英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

wolf (n.)[wolf 词源字典]: Old English wulf "wolf, wolfish person, devil," from Proto-Germanic *wulfaz (cognates: Old Saxon wulf, Old Norse ulfr, Old Frisian, Dutch, Old High German, German wolf, Gothic wulfs), from PIE root *wlkwo- "wolf" (cognates: Sanskrit vrkas, Avestan vehrka-; Albanian ul'k; Old Church Slavonic vluku; Russian volcica; Lithuanian vilkas "wolf;" Old Persian Varkana- "Hyrcania," district southeast of the Caspian Sea, literally "wolf-land;" probably also Greek lykos, Latin lupus).
This manne can litle skyl ... to saue himself harmlesse from the perilous accidentes of this world, keping ye wulf from the doore (as they cal it). ["The Institution of a Gentleman," 1555]
Probably extinct in England from the end of the 15th century; in Scotland from the early 18th. Wolves as a symbol of lust are ancient, such as Roman slang lupa "whore," literally "she-wolf" (preserved in Spanish loba, Italian lupa, French louve). The equation of "wolf" and "prostitute, sexually voracious female" persisted into 12c., but by Elizabethan times wolves had become primarily symbolic of male lust. The specific use of wolf for "sexually aggressive male" first recorded 1847; wolf-whistle attested by 1945, American English, at first associated with sailors. The image of a wolf in sheep's skin is attested from c. 1400. See here for a discussion of "wolf" in Indo-European history. The wolf-spider so called for prowling and leaping on its prey rather than waiting in a web. [wolf etymology, wolf origin, 英语词源]
wolf (v.): "eat like a wolf," 1862, from wolf (n.). Related: Wolfed; wolfing.
wolfhound (n.): also wolf-hound, 1799, from wolf (n.) + hound (n.).
wolfish (adj.): 1560s, from wolf (n.) + -ish. Earlier form was wolvish (early 15c.). Related: Wolfishly; wolfishness.
wolfram (n.): 1757, from German Wolfram, wolform "iron tungstate" (1562), of obscure etymology. It looks like "wolf-cream" (from rahm "cream"), but the second element might be Middle High German ram (German Rahm) "dirty mark, soot;" if so, perhaps "so called in sign of contempt because it was regarded of lesser value than tin and caused a considerable loss of tin during the smelting process in the furnace" [Klein]. Or perhaps the word is originally a personal name, "wolf-raven."
wolfsbane (n.): "aconite" (especially Aconitum lycoctonum), a somewhat poisonous plant, 1540s, from wolf + bane; a translation of Latin lycoctonum, from Greek lykotonon, from lykos "wolf" + base of kteinein "to kill." Also known dialectally as badger's bane, hare's bane, bear's bane.
Wolof (n.): African people of Senegal and Gambia. Also the name of the Niger-Congo language they speak.
wolverine (n.): carnivorous mammal, 1610s, alteration of wolvering (1570s), of uncertain origin, possibly from wolv-, inflectional stem of wolf (n.); or perhaps from wolver "one who behaves like a wolf" (1590s).
woman (n.): "adult female human," late Old English wimman, wiman (plural wimmen), literally "woman-man," alteration of wifman (plural wifmen) "woman, female servant" (8c.), a compound of wif "woman" (see wife) + man "human being" (in Old English used in reference to both sexes; see man (n.)). Compare Dutch vrouwmens "wife," literally "woman-man."
It is notable that it was thought necessary to join wif, a neuter noun, representing a female person, to man, a masc. noun representing either a male or female person, to form a word denoting a female person exclusively. [Century Dictionary]
The formation is peculiar to English and Dutch. Replaced older Old English wif and quean as the word for "female human being." The pronunciation of the singular altered in Middle English by the rounding influence of -w-; the plural retains the original vowel. Meaning "wife," now largely restricted to U.S. dialectal use, is attested from mid-15c. Woman-hater "misogynist" is from c. 1600. Women's work is from 1660s. Women's liberation is attested from 1966; women's rights is from 1840, with an isolated example in 1630s.
womanhood (n.): late 14c., "condition of being a woman," also "qualities or characteristics considered natural to a woman," from woman + -hood. Meaning "women collectively" is attested from 1520s.
womanise (n.): chiefly British English spelling of womanize. Related: Womanized; womanizing; womanizer.
womanish (adj.): late 14c., "womanly, feminine; resembling a woman;" of a man or men, "behaving in the manner of a woman, effeminate," from woman + -ish. Related: Womanishly; womanishness.
womanize (v.): 1590s, "to make effeminate," from woman + -ize. Sense of "to chase women, to go wenching" is attested from 1893. Related: Womanized; womanizer; womanizing.
womankind (n.): late 14c., from woman (n.) + kind (n.).
womanly (adj.): c. 1200, of a man, "wanton, lascivious;" late 14c. of a woman, "feminine," of qualities, "proper to a woman;" from woman + -ly (1). From c. 1400 of men with the sense "effeminate, weak." Related: Womanliness.
womb (n.): Old English wamb, womb "belly, bowels, heart, uterus," from Proto-Germanic *wambo (cognates: Old Norse vomb, Old Frisian wambe, Middle Dutch wamme, Dutch wam, Old High German wamba, German Wamme "belly, paunch," Gothic wamba "belly, womb," Old English umbor "child"), of unknown origin.
wombat (n.): marsupial mammal of Australia, 1798, from aboriginal Australian womback, wombar.
women: plural of woman (q.v.).
won: past tense and past participle of win (v.).
won't: contraction of will not, first recorded mid-15c. as wynnot, later wonnot (1580s) before the modern form emerged 1660s. See will.