英语词源

• charade 英文词源 charade (n.) 1776, from French charade (18c.), probably from Provençal charrado "long talk, chatter," of obscure origin, perhaps from charrar "to chatter, gossip," of echoic origin. Compare Italian ciarlare , Spanish charlar "to talk, prattle." Originally not silent, but relying rather on enigmatic descriptions of the words or syllables. As we have ever made it a Rule to shew our Att
• characterize 英文词源 characterize (v.) 1590s, "to engrave, write," back-formation from characterization , or else from Medieval Latin characterizare , from Greek kharakterizein "to designate by a characteristic mark," from kharakter (see character ). Meaning "to describe the qualities of" is recorded from 1630s; that of "to be characteristic" is from 1744. Related: Characterized ; characterizing . 中文词
• characteristic 英文词源 characteristic adjective and noun both first attested 1660s, from character + -istic on model of Greek kharakteristikos . Earlier in the adjectival sense was characteristical (1620s). Related: Characteristically (1640s). Characteristics "distinctive traits" also attested from 1660s. 中文词源 characteristic ：特征的 发音释义：[kærəktə'rɪstɪk] n.特征，特色adj.特征
• coxcomb 英文词源 coxcomb (n.) 1570s, from cokkes comb (1560s, see cockscomb ). Johnson has coxcomical (adj.) "foppish, conceited," but discourages it as "a low word unworthy of use." 中文词源 coxcomb （花花公子）：戴鸡冠形帽子的弄臣 英语单词coxcomb是cockscomb的变体，由cock（公鸡）+comb（鸡冠）组合而成，本意就是“鸡冠”。鸡冠花因为形状像扁平的
• Cain 英文词源 Cain elder son of Adam and Eve, from Hebrew Qayin , literally "created one," also "smith," from Semitic stem q-y-n "to form, to fashion." To raise Cain is first recorded 1840. Surnames McCain, McCann , etc., are a contraction of Irish Mac Cathan "son of Cathan," from Celtic cathan , literally "warrior," from cath "battle." 中文词源 Cain （凶手）：圣经中的第一个凶手该隐
• catastrophe 英文词源 catastrophe catastrophe: see apostrophe catastrophe (n.) 1530s, "reversal of what is expected" (especially a fatal turning point in a drama), from Latin catastropha , from Greek katastrophe "an overturning; a sudden end," from katastrephein "to overturn, turn down, trample on; to come to an end," from kata "down" (see cata- ) + strephein "turn" (see strophe ). Extension to "sudden dis
• cue 英文词源 cue cue: Cue has several meanings in English, and it is not clear whether they can all be considered to be the same word. In the case of ‘pigtail’ and ‘billiard stick’, both of which appeared in the 18th century, cue is clearly just a variant spelling of queue , but although cue ‘actor’s prompt’ [16] has been referred by some to the same source (on the grounds that it re
• cub- 英文词源 No matching word found in the dictionary. Word of Random clerk clerk: [11] Clerk and its relatives cleric and clergy owe their existence ultimately to a Biblical reference, in Deuteronomy xviii 2, to the Levites, members of an Israelite tribe whose men were assistants to the Temple priests: ‘Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren: the Lord is their inheritance’
• cheat 英文词源 cheat cheat: [14] Cheat is a reduced form of escheat , a legal term for the reversion of property to the state on the death of the owner without heirs. This came from Old French escheoite , a derivative of the past participle of the verb escheoir ‘befall by chance, happen, devolve’, from Vulgar Latin * excadēre ‘fall away’, a compound verb formed from the prefix ex - ‘out’
• cattle 英文词源 cattle cattle: [13] Ultimately, cattle is the same word as chattel [13], and when it first entered English it had the same meaning, ‘property’. From earliest times, however, it was applied specifically to livestock thought of as property. In the Middle Ages it was a wide-ranging term in animal husbandry, being used for horses, sheep, pigs, and even poultry and bees, as well as cow
• Chauvinism 英文词源 chauvinism chauvinism: [19] Chauvinism in its original sense of ‘blind patriotism’ was coined in French from the name of one Nicholas Chauvin of Rochefort, a (possibly legendary) French soldier and veteran of Napoleon’s campaigns noted for his patriotic zeal. He was taken up and ridiculed as the type of the old soldier forever harking back to the glories of Napoleon’s times, a
