英语词源

• Bohemian 英文词源 bohemian (n.) "a gypsy of society," 1848, from French bohemién (1550s), from the country name (see Bohemia ). The modern sense is perhaps from the use of this country name since 15c. in French for "gypsy" (they were wrongly believed to have come from there, though their first appearance in Western Europe may have been directly from there), or from association with 15c. Bohemian heret
• bikini 英文词源 bikini bikini: [20] For Frenchmen, the sight of the first minimal two-piece swimming costumes for women produced by fashion designers in 1947 was as explosive as the test detonation of an atom bomb by the USA at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, in the western Pacific Ocean, in July 1946. Hence their naming it the ‘Bikini’, the first record of which is in the August 1947 issue
• badminton 英文词源 badminton badminton: [19] The game of ‘battledore and shuttlecock’ has been around for some time (it appears to go back to the 16th century; the word battledore , which may come ultimately from Portuguese batedor ‘beater’, first turns up in the 15th century, meaning ‘implement for beating clothes when washing them’, but by the 16th century is being used for a ‘small rack
• banting 英文词源 Banting (n.) system for weight loss through diet control, named for William Banting (1797-1878), English undertaker who invented it, tested it himself, and promoted it in his 1863 booklet "Letter on Corpulence, Addressed to the Public." Although the word is a surname, it was used like a verbal noun in -ing . ("She is banting"). 中文词源 banting （节食减肥法）：节食减肥成
• bedlam 英文词源 bedlam bedlam: [15] The word bedlam is a contraction of Bethlehem . It comes from the Hospital of St Mary of Bethlehem founded in 1247 by Simon FitzMary, Sheriff of London, as the Priory of St Mary Bethlehem. Situated outside Bishopsgate, in the City of London, the hospital began to admit mental patients in the late 14th century. In the 16th century it officially became a lunatic asyl
• blarney 英文词源 blarney (n.) 1796, from Blarney Stone (which is said to make a persuasive flatterer of any who kiss it), in a castle near Cork, Ireland. As Bartlett explains it, the reason is the difficulty of the feat of kissing the stone where it sits high up in the battlement: "to have ascended it, was proof of perseverence, courage, and agility, whereof many are supposed to claim the honor who ne
• berserk 英文词源 berserk berserk: [19] Sir Walter Scott appears to be responsible for introducing this word to the English language. He mentions it in a footnote to his novel The pirate 1822, adopting it (in the form berserkar ) from the Icelandic berserkr ‘frenzied Norse warrior’. Its etymology is not altogether clear. Its second syllable represents serkr ‘coat, shirt’ (a word English used to
• bowdlerize 英文词源 bowdlerize bowdlerize: [19] In 1818 Dr Thomas Bowdler (1754–1825), an English editor, published his Family Shakespeare , an expurgated edition of the plays ‘in which those words and expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family’. This and other similarly censored versions of the English classics led to Bowdler’s name being cast as the epitome of
• boycott 英文词源 boycott boycott: [19] The word boycott sprang into general use in the year 1880, to describe the activities of the Irish Land League. This was an organization set up in 1879 by the Irish nationalist Michael Davitt to press for agrarian reforms, rent reductions, etc. Those who did not agree with its aims, it subjected to an organized campaign of ostracism. One of the first to suffer fr
• braille 英文词源 braille braille: [19] Braille, the system of printing in raised dots for the blind, was named after its inventor, the French teacher Louis Braille (1809–52), himself blind from the age of three. He perfected his set of letter and number signs in 1834, but the term did not appear in English until the early 1850s. Braille 1853, from Louis Braille (1809-1852), French musician and teach
