英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

agglutinate [agglutinate 词源字典]: agglutinate: see glue
[agglutinate etymology, agglutinate origin, 英语词源]
anathema: anathema: [16] Originally in Greek anáthēma was a ‘votive offering’ (it was a derivative of the compound verb anatithénai ‘set up, dedicate’, formed from the prefix ana- ‘up’ and the verb tithénai ‘place’, source of English theme and related to English do). But from being broadly ‘anything offered up for religious purposes’, the word gradually developed negative associations of ‘something dedicated to evil’; and by the time it reached Latin it meant ‘curse’ or ‘accursed person’.
=> do, theme
anatomy: anatomy: [14] Etymologically, anatomy means ‘cutting up’ (the Greek noun anatomíā was compounded from the prefix ana- ‘up’ and the base *tom-, which figures in several English surgical terms, such as tonsillectomy [19], as well as in atom and tome), and when it first came into English it meant literally ‘dissection’ as well as ‘science of bodily structure’.

From the 16th century to the early 19th century it was also used for ‘skeleton’, and in this sense it was often misanalysed as an atomy, as if the initial anwere the indefinite article: ‘My bones … will be taken up smooth, and white, and bare as an atomy’, Tobias Smollett, Don Quixote 1755.
=> atom, tome
cognate: cognate: see native
concatenation: concatenation: [17] A concatenation is literally a ‘chain’ of events or occurrences. It is a derivative of the seldom-encountered verb concatenate [16], which comes from Latin concatēnāre ‘chain together, link’, a compound verb formed from the prefix com- ‘together’ and catēna ‘chain’ (source of English chain).
=> chain
consternation: consternation: see strata
contaminate: contaminate: [15] Contaminate appears to come from the same ultimate source as contact, a base *tag- ‘touch’, which produced the Latin verb tangere ‘touch’ (whence English tactile, tangent, and tangible). It seems also to have formed the basis of a compound Latin noun *contagmen ‘contact, pollution’, which became altered to contāmen. From this was derived the verb contamināre, whose past participle gave English contaminate.
=> contact, tactile, tangible
detonate: detonate: [18] Detonate is related to thunder. It comes from the past participle of Latin dētonāre, a compound verb formed from the prefix dē- ‘down’ and tonāre ‘thunder, roar’, which goes back to the same Indo-European base (*ten-, *ton-) as thunder. Latin dētonāre never actually meant ‘cause to explode’, though; that sense comes from its French descendant détoner.
=> thunder
discriminate: discriminate: see discern
disseminate: disseminate: see seed
donation: donation: see date
eliminate: eliminate: [16] To eliminate somebody is literally to ‘kick them out of doors’. The word comes from the past participle of Latin ēlīnāre, a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and līmen ‘threshhold’ (source also of English subliminal and probably sublime). At first it was used in English with its original Latin sense (‘the secounde sorte thearfore, that eliminate Poets out of their citie gates’, Giles Fletcher, Christ’s Victorie 1610), and it was not until the early 18th century that the more general modern notion of ‘exclusion’ began to develop.
=> sublime, subliminal
fascinate: fascinate: [16] To fascinate somebody is literally to ‘bewitch’ them. The word comes from the past participle of the Latin verb fascināre, which was a derivative of fascinum ‘witchcraft’. The Roman phallic deity, incidentally, was named Fascinus, because an amulet in the shape of a penis was hung around children’s necks in ancient times to ward off evil spells.
fulminate: fulminate: [15] Etymologically, fulminate means ‘strike with lightning’. It comes from Latin fulmināre, a derivative of fulmen ‘lightning’. In medieval Latin its literal meaning gave way to the metaphorical ‘pronounce an ecclesiastical censure on’, and this provided the semantic basis for its English derivative fulminate, although in the 17th and 18th centuries there were sporadic learned reintroductions of its original meteorological sense: ‘Shall our Mountains be fulminated and thunder-struck’, William Sancroft, Lex ignea 1666.
germinate: germinate: see germ
gubernatorial: gubernatorial: see govern
hibernate: hibernate: [19] The Latin word for ‘winter’ was hiems (it is the source of French hiver, Italian inverno, and Spanish invierno, and is related to a number of other ‘winter’ or ‘snow’ words, such as Greek kheima, modern Irish geimhreadh, Russian zima, and Sanskrit hima- – the Himalayas are etymologically the ‘snowy’ mountains – which point back to a common Indo-European ancestor *gheim-, *ghyem-).

