英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

pecuniary (adj.)[pecuniary 词源字典]: c. 1500, from Latin pecuniarius "pertaining to money," from pecunia "money, property, wealth," from pecu "cattle, flock," from PIE root *peku- "wealth, movable property, livestock" (source of Sanskrit pasu- "cattle," Gothic faihu "money, fortune," Old English feoh "cattle, money").

Livestock was the measure of wealth in the ancient world, and Rome, like any other culture, was essentially a farmer's community. That pecunia was literally "wealth in cattle" was still apparent to Cicero. For a possible parallel sense development in Old English, see fee, and compare, evolving in the other direction, cattle. Compare also Welsh tlws "jewel," cognate with Irish tlus "cattle," connected via notion of "valuable thing," and, perhaps emolument.[pecuniary etymology, pecuniary origin, 英语词源]
pecunious (adj.): late 14c., from Latin pecuniosus "abounding in money," from pecunia "money" (see pecuniary). Related: Pecuniously; pecuniousness.
pedagogic (adj.): 1781, from Latin paedagogicus, from Greek paidagogikos "suitable for a teacher," from paidagogos "teacher" (see pedagogue).
pedagogical (adj.): 1610s, from Latin paedagogicus (see pedagogic) + -al (1). Related: Pedagogically.
pedagogue (n.): late 14c., "schoolmaster, teacher," from Old French pedagoge "teacher of children" (14c.), from Latin paedagogus, from Greek paidagogos "slave who escorts boys to school and generally supervises them," later "a teacher," from pais (genitive paidos) "child" (see pedo-) + agogos "leader," from agein "to lead" (see act (n.)). Hostile implications in the word are at least from the time of Pepys (1650s). Related: Pedagogal.
pedagogy (n.): 1580s, from Middle French pédagogie (16c.), from Latin paedagogia, from Greek paidagogia "education, attendance on boys," from paidagogos "teacher" (see pedagogue).
pedal (n.): 1610s, "lever (on an organ) worked by foot," from French pédale "feet, trick with the feet," from Italian pedale "treadle, pedal," from Late Latin pedale "(thing) of the foot," neuter of Latin pedalis "of the foot," from pes (genitive pedis) "foot," from PIE root *ped- (1) "a foot" (see foot (n.)).

Extended to various mechanical contrivances by 1789. Pedal steel guitar is from 1969. Pedal-pushers "type of women's trousers suitable for bicycling" is from 1944.
When college girls took to riding bicycles in slacks, they first rolled up one trouser leg, then rolled up both. This whimsy has now produced a trim variety of long shorts, called "pedal pushers." ["Life," Aug. 28, 1944]
pedal (v.): 1866 of musical organs, 1888 of bicycles, from pedal (n.). Related: Pedaled; pedaling.
pedant (n.): 1580s, "schoolmaster," from Middle French pédant (1560s) or directly from Italian pedante, literally "teacher, schoolmaster," of uncertain origin, apparently an alteration of Late Latin paedagogantem (nominative paedagogans), present participle of paedagogare (see pedagogue). Meaning "person who trumpets minor points of learning" first recorded 1590s.
pedantic (adj.): formed in English c. 1600, from pedant + -ic. The French equivalent is pédantesque. Perhaps first attested in John Donne's "Sunne Rising," where he bids the morning sun let his love and him linger in bed, telling it, "Sawcy pedantique wretch, goe chide Late schooleboyes." Related: Pedantical (1580s); pedantically.
pedanticism (n.): 19c., from pedantic + -ism. Earlier was pedantism (1590s).
pedantocracy (n.): 1842, from pedant + -cracy. Coined (in French) by Mill in a letter to Comte.
pedantry (n.): 1610s, from Italian pedanteria, from pedante, or from French pédanterie, from pédant (see pedant).
peddle (v.): "to retail," 1837 in modern use, a colloquial back-formation from peddler. Related: Peddled; peddling.
peddler (n.): late 14c. (c. 1300 as a surname, Will. Le Pedelare), from peoddere, peddere (c. 1200, mid-12c. as a surname), of unknown origin. It has the appearance of an agent noun, but no corresponding verb is attested in Middle English. Perhaps a diminutive of ped "panier, basket," also of unknown origin, but this is attested only from late 14c. Pedlar, preferred spelling in U.K., is attested from late 14c.
pederast (n.): 1730s, from French pédéraste, from Latin paederasta, from Greek paiderastes "a lover of boys" (see pederasty).
pederasty (n.): "sodomy of a man with a boy," c. 1600, from French pédérastie or directly from Modern Latin pæderastia, from Greek paiderastia "love of boys," from paiderastes "pederast, lover of boys," from pais (genitive paidos) "child, boy" (see pedo-) + erastes "lover," from erasthai "to love" (see Eros).
pedestal (n.): 1560s, "base supporting a column, statue, etc.," from Middle French piédestal (1540s), from Italian piedistallo "base of a pillar," from pie "foot" + di "of" + stallo "stall, place, seat," from a Germanic source (see stall (n.1)). Spelling in English influenced by Latin pedem "foot." An Old English word for it was fotstan, literally "foot-stone." Figurative sense of put (someone) on a pedestal "regard as highly admirable" is attested from 1859.
pedestrian (adj.): 1716, "prosaic, dull" (of writing), from Latin pedester (genitive pedestris) "plain, not versified, prosaic," literally "on foot" (sense contrasted with equester "on horseback"), from pedes "one who goes on foot," from pes (genitive pedis) "foot," from PIE root *ped- (1) "a foot" (see foot (n.)). Meaning "going on foot" is first attested 1791 in English (it also was a sense of Latin pedester). The earlier adjective in English was pedestrial (1610s).
pedestrian (n.): "walker," 1793, from pedestrian (adj.).