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acorn [acorn 词源字典]: acorn: [OE] Acorn has no etymological connection with oak; its nearest linguistic relative in English is probably acre. The Old English word was æcern, which may well have derived from æcer ‘open land’ (the related Middle High German ackeran referred to beech mast as well as acorns, and Gothic akran developed more widely still, to mean simply ‘fruit’).

There are cognate words in other, non- Germanic, Indo-European languages, such as Russian yagoda ‘berry’ and Welsh aeron ‘fruits’. Left to develop on its own, æcern would have become modern English achern, but the accidental similarity of oak and corn have combined to reroute its pronunciation.
=> acre[acorn etymology, acorn origin, 英语词源]
alimony: alimony: [17] Alimony is an anglicization of Latin alimōnia, which is based on the verb alere ‘nourish’ (source of alma ‘bounteous’, as in alma mater, and of alumnus). This in turn goes back to a hypothetical root *al-, which is also the basis of English adolescent, adult, altitude (from Latin altus ‘high’), and old.

The original sense ‘nourishment, sustenance’ has now died out, but the specialized ‘support for a former wife’ is of equal antiquity in English. The -mony element in the word represents Latin -mōnia, a fairly meaning-free suffix used for forming nouns from verbs (it is related to -ment, which coincidentally was also combined with alere, to form alimentary), but in the later 20th century it took on a newly productive role in the sense ‘provision of maintenance for a former partner’. Palimony ‘provision for a former non-married partner’ was coined around 1979, and in the 1980s appeared dallymony ‘provision for somebody one has jilted’.
=> adult, altitude, alumnus, old
atrocious: atrocious: [17] Traced back to its ultimate source, atrocious meant something not too dissimilar to ‘having a black eye’. Latin āter was ‘black, dark’ (it occurs also in English atrabilious ‘melancholic’ [17] – Greek mélās meant ‘black’), and the stem *-oc-, *-ox meant ‘looking, appearing’ (Latin oculus ‘eye’ and ferox ‘fierce’ – based on ferus ‘wild’, and source of English ferocious – were formed from it, and it goes back to an earlier Indo-European base which also produced Greek ōps ‘eye’ and English eye).

Combined, they formed atrox, literally ‘of a dark or threatening appearance’, hence ‘gloomy, cruel’. English borrowed it (in the stem form atrōci-) originally in the sense ‘wantonly cruel’.
=> eye, ferocious, inoculate, ocular
comedy: comedy: [14] Comedy is of Greek origin. It comes ultimately from Greek kōmos ‘revelry’. This appears to have been combined with ōidós ‘singer, poet’ (a derivative of aeídein ‘sing’, source of English ode and odeon) to produce kōmōidós, literally ‘singer in the revels’, hence ‘actor in a light amusing play’. From this was derived kōmōidíā, which came to English via Latin cōmoedia and Old French comedie.
=> encomium, ode
complain: complain: [14] Complain goes back to the Latin in verb plangere, source also of English plangent. This was formed on a prehistoric base *plak- (from which we also get plankton), and it originally meant ‘hit’. Its meaning developed metaphorically through ‘beat one’s breast’ to ‘lament’, and in medieval Latin it was combined with the intensive prefix com- to produce complangere. When it entered English via Old French complaindre it still meant ‘lament’, and although this sense had died out by about 1700, traces of it remain in ‘complain of’ a particular illness. Complaint [14] came from Old French complainte.
=> plangent, plankton
crinoline: crinoline: [19] The reason crinolines are called crinolines is that they were originally made from a stiff fabric woven from horsehair and linen thread. Italian crino ‘horsehair’ (from Latin crīnus ‘hair’, a possible relative of English crest) and lino ‘flax’ (from Latin līnum, source of English linen) were combined to produce crinolino, which passed into English via French crinoline.
=> crest, linen
ejaculate: ejaculate: [16] Etymologically, ejaculate means ‘dart out’. It comes from Latin ejaculārī, a compound verb formed ultimately from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and jaculum ‘dart, javelin’. This in turn was a derivative of jacere ‘throw’ (which itself combined with ex- to form ejicere, source of English eject [15]). The word’s original sense ‘throw out suddenly’ survived (or perhaps has revived) for a time in English, but essentially it has been for its metaphorical uses (‘emit semen’ and ‘exclaim’) that it has been preserved.
=> eject, jesses, jet, object, reject, subject
filigree: filigree: [17] Etymologically, filigree describes very accurately how filigree was originally made: it was delicate ornamental work constructed from threads (Latin filum) and beads (Latin grānum ‘grain, seed’). The Italian descendants of these two Latin words were combined to form filigrana, which passed into English via French as filigrane. This gradually metamorphosed through filigreen to filigree.
=> file, grain
ginger: ginger: [OE] Few foodstuffs can have been as exhaustively etymologized as ginger – Professor Alan Ross, for instance, begetter of the U/non-U distinction, wrote an entire 74-page monograph on the history of the word in 1952. And deservedly so, for its ancestry is extraordinarily complex. Its ultimate source was Sanskrit śrngavēram, a compound formed from śrngam ‘horn’ and vẽra- ‘body’; the term was applied to ‘ginger’ because of the shape of its edible root.

