英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

alms [alms 词源字典]: alms: [OE] The word alms has become much reduced in its passage through time from its ultimate Greek source, eleēmosúnē ‘pity, alms’. This was borrowed into post-classical (Christian) Latin as eleēmosyna, which subsequently became simplified in Vulgar Latin to *alimosina (source of the word for ‘alms’ in many Romance languages, such as French aumône and Italian limosina).

At this stage Germanic borrowed it, and in due course dispersed it (German almosen, Dutch aalmoes). It entered Old English as ælmesse, which became reduced in Middle English to almes and finally by the 17th century to alms (which because of its -s had come to be regarded as a plural noun). The original Greek eleēmosúnē is itself a derivative, of the adjective eleémōn ‘compassionate’, which in turn came from the noun éleos ‘pity’.

From medieval Latin eleēmosyna was derived the adjective eleēmosynarius (borrowed into English in the 17th century as the almost unpronounceable eleemosynary ‘giving alms’). Used as a noun, this passed into Old French as a(u)lmonier, and eventually, in the 13th century, became English aumoner ‘giver of alms’. The modern sense of almoner as a hospital social worker did not develop until the end of the 19th century.
=> almoner, eleemosynary[alms etymology, alms origin, 英语词源]
brimstone: brimstone: see sulphur
circumstance: circumstance: see statue
clumsy: clumsy: [16] When clumsy first appeared on the scene around 1600, both it and the presumably related but now obsolete clumse were used not only for ‘awkward’ but also for ‘numb with cold’. This, and the fact that the word’s nearest apparent relatives are Scandinavian (such as Swedish dialect klumsig ‘numb, clumsy’), suggests that the notion originally contained in them was of being torpid from cold – so cold that one is sluggish and cannot coordinate one’s actions.
crimson: crimson: [14] The colour term crimson comes ultimately from the name of a small scale insect, the kermes, from whose dried bodies a red dyestuff is obtained. Kermes comes from Arabic qirmaz, which in turn was derived from Sanskrit krmi-ja ‘(dye) produced by a worm’, a compound formed from krmi- ‘worm’ and ja- ‘produced, born’. From qirmaz was derived Arabic qirmazī ‘red colour’, which passed into English via metathesized Old Spanish cremesin. The medieval Latin version carmesīnum is thought to have been the source of English carmine [18], through blending with minium ‘red lead’ (whence English miniature).
=> carmine
damson: damson: see damask
hamster: hamster: [17] The hamster is a native of western Asia and southeastern Europe, and its English name is of Slavic origin. In Old Slavic it was called chomestoru, and it appears that at some point in the past an ancestor of this was borrowed into Germanic. Old High German had hamustro, which became modern German hamster, source of the English word. In the 18th century the animal was also called the German rat.
plimsoll: plimsoll: [20] The British politician and social reformer Samuel Plimsoll (1824–98) was one of the leading instigators of the Merchant Shipping Act 1876. Amongst its provisions was that a line should be painted round the hulls of ships to indicate a safe limit for loading. This was Plimsoll’s idea, and it became known as the Plimsoll line. It is thought that the word plimsoll was applied to ‘gym shoes’ in allusion to the line running round the shoes formed by the rubber welt or trimming.
ramshackle: ramshackle: see ransack
ahimsa (n.): 1875, from Sanskrit ahimsa, from a "without" + himsa "injury."
alms (n.): Old English ælmesse "alms, almsgiving," from Proto-Germanic *alemosna (cognates: Old Saxon alamosna, Old High German alamuosan, Old Norse ölmusa), an early borrowing of Vulgar Latin *alemosyna (source of Old Spanish almosna, Old French almosne, Italian limosina), from Church Latin eleemosyna (Tertullian, 3c.), from Greek eleemosyne "pity, mercy," in Ecclesiastical Greek "charity, alms," from eleemon "compassionate," from eleos "pity, mercy," which is of unknown origin, perhaps imitative of cries for alms. Spelling perversion in Vulgar Latin is perhaps by influence of alimonia.
