quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- mattress[mattress 词源字典]
- mattress: [13] Etymologically, a mattress is something ‘thrown’ down on the floor to lie on. The word comes via Old French materas and Italian materasso from Arabic matrah ‘mat, cushion’, a derivative of the verb taraha ‘throw’.
[mattress etymology, mattress origin, 英语词源] - mattress (n.)
- late 13c., from Old French materas (12c., Modern French matelas), from Italian materasso and directly from Medieval Latin matracium, borrowed in Sicily from Arabic al-matrah "the cushion" (also source of Spanish almadraque "mattress," Provençal almatrac), literally "the thing thrown down," from taraha "he threw (down)."
- miracle (n.)
- mid-12c., "a wondrous work of God," from Old French miracle (11c.) "miracle, story of a miracle, miracle play," from Latin miraculum "object of wonder" (in Church Latin, "marvelous event caused by God"), from mirari "to wonder at, marvel, be astonished," figuratively "to regard, esteem," from mirus "wonderful, astonishing, amazing," earlier *smeiros, from PIE *smei- "to smile, laugh" (cognates: Sanskrit smerah "smiling," Greek meidan "to smile," Old Church Slavonic smejo "to laugh;" see smile (v.)).
From mid-13c. as "extraordinary or remarkable feat," without regard to deity. Replaced Old English wundortacen, wundorweorc. The Greek words rendered as miracle in the English bibles were semeion "sign," teras "wonder," and dynamis "power," in Vulgate translated respectively as signum, prodigium, and virtus. The Latin word is the source of Spanish milagro, Italian miracolo. - obliterate (v.)
- c. 1600, from Latin obliteratus, past participle of obliterare "cause to disappear, blot out, erase, efface," figuratively "cause to be forgotten," from ob "against" (see ob-) + littera (also litera) "letter, script" (see letter (n.)); abstracted from phrase literas scribere "write across letters, strike out letters." Related: Obliterated; obliterating.
- tera-
- prefix meaning "trillion," used in forming large units of measure (such as terabyte), officially adopted 1947, from Greek teras "marvel, monster" (see terato-).
- terato-
- before vowels terat-, word-forming element meaning "marvel, monster," from comb. form of Greek teras (genitive teratos) "marvel, sign, wonder, monster," from PIE *kewr-es-, from root *kwer- "to make, form" (cognates: Sanskrit krta- "make, do, perform," Lithuanian keras "charm," Old Church Slavonic čaru "charm").
- terrace (n.)
- 1510s, "gallery, portico, balcony," later "flat, raised place for walking" (1570s), from Middle French terrace (Modern French terasse), from Old French terrasse (12c.) "platform (built on or supported by a mound of earth)," from Vulgar Latin *terracea, fem. of *terraceus "earthen, earthy," from Latin terra "earth, land" (see terrain). As a natural formation in geology, attested from 1670s. In street names, originally in reference to a row of houses along the top of a slope, but lately applied arbitrarily as a fancy name for an ordinary road. As a verb from 1610s, "to form into a terrace." Related: Terraced.