• calculate 英文词源 calculate calculate: [16] Calculate comes from the past participial stem of the Latin verb calculāre , a derivative of the noun calculus , which meant ‘pebble’. This was almost certainly a diminutive form of Latin calx , from which English gets calcium and chalk . The notion of ‘counting’ was present in the word from ancient times, for a specialized sense of Latin calculus wa
• camp 英文词源 camp camp: [16] Latin campus meant ‘open field’. It branched out into various more specialized meanings. One of them, for example, was ‘battle field’: this was borrowed into the Germanic languages as ‘battle’ (German has kampf , for instance, as in the title of Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf ‘My struggle’). Another was ‘place for military exercises’, and this see
• champion 英文词源 champion champion: [13] Etymologically, a champion is someone who fought in the campus or arena. Latin campus (source of English camp ) meant, among other things, ‘field of battle’ – both a fullscale military battlefield and an area for staged battles between gladiators. Those who fought in such battles – the gladiators – were called in medieval Latin campiones . The word pa
• cannibal 英文词源 cannibal cannibal: [16] Cannibal was originally a proper name, applied by the Spaniards to the Carib people of the West Indies (whom they regarded as eaters of human flesh). It is a variant, originally used by Christopher Columbus, of Caribes , which comes from Carib , a word of Carib origin in the Arawakan language of northern South America and the Caribbean. It is related to the Car
• canoe 英文词源 canoe canoe: [16] Like cannibal , canoe is a word of Caribbean origin. In the language of the local Carib people it was canaoua , and it passed via Arawakan into Spanish (recorded by Christopher Columbus) as canoa . That was the form in which it first came into English; modern canoe is due to the influence of French canoe . Originally, the word was used for referring to any simple boa
• cardigan 英文词源 cardigan cardigan: [19] The cardigan was named after James Thomas Brudenell, 7th earl of Cardigan (1797–1868), an early sporter of button-through woollen jackets. His other, but less successful, claim to fame was that he led the Charge of the Light Brigade (1854) at Balaclava during the Crimean War. cardigan (n.) 1868, from James Thomas Brudenell (1797-1868), 7th Earl of Cardigan ,
• caesarian 英文词源 caesarian caesarian: [17] The application of the adjective caesarian to the delivery of a baby by surgical incision through the abdomen and womb arises from the legend that Julius Caesar (c. 100–44 BC) himself or an earlier ancestor of his was born in this way. The name Caesar comes from the Latin phrase a caeso mātrisūtere , literally ‘from the mother’s cut womb’ ( caesus w
• centaury 英文词源 centaury (n.) small plant with red flowers (now usually erythraea Centaureum ), late 14c., from Medieval Latin centaurea , from Latin centaureum , from Greek kentaureion , from kentauros "centaur" (see centaur ), so called according to Pliny because the plant's medicinal properties were discovered by Chiron the centaur. German Tausendgüldenkraut is based on a mistranslation of the La
• college 英文词源 college college: [14] College comes from the same source as colleague . Latin collēga , literally ‘one chosen to work with another’, a compound based on the stem of lēgāre ‘choose’. An ‘association of collēgae , partnership’ was thus a collēgium , whence (possibly via Old French college ) English college . For many hundreds of years this concept of a ‘corporate grou
• count 英文词源 count count: There are two distinct words count in English. Count ‘enumerate’ [14] comes ultimately from Latin computāre ‘calculate’ (source of English compute ). It came into English from Old French conter , which had, via the notion of ‘adding up and rendering an account’, developed the sense ‘tell a story’ (preserved in English in the derivatives account and recoun
• canon 英文词源 canon canon: There are today two distinct words canon in English, although ultimately they are related. The older, ‘(ecclesiastical) rule’ [OE], comes via Latin canōn from Greek kanón ‘rule’, which some have speculated may be related to Greek kánnā ‘reed’, source of English cane (the semantic link is said to be ‘reed’ – ‘rod’ – ‘measuring rod’ – ‘ru
• centurion 英文词源 centurion (n.) late 13c., from Latin centurionem (nominative centurio ), "Roman army officer, head of a centuria " (a group of one hundred); see century . 中文词源 centurion （百夫长）：古罗马军队中的百人队队长 单词centurion来自拉丁语，本意是古罗马军队中一个百人队（Centuria）的领导，一般译为“百夫长”。其中cent表示“一百
