英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

agree [agree 词源字典]: agree: [14] Originally, if a thing ‘agreed you’, it was to your liking, it pleased you. This early meaning survives in the adjective agreeable [14], but the verb has meanwhile moved on via ‘to reconcile (people who have quarrelled)’ and ‘to come into accord’ to its commonest presentday sense, ‘to concur’. It comes from Old French agréer ‘to please’, which was based on the phrase a gré ‘to one’s liking’. Gré was descended from Latin grātum, a noun based on grātus ‘pleasing’, from which English also gets grace and grateful.
=> congratulate, grace, grateful, gratitude[agree etymology, agree origin, 英语词源]
gravy: gravy: [14] To begin with, the word gravy signified a sort of spiced stock-based sauce served with white meat; it was not until the 16th century that its modern sense ‘meat juices’ or ‘sauce made from them’ emerged. Its origins are problematical. It is generally agreed that its v represents a misreading of an n in the Old French word, grané, from which it was borrowed (modern v was written u in medieval manuscripts, and was often very hard to distinguish from n); but what the source of grané was is not clear.

The favourite candidate is perhaps grain (source of English grain), as if ‘sauce flavoured with grains of spice’, but graine ‘meat’ has also been suggested.
=> grain
handicap: handicap: [17] The word handicap originally denoted a sort of game of chance in which one person put up one of his or her personal possessions against an article belonging to someone else (for example one might match a gold watch against the other’s horse) and an umpire was appointed to adjudicate on the respective values of the articles. All three parties put their hands into a hat, together with a wager, and on hearing the umpire’s verdict the two opponents had to withdraw them in such a way as to indicate whether they wished to proceed with the game.

If they agreed, either in favour of proceeding or against, the umpire took the money; but if they disagreed, the one who wanted to proceed took it. It was the concealing of the hands in the hat that gave the game its name hand in cap, hand i’ cap, source of modern English handicap. In the 18th century the same term was applied to a sort of horse race between two horses, in which an umpire decided on a weight disadvantage to be imposed on a superior horse and again the owners of the horses signalled their assent to or dissent from his adjudication by the way in which they withdrew their hands from a hat.

Such a race became known as a handicap race, and in the 19th century the term handicap first broadened out to any contest in which inequalities are artificially evened out, and was eventually transferred to the ‘disadvantage’ imposed on superior contestants – whence the main modern meaning, ‘disadvantage, disability’.
hinge: hinge: [13] Hinge is generally agreed to be related to the verb hang, and to mean etymologically ‘something on which a door hangs’, but the circumstances of its formation are obscure (as indeed are the reasons for its rhyming with singe, a 16th-century development; before that it rhymed with sing).
=> hang
plead: plead: [13] Essentially plead and plea are the same word. Both go back ultimately to Latin placitum ‘something pleasant’, hence ‘something that pleases both sides’, ‘something agreed upon’, and finally ‘opinion, decision’. This was a noun formed from the past participle of placēre ‘please’ (source of English please). It passed into Old French as plaid ‘agreement, discussion, lawsuit’, and formed the basis of a verb plaidier, from which (via Anglo-Norman pleder) English got plead. In later Old French plaid became plait, and Anglo-Norman took it over as plai or ple – whence English plea [13].
=> plea, please
sundae: sundae: [19] The ice-cream concoction known as a ‘sundae’ first appeared on the scene in America, at the end of the 19th century. It is generally agreed that its name is an alteration of Sunday, but the why and the how remain unclear. As far as the change in spelling is concerned (sundi was another early variant), it seems plausible that it was intended to placate those who might have been offended by naming a dessert after the Lord’s day.

But why Sunday? Perhaps, it has been speculated, because ice cream was a dessert that could be eaten on Sunday without offending propriety; or because it was a special sort of ice cream that could be sold on Sundays without breaking the Sabbath trading laws; or because it was made of assorted odds and ends of ice cream left over from Sunday. The jury is still out.
agree (v.): late 14c., "to be to one's liking;" also "to give consent," from Old French agreer "to receive with favor, take pleasure in" (12c.), from phrase a gré "favorably, of good will," literally "to (one's) liking," from Latin ad "to" (see ad-) + gratum "pleasing," neuter of gratus (see grace (n.)); the original sense survives best in agreeable. Meaning "to be in harmony in opinions" is from late 15c. Related: Agreed; agreeing.
Catch-22 (n.): from the title of Joseph Heller's 1961 novel. In widespread use only after release of the movie based on the book in 1970. The "catch" is that a bomber pilot is insane if he flies combat missions without asking to be relieved from duty, and is thus eligible to be relieved from duty. But if he asks to be relieved from duty, that means he's sane and has to keep flying.
There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.

