quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- phase
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[phase 词源字典] - phase: [19] Greek phásis (a derivative of the verb phaínein ‘show’, source of English phantom) meant ‘appearance’, and also ‘cyclical apparent form of a planet, moon, etc’. This was adopted into modern Latin as phasis, and it originally passed into English (in the 17th century) in the Latin plural form phases. Phase represents a new singular formed from this. The more familiar modern sense ‘stage in a sequence’ is a metaphorical extension of the astronomical meaning.
=> phantom[phase etymology, phase origin, 英语词源] - phase (n.)
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- 1705, "phase of the moon," back-formed as a singular from Modern Latin phases, plural of phasis, from Greek phasis "appearance" (of a star), "phase" (of the moon), from stem of phainein "to show, to make appear" (see phantasm). Latin singular phasis was used in English from 1660. Non-lunar application is first attested 1841. Meaning "temporary difficult period" (especially of adolescents) is attested from 1913.
- phase (v.)
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- "to synchronize," 1895, from phase (n.). Meaning "to carry out gradually" is from 1949, hence phase in "introduce gradually" (1954), phase out (1954). Related: Phased; phasing.