• chevalier 英文词源 chevalier (n.) late 13c., Anglo-French chivaler "mounted knight," Old French chevalier "knight, horseman, knight in chess" (12c., Modern French chevaler ), from Late Latin caballarius "horseman" (source of Provençal cavallier , Spanish caballero , Portuguese cavalleiro , Italian cavaliere ; see cavalier (n.)). The word formerly was nativized, but has been given a French pronunciation
• chivalry 英文词源 chivalry chivalry: [13] Etymologically, chivalry is the practice of riding horses. It comes from Old French chivalerie , a derivative of medieval Latin caballārius (related to, and perhaps direct source of, English cavalier ). This meant ‘horseman’, and was formed from Latin caballus ‘horse’ (whence French cheval ). The meaning of chivalerie had two main strands, both of them
• china 英文词源 china (n.) "porcelain imported from China," 1570s, short for Chinaware , China dishes , etc.; from the country name (see China ). China (n.) Asian country name, 1550s, of uncertain origin, probably ultimately from Sanskrit Cina-s "the Chinese" (earliest European usage is in Italian, by Marco Polo), perhaps from Qin dynasty, which ruled 3c. B.C.E. Latinized as Sina , hence sinologist .
• civil 英文词源 civil civil: [14] Latin cīvis ‘citizen’ had two adjectival derivatives which have passed into English: cīvicus , source of civic [16], and cīvīlis , from which, via Old French, we get civil . Of its derivatives, civility [14] comes from Latin cīvīlitās , but civilize [17] and civilian [14] are French creations. = civilize , city civil (adj.) late 14c., "relating to civil la
• clergy 英文词源 clergy (n.) c. 1200, clergie "office or dignity of a clergyman," from two Old French words: 1. clergié "clerics, learned men," from Medieval Latin clericatus , from Late Latin clericus (see clerk (n.)); 2. clergie "learning, knowledge, erudition," from clerc , also from Late Latin clericus . Meaning "persons ordained for religious work" is from c. 1300. 中文词源 clergy （神职人
• colossal 英文词源 colossal colossal: [18] Colossal comes ultimately from Greek kolossós , a word of unknown origin which was first used by the historian Herodotus as a name for certain gigantic statues in Egypt. It became much better known, of course, when applied to the Colossus of Rhodes, a 36-metrehigh statue of Apollo that stood at the entrance to Rhodes harbour, built around 280 BC. Various adjec
• companion 英文词源 companion companion: [13] Etymologically, your companion is someone who shares your ‘bread’ with you. It comes, via Old French compaignon , from Vulgar Latin * compāniō , a compound noun formed from Latin com - ‘with’ and pānis ‘bread’. The Old French stem compaign - also formed the basis of compaignie , from which English gets company [13]. Compare MATE. The companion
• comrade 英文词源 comrade comrade: [16] Etymologically, one’s comrade is someone with whom one shares a room. The word came via French camerade from Spanish camarada ‘room-sharer’, a derivative of camara ‘room’, from Latin camera . Cameraderie is a 19th-century borrowing from French. = camaraderie , camera , chamber , chamberlain , chimney comrade (n.) 1590s, "one who shares the same room," f
• camera 英文词源 camera camera: [18] Latin camera originally meant ‘vaulted room’ (a sense preserved in the Radcliffe Camera , an 18th-century building housing part of Oxford University library, which has a vaulted roof). It came from Greek kamárā ‘vault, arch’, which is ultimately related to English chimney . In due course the meaning ‘vaulted room’ became weakened to simply ‘room’,
• client 英文词源 client client: [14] The original status of a client was rather lowly: he was someone who was at another’s beck and call, and dependent on them. The word comes from Latin cliēns , an alteration of an earlier cluēns , the present participle of the verb cluēre ‘listen, follow, obey’; hence someone who was cliēns was always listening out for another’s orders, unable to take in
• chiseler 英文词源 chiseler (n.) 1824, "one who works with a chisel," agent noun from chisel (v.). In slang sense of "swindler," attested from 1918. 中文词源 chiseler （骗子）：用从银币上凿下来的碎银制造伪币的罪犯 15世纪后，西班牙通过殖民逐渐占领了大片的美洲土地，并于16世纪30年代开始在盛产白银的美洲殖民地设厂铸造银币。西班牙银