"That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed.

"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.
See catch (n.).
contracted (adj.): c. 1600, "agreed upon," also "shrunken, shortened," past participle adjective from contract (v.).
disagree (v.): late 15c., "refuse to assent," from Old French desagreer (12c.), from des- (see dis-) + agreer (see agree). Related: Disagreed; disagreeing.
drill (v.): c. 1600 (implied in drilling), from Dutch drillen "to bore (a hole), turn around, whirl," from Proto-Germanic *thr- (cognates: Middle High German drillen "to turn, round off, bore," Old Engish þyrel "hole"), from PIE *tere- (1) "to turn, rub" (see throw (v.)). Sense of "to instruct in military exercise" is 1620s (also in Dutch drillen and in the Danish and German cognates), probably from the notion of troops "turning" in maneuvers. Extended noun sense of "the agreed-upon procedure" is from 1940. Related: Drilled.
fire-drill (n.): 1865, originally a device for making fire by the twirled stick method, from fire (n.) + drill (n.1). Meaning "rehearsal of what to do in a fire" is from 1884 (originally it also involved fighting the fire), from drill (n.) in the "agreed-upon procedure" sense (see drill (v.)).
handicap (n.): 1650s, from hand in cap, a game whereby two bettors would engage a neutral umpire to determine the odds in an unequal contest. The bettors would put their hands holding forfeit money into a hat or cap. The umpire would announce the odds and the bettors would withdraw their hands -- hands full meaning that they accepted the odds and the bet was on, hands empty meaning they did not accept the bet and were willing to forfeit the money. If one forfeited, then the money went to the other. If both agreed either on forfeiting or going ahead with the wager, then the umpire kept the money as payment. The custom, though not the name, is attested from 14c. ("Piers Plowman").

Reference to horse racing is 1754 (Handy-Cap Match), where the umpire decrees the superior horse should carry extra weight as a "handicap;" this led to sense of "encumbrance, disability" first recorded 1890. The main modern sense, "a mental or physical disability," is the last to develop, early 20c.
hill (n.): Old English hyll "hill," from Proto-Germanic *hulni- (cognates: Middle Dutch hille, Low German hull "hill," Old Norse hallr "stone," Gothic hallus "rock," Old Norse holmr "islet in a bay," Old English holm "rising land, island"), from PIE root *kel- (4) "to rise, be elevated, be prominent; hill" (cognates: Sanskrit kutam "top, skull;" Latin collis "hill," columna "projecting object," culmen "top, summit," cellere "raise," celsus "high;" Greek kolonos "hill," kolophon "summit;" Lithuanian kalnas "mountain," kalnelis "hill," kelti "raise"). Formerly including mountains, now usually confined to heights under 2,000 feet.
In Great Britain heights under 2,000 feet are generally called hills; 'mountain' being confined to the greater elevations of the Lake District, of North Wales, and of the Scottish Highlands; but, in India, ranges of 5,000 and even 10,000 feet are commonly called 'hills,' in contrast with the Himalaya Mountains, many peaks of which rise beyond 20,000 feet. [OED]

The term mountain is very loosely used. It commonly means any unusual elevation. In New England and central New York, elevations of from one to two thousand feet are called hills, but on the plains of Texas, a hill of a few hundred feet is called a mountain. [Ralph S. Tarr, "Elementary Geology," Macmillan, 1903]

Despite the differences in defining mountain systems, Penck (1896), Supan (1911) and Obst (1914) agreed that the distinction between hills, mountains, and mountain systems according to areal extent or height is not a suitable classification. ["Geographic Information Science and Mountain Geomorphology," 2004]
Phrase over the hill "past one's prime" is first recorded 1950.
initialism (n.): word formed from the first letters of other words or a phrase, 1957, from initial (n.) + -ism. The distinction from acronym is not universally agreed-upon; in general, words such as NATO, where the letters form a word, are regarded as acronyms, those such as FBI, where the letters sound as letters, are initialisms. The use of acronym in entries in this dictionary that are technically initialisms is a deliberate error, because many people only know to search for all such words under "acronym."
plea (n.): early 13c., "lawsuit," from Anglo-French plai (late 12c.), Old French plait "lawsuit, decision, decree" (9c.), from Medieval Latin placitum "lawsuit," in classical Latin, "opinion, decree," literally "that which pleases, thing which is agreed upon," properly neuter past participle of placere (see please). Sense development seems to be from "something pleasant," to "something that pleases both sides," to "something that has been decided." Meaning "a pleading, an agreement in a suit" is attested from late 14c. Plea-bargaining is first attested 1963. Common pleas (early 13c.) originally were legal proceedings over which the Crown did not claim exclusive jurisdiction (as distinct from pleas of the Crown); later "actions brought by one subject against another."
pledge (n.): mid-14c., "surety, bail," from Old French plege (Modern French pleige) "hostage, security, bail," probably from Frankish *plegan "to guarantee," from *pleg-, a West Germanic root meaning "have responsibility for" (cognates: Old Saxon plegan "vouch for," Middle Dutch plien "to answer for, guarantee," Old High German pflegan "to care for, be accustomed to," Old English pleon "to risk the loss of, expose to danger;" see plight (v.)).