• buffalo 英文词源 buffalo buffalo: [16] English probably acquired buffalo from Portuguese bufalo , originally naming the ‘water buffalo’, Bubalis bubalis , a large oxlike animal of Asia and Africa, and subsequently extended to the ‘Cape buffalo’ of South Africa, Syncerus caffer . The Portuguese word came from late Latin bufalus , an alteration of Latin bubalus , which was borrowed from Greek boú
• bulldozer 英文词源 bulldozer (n.) "person who intimidates by violence," 1876, agent noun from bulldoze (q.v.). Meaning extended to ground-clearing caterpillar tractor in 1930. 中文词源 bulldozer （推土机）：威吓阻止黑人投票的白人 美国内战结束后，代表北方工业资本家利益的共和党上台执政。1874年-1876年的美国州、国会和总统选举期间，在内战期间
• bus 英文词源 bus bus: [19] Bus is, of course, short for omnibus . The first person on record as using it was the British writer Harriet Martineau, who spelled it buss : ‘if the station offers me a place in the buss’, Weal and woe in Garveloch 1832. Omnibus itself was borrowed from French, where it was first applied in 1828 to a voiture omnibus , literally ‘carriage for everyone’ ( omnibus
• burke 英文词源 burke burke: [19] In present-day English burke means ‘avoid’, as in ‘burke an issue’, but it can be traced back semantically via ‘suppress, hush up’ to ‘suffocate so as to provide a body for surgical dissection’. In this sense it was a macabre adoption of the name of William Burke (1792– 1829), an Irishman who with his colleague William Hare set up a profitable but n
• bacchanalian 英文词源 bacchanalian bacchanalian: [16] Bákkhos was the Greek god of wine. Son of Zeus and Semele, he was also known as Diónūsos . The Romans adopted him, amending his name to Bacchus , and his worshippers went in for a brand of licentious revelry, in his honour, known as Bacchanalia . Hence the metaphorical application of the English adjective to anything drunkenly orgiastic. bacchanalian
• ban 英文词源 ban ban: [OE] Ban is one of a widespread group of words in the European languages. Its ultimate source is the Indo-European base * bha -, which also gave English fame (from a derivative of Latin fārī ‘speak’) and phase (from Greek phāsis ). The Germanic offshoot of the Indo- European base, and source of the English word, was * bannan , which originally probably meant simply ‘
• bugger 英文词源 bugger bugger: [16] The Bulgarians, belonging from the early Christian era to the Eastern Orthodox Church, were regarded by Western Europeans as heretics. Thus it was that the Latin word Bulgarus came to be applied generically to any heretic, and eventually specifically to the Albigenses, a Catharistic sect in southern France in the 11th to 13th centuries. It passed via Old French bou
• badge 英文词源 badge (n.) mid-14c., perhaps from Anglo-French bage or from Anglo-Latin bagis , plural of bagia "emblem," all of unknown origin. 中文词源 badge （徽章）：中世纪骑士的家族标识 英语单词badge（徽章）本意是骑士的家族标识，最早出现于中世纪骑士比武大会。在比武时，骑士全身上下都被铠甲包裹。为了表示自己的身份，骑士
• balance 英文词源 balance balance: [13] The underlying etymological meaning of balance is of a weighing apparatus with ‘two pans’ for holding things. In Latin this was a lībra bilanx , literally ‘scales with two pans’ – bilanx being compounded from bi - ‘two’ and lanx ‘plate, pan’. Bilanx passed, in its stem from bilanc -, via Vulgar Latin * bilancia into Old French balance , the sou
• balk 英文词源 balk balk: [OE] There are two separate strands of meaning in balk , or baulk , as it is also spelled. When it first entered English in the 9th century, from Old Norse bálkr , it meant a ‘ridge of land, especially one between ploughed furrows’, from which the modern sense ‘stumbling block, obstruction’ developed. It is not until about 1300 that the meaning ‘beam of timber’
• ballast 英文词源 ballast ballast: [16] Originally, ballast appears to have meant literally ‘bare load’ – that is, a load carried by a ship simply for the sake of its weight, and without any commercial value. English probably acquired it, via Low German, from a Scandinavian language; Old Swedish and Old Danish had not only ballast but also barlast , which appears to betray the word’s component
