quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- walkabout (n.)[walkabout 词源字典]
- "periodic migration by a westernized Aboriginal into the bush," 1828, Australian English, from walk (v.) + about.[walkabout etymology, walkabout origin, 英语词源]
- Walker
- surname, early 13c., probably an agent noun from walk (v.) in the sense "to full cloth." preserves the cloth-fulling sense (walker with this meaning is attested from c. 1300). "Walker" or "Hookey Walker" was a common slang retort of incredulity in early and mid-19c. London, for which "Various problematic explanations have been offered" [Century Dictionary].
"Is it?" said Scrooge. "Go and buy it."
"Walk-ER!" exclaimed the boy.
"No, no," said Scrooge. "I am in earnest" (etc.)
[Dickens, "A Christmas Carol"]
- walkie-talkie (n.)
- 1939, popularized in World War II army slang, from walk (v.) + talk (v.).
- walking (adj.)
- c. 1400, present participle adjective from walk (v.). Walking sickness, one in which the sufferer is able to get about and is not bed-ridden, is from 1846. Walking wounded is recorded from 1917. Walking bass is attested from 1939 in jazz slang. Walking stick is recorded from 1570s; the insect so called from 1760.
- walkway (n.)
- 1865, American English, from walk (v.) + way (n.).
- wall (n.)
- Old English weall, Anglian wall "rampart, dike, earthwork" (natural as well as man-made), "dam, cliff, rocky shore," also "defensive fortification around a city, side of a building," an Anglo-Frisian and Saxon borrowing (Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Middle Low German, Middle Dutch wal) from Latin vallum "wall, rampart, row or line of stakes," apparently a collective form of vallus "stake," from PIE *walso- "a post." Swedish vall, Danish val are from Low German.
Meaning "interior partition of a structure" is mid-13c. In this case, English uses one word where many languages have two, such as German Mauer "outer wall of a town, fortress, etc.," used also in reference to the former Berlin Wall, and wand "partition wall within a building" (compare the distinction, not always rigorously kept, in Italian muro/parete, Irish mur/fraig, Lithuanian muras/siena, etc.). The Latin word for "defensive wall" was murus (see mural).
Anatomical use from late 14c. To give (someone) the wall "allow him or her to walk on the (cleaner) wall side of the pavement" is from 1530s. To turn (one's) face to the wall "prepare to die" is from 1570s. Phrase up the wall "angry, crazy" is from 1951; off the wall "unorthodox, unconventional" is recorded from 1966, American English student slang. To go over the wall "escape" (originally from prison) is from 1933. Wall-to-wall (adj.) recorded 1939, of shelving, etc.; metaphoric use (usually disparaging) is from 1967. - wall (v.)
- "to enclose with a wall," late Old English *weallian (implied in geweallod), from the source of wall (n.). Meaning "fill up (a doorway, etc.) with a wall" is from c. 1500. Meaning "shut up in a wall, immure" is from 1520s. Related: Walled; walling.
- Wall Street (n.)
- "U.S. financial world," 1836, from street in New York City that is home to many investment firms and stock traders, as well as NYSE. The street so called because it ran along the interior of the defensive wall of the old Dutch colonial town.
- wall-eyed (adj.)
- c. 1300, wawil-eghed, wolden-eiged, "having very light-colored eyes," also "having parti-colored eyes," from Old Norse vagl-eygr "having speckled eyes," from vagl "speck in the eye; beam, upper cross-beam," from Proto-Germanic *walgaz. Meaning "having one or both eyes turned out" (and thus showing much white) is first recorded 1580s.
- wallaby (n.)
- kind of small kangaroo, 1826, from native Australian wolaba.
- Wallach (n.)
- also Walach, one of a Rumanian people, 1786, from German Wallache, from Old Church Slavonic Vlachu, from Old High German wahl "foreigner, one speaking a foreign language" (see Vlach). Related: Wallachia; Wallachian.
- wallah (n.)
- also walla, "person employed (in some specified business)," Anglo-Indian, from Hindi -wala, suffix forming adjectives with the sense "pertaining to, connected with;" the functional equivalent of English -er (1). Europeans took it to mean "man, fellow" and began using it as a word.
- wallbanger (n.)
- cocktail made from vodka, Galliano, and orange juice, by 1969, in full Harvey wallbanger. Probably so called from its effect on the locomotive skills of the consumer.
- wallboard (n.)
- 1912, American English, from wall (n.) + board (n.1).
- wallet (n.)
- late 14c., "bag, knapsack," of uncertain origin, probably from an unrecorded Old North French *walet "roll, knapsack," or similar Germanic word in Anglo-French or Old French, from Proto-Germanic *wall- "roll," from PIE *wel- (3) (see volvox). Meaning "flat case for carrying paper money" is first recorded 1834, American English.
- walleye (n.)
- type of fish (pike-perch), 1876, American English, said to be so-called from the positioning of the eyes (see wall-eyed).
- wallflower (n.)
- 1570s, type of flowering plant cultivated in gardens, native to southern Europe, where it grows on old walls and in rocky places, from wall (n.) + flower (n.). Colloquial sense of "woman who sits by the wall at parties, often for want of a partner" is first recorded 1820.
- Walloon (adj.)
- 1520s, of a people of what is now souther and southeastern Belgium, also of their language, from Middle French Wallon, literally "foreigner," of Germanic origin (compare Old High German walh "foreigner"). The people are of Gaulish origin and speak a French dialect. The name is a form of the common appellation of Germanic peoples to Romanic-speaking neighbors. See Vlach, also Welsh. As a noun from 1560s; as a language name from 1640s.
- wallop (v.)
- late 14c., "to gallop," possibly from Old North French *waloper (13c., Old French galoper), from Frankish compound *walalaupan "to run well" (compare Old High German wela "well," see well (adv.); and Old Low Franconian loupon "to run, leap," from Proto-Germanic *hlaupan; see leap (v.)). The meaning "to thrash" (1820) and the noun meaning "heavy blow" (1823) may be separate developments, of imitative origin. Related: Walloped; walloping.
- wallow (v.)
- Old English wealwian "to roll," from West Germanic *walwon, from PIE root *wel- (3) "to roll" (see volvox). Figurative sense of "to plunge and remain in some state or condition" is attested from early 13c. Related: Wallowed; wallowing. The noun is recorded from 1590s as "act of rolling;" 1841 as "place where an animal wallows."