英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

quartet (n.)[quartet 词源字典]: 1773, "musical composition for four instruments or voices," from French quartette, from Italian quartetto, diminutive of quarto "fourth," from Latin quartus "fourth" (see quart). Meaning "set of four singers or musical performers" is from 1814.[quartet etymology, quartet origin, 英语词源]
quartile (n.): c. 1500, originally in astronomy; see quartile (adj.). In statistics, from 1879.
quartile (adj.): mid-15c., "90 degrees apart" (of astronomical measurements), from Middle French quartil, from Medieval Latin quartilus "of a quartile," from Latin quartus "fourth" (see quart).
quarto (n.): "book from paper folded to make four pages to the sheet," late 15c., from Medieval Latin in quarto "in the fourth (part of a sheet of paper)," from quarto, ablative singular of Latin quartus "fourth" (see quart).
quartz (n.): "silicon dioxide," 1756, from German Quarz, Zwarc "rock crystal," from Middle High German twarc, probably from a West Slavic source, compare Czech tvrdy, Polish twardy "quartz," noun uses of an adjective meaning "hard," from Old Church Slavonic tvrudu "hard," from Proto-Slavic *tvrd-, from PIE *(s)twer- "to grasp, hold; hard."
quartzite (n.): 1837, from quartz + -ite.
quasar (n.): 1964, from "quas(i-stell)ar radio source" (1963); from quasi- + stellar.
quash (v.): "to make void, annul," early 14c., from Old French quasser, casser "to annul, declare void," and directly from Medieval Latin quassare, alteration of Late Latin cassare, from cassus "null, void, empty" (see caste (n.)).

Meaning "to break, crush," is early 14c., from Old French quasser, casser "to break, smash, injure, harm, weaken," from Latin quassare "to shatter," frequentative of quatere (past participle quassus) "to shake," from PIE root *kwet- "to shake" (cognates: Greek passein "to sprinkle," Lithuanian kuteti "to shake up," Old Saxon skuddian "to move violently," German schütteln "to shake," Old English scudan "to hasten").

The words have influenced each other in form and sense since Medieval Latin and now are somewhat grown together. Related: Quashed; quashing.
quasi (adv.): late 15c., Latin, in hypothetical comparisons, "as if, just as if, as though;" in real comparisons "just as, as;" in approximation, "somewhat like, nearly, not far from;" from quam "as" relative pronominal adverb of manner (see who) + si "if," from PIE pronominal stem *swo- "so" (see so).
quasi-: word-forming element used since 18c. (but most productively in 20c.) and typically meaning "kind of, resembling, like but not really, as if;" from Latin quasi "as if, as it were" (see quasi).
quasimodo (n.): "Low Sunday," 1706, Quasimodo Sunday, from Latin quasi modo, first words of introit for the first Sunday after Easter: quasi modo geniti infantes "as newborn babes" (1 Pet. ii:2). The hunchback in Victor Hugo's novel was supposed to have been abandoned as an infant at Notre Dame on this day, hence his name. For first element, see quasi; for second see mode (n.1).
quaternary (adj.): early 15c., "consisting of four parts," from Latin quaternarius "of four each, containing four," from quaterni "four each, by fours," from quater "four times," related to quattuor "four" (see four). Also as a noun, "the number four" (mid-15c.), from Latin quaternarius.

In geological sense, attested from 1843 in English, proposed 1829 by French geologist Jules Pierre François Stanislas Desnoyers (1800-1887) as name for "the fourth great epoch of geological time," but because it comprises only the age of man, and the other epochs are many hundred times longer, not all accepted it.
Quatorze: in French terms, "fourteen," from French quatorze, from Latin quatuordecim (source also of Italian quattordici), from quatuor "four" (see four) + -decim (see -teen).
quatrain (n.): 1580s, from Middle French quatrain "four-line stanza" (16c.), from Old French quatre "four," from Latin quattuor "four" (see four).
quatrefoil (n.): "flower with four leaves," early 15c., from Old French quatrefoil, from quatre "four" (see four) + foil "leaf" (see foil (n.)).
quattrocento (n.): "the fifteenth century as a period in art and architecture," 1847, from Italian quattrocento, literally "four hundred," short for mille quattrocento "one thousand four hundred," in reference to a period beginning in "1400;" see four + hundred.
quaver (v.): "to vibrate, tremble," early 15c., probably a frequentative of cwavien "to tremble, shake" (early 13c.), which probably is related to Low German quabbeln "tremble," and possibly of imitative origin. Meaning "sing in trills or quavers" first recorded 1530s. Related: Quavered; quavering.
quaver (n.): 1560s, in music, "eighth note," from quaver (v.). Meaning "a tremble in the voice" is from 1748.
quay (n.): 1690s, variant of Middle English key, keye, caye "wharf" (c. 1300; mid-13c. in place names), from Old North French cai (Old French chai, 12c., Modern French quai) "sand bank," from Gaulish caium (5c.), from Old Celtic *kagio- "to encompass, enclose" (cognates: Welsh cae "fence, hedge," Cornish ke "hedge"), from PIE *kagh- "to catch, seize; wickerwork, fence" (see hedge (n.)). Spelling altered in English by influence of French quai.
quean (n.): "young, robust woman," Old English cwene "woman," also "female serf, hussy, prostitute" (as in portcwene "public woman"), from Proto-Germanic *kwenon (cognates: Old Saxon quan, Old High German quena, Old Norse kona, Gothic qino "wife, woman"); see queen. Popular 16c.-17c. in sense "hussy." Sense of "effeminate homosexual" is recorded from 1935, especially in Australian slang.