No matching word found in the dictionary.

Word of Random

mean[mean 词源字典]

mean: English has three distinct words mean. The oldest, ‘intend’ [OE], goes back via a prehistoric West Germanic *mainjan to the Indo-European base *men- ‘think’ (source also of English memory, mention, mind, etc). The adjective ‘petty, stingy’ [12] originally meant ‘common, shared by all’. It comes from a prehistoric Germanic *gamainiz (source also of German gemein ‘common, shared’), which was formed from the collective prefix *ga- and *mainiz.

This went back to an Indo-European base *moi-, *mei- ‘change, exchange’, which also lies behind English mad, moult, mutate, mutual, and the second syllable of common. Mean’s semantic history can be traced from ‘common to all’ via ‘inferior’ and ‘low, ignoble’ to ‘petty’. The adjective ‘intermediate, average’ [14] came via Anglo-Norman meen and Old French meien from Latin mediānus (source of English median), a derivative of medius ‘middle’ (source of English medium).

It forms the basis of the plural noun means ‘method’ [14], and of the compound adverb meanwhile [15].
=> memory, mention, mind; common, mad, moult, mutate, mutual; median, medium[mean etymology, mean origin, 英语词源]