英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

weeds (n.)[weeds 词源字典]: "garments" (now surviving, if at all, in widow's weeds), plural of archaic weed, from Old English wæd, wæde "robe, dress, apparel, garment, clothing," from Proto-Germanic *wedo (cognates: Old Saxon wadi, Old Frisian wede "garment," Old Norse vað "cloth, texture," Old High German wat "garment"), probably from PIE *wedh-, extended form of root *au- (3) "to weave." Archaic since early 19c.[weeds etymology, weeds origin, 英语词源]
weedy (adj.): early 15c., from weed + -y (2). In old slang, in reference to horses, "not of good blood or strength, scraggy, worthless for breeding or racing," from 1800; hence, of persons, "thin and weakly" (1852).
week (n.): Old English wucu, wice, etc., from Proto-Germanic *wikon (cognates: Old Norse vika, Old Frisian wike, Middle Dutch weke, Old High German wecha, German woche), probably originally with the sense of "a turning" or "succession" (compare Gothic wikon "in the course of," Old Norse vika "sea-mile," originally "change of oar," Old English wican "yield, give way"), from PIE root *weik- (4) "to bend, wind" (see vicarious). The vowel sound seems to have been uncertain in Old and Middle English and -e-, -i-, -o-, -u-, -y-, and various diphthongs are attested for it.

"Meaning primarily 'change, alteration,' the word may once have denoted some earlier time division, such as the 'change of moon, half month,' ... but there is no positive evidence of this" [Buck]. No evidence of a native Germanic week before contact with the Romans. The seven-day week is ancient, probably originating from the 28-day lunar cycle, divisible into four periods of seven day, at the end of each of which the moon enters a new phase. Reinforced during the spread of Christianity by the ancient Jewish seven-day week.

