dyeyoudaoicibaDictYouDict[dye 词源字典]
dye: [OE] Dye is something of a mystery word. Its original meaning seems to have been simply ‘colour’, its modern connotations of ‘artificially changing colour’ a secondary development, but its source remains unknown. A connection has been suggested with Old English dēagol ‘secret, hidden’, but what the implications of that would be for its semantic history are not clear. The convention of spelling the word dye did not become established until as recently as the 19th century; until then die was equally common, and orthographic confusion with die ‘cease to live’ was rife.
[dye etymology, dye origin, 英语词源]
dye (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
Old English deah, deag "a color, hue, tinge," perhaps related to deagol "secret, hidden, dark, obscure," from Proto-Germanic *daugilaz (cognates: Old Saxon dogol "secret," Old High German tougal "dark, hidden, secret").
dye (v.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
Old English deagian "to dye," from the source of dye (n.). Spelling distinction between dye and die was not firm till 19c. "Johnson in his Dictionary, spelled them both die, while Addison, his near contemporary, spelled both dye" [Barnhart]. Related: dyed. For dyed in the wool (or grain) see wool (n.).