• class 英文词源 class class: [16] Latin classis originally denoted ‘the people of Rome under arms, the ancient Roman army’; it appears to come from an earlier unrecorded * qladtis , a derivative of the base * qel - ‘call’, which points to an underlying sense ‘call to arms’. Under the terms of the constitution attributed to Servius Tullius, a 6thcentury BC king of Rome, the army, and hence
• commando 英文词源 commando (n.) Afrikaans, "a troop under a commander," from Portuguese, literally "party commanded" (see command (v.)); in use c. 1809 during the Peninsula campaign, then from 1834, in a South African sense, of military expeditions of the Boers against the natives; modern sense is from 1940 (originally shock troops to repel the threatened German invasion of England), first attested in
• calliope 英文词源 calliope (n.) 1858, "steam-whistle keyboard organ," named for Calliope , ninth and chief muse, presiding over eloquence and epic poetry, Latinized from Greek Kalliope , literally "beautiful-voiced," from kalli- , combining form of kallos "beauty" (see Callisto ) + opos (genitive of *ops ) "voice," related to Latin vox (see voice (n.)). 中文词源 calliope （汽笛风琴）：希腊神
• cadmium 英文词源 cadmium (n.) bluish-white metal, 1822, discovered 1817 by German scientist Friedrich Strohmeyer, coined in Modern Latin from cadmia , a word used by ancient naturalists for various earths and oxides (especially zinc carbonate), from Greek kadmeia (ge) "Cadmean (earth)," from Kadmos "Cadmus," legendary founder of Boeotian Thebes. So called because the earth was first found in the vicin
• chancellor 英文词源 chancellor chancellor: [11] Etymologically, a chancellor was an attendant or porter who stood at the cancellī , or ‘lattice-work bar’, of a court in Roman times – hence the Latin term cancellārius . Over the centuries the cancellārius ’s status rose to court secretary, in due course with certain legal functions. The word came into English, via Anglo-Norman canceler or chanc
• chartreuse 英文词源 chartreuse (n.) type of liqueur, 1866, from la Grande-Chartreuse , chief monastery of the Carthusian order, which was founded 11c. and named for the massif de la Chartreuse (Medieval Latin Carthusianus ) mountain group in the French Alps, where its first monastery was built. The liqueur recipe dates from early 17c.; the original now marketed as Les Pères Chartreux . The color (1884)
• cartel 英文词源 cartel cartel: see chart cartel (n.) 1550s, "a written challenge," from Middle French cartel (16c.), from Italian cartello "placard," diminutive of carta "card" (see card (n.1)). It came to mean "written agreement between challengers" (1690s) and then "a written agreement between challengers" (1889). Sense of "a commercial trust, an association of industrialists" comes 1902, via Germa
• cab 英文词源 cab cab: [19] Cab is short for cabriolet , a term, borrowed from French, for a light horse-drawn carriage. It comes, via the French verb cabrioler , from Italian capriolare ‘jump in the air’, a derivative of capriolo ‘roebuck’, from Latin capreolus , a diminutive form of caper ‘goat’ (source of English caper ‘leap’ and Capricorn ). The reason for its application to the
• canary 英文词源 canary canary: [16] Small green finches ( Serinus canarius ) native to the Canary Islands were introduced as cage birds in England in the 16th century (the domestic breed is now for the most part yellow). They were called, naturally enough, canary birds , and by the mid 17th century this had become simply canary . The Canaries, a group of Spanish islands in the Atlantic off the northw
• canter 英文词源 canter canter: [18] Canter comes from phrases such as Canterbury trot , Canterbury pace , etc, which were terms applied to the pace at which medieval pilgrims rode on their way by horse to the shrine of Thomas à Beckett at Canterbury in Kent (earliest references to it are from the 17th century, much later than the time of Chaucer’s pilgrims in the Middle Ages). The abbreviated from
• canvas 英文词源 canvas canvas: [14] Canvas is related ultimately to hemp , for originally canvas was a cloth made from hemp. Latin cannabis (from the same source as English hemp ) produced the Vulgar Latin derivative * cannapāceum , which passed into English via Old Northern French canevas . The verb canvass [16] appears to come from the noun: it originally meant ‘toss in a canvas sheet’, and th
