alasyoudaoicibaDictYouDict[alas 词源字典]
alas: [13] In origin alas was an exclamation of weariness rather than grief. Latin lassus ‘weary’ (related to let ‘allow’ and source of lassitude) passed into Old French as las which, with the addition of the exclamation a ‘ah’, became alas.
=> lassitude, let[alas etymology, alas origin, 英语词源]
letyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
let: [OE] English has two distinct verbs let, of diametrically opposite meaning, but they are probably ultimately related. The one meaning ‘allow’ goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *lǣt- (source also of German lassen and Dutch laten) which, like the related late, is connected with a range of words denoting ‘slowness’ or ‘weariness’. It therefore appears that the underlying etymological meaning of let is ‘let go of something because one is too tired to hold on to it’.

By the time the verb reached Old English this had developed to ‘leave behind’ and ‘omit to do’, senses now defunct, as well as to ‘allow’. A close relative of the base *lǣt- was *lat-, direct ancestor of English late. From this was formed the Germanic verb *latjan, which gave English its other verb let, meaning ‘prevent’, now largely obsolete except as a noun, in the phrase without let or hindrance or as a tennis term.

=> late
alasyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
mid-13c., from Old French ha, las (later French hélas), from ha "ah" + las "unfortunate," originally "tired, weary," from Latin lassus "weary" (see late). At first an expression of weariness rather than woe.
beatnik (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
coined 1958 by San Francisco newspaper columnist Herb Caen during the heyday of -nik suffixes in the wake of Sputnik. From Beat generation (1952), associated with beat (n.) in its meaning "rhythm (especially in jazz)" as well as beat (past participle adjective) "worn out, exhausted," but originator Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) in 1958 connected it with beatitude.
The origins of the word beat are obscure, but the meaning is only too clear to most Americans. More than the feeling of weariness, it implies the feeling of having been used, of being raw. It involves a sort of nakedness of the mind. ["New York Times Magazine," Oct. 2, 1952]



"Beat" is old carny slang. According to Beat Movement legend (and it is a movement with a deep inventory of legend), Ginsberg and Kerouac picked it up from a character named Herbert Huncke, a gay street hustler and drug addict from Chicago who began hanging around Times Square in 1939 (and who introduced William Burroughs to heroin, an important cultural moment). The term has nothing to do with music; it names the condition of being beaten down, poor, exhausted, at the bottom of the world. [Louis Menand, "New Yorker," Oct. 1, 2007]
faintness (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
early 14c., "feebleness, weariness," from faint (adj.) + -ness. Meaning "exhaustion" is mid-15c. Of color, light, etc., from 1640s.
fatigue (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
1660s, "that which causes weariness," from French fatigue "weariness," from fatiguer "to tire" (15c.), from Latin fatigare "to weary, to tire out," originally "to cause to break down," from pre-Latin adjective *fati-agos "driving to the point of breakdown," with first half from Old Latin *fatis, which is of unknown origin but apparently related to affatim (adv.) "sufficiently" and to fatisci "crack, split." The second half is the root of agere "to drive" (see act (n.)).

Especially "the labors of military persons" (1776). Meaning "a feeling of weariness from exertion" is from 1719. Of metals or other materials under strain, from 1877.
languor (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
c. 1300, "disease, distress, mental suffering," from Old French langor "sickness, weakness" (Modern French langueur), from Latin languorem (nominative languor) "faintness, feebleness, lassitude," from languere "be weak or faint" (see lax). Sense shifted to "faintness, weariness" (1650s) and "habitual want of energy" (1825).
lassitude (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
early 15c., from Middle French lassitude (14c.), from Latin lassitudinem (nominative lassitudo) "faintness, weariness," from lassus "faint, tired, weary," from PIE *led- "slow, weary" (source also of Old English læt "sluggish, slow;" see late (adj.)), from root *le- "to let go, slacken" (see lenient).
let (v.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
Old English lætan "to allow to remain; let go, leave, depart from; leave undone; to allow; bequeath," also "to rent" (class VII strong verb; past tense let, past participle læten), from Proto-Germanic *letan (cognates: Old Saxon latan, Old Frisian leta, Dutch laten, German lassen, Gothic letan "to leave, let"), from PIE *le- (2) "to let go, slacken" (cognates: Latin lassus "faint, weary," Lithuanian leisti "to let, to let loose;" see lenient). If that derivation is correct, the primary sense would be "let go through weariness, neglect."

Of blood, from late Old English. To let (something) slip originally (1520s) was a reference to hounds on a leash; figurative use from 1540s. To let (someone) off "allow to go unpunished" is from 1814. To let on "reveal, divulge" is from 1725; to let up "cease, stop" is from 1787. Let alone "not to mention" is from 1812.
longing (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
"yearning, desire," Old English langung "longing, weariness, sadness, dejection," from long (v.). Related: Longingly.
mal du siecle (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
French, mal du sìecle, "world-weariness."
phewyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
vocalic gesture expressing weariness, etc., attested from c. 1600.
taedium vitaeyoudaoicibaDictYouDict
Latin, "weariness of life; a deep disgust with life tempting one to suicide."
tedium (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
"tediousness," 1660s, from Latin taedium "weariness, irksomeness, disgust," related to taedet "it is wearisome, it excites loathing," and to taedere "to weary," of uncertain origin. Possible cognates are Old Church Slavonic težo, Lithuanian tingiu "to be dull, be listless."
wearisome (adj.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
mid-15c., "weary," also "causing weariness," from weary + -some (1).