英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

vintage [vintage 词源字典]: vintage: [15] The vintage is etymologically the ‘taking away of wine’. The word’s ultimate source is Latin vindēmia ‘grape gathering’, a compound noun formed from vīnum ‘wine’ (source of English wine) and dēmere ‘take away, take off’ (which in turn was a compound verb based on emere ‘buy, take’). This passed into English via Old French vendange as vendage, which by association with vintner [15] (another derivative ultimately of Latin vīnum) soon changed to vintage.

It continued at first to be restricted to the general sense ‘grape crop’. The specific application to the crop of a particular year did not begin to emerge until the 18th century, and this led at the end of the 19th century to the broad use of the word for ‘year when something was produced’. Connotations of ‘oldness’ were encouraged by its application to ‘vintage cars’, first recorded in 1928.
=> vine, vintner, wine[vintage etymology, vintage origin, 英语词源]
violate: violate: [15] Latin violāre ‘treat with violence’ was derived from the noun vīs ‘force, energy’ (whose accusative form, vim, is probably the source of English vim [19]). Its past participle gave English violate, while its present participle is ultimately responsible for English violent [14].
=> vim, violent
violet: violet: [14] Violet was borrowed from Old French violete, a diminutive form of viole ‘violet’. This in turn went back to Latin viola ‘violet’, itself acquired by English in the 15th century. The word probably originated in a pre-Indo- European Mediterranean language, which also produced Greek íon ‘violet’ (source of English iodine). Its primary application is as a plantname; its use as a colour term is a secondary application.
=> iodine
violin: violin: [16] Violin has been traced back to Vulgar Latin *vītula ‘stringed instrument’, which was based ultimately on the name of Vītula, a Roman goddess of joy and victory (and has also, via a prehistoric Germanic borrowing, given English fiddle). The Vulgar Latin term passed via Provençal viola and Old French viole into English as viol [15], which survives as the name of an early form of stringed instrument. Its Italian counter-part is viola, which has given English viola [18], and its diminutive form violino is the source of violin.
=> fiddle, viola
viper: viper: [16] A viper is etymologically a creature that ‘gives birth to live young’. The word comes via Old French vipere from Latin vīpera ‘snake’. This was a contraction of an earlier *vīvipera, a compound noun formed from vīvus ‘alive’ (source of English vivacious, vivid, etc) and parere ‘give birth’ (source of English parent, parturition, etc) – in former times it was thought that snakes gave birth to live young.

Latin vīpera is also the ancestor of English wyvern ‘dragonlike creature’ [17] and possibly of weever [17], the name of a type of fish with poisonous spines; and the elements from which it was formed also of course underlie the English adjective viviparous.
=> parent, vivid, viviparous
virago: virago: see virtue
virgin: virgin: [13] Virgin comes via Old French virgine from Latin virgō, a word of uncertain origin. The virginals [16], a form of small harpsichord, were so called because they were intended for playing by girls or young women.
virgule: virgule: see verge
virtue: virtue: [13] Latin virtūs ‘bravery, strength, capacity, skill, merit’ was derived from vir ‘man’ (source also of English virago ‘manlike woman’ [14] and virile [15]), and so etymologically it denoted ‘manliness’. It passed into English via Old French vertu. Derivatives include virtual [14] which, preserving another semantic aspect of its source, originally meant ‘having power, in effect’, but by the 17th century had evolved into its modern sense ‘so in effect or in essence’; and virtuoso [17], which was borrowed from Italian and goes back to the ancestral sense ‘skill’.
=> virago, virile, virtual, virtuoso
visa: visa: [19] A visa is etymologically something ‘seen’. The word comes via French visa from Latin vīsa, literally ‘things seen’, a noun use of the neuter plural form of the past participle of vidēre ‘see’ (source of English vision, visit, etc). The notion underlying the word is that a visa is a note or other mark made on a passport to signify that it has been officially ‘seen’ or examined.
=> visit, vision
visit: visit: [13] Visit is one of a large family of English words that go back to Latin vidēre ‘see’. This in turn was descended from the Indo-European base *woid-, *weid-, *wid-, which also produced English wise and wit. Other members of the family include envy, revise [16], survey, video [20], view, visa, visage, visible [14], vision [13], visor, vista [17], and visual [15]. Visit itself comes from the Latin derivative visitāre, which meant literally ‘go to see’.
=> envy, revise, survey, video, view, visa, visible, vision, visor, vista, visual, wise, wit
visor: visor: [14] A visor is etymologically something that covers the ‘face’. The word was borrowed from Anglo-Norman viser, a derivative of Old French vis ‘face’. This in turn was descended from Latin vīsus ‘sight, appearance’ (a noun use of the past participle of vidēre ‘see’, source of English vision, visit, etc), which in post-classical times was used for ‘face’. Another derivative of Old French vis was visage ‘face’, from which English got visage [13].
=> visit, vision
vista: vista: see visit
visual: visual: see visit
vital: vital: [14] Vital comes via Old French vital from Latin vītālis. This was a derivative of vīta ‘life’. And vīta went back ultimately to Latin vīvus ‘living’, source of English vivacious, vivid, etc. Viable [19] is also descended from vīta, and etymologically means ‘capable of life’.
=> viable, vitamin, vivid
vitamin: vitamin: [20] Vitamins were originally vitamines: the Polish-born biochemist Casimir Funk who introduced them to the world in 1920 believed that they were amino acids and so formed the name from Latin vita ‘life’ and amine. It was soon discovered that Funk’s belief was mistaken, and alternative names were suggested, but in 1920 it was successfully proposed (by J.C. Drummond) that the -e be dropped to avoid confusion, and the form vitamin was born.
=> amine, vital
vitreous: vitreous: [17] Latin vitrum meant ‘glass’ (it may be the same word as vitrum ‘woad, plant producing blue dye’, the link being the bluishgreen colour of glass, and it might even be distantly related to English woad itself). From it was derived vitreus ‘clear, transparent’, which gave English vitreous. The sulphates of various metals have a glassy appearance, and so in medieval Latin the term vitriolum (a derivative of vitrum) was applied to them – whence English vitriol [14].
=> vitriol
vivacious: vivacious: see victuals
vivid: vivid: [17] Vivid was acquired from Latin vīvidus ‘full of life, lively’. This was derived from vīvere ‘live’, which in turn went back to the Indo- European base *gwei-, source also of English biology, quick, and zoo. To the same immediate word-family belong convivial [17], revive [15], survive [15], victuals, viper, vital, vitamin, vivacious [17], and vivisection [18].
=> biology, convivial, quick, revive, survive, victuals, viper, vital, vitamin, vivacious, vivisection, zoo
viviparous: viviparous: see parent