waftyoudaoicibaDictYouDict[waft 词源字典]
waft: [16] A wafter was an ‘armed ship used for convoying others’ (the word was borrowed from Middle Dutch wachter ‘guard’, which came from the same prehistoric Germanic base as English wait, wake, and watch). The verb waft was derived from it by back-formation, and at first was used for ‘convey by water, convoy’ (‘Because certain pirates … were lurking at the Thames mouth … Thomas Lord Camoys with certain ships of war was appointed to waft over the king’, Edward Hall, Chronicle 1548). The change from ‘conveyance by water’ to ‘conveyance through the air’ began in the 17th century.
=> wait, wake, watch[waft etymology, waft origin, 英语词源]
waft (v.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
c. 1500, transitive, "to move gently" (through the air), probably from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German, ultimately from wachten "to guard" (perhaps via notion of a ship that guards another as it sails), related to waken "rouse from sleep," from Proto-Germanic *waht- (see wake (n.1)). Possibly influenced by northern dialect waff "cause to move to and fro" (1510s), a variant of wave. Intransitive sense from 1560s. Related: Wafted; wafting.