英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

vanilla [vanilla 词源字典]: vanilla: [17] A vanilla pod is etymologically a ‘little vagina’. The word was borrowed from Spanish vainilla, a diminutive form of vaina ‘sheath’ (the pod was so named because of its sheath-like shape). Vaina was descended from Latin vāgīna ‘sheath’, which came to be jokingly applied to the ‘female reproductive passage’ – hence English vagina [17].
=> vagina[vanilla etymology, vanilla origin, 英语词源]
vanish: vanish: [14] To vanish is etymologically to ‘become empty’. The word comes via Old French esvanir ‘disappear’ from Vulgar Latin *exvānīre, a variant of Latin ēvānēscere ‘disappear’ (source also of English evanescent [18]). This was a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and vānus ‘empty’ (source of English vain, vanity, vaunt, etc).
=> evanescent, vain, vanity, vaunt
vanity: vanity: see vain
vanquish: vanquish: [14] Vanquish was adapted from vainquiss-, the stem form of Old French vainquir ‘defeat’. This was derived from vaintre ‘defeat’, a descendant of Latin vincere ‘defeat’ (source also of English convince, invincible [15], victory, etc).
=> convince, invincible, victory
vapour: vapour: [14] Latin vapor meant ‘steam, heat’. English acquired it via Old French vapour. The now archaic use of the plural, vapours, for a ‘fit of fainting, hysteria, etc’, which dates from the 17th century, was inspired by the notion that exhalations from the stomach and other internal organs affected the brain. Vapid [17] comes from Latin vapidus ‘insipid’, which may have been related to vapor.
=> vapid
varlet: varlet: [15] Varlet and valet [16] are doublets – they come from the same ultimate source. This was Vulgar Latin *vassus, a borrowing from Old Celtic *wasso- ‘young man, squire’. From *vassus were derived two medieval Latin diminutive forms: vassallus, which has given English vassal [14], and *vassellitus. This passed into Old French as vaslet, which diversified into valet (source of English valet) and varlet (source of English varlet).

Both to begin with retained their original connotations of a ‘young man in service to a knight’, and hence by extension any ‘feudal retainer or servant’, but while valet still denotes a ‘servant’, varlet went down in the world in the 16th century to ‘knave’.
=> valet, vassal
varnish: varnish: [14] Varnish may come ultimately from Berenice (Greek Bereníkē), the name of a city in Cyrenaica, Libya, which was credited with the first use of varnishes. Bereníkē became a generic term in medieval Greek, and is thought to lie behind medieval Latin veronix ‘resin used in varnishes’, which passed into English via Old French vernis.
vary: vary: [14] Latin varius meant ‘speckled, variegated, changeable’ (it gave English various [16], and may have been related to Latin vārus ‘bent, crooked, knock-kneed’, source of English prevaricate). It had a range of derivatives, which have given English variable [14], variance [14], variant [14], variegate [17], variety [16], variola ‘smallpox’ [18] (which retains the original notion of ‘speckling’), and vary.
=> prevaricate, variegate, variety, variola, various
vase: vase: [17] Latin vās meant a ‘dish’ or ‘vessel’ (its diminutive forms vāsculum and vāscellum have given English vascular [17] and vessel respectively). It passed into English via French vase, and at first was pronounced to rhyme with base. This pronunciation survives in American English, but in Britain since the 19th century vase has been rhymed with bores (now defunct) and bars (the present-day way of saying the word).
=> vascular, vessel
vaseline: vaseline: [19] The term vaseline was coined around 1872 as a trade name for a sort of petroleum jelly newly brought out by the Chesebrough Manufacturing Company. The first syllable, vas-, comes from an anglicized spelling of German wasser ‘water’; the second represents the el- of Greek élation ‘oil’; and the third is the scientific-sounding suffix -ine.
=> water
vassal: vassal: see varlet
vast: vast: [16] Latin vastus originally meant ‘empty, unoccupied, deserted’. The sense ‘huge’, in which English borrowed it, is a secondary semantic development. Another metaphorical route took it to ‘ravaged, destroyed’, in which sense it lies behind English devastate and waste.
=> devastate, waste
vat: vat: [13] Vat comes from a prehistoric Germanic *fatam ‘vessel, barrel’, which also produced German fass, Dutch vat, Swedish fat, and Danish fad. It passed into Old English as fæt, whose direct descendant, fat, had largely died out by the end of the 19th century; vat represents a southwestern dialect form.
vaudeville: vaudeville: [18] In 15th-century France there was a fashion for songs from the valley of the Vire, in the Calvados region of Normandy (particularly popular, apparently, were the satirical songs composed by a local fuller, Olivier Basselin). They were known as chansons du Vau de Vire ‘songs of the valley of the Vire’, which became shortened to vaudevire, and this was later altered to vaudeville. It was originally used in English for a ‘popular song’; the application to ‘light variety entertainment’ did not emerge until the early 19th century.
vault: vault: Vault ‘arched roof’ [14] and vault ‘jump’ [16] are distinct words, although they share a common ancestor: Latin volvere ‘roll, turn’ (source also of English involve, revolve, etc). Its feminine past participle volūta evolved in Vulgar Latin into *volta, which was used as a noun meaning ‘turn’, hence ‘curved roof’.

English acquired it via Old French voute or vaute. The use of vaulted ceilings in underground rooms led in the 16th century to the application of vault to ‘burial chamber’. Also from volvere came Vulgar Latin *volvitāre ‘turn a horse’, hence ‘leap, gambol’. This passed via Italian voltare and French volter into English as vault.
=> involve, revolve, volume
vaunt: vaunt: see vain
veal: veal: [14] The Latin word for ‘calf’ was vitulus (it appears originally to have denoted ‘yearling’, for it is probably related to Greek étos ‘year’). Its diminutive form vitellus passed into English via Anglo-Norman veel, in the sense ‘calf-meat’. Its Old French cousin, veel, formed the basis of a derivative velin ‘calfskin for writing on’, which English adopted and adapted into vellum [15].
=> vellum
vector: vector: see vehicle
vegetable: vegetable: [14] Latin vegēre meant ‘be active’ (it was formed from the same Indo-European base as lies behind English vigil, vigour, and wake). From it was derived vegetus ‘active’, which in turn formed the basis of vegetāre ‘enliven, animate’. From this again came late Latin vegetābilis ‘enlivening’, which came to be applied specifically to plant growth.

It was in this sense that the word entered English (via Old French vegetable), and it was not further narrowed down to ‘plant grown for food’ until the 18th century. Its semantic descent from its original links with ‘life, liveliness’ was completed in the early 20th century, when vegetable came to be used for an ‘inactive person’. The derivative vegetarian was formed in the early 1840s, and vegan was coined from this around 1944.
=> vigil, vigour, wake
vehicle: vehicle: [17] A vehicle is etymologically something that ‘carries’. The word comes via French véhicule from Latin vehiculum, a derivative of vehere ‘carry’. This also gave English convex, inveigh, vector [18] (etymologically a ‘carrier’), and vex [15], and it came ultimately from a prehistoric Indo- European base *wegh-, ancestor also of English waggon, way, weigh, etc.
=> convex, inveigh, vector, vex, waggon, way, weigh