• coin 英文词源 coin coin: [14] Latin cuneus meant ‘wedge’ (from it we get cuneiform ‘wedge-shaped script’). It passed into Old French as coing or coin , where it developed a variety of new meanings. Primary amongst these was ‘corner-stone’ or ‘corner’, a sense preserved in English mainly in the now archaic spelling quoin . But also, since the die for stamping out money was often wedg
• copper 英文词源 copper copper: [OE] A major source of copper in the ancient world was the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, so the Romans called it cyprium aes ‘metal of Cyprus’. This became cuprum in late Latin, from which it was borrowed into prehistoric West and North Germanic as * kupar , source of Old English coper . ( Copper the slang term for ‘policeman’ [19] is simply the agent noun for
• corn 英文词源 corn corn: [OE] The underlying sense of corn is of grinding down into small particles. The word comes ultimately from the Indo-European base * ger -, which meant ‘wear away’. From it was derived * grnóm ‘worn-down particle’, which in Latin produced grānum (source of English grain ) and in prehistoric Germanic produced * kurnam , which developed into Old English corn . Alread
• coroner 英文词源 coroner (n.) late 12c., from Anglo-French curuner , from Latin custos placitorum coronae , originally the title of the officer with the duty of protecting the property of the royal family, from Latin corona , literally "crown" (see crown (n.)). The duties of the office gradually narrowed and by 17c. the chief function was to determine the cause of death in cases not obviously natural.
• consul 英文词源 consul (n.) late 14c., "magistrate in ancient Rome," from Old French consule and directly from Latin consul "magistrate in ancient Rome," probably originally "one who consults the Senate," from consulere "to deliberate, take counsel" (see consultation ). Modern sense began with use as appellation of various foreign officials and magistrates, "a representative chosen by a community of
• crisscross 英文词源 crisscross crisscross: [16] Crisscross is an alteration of Christscrosse , a term used from the 16th to 18th centuries for the figure of a cross (not specifically, as the name would seem to suggest, the crucifix). Gradually the original signification of the first syllable came to be lost, and the term fell into the pattern of reduplicated words (such as flipflop , singsong ) in which
• curfew 英文词源 curfew curfew: [13] Curfew means literally ‘coverfire’. It was introduced into English via Anglo-Norman coeverfu from Old French covrefeu , which was formed from covrir ‘cover’ and feu ‘fire’ ( feu was a descendant of Latin focus ‘hearth’, which has given English focus , foyer , fuel , and fusillade ). The notion underlying the word is that of a signal given at a parti
• crucify 英文词源 crucify (v.) c. 1300, from Old French crucifer (12c., Modern French crucifier ), from Vulgar Latin *crucificare , from Late Latin crucifigere "to fasten to a cross," from cruci , dative of Latin crux "cross" (see cross (n.)) + figere "fasten" (see fix (v.)). An ancient mode of capital punishment considered especially ignominious by the Romans. Figurative sense of "to torment" is 1620s
• cravat 英文词源 cravat cravat: [17] The fashion for wearing scarves round the neck started in France in the 1650s. It was inspired by Croatian mercenaries employed there at that time, who regularly sported linen neckbands of that type. The Croats were called in French Cravates (the name comes via German Krabate from the original Serbo-Croat term Hrvat ), and so their neckerchiefs came to be known as
• commune 英文词源 commune (v.) c. 1300, "have dealings with," from Old French comuner "to make common, share" (10c., Modern French communier ), from comun (see common (adj.)). Meaning "to talk intimately" is late 14c. Related: Communed ; communing . commune (n.) 1792, from French commune "small territorial divisions set up after the Revolution," from Middle French commune "free city, group of citizens"
• casino 英文词源 casino (n.) 1744, "public room for music or dancing," from Italian casino , literally "a little house," diminutive of casa "house," from Latin casa "hut, cottage, cabin," which is of uncertain origin. The card game (also cassino ) is attested by that name from 1792. Specifically as "building for aristocratic gambling" by 1820, first in an Italian context. [T]he term Casino [is] indisc
