quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- orgy[orgy 词源字典]
- orgy: [16] Orgy comes ultimately from Greek órgia (like English organ, a descendant of the Indo-European base *worg- ‘work’), which denoted ‘religious revels involving dancing, singing, getting drunk, and having sex’. It was a plural noun, and passed into English via Latin orgia and French orgies as orgies. This was very much a historical term, denoting the goings-on in ancient Greece, but in the 18th century it was singularized to orgy, and used for any ‘copulatory revelry’.
=> organ, work[orgy etymology, orgy origin, 英语词源] - orgy (n.)
- 1560s, orgies (plural) "secret rites in the worship of certain Greek and Roman gods," especially Dionysus, from Middle French orgies (c. 1500, from Latin orgia), and directly from Greek orgia (plural) "secret rites," especially those of Bacchus, from PIE root *werg- "to do" (see organ). The singular, orgy, was first used in English 1660s for the extended sense of "any licentious revelry." OED says of the ancient rites that they were "celebrated with extravagant dancing, singing, drinking, etc.," which gives "etc." quite a workout.