quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- badminton[badminton 词源字典]
- badminton: [19] The game of ‘battledore and shuttlecock’ has been around for some time (it appears to go back to the 16th century; the word battledore, which may come ultimately from Portuguese batedor ‘beater’, first turns up in the 15th century, meaning ‘implement for beating clothes when washing them’, but by the 16th century is being used for a ‘small racket’; while shuttlecock, so named because it is hit back and forth, first appears in the early 16th century, in a poem of John Skelton’s).
This was usually a fairly informal, improvised affair, however, and latterly played mainly by children; the modern, codified game of badminton did not begin until the 1860s or 1870s, and takes its name from the place where it was apparently first played, Badminton House, Avon, country seat of the dukes of Beaufort. (A slightly earlier application of the word badminton had been to a cooling summer drink, a species of claret cup.)
[badminton etymology, badminton origin, 英语词源] - yellow
- yellow: [OE] Yellow is a member of an ancient and widespread family of European colourterms descended from Indo-European *ghel-, *ghol-, which denoted both ‘yellow’ and ‘green’. From it were descended Latin helvus ‘yellowish’ and possibly galbus ‘greenishyellow’ (source of French jaune ‘yellow’ and English jaundice), Greek kholé ‘bile’ (source of English choleric, melancholy, etc), Russian zheltyj ‘yellow’, Lithuanian geltonas ‘yellow’, and English gall and gold.
In the Germanic languages it has produced German gelb, Dutch gel, Swedish and Danish gul, and English yellow. A yolk [OE] is etymologically a ‘yellow’ substance.
=> choleric, gall, gold, jaundice, melancholy, yolk - Chloe
- fem. proper name, Latin, from Greek Khloe, literally "young green shoot;" related to khloros "greenish-yellow," from PIE *ghlo- variant of root *ghel- (2) "to shine," with derivatives referring to bright materials and gold, and bile or gall (such as Latin helvus "yellowish, bay," Gallo-Latin gilvus "light bay;" Lithuanian geltonas "yellow;" Old Church Slavonic zlutu, Polish żółty, Russian zeltyj "yellow;" Sanskrit harih "yellow, tawny yellow," hiranyam "gold;" Avestan zari "yellow") and "green" (such as Latin galbus "greenish-yellow;" Greek khloros "greenish-yellow color," kholos "bile;" Lithuanian zalias "green," zelvas "greenish;" Old Church Slavonic zelenu, Polish zielony, Russian zelenyj "green;" Old Irish glass, Welsh and Breton glas "green," also "gray, blue").
Buck says the interchange of words for yellow and green is "perhaps because they were applied to vegetation like grass, cereals, etc., which changed from green to yellow." It is possible that this whole group of yellow-green words is related to PIE root *ghlei- "to shine, glitter, glow, be warm" (see gleam (n.)). - mesomorph (n.)
- 1940, from meso- + -morph, from Greek morphe "form" (see Morpheus). Coined by W.H. Shelton; the reference is to the mesodermal layer of the embryo. Related: Mesomorphic (attested from 1923 in chemistry).
- skeleton (n.)
- 1570s, from Modern Latin sceleton "bones, bony framework of the body," from Greek skeleton soma "dried-up body, mummy, skeleton," from neuter of skeletos "dried-up" (also, as a noun, "dried body, mummy"), from skellein "dry up, make dry, parch," from PIE root *skele- "to parch, wither" (see sclero-).
Skelton was an early variant form. The noun use of Greek skeletos passed into Late Latin (sceletus), hence French squelette and rare English skelet (1560s), Spanish esqueleto, Italian scheletro. The meaning "bare outline" is first recorded c. 1600; hence skeleton crew (1778), skeleton key, etc. Phrase skeleton in the closet "source of secret shame to a person or family" is from 1812. - Spenserian (adj.)
- 1817, from Edmund Spenser (c. 1552-1599), Elizabethan poet (for the origin of the surname, see Spencer). Spenserian stanza, which he employed in the "Faerie Queen," consists of eight decasyllabic lines and a final Alexandrine, with rhyme scheme ab ab bc bcc.
"The measure soon ceases to be Spenser's except in its mere anatomy of rhyme-arrangement" [Elton, "Survey of English Literature 1770-1880," 1920]; it is the meter in Butler's "Hudibras," Scott's "Lady of the Lake," and notably the "Childe Harold" of Byron, who found (quoting Beattie) that it allowed him to be "either droll or pathetic, descriptive or sentimental, tender or satirical, as the humour strikes me; for, if I mistake not, the measure which I have adopted admits equally of all these kinds of composition." - tradition (n.)
- late 14c., "statement, belief, or practice handed down from generation to generation," especially "belief or practice based on Mosaic law," from Old French tradicion "transmission, presentation, handing over" (late 13c.) and directly from Latin traditionem (nominative traditio) "delivery, surrender, a handing down, a giving up," noun of action from past participle stem of tradere "deliver, hand over," from trans- "over" (see trans-) + dare "to give" (see date (n.1)). The word is a doublet of treason (q.v.). Meaning "a long-established custom" is from 1590s. The notion is of customs, ways, beliefs, doctrines, etc. "handed down" from one generation to the next.
"Nobody can make a tradition; it takes a century to make it." [Hawthorne, "Septimius Felton," 1872]
- Wiffle
- hollow, perforated plastic ball, registered trademark name (The Wiffle Ball Inc., Shelton, Connecticut, U.S.), claiming use from 1954. According to the company, designed in 1953 by David N. Mullany "in response to a lack of field space and numerous broken windows by his baseball-playing son," the name based on whiff (q.v.), baseball slang for a missed swing.
- pilgarlic
- "Originally: a bald head; a bald-headed person. In later use also: a pitiable, lowly, or foolish person; a shabby or unkempt person. Frequently used without article, as though a proper name", Early 16th cent.; earliest use found in John Skelton (c1460–1529), poet. In some forms apparently partly from pilled + garlic and partly from peeled + garlic; in some forms apparently partly from pill + garlic and partly from peel + garlic.
- admirative
- " Grammar . A word, sentence, etc., expressing surprise. Now chiefly: specifically (especially in various languages of the Balkans) the admirative mood; an admirative verbal construction or form", Late 15th cent.; earliest use found in John Skelton (c1460–1529), poet. From Middle French admiratif (adjective) expressing astonishment or its etymon post-classical Latin admirativus expressing astonishment (636 in Isidore), full of astonishment from classical Latin admīrāt-, past participial stem of admīrārī + -īvus.
- phronesis
- "Wisdom personified. Now rare ( historical in later use)", Early 16th cent.; earliest use found in John Skelton (c1460–1529), poet. From classical Latin phronēsis wisdom, in post-classical Latin also wisdom personified from ancient Greek ϕρόνησις thought, sense, judgement, practical wisdom, prudence from ϕρονεῖν to think, to have understanding, to be wise, prudent + -σις.
- elegiacal
- "Of the nature of an elegy; melancholy, mournful", Late 15th cent.; earliest use found in John Skelton (c1460–1529), poet. From post-classical Latin elegiacus elegiac + -al.