quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- benzene[benzene 词源字典]
- benzene: [19] The original name given to this hydrocarbon, by the German chemist Eilhardt Mitscherlich in 1833, was benzine. He based it on the term benzoic acid, a derivative of benzoin, the name of a resinous substance exuded by trees of the genus Styrax. This came ultimately from Arabic lubān-jāwī, literally ‘frankincense of Java’ (the trees grow in Southeast Asia).
When the expression was borrowed into the Romance languages, the initial lu- was apprehended as the definite article, and dropped (ironically, since in so many Arabic words which do contain the article al, it has been retained as part and parcel of the word – see ALGEBRA). This produced a variety of forms, including French benjoin, Portuguese beijoim, and Italian benzoi.
English probably acquired the word mainly from French (a supposition supported by the folketymological alteration benjamin which was in common use in English from the end of the 16th century), but took the z from the Italian form. Meanwhile, back with benzine, in the following year, 1834, the German chemist Justus von Liebig proposed the alternative name benzol; and finally, in the 1870s, the chemist A W Hofmann regularized the form to currently accepted chemical nomenclature as benzene.
=> benzol[benzene etymology, benzene origin, 英语词源] - domino
- domino: [18] The word domino was borrowed from French, where it originally signified (in the 16th century) a sort of hooded cloak worn by priests. It presumably represents a form of Latin dominus ‘lord, master’, but the reason for the application has never been satisfactorily explained (one suggestion is that it comes from the ritual formula benedicamus Domino ‘let us bless the Lord’).
By the time English acquired it, it had come to mean ‘hooded cloak with a halfmask, worn at masquerades’, and by the 19th century it was being used for the mask itself. It is far from clear whether the application to the game played with small rectangular blocks, which dates in English from the 19th century, represents a new use of the same word or a return to the original Latin, but either way the reason behind the usage is not known.
A possibility that has been advanced is that the winner of the game originally shouted domino! ‘lord!’.
- open
- open: [OE] Etymologically, open means ‘turned up’ or ‘put up’. It comes ultimately from a prehistoric Germanic *upanaz, an adjective based on the ancestor of up, and therefore presumably denoted originally the raising of a lid or cover. The German verb aufmachen ‘open’, literally ‘make up’, contains the adverb auf, the German equivalent to English up. The English verb open [OE] is a derivative of the adjective.
=> up - woman
- woman: [OE] A woman is etymologically a ‘wife-man’ – that is to say, a ‘female person’. The word was compounded in the Old English period from wīf ‘woman’ (source of modern English wife) and man ‘person’ (source of modern English man). Already by the end of the Old English period the f of wifman was disappearing, giving wiman, and the influence of the w sound started to turn this into woman in the 13th century. Woman did not finally oust the two more ancient words for ‘female person’, wife and the now obsolete quean, until the end of the Middle English period.
=> man, wife - -ane
- word-forming element in chemical use, indicating a chain of carbon atoms with no double bonds, proposed 1866 by German chemist August Wilhelm von Hofmann (1818-1892) to go with -ene, -ine (2), -one.
- aniline (n.)
- chemical base used in making colorful dyes, 1843, coined 1841 by German chemist Carl Julius Fritzsche (1808-1871) and adopted by Hofmann, ultimately from Portuguese anil "the indigo shrub," from Arabic an-nil "the indigo," assimilated from al-nil, from Persian nila, ultimately from Sanskrit nili "indigo," from nilah "dark blue." With suffix -ine indicating "derived substance" (see -ine (1); also see -ine (2) for the later, more precise, use of the suffix in chemistry).
- chapman (n.)
- "peddler, itinerant tradesman," Middle English form of Old English ceapman "tradesman," from West Germanic compound *kaupman- (cognates: Old High German choufman, German Kauffman, Middle Dutch and Dutch koopman), formed with equivalents of man (n.) + West Germanic *kaup- (cognates: Old Saxon cop, Old Frisian kap "trade, purchase," Middle Dutch coop, Dutch koop "trade, market, bargain," kauf "trader," Old English ceap "barter, business; a purchase"), from Proto-Germanic *kaupoz- (cognates: Danish kjøb "purchase, bargain," Old Norse kaup "bargain, pay;" compare also Old Church Slavonic kupiti "to buy," a Germanic loan-word), probably an early Germanic borrowing from Latin caupo (genitive cauponis) "petty tradesman, huckster," which is of unknown origin. Compare also cheap (adj.).
