英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

workday (n.)[workday 词源字典]: Old English weorcdæg, from work (n.) + day (n.). The modern word is perhaps a Middle English re-formation. As an adjective (c. 1500) it has generally only the literal sense (compare workaday).[workday etymology, workday origin, 英语词源]
worker (n.): mid-14c., "laborer, toiler, performer, doer," agent noun from work (v.). As a type of bee, 1747. As "one employed for a wage," 1848. Old English had wyrcend "worker, laborer."
workflow (n.): 1949, from work (n.) + flow (n.).
workforce (n.): 1947, from work (n.) + force (n.).
workhorse (n.): 1540s, from work (n.) + horse (n.). Figurative use by 1949.
workhouse (n.): Old English weorchus "workshop;" see work (n.) + house (n.). From 1650s in the sense of "place where the able-bodied poor or petty criminals are lodged and compelled to work."
working (adj.): late 14c., "active, busy," past participle adjective from work (v.). From 1630s as "engaged in physical toil or manual labor as a means of livelihood." Working class is from 1789 as a noun, 1839 as an adjective. Working-day is from late 15c.; working man is by 1816.
working (n.): "action, operation," verbal noun from work (v.).
workload (n.): 1939, from work (n.) + load (n.).
workman (n.): Old English weorcmsnn; see work (n.) + man (n.). Similar formation in Dutch werkman, Old Norse verkmaðr.
workmanlike (adj.): "efficient, no-nonsense," 1739, from workman + like (adj.).
workmanship (n.): early 14c., "performance of labor," from workman + -ship. Meaning "skill as a workman" is from 1520s.
workout (n.): 1909, "boxing bout for training," from work (v.) + out (adv.). General sense of "spell of strenuous physical exercise" is attested by 1922. Verbal phrase work out "solve" (a problem, etc.) is from 1848. Sense of "succeed" attested by 1909.
workplace (n.): 1828, a hybrid from work (n.) + place (n.).
works (n.): Old English, "(someone's) deeds, acts, or actions, the things one has done in life," often especially "good deeds, acts of piety, demonstrations of virtue," plural of work (n.). Meaning "operations pertinent to maintaining a large physical place" (private, religious, or municipal) is from late 14c. Meaning "industrial place" (usually with qualifying adjective) is from late 15c. To be in the works in the extended sense of "in the process of being done or made" is by 1973.
worksheet (n.): 1909, from work (n.) + sheet (n.).
workshop (n.): 1580s, from work (n.) + shop (n.). Meaning "gathering for study, etc.," is from 1937.
workstation (n.): also work-station, 1950, from work (n.) + station (n.). Computer sense is from 1972.
world (n.): Old English woruld, worold "human existence, the affairs of life," also "a long period of time," also "the human race, mankind, humanity," a word peculiar to Germanic languages (cognates: Old Saxon werold, Old Frisian warld, Dutch wereld, Old Norse verold, Old High German weralt, German Welt), with a literal sense of "age of man," from Proto-Germanic *wer "man" (Old English wer, still in werewolf; see virile) + *ald "age" (see old).

Originally "life on earth, this world (as opposed to the afterlife)," sense extended to "the known world," then to "the physical world in the broadest sense, the universe" (c. 1200). In Old English gospels, the commonest word for "the physical world," was Middangeard (Old Norse Midgard), literally "the middle enclosure" (see yard (n.1)), which is rooted in Germanic cosmology. Greek kosmos in its ecclesiastical sense of "world of people" sometimes was rendered in Gothic as manaseþs, literally "seed of man." The usual Old Norse word was heimr, literally "abode" (see home). Words for "world" in some other Indo-European languages derive from the root for "bottom, foundation" (such as Irish domun, Old Church Slavonic duno, related to English deep); the Lithuanian word is pasaulis, from pa- "under" + saule "sun."

Original sense in world without end, translating Latin saecula saeculorum, and in worldly. Latin saeculum can mean both "age" and "world," as can Greek aion. Meaning "a great quantity or number" is from 1580s. Out of this world "surpassing, marvelous" is from 1928; earlier it meant "dead." World Cup is by 1951; U.S. baseball World Series is by 1893 (originally often World's Series). World power in the geopolitical sense first recorded 1900. World-class is attested from 1950, originally of Olympic athletes.
World Bank (n.): 1930, originally of the Bank for International Settlements, set up in Basel by the League of Nations. The modern World Bank was created in 1944.