英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

evil [evil 词源字典]: evil: [OE] Evil has got distinctly worse over the millennia. Originally it seems to have signified nothing more sinister than ‘uppity’, and in the Old and Middle English period it meant simply ‘bad’; it is only in modern English that its connotations of ‘extreme moral wickedness’ came to the fore. It probably comes ultimately from *upelo- a derivative of the Indo-European base *upo- ‘under’ (source of Greek hupó ‘under’, Sanskrit upa ‘at, to’, and English up and over), and so its underlying connotation is of ‘exceeding due limits, extremism’.

Its Germanic descendant was *ubilaz, source of German übel ‘evil’ as well as English evil.
=> over, up[evil etymology, evil origin, 英语词源]
honeymoon: honeymoon: [16] The word honeymoon first appeared in print in the middle of the 16th century. Richard Huloet in his Abecedarium Anglico Latinum 1552 defined it as ‘a term proverbially applied to such as be new married, which will not fall out at the first, but the one loueth the other at the beginning exceedingly, the likelihood of their exceeding love appearing to assuage, the which time the vulgar people call the honey moon’. His description suggests not only that the term had already been around for some time by the 1550s, but also that it was probably inspired by the notion that although married love was at first as sweet as honey, it soon waned like the moon.
ana-: before verbs an-, prefix meaning 1. "upward," 2. "back, backward, against," 3. "again, anew," from Greek ana- "up to, toward, exceedingly, back, against," from ana "up, on, upon, throughout, again," cognate with Old English on, from PIE root *ano- "on, upon, above" (see on).
awful (adj.): c. 1300, agheful "worthy of respect or fear," from aghe, an earlier form of awe (n.), + -ful. The Old English word was egefull. Weakened sense "very bad" is from 1809; weakened sense of "exceedingly" is by 1818.
awfully (adv.): c. 1300, "so as to inspire reverence," from awful + -ly (2). Meaning "dreadfully, so as to strike one with awe" is recorded from late 14c. As a simple intensifier, "very, exceedingly," is attested from c. 1830.
beastly (adj.): c. 1200, "brutish, sensual, debased;" late 14c., "in the manner of a beast," from beast + -ly (1). Weakened in British upper crust use to "awfully, exceedingly" by mid-19c. Beastly drunk is from 1803.
dis-: (assimilated as dif- before -f-, to di- before most voiced consonants), word-forming element meaning 1. "lack of, not" (as in dishonest); 2. "do the opposite of" (as in disallow); 3. "apart, away" (as in discard), from Old French des- or directly from Latin dis- "apart, in a different direction, between," figuratively "not, un-," also "exceedingly, utterly," from PIE *dis- "apart, asunder" (cognates: Old English te-, Old Saxon ti-, Old High German ze-, German zer-).

The PIE root is a secondary form of *dwis- and thus is related to Latin bis "twice" (originally *dvis) and to duo, on notion of "two ways, in twain."

In classical Latin, dis- paralelled de- and had much the same meaning, but in Late Latin dis- came to be the favored form and this passed into Old French as des-, the form used for new compound words formed in Old French, where it increasingly had a privative sense ("not").