As a Roman astrological convention it was borrowed by other European peoples; the Germanic tribes substituting their own deities for those of the Romans, without regard to planets. The Coligny calendar suggests a Celtic division of the month into halves; the regular Greek division of the month was into three decades; and the Romans also had a market week of nine days.
Greek planetary names [for the days of the week] ... are attested for the early centuries of our era, but their use was apparently restricted to certain circles; at any rate they never became popular. In Rome, on the other hand, the planetary names became the established popular terms, too strongly intrenched to be displaced by the eccl[esiastical] names, and spreading through most of western Europe. [Buck]
Phrase a week, as in eight days a week recorded by 1540s; see a- (1).
weekday (n.): Old English wicudæge, wucudæge "day of the week" (similar formation in Old High German wehhatag, Old Norse vikudagr). See week + day. In Middle English, any day other than Sunday.
weekend (n.): also week-end, 1630s, from week + end (n.). Originally a northern word (referring to the period from Saturday noon to Monday morning); it became general after 1878. As an adjective, "only on weekends," it is recorded from 1935. Long weekend attested from 1900; in reference to Great Britain in the period between the world wars, 1944.
weekly: mid-15c. (adv.); late 15c. (adj.), from week + -ly (2). As a noun meaning "weekly newspaper" it is recorded from 1833.
weel (n.): "deep pool," Old English wæl "whirlpool, eddy; pool; sea," cognate with West Frisian wiel, Old Low Frankish wal, Middle Dutch wael, German wehl, wehle.
ween (v.): "be of the opinion, have the notion" (archaic), Old English wenan "to fancy, imagine, believe; expect, hope," from Proto-Germanic *wenjan "to hope" (cognates: Old Saxon wanian, Old Norse væna, Old Frisian wena, Old High German wanen, German wähnen, Gothic wenjan "to expect, suppose, think"), from *woeniz "expectation," from PIE root *wen- (1) "to wish, desire, strive for" (see Venus). Archaic since 17c.
weenie (n.): "frankfurter," 1906, with slang sense of "penis" following soon after, from German wienerwurst "Vienna sausage" (see wiener). Meaning "ineffectual person, effeminate young man" is slang from 1963; pejorative sense via penis shape, or perhaps from weenie in the sense of "small" (see wee).
weep (v.): Old English wepan "shed tears, cry; bewail, mounr over; complain" (class VII strong verb; past tense weop, past participle wopen), from Proto-Germanic *wopjan (cognates: Old Norse op, Old High German wuof "shout, shouting, crying," Old Saxon wopian, Gothic wopjan "to shout, cry out, weep"), from PIE *wab- "to cry, scream" (cognates: Latin vapulare "to be flogged;" Old Church Slavonic vupiti "to call," vypu "gull"). Of water naturally forming on stones, walls, etc., from c. 1400. Related: Wept; weeping; weeper.
weeping (adj.): late Old English, present participle adjective from weep (v.). Used of various trees whose branches arch downward and suggest drooping, such as weeping elm (c. 1600); weeping cherry (1824). Weeping willow (French saule pleureur, German trauerweide) is recorded from 1731. The tree is native to Asia; the first brought to England were imported 1748, from the Euphrates. It replaced the cypress as a funerary emblem.
weepy (adj.): 1825, from weep + -y (2). Related: Weepily; weepiness. Weepie (n.) "sentimental film" is from 1928.
weet (v.): "to know" (archaic), 1540s, from Middle English weten, variant of witen "to know" (see wit (v.)).
weevil (n.): Old English wifel "small beetle," from Proto-Germanic *webilaz (cognates: Old Saxon wibil, Old High German wibil, German Wiebel "beetle, chafer," Old Norse tordyfill "dung beetle"), cognate with Lithuanian vabalas "beetle," from PIE root *webh- "to weave," also "to move quickly" (see weave (v.)). The sense gradually narrowed by 15c. to a particular kind of beetle that, in larval or adult stages, bores into plants, often destroying them.
weft (n.): "threads which run across the web from side to side," Old English weft, wefta "weft," related to wefan "to weave," from Proto-Germanic *weftaz (see weave (v.)).
wegotism (n.): 1797, from we + egotism; "an obtrusive and too frequent use of the first person plural by a speaker or writer" [OED].
Wehrmacht (n.): "the armed forces of Germany," 1935, from German Wehrmacht (name of the armed forces 1921-1945), from Wehr "defense" (see weir) + Macht "might" (see might (n.)).
Weigela (n.): shrub genus, 1846, from the name of German physician and botanist C.E. Weigel (1748-1831).
weigh (v.): Old English wegan (class V strong verb, past tense wæg, past participle wægon) "find the weight of, measure; have weight; lift, carry, support, sustain, bear; move," from Proto-Germanic *wegan (cognates: Old Saxon wegan, Old Frisian wega, Dutch wegen "to weigh," Old Norse vega, Old High German wegan "to move, carry, weigh," German wiegen "to weigh"), from PIE *wegh- "to move" (cognates: Sanskrit vahati "carries, conveys," vahitram "vessel, ship;" Avestan vazaiti "he leads, draws;" Greek okhos "carriage;" Latin vehere "to carry, convey;" Old Church Slavonic vesti "to carry, convey;" Lithuanian vežu "to carry, convey;" Old Irish fecht "campaign, journey").

The original sense was of motion, which led to that of lifting, then to that of "measure the weight of." The older sense of "lift, carry" survives in the nautical phrase weigh anchor. Figurative sense of "to consider, ponder" (in reference to words, etc.) is recorded from mid-14c. To weigh in in the literal sense is from 1868, originally of jockeys; figurative meaning "bring one's influence to bear" is from 1909.
weight (n.): Old English gewiht "weighing, weight, downward force of a body, heaviness," from Proto-Germanic *wihti- (cognates: Old Norse vætt, Danish vegt, Old Frisian wicht, Middle Dutch gewicht, German Gewicht), from *weg- (see weigh).

Figurative sense of "burden" is late 14c. To lose weight "get thinner" is recorded from 1961. Weight Watcher as a trademark name dates from 1960. To pull one's weight (1921) is from rowing. To throw (one's) weight around figuratively is by 1922. Weight-training is from 1945. Weight-lifting is from 1885; weight-lifter (human) from 1893.