英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

abridge (v.)[abridge 词源字典]: c. 1300, abreggen, "to make shorter, to condense," from Old French abregier "abridge, diminish, shorten," from Late Latin abbreviare "make short" (see abbreviate). The sound development from Latin -vi- to French -dg- is paralleled in assuage (from assuavidare) and deluge (from diluvium). Related: Abridged; abridging.[abridge etymology, abridge origin, 英语词源]
bridge (v.): Old English brycgian "to bridge, make a causeway," from bridge (n.). Related: Bridged; bridging.
pontifex (n.): member of the supreme college of priests in ancient Rome, 1570s, from Latin pontifex "high priest, chief of the priests," probably from pont-, stem of pons "bridge" (see pons) + -fex, -ficis, root of facere "make" (see factitious). If so, the word originally meant "bridge-maker," or "path-maker."

Weekley points out that, "bridge-building has always been regarded as a pious work of divine inspiration." Or the term may be metaphoric of bridging the earthly world and the realm of the gods. Other suggestions trace it to Oscan-Umbrian puntis "propitiary offering," or to a lost Etruscan word, in either case altered by folk etymology to resemble the Latin for "bridge-maker." In Old English, pontifex is glossed in the Durham Ritual (Old Northumbrian dialect) as brycgwyrcende "bridge-maker."
mesocoracoid: "In some teleostean fishes: a bone situated between and bridging the hypercoracoid and hypocoracoid bones", Mid 19th cent.; earliest use found in William K. Parker (1823–1890), comparative anatomist and zoologist. From meso- + coracoid.