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block [block 词源字典]: block: [14] English borrowed block from Old French bloc, but its ultimate origin appears to be Germanic; French acquired it from Middle Dutch blok ‘tree trunk’. The derived verb block ‘impede’ first crops up in the early 15th century, but was not established until the later 16th century; it originally meant ‘put blocks [of wood] or obstacles in the way of’. Blockade was coined in the 17th century, perhaps on the model of ambuscade, a contemporary synonym of ambush.
=> blockade[block etymology, block origin, 英语词源]
bollock: bollock: see ball
clock: clock: [14] The clock appears to have been so named because it told the hours by the chiming of a ‘bell’, medieval Latin clocca. The Latin word, which emerged in the 7th century and may have been of Irish origin, probably reached English via Middle Dutch klocke. Besides being applied to time-pieces, it has also lent its name to two garments on account of their supposedly bell-like shape: cloak [13], which comes from the Old French dialect cloke or cloque, and cloche hat [20], from French cloche ‘bell’.
=> cloak, cloche
holocaust: holocaust: [13] Etymologically, a holocaust is a ‘complete burning’, and the word was originally used in English for a ‘burnt offering’, a ‘sacrifice completely consumed by fire’ (Mark 12, 33, ‘more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices’ in the Authorized Version, was translated by William Tindale in 1526 as ‘a greater thing than all holocausts and sacrifices’).

It comes via Old French and Latin from Greek holókauston, a compound formed from hólos ‘whole’ (as in English holograph [17] and holism [20], a coinage of the South African statesman Jan Smuts) and kaustós, a relative of Greek kaúein ‘burn’ (from which English gets caustic [14] and cauterize [14]). John Milton was the first English writer to use the word in the wider sense ‘complete destruction by fire’, in the late 17th century, and in the succeeding centuries several precedents were set for its modern application to ‘nuclear destruction’ and ‘mass murder’ – Bishop Ken, for instance, wrote in 1711 ‘Should general Flame this World consume … An Holocaust for Fontal Sin’, and Leitch Ritchie in Wanderings by the Loire 1833 refers to Louis VII making ‘a holocaust of thirteen hundred persons in a church’.
=> caustic, cauterize, holism
local: local: [15] Latin locus meant ‘place’ (it became in due course French lieu, acquired by English in the 13th century, and was itself adopted into English as a mathematical term in the 18th century). From it was derived the verb locāre ‘place’, source of English locate [18] and location [16], and the post-classical adjective locālis, from which English gets local. The noun locale is a mock frenchification of an earlier local [18], an adoption of the French use of the adjective local as a noun.
=> lieu, locomotive, locus
lock: lock: [OE] English has two words lock. The one meaning ‘fastening mechanism’ goes back ultimately to a prehistoric Germanic *luk-or *lūk-, denoting ‘close’, which also produced German loch ‘hole’ and Swedish lock ‘lid’. Closely related are locker [15], etymologically a ‘box with a lock’, and locket [14], which was acquired from Old French locquet, a diminutive form of loc (which itself was a borrowing from Germanic *luk-). Lock ‘piece of hair’ goes back to a prehistoric Indo-European *lug-, which denoted ‘bending’. Its Germanic relatives include German locke, Dutch and Danish lok, and Swedish lock.
locomotive: locomotive: [17] Locomotive denotes etymologically ‘moving by change of place’. It is an anglicization of modern Latin locōmōtīvus, a compound formed from locus ‘place’ and mōtīvus ‘causing to move’ (source of English motive). Originally it was used strictly as an adjective, and it was not until the early 19th century that the present-day noun use (which began life as an abbreviation of locomotive engine) emerged.
locust: locust: see lobster
schlock: schlock: see shemozzle
warlock: warlock: [OE] Etymologically, a warlock is a ‘liar on oath’, and hence a ‘traitor’ or ‘deceiver’. Indeed, the word originally meant ‘traitor’ in English. It soon broadened out into a general term of abuse, and it was also used as an epithet for the ‘Devil’, but the modern sense ‘evil sorcerer’ did not emerge until the 14th century. It started life as a compound noun formed from wǣr ‘faith, pledge’ (a relative of English very and German wahr ‘true’) and -loga ‘liar’ (a derivative of lēogan, the ancestor of modern English lie).