This passed via Prakrit singabēra and Greek ziggíberis into Latin as zinziberi. In postclassical times the Latin form developed to gingiber or gingiver, which Old English borrowed as gingifer. English reborrowed the word in the 13th century from Old French gingivre, which combined with the descendant of the Old English form to produce Middle English gingivere – whence modern English ginger.

Its verbal use, as in ‘ginger up’, appears to come from the practice of putting a piece of ginger into a lazy horse’s anus to make it buck its ideas up.
height: height: [OE] Etymologically as well as semantically, height is the ‘condition of being high’. It was formed in prehistoric Germanic from *khaukh- (source of high) and *-ithā, an abstract noun suffix: combined, they came down to Old English as hēhthu. The change of final -th to -t seems to have begun in the 13th century. The spelling ei reflects the word’s pronunciation in Middle English times, when it rhymed approximately with modern English hate.
=> high
hierarchy: hierarchy: [14] Greek hierós meant ‘sacred, holy’. Combined with -arkhēs ‘ruling’ (as in English archbishop) it produced hierárkhēs ‘chief priest’. A derivative of this, hierarkhíā, passed via medieval Latin hierarchia and Old French ierarchie into Middle English as ierarchie (the modern spelling was introduced on the basis of the Latin form in the 16th century).

At first the word was used in English for the medieval categorization of angels (into cherubs and seraphs, powers and dominions, etc), and it was not until the early 17th century that it was applied to the clergy and their grades and ranks. The metaphorical use for any graded system soon followed.
homeopathy: homeopathy: [19] Greek hómoios meant ‘like, similar’. It was derived from homós ‘same’, a word ultimately related to English same which has contributed homogeneous [17], homonym [17], homophone [17], and homosexual [19] to the English language. Combined with -pátheia, a derivative of Greek páthos ‘passion, suffering’, it produced German homöopathie, which was borrowed by English around 1830. Etymologically, the word means ‘cure by similarity’ – that is, by administering minute quantities of the same substance as caused the disease – and contrasts with allopathy [19], based on Greek állos ‘other’.
=> same
improve: improve: [16] The -prove of improve has no direct connection with the verb prove, although the two have come to resemble each other over the centuries. It comes ultimately from late Latin prōde ‘advantageous’ (source of English proud). This gave Old French prou ‘profit’, which was combined in Anglo-Norman with the causative prefix em- to produce the verb emprouer. This originally meant ‘turn to a profit, turn to one’s advantage’, a sense which survives in English in one or two fossilized contexts such as ‘improve the shining hour’. Modern English ‘make or get better’ developed in the 17th century.
=> proud
incident: incident: [15] An incident is literally that which ‘befalls’. In common with accident and occident, and a wide range of other English words, from cadaver to occasion, it comes ultimately from Latin cadere ‘fall’. This was combined with the prefix in- ‘on’ to produce incidere ‘fall on’, hence ‘befall, happen to’. Its present participial stem incident- passed into English either directly or via French.