From it was derived the adjective hībernus, whose neuter plural form hīberna was used as a noun meaning ‘winter quarters’. This in turn formed the basis of a verb hībernāre ‘pass the winter’, whose English descendant hibernate was apparently first used by the British naturalist Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles) around 1800. (Hibernia, incidentally, the Romans’ name for ‘Ireland’, comes ultimately from Old Celtic *Iveriu, source also of Erin and the Ire- of Ireland, but its Latin form was influenced by hībernus, as if it meant ‘wintry land’.)
=> himalayas
illuminate: illuminate: [16] Etymologically, illuminate is a parallel construction to enlighten. It was formed in the late Latin period from the prefix in- and lūmen ‘light’ (source of English luminous). The past participle of the resulting illumināre gave English illuminate. The medieval-sounding sense ‘illustrate manuscripts’ is actually quite recent, replacing in the 18th century the parallel formation enlumine, acquired by English in the 14th century via Old French enluminer from medieval Latin inlūmināre. Illumine [14] came via Old French illuminer. Illustrate is closely related.
=> illustrate, luminous
impersonate: impersonate: see person
innate: innate: see native
laminate: laminate: see omelette
magnate: magnate: see magnitude
miscegenation: miscegenation: see mix
morganatic: morganatic: [18] A morganatic marriage is one between people of different social status, in which the rank and entitlements of the higherstatus partner are not shared by the lower or their offspring. The word morganatic is a survival of an ancient Germanic marriage custom. On the morning after the wedding night, after the marriage had been consummated, the husband gave the wife a symbolic gift, which removed any further legal claim the wife or their children might have on his possessions.

The term for this useful gift was *morgangeba, a compound formed from *morgan (ancestor of English morning) and *geba (a noun formed from the same base as produced English give). The word was adopted into medieval Latin as morganaticus, from which (via either French or German) English got morganatic.
=> morning, give
natal: natal: see native
nation: nation: [13] Etymologically a nation is a ‘breed’ or ‘stock’. It is one of a wide range of English words that go back ultimately to Latin nāscī ‘be born’, and its immediate source is the derived noun nātiō. This literally meant ‘that which has been born’, a ‘breed’, but was soon used by extension for a ‘species’ or ‘race’, and then by further narrowing down for a ‘race of people, nation’.

The notion of ‘common ancestry’ underlying the term survived into English, but over the centuries has gradually been overtaken by the political concept of an organized territorial unit. The derivative nationality dates from the 17th century.
=> native
native: native: [14] Native is one of a large family of English words that go back ultimately to the Latin verb nāscī. This meant ‘be born’, and was a descendant of the Indo-European base *gen-, *gn- ‘produce’, which also gave English gene, general, generate, etc. From its past participial stem nāt- was formed the adjective nātīvus ‘from birth, born’, which has produced English native (and also, via Old French, naive [17], which is etymologically the equivalent of ‘born yesterday’), and also its derivative nativity [12] (applied from earliest times specifically to the birth of Christ).

Other English words from the same source include cognate [17], innate [15], nascent [17], natal [14], nation, nature, noel (earlier nowel [14], from an Old French descendant of Latin nātālis ‘of birth’), pregnant, puny, and renaissance [19] (literally ‘rebirth’).
=> cognate, gene, general, generate, innate, naive, nascent, nation, nature, noel, pregnant, puny, renaissance
natty: natty: see neat
nature: nature: [13] Etymologically, someone’s nature is the qualities they were ‘born’ with. The word comes via Old French nature from Latin nātūra, a derivative of the verb nāscī ‘be born’ (source of English nation, native, etc). This originally meant simply ‘birth’, but by classical times it had developed to the ‘innate properties or qualities of something or someone’, and hence to the ‘inherent course of things’, the ‘way things are in the world’. The common English sense ‘physical world’ (as in nature study) first began to emerge in the 16th century.
=> native
nominate: nominate: [16] Nominate is one of a small band of English words descended from nōmen, the Latin representative of the Indo-European ‘name’ word family that also includes English name. It was based on the derived verb nōmināre ‘name’, which has also given English, via French, nominee [17]. Other English words from the same source include nominal [15], nomenclature [17] (from Latin nōmenclātūra, whose second element was based on the verb calāre ‘call’), noun, and renown.
=> name, noun, renown
ordination: ordination: see order
pinnate: pinnate: see pin
pomegranate: pomegranate: [14] The pomegranate is etymologically the ‘many-seeded apple’. The word’s ultimate ancestor was Latin mālum grānātum (mālum gave English malic ‘of apples’ [18], and grānātus was derived from grānum ‘seed’, source of English grain). In Vulgar Latin this became reduced to simply *grānāta, which passed into Old French as grenate (source of English grenade, so named because early grenades looked like pomegranates).

