英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

value (v.)[value 词源字典]: mid-15c., "estimate the value of," also "think highly of," probably from value (n.). Related: Valued, valuing.[value etymology, value origin, 英语词源]
valueless (adj.): 1590s, from value (n.) + -less. Related: Valuelessness.
values (n.): "principles, standards," 1918, from plural of value (n.).
valve (n.): late 14c., "one of the halves of a folding door," from Latin valva (plural valvae) "section of a folding or revolving door," literally "that which turns," related to volvere "to roll" (see volvox). Sense extended 1610s to "membranous fold regulating flow of bodily fluids;" 1650s to "mechanical device that works like an anatomical valve;" and 1660s in zoology to "halves of a hinged shell." Related: Valved.
vambrace (n.): armor or guard for the forearm, early 14c., from Anglo-French vant-bras, from Old French avant-bras, from avant "before, in front of" (see avant) + bras "an arm" (see brace (n.)).
vamoose (v.): "to decamp, be off," 1834, from Spanish vamos "let us go," from Latin vadamus, first person plural indicative of vadere "to go, to walk, go hastily," from PIE root *wadh- (2) "to go" (cognates: Old English wadan "to go," Latin vadum "ford;" see wade (v.)).
vamp (v.): "extemporize on a piano," 1789, from vamp (n.1) "upper part of a shoe or boot," via verbal sense of "provide a stocking (later a shoe) with a new vamp" (1590s), then "patch up, repair" (compare revamp). Related: Vamped; vamping.
vamp (n.2): "seductive woman who exploits men," 1911, short for vampire. First attested use is earlier than the release of the Fox film "A Fool There Was" (January 1915), with sultry Theda Bara in the role of The Vampire. The movie was based on a play of that name that had been on Broadway in 1909 (title and concept from a Kipling poem, "The Vampire," inspired by a Burne-Jones painting). The stage lead seems to have been played by Kathryn Kaelred and Bernice Golden Henderson. At any rate, Bara (born Theodosia Goodman) remains the classic vamp and the word's wide currency is attributable to her performance.
A fool there was and he made his prayer
(Even as you and I!)
To a rag and a bone and a hank of hair
(We called her the woman who did not care)
But the fool, he called her his lady fair
(Even as you and I.)

[Kipling, "The Vampire"]
vamp (n.1): "upper of a shoe or boot," 1650s, earlier "part of a stocking that covers the foot and ankle" (c. 1200), from Anglo-French *vaumpé, from Old French avantpié "vamp of a shoe," from avant "in front" (see avant) + pié "foot," from Latin pes, from PIE root *ped- (1) "a foot" (see foot (n.)).
vampire (n.): spectral being in a human body who maintains semblance of life by leaving the grave at night to suck the warm blood of the living as they sleep, 1734, from French vampire (18c.) or German Vampir (1732, in an account of Hungarian vampires), from Hungarian vampir, from Old Church Slavonic opiri (cognates: Serbian vampir, Bulgarian vapir, Ukrainian uper), said by Slavic linguist Franc Miklošič to be ultimtely from Kazan Tatar ubyr "witch," but Max Vasmer, an expert in this linguistic area, finds that phonetically doubtful. An Eastern European creature popularized in English by late 19c. gothic novels, however there are scattered English accounts of night-walking, blood-gorged, plague-spreading undead corpses from as far back as 1196. Figurative sense of "person who preys on others" is from 1741. Applied 1774 by French biologist Buffon to a species of South American blood-sucking bat. Related: Vampiric.
vampirism (n.): 1737, from vampire + -ism.
van (n.1): "front part of an army or other advancing group," c. 1600, shortening of vanguard.
van (n.2): "covered truck or wagon," 1829, shortening of caravan. Century Dictionary suggests this was perhaps regarded as *carry-van.
Van Allen: name of radiation belts around the Earth (and certain other planets), 1959, from U.S. physicist James A. Van Allen (1914-2006), who reported them in 1958.
van de Graaff: in reference to an electrostatic charge generator, 1934, named for U.S. physicist R.J. van de Graaff (1901-1967).
vanadium (n.): rare metallic element, 1833, named 1830 by Swedish chemist Nils Gabriel Sefström (1787-1845), from Old Norse Vanadis, one of the names of the Norse beauty goddess Freyja (perhaps from PIE *wen- (1) "to desire, strive for," which would connect it to Venus); the metal perhaps so called for of its colorful compounds (an earlier name for it was erythronium, for the redness of its salts when heated). Related: Vanadous; vanadious.
Vancouver: Canadian city, settled 1865, named for the island, which was named for English navigator George Vancouver (1757-1798) who sailed with Capt. Cook and surveyed the Pacific coast in this area in 1792.
vandal (n.): 1660s, "willful destroyer of what is beautiful or venerable," from Vandals, name of the Germanic tribe that sacked Rome in 455 under Genseric, from Latin Vandalus (plural Vandali), from the tribe's name for itself (Old English Wendlas), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *wandljaz "wanderer." The literal historical sense in English is recorded from 1550s.
There does not seem to be in the story of the capture of Rome by the Vandals any justification for the charge of willful and objectless destruction of public buildings which is implied in the word 'vandalism.' It is probable that this charge grew out of the fierce persecution which was carried on by [the Vandal king] Gaiseric and his son against the Catholic Christians, and which is the darkest stain on their characters. ["Encyclopaedia Britannica," 13th ed., 1926]
vandalism (n.): 1794, from French vandalisme, first used by Henri Grégoire, Bishop of Blois, in a report decrying the pillage and destruction of art in the course of the French Revolution; see vandal + -ism.
vandalize (v.): by 1797, from vandal + -ize. Related: Vandalized; vandalizing. A past participle vandald is recorded from 1640s..