The use of a word that literally means ‘fall’ to denote the concept of ‘happening’ is quite a common phenomenon. It occurs also in befall and chance, and operates in other languages than English; Welsh digwydd ‘happen’, for instance, is derived from cwyddo ‘fall’.
=> accident, cadence, case, occasion
increase: increase: [14] The -crease element in increase (which occurs also, of course, in its antonym decrease) means ‘grow’. It comes from Latin crēscere ‘grow’ (source of English crescent), which combined with the prefix in- to produce incrēscere ‘grow in, grow on’. This passed into Old French as encreistre, which English originally took over as encres. The Latin-style spelling, with in- instead of en-, was reintroduced in the 15th century. Derived from Latin incrēscere was incrēmentum ‘growth, increase’, which gave English increment [15].
=> crescent, crew, croissant, decrease, increment
mallet: mallet: [15] Latin malleus meant ‘hammer’ (it may be related to Latin molere ‘grind’, and to Russian mólot and Polish młot ‘hammer’). It passed into Old French as mail, of which the derivative maillet eventually reached English as mallet. Mail itself was borrowed into English as maul ‘hammer’ [13], but it now survives only as a verb (which originally meant ‘hit with a hammer’).

The Latin verb derived from malleus was malleāre ‘hit with a hammer’, from which ultimately English gets malleable [14]. And the Italian descendant of malleus, maglio, was combined with a word for ‘ball’, palla, to form the name of a croquet-like game, pallamaglio; via French this passed into English as pall-mall [17], remembered in the London street-names Pall Mall and The Mall (whence the use of mall [18] for a ‘walkway’ or ‘promenade’, and latterly for a ‘shopping precinct’).
=> mall, malleable, maul, pall-mall
melody: melody: [13] Greek mélos originally meant ‘limb’ (it is related to Cornish mal ‘joint’), but it was transferred metaphorically to a ‘limb or ‘part’ of a piece of music’, a ‘musical phrase’, and from there to ‘song’. It was combined with the element ōid- ‘singing’ (source of English ode) to form melōidíā ‘choral song’, which passed into English via late Latin melōdia and Old French melodie. The compound melodrama [19] is of French origin.
=> melodrama, ode
municipal: municipal: [16] Latin mūnus meant ‘office, duty, gift’. Combined with -ceps ‘taker’ (a derivative of the verb capere ‘take’, source of English capture) it formed mūniceps, which denoted a ‘citizen of a Roman city (known as a mūnicipium) whose inhabitants had Roman citizenship but could not be magistrates’. From mūnicipium was derived the adjective mūnicipālis, source of English municipal; this was originally used for ‘of the internal affairs of a state, domestic’, and the modern application to the sphere of local government did not emerge strongly until the 19th century.

The stem of Latin mūnus also crops up in commūnis (source of English common), and so community and municipality are etymologically related. Mūnus in the later sense ‘gift’ formed the basis of the Latin adjective mūnificus ‘giving gifts’, hence ‘generous’, from which ultimately English gets munificent [16].
=> capture, common
noisome: noisome: [14] Noisome has no etymological connection with noise. Its closest English relative is annoy. This had a shortened from noy ‘trouble, annoy, harm’, current from the 13th to the 17th centuries, which was combined with the suffix -some to form noysome, later noisome, ‘harmful’.
=> annoy
ostrich: ostrich: [13] Greek strouthós seems originally to have meant ‘sparrow’. Mégas strouthós ‘great sparrow’ – the understatement of the ancient world – was used for ‘ostrich’, and the ‘ostrich’ was also called strouthokámelos, because of its long camel-like neck. Eventually strouthós came to be used on its own for ‘ostrich’. From it was derived strouthíōn ‘ostrich’, which passed into late Latin as strūthiō (source of English struthious ‘ostrich-like’ [18]).

