quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- contaminate



[contaminate 词源字典] - contaminate: [15] Contaminate appears to come from the same ultimate source as contact, a base *tag- ‘touch’, which produced the Latin verb tangere ‘touch’ (whence English tactile, tangent, and tangible). It seems also to have formed the basis of a compound Latin noun *contagmen ‘contact, pollution’, which became altered to contāmen. From this was derived the verb contamināre, whose past participle gave English contaminate.
=> contact, tactile, tangible[contaminate etymology, contaminate origin, 英语词源] - contaminate (v.)




- early 15c., from Old French contaminer, from Latin contaminatus, past participle of contaminare "to defile," from contamen "contact, pollution," from com- "together" (see com-) + *tag-, base of tangere "to touch" (see tangent (adj.)). Related: Contaminant (1934); contaminable.