英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

carbon [carbon 词源字典]: carbon: [18] The notion underlying carbon is probably that of ‘burning’; it has been tentatively traced back to a base *kar- ‘fire’. The word’s immediate source was French carbone, coined in the 1780s on the basis of Latin carbō ‘coal, charcoal’ (supplementing an earlier borrowing charbon ‘coal, charcoal’). It is not certain whether char and charcoal are related to it.
[carbon etymology, carbon origin, 英语词源]
chill: chill: [14] Old English had a noun cele or ciele ‘cold’ (from the same Germanic base as cold) which developed into Middle English chile ‘cold, frost’. Gaps in the record, however, cast doubt on whether this was the direct ancestor of the modern English noun, which may more plausibly be derived from the verb chill. This has been tentatively traced back to a hypothetical Old English verb *cieldan (also from the same Germanic base as cold), whose later form child may have been misinterpreted as a past participle, giving the new base form chill. Chilblain [16] is a compound formed from chill and blain ‘blister’, which comes from Old English blegen.
=> cold
member: member: [13] Latin membrum originally meant ‘part of the body, limb, organ’ (it has been connected tentatively with various words in other Indo-European languages meaning ‘flesh, meat’, including Sanskrit māmsám and Gothic mimz). But it was early broadened out metaphorically to ‘part of anything, one that belongs’, and brought that meaning with it via Old French membre into English.

The original sense still survives, though, particularly with reference to the ‘penis’ (an application that originated in Latin – membrōsus denoted ‘having a large penis’). Derived from Latin membrum was the adjective membrānus. Its feminine form membrāna was used as a noun meaning ‘skin covering an organ or limb’ – whence English membrane [16].
=> membrane
posh: posh: [20] Although it only appeared as recently as the early 20th century, posh is one of the oldest chestnuts of English etymology. The story got around that it was an acronym for port out, starboard home, an allusion to the fact that wealthy passengers could afford the more expensive cabins on the port side of the ships going out to India, and on the starboard side returning to Britain, which kept them out of the heat of the sun.

Pleasant as this story is, though, it has never been substantiated. Another possibility is that posh may be the same word as the now obsolete posh ‘dandy, swell’, a slang term current around the end of the 19th century. This too is of unknown origin, but it has been tentatively linked with the still earlier 19thcentury slang term posh ‘halfpenny’, hence broadly ‘money’, which may have come ultimately from Romany posh ‘half’.
mustelid (n.): 1910, from Modern Latin Mustelidae, taken as a genus name by Linnaeus (1758), from Latin mustela "weasel," possibly related to mus "mouse" (see mouse (n.)). Tucker tentatively suggests *mus-ters-la "mouse harrier" and Klein notes that the weasel was identified in antiquity as "the catcher of mice."
parch (v.): late 14c., "to roast or dry" (peas, beans, corn, etc.), of uncertain origin. Klein and OED reject derivations from Old North French perchier (Old French percer) "to pierce" and Latin persiccare "to dry thoroughly." Barnhart suggests possibly from Middle English perchen, variant of perishen "to perish" (see perish). Klein "tentatively" suggests a back-formation from parchment. Surname Parchecorn is attested from mid-14c. Meaning "to dry with excessive heat" is mid-15c. Related: Parched; parching.
pencil (v.): 1530s, "to mark or sketch with a pencil-brush," from pencil (n.). In reference to lead pencils from 1760s. Related: Penciled; penciling. To pencil (something) in "arrange tentatively" is attested from 1942.
tentative (adj.): 1580s, from Medieval Latin tentativus "trying, testing," from Latin tentatus, past participle of tentare "to feel, try." Related: Tentatively; tentativeness.