Combined with Latin avis ‘bird’ (source of English augur, aviary, etc) this produced Vulgar Latin *avistrūthius, which passed into English via Old French ostrusce as ostrich.
=> struthious
possess: possess: [15] Latin potis ‘able, having power’ (source of English posse and potent) was combined with the verb sīdere ‘sit down’ (a relative of English sit) to form a new verb possīdere. This meant literally ‘sit down as the person in control’, hence by extension ‘take possession of’ and ultimately ‘have, own’. It passed into English via Old French possesser.
=> possible, potent, sit
prepare: prepare: [15] Latin parāre ‘make ready’ lies behind a wide range of English words, from apparatus and apparel to emperor and separate. It combined with the prefix prae- ‘before’ to produce praeparāre ‘make ready in advance’, adopted into English via Old French preparer.
=> apparatus, apparel, emperor, separate
prevaricate: prevaricate: [16] Etymologically, prevaricate means ‘walk crookedly’, and it goes back ultimately to a Latin adjective meaning ‘knockkneed’, varus. From this was derived the verb vāricāre ‘straddle’, which was combined with the prefix prae- ‘before, beyond’ to produce praevāricārī ‘walk crookedly’, hence ‘deviate’. This developed in English to ‘deviate from straightforward behaviour’, hence ‘be evasive, equivocate’.
puberty: puberty: [14] Latin pūber denoted ‘adult’, and hence, by implication, ‘covered in hair’. Both strands of meaning have followed the word into English: ‘adulthood’ by way of the derivative pūbertās, source of English puberty, and ‘hairiness’ in pubescent [17], which means ‘downy’ as well as ‘having reached puberty’. And the two are combined in pubic ‘relating to the region of the groin where hair begins to grow at puberty’ [19].
redeem: redeem: [15] The -deem is not the same word as deem (which is related to doom). In fact, there never was a true -deem in it. It comes from Latin emere ‘take, buy’ (source also of English example, prompt, etc), which when combined with the prefix re- ‘again, back’ had a d grafted into it to produce redimere ‘buy back’. English probably acquired it via French rédimer.
=> example, prompt, sample
retaliate: retaliate: [17] To retaliate is etymologically to give someone ‘so much’ or an equal amount in return for what they have given you. Its ultimate source is Latin tālis ‘suchlike’ (source of French tel ‘such’). This formed the basis of a noun tāliō ‘punishment equal in severity to the wrong that occasioned it’, which was combined with the prefix re- ‘back’ to create the verb retaliāre ‘repay in kind’ – whence English retaliate.
return: return: [14] The origins of return are in Vulgar Latin. There, Latin tornāre (source of English turn), which originally meant ‘turn on a lathe’, was combined with the prefix re- ‘back’ to produce *retornāre ‘turn back’, which passed via Old French retorner into English as return.
=> turn
sapient: sapient: [15] Like English taste, Latin sapere combined the notions of ‘appreciating flavour’ and ‘fine discrimination’, and hence meant both ‘taste’ and ‘be wise’. In the former sense it has given English savour and savoury, while the latter has fed through into English in its present participial form as sapient. It is also the source of Spanish saber ‘know’, which via a West African pidgin has given English the slang term savvy ‘understand’ [18], and French savoir ‘know’, as in English savoir-faire [19].
=> savour, savoury
symposium: symposium: [18] A symposium is etymologically a ‘get-together for a drink’. The word comes via Latin symposium from Greek sumpósion, a derivative of sumpótēs ‘drinking companion’. This was a compound noun formed from the prefix sun- ‘together’ and the base *pot- ‘drink’ (source of English poison, potion, etc). The Greeks favoured lubricating intellectual discussion with drink, and so the term sumpósion came to be used for a meeting which combined elements of party and intellectual interchange.
=> poison, potable, potion
system: system: [17] A system is etymologically something that is ‘brought together’. The word comes via French système and late Latin systēma from Greek sústēma ‘combined or organized whole, formed from many parts’. This was a derivative of sunistánai ‘bring together, combine’, a compound verb formed from the prefix sun- ‘together’ and histánai ‘cause to stand’ (a relative of English stand).
=> stand
train: train: [14] A train is etymologically something that is ‘pulled’ along. The word was borrowed from Old French train, a derivative of the verb trahiner ‘drag’. And this in turn went back to Vulgar Latin *tragināre, a derivative of Latin *tragere, a variant of trahere ‘pull’. It was first used in English for ‘delay’, from the notion of being ‘pulled’ back, and ‘part of a garment that trails behind’ dates from the 15th century.