almshouse (n.): mid-15c., from alms + house (n.).
Amsterdam: principal city of the Netherlands; the name is a reference to the dam built on the Amstel river. Prevalence of dam in Dutch place names reflects the geography of Holland.
arms race (n.): 1930, in reference to naval build-ups, from arms (see arm (n.2)) + race (n.1). First used in British English.
arms-length (n.): 1650s, from arm (n.1) + length. At arm's end is recorded from 1570s.
bazooms (n.): "woman's breasts," especially when deemed prominent, 1955, American English slang alteration of bosoms.
bell-bottoms (n.): type of trousers, 1882, from bell (n.) + bottom (n.). Distinguished in the late 1960s from flares by the shape of the expanded part (flares straight, bell-bottoms curved).
Bloomsbury: 1910, in reference to the set of Bohemian writers, artists, and intellectuals (including E.M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, Vanessa and Clive Bell, John Maynard Keynes) centered on Lytton Strachey; so called from the London neighborhood where several lived and worked.
Women in love with buggers and buggers in love with womanizers, I don't know what the world is coming to. [Lytton Strachey]
The place name is recorded 1291 as Blemondesberi "manor held by the Blemond family," from Blémont in France. It was laid out for housing in 17c., fashionable from 18c.
brimstone (n.): Old English brynstan, from brin- stem of brinnen "to burn" (see burn (v.)) + stan (see stone (n.)). In Middle English the first element also recorded as brem-, brom-, brum-, bren-, brin-, bron-, brun-, bern-, born-, burn-, burned-, and burnt-. Formerly "the mineral sulfur," now restricted to biblical usage.
The Lord reynede vpon Sodom and Gomor brenstoon and fier. [Wycliff's rendition (1382) of Gen. xix:24]
The Old Norse cognate compound brennusteinn meant "amber," as does German Bernstein.
Buckinghamshire: Old English Buccingahamscir, from Buccingahamme (early 10c.), "River-bend land of the family or followers of a man called Bucca."
circumscribe (v.): late 14c., from Latin circumscribere "to make a circle around, encircle, draw a line around; limit, restrain, confine, set the boundaries of," from circum- "around" (see circum-) + scribere "write" (see script (n.)). Related: Circumscribed; circumscribing.
circumscription (n.): 1530s, from Latin circumscriptionem (nominative circumscriptio) "an encircling; fact of being held to set limits," noun of action from past participle stem of circumscribere (see circumscribe). Figurative sense of "setting limits of meaning" is earliest in English.
circumspect (adj.): early 15c., from Latin circumspectus "deliberate, guarded, well-considered," past participle of circumspicere "look around, take heed," from circum- "around" (see circum-) + specere "to look" (see scope (n.1)). Related: Circumspectly; circumspectness.
circumspection (n.): late 14c., "careful observation of one's surroundings," from Old French circumspection (Modern French circonspection), from Latin circumspectionem (nominative circumspectio) "a looking around; foresight, caution," noun of action from past participle stem of circumspicere "to look around" (see circumspect).
circumstance (n.): early 13c., "conditions surrounding and accompanying an event," from Old French circonstance "circumstance, situation," also literally, "outskirts" (13c., Modern French circonstance), from Latin circumstantia "surrounding condition," neuter plural of circumstans (genitive circumstantis), present participle of circumstare "stand around, surround, encompass, occupy, take possession of" from circum "around" (see circum-) + stare "to stand" from PIE root *sta- "to stand" (see stet). The Latin word is a loan-translation of Greek peristasis.