• ballet 英文词源 ballet ballet: [17] Etymologically, a ballet is a ‘little dance’. English acquired the word, via French ballet , from Italian balletto , a diminutive of ballo ‘dance’, related to English ball (the diminutive of Italian balla ‘spherical ball’ is ballotta , whence English ballot ). The noun ballo came from the verb ballare (a descendant via late Latin ballāre of Greek ballí
• bandit 英文词源 bandit bandit: [16] Etymologically, a bandit is someone who has been ‘banished’ or outlawed. The word was borrowed from Italian bandito , which was a nominal use of the past participle of the verb bandire ‘ban’. The source of this was Vulgar Latin * bannīre , which was formed from the borrowed Germanic base * bann - ‘proclaim’ (from which English gets ban ). Meanwhile, in
• barge 英文词源 barge barge: [13] Barge comes in the first instance from Old French barge , but speculation has pushed it further back to medieval Latin * barica , which would have derived from báris , a Greek word for an Egyptian boat. This hypothetical * barica would have been a by-form of late Latin barca , which came into English via Old French as barque , also spelled bark , ‘sailing vessel’
• barrister 英文词源 barrister barrister: [16] A barrister is a lawyer who has been ‘called to the bar’ – that is, admitted to plead as an advocate in the superior courts of England and Wales. This notion derives from the ancient practice of having in the inns of court a partition separating senior members from students, which barrier the students metaphorically passed when they qualified. The endin
• baedeker 英文词源 Baedeker "travel guide," 1863, from German printer and bookseller Karl Baedeker (1801-1859) whose popular travel guides began the custom of rating places with one to four stars. The Baedeker raids by the Luftwaffe in April and May 1942 targeted British cultural and historical sites. 中文词源 baedeker （旅游指南）：旅游出版业的红人贝德克尔 英语单词baedeker源自
• barmecide 英文词源 Barmecide "Illusory or imaginary and therefore disappointing", Early 18th century (as a noun): from Arabic Barmakī , the name of a prince in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments , who gave a beggar a feast consisting of ornate but empty dishes. 中文词源 barmecide （口惠而实不至的人）：天方夜谭中假装殷勤的王子 阿拉伯名著《天方夜谭》中记录着这样一
• barnstorm 英文词源 barnstorm (v.) 1815, in reference to a theatrical troupe's performances in upstate New York barns (usually featuring short action pieces to suit vulgar tastes); extended 1896 to electioneering, 1928 to itinerant airplane pilots who performed stunts at fairs and races. Related: Barnstormed ; barnstorming . 中文词源 barnstorm （巡回演出）：美国草台班子在乡村谷仓的演
• Britain 英文词源 Britain (n.) c. 1300, Breteyne , from Old French Bretaigne , from Latin Britannia , earlier Brittania , from Brittani "the Britons" (see Briton ). The Old English place-name Brytenlond meant "Wales." If there was a Celtic name for the island, it has not been recorded. 中文词源 Britain （不列颠）：布列吞人的土地 我们知道，英国所在的地方被称为“大不列颠
• baron 英文词源 baron baron: [12] The earliest historical sense of baron , ‘tenant under the feudal system who held his land and title directly from the king’, can be traced back to its probable source, medieval Latin barō , which originally meant simply ‘man’, and hence ‘vassal’ or ‘retainer’. The word was of course brought into English by the Normans, as Anglo-Norman barun , and fr
• brandy 英文词源 brandy brandy: [17] English acquired the word for this distilled spirit from Dutch brandewijn , and at first altered and translated it minimally to brandewine . Soon however this became brandy wine , and by the mid-17th century the abbreviated brandy was in common use. The Dutch compound meant ‘distilled wine’, from branden , which denoted ‘distil’ as well as ‘burn’ (it wa
