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tom-fool (n.)[tom-fool 词源字典]: also tom-fool, "buffoon, clown," 1640s, from Middle English Thom Foole, personification of a mentally deficient man (mid-14c.), see Tom + fool (n.).[tom-fool etymology, tom-fool origin, 英语词源]
tom-tom (n.): 1690s, "drum" (originally used in India), from Hindi tam-tam, probably of imitative origin (compare Sinhalese tamat tama and Malay tong-tong). Related: Tom-toms.
tomahawk (n.): 1610s, tamahaac, from Virginia Algonquian (probably Powhatan) tamahaac "a hatchet, what is used in cutting," from tamaham "he cuts." Cognate with Mohegan tummahegan, Delaware tamoihecan, Micmac tumeegun.
tomato (n.): 1753, earlier tomate (c. 1600), from Spanish tomate (mid-16c.) from Nahuatl (Aztecan) tomatl "a tomato," said to mean literally "the swelling fruit," from tomana "to swell." Spelling probably influenced by potato (1565). Slang meaning "an attractive girl" is recorded from 1929, on notion of juicy plumpness.

A member of the nightshade family, all of which contain poisonous alkaloids. Introduced in Europe from the New World, by 1550 they regularly were consumed in Italy but grown only as ornamental plants in England and not eaten there or in the U.S. at first. An encyclopedia of 1753 describes it as "a fruit eaten either stewed or raw by the Spaniards and Italians and by the Jew families of England." Introduced in U.S. 1789 as part of a program by then-Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, but not commonly eaten until after c. 1830.

Alternative name love apple and alleged aphrodisiac qualities have not been satisfactorily explained; perhaps from Italian name pomodoro, taken as from adorare "to adore," but probably rather from d'or "of gold" (in reference to color) or de Moro "of the Moors."
tomb (n.): c. 1200, tumbe, early 14c. tomb, from Anglo-French tumbe and directly from Old French tombe "tomb, monument, tombstone" (12c.), from Late Latin tumba (also source of Italian tomba, Spanish tumba), from Greek tymbos "burial mound, cairn," generally "grave, tomb," perhaps from PIE root *teue- (2) "to swell" (see thigh). The final -b began to be silent about the time of the spelling shift (compare lamb, dumb). Modern French tombeau is from Vulgar Latin diminutive *tumbellus. The Tombs, slang for "New York City prison" is recorded from 1840.
tombola (n.): Italian lotto-style lottery, 1880, from Italian tombola, apparently from tombolare "to tumble, fall upside down," from a Germanic source (see tumble (v.)).
tombolo (n.): sand-bar joining an island to the mainland, 1899, from Italian tombolo "sand dune," from Latin tumulus "hillock, mound, heap of earth," from PIE root *teue- (2) "to swell" (see thigh).
tomboy (n.): 1550s, "rude, boisterous boy," from Tom + boy; meaning "wild, romping girl, girl who acts like a spirited boy" is first recorded 1590s. It also could mean "strumpet, bold or immodest woman" (1570s). Compare tomrig "rude, wild girl." Related: Tomboyish.
tombstone (n.): 1560s, originally the flat stone atop a grave (or the lid of a stone coffin); from tomb + stone (n.). Meaning "gravestone, headstone" is attested from 1711. The city in Arizona, U.S., said to have been named by prospector Ed Schieffelin, who found silver there in 1877 after being told all he would find there was his tombstone.
tomcat (n.): 1809, from Tom + cat (n.); probably influenced by Tom the Cat in the popular children's book "The Life and Adventures of a Cat" (1760); replaced earlier Gib-cat, from diminutive of Gilbert, though Tom was applied to male kittens c. 1300. The name also is used of the males of other beasts and birds since at least 1791 (such as tom-turkey, by 1846). Also see Tibert. The verb meaning "to pursue women promiscuously for sexual gratification" is recorded from 1927. Related: Tom-catting.
tome (n.): 1510s, "a single volume of a multi-volume work," from Middle French tome (16c.), from Latin tomus "section of a book, tome," from Greek tomos "volume, section of a book," originally "a section, piece cut off," from temnein "to cut," from PIE *tem- "to cut" (cognates: second element in Latin aestimare "to value, appraise," Old Church Slavonic tina "to cleave, split," Middle Irish tamnaim "I cut off," Welsh tam "morsel"). Sense of "a large book" is attested from 1570s.
tomfoolery (n.): "foolish trifling," 1812, from tomfool + -ery.
Tommy: "British soldier," 1884, from Thomas Atkins, since 1815 the typical sample name for filling in army forms. Tommy gun (1929) is short for Thompson gun (see Thompson). Soon extended to other types of sub-machine gun, especially those favored by the mob.
tommyrot: 1884, from tommy in sense of "a simpleton" (1829), diminutive of Tom (as in tomfool) + rot (n.).
tomography (n.): 1935, from comb. form of Greek tomos "slice, section" (see tome) + -graphy.
tomorrow (adv.): mid-13c., to morewe, from Old English to morgenne "on (the) morrow," from to "at, on" (see to) + morgenne, dative of morgen "morning" (see morn, also morrow). As a noun from late 14c. Written as two words until 16c., then as to-morrow until early 20c.
ton (n.1): "measure of weight," late 14c. The quantity necessary to fill a tun or cask of wine, thus identical to tun (q.v.). The spelling difference became firmly established 18c. Ton of bricks in the colloquial figurative sense of what you come down on someone like is from 1884.
ton (n.2): "prevailing mode, style, fashionable ways," 1769, from French ton (see tone (n.)).
tonal (adj.): 1776; from tone (n.) in the musical sense + -al (1), or from Medieval Latin tonalis.
tonality (n.): 1824, from tonal + -ity.