英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

swarthy [swarthy 词源字典]: swarthy: [16] Old English sweart meant ‘black’. It came from a prehistoric Germanic *swartaz, which also produced German schwarz, Dutch zwart, Swedish svart, and Danish sort, and may go back ultimately to the same Indo-European base as gave Latin sordidus ‘dirty’ (source of English sordid [16]). It survives, just, in modern English as swart ‘dark, black’. From this in the 16th century was derived the now defunct swarty, of which swarthy is an unexplained variant.
=> sordid[swarthy etymology, swarthy origin, 英语词源]
swashbuckle: swashbuckle: [19] Swashbuckle is a backformation from swashbuckler [16], which originally denoted a warrior who struck his shield with his sword as a sign of aggression and machismo, rather like a gorilla beating its chest. It was a compound formed from swash ‘hit’ [16], a word of imitative origin which is now restricted to the sound of water splashing against a surface, and buckler ‘shield’. It was used broadly for a ‘swaggering fellow’, but the word’s modern associations of romantic swordplay and high adventure did not begin to emerge until the early 19th century.
swat: swat: see squat
swear: swear: [OE] Swear is a general Germanic word, with relatives in German schwören, Dutch zweren, Swedish svärja, and Danish sverge. They all go back to a prehistoric Germanic *swarjan, a derivative of the base *swar-, which also lies behind the second syllable of English answer. And this in turn may come ultimately from the same Indo-European base as produced English sermon. The verb’s original meaning was ‘take an oath’; its use for ‘curse, blaspheme’ dates from the 15th century.
=> answer
sweat: sweat: [OE] Sweat is part of a widespread family of ‘sweat’-words that goes back ultimately to the prehistoric Indo-European base *sweid-, *swoid-. Other members include Greek hidrós, Latin sūdor (source of English exude [16]), Welsh chwys, Latvian sviēdri, and Sanskrit svédas. Amongst its Germanic descendants was *swaitjan, which evolved into German schweissen ‘weld’, Dutch zweeten ‘sweat’, and English sweat. Swot [19] originated as a dialectal variant of sweat.
=> exude, swot
sweep: sweep: [13] The Old English word for ‘sweep’ was swāpan, which evolved into Middle English swope. Modern English sweep, which began to emerge in the 13th century, probably came from the old past tense swepe, a descendant of Old English swēop. Swāpan itself came from a prehistoric Germanic base *swei- ‘swing, bend’, which also produced German schweifen ‘wander’ and English swift. Swipe [19] probably originated as a dialectal variant of sweep.
=> swift, swipe
sweet: sweet: [OE] Sweet is part of an ancient family of ‘sweet’-words that goes back to the Indo- European base *swād-. From this evolved Greek hēdús ‘sweet’ (and also hēdoné ‘pleasure’, source of English hedonism [19]), Latin suāvis ‘sweet, pleasant’ (source of English suave) and suādēre ‘advise’ (source of English dissuade and persuade), and Sanskrit svādús ‘pleasanttasting’.

Its Germanic descendant was *swōtja-, which evolved into German süss, Dutch zoot, Swedish söt, Danish sød, and English sweet. The use of the noun sweet for a ‘piece of confectionery’ (presumably short for sweetmeat [15]) dates from the mid-19th century.
=> dissuade, hedonism, persuade, suave
sweetbread: sweetbread: see pancreas
swell: swell: [OE] Swell comes from prehistoric Germanic *swellan, a verb of unknown origin which also produced German schwellen, Dutch zwellen, and Swedish svälla. Its use as an adjective, meaning ‘fine’, emerged at the beginning of the 19th century. The notion underlying it is ‘suitable to a swell, a fashionable or stylish person’; and this application of the noun swell probably arose out of an earlier use for ‘swollen’ or pompous behaviour.
swift: swift: [OE] The etymological meaning of swift appears to be ‘moving along a course’; ‘speed’ is a secondary development. It goes back ultimately to the prehistoric Germanic base *swei- ‘swing, bend’, which also produced English sweep, swivel [14], and the long defunct swive ‘copulate with’ (a descendant of Old English swīfan ‘move in a course’). Its use as a name for the fast-flying swallow-like bird dates from the 17th century.
=> sweep, swivel
swim: swim: [OE] Together with German schwimmen, Dutch zwemmen, Swedish simma, and Danish svømme, swim goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *swemjan, a derivative of the same base as produced Old Norse sund ‘swimming’ (source of English sound ‘channel, strait’). A link with Welsh chwyfio ‘stir, wave, brandish’ has been suggested.
=> sound
swine: swine: [OE] Swine is the ancestral English term for the ‘pig’, and it remained the main word until pig began to take over from it in the early modern English period. It came from a prehistoric Germanic *swīnam, which also produced German schwein, Dutch swijn, and Swedish and Danish svin. And this in turn went back to Indo-European *su-, source also of English hyena and sow.
=> hyena, sow
swing: swing: [OE] Swing goes back ultimately to a prehistoric Germanic base *swinggw-, which denoted ‘violent circulatory movement’. One of its specific applications was to the wielding of a whip, and indeed the English verb swing originally meant ‘flog’ (‘They bind him and swing him and spit on his face’, Blickling Homilies 971). Another Old English sense was ‘rush’, but the main modern meaning ‘oscillate’ did not emerge until as recently as the 16th century. The ancestral notion of ‘flogging’ or ‘beating’ is better preserved in the related swinge [16].
=> swinge
swipe: swipe: see sweep
switch: switch: [16] Switch originally denoted a ‘thin flexible twig’; it may have been borrowed from Middle Dutch swijch ‘bough, twig’. From the noun was derived the verb switch. This originally meant ‘beat with a switch’, but in the early 19th century the sense ‘bend or waggle to and fro like a flexible stick’ emerged, and this led on in the middle of the century via ‘divert’ to ‘turn off a train on to another track’ (the usage developed in American English, where the apparatus used for this is still known as a switch, as opposed to British English points).

By the end of the century this had broadened out to ‘connect or disconnect by pushing a contact to or fro’. The notion of ‘exchanging’ or ‘swopping’ did not emerge until as recently as the 1890s.
swivel: swivel: see swift
sword: sword: [OE] Sword comes from a prehistoric Germanic *swertham, which also produced German schwert, Dutch zwaard, Swedish svärd, and Danish sværd. It is not known what its ultimate source was, although it has been speculated that it may have links with Old High German swerdo ‘pain’ – in which case its etymological meaning would be the ‘stinger, causer of pain’.
swot: swot: see sweat
sybarite: sybarite: [16] Sybaris was an ancient Greek colony in southern Italy. It was a flourishing trading centre, and its inhabitants put their considerable wealth to the service of unrestrained self-indulgence. Their luxurious and debauched ways became a byword in the ancient world, and Greek Subarítēs ‘inhabitant of Sybaris’ came to be synonymous with ‘pleasure-seeker’, and also with ‘lecher’ – both heterosexual and homosexual. English acquired the word via Latin Sybarīta, and has rather toned down its connotations.
sycamore: sycamore: [14] The sycamore is etymologically either the ‘fig-mulberry’ or the ‘mulberrymulberry’. The word came via Old French sicamor and Latin sycomorus from Greek sūkómoros. This was a compound based on móron ‘mulberry’, its first element being either Greek súkon ‘fig’ or an adaptation of Hebrew shiqmāh ‘mulberry’. It was originally used in English for a type of fig tree (the sycomores mentioned in the Bible – as in ‘The sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars’, Isaiah 9:10 – are fig trees), and the modern application to a variety of maple did not emerge until the 16th century.
=> sycophant