英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

trinity [trinity 词源字典]: trinity: [13] Trinity comes via Old French trinite from Latin trīnitās ‘group of three’. This was a derivative of trīnus ‘threefold’, which in turn came from tria ‘three’, a close relative of English three.
=> three[trinity etymology, trinity origin, 英语词源]
trio: trio: see three
trip: trip: [14] The original meaning of trip was ‘move lightly or nimbly’. ‘Stumble’ is a secondary development, and the use of the derived noun for ‘short journey’ did not emerge until the late 17th century (it was apparently originally a nautical usage). The word was borrowed from Old French tripper, which in turn was acquired from Middle Dutch trippen ‘hop, skip’.
tripod: tripod: see foot, three
trireme: trireme: see oar
trite: trite: see throw
triumph: triumph: [14] Triumph comes via Old French triumphe from Latin triumphus, which denoted a ‘public celebration to welcome home a victorious general’. It was an alteration of Old Latin triumpus, which was probably borrowed from Greek thríambos ‘hymn to Bacchus’. The cards term trump is an alteration of triumph.
=> trump
trivet: trivet: see foot
trivial: trivial: [15] Medieval educationists recognized seven liberal arts: the lower three, grammar, logic, and rhetoric, were known as the trivium, and the upper four, arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, and music, were known as the quadrivium. The notion of ‘less important subjects’ led in the 16th century to the use of the derived adjective trivial for ‘commonplace, of little importance’. Latin trivium itself was a compound noun formed from the prefix tri- ‘three’ and via ‘way, road’, and originally meant ‘place where three roads meet’.
=> three, via
trochlea: trochlea: see truckle
trombone: trombone: see trump
troop: troop: [16] Troop was borrowed from French troupe (acquired again as troupe in the 19th century). This appears to have been a backformation from troupeau ‘flock, herd’, a diminutive formation based on Latin troppus. And troppus itself may have been of Germanic origin. By the time the word reached English it was already being applied to a ‘group of soldiers’, and its plural was being used as a collective term for ‘soldiers’.
=> troupe
trope: trope: see troubadour
trophy: trophy: [16] A trophy is etymologically something awarded to commemorate the enemy’s ‘turning round’ and running away. The word comes via French trophée and Latin trophaeum from Greek trópaion ‘monument to the enemy’s defeat’. This was a noun use of the adjective tropaíos ‘of turning’, a derivative of tropé ‘turning’, hence ‘turning back the enemy’ (source also of English tropic).
=> tropic
tropic: tropic: [14] The etymological notion underlying the word tropic is of ‘turning’, and the reason for its application to the hot regions of the world is that the two lines of latitude which bound them (the tropic of Cancer and the tropic of Capricorn) mark the points at which the sun reaches its zenith at the solstices and then ‘turns’ back. The word comes via Latin tropicus from Greek tropikós, a derivative of tropé ‘turning’ (source also of English trophy and related to the second syllable of contrive).
=> contrive, trophy, troubadour
trot: trot: [13] Trot’s closest English relative is probably tread. It was borrowed from Old French troter, which went back via Vulgar Latin *trottāre to a Frankish *trottōn. This seems to have been derived from the same Germanic base as produced English tread. The colloquial use of the noun for ‘diarrhoea’ dates from the early 19th century – originally in the singular, but since at least the early 20th century in the plural, the trots.
=> tread
troth: troth: see true
troubadour: troubadour: [18] A troubadour is etymologically someone who ‘finds’ – that is, ‘composes’ – songs. The word comes via French troubadour from Provençal trobador, a derivative of the verb trobar (whose modern French equivalent is trouver). This seems originally to have meant ‘compose’, and later to have shifted its semantic ground via ‘invent’ to ‘find’.

It is not known for certain where it came from, but one theory traces it back via a Vulgar Latin *tropāre to Latin tropus ‘figure of speech’ (source of English trope [16]). This in turn was borrowed from Greek trópos ‘turn’, a relative of English trophy and tropic. If this is so, its ancestral meaning would be ‘use figures of speech’.
=> tropic
trouble: trouble: [13] Trouble is etymologically something that ‘disturbs’ one – indeed, the two words are related. Trouble was borrowed from Old French trouble or tourble, a derivative of the verb tourbler. This was descended from Vulgar Latin *turbulāre, a derivative of *turbulus, which in turn was an alteration of Latin turbidus ‘wild, confused, muddy’ (source of English turbid [17]).

And turbidus itself was derived from turba ‘disturbance, crowd’ (a borrowing from Greek túrbē ‘disorder’), which also produced the verb turbāre ‘disturb’ (source of English disturb [13] and turbulent [16]). Turbine too is closely related.
=> disturb, turbid, turbine, turbulent
trough: trough: [OE] Etymologically, a trough is something made out of ‘wood’. Its ultimate source is Indo-European *drukós, a derivative of the base *dru- ‘wood, tree’ (source also of English tree). This passed into prehistoric Germanic as *trugaz, which has since diversified into German and Dutch trog, Swedish tråg, Danish trug, and English trough. English trug ‘shallow basket’ [16] is a variant of trough.
=> tray, tree, trug