英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

erosion (n.)[erosion 词源字典]: 1540s, from Middle French erosion (16c.), from Latin erosionem (nominative erosio) "a gnawing away," noun of action from past participle stem of erodere "gnaw away" (see erosion). Related: Erosional.[erosion etymology, erosion origin, 英语词源]
fret (v.): Old English fretan "devour, feed upon, consume," from Proto-Germanic compound *fra-etan "to eat up," from *fra- "completely" (see *per- (1)) + *etan "to eat" (see eat). Cognates include Dutch vreton, Old High German freggan, German fressen, Gothic fraitan.

Used of monsters and Vikings; in Middle English used of animals' eating. Notion of "wear away by rubbing or scraping" (c. 1200) might have come to this word by sound-association with Anglo-French forms of Old French froter "to rub, wipe; beat, thrash," which is from Latin fricare "to rub" (see friction). Figurative use is from c. 1200, of emotions, sins, vices, etc., "to worry, consume, vex" someone or someone's heart or mind, from either the "eating" or the "rubbing" sense. Intransitive sense "be worried, vex oneself" is by 1550s. Modern German still distinguishes essen for humans and fressen for animals. Related: Fretted; fretting. As a noun, early 15c., "a gnawing," also "the wearing effect" of awareness of wrongdoing, fear, etc.
fretful (adj.): 1590s, "gnawing; disposed to fret," from fret (n.) (see fret (v.)) + -ful. Related: Fretfully; fretfulness.
gangrene (n.): "putrefaction or necrosis of soft tissues," 1540s, cancrena, from Latin gangraena (Medieval Latin cancrena), from medical Greek gangraina "an eating or gnawing sore," literally "that which eats away," dissimilated reduplicated form of gran- "to gnaw," from PIE root *gras- "to devour" (see gastric).
gnaw (v.): Old English gnagan "to gnaw, bite off little by little" (past tense *gnog, past participle gnagan), from Proto-Germanic *gh(e)n- "to gnaw" (cognates: Old Saxon gnagan, Old Norse, Swedish gnaga, Middle Dutch, Dutch knagen, Old High German gnagan, German nagen "to gnaw"), probably imitative of gnawing. Figurative sense "wear away as if by continued biting" is from early 13c. Related: Gnawed; gnawing.
rostrum (n.): 1540s, from Latin rostrum, name of the platform stand for public speakers in the Forum in ancient Rome. It was decorated with the beaks of ships taken in the first naval victory of the Roman republic, over Antium, in 338 B.C.E., and the word's older sense is "end of a ship's prow," literally "beak, muzzle, snout," originally "means of gnawing," instrument noun form of rodere "to gnaw" (see rodent). Compare claustrum "lock, bar," from claudere "to shut." Extended sense of any platform for public speaking is first recorded 1766. Classical plural form is rostra.
tinea (n.): late 14c., "ringworm," from Latin tinea "a gnawing worm, moth, bookworm," of uncertain origin. From 1650s as a type of moth (the larvae of which eat clothes, papers, etc.).