=> lie, very
allocate (v.): 1630s, from verbal used of adjective allocate (mid-15c. in legal use), from Medieval Latin allocate (the common first word of writs authorizing payment), imperative plural of allocare "allocate," from Latin ad- "to" (see ad-) + locare "to place" (see locate). Related: Allocated; allocating.
allocation (n.): mid-15c., from Middle French allocacion, from Medieval Latin allocationem (nominative allocatio), noun of action from past participle stem of allocare (see allocate).
ballocks (n.): "testicles," from Old English beallucas, plural diminutive of balle (see ball (n.1)).
bloc (n.): 1903, in reference to alliances in Continental politics, from French bloc "group, block," from Old French bloc "piece of wood" (see block (n.)).
block (n.): "solid piece," c. 1300, from Old French bloc "log, block" of wood (13c.), via Middle Dutch bloc "trunk of a tree" or Old High German bloh, from a common Germanic source, from PIE *bhlugo-, from *bhelg- "a thick plank, beam" (see balk).

Meaning "mould for a hat" is from 1570s. Slang sense of "head" is from 1630s. Extended sense of "obstruction" is first recorded 1640s. In cricket from 1825; in U.S. football from 1912. The meaning in city block is 1796, from the notion of a "compact mass" of buildings; slang meaning "fashionable promenade" is 1869.
BLOCK. A term applied in America to a square mass of houses included between four streets. It is a very useful one. [Bartlett]
block (v.): "obstruct," 1590s, from French bloquer "to block, stop up," from Old French bloc (see block (n.)). Meaning "to make smooth or to give shape on a block" is from 1620s. Stage and theater sense is from 1961. Sense in cricket is from 1772; in U.S. football from 1889. Related: Blocked; blocking.
blockade (n.): mid-17c., from block (v.) + -ade, false French ending (the French word is blocus, 18c. in this sense, which seems to be in part a back-formation from the verb bloquer and in part influenced by Middle Dutch blokhuus "blockhouse").
blockade (v.): late 17c., from blockade (n.). Related: Blockaded; blockading.
blockage (n.): 1827, from block (v.) + -age.
blockbuster (n.): also block-buster, big bomb (4,000 pounds or larger, according to some sources), 1942, from block (n.) in the "built-up city square" sense. Entertainment sense is attested from 1957. U.S. sense of "real estate broker who sells a house to a black family on an all-white neighborhood," thus sparking an exodus, is from 1955.
blocker (n.): c. 1400 of a tool, c. 1600 of a person, agent noun from block (v.). U.S. football sense from 1914.
blockhead (n.): also block-head, "stupid person," 1540s (implied in blockheaded), from block (n.) + head (n.); probably originally an image of the head-shaped oaken block used by hat-makers, though the insulting sense is the older one.
blockhouse (n.): c. 1500, of uncertain origin (see blockade (n.)). Also in 16c. French, Dutch, German.
blocking (n.): 1630s, verbal noun from present participle of block (v.). By 1891 in U.S. football; by 1961 in theater.
blocks (n.): children's wooden building toys, 1821, from block (n.).
blocky (adj.): 1879, from block (n.) + -y (2). Related: Blockily; blockiness.
bollock (n.): singular of bollocks (q.v.).
bollocks (n.): "testicles," 1744, see bollix. In British slang, as an ejaculation meaning "nonsense," recorded from 1919.
bullock (n.): Old English bulluc "young bull," from Proto-Germanic *bulluka-, from the stem of bull (n.1). Now always a castrated bull reared for beef.
chock-a-block (adj.): nautical, said of two blocks of tackle run so closely they touch; from chock + block (n.) in the nautical sense "a pulley together with its framework."
circumlocution (n.): c. 1400, from Latin circumlocutionem (nominative circumlocutio) "a speaking around" (the topic), from circum- "around" (see circum-) + locutionem (nominative locutio) "a speaking," noun of action from past participle stem of loqui "to speak" (see locution). A loan-translation of Greek periphrasis (see periphrasis).
cloche (n.): type of bell jar, 1882, from French cloche "bell, bell glass" (12c.), from Late Latin clocca "bell" (see clock (n.1)). As a type of women's hat, recorded from 1907, so called from its shape.
clock (n.1): late 14c., clokke, originally "clock with bells," probably from Middle Dutch clocke (Dutch klok) "a clock," from Old North French cloque (Old French cloke, Modern French cloche), from Medieval Latin (7c.) clocca "bell," probably from Celtic (compare Old Irish clocc, Welsh cloch, Manx clagg "a bell") and spread by Irish missionaries (unless the Celtic words are from Latin); ultimately of imitative origin.