• check 英文词源 check check: There are two distinct words check in English, although by very involved pathways they are related. Check ‘verify’ [14] is originally a chess term meaning ‘threaten the king’. It comes from Old French eschequier , a derivative of the noun eschec (source also of English chess ), which goes back via Vulgar Latin * scaccus and Arabic shāh to Persian shāh ‘king’
• cologne 英文词源 cologne (n.) 1814, Cologne water , loan-translation of French eau de Cologne , literally "water from Cologne," from the city in Germany (German Köln , from Latin Colonia Agrippina ) where it was made, first by Italian chemist Johann Maria Farina, who had settled there in 1709. 中文词源 cologne （古龙水）：古龙水的诞生地德国城市科隆 在18世纪的德国城市科隆
• cadet 英文词源 cadet cadet: [17] Etymologically, a cadet is a ‘little head’. Its original meaning in English was ‘younger son or brother’, and it came from French cadet , an alteration of a Gascon dialect term capdet ‘chief’. This in turn derived from Vulgar Latin * capitellus ‘little head’, a diminutive form of Latin caput ‘head’ (from which English also gets captain and chief )
• czar 英文词源 czar (n.) 1550s, from Russian tsar , from Old Slavic tsesari , from Gothic kaisar , from Greek kaisar , from Latin Caesar . First adopted by Russian emperor Ivan IV, 1547. The spelling with cz- is against the usage of all Slavonic languages; the word was so spelt by Herberstein, Rerum Moscovit. Commentarii , 1549, the chief early source of knowledge as to Russia in Western Europe, whe
• crystal 英文词源 crystal crystal: [OE] The prehistoric Indo-European base * kru - produced several words denoting ‘hard outer surface’, including English crust , Old High German hrosa ‘crust’, and Old Norse hrúthr ‘crust’. In some cases they reflect a hardening caused by freezing: Old High German hrosa , for example, also meant ‘ice’, and Greek krúos meant ‘frost’. From this was
• crocodile 英文词源 crocodile crocodile: [13] The crocodile gets its name from its habit of basking in the sun on sandbanks or on the shores of rivers. The word means literally ‘pebble-worm’, and it was coined in Greek from the nouns krókē ‘pebbles’ and drilos ‘worm’. The resulting Greek compound * krokódrīlos has never actually been found, for it lost its second r , giving krokódīlos ,
• continent 英文词源 continent continent: [14] Continent comes via Old French from Latin continēns , the present participle of continēre ‘hold together, enclose, contain’ (source of English contain ). From the beginning it meant in general ‘exercising self-restraint’; of the more specific senses, ‘chaste’ developed in the 14th century and ‘able to retain urine and faeces’ apparently in t
• clam 英文词源 clam clam: [OE] Old English clam meant ‘something for tying up or fastening, fetter’; it can be traced back to a prehistoric Germanic base * klam -, which also produced clamp [14] and is related to climb . There is a gap in the word’s history in early Middle English times, but it reappears at the end of the 14th century in the sense ‘clamp’, and in the 16th century it was ap
• chicken 英文词源 chicken chicken: [OE] Chicken is a widespread Germanic word (Dutch has kuiken , for instance, and Danish kylling ), whose ancestor has been reconstructed as * kiukīnam . This was formed, with a diminutive suffix, on a base * keuk -, which some have claimed is a variant of a base which lies behind cock ; if that is so, a chicken would amount etymologically to a ‘little cock’ (and
• chameleon 英文词源 chameleon (n.) mid-14c., camelion , from Old French caméléon , from Latin chamaeleon , from Greek khamaileon "the chameleon," from khamai "on the ground" (also "dwarf"), akin to chthon "earth" (see chthonic ) + leon "lion" (see lion ). Perhaps the large head-crest on some species was thought to resemble a lion's mane. The classical -h- was restored in English early 18c. Figurative s
• caterpillar 英文词源 caterpillar caterpillar: [15] Etymologically, a caterpillar is a ‘hairy cat’. The word comes ultimately from late Latin * catta pilōsa : catta is the source of English cat , while pilōsus ‘hairy’ is a derivative of Latin pilus ‘hair’, from which English gets pile of a carpet. In Old French * catta pilōsa became chatepelose , which passed into English as catyrpel . The p
