quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- crest[crest 词源字典]
- crest: [14] The original etymological meaning of crest appears to have been ‘tuft of hair’. It comes via Old French creste from Latin crista ‘tuft, plume’, which may be related to Latin crīnis ‘hair’ (source of the English biological term crinite ‘hairy’ [16]). If so, crest belongs to the same word family as crinoline. The notion of crest as a ‘surmounting ridge’ is a secondary semantic development, which may have given rise to the word crease.
=> crease[crest etymology, crest origin, 英语词源] - gable
- gable: [14] The notion underlying gable is probably of ‘topping’ or ‘surmounting’, for it has been traced back by some to prehistoric Indo-European *ghebhalā, which also produced Greek kephalé ‘head’. Its immediate source was Old Norse gafl, which gave English the form gavel, subsequently remodelled on the basis of Old French gable (itself probably borrowed originally from the Old Norse word).
=> cephalic - tantamount
- tantamount: [17] Tantamount means etymologically ‘amounting to as much’. It comes from an earlier verb tantamount ‘amount to as much as, be equal to’, which was a lexicalization of the Anglo-Norman expression tant amunter ‘amount to as much’. This was made up of tant ‘as much’, which came via Old French from Latin tantus, and amunter, ancestor of English amount.
=> amount, paramount - acclivity (n.)
- 1610s, from Latin acclivitatem (nominative acclivitas) "an ascending direction, an upward steepness," from acclivis "mounting upwards, ascending," from ad- "up" (see ad-) + clivus "hill, a slope," from PIE *klei-wo-, suffixed form of *klei- "to lean" (see lean (v.)).
- acrophobia (n.)
- "morbid fear of heights," 1887, medical Latin, from Greek akros "at the end, the top" (see acrid) + -phobia "fear." Coined by Italian physician Dr. Andrea Verga in a paper describing the condition, from which Verga himself suffered.
In this paper, read somewhat over a year ago at the congress of alienists at Pavia, the author makes confession of his own extreme dread of high places. Though fearless of the contagion of cholera, he has palpitations on mounting a step-ladder, finds it unpleasant to ride on the top of a coach or to look out of even a first-story window, and has never used an elevator. ["American Journal of Psychology," Nov. 1888, abstract of Verga's report]
- amount (v.)
- late 13c., "to go up, rise, mount (a horse)," from Old French amonter, from a mont "upward," literally "to the mountain," from Latin ad- "to" (see ad-) + montem (nominative mons) "mountain" (see mount (n.)). Meaning "to rise in number or quality (so as to reach)" is from c. 1300. Related: Amounted; amounting.
- Apache
- 1745, from American Spanish (1598), probably from Yavapai (a Yuman language) 'epache "people." Sometimes derived from Zuni apachu "enemy" (see F.W. Hodge, "American Indians," 1907), but this seems to have been the Zuni name for the Navajo.
French journalistic sense of "Parisian gangster or thug" first attested 1902. Apache dance was the World War I-era equivalent of 1990s' brutal "slam dancing." Fenimore Cooper's Indian novels were enormously popular in Europe throughout the 19c., and comparisons of Cooper's fictional Indian ways in the wilderness and underworld life in European cities go back to Dumas' "Les Mohicans de Paris" (1854-1859). It is probably due to the imitations of Cooper (amounting almost to plagiarisms) by German author Karl May (1842-1912) that Apaches replaced Mohicans in popular imagination. Also compare Mohawk. - dismount (v.)
- 1540s, from dis- + mount (v.). Related: Dismounted; dismounting.
- montage (n.)
- 1929, from French montage "a mounting," from Old French monter "to go up, mount" (see mount (v.)). Originally a term in cinematography.
- mount (v.)
- c. 1300, "to mount a horse;" mid-14c., "to rise up, ascend; fly," from Old French monter "to go up, ascend, climb, mount," from Vulgar Latin *montare, from Latin mons (genitive montis) "mountain" (see mount (n.)). Meaning "to set or place in position" first recorded 1530s. Sense of "to get up on for purposes of copulation" is from 1590s. Related: Mounted; mounting.
- remount (v.)
- also re-mount, late 14c., "put on horseback again," also "return to a former state," from Old French remonter "to climb up, ascend again," from re- (see re-) + monter (see mount (v.)). From late 15c. as "to go up again," 1620s as "to raise (something) up again." Related: Remounted; remounting.
- stirrup (n.)
- Old English stigrap "a support for the foot of a person mounted on a horse," literally "climbing rope," from stige "a climbing, ascent" (from Proto-Germanic *stigaz "climbing;" see stair) + rap (see rope (n.)). Originally a looped rope as a help for mounting. Germanic cognates include Old Norse stigreip, Middle Dutch stegerep, Old High German stegareif, German stegreif. Surgical device used in childbirth, etc., so called from 1884. Stirrup-cup (1680s) was a cup of wine or other drink handed to a rider already on horseback and setting out on a journey, hence "a parting glass" (compare French le vin de l'etrier).
- surmount (v.)
- early 14c., "to rise above, go beyond," from Old French surmonter "rise above," from sur- "beyond" (see sur- (1)) + monter "to go up" (see mount (v.)). Meaning "to prevail over, overcome" is recorded from late 14c. Related: Surmounted; surmounting.
- transcendent (adj.)
- mid-15c., from Latin transcendentem (nominative transcendens) "surmounting, rising above," present participle of transcendere (see transcend). Related: Transcendently.
- altazimuth
- "A telescope mounting that moves in azimuth (about a vertical axis) and in altitude (about a horizontal axis)", Mid 19th century: blend of altitude and azimuth.