Replaced Old English dægmæl, from dæg "day" + mæl "measure, mark" (see meal (n.1)). The Latin word was horologium; the Greeks used a water-clock (klepsydra, literally "water thief"). Image of put (or set) the clock back "return to an earlier state or system" is from 1862. Round-the-clock (adj.) is from 1943, originally in reference to air raids. To have a face that would stop a clock "be very ugly" is from 1886. (Variations from c. 1890 include break a mirror, kill chickens.)
remember I remember
That boarding house forlorn,
The little window where the smell
Of hash came in the morn.
I mind the broken looking-glass,
The mattress like a rock,
The servant-girl from County Clare,
Whose face would stop a clock.

[... etc.; "The Insurance Journal," Jan. 1886]
clock (v.): "to time by the clock," 1883, from clock (n.1). The slang sense of "hit, sock" is 1941, originally Australian, probably from earlier slang clock (n.) "face" (1923). Related: Clocked; clocking.
clock (n.2): "ornament pattern on a stocking," 1520s, probably identical with clock (n.1) in its older sense and meaning "bell-shaped ornament."
clock-radio (n.): 1946, from clock (n.1) + radio (n.).
clock-watcher (n.): "employee habitually prompt in leaving," 1887, from clock (n.1) + agent noun from watch (v.). Related: Clock-watching. Compare earlier tell-clock "idler" (c. 1600).
clockwise (adv.): also clock-wise, "in the direction of the hands of a clock," 1879, from clock (n.1) + wise (n.).
clockwork (n.): also clock-work, 1660s, "mechanism of a clock," from clock (n.1) + work (n.). Figurative sense of "anything of unvarying regularity" is recorded earlier (1620s).
collocate (v.): 1510s, from Latin collocatus, past participle of collocare "to arrange, place together, set in a place," from com- "together" (see com-) + locare "to place" (see locate). Meaning "conference, consultation" is mid-14c. Related: collocated; collocating.
collocation (n.): mid-15c., from Latin collocationem (nominative collocatio), noun of action from past participle stem of collocare (see collocate). Linguistics sense is attested from 1940.
counterclockwise (adj., adv.): 1870, also counter-clockwise; from counter- + clockwise.
deadlock (n.): "complete standstill," from dead (adj.), in its emphatic use, + lock (n.). First attested 1779 in Sheridan's play "The Critic."
dislocate (v.): c. 1600, from earlier adjective or past participle dislocate "out of joint" (c. 1400), from Medieval Latin dislocatus, past participle of dislocare "put out of place," from Latin dis- "away" (see dis-) + locare "to place" (see locate). Related: Dislocated; dislocating.
dislocation (n.): c. 1400, originally of bones, from Old French dislocacion (14c.), or directly from Medieval Latin dislocationem (nominative dislocatio), noun of action from past participle stem of dislocare (see dislocate). General sense is from c. 1600.
dreadlocks (n.): 1960, from dread + locks (see lock (n.2)). The style supposedly based on that of East African warriors. So called from the dread they presumably aroused in beholders, but Rastafarian dread (1974) also has a sense of "fear of the Lord," expressed in part as alienation from contemporary society.
echolocation (n.): 1944, from echo (n.) + location.
elocution (n.): mid-15c., from Late Latin elocutionem (nominative elocutio) "voice production, a speaking out, utterance, manner of expression," in classical Latin especially "rhetorical utterance, oratorical expression," noun of action from past participle stem of eloqui "speak out" (see eloquence). Related: Elocutionary; elocutionist.
en bloc: French, literally "in a block" (see block (n.)).
fetlock (n.): "tuft of hair behind the pastern-joint of a horse," early 14c., fetlak, from a Germanic source (cognates: Dutch vetlock, Middle High German fizlach, German Fiszloch), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *fetel- (source of German fessel "pastern"), from PIE *ped-el-, from root *ped- (1) "foot" (see foot (n.)). The Middle English diminutive suffix -ok (from Old English -oc) was misread and the word taken in folk etymology as a compound of feet and lock (of hair).