quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- shroud[shroud 词源字典]
- shroud: [OE] Shroud originally meant simply ‘garment’ – a sense which survived into the early modern English period (‘My princely robes are laid aside, whose glittering pomp Diana’s shrouds supplies’, Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Nashe, Dido Queen of Carthage 1594). Not until the late 16th century did the modern meaning ‘winding-sheet’ begin to emerge. The word derives ultimately from the prehistoric West Germanic base *skraud-, *skreud-, *skrud- ‘cut’ (source also of English shred).
=> shred[shroud etymology, shroud origin, 英语词源] - black (adj.)
- Old English blæc "dark," from Proto-Germanic *blakaz "burned" (cognates: Old Norse blakkr "dark," Old High German blah "black," Swedish bläck "ink," Dutch blaken "to burn"), from PIE *bhleg- "to burn, gleam, shine, flash" (cognates: Greek phlegein "to burn, scorch," Latin flagrare "to blaze, glow, burn"), from root *bhel- (1) "to shine, flash, burn;" see bleach (v.).
The same root produced Old English blac "bright, shining, glittering, pale;" the connecting notions being, perhaps, "fire" (bright) and "burned" (dark). The usual Old English word for "black" was sweart (see swart). According to OED: "In ME. it is often doubtful whether blac, blak, blake, means 'black, dark,' or 'pale, colourless, wan, livid.' " Used of dark-skinned people in Old English.
Of coffee, first attested 1796. Meaning "fierce, terrible, wicked" is late 14c. The color of sin and sorrow since at least c. 1300; sense of "with dark purposes, malignant" emerged 1580s (as in black magic). Black face in reference to a performance style originated in U.S., is from 1868. Black flag, flown (especially by pirates) as a signal of "no mercy," from 1590s. Black dog "melancholy" attested from 1826. Black belt is from 1875 in reference to districts of the U.S. South with heaviest African population; 1870 with reference to fertility of soil; 1913 in judo sense. Black power is from 1966, associated with Stokely Carmichael. - glitter (v.)
- c. 1300, glideren (late 14c. as gliteren), from an unrecorded Old English word or from a Scandinavian source such as Old Norse glitra "to glitter," from Proto-Germanic *glit- "shining, bright" (cognates: Old English glitenian "to glitter, shine; be distinguished," Old High German glizzan, German glitzern, Gothic glitmunjan), from PIE *ghleid- (cognates: Greek khlidon, khlidos "ornament"), from root *ghel- (2) "to shine," with derivatives referring to bright materials and gold (see glass (n.)). Related: Glittered; glittering. Other Middle English words for "to glitter" include glasteren and glateren.
- scintilla (n.)
- 1690s, "spark, glimmer," hence "least particle, trace," from figurative use of Latin scintilla "particle of fire, spark, glittering speck, atom," probably from PIE *ski-nto-, from root *skai- "to shine, to gleam" (cognates: Gothic skeinan, Old English scinan "to shine;" see shine (v.)).
- spangle (n.)
- early 15c., "small piece of glittering metal," diminutive of spang "glittering ornament, spangle," probably from Middle Dutch spange "brooch, clasp," cognate with Old English spang "buckle, clasp," from Proto-Germanic *spango, from an extended form of the root of span (v.).
- splendid (adj.)
- 1620s, "marked by grandeur," probably a shortening of earlier splendidious (early 15c.), from Latin splendidus "bright, shining, glittering; sumptuous, gorgeous, grand; illustrious, distinguished, noble; showy, fine, specious," from splendere "be bright, shine, gleam, glisten," from PIE *splend- "to shine, glow" (cognates: Lithuanian splendziu "I shine," Middle Irish lainn "bright"). An earlier form was splendent (late 15c.). From 1640s as "brilliant, dazzling;" 1640s as "conspicuous, illustrious; very fine, excellent." Ironic use (as in splendid isolation, 1843) is attested from 17c.
- coruscant
- "Glittering; sparkling", Late 15th century: from Latin coruscant- 'vibrating, glittering', from the verb coruscare.