When steam locomotives pulling carriages were introduced in the 1820s, the combined vehicle was called a train of carriages; the simple term train is first recorded in 1835. The use of the verb train for ‘instruct, school’, which dates from the 16th century, evolved from an earlier ‘direct the course of growth of a plant’, which in turn went back to the original notion of ‘pulling’.
=> tractor
almanac (n.): late 14c., attested in Anglo-Latin from mid-13c., via Old French almanach or Medieval Latin almanachus, which is of uncertain origin. It is sometimes said to be from a Spanish-Arabic al-manakh "calendar, almanac," but possibly ultimately from Late Greek almenichiakon "calendar," which is said to be of Coptic origin.

This word has been the subject of much speculation. Originally a book of permanent tables of astronomical data; one-year versions, combined with ecclesiastical calendars, date from 16c.; "astrological and weather predictions appear in 16-17th c.; the 'useful statistics' are a modern feature" [OED].
amphibian (adj.): 1630s, "having two modes of existence, of doubtful nature," from Greek amphibia, neuter plural of amphibios "living a double life," from amphi- "of both kinds" (see amphi-) + bios "life" (see bio-).

Formerly used by zoologists to describe all sorts of combined natures (including otters and seals), the biological sense "class of animals between fishes and reptiles that live both on land and in water" and the noun derivative both are first recorded 1835. Amphibia was used in this sense from c. 1600 and has been a zoological classification since c. 1819.
bioethics (n.): also bio-ethics, coined 1970 by U.S. biochemist Van Rensselaer Potter II (1911-2001), who defined it as "Biology combined with diverse humanistic knowledge forging a science that sets a system of medical and environmental priorities for acceptable survival." From bio- + ethics.
bloat (v.): 1670s, "to cause to swell" (earlier, in reference to cured fish, "to cause to be soft," 1610s), from now obsolete bloat (adj.), attested from c. 1300 as "soft, flabby, flexible, pliable," but by 17c. meaning "puffed up, swollen." Perhaps from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse blautr "soaked, soft from being cooked in liquid" (compare Swedish blöt fisk "soaked fish"), possibly from Proto-Germanic *blaut-, from PIE *bhleu- "to swell, well up, overflow," an extension of root *bhel- (2) "to blow, inflate, swell" (see bole).

Influenced by or combined with Old English blawan "blow, puff." Figurative use by 1711. Intransitive meaning "to swell, to become swollen" is from 1735. Related: Bloated; bloating.
brunch: 1896, British student slang merger of breakfast and lunch.
To be fashionable nowadays we must 'brunch'. Truly an excellent portmanteau word, introduced, by the way, last year, by Mr. Guy Beringer, in the now defunct Hunter's Weekly, and indicating a combined breakfast and lunch. ["Punch," Aug. 1, 1896]
bush (n.): "many-stemmed woody plant," Old English bysc, from West Germanic *busk "bush, thicket" (cognates: Old Saxon and Old High German busc, Dutch bosch, bos, German Busch). Influenced by or combined with cognate words from Scandinavian (such as Old Norse buskr, Danish busk, but this might be from West Germanic) and Old French (busche "firewood," apparently of Frankish origin), and also perhaps Anglo-Latin bosca "firewood," from Medieval Latin busca (whence Italian bosco, Spanish bosque, French bois), which apparently also was borrowed from West Germanic; compare Boise.

