英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

toenail (n.)[toenail 词源字典]: also toe-nail, 1690s, from toe (n.) + nail (n.).[toenail etymology, toenail origin, 英语词源]
toff (n.): lower-class London slang for "stylish dresser, man of the smart set," 1851, said by OED to be probably an alteration of tuft, formerly an Oxford University term for a nobleman or gentleman-commoner (1755), in reference to the gold ornamental tassel worn on the caps of undergraduates at Oxford and Cambridge whose fathers were peers with votes in the House of Lords.
toffee (n.): 1825, tuffy, toughy, southern British dialectal variant of taffy. Modern spelling recorded by 1843.
toft (n.): "homestead, site of a house," late Old English, from Old Norse topt "homestead," from Proto-Germanic *tumfto, from PIE *dem- "house, household" (see domestic).
tofu (n.): soy bean curd, 1876, from Japanese tofu, from Chinese doufu, from dou "beans" + fu "rotten."
tog (n.): 1708, "outer garment," shortened from togman "cloak, loose coat" (1560s), thieves' cant word, formed from French togue "cloak," from Latin toga (see toga). Middle English toge "toga" (14c.) also was a cant word for "a coat."
toga (n.): c. 1600, from Latin toga "cloak or mantle," from PIE *tog-a- "covering," from root *(s)teg- "to cover" (see stegosaurus). The outer garment of a Roman citizen in time of peace.
The toga as the Roman national dress was allowed to be worn by free citizens only. A stranger not in full possession of the rights of a Roman citizen could not venture to appear in it. Even banished Romans were in imperial times precluded from wearing it. The appearance in public in a foreign dress was considered as contempt of the majesty of the Roman people. Even boys appeared in the toga, called, owing to the purple edge attached to it (a custom adopted from the Etruscans) toga praetexta. On completing his sixteenth, afterward his fifteenth, year (tirocinium fori), the boy exchanged the toga praetexta for the toga virilis, pura, or libera--a white cloak without the purple edge. Roman ladies (for these also wore the toga) abandoned the purple edge on being married. [Guhl & Koner, "The Life of the Greeks and Romans," transl. Francis Hueffer, 1876]
Breeches, like the word for them (Latin bracae) were alien to the Romans, being the dress of Persians, Germans, and Gauls, so that bracatus "wearing breeches" was a term in Roman geography meaning "north of the Alps." College fraternity toga party was re-popularized by movie "Animal House" (1978), but this is set in 1962 and the custom seems to date from at least the mid-1950s.
Down on Prospect Street, Campus Club held a toga party, at which everyone wore togas. Charter held a come-as-you-are party, at which everyone wore what they happened to have on, and Cloister held a party called "A Night in Tahiti," at which we'd hate to guess what everyone wore. The borough police reported that only one false alarm was turned in. ["Princeton Alumni Weekly," March 19, 1954]
together (adv.): Old English togædere "so as to be present in one place, in a group, in an accumulated mass," from to (see to) + gædere "together" (adv.), apparently a variant of the adverb geador "together," from Proto-Germanic *gaduri- "in a body," from PIE *ghedh- "to unite, join, fit" (see good, and compare gather).

In reference to single things, "so as to be unified or integrated," from c. 1300. Adjective meaning "self-assured, free of emotional difficulties" is first recorded 1966. German cognate zusammen has as second element the Old High German verbal cognate of English same (Old English also had tosamne "together").
togetherness (n.): 1650s, "state of being together," from together + -ness. Sense of "fellowship, fellow-feeling," is from 1930.
toggery (n.): "clothes collectively," 1812, from tog + -ery.
toggle (n.): 1769, "pin passed through the eye of a rope, strap, or bolt to hold it in place," a nautical word of uncertain origin, perhaps a frequentative form of tog "tug." As a kind of wall fastener it is recorded from 1934. Toggle bolt is from 1794; toggle switch, the up-and-down sort, first attested 1938. In computing by 1979, in reference to a key which alternates the function between on and off when struck.
toggle (v.): 1836, "make secure with a toggle," from toggle (n.). Meaning "alternate back and forth between opposite actions" is by 1982. Related: Toggled; toggling.
togs (n.): "clothes," 1779, plural of tog (q.v.).
toil (v.): early 14c., toilen, "pull at, tug," from Anglo-French toiller, Old French toellier "pull or drag about" (see toil (n.1)). Intransitive meaning "struggle, work hard, labor for considerable time" is from late 14c., perhaps by influence of till (v.). Related: Toiled; toiling.
toil (n.1): "hard work," c. 1300, originally "turmoil, contention, dispute," from Anglo-French toil (13c.), from toiler "agitate, stir up, entangle, writhe about," from Old French toeillier "drag about, make dirty" (12c.), usually said to be from Latin tudiculare "crush with a small hammer," from tudicula "mill for crushing olives, instrument for crushing," from Latin tudes "hammer," from PIE *tud-, variant of *(s)teu- "to push, stroke, knock, beat" (see obtuse). Sense of "hard work, labor" (1590s) is from the related verb (see toil (v.)).
toil (n.2): "net, snare," 1520s, from Middle French toile "hunting net, cloth, web" (compare toile d'araignée "cobweb"), from Old French toile "cloth" (11c.), from Latin tela "web, net, warp of a fabric," from PIE *teks- "to weave" (see texture (n.)). Now used largely in plural (as in caught in the toils of the law).
toile (n.): type of heavy, coarse cloth, c. 1400, from Old French toile "linen cloth, canvas" (see toil (n.2)). As a type of dress material, from 1794.
toilet (n.): 1530s, earliest in English in an obsolete sense "cover or bag for clothes," from Middle French toilette "a cloth; a bag for clothes," diminutive of toile "cloth, net" (see toil (n.2)). Toilet acquired an association with upper class dressing by 18c., through the specific sense "a fine cloth cover on the dressing table for the articles spread upon it;" thence "the articles, collectively, used in dressing" (mirror, bottles, brushes, combs, etc.). Subsequent sense evolution in English (mostly following French uses) is to "act or process of dressing," especially the dressing and powdering of the hair (1680s); then "a dressing room" (1819), especially one with a lavatory attached; then "lavatory or porcelain plumbing fixture" (1895), an American euphemistic use.

Toilet paper is attested from 1884 (the Middle English equivalent was arse-wisp). Toilet training is recorded from 1940.
toiletries (n.): "odds and ends used in grooming," 1924, from toiletry (1892); see toilet + -ry.
toilsome (adj.): 1580s, from toil (v.) + -some (1). An earlier word was toilous (early 15c.). The opposite, toilless (c. 1600) is much less common.