• caprice 英文词源 caprice caprice: [17] Etymologically, caprice means ‘hedgehog-head’. It comes, via French caprice , from an Italian noun capriccio , formed from capo ‘head’ (from Latin caput ) and riccio ‘hedgehog’ (from Latin ericeus , source of English urchin ). Originally this meant ‘horror, shuddering’, the reference being to the hair of a terror-stricken person standing on end. T
• cabbage 英文词源 cabbage cabbage: [14] The shape of a cabbage, reminiscent of someone’s head, led to its being named in Old French caboce , which meant literally ‘head’. English acquired the word via the Old Northern French variant caboche (whose modern French descendant caboche , in the sense ‘head’, is said to provide the basis for Boche , the contemptuous term for ‘Germans’). It is no
• cynic 英文词源 cynic cynic: [16] Originally, the Cynics were a group of ascetic philosophers in ancient Greece. Their founder, around 400 BC, was Antisthenes, a follower of Socrates. They advocated the view that virtue and self-control are the highest good and, particularly under their later leader Diogenes, came to exhibit a contempt for the frailties of their fellow human beings that is traditiona
• cosmos 英文词源 cosmos cosmos: [17] Cosmos is a learned borrowing from Greek kósmos . The underlying meaning of this was ‘order’, and it appears originally to have been applied to the world and the universe by Pythagoras and his school in reference to the orderliness of creation. In the mid 20th century the word provided a useful linguistic distinction between Western and Soviet activities in sp
• clone 英文词源 clone (n.) 1903, in botany, from Greek klon "a twig, spray," related to klados "sprout, young branch, offshoot of a plant," possibly from PIE root *kel- (1) "to strike, cut" (see holt ). Figurative use by 1978. clone (v.) 1959, from clone (n.). Related: Cloned ; cloning . Extension to genetic duplication of animals and human beings is from 1970. 中文词源 clone （克隆）：植物的
• civilization 英文词源 civilization (n.) 1704, "law which makes a criminal process civil," from civilize + -ation . Sense of "civilized condition" first recorded 1772, probably from French civilisation , to be an opposite to barbarity and a distinct word from civility . Sense of a particular human society in a civilized condition, considered as a whole over time, is from 1857. Related: Civilizational . 中文
• character 英文词源 character character: [14] The ultimate source of character is Greek kharaktér , a derivative of the verb kharássein ‘sharpen, engrave, cut’, which in turn came from kharax ‘pointed stake’. Kharaktér meant ‘engraved mark’, and hence was applied metaphorically to the particular impress or stamp which marked one thing as different from another – its ‘character’. The
• category 英文词源 category category: [15] The word category has a rather complicated semantic history. It comes ultimately from Greek katēgorein ‘accuse’, a compound formed from the prefix katá - ‘against’ and agorá ‘public assembly’ (source of English agoraphobia and related to gregarious ) – hence ‘speak against publicly’. ‘Accuse’ gradually became weakened in meaning to ‘a
• conjure 英文词源 conjure (v.) late 13c., "command on oath," from Old French conjurer "invoke, conjure" (12c.), from Latin coniurare "to swear together; conspire," from com- "together" (see com- ) + iurare "to swear" (see jury (n.)). Magical sense is c. 1300, for "constraining by spell" a demon to do one's bidding. Related: Conjured ; conjuring . Phrase conjure up "cause to appear in the mind" (as if b
• confessor 英文词源 confessor (n.) late Old English, "one who avows his religion," especially in the face of danger, but does not suffer martyrdom, from Latin confessor , agent noun from confiteri (see confess ). Meaning "one who hears confessions" is from mid-14c.; this properly would be Latin confessarius , but Latin confessor was being used in this sense from the 9th century. Edward the Confessor (c.1
• Christ 英文词源 Christ (n.) title given to Jesus of Nazareth, Old English crist (by 830, perhaps 675), from Latin Christus , from Greek khristos "the anointed" (translation of Hebrew mashiah ; see messiah ), noun use of verbal adjective of khriein "to rub, anoint" (see chrism ). The Latin term drove out Old English Hæland "healer, savior," as the preferred descriptive term for Jesus. A title, treate