• baroque 英文词源 baroque (adj.) 1765, from French baroque (15c.) "irregular," from Portuguese barroco "imperfect pearl," which is of uncertain origin, perhaps related to Spanish berruca "a wart." This style in decorations got the epithet of Barroque taste, derived from a word signifying pearls and teeth of unequal size. [Fuseli's translation of Winkelmann, 1765] Klein suggests the name may be from Ita
• bayonet 英文词源 bayonet bayonet: [17] Bayonet comes from French bayonette , an early spelling of what is now baïonette . The French term is traditionally derived from Bayonne , the name of a town and port on the southwest coast of France, near Biarritz, where bayonets were supposedly first used by Basques of the area, in the 17th century. But this etymology is not universally accepted, and some have
• billingsgate 英文词源 billingsgate (n.) 1670s, the kind of coarse, abusive language once used by women in the Billingsgate market on the River Thames below London Bridge. Billingsgate is the market where the fishwomen assemble to purchase fish; and where, in their dealings and disputes they are somewhat apt to leave decency and good manners a little on the left hand. ["Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue," 181
• biro 英文词源 Biro (n.) proprietary name of a type of ball-point pen, 1947, from László Bíró , the Hungarian inventor. The surname means "judge." 中文词源 biro （圆珠笔）：发明圆珠笔的匈牙利人比罗 在圆珠笔被发明出来之前，写字可能是一桩会脏手的事情。在办公室里，人们都使用那种必须频频去蘸墨水的简易钢质笔尖的笔。墨水瓶
• bloomer 英文词源 bloomer bloomer: [19] Bloomers , long loose trousers worn by women, were not actually invented by someone called Bloomer – the credit for that seems to go to a Mrs Elizabeth Smith Miller of New York – but their first advocate was Amelia Jenks Bloomer (1818–94), a US feminist who strongly promoted their use in the early 1850s as a liberated garment for women. The extent to which
• bobby 英文词源 bobby bobby: [19] The British bobby ‘policeman’ gets his name from the English statesman Sir Robert Peel (1788–1850) – Bobby or Bob being the pet form of Robert . Peel was Home Secretary when the Metropolitan Police Force was formed in 1828, but the term bobby is not actually recorded until 1844. A much earlier application of his name was the now obsolete Peeler , used from 18
• boffin 英文词源 boffin (n.) "person engaged in innovative research," especially in aviation, 1945; earlier "elderly naval officer" (1941), probably from one of the "Mr. Boffins" of English literature (as in "Our Mutual Friend"). 中文词源 boffin （科学怪人）：狄更斯小说中坚持学习的古怪老人 英语单词boffin是一个俚语，用来称呼科学家、工程师或其他从事科研
• bogus 英文词源 bogus 1838, "counterfeit money, spurious coin," American English, apparently from a slang word applied (according to some sources first in Ohio in 1827) to a counterfeiter's apparatus. One bogus or machine impressing dies on the coin, with a number of dies, engraving tools, bank bill paper, spurious coin, c. c. making in all a large wagon load, was taken into possession by the attorne
• bunk 英文词源 bunk (n.1) "sleeping berth," 1758, probably a shortened form of bunker (n.) in its sense "seat." Bunk-bed (n.) attested by 1869. bunk (n.2) "nonsense," 1900, short for bunkum , phonetic spelling of Buncombe , a county in North Carolina. The usual story (by 1841) of its origin is this: At the close of the protracted Missouri statehood debates, supposedly on Feb. 25, 1820, N.C. Represen
• bourgeoisie 英文词源 bourgeoisie (n.) 1707, "body of freemen in a French town; the French middle class," from French bourgeois , from Old French burgeis, borjois (12c.) "town dweller" (as distinct from "peasant"), from borc "town, village," from Frankish *burg "city" (see borough ). Communist use for "the capitalist class generally" attested from 1886. 中文词源 bourgeoisie （资产阶级）：居住在
• burgess 英文词源 burgess burgess: see borough burgess (n.) c. 1200, burgeis "citizen of a borough," from Old French borjois (Modern French bourgeois ), from Late Latin burgensis (see bourgeois ). Applied from late 15c. to borough representatives in Parliament and used later in Virginia and other colonies used to denote members of the legislative body, while in Pennsylvania, etc., it meant "member of t
