英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

white trash (n.)[white trash 词源字典]: 1824, originally Southern U.S. black slang.
The slaves themselves entertain the very highest contempt for white servants, whom they designate as 'poor white trash.' [Fanny Kemble, journal, Jan. 6, 1833]
[white trash etymology, white trash origin, 英语词源]
white-collar (adj.): by 1911, perhaps 1909, from white (adj.) + collar (n.).
The white collar men are your clerks; they are your bookkeepers, your cashiers, your office men. We call them the 'white collar men' in order to distinguish them from the men who work with uniform and overalls and carry the dinner pails. The boys over on the West side got that name for them. It was supposed to be something a little better than they were. [Malcolm McDowell, quoted in "Chicago Commerce," June 12, 1914]
White-collar crime attested by 1957 (there is a white-collar criminaloids from 1934).
white-hot (adj.): "heated to full incandescence," 1820, from white (adj.) + hot (adj.). White heat is from 1710; figurative sense of "state of intense or extreme emotion" first recorded 1839.
white-out (n.): 1946 as an extreme snow condition on the U.S. prairie, from white as a verb + out (adv.). From 1977 as a liquid correction for paper.
white-tail (n.): type of North American deer, 1872, from white (adj.) + tail (n.).
whiteboard (n.): 1966, from white (adj.) + board (n.1).
whitecap (n.): 1660s, of birds, from white (adj.) + cap (n.). Attested from 1773 in reference to breaking waves, from 1818 of mushrooms, and from 1891 in reference to "one of a self-constituted band in U.S. who committed outrages under pretense of regulating public morals" [OED].
whitefish (n.): collective name for cod, haddock, hake, sole, etc., mid-15c., from white (adj.) + fish (n.).
whiten (v.): c. 1300, "to make white," from white (adj.) + -en (1). Intransitive sense "become white" is from 1630s. Earlier verb was simply white (late Old English). Related: Whitened; whitening; whitener.
whiteness (n.): Old English hwitnes; see white (adj.) + -ness.
whitewash (v.): 1590s, "to wash a building surface with white liquid," from white (adj.) + wash (v.). Figurative sense of "to cover up, conceal, give a false appearance of cleanness to" is attested from 1762. Related: Whitewashed; whitewashing. The noun is recorded from 1690s; in the figurative sense from 1851. The earlier verb was whitelime (c. 1300).
whitey (n.): "'white' person, person of European descent," 1828, also whity, from white (adj.) + -y (2) and -y (3). Earlier as an adjective, and Whitey-brown was a 19c. descriptive color name, used to describe, among other things, mulatto skin.
Negro troops doing provost duty in Norfolk; keeping the white people in order. On a visit to Norfolk one can see white Southerners, arrested for sundry misdemeanors, working on the public streets, under negro guards. ... It is quite a change to see, in Norfolk, negroes forcing white men to work, at the point of the bayonet; calling out to them: "No loaf'n dar!" "Move quicker, Sah!" "Hurry up dar, Old Whitey!" and similar orders. Tables turned! [diary of Lieut. S. Millett Thompson, 13th New Hampshire Volunteer regiment, U.S. Army, Jan. 25, 1864; diary published 1888 by Houghton, Mifflin & Co.]
whither (adv., conj.): Old English hwider, from Proto-Germanic *hwithre-, from *hwi- "who" (see who) + ending as in hither and thither. Compare Gothic hvadre.
whithersoever (adv.): early 13c., from whither + so + ever.
whitish (adj.): late 14c., from white (adj.) + -ish.
whitlow (n.): "inflammation on a finger or toe," mid-15c., alteration of whitflaw (c. 1400), from flaw, with first element possibly from Dutch vijt or Low German fit "abscess."
Whitsun: late 13c., contraction of Whitsunday.
Whitsunday: "Pentecost," late Old English Hwita Sunnandæg "white Sunday" (see white (adj.)); possibly so called from the white baptismal robes worn by newly baptized Christians on this day. Related: Whitsuntide.
whittle (v.): 1550s, "to cut thin shavings from (something) with a knife," from Middle English whittel "a knife," especially a large one (c. 1400), variant of thwittle (late 14c.), from Old English þwitan "to cut," from Proto-Germanic *thwit- (cognates: Old Norse þveita "to hew"), from PIE root *twei- "to agitate, shake, toss." Figurative sense is attested from 1746. Related: Whittled; whittling.
whiz (n.): "clever person," 1914, probably a special use of whiz "something remarkable" (1908), an extended sense of whizz; or perhaps a shortened and altered form of wizard. Noun phrase whiz kid is from 1930s, a take-off on a radio show's quiz kid.