Before long pome ‘apple’ was added to the term, giving pome grenate – whence English pomegranate. Pome came from Latin pōmum ‘apple, fruit’, which also gave English pomade [16] (an ointment so called because the original version was apple-scented), pomander [15] (etymologically an ‘apple of amber’), pommel [14] (etymologically a ‘little fruit’), and pomology [19].
=> garnet, grain, grenade, pomade, pomander, pommel
procrastinate: procrastinate: [16] Crās was Latin for ‘tomorrow’ (its antecedents are uncertain). The adjective derived from it was crāstinus ‘of tomorrow’, which in turn formed the basis of a verb prōcrāstināre ‘put forward to tomorrow’ (prō- denotes ‘forward’). By the time it reached English it had broadened out to simply ‘delay’.
sanatorium: sanatorium: see sane
senate: senate: [13] The Roman senate was etymologically an assembly of ‘elders’. Latin senātus was a derivative of senex ‘old’, which has also given English senile, senior, sir, etc. English acquired the word via Old French senat. Senator [13] comes from the Latin derivative senātor.
=> senile, senior, sir
snatch: snatch: see snack
sonata: sonata: see sound
abalienate (v.): 1550s, from Latin abalienatus, past participle of abalienare "to remove, literally "to make alien," from ab- (see ab-) + alienare (see alienate). Related: Abalienated; abalienating.
abalienation (n.): 1650s, from Latin abalienationem (nominative abalienatio), noun of action from past participle stem of abalienare (see abalienate).
abominate (v.): 1640s, back-formation from abomination or from Latin abominatus, past participle of abominari "shun as an ill omen" (see abomination). Related: Abominated; abominating.
abomination (n.): early 14c., "abominable thing or action;" late 14c., "feeling of disgust, hatred, loathing," from Old French abominacion "abomination, horror, repugnance, disgust" (13c.), from Latin abominationem (nominative abominatio) "abomination," noun of action from past participle stem of abominari "shun as an ill omen," from ab- "off, away from" (see ab-) + omin-, stem of omen (see omen). Meaning intensified by folk etymology derivation from Latin ab homine "away from man," thus "beastly."
Doubtless, the life of an Irregular is hard; but the interests of the Greater Number require that it shall be hard. If a man with a triangular front and a polygonal back were allowed to exist and to propagate a still more Irregular posterity, what would become of the arts of life? Are the houses and doors and churches in Flatland to be altered in order to accommodate such monsters? [Edwin Abbot, "Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions," 1885]
affectionate (adj.): 1580s, "fond, loving," from affection + -ate (1). Early, now mostly obsolete, senses included "inclined" (1530s), "prejudiced" (1530s), "passionate" (1540s), "earnest" (c. 1600). Other forms also used in the main modern sense of the word included affectious (1580s), affectuous (mid-15c.).
affectionately (adv.): 1580s, from affectionate + -ly (2).
agglutinate (v.): 1580s (from 1540s as a past participle adjective), from Latin agglutinatus, past participle of agglutinare (see agglutination). Related: Agglutinated; agglutinating.
agglutination (n.): 1540s, from Latin agglutinationem (nominative agglutinatio), noun of action from past participle stem of agglutinare "fasten with glue," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + glutinare "to glue," from gluten "glue," from PIE *glei- (see glue (n.)). Philological sense first recorded 1650s, in agglutinative.
agglutinative (adj.): 1630s, in a medical sense, from Latin agglutinat-, past participle stem of agglutinare (see agglutination). Philological sense is from 1650s.
alienate (v.): 1540s, "make estranged" (in feelings or affections), from Latin alienatus, past participle of alienare "to make another's, estrange," from alienus "of or belonging to another person or place," from alius "(an)other" (see alias (adv.)). Related: Alienated; alienating.
alienation (n.): "transfer of ownership," late 14c., from Old French alienacion and directly from Latin alienationem (nominative alienatio) "a transfer, surrender," noun of action from past participle stem of alienare (see alienate). It also meant "loss or derangement of mental faculties, insanity" (late 15c.), hence alienist. Phrase alienation of affection as a U.S. legal term in divorce cases for "falling in love with someone else" dates to 1861.
alternate (adj.): 1510s, from Latin alternatus "one after the other," past participle of alternare "to do first one thing then the other; exchange parts," from alternus "one after the other, alternate, in turns, reciprocal," from alter "the other" (see alter). Alternate means "by turns;" alternative means "offering a choice." Both imply two kinds or things.