given English the prolific prefix pseudo-, which in the mid 20th century yielded the noun and adjective pseud.
=> name
psyche: psyche: [17] Like Latin animus (source of English animal), Greek psūkhé started out meaning ‘breath’ and developed semantically to ‘soul, spirit’. English adopted it via Latin psychē in the mid-17th century, but it did not really begin to come into its own until the middle of the 19th century, when the development of the sciences of the mind saw it pressed into service in such compound forms as psychology (first recorded in 1693, but not widely used until the 1830s) and psychiatry (first recorded in 1846), which etymologically means ‘healing of the mind’.
=> psychiatry, psychology
ptarmigan: ptarmigan: [16] Ptarmigan was borrowed from Scottish Gaelic tarmachan, a diminutive form of tarmach ‘ptarmigan’. There is no etymological justification for the spelling pt-. It was foisted on the word in the late 17th century in the erroneous belief that it had some connection with Greek pterón ‘wing’ (source of English pterodactyl).
pterodactyl: pterodactyl: [19] Pterodactyl means literally ‘wing-finger’. It was coined in the early 19th century, as Latin pterodactylus, from Greek pterón ‘wing’ (source of English helicopter, and descendant of the Indo-European base *pet- ‘fly’, which also produced English feather) and dáktulos ‘finger’ (source of English date the fruit).
=> date, feather
ptomaine: ptomaine: [19] Ptomaine denotes etymologically ‘matter from a corpse’. It comes via French ptomaïne from Italian ptomaina, which was based on Greek ptōma ‘corpse’. This in turn was derived from the verb píptein ‘fall’, and originally meant literally ‘fallen body’. The term was coined to name substances produced by decomposing flesh.
puberty: puberty: [14] Latin pūber denoted ‘adult’, and hence, by implication, ‘covered in hair’. Both strands of meaning have followed the word into English: ‘adulthood’ by way of the derivative pūbertās, source of English puberty, and ‘hairiness’ in pubescent [17], which means ‘downy’ as well as ‘having reached puberty’. And the two are combined in pubic ‘relating to the region of the groin where hair begins to grow at puberty’ [19].
public: public: [15] Public means etymologically ‘of the people’. It comes via Old French public from Latin pūblicus, an alteration (apparently inspired by pūber ‘adult’, source of English puberty) of poplicus ‘of the people’, which was derived from populus ‘people’ (source of English people, popular, etc). Publicity [19] was borrowed from the French derivative publicité.
=> people, popular, pub, publish
publican: publican: [12] The modern use of publican for ‘innkeeper’ dates from the early 18th century, and presumably arose from an association with public house. Its original meaning was ‘tax collector’. It comes via Old French publicain from Latin pūblicānus ‘person who paid for the privilege of collecting the public revenues, in return for a percentage’. This in turn was derived from pūblicum ‘public revenue’, a noun use of pūblicus ‘public’ (source of English public).
publish: publish: [14] To publish something is etymologically to make it ‘public’. The word comes from publiss-, the stem of Old French publier, which was descended from Latin pūblicāre ‘make public’, a derivative of pūblicus ‘public’. The earliest record of its use in English for ‘bring out a book’ comes from the early 16th century.
=> public
puce: puce: [18] Puce is etymologically ‘fleacoloured’. It was borrowed from French puce ‘flea’, a descendant of Latin pūlex ‘flea’, which goes back to the same Indo-European source as English flea [OE].
=> flea
pucker: pucker: [16] The etymological notion underlying pucker seems to be of forming into ‘pockets’ or small baglike wrinkles (the same idea led to the use of the verb purse for ‘wrinkle, pucker’ – now dated in general usage, but fossilized in the expression purse the lips). The word was based on the stem pock- of pocket.
puckish: puckish: [19] In English folklore from the late Middle Ages onward, Puck was a mischievous but essentially harmless sprite, up to all sorts of tricks (hence the coining of puckish for ‘mischievous’). But his Anglo-Saxon ancestor Pūca was a far less pleasant proposition – for this was the Devil himself. He gradually dwindled over the centuries, but a hint of his former power remained in his placatory alternative name Robin Goodfellow. It is not known whether pūca is of Germanic or Celtic origin.