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quadroon (n.)[quadroon 词源字典]: 1707, "offspring of a white and a mulatto," from Spanish cuarteron (used chiefly of the offspring of a European and a mestizo), literally "one who has a fourth" (Negro blood), from cuarto "fourth," from Latin quartus (see quart), so called because he or she has one quarter African blood. Altered by influence of words in quadr-. There also was some use in 19c. of quintroon (from Spanish quinteron) "one who is fifth in descent from a Negro; one who has one-sixteenth Negro blood."[quadroon etymology, quadroon origin, 英语词源]
quadru-: word-forming element meaning "four, having four, consisting of four," variant of quadri-, especially before -p-, from an older form of the element, which perhaps was influenced later by tri-.
quadruped (n.): 1640s, from French quadrupède (16c.), from Latin quadrupes (genitive quadrupedis) "four-footed, on all fours," also, as a noun, "a four-footed animal," from quadri- "four" (see quadri-) + pes "foot" (see foot (n.)). The adjective is attested from 1741. Related: Quadrupedal (1610s).
quadruple (v.): late 14c., from Middle French quadrupler, from Late Latin quadruplare "make fourfold, multiply by four," from Latin quadruplus (adj.) "quadruple, fourfold" (see quadruple (adj.)).
quadruple (adj.): 1550s, from Middle French quadruple (13c.), from Latin quadruplus "fourfold," from quadri- "four" (see quadru-) + -plus "-fold" (see -plus).
quadruplet (n.): "one of four children at a single birth," 1787; from quadruple (adj.) with ending from triplet. Related: Quadruplets. Musical sense is from 1873.
quadruplex (adj.): 1875, in reference to telegraph systems in which four messages can be wired simultaneously, from quadru- + plex. In classical Latin, quadruplex meant "fourfold, quadruple," as a noun, "a fourfold amount."
quadruplicate (adj.): 1650s, from Latin quadruplicatus, past participle of quadruplicare "make fourfold," from quadri- "four" (see quadri-) + plicare "to fold" (see ply (v.1)).
quadruplicate (v.): 1660s, from Latin quadruplicatus, past participle of quadruplicare "make fourfold," from quadri- "four" (see quadri-) + plicare "to fold" (see ply (v.1)). Related: Quadruplicated; quadruplicating.
quadruplication (n.): 1570s, from Latin quadruplicationem (nominative quadruplicatio), noun of action from past participle stem of quadruplicare (see quadruplicate (v.)).
quaere: Latin imperative of quaerere "to ask, inquire" (see query (v.)). Hence "one may ask" (1530s) as an introduction to a question.
quaff (v.): 1510s (implied in quaffer), perhaps imitative, or perhaps from Low German quassen "to overindulge (in food and drink)," with -ss- misread as -ff-. Related: Quaffed; quaffing. The noun is attested by 1570s, from the verb.
quag (n.): "marshy spot," 1580s, a variant of Middle English quabbe "a marsh, bog," from Old English *cwabba "shake, tremble" (like something soft and flabby).
quagga (n.): zebra-like South African animal, 1785, from Afrikaans (1710), from the name for the beast in a native language, perhaps Hottentot quacha, probably of imitative origin. In modern Xhosa, the form is iqwara, with a clicking -q-. What was likely the last one died in an Amsterdam zoo in 1883.
quagmire (n.): 1570s, "bog, marsh," from obsolete quag "bog, marsh" + mire (n.). Early spellings include quamyre (1550s), quabmire (1590s), quadmire (c. 1600). Extended sense of "difficult situation, inescapable bad position" is recorded by 1766; but this seems to have been not in common use in much of 19c. (absent in "Century Dictionary," 1902), but revived in a narrower sense in reference to military invasions in American English, 1965, with reference to Vietnam (popularized in the book title "The Making of a Quagmire" by David Halberstam).
quahog (n.): 1753 (quogue; Roger Williams had it as poquauhock, 1643), from an Algonquian language, perhaps Narragansett poquauhock or Pequot p'quaghhaug "hard clam."
quai (n.): 1870, "public path beside a waterway," from French quai (12c., see quay). Often short for Quai d'Orsay, the street on the south bank of the Seine in Paris, since mid-19c. site of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and hence sometimes used metonymically for it (1922).
quail (n.): migratory game bird, late 14c. (early 14c. as a surname (Quayle), from Old French quaille (Modern French caille), perhaps via Medieval Latin quaccula (source also of Provençal calha, Italian quaglia, Old Spanish coalla), or directly from a Germanic source (compare Dutch kwakkel, Old High German quahtala "quail," German Wachtel, Old English wihtel), imitative of the bird's cry. Or the English word might be directly from Proto-Germanic. Slang meaning "young attractive woman" first recorded 1859.
quail (v.): c. 1400, "have a morbid craving;" early 15c., "grow feeble or sick;" mid-15c., "to fade, fail, give way," of unknown origin, perhaps from Middle Dutch quelen "to suffer, be ill," from Proto-Germanic *kwaljan, from PIE *gwele- (1) "to throw, to pierce" (see quell). Or from obsolete quail "to curdle" (late 14c.), from Old French coailler, from Latin coagulare (see coagulate). Sense of "lose heart, shrink, cower" is attested from 1550s. According to OED, common 1520-1650, then rare until 19c., when apparently it was revived by Scott. Related: Quailed; quailing.
quaint (adj.): c. 1200, cointe, "cunning, ingenious; proud," from Old French cointe "knowledgeable, well-informed; clever; arrogant, proud; elegant, gracious," from Latin cognitus "known, approved," past participle of cognoscere "get or come to know well" (see cognizance). Modern spelling is from early 14c.

Later in English, "elaborate, skillfully made" (c. 1300); "strange and clever" (mid-14c.). Sense of "old-fashioned but charming" is first attested 1795, and could describe the word itself, which had become rare after c. 1700 (though it soon recovered popularity in this secondary sense). Related: Quaintly; quaintness.