quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- dumbwaiter (n.)[dumbwaiter 词源字典]
- 1749, an article of furniture, from dumb (adj.) + waiter (apparently because it serves as a waiter but is silent). As a movable platform for passing dishes, etc., up and down from one room (especially a basement kitchen) to another, from 1847.[dumbwaiter etymology, dumbwaiter origin, 英语词源]
- thwaite (n.)
- "cleared land," 1620s, from Old Norse or Old Danish þveit "a clearing, meadow, paddock," literally "a cutting, cut-piece" (related to Old English þwitan "to cut, cut off;" see whittle). Always a rare word and now obsolete, but frequently encountered in place names, but "It is unclear whether the base meaning was 'something cut off, detached piece of land,' or 'something cut down, felled tree' ..." [Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names].
- waiter (n.)
- late 14c., "attendant, watchman," agent noun from wait (v.). Sense of "attendant at a meal, servant who waits at tables" is from late 15c., originally in reference to household servants; in reference to inns, eating houses, etc., it is attested from 1660s.