• borough 英文词源 borough borough: [OE] Borough (Old English burg or burh ) comes from Germanic * burgs ‘fortress’ (whence also German burg ‘castle, stronghold’). It was a derivative of the base * burg - ‘protect’ (whence also bury ), a variant of * berg - (source of English barrow ‘mound’ and German berg ‘mountain’) and * borg - (source of English borrow ). At some time during the
• bizarre 英文词源 bizarre bizarre: [17] Bizarre can probably be traced back to Italian bizzarro , of unknown origin, which meant ‘angry’. It passed into Spanish as bizarro , meaning ‘brave’, and then found its way into French, where its meaning gradually mutated from ‘brave’ to ‘odd’ – which is where English got it from. It used to be thought that the French word might have come from
• backgammon 英文词源 backgammon backgammon: [17] Backgammon appears to mean literally ‘back game’, although the reason for the name is far from clear ( gammon had been used since at least the early 18th century for a particular type of victory in the game, but it is hard to say whether the term for the victory came from the term for the game, or vice versa). Either way, gammon represents Old English g
• balloon 英文词源 balloon balloon: see ball balloon (n.) 1570s, "a game played with a large inflated leather ball," from Italian pallone "large ball," from palla "ball," from a Germanic source akin to Langobardic palla (from Proto-Germanic *ball- , from PIE *bhel- (2) "to blow, swell;" see bole ) + -one , suffix indicating great size. Perhaps also borrowed in part from French ballon (16c.), altered (af
• biblio- 英文词源 biblio- word-forming element meaning "book" or sometimes "Bible," from Greek biblio- , comb. form of biblion "book" (see Bible ). 中文词源 biblio- （书）：古代腓尼基港口城市比布鲁斯 在古代，西亚的腓尼基港口城市比布鲁斯（Byblos，现黎巴嫩的朱拜勒市）是一个重要的港口城市，大量埃及的莎草纸由此港口被输入希腊等欧
• boulevard 英文词源 boulevard boulevard: [18] Boulevard is a frenchified version of German bollwerk ‘fortification’ (the corresponding anglicized version is bulwark ). The meaning of the French word, apparently quite divergent from that of bulwark , comes originally from the practice of constructing walkways along the top of demolished ramparts. = bulwark boulevard (n.) 1769, from French boulevard (1
• boutique 英文词源 boutique boutique: see apothecary boutique (n.) "fashion shop," 1953, earlier "small shop of any sort" (1767), from French boutique (14c.), from Old Provençal botica , from Latin apotheca "storehouse" (see apothecary ). Latin apotheca directly into French normally would have yielded *avouaie . 中文词源 boutique （精品店）：存放货品的仓库 英语单词boutique来自法语
• bungalow 英文词源 bungalow bungalow: [17] Etymologically, bungalow means simply ‘Bengali’. Banglā is the Hind word for ‘of Bengal’ (as in Bangladesh ), and English borrowed it (probably in the Gujarati version bangalo ) in the sense ‘house in the Bengal style’. Originally this signified any simple, lightly-built, usually temporary structure, which by definition had only one storey, but it
• buck 英文词源 buck buck: [OE] Old English had two related words which have coalesced into modern English buck : bucca ‘male goat’ and buc ‘male deer’. Both go back to a prehistoric Germanic stem * buk -, and beyond that probably to an Indo-European source. The 18th-century meaning ‘dashing fellow’ probably comes ultimately from the related Old Norse bokki , a friendly term for a male co
• bully 英文词源 bully bully: [16] Bullies have undergone a sad decline in status. In the 16th century the word meant ‘sweetheart’: ‘Though she be somewhat old, it is my own sweet bully’, John Bale, Three laws 1538. But gradually the rot set in, its meaning passing through ‘fine fellow’ to ‘blusterer’ to the present-day harasser of inferiors. In the 18th and 19th centuries it also mean