Meaning "allegiance vow attested by drinking with another" is from 1630s. Sense of "solemn promise" first recorded 1814, though this notion is from 16c. in the verb. Weekley notes the "curious contradiction" in pledge (v.) "to toast with a drink" (1540s) and pledge (n.) "the vow to abstain from drinking" (1833). Meaning "student who has agreed to join a fraternity or sorority" dates from 1901.
portobello: type of mushroom, by 1986, no agreed-upon theory accounts for the name, which seems to be a marketing coinage. London's Portobello Road (one suggested source of the mushroom name) originally was the lane to Porto Bello House, named for the Panamanian place captured by the British under Vernon in 1739.
Prince Charming: 1837, from French Roi Charmant, name of the hero of Comtesse d'Aulnoy's "L'Oiseau Bleu" (1697). In English he was adopted into native fairy tales including "Sleeping Beauty" and "Cinderella."
As for me, I have always agreed with the fairy books that the moment when Prince Charming arrives is the perfect climax. Everything that goes before in the life of a girl simply leads up to that moment, and everything that comes after dates from it; and while the girl of the twentieth century, sallying forth in search of adventure, may not hope to meet at the next turn a knight in shining armor, or a sighing troubadour, she does hope, if she is normal and has the normal dreams of a girl, to find her hero in some of the men who pass her way. [Temple Bailey, "Adventures in Girlhood," Philadelphia, 1919]
signal (n.): late 14c., "visible sign, indication," from Old French signal, seignal "seal, imprint, sign, mark," from Medieval Latin signale "a signal," from Late Latin signalis (adj.) "used as a signal, pertaining to a sign," from Latin signum "signal, sign" (see sign (n.)). Restricted sense "agreed-upon sign (to commence or desist, etc.) is from 1590s. Meaning "modulation of an electric current" is from 1855.
standard (adj.): 1620s, "serving as a standard," from standard (adj.). Earlier it meant "upright" (1530s). Standard-bred "bred up to some agreed-upon standard of excellence" is from 1888.
stipulation (n.): 1550s, "a commitment or activity to do something" (now obsolete), from Latin stipulationem (nominative stipulatio), noun of action from past participle stem of stipulari "exact a promise, engage, bargain," of uncertain origin. Traditionally said to be from Latin stipula "stalk, straw" (see stipule) in reference to some obscure symbolic act; this is rejected by most authorities, who, however, have not come up with a better guess. Meaning "act of specifying one of the terms of a contract or agreement" is recorded from 1750. Meaning "that which is stipulated or agreed upon" is from 1802.
truce (n.): "mutually agreed-upon temporary intermission of hostilities," early 13c., triws, variant of trewes, originally plural of trewe "faith, assurance of faith, covenant, treaty," from Old English treow "faith, truth, fidelity; pledge, promise, agreement, treaty," from Proto-Germanic *treuwaz- (cognates: Old Frisian triuwe, Middle Dutch trouwe, Dutch trouw, Old High German triuwa, German treue, Gothic triggwa "faith, faithfulness"). Related to Old English treowe "faithful" (see true (adj.)). The Germanic word was borrowed into Late Latin as tregua, hence French trève, Italian tregua.
instalment: "A sum of money due as one of several equal payments for something, spread over an agreed period of time", Mid 18th century (denoting the arrangement of payment by instalments): alteration of obsolete estalment (probably by association with installation), from Anglo-Norman French estalement, from Old French estaler 'to fix'.
poste restante: "A service offered by a post office whereby mail is kept for an agreed period until collected by the addressee", Mid 18th century: from French, literally 'mail remaining'.
flexitime: "A system of working a set number of hours with the starting and finishing times chosen within agreed limits by the employee", 1970s: blend of flexible and time.
homologate: "Approve (a car, engine, etc.) for sale in a particular market or use in a particular class of racing", Late 16th century: from medieval Latin homologat- 'agreed', from the verb homologare, from Greek homologein 'confess'.