In British American colonies, applied from 1650s to the uncleared districts, hence "country," as opposed to town (1780); probably originally from Dutch bosch in the same sense, because it seems to appear first in English in former Dutch colonies. Meaning "pubic hair" (especially of a woman) is from 1745. To beat the bushes (mid-15c.) is a way to rouse birds so that they fly into the net which others are holding, which originally was the same thing as beating around the bush (see beat (v.)).
cam (n.1): "a projecting part of a rotating machinery," 1777, from Dutch cam "cog of a wheel," originally "comb;" cognate of English comb (n.). This might have combined with English camber "having a slight arch;" or the whole thing could be from camber.
combine (v.): early 15c., from Middle French combiner (14c.), from Late Latin combinare "to unite, yoke together," from Latin com- "together" (see com-) + bini "two by two," adverb from bi- "twice" (see binary). Related: Combinative; combined; combining.
cum: verb and noun, by 1973, apparently a variant of the sexual sense of come that originated in pornographic writing, perhaps first in the noun sense. This "experience sexual orgasm" slang meaning of come (perhaps originally come off) is attested from 1650, in "Walking In A Meadowe Greene," in a folio of "loose songs" collected by Bishop Percy.
They lay soe close together, they made me much to wonder;
I knew not which was wether, until I saw her under.
Then off he came, and blusht for shame soe soon that he had endit;
Yet still she lies, and to him cryes, "one more and none can mend it."
As a noun meaning "semen or other product of orgasm" it is on record from the 1920s. The sexual cum seems to have no connection with Latin cum, the preposition meaning "with, together with," which is occasionally used in English in local names of combined parishes or benifices (such as Chorlton-cum-Hardy), in popular Latin phrases (such as cum laude), or as a combining word to indicate a dual nature or function (such as slumber party-cum-bloodbath).
Diazepam (n.): 1961, from (benzo)diazep(ine) + -am, apparently an arbitrary suffix. The element diazo- denotes two nitrogen atoms combined with one hydrocarbon radical.
federate (v.): 1814 (implied in federated), a back-formation from federation, or else from Latin foederatus "leagued, federated, combined; having a treaty, bound by treaty," past participle of foederare "to establish by treaty," from foedus "covenant, treaty, alliance" (see federal). Related: Federating. As an adjective, by 1710.
integrated (adj.): 1580s, "combined into a whole," past participle adjective from integrate (v.). Sense of "not divided by race, etc." is from 1948.
magnificence (n.): mid-14c., "great-mindedness, courage," from Old French magnificence "splendor, nobility, grandeur," from Latin magnificentia "splendor, munificence," from stem of magnificus "great, elevated, noble, eminent," also "splendid, rich, fine, costly," literally "doing great deeds," from magnus "great" (see magnate) + root of facere "to make" (see factitious). Meaning "greatness, grandeur, glory" in English is from late 14c. That of "beauty, splendor, wealth" is 15c. As one of the Aristotelian and scholastic virtues, it translates Greek megaloprepeia "liberality of expenditure combined with good taste."
ooh: exclamation of pain, surprise, wonder, etc., 1916. Combined with aah from 1953. Ooh-la-la, exclamation of surprise or appreciation, is attested 1924, from French and suggestive of the supposed raciness of the French.
Pig Latin (n.): childish deformed language (there are many different versions), by 1889 (hog Latin in same sense by 1807).
The animals play quite an important part in the naming [of children's languages], as the hog, dog, fly, goose, pigeon, pig, all give names, with Mr. Hog leading. Among the names the Latins take the lead, and Hog Latin leads the list, being accredited as naming nearly as many languages as all the other names combined. Besides Hog Latin, there is Dog Latin, Pig Latin, Goose Latin, and Bum Latin. Then there is Greekish and Peddlers' French and Pigeon English. ... Very few can give any reason for the naming of the languages. In fact, no one can fully say where the great majority of names came from, for in most cases in the naming the following pretty well expresses the difficulty: "It was born before I was. I can't tell how young I was when I first heard of it." ["The Secret Language of Children," in "The North Western Monthly," October 1897]
plot (n.): Old English plot "small piece of ground," of unknown origin. Sense of "ground plan," and thus "map, chart" is 1550s; that of "a secret, plan, scheme" is 1580s, probably by accidental similarity to complot, from Old French complot "combined plan," of unknown origin, perhaps a back-formation from compeloter "to roll into a ball," from pelote "ball." Meaning "set of events in a story" is from 1640s. Plot-line (n.) attested from 1957.
plumbic (adj.): "combined with lead," 1799, from Latin plumbum (see plumb (n.)) + -ic.
Rabelaisian (adj.): 1817, from French author François Rabelais (c. 1490-1553), whose writings "are distinguished by exuberance of imagination and language combined with extravagance and coarseness of humor and satire." [OED]
recombine (v.): 1630s, from re- + combine (v.). Related: Recombined; recombining.