quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- blubber[blubber 词源字典]
- blubber: [14] The original notion underlying blubber is of ‘bubbling’ or ‘foaming’, particularly in relation to the sea, and it may, like bubble itself, be an onomatopoeic creation, imitative of the sound of spluttering or popping water. This sense died out in the mainstream language in the 16th century (though it survived longer dialectally), but it lies behind the verbal sense ‘cry copiously’. The development of the noun to its present meaning ‘whale fat’ is not altogether clear, but it may have been via an intermediate 15th-century application to ‘fish’s entrails’, which perhaps bubbled or appeared pustular when ripped open by the fishermen.
[blubber etymology, blubber origin, 英语词源] - blubber (n.)
- late 14c., blober "a bubble, bubbling water; foaming waves," probably echoic of bubbling water. Original notion of "bubbling, foaming" survives in the figurative verbal meaning "to weep, cry" (c. 1400). Meaning "whale fat" first attested 1660s; earlier it was used in reference to jellyfish (c. 1600) and of whale oil (mid-15c.). As an adjective from 1660s.
- blubber (v.)
- late 14c., "to seethe, bubble," from blubber (n.). Meaning "to cry, to overflow with weeping" is from c. 1400. Related: Blubbered; blubbering.