• christmas 英文词源 Christmas (n.) late Old English Cristes mæsse , from Christ (and retaining the original vowel sound) + mass (n.2). Written as one word from mid-14c. As a verb from 1590s. Father Christmas first attested in a carol attributed to Richard Smart, Rector of Plymtree (Devon) from 1435-77. Christmas tree in modern sense first attested 1835 in American English, from German Weihnachtsbaum . C
• charm 英文词源 charm charm: [13] Although now largely weakened to mere ‘attractiveness’, the origins of charm are in magic spells and incantations. It comes via Old French charme from Latin carmen ‘song’, which was also used for the chanting or reciting of verses with supposedly magic powers. Thus in the Middle Ages, charms were synonymous with enchantment – either spoken or, in more concr
• charity 英文词源 charity (n.) mid-12c., "benevolence for the poor," from Old French charité "(Christian) charity, mercy, compassion; alms; charitable foundation" (12c., Old North French carité ), from Latin caritatem (nominative caritas ) "costliness, esteem, affection" (in Vulgate often used as translation of Greek agape "love" -- especially Christian love of fellow man -- perhaps to avoid the sexu
• charisma 英文词源 charisma (n.) "gift of leadership, power of authority," c. 1930, from German, used in this sense by Max Weber (1864-1920) in "Wirtschaft u. Gesellschaft" (1922), from Greek kharisma "favor, divine gift," from kharizesthai "to show favor to," from kharis "grace, beauty, kindness" ( Charis was the name of one of the three attendants of Aphrodite) related to khairein "to rejoice at," fro
• chapel 英文词源 chapel chapel: [13] Chapel has a very specific source: it was originally applied to the shrine built to preserve the cloak (late Latin cappa ) of St Martin of Tours as a holy relic. The diminutive form of cappa was cappella , and this came to be applied to the building itself, gradually being broadened out subsequently to any moderately sized place of worship. The word reached English
• cathedral 英文词源 cathedral cathedral: [13] Cathedral is a shortening of cathedral church , which was originally the ‘church housing the bishop’s throne’. For ultimately cathedral comes from Greek kathédrā (source also of English chair ), a compound noun meaning ‘seat’, formed from katá - ‘down’ and * hed - ‘sit’. The adjectival form was created in late Latin as cathedrālis , and
• cardinal 英文词源 cardinal cardinal: [12] The ultimate source of cardinal is Latin cardō ‘hinge’, and its underlying idea is that something of particular, or ‘cardinal’, importance is like the hinge on which all else depends. English first acquired it as a noun, direct from ecclesiastical Latin cardinālis (originally an adjective derived from cardō ), which in the early church denoted simply
• calendar 英文词源 calendar calendar: [13] English acquired calendar via Anglo-Norman calender and Old French calendier from Latin calendārium , which was a ‘moneylender’s account book’. It got its name from the calends (Latin calendae ), the first day of the Roman month, when debts fell due. Latin calendae in turn came from a base * kal - ‘call, proclaim’, the underlying notion being that in
• cyclopean 英文词源 cyclopean (adj.) 1640s, from Latin cyclopeus , from Greek kyklopeios , from kyklopes (see cyclops ). 中文词源 cyclopean （巨大的）：希腊神话中的独眼巨人 在赫西奥德的《神谱》中，天神乌拉诺斯和大地女神该亚所生的子女中，除了十二泰坦神 外，还有三位独眼巨人（Cyclops）。他们额头中只有一只圆眼睛，词根cyc表示
• clue 英文词源 clue clue: [15] Clue is a variant spelling of the now obsolete clew ‘ball of thread’, and its current application to ‘that which helps to solve a problem’, which originated in the early 17th century, is based on the notion of using (like Theseus in the Minotaur’s labyrinth) a ball of thread to show one the way out of an intricate maze one has entered. Clew itself goes back t
• cloth 英文词源 cloth cloth: [OE] The history of the word cloth is not known, beyond the fact that its immediate source is Germanic (German has the related kleid ‘garment’). In Old English it meant both ‘piece of fabric’ and ‘fabric in general’, and in the plural it was applied to ‘garments’ (hence modern English clothes ). The verb clothe , too, probably goes back to Old English time
• cliometrics 英文词源 cliometrics "A technique for the interpretation of economic history, based on the statistical analysis of large-scale numerical data from population censuses, parish registers, and similar sources", 1960s (originally US): from Clio, on the pattern of words such as econometrics . 中文词源 cliometrics （计量历史学）：负责历史的缪斯女神克利俄 克利俄（Clio） 是