- -ene
- hydrocarbon suffix, from Greek name-forming element -ene. It has no real meaning in itself; in chemistry terminology probably abstracted from methylene (1834). Put in systematic use by Hofmann (1865).
- enfeoff (v.)
- c. 1400, based on Old French enfeffer, from en- "in" (see en- (1)) + feoff, variant of fief (n.). Related: Enfeoffment.
- ethane (n.)
- 1873, from ethyl + -ane, the appropriate suffix under Hofmann's system.
- formaldehyde (n.)
- pungent gas formed by oxidation of methyl alcohol, 1869, a contraction of formic aldehyde; see formic + aldehyde. Discovered in 1863 by German chemist August Wilhelm von Hofmann (1818-1892).
- Lammas (n.)
- Aug. 1 harvest festival with consecration of loaves, Old English hlafmæsse, literally "loaf mass," from hlaf (see loaf (n.)) + mæsse (see mass (n.2)). Altered by influence of lamb (and occasionally spelled lamb- in 16c.-17c.).
- leman (n.)
- "sweetheart, paramour" (archaic), late 13c., from Middle English leofman (c. 1200), from Old English leof "dear" (see lief) + man "human being, person" (see man (n.)). Originally of either gender, though deliberate archaic usage tends to limit it to women.
- Struwwelpeter (n.)
- German, name of a character in the children's book by Heinrich Hoffman (1809-1894). There was an English edition by 1848.
- Sturm und Drang (n.)
- 1844, literally "storm and stress," late 18c. German romanticism period, taken from the title of a 1776 romantic drama by Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger (1752-1831), who gave it this name at the suggestion of Christoph Kauffmann. See storm (n.) + throng (n.).
- Valium (n.)
- 1961, proprietary name (Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., Nutley, N.J.) of diazepam (reg. U.S.), of unknown origin.
- wife (n.)
- Old English wif (neuter) "woman, female, lady," also, but not especially, "wife," from Proto-Germanic *wiban (cognates: Old Saxon, Old Frisian wif, Old Norse vif, Danish and Swedish viv, Middle Dutch, Dutch wijf, Old High German wib, German Weib), of uncertain origin, not found in Gothic.
Apparently felt as inadequate in its basic sense, leading to the more distinctive formation wifman (source of woman). Dutch wijf now means, in slang, "girl, babe," having softened somewhat from earlier sense of "bitch." German cognate Weib also tends to be slighting or derogatory and has been displaced by Frau.
The more usual Indo-European word is represented in English by queen/quean. Words for "woman" also double for "wife" in some languages. Some proposed PIE roots for wife include *weip- "to twist, turn, wrap," perhaps with sense of "veiled person" (see vibrate); and more recently *ghwibh-, a proposed root meaning "shame," also "pudenda," but the only examples of it would be the Germanic words and Tocharian (a lost IE language of central Asia) kwipe, kip "female pudenda."
The modern sense of "female spouse" began as a specialized sense in Old English; the general sense of "woman" is preserved in midwife, old wives' tale, etc. Middle English sense of "mistress of a household" survives in housewife; and the later restricted sense of "tradeswoman of humble rank" in fishwife. By 1883 as "passive partner in a homosexual couple." Wife-swapping is attested from 1954. - 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. - Yippie
- 1968, acronym from fictitious "Youth International Party," modeled on hippie.
On December 31, 1967, Abbie [Hoffman], Jerry [Rubin], Paul Krassner, Dick Gregory, and friends decided to pronounce themselves the Yippies. (The name came first, then the acronym that would satisfy literal-minded reporters: Youth International Party.) [Todd Gitlin," The Sixties," 1987, p.235]