Meaning "a person's surroundings, environment" is from mid-14c. Meaning "a detail" is from c. 1300; sense of "that which is non-essential" is from 1590s. Obsolete sense of "formality about an important event" (late 14c.) lingers in Shakespeare's phrase pomp and circumstance ("Othello" III, iii).
circumstances (n.): "condition of life, material welfare" (usually with a qualifying adjective), 1704, from circumstance.
circumstantial (adj.): c. 1600, from Latin circumstantia (see circumstance) + -al (1). Related: Circumstantially. Circumstantial evidence is attested by 1691.
circumstantiate (v.): 1650s, from Latin circumstantia "surrounding condition" (see circumstance) + -ate (2). Related: Circumstantiated; circumstantiating; circumstantiation.
clumsy (adj.): 1590s, "acting as if benumbed," alteration of Middle English clumsid "numb with cold" (14c.), past participle of clumsen "to benumb, stiffen or paralyze with cold or fear," from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse klumsa "make speechless, palsy; prevent from speaking," intensive of kluma "to make motionless." For insertion of -s-, see flimsy.

Not in general use until 18c., with senses "manifesting awkwardness; so made as to be unwieldy." Related: Clumsily; clumsiness. Compare Swedish dialectal klummsen "benumbed with cold," Norwegian klumsad (past participle) "speechless, palsied by a spasm or by fear or witchery;" German verklammen "grow stiff or numb with cold." Also compare clumse (n.) "a stupid fellow."
coat of arms (n.): mid-14c., originally a tunic embroidered with heraldic arms (worn over armor, etc); see from coat (n.) + arm (n.2) and compare Old French cote a armer. Sense transferred to the heraldic arms themselves by 1560s. Hence turncoat, one who put his coat on inside-out to hide the badge of his loyalty.
Comstockery (n.): 1905, from Anthony Comstock (1844-1915), founder of New York Society for the Suppression of Vice (1873) and self-appointed crusader against immorality, + -ery. Coined by George Bernard Shaw after Comstock objected to "Mrs. Warren's Profession." "Comstockery is the world's standing joke at the expense of the United States" [Shaw, "New York Times," Sept. 26, 1905]. The Comstock lode, silver vein in Nevada, was discovered 1859 and first worked by U.S. prospector H.T.P. Comstock (1820-1870).
crimson (v.): c. 1600, from crimson (n.). Related: Crimsoned; crimsoning.
crimson (n.): early 15c., "deep red color," from Old Spanish cremesin "of or belonging to the kermes" (the shield-louse insects from which a deep red dye was obtained), from Medieval Latin cremesinus (see kermes). For similar transfer of the dye word to generic use for "red," compare Old Church Slavonic čruminu, Russian čermnyj "red," from the same source.
damsel (n.): late 12c., from Old French dameisele "woman of noble birth" (Modern French demoiselle "young lady"), modified (by association with dame) from earlier donsele, from Gallo-Roman *domnicella, diminutive of Latin domina "lady" (see dame). Archaic until revived by romantic poets, along with 16c.-17c. variant form damozel.
doldrums (n.): 1811, from dulled, past participle of dullen, from Old English dol "foolish, dull," ending perhaps patterned on tantrum.
Doomsday (n.): Old English domes dæg, from domes, genitive of dom (see doom (n.)) + dæg "day" (see day (n.)).

In medieval England it was expected when the world's age reached 6,000 years from creation, which was thought to have been in 5200 B.C. Bede, c.720, complained of being pestered by rustici asking him how many years till the sixth millennium ended. There is no evidence for a general panic in the year 1000 C.E. Doomsday machine "bomb powerful enough to wipe out human life on earth" is from 1960.
dreamscape (n.): 1959, from dream + second element abstracted from landscape, etc. First attested in a Sylvia Plath poem.
drumstick (n.): 1580s, from drum (n.) + stick (n.); applied to the lower joint of cooked fowl 1764.
farmstead (n.): "collection of buildings belonging to a farm," 1785, from farm (n.) + stead (n.).
flimsy (adj.): 1702, of unknown origin, perhaps a metathesis of film (n.) "gauzy covering" + -y (2). Figuratively (of arguments, etc.) from 1750s. Related: Flimsily; flimsiness.
gams (n.): "legs," 1781, low slang, probably the same word as gamb "leg of an animal on a coat of arms" (1727) and ultimately from Middle English gamb "leg," which is from French (see gammon). Now, in American English slang, especially with reference to well-formed legs of pretty women, but this was not the original sense.
gemstone (n.): Old English gimstan; see gem + stone (n.).
groomsman (n.): attendant on a bridegroom at a wedding, 1690s, from possessive of groom (n.2) + man (n.).
gumshoe (n.): "plainclothes detective," 1906, from the rubber-soled shoes they wore (allowing stealthy movement), which were so called from 1863 (gums "rubber shoes" is attested by 1859); from gum (n.1) + shoe (n.).
hamster (n.): c. 1600, from German Hamster, from Middle High German hamastra "hamster," probably from Old Church Slavonic chomestoru "hamster" (the animal is native to southeastern Europe), which is perhaps a blend of Russian chomiak and Lithuanian staras, both meaning "hamster." The older English name for it was German rat.
hamstring (v.): 1640s, "to disable, render useless," a figurative verbal extension from hamstring (n.) "tendon at the back of the knee." Cutting this would render a person or animal lame. Literal sense of the verb is attested from 1670s. Since it is a verb from a noun-noun compound, hamstrung as a past participle is technically incorrect.
[I]n hamstring, -string is not the verb string; we do not string the ham, but do something to the tendon called the hamstring; the verb, that is, is made not from the two words ham & string, but from the noun hamstring. It must therefore make hamstringed. [Fowler]
hamstring (n.): "tendon at the back of the knee," 1560s, from ham "bend of the knee" (see ham (n.1)) + string (n.).
helmsman (n.): 1620s, from helm (n.1) + man (n.).
hemstitch (n.): also hem-stitch, 1821, from hem + stitch. As a verb by 1839. Related: Hemstitched; hemstitching.
himself (pron.): Old English him selfum, from him, dative/accusative personal pronoun, + self, here used as an inflected adjective.