quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- carbuncle[carbuncle 词源字典]
- carbuncle: [13] Etymologically, a carbuncle is a ‘small piece of coal’. It comes ultimately from Latin carbunculus, a diminutive form of carbō ‘coal’ (source of English carbon). This reached English via Old French carbuncle. The Latin word had two main metaphorical meanings, based on the idea of a glowing coal: ‘red gem’ and ‘red inflamed spot’, both of which passed into English.
The latter achieved some notoriety in British English in the 1980s following a remark by the Prince of Wales in 1984 comparing a piece of modern architecture unfavourably to a ‘carbuncle’, although ironically from the 15th to the 17th centuries the word was used for ‘something of great splendour’.
=> carbon[carbuncle etymology, carbuncle origin, 英语词源] - carbuncle (n.)
- early 13c., "fiery jewel," from Old North French carbuncle (Old French charbocle, charboncle) "carbuncle-stone," also "carbuncle, boil," from Latin carbunculus "red gem," also "red, inflamed spot," literally "a little coal," from carbo (genitive carbonis) "coal" (see carbon). Originally of rubies, garnets, and other red jewels; in English the word was applied to tumors from late 14c.
- chilblain (n.)
- 1540s, from chill (n.) + blain "inflamed swelling or sore on skin." Related: Chilblains.
- gland (n.)
- 1690s, from French glande (Old French glandre "a gland," 13c.), from Latin glandula "gland of the throat, tonsil," diminutive of glans (genitive glandis) "acorn, nut; acorn-shaped ball," from PIE root *gwele- (2) "acorn" (cognates: Greek balanos, Armenian kalin, Old Church Slavonic zelodi "acorn;" Lithuanian gile "oak"). Earlier English form was glandula (c. 1400); Middle English also had glandele "inflamed gland" (c. 1400). Extended from tonsils to glands generally.
- heated (adj.)
- in figurative sense "agitated, inflamed," 1590s, past participle adjective from heat (v.). Related: Heatedly.
- incandescence (n.)
- 1650s, figurative, "state of being 'inflamed,'" from incandescent + -ence. Literal use from 1794.
- inflame (v.)
- mid-14c., "make (someone) ardent; set (the spirit, etc.) on fire" with a passion or religious virtue, a figurative sense, from Old French enflamer, from Latin inflammare "to set on fire, kindle," figuratively "to rouse, excite," from in- "in" (see in- (2)) + flammare "to flame," from flamma "a flame" (see flame (n.)). Literal sense of "to cause to burn" first recorded in English late 14c. Meaning "to heat, make hot, cause inflammation" is from 1520s. Related: Enflamed; enflaming. Also enflame, but since 16c. the spelling with in- has predominated. Related: Inflamed; Inflaming.
- poliomyelitis (n.)
- 1874, also polio-myelitis, coined by German physician Adolph Kussmaul (1822-1902) from Greek polios "grey" (see fallow (adj.)) + myelos "marrow" + -itis "inflammation." So called because the gray matter in the spinal cord is inflamed, which causes paralysis. The earlier name was infantile paralysis (1843).
In many respects, also, this affection resembles the acute spinal paralysis of infancy, which, from the researches of Charcot, Joffroy, and others, have been shown pathologically to be an acute myelitis of the anterior cornua. Hence, for these forms of paralysis, Professor Kussmaul suggests the name of 'poliomyelitis anterior.' ["London Medical Record," Dec. 9, 1874]
- sty (n.2)
- "inflamed swelling in the eyelid," 1610s, probably a back-formation from Middle English styany (as though sty on eye), mid-15c., from Old English stigend "sty," literally "riser," from present participle of stigan "go up, rise," from Proto-Germanic *stigan, from PIE root *steigh- "to stride, step, rise" (see stair).
- torrent (n.)
- "rapid stream," c. 1600, from Middle French torrent (16c.) and directly from Latin torrentem (nominative torrens) "rushing, roaring" (of streams), also "a rushing stream," originally as an adjective "roaring, boiling, burning, parching, hot, inflamed," present participle of torrere "to parch" (see terrain). Extension to any onrush (of words, feelings, etc.) first recorded 1640s.