英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

apology [apology 词源字典]: apology: [16] The original meaning of apology was ‘formal self-justification’, often used as the title of a piece of writing rebutting criticism (as in the Apology of Sir Thomas More, knight 1533). This is indicative of the word’s origins in Greek apologíā, a derivative of the verb apologeisthai ‘speak in one’s defence’, formed from the prefix apo- ‘away, off’ and logos ‘speech’ (source of English logic).

It entered English through either French apologie or Latin apologia (which was separately borrowed into English as a Latinism in the late 18th century). The meaning ‘expression of regret for offence given’ developed in the late 16th century.
=> logic[apology etymology, apology origin, 英语词源]
dispute: dispute: [13] Dispute comes via Old French disputer from Latin disputāre, a compound verb formed from the prefix dis- ‘separately’ and putāre ‘consider, reckon, think’ (source of a wide range of English words, from computer to reputation). It was originally a commercial term, denoting the calculation of a sum by considering each of its items separately, but its meaning eventually broadened out to ‘estimate, examine, weigh up’ – either mentally or (the sense which prevailed) by discussion with others.

The neutral sense ‘discuss’ held centre stage in classical Latin, but later (in the Vulgate, for instance) a note of acrimony appeared, signalling the beginnings of dispute’s current sense ‘argue’.
=> computer, count, putative, reputation
example: example: [14] Etymologically, an example is something that has been ‘taken out’, so that it can be considered separately. The word comes via Old French example from Latin exemplum ‘example’, a derivative of eximere ‘take out’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and emere ‘take, buy’ (source of English peremptory, pre-empt, premium, and prompt), and also yielded English exempt [14]. (An earlier Old French version of the word, essample, was borrowed into English in the 13th century as asample, which was the ancestor of modern English sample.)
=> exempt, peremptory, premium, prompt, sample
plain: plain: [13] Plain is etymologically the same word as plane in all its uses except the tree-name, and even that comes from the same ultimate source. This was Indo-European *plā- ‘flat’, which produced Greek platús ‘broad’ (source of English place, plaice, and platypus), Latin plānus ‘flat, clear’, and possibly English flat. The Latin word passed into English via Old French plain, but its original ‘flat’ senses have been hived off into the separately acquired plane, leaving only the metaphorically derived ‘clear’ senses. The Italian descendant of plānus has given English piano.
=> plane
trunk: trunk: [15] Trunk came via Old French tronc from Latin truncus (source also of English trench and truncate). This denoted ‘something with its protruding parts torn off’, hence ‘something regarded separately from its protruding parts’ – the stem of a tree without its branches, or a body without its limbs. The application of the English word to an ‘elephant’s proboscis’, which dates from the 16th century, apparently arose from some confusion with trump ‘trumpet’.
=> trench, truncate
carnation (n.): "Dianthus Caryophyllus," commonly also called "pink," herbaceous perennial flowering plant native to southern Europe and abundant in Normandy, 1530s, of uncertain origin. The early forms are confused; perhaps (on evidence of early spellings) it is a corruption of coronation, from the flower's being used in chaplets or from the toothed crown-like look of the petals.

Or it might be called for its pinkness and derive from Middle French carnation "person's color or complexion" (15c.), which probably is from Italian dialectal carnagione "flesh color," from Late Latin carnationem (nominative carnatio) "fleshiness," from Latin caro "flesh" (see carnage). This carnation had been borrowed separately into English as "color of human flesh" (1530s) and as an adjective meaning "flesh-colored" (1560s; the earliest use of the word in English was to mean "the incarnation of Christ," mid-14c.). OED points out that not all the flowers are this color.
dispute (v.): c. 1300, from Old French desputer (12c.) "dispute, fight over, contend for, discuss," from Latin disputare "weigh, examine, discuss, argue, explain," from dis- "separately" (see dis-) + putare "to count, consider," originally "to prune" (see pave).

