quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- stevedore[stevedore 词源字典]
- stevedore: [18] A stevedore ‘docker’ is etymologically a ‘packer’ of cargo. The word was originally borrowed into American English from Spanish estivador, a derivative of estivar ‘stow cargo’. This was descended from Latin stīpāre ‘press, pack’ (source also of English constipation).
=> constipation, stiff[stevedore etymology, stevedore origin, 英语词源] - stew
- stew: [14] The cooking sense of stew is a secondary development, first recorded in English in the 15th century. It originally denoted ‘take a steam bath’. It came via Old French estuver from Vulgar Latin *extūfāre. This was a compound verb formed from a probable noun *tūfus ‘hot vapour, steam’, a descendant of Greek túphos ‘smoke, steam, stupor’ (source also of English typhus [18] and typhoid [18]). *Extūfāre probably lies behind English stifle too.
=> stifle, stove, typhoid, typhus - steward
- steward: [OE] A steward is etymologically someone ‘in charge of a sty’. Its Old English ancestor stigweard was a compound formed from stig ‘hall, house’ (a relative, if not the direct ancestor, of English sty ‘dwelling for pigs’) and weard ‘guardian, keeper’ – hence ‘keeper of the hall’.
=> guard, sty, ward - stick
- stick: Stick ‘piece of wood’ [OE] and stick ‘fix, adhere’ [OE] come from the same Germanic source: the base *stik-, *stek-, *stak- ‘pierce, prick, be sharp’ (which also produced English attach, stake, stitch, stockade, and stoke). This in turn went back to the Indo-European base *stig-, *steig-, whose other descendants include Greek stígma (source of English stigma) and Latin stīgāre ‘prick, incite’ (source of English instigate [16]) and stinguere ‘prick’ (source of English distinct, extinct, and instinct).
From the Germanic base was derived a verb, source of English stick, which originally meant ‘pierce’. The notion of ‘piercing’ led on via ‘thrusting something sharp into something’ and ‘becoming fixed in something’ to ‘adhering’. The same base produced the noun *stikkon, etymologically a ‘pointed’ piece of wood, for piercing, which has become English stick.
Yet another derivative of the base was Old English sticels ‘spine, prickle’, which forms the first element of the fish-name stickleback [15] – etymologically ‘prickly back’.
=> attach, distinct, extinct, instigate, instinct, stake, stigma, stimulate, stitch, stockade, stoke, style - stiff
- stiff: [OE] Stiff goes back to prehistoric Germanic *stīfaz ‘inflexible’, source also of German steif, Dutch stiff, Swedish styf, and Danish stiv. This in turn was descended from an Indo-European *stīpos, a derivative of the same base as produced Latin stīpāre ‘press, pack’ (source of English constipate and stevedore), Latvian stipt ‘stiffen’, and Lithuanian stiprùs ‘strong’.
=> constipation, stevedore - stifle
- stifle: [14] Stiffle was probably adapted from Old French estouffer ‘choke, smother’. This in turn went back to a Vulgar Latin *extuffāre, which may have been a blend of *extūfāre ‘take a steam bath’ (source of English stew) and late Latin stuppāre ‘stop up, plug’ (source of English stop and stuff).
=> stew, stop, stuff - stigma
- stigma: [16] Greek stígma denoted a ‘mark made on the skin with a sharp implement’, hence a ‘tattoo’ or ‘brand’. It was derived from the Indo- European base *stig- ‘be sharp, pierce’, which also produced English stick, stitch, etc. By the time it arrived in English, via Latin stigma, it has acquired the connotation of a ‘brand of shame’, and it was also used specifically for the marks made on Christ’s hands and feet by the nails of the cross.
=> stick, stitch - stile
- stile: [OE] A stile is etymologically something you ‘climb’. The word goes back ultimately to the prehistoric Germanic base *stig- ‘climb’ (source also of English stair, stirrup, etc, and of German steigen ‘climb, rise’).
=> stair, stirrup - still
- still: The adjective still ‘not moving’ [OE] comes from a prehistoric West Germanic *stillja or *stellja, which also produced German still and Dutch stil. It was derived from the base *stel- ‘fixed, not moving, standing’ (a variant of which lies behind English stalemate and stall). It was used as an adverb in the Old English period, denoting ‘not changing physical position’, and this gradually evolved metaphorically via ‘never changing or stopping, always’ to (in the 16th century) ‘until now’.
The noun still ‘distilling apparatus’ [16] is of course a different word. It comes from the now defunct verb still ‘distil’. This was short for distil [14], which came from Latin distillāre, a derivative ultimately of the noun stilla ‘drop’ (source also of English instil [16]).