In English, many of these words eventually were altered back to dis-, while in French many have been altered back to de-. The usual confusion prevails.
eclampsia (n.): 1866, from Modern Latin, from Greek eklampsis "a shining forth, exceeding brightness," from ek- "out" (see ex-) + stem of lampein "to shine" (see lamp) + abstract noun ending -ia.
enormous (adj.): 1530s, "abnormal" (usually in a bad sense), from Latin enormis "out of rule, irregular, shapeless; extraordinary, very large," from assimilated form of ex- "out of" (see ex-) + norma "rule, norm" (see norm), with English -ous substituted for Latin -is. Meaning "extraordinary in size" is attested from 1540s; original sense of "outrageous" is more clearly preserved in enormity. Earlier was enormyous (mid-15c.) "exceedingly great, monstrous." Related: Enormously; enormousness.
everlasting: early 13c., "eternal" (adj.); "eternally" (adv.); "eternity" (n.); from ever + lasting. Colloquially in mid-19c. U.S., "very, exceedingly." A verb, everlast, "to endure forever," is recorded late 14c. Related: Everlastingly.
exceed (v.): late 14c., from Old French exceder (14c.) "exceed, surpass, go too far," from Latin excedere "depart, go beyond, be in excess, surpass," from ex- "out" (see ex-) + cedere "go, yield" (see cede). Related: Exceeded; exceeding. Exceedingly (late 15c.) means "very greatly or very much;" excessively (mid-15c.) means "too greatly or too much."
extravagant (adj.): late 14c., from Medieval Latin extravagantem (nominative extravagans), originally a word in Canon Law for uncodified papal decrees, present participle of extravagari "wander outside or beyond," from Latin extra "outside of" (see extra-) + vagari "wander, roam" (see vague). Extended sense of "excessive, extreme, exceeding reasonable limits" first recorded 1590s, probably via French; that of "wasteful, lavish, exceeding prudence in expenditure" is from 1711. Related: Extravagantly. Wordsworth ("Prelude") used extravagate (v.).
exult (v.): 1560s, "to leap up;" 1590s, "to rejoice, triumph," from Middle French exulter, from Latin exultare/exsultare "rejoice exceedingly, revel, vaunt, boast;" literally "leap about, leap up," frequentative of exsilire "to leap up," from ex- "out" (see ex-) + salire "to leap" (see salient (adj.)). The notion is of leaping or dancing for joy. Related: Exulted; exulting.
for-: prefix usually meaning "away, opposite, completely," from Old English for-, indicating loss or destruction, but in other cases completion, and used as well with intensive or pejorative force, from Proto-Germanic *fur "before, in" (cognates: Old Norse for-, Swedish för-, Dutch ver-, Old High German fir-, German ver-); from PIE *pr-, from root *per- (1) "forward, through" (see per).
In verbs the prefix denotes (a) intensive or completive action or process, or (b) action that miscarries, turns out for the worse, results in failure, or produces adverse or opposite results. In many verbs the prefix exhibits both meanings, and the verbs frequently have secondary and figurative meanings or are synonymous with the simplex. [Middle English Dictionary]
Probably originally in Germanic with a sense of "forward, forth," but it spun out complex sense developments in the historical languages. Disused in Modern English. Ultimately from the same root as fore (adv.). From its use in participles it came to be an intensive prefix of adjectives in Middle English (for example Chaucer's forblak "exceedingly black"), but all these now seem to be obsolete.
hyper-: word-forming element meaning "over, above, beyond, exceedingly, to excess," from Greek hyper (prep. and adv.) "over, beyond, overmuch, above measure," from PIE super- "over" (see super-).
nance (n.): "effeminate man, homosexual," 1904, from female name Nancy (q.v.), which was in use as an adjective meaning "effeminate" (applied to men) from 1883, a shortening of earlier Miss Nancy.
Nancy, Miss, an opprobrious epithet for an exceedingly effeminate, over-nice young man. The original Miss Nancy, however, was a Mrs. Anna Old field, a celebrated actress, who died in 1730 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. She was extremely vain and nice about her dress, and as she lay in state, attended by two noblemen, she was attired, as she had directed shortly before her death, in "a very fine Brussels lace head-dress, a Holland shift with a tucker and double ruffles of the same lace, a pair of new kid gloves," etc., a circumstance alluded to by Pope .... [William S. Walsh, "Handy-Book of Literary Curiosities," 1892]
Nancy boy "effeminate male homosexual" is attested by 1958.
-ory: adjective and noun suffix, "having to do with, characterized by, tending to, place for," from Middle English -orie, from Old North French -ory, -orie (Old French -oir, -oire), from Latin -orius, -oria, -orium.

Latin adjectives in -orius, according to "An Etymological Dictionary of the French Language," tended to "indicate a quality proper to the action accomplished by the agent; as oratorius from orator; laudatorius from laudator. The neuter of these adjectives was early employed as a substantive, and usually denoted the place of residence of the agent or the instrument that he uses; as praetorium from praetor; dormitorium from dormitor; auditorium, dolatorium.

"These newer words, already frequent under the Empire, became exceedingly numerous at a later time, especially in ecclesiastical and scholastic Latin; as purgatorium, refectorium, laboratorium, observatorium, &c." [transl. G.W. Kitchin, Oxford, 1878]
powerful (adj.): c. 1400, from power (n.) + -ful. Meaning "of great quality or number" is from 1811; colloquial sense of "exceedingly" (adv.) is from 1822. Related: Powerfully. Thornton ("American Glossary") notes powerful as "Much used by common people in the sense of very," along with monstrous and cites curious expressions such as devilish good, monstrous pretty (1799), dreadful polite, cruel pretty, abominable fine (1803), "or when a young lady admires a lap dog for being so vastly small and declares him prodigious handsome" (1799).
scantly (adv.): late 14c., from scant + -ly (2). OED reports it "exceedingly common from the 15th to the middle of the 17th c.; in the 18th c. it had app. become obsolere; revived in literary use by Scott."
supernumerary (adj.): "exceeding a stated number," c. 1600, from Late Latin supernumarius "excess, counted in over" (of soldiers added to a full legion), from Latin super numerum "beyond the number," from super "beyond, over" (see super-) + numerum, accusative of numerus "number" (see number (n.)). As a noun from 1630s.
supersonic (adj.): 1919, "of or having to do with sound waves beyond the limit of human hearing," from super- + sonic. Attested from 1934 in sense of "exceeding the speed of sound" (especially as a measure of aircraft speed), leaving the original sense to ultrasonic (1923).
tranquility (n.): also tranquillity, late 14c., from Old French tranquilite "peace, happiness" (12c.), from Latin tranquillitatem (nominative tranquillitas) "quietness, stillness; serenity," from tranquillus "quiet, calm, still," perhaps from trans- "over" (here in its intensive sense of "exceedingly") + a root possibly related to quies "rest" (see quiet (n.)).
hypersonic: "Relating to speeds of more than five times the speed of sound (Mach 5)", 1930s (in sense 2): from hyper- 'beyond, exceeding', on the pattern of supersonic and ultrasonic.
hypermarket: "A very large self-service store with a wide range of goods and a large car park, typically situated outside a town", 1970s: translation of French hypermarché, from hyper- 'beyond, exceeding' + marché 'market'.