quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- cigar[cigar 词源字典]
- cigar: [18] Cigar comes from Spanish cigarro, whose origin is disputed. One story, perhaps more picturesque than accurate, is that it is an adaptation of cigarra, the Spanish word for ‘cicada’; supposedly this insect, with its stout body round which are wrapped large transparent leaflike wings, was held to resemble a cigar. Others have preferred to see as the source sicar, the verb for ‘smoke’ in the language of the ancient Maya of Central America. Cigarette is a French derivative, with the diminutive suffix -ette, apparently coined in the early 1840s.
[cigar etymology, cigar origin, 英语词源] - bundling (n.)
- 1640s, "a gathering into a bundle," verbal noun from bundle (v.). Meaning "sharing a bed for the night, fully dressed, wrapped up with someone of the opposite sex" (1782) is a former local custom in New England (especially Connecticut and southeastern Massachusetts). It was noted there from about 1750s and often regarded by outsiders as grossly immoral, but New Englanders wrote defenses of it and claimed it was practiced elsewhere, too. It seems to have died out with the 18th century.
I am no advocate for temptation; yet must say, that bundling has prevailed 160 years in New England, and, I verily believe, with ten times more chastity than the sitting on a sofa. I had daughters, and speak from near forty years' experience. Bundling takes place only in cold seasons of the year--the sofa in summer is more dangerous than the bed in winter. [The Rev. Samuel Peters, "A general history of Connecticut," 1782]
- cartridge (n.)
- 1570s, cartage, corruption of French cartouche "a full charge for a pistol," originally wrapped in paper (16c.), from Italian cartoccio "roll of paper," an augmentative form of Medieval Latin carta "paper" (see card (n.)). The notion is of a roll of paper containing a charge for a firearm. The modern form of the English word is recorded from 1620s. Extended broadly 20c. to other small containers and their contents.
- demijohn (n.)
- 1769, partial translation and word-play from French damejeanne (late 17c.) "Lady Jane," term used for large globular wicker-wrapped bottle, perhaps because its shape suggested a stout woman in the costume of the period. A general Mediterranean word, with forms found in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Arabic.
- enwrap (v.)
- also inwrap, late 14c., from en- (1) "make, put in" + wrap (v.). Related: Enwrapped; enwrapping.
- gauntlet (n.1)
- "glove," early 15c., gantelet, from Old French gantelet (13c.) "gauntlet worn by a knight in armor," also a token of one's personality or person, and in medieval custom symbolizing a challenge, as in tendre son gantelet "throw down the gauntlet" (a sense found in English by 1540s). The Old French word is a semi-diminutive or double-diminutive of gant "glove" (12c.), earlier wantos (7c.), from Frankish *wanth-, from Proto-Germanic *wantuz "glove" (cognates: Middle Dutch want "mitten," East Frisian want, wante, Old Norse vöttr "glove," Danish vante "mitten"), which apparently is related to Old High German wintan, Old English windan "turn around, wind" (see wind (v.)).
The name must orig. have applied to a strip of cloth wrapped about the hand to protect it from sword-blows, a frequent practice in the Icelandic sagas. [Buck]
Italian guanto, Spanish guante likewise are ultimately from Germanic. The spelling with -u- was established from 1500s. - gift-wrap (v.)
- 1928, from gift (n.) + wrap (n.). Related: Gift-wrapped.
- golem (n.)
- "artificial man, automaton," 1897, from Hebrew golem [Psalm cxxxix:16] "shapeless mass, embryo," from galam "he wrapped up, folded."
- lap (v.2)
- "to lay one part over another," early 14c., "to surround (something with something else)," from lap (n.). Figurative use, "to envelop (in love, sin, desire, etc.)" is from mid-14c. The sense of "to get a lap ahead (of someone) on a track" is from 1847, on notion of "overlapping." The noun in this sense is 1670s, originally "something coiled or wrapped up;" meaning "a turn around a track" (1861) also is from this sense. Related: Lapped; lapping; laps.
- macabre (adj.)
- early 15c., originally in reference to a kind of morality show or allegorical representation of death and his victims, from Old French (danse) Macabré "(dance) of Death" (1376), of uncertain origin, probably a translation of Medieval Latin (Chorea) Machabæorum, literally "dance of the Maccabees" (leaders of the Jewish revolt against Syro-Hellenes; see Maccabees). The association with the dance of death seems to be from vivid descriptions of the martyrdom of the Maccabees in the Apocryphal books. The abstracted sense of "gruesome" is first attested 1842 in French, 1889 in English.
The typical form which the allegory takes is that of a series of pictures, sculptured or painted, in which Death appears, either as a dancing skeleton or as a shrunken corpse wrapped in grave-clothes to persons representing every age and condition of life, and leads them all in a dance to the grave. ["Encyclopaedia Britannica," 11th ed., 1911]
- muffle (v.)
- early 15c., "to cover or wrap (something) to conceal or protect," perhaps from Middle French mofler "to stuff," from Old French moufle "thick glove, muff" (compare Old French enmoufle "wrapped up"); see muff (n.). Meaning "wrap something up to deaden sound" first recorded 1761. Related: Muffled; muffling.
- pasty (n)
- c. 1300, a type of pastry pie, from Old French paste "dough, pastry," from Vulgar Latin *pastata "meat wrapped in pastry" from Latin pasta (see pasta).
- slingshot (n.)
- 1849, from sling (v.) + shot (n.). As a verb, from 1969. The piece of stone or metal hurled from it is a sling-stone (late 14c.). A slung-shot (1848) was a rock wrapped in a sling, used as a weapon by roughs and criminals.
- unwrap (v.)
- late 14c., from un- (2) "opposite of" + wrap (v.). Related: Unwrapped; unwrapping.
- wrap (v.)
- early 14c., wrappen, "to wind (something around something else), cover (something), conceal; bind up, swaddle; fold (something) up or back on itself," of uncertain origin, perhaps via Scandinavian (compare Danish dialectal vravle "to wind"). Or perhaps a variant of lap (v.2). To wrap up "put an end to" is from 1926. Related: Wrapped; wrapping. Wrapping paper is from 1715.
- lungi
- "A sarong-like garment wrapped around the waist and extending to the ankles, worn by both sexes in India and in Burma (Myanmar), where it is the national dress", Urdu.
- fajitas
- "A dish of Mexican origin consisting of strips of spiced beef or chicken, chopped vegetables, and grated cheese, wrapped in a soft tortilla and often served with sour cream", Mexican Spanish, literally 'little strips'.