=> stalemate, stall; distil, instil - stilt
- stilt: [14] Stilt was probably acquired from some Low German source – Low German and Flemish have stilte. Its ultimate ancestor was a prehistoric Germanic *steltjōn, which was formed from a base meaning ‘walk stiffly, strut’ (source also of German stolz ‘proud’ and English stout). The derived stilted ‘over-dignified’ dates from the early 19th century.
=> stout - stimulate
- stimulate: [16] Latin stimulus denoted a ‘pointed stick for goading animals on’ (it probably came ultimately from an Indo-European base *sti- ‘point, prick, pierce’, extensions of which lie behind English stick, stitch, style, etc). It was used metaphorically for ‘something that incites or causes a response’, and in that sense was borrowed into English as stimulus [17]. Stimulate itself comes from the past participle of the derived verb stimulāre ‘goad on’.
=> stick, stitch, style - sting
- sting: [OE] Sting comes from a prehistoric Germanic base *stengg-, which also produced Swedish stinga and Danish stinge. This denoted ‘pierce with something sharp’ (‘He with a spear stung the proud Viking’, Battle of Maldon 993), a meaning which was not ousted in English by the more specialized application to insects until the late 15th century. Stingy [17] may be based on stinge ‘act of stinging’, a dialectal noun derived from Old English stingan ‘sting’; an underlying sense ‘having a sting, sharp’ is revealed in the dialectal sense ‘bad-tempered’.
- stink
- stink: [OE] Stink comes from a prehistoric West Germanic *stingkwan, which also produced German and Dutch stinken. Another form of the base, *stengkw-, gave English stench [OE]. Its ancestral meaning is probably simply ‘smell’, but it early on became specialized to ‘smell bad’.
=> stench - stipend
- stipend: [15] Latin stīpendium denoted a ‘tax’ or ‘levy’. It was a compound noun formed from stips ‘payment, donation’ and pendere ‘weigh, pay’. It subsequently shifted in meaning to ‘wages, salary’, and particularly ‘soldier’s pay’, both of which passed into English via Old French stipende.
=> pendant, pendulum, spend - stipulate
- stipulate: [17] Tradition has it that the etymological notion underlying stipulate is an ancient custom of breaking a straw to seal a bargain. The word comes from the Latin verb stipulārī ‘bargain, demand’, and it has been speculated that this was derived from Latin stipula ‘straw’ (source also of English stubble [13]). The theory has not been conclusively demonstrated, but it makes a good story. Another possibility is some connection with Old Latin stipulus ‘firm’.
- stir
- stir: [OE] The etymological connotations of stir are of ‘agitation’ and ‘disturbance’; the notion of ‘mixing a liquid with circular movements of a spoon or other implement’ is a secondary development. The verb goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *sturjan, whose only other living descendant is Norwegian styrja ‘make a disturbance’. It was formed from a base *stur-, which was probably also responsible for English storm.
=> storm - stirrup
- stirrup: [OE] A stirrup is etymologically a ‘climbing rope’. The word goes back to a prehistoric Germanic compound formed from the base *stig- ‘climb’ (source also of English stair and stile) and *raipaz (ancestor of English rope). The earliest stirrups were looped pieces of rope.
=> rope, stair, stile - stitch
- stitch: [OE] Stitch was originally a noun, meaning ‘sting, prick’ (a sense which survives in the very specialized application to a ‘pain in the side, caused by exertion’). It came from a prehistoric Germanic *stikiz, which was formed from the base *stik- ‘pierce, prick’ (source also of English stick). Its use as a verb, denoting ‘join with thread by piercing with a needle’, emerged at the beginning of the 13th century, and the sewing sense fed back into the noun.
=> stick - stock
- stock: [OE] The word stock originally denoted a ‘tree-trunk’. It came from a prehistoric Germanic *stukkaz, which also produced German stock ‘stick’ and Swedish stock ‘log’. The lineal semantic descent to the stocks [14], a punishment device made from large pieces of wood, is clear enough, but how stock came to be used for a ‘supply, store’ (a sense first recorded in the 15th century) is more of a mystery.
It may be that a tradesman’s supply of goods was thought of metaphorically as the trunk of a tree, from which profits grew like branches; and another possibility is that the usage was inspired by an unrecorded application of stock to a wooden storage chest or money box. Stock ‘broth’ was so named (in the 18th century, apparently) because one keeps a ‘stock’ of it on hand in the stockpot, for use at need.
The original notion of a stout piece of wood is preserved in the derivative stocky [14], and also in stock-still [15] – literally ‘as still as a log’.
- stocking
- stocking: [16] Stocking is a derivative of stock, in the now defunct sense ‘stocking’. This appears to have arisen in the 15th century from the blackly humorous comparison of the stocks in which one’s legs are restrained as a punishment with ‘leggings, hose’. Until comparatively recently stocking was a unisex term (as it still is in the expression in one’s stockinged feet); the restriction to ‘women’s hose’ is a 20th-century development.
=> stock