英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

craven [craven 词源字典]: craven: [13] Craven originally meant simply ‘defeated’, and only gradually came to have the pejorative sense ‘cowardly’. It probably came from Old French cravante ‘defeated’, the past participle of the verb cravanter, which in turn came via Vulgar Latin *crepantāre from Latin crepāre; this meant ‘creak, rattle, crack’ (hence the English technical term crepitation [17]) but also secondarily ‘burst’ or ‘break’.
=> crepitation, crevice, decrepit[craven etymology, craven origin, 英语词源]
empire: empire: [13] Empire and its close relatives emperor [13], imperial [14], imperious [16], and imperative [16] all come ultimately from the Latin verb imperāre ‘command’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix in- ‘in relation to’ and parāre ‘make ready’ (source of English prepare), and hence originally meant ‘make preparations for’ before shifting metaphorically to ‘issue commands for’.

Of its derivatives, imperātor (source of English emperor) was used originally for ‘commander of an army’, and only secondarily for the ruler of the Roman empire, while the primary sense of imperium (source of English empire) was ‘a command’, and hence ‘authority’.
=> imperative, imperial, prepare
empty: empty: [OE] The original meaning of Old English ǣmtig appears to have been ‘unoccupied, at leisure’, and it was only secondarily that it developed the physical connotations of ‘not full’ which have come down to us in empty. (It also meant ‘unmarried’.) It was a derivative of the noun ǣmetta ‘rest, leisure’. This is a word of uncertain history, but it has been plausibly analysed as the negative prefix ǣ- plus a derivative of the root which produced modern English mete (as in ‘mete out’), meaning something like ‘not assigned’.
=> mete
face: face: [13] The notion that a person’s face ‘is’ their appearance, what they look like to the rest of the world, lies behind the word face. It probably comes from a prehistoric base *fac-, signifying ‘appear’. This gave rise to Latin faciēs, which originally meant ‘appearance, aspect, form’, and only secondarily, by figurative extension, ‘face’. In due course it passed via Vulgar Latin *facia into Old French as face, from which English acquired it (French, incidentally, dropped the sense ‘face’ in the 17th century, although the word face is retained for ‘front, aspect’, etc).

Related forms in English include facade [17], facet [17] (originally a diminutive), superficial and surface.
=> facade, facet, superficial, surface
funeral: funeral: [14] Latin fūnus, a word of uncertain origin, meant ‘funeral’ and, probably secondarily, ‘corpse’. From it was derived the adjective fūnerālis, which English acquired via Old French in the 14th century. The noun funeral followed in the 16th century; it came from the same ultimate source, of course, but by a slightly different route – from medieval Latin fūnerālia via Old French funeraille.
propaganda: propaganda: [18] English gets the word propaganda from the term Propaganda Fide, the name of a Roman Catholic organization charged with the spreading of the gospel. This meant literally ‘propagating the faith’, prōpāgānda being the feminine gerundive of Latin prōpāgāre, source of English propagate [16]. Originally prōpāgāre was a botanical verb, as its English descendant remains, only secondarily broadening out metaphorically to ‘extend, spread’.

It was derived from the noun prōpāgo ‘cutting, scion’, which in turn was formed from the prefix prō- ‘forth’ and the base *pāg- ‘fix’ (source of English pagan, page, pale ‘stake’, etc).
=> pagan, page, pale, propagate
second: second: [13] Latin secundus originally meant ‘following’ – it was derived from sequī ‘follow’, source of English sequence – and only secondarily came to be used as the ordinal version of ‘two’. English acquired it via Old French second, employing it to take over part of the role of other, which until then had denoted ‘second’ as well as ‘other’.

Its noun use for ‘sixtieth of a minute’, first recorded in English in the 14th century, comes from medieval Latin secunda minuta, literally ‘second minute’ – a minute was a ‘sixtieth part’, and so a ‘second minute’ was a ‘sixtieth of a sixtieth’. Latin secundus was also used for ‘favourable’, and in this sense the verb secundāre was formed from it, meaning ‘favour’.

English acquired it via French seconder as second ‘support’ [16]. (The differently pronounced second ‘transfer to a different job’ [19] comes from the French phrase en second ‘in second rank’.)
=> sect, sequal, sequence, sue, suit
theory: theory: [16] The etymological notion underlying theory is of ‘looking’; only secondarily did it develop via ‘contemplation’ to ‘mental conception’. It comes via late Latin theōria from Greek theōríā ‘contemplation, speculation, theory’. This was a derivative of theōrós ‘spectator’, which was formed from the base thea- (source also of theásthai ‘watch, look at’, from which English gets theatre).

Also derived from theōrós was theōreín ‘look at’, which formed the basis of theórēma ‘speculation, intuition, theory’, acquired by English via late Latin theōrēma as theorem [16]. From the same source comes theoretical [17].
=> theatre
face (n.): c. 1300, "the human face, a face; facial appearance or expression; likeness, image," from Old French face "face, countenance, look, appearance" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *facia (source also of Italian faccia), from Latin facies "appearance, form, figure," and secondarily "visage, countenance," which probably is literally "form imposed on something" and related to facere "to make" (see factitious).

Replaced Old English andwlita "face, countenance" (from root of wlitan "to see, look") and ansyn, ansien, the usual word (from the root of seon "see"). Words for "face" in Indo-European commonly are based on the notion of "appearance, look," and are mostly derivatives from verbs for "to see, look" (as with the Old English words, Greek prosopon, literally "toward-look," Lithuanian veidas, from root *weid- "to see," etc.). But in some cases, as here, the word for "face" means "form, shape." In French, the use of face for "front of the head" was given up 17c. and replaced by visage (older vis), from Latin visus "sight."

From late 14c. as "outward appearance (as contrasted to some other reality);" also from late 14c. as "forward part or front of anything;" also "surface (of the earth or sea), extent (of a city)." Typographical sense of "part of the type which forms the letter" is from 1680s.
Whan she cometh hoom, she raumpeth in my face And crieth 'false coward.' [Chaucer, "Monk's Tale"]
Face to face is from mid-14c. Face time is attested from 1990. To lose face (1876), is said to be from Chinese tu lien; hence also save face (1915). To show (one's) face "make or put in an appearance" is from mid-14c. (shewen the face). To make a face "change the appearance of the face in disgust, mockery, etc." is from 1560s. Two faces under one hood as a figure of duplicity is attested from mid-15c.
Two fases in a hode is neuer to tryst. ["Awake lordes," 1460]
rest (n.1): "sleep," Old English ræste, reste "rest, bed, intermission of labor, mental peace," common Germanic (Old Saxon resta "resting place, burial-place," Dutch rust, Old High German rasta, German Rast "rest, peace, repose"), of uncertain origin.

Original sense seems to be a measure of distance (compare Old High German rasta, which in addition to "rest" meant "league of miles," Old Norse rost "league, distance after which one rests," Gothic rasta "mile, stage of a journey"), perhaps a word from the nomadic period. Unless the original sense is "repose," thence extended secondarily to "distance between two resting place."

The meaning "support, thing upon which something rests" is attested from 1580s. At rest "dead" is from mid-14c., on the notion of "last rest." Rest stop is from 1973. Colloquial expression to give (something) a rest "to stop talking about it" is first recorded 1927, American English.
secondary (adj.): late 14c., from Latin secundarius "pertaining to the second class, inferior," from secundus (see second (adj.)). Of colors, from 1831; of education, from 1809. Of sex characteristics from 1780. Opposed to primary or principal. Related: Secondarily.