Used in Vulgate in sense of "to argue, contend with words." Related: Disputable; disputed; disputing. The noun is not certainly recorded before 1590s (disputacioun in that sense is from late 14c.).
maisonette (n.): 1818, "small house," from French maisonnette, diminutive of maison "house" (11c.), from Latin mansionem (see mansion). Meaning "a part of a building let separately" is from 1912.
scofflaw (n.): 1924, from scoff (v.) + law (n.). The winning entry in a national contest during Prohibition to coin a word to characterize a person who drinks illegally, chosen from more than 25,000 entries; the $200 winning prize was split between two contestants who sent in the word separately: Henry Irving Dale and Miss Kate L. Butler. Other similar attempts did not stick, such as pitilacker (1926), winning entry in a contest by the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to establish a scolding word for one who mistreats animals (submitted by Mrs. M. McIlvaine Bready of Mickleton, N.J.).
sect (n.): mid-14c., "distinctive system of beliefs or observances; party or school within a religion," from Old French secte, sete "sect, religious community," or directly from Late Latin secta "religious group, sect in philosophy or religion," from Latin secta "manner, mode, following, school of thought," literally "a way, road, beaten path," from fem. of sectus, variant past participle of sequi "follow," from PIE *sekw- (1) "to follow" (see sequel). Confused in this sense with Latin secta, fem. past participle of secare "to cut" (see section (n.)). Meaning "separately organized religious body" is recorded from 1570s.
sectional (adj.): 1806; see section (n.) + -al (1). Noun meaning "piece of furniture composed of sections which can be used separately" is attested by 1961, from sectional seat, sectional sofa, etc. (1949).
separate (adj.): "detached, kept apart," c. 1600, from separate (v.) or from Latin separatus. Separate but equal in reference to U.S. segregation policies on railroads is attested from 1888. Separate development, official name of apartheid in South Africa, is from 1955. Related: Separately (1550s); separateness.
Frequently the colored coach is little better than a cattle car. Generally one half the smoking car is reserved for the colored car. Often only a cloth curtain or partition run half way up separates this so-called colored car from the smoke, obscene language, and foul air of the smokers' half of the car. All classes and conditions of colored humanity, from the most cultured and refined to the most degraded and filthy, without regard to sex, good breeding or ability to pay for better accommodation, are crowded into this separate, but equal (?) half car. [Rev. Norman B. Wood, "The White Side of a Black Subject," 1897]
severally (adv.): "separately," late 14c., from several + -ly (2).
sunder (v.): Old English sundrian, syndrian "to sunder, separate, divide," from sundor "separately, apart," from Proto-Germanic *sunder (cognates: Old Norse sundr, Old Frisian sunder, Old High German suntar "aside, apart;" German sondern "to separate"), from PIE root *sene- "apart, separated" (cognates: Sanskrit sanutar "far away," Avestan hanare "without," Greek ater "without," Latin sine "without," Old Church Slavonic svene "without," Old Irish sain "different"). Related: Sundered; sundering.
sundry (adj.): Old English syndrig "separate, apart, special, various, distinct, characteristic," from sundor "separately, apart, asunder" (see sunder) + -y (2). Compare Old High German suntaric, Swedish söndrig "broken, tattered." Meaning "several" is from 1375. As a noun, from mid-13c. with the sense "various ones." Phrase all and sundry is from late 14c.
tower (n.1): Old English torr "tower, watchtower," from Latin turris "a tower, citadel, high structure" (also source of Old French tor, 11c.; Spanish, Italian torre "tower"), possibly from a pre-Indo-European Mediterranean language. Meaning "lofty pile or mass" is recorded from mid-14c. Also borrowed separately 13c. as tour, from Old French tur; the modern spelling (1520s) represents a merger of the two forms.
trousers (n.): "garment for men, covering the lower body and each leg separately," 1610s, earlier trouzes (1580s), extended from trouse (1570s), with plural ending typical of things in pairs, from Gaelic or Middle Irish triubhas "close-fitting shorts," of uncertain origin. Early recorded use of the word indicates the garment was regarded as Celtic: "A jellous wife was like an Irish trouze, alwayes close to a mans tayle" [1630]. The unexplained intrusive second -r- is perhaps by influence of drawers or other words in pairs ending in -ers.