• bard 英文词源 bard bard: [14] Bard is of Celtic origin. A prehistoric Old Celtic * bardos produced Scottish and Irish Gaelic bárd and Welsh bardd , which meant ‘poet-singer’. It appears to have been the Scottish form which introduced the word into English, in the sense ‘strolling minstrel’. The modern, more elevated meaning ‘poet’ is 17thcentury. bard (n.) mid-15c., from Scottish, from
• belittle 英文词源 belittle (v.) 1781, "to make small," from be- + little (v.); first recorded in writings of Thomas Jefferson (and probably coined by him), who was roundly execrated for it in England: Belittle! What an expression! It may be an elegant one in Virginia, and even perfectly intelligible; but for our part, all we can do is to guess at its meaning. For shame, Mr. Jefferson! ["European Magazi
• bonanza 英文词源 bonanza bonanza: [19] Bonanza entered the language via American English from Spanish, where bonanza means ‘prosperity’, or literally ‘good weather’. It came from an unrecorded general Romance * bonacia , a derivative of Latin bonus ‘good’. (Other English words acquired ultimately from bonus – a descendant of Old Latin duenos – include bonbon [19], bonus [18], boon [14]
• Brazil 英文词源 Brazil 1550s, from Spanish/Portuguese terra de brasil "red-dye-wood land," from Spanish brasil or Italian brasile , probably connected to French braize (see braize ) for resemblance of color to a glowing ember (but Old Italian form verzino suggests a possible connection with Arabic wars "saffron"). Originally the name of a type of wood from an East Indian tree, used in making dye; the
• buccaneer 英文词源 buccaneer buccaneer: [17] A buccaneer was originally ‘someone who dried meat on a wooden frame over a fire’. The word comes ultimately from mukem , the term for such a frame in the Tupi language of the Caribbean islands, which in the mouths of early French settlers became boucan (the Haitian term was barbacoa , from which we get barbecue ). French boucanier thus came to be applied
• butcher 英文词源 butcher butcher: [13] Butcher comes via Anglo-Norman boucher from Old French bouchier , a derivative of boc ‘male goat’ (this was probably borrowed from a Celtic word which came ultimately from the same Indo-European base as produced English buck ). The original sense of the word was thus ‘dealer in goat’s flesh’. = buck butcher (v.) 1560s, from butcher (n.). Related: Butche
• batch 英文词源 batch batch: see bake batch (n.) Old English *bæcce "something baked," from bacan "bake" (see bake (v.)). Batch is to bake as watch (n.) is to wake and match (n.2) "one of a pair" is to make . Extended 1713 to "any quantity produced at one operation." 中文词源 batch （一批）：烤面包时的同一炉面包 古人用烤炉烤面包时，通常都是一次将多个面包放入烤
• ballad 英文词源 ballad (n.) late 15c., from French ballade "dancing song" (13c.), from Old Provençal ballada "(poem for a) dance," from balar "to dance," from Late Latin ballare "to dance" (see ball (n.2)). 中文词源 ballad （民谣）：中世纪法国人跳舞时的伴奏歌曲 英语单词ballad（民谣）来自法语ballade，原本指的是跳舞时伴奏的歌曲，其中的ball就是“舞
• butterfly 英文词源 butterfly butterfly: [OE] A number of theories have been put forward as to how the butterfly got its name. Perhaps the most generally accepted is that it is a reflection of a once-held notion that butterflies land on and consume butter or milk left uncovered in kitchen or dairy (an idea perhaps supported by the German name for the ‘butterfly’, milchdieb , literally ‘milk-thief’
• beeline 英文词源 beeline (n.) also bee-line , 1838, American English, from bee + line (n.), in reference to the supposed homing instinct of bees in the field. TO LINE BEES is to track wild bees to their homes in the woods. One who follows this occupation is called a bee hunter . [Bartlett, 1859] 中文词源 beeline （直线）：直线飞回蜂巢的蜜蜂 古代人认为蜜蜂采完花蜜后会沿着
• batty 英文词源 batty (adj.) 1580s, "pertaining to bats," from bat (n.2) + -y (2). Slang sense "nuts, crazy" is attested from 1903, from the expression (to have) bats in (one's) belfry , also meaning "not be right in the head" (1899). 中文词源 batty （古怪的）：令人反感的蝙蝠 英语单词batty是从bat（蝙蝠）一词衍生出来的形容词，按照构词法应该解释为“跟蝙蝠
• bacchanalia 英文词源 bacchanalia (n.) "drunken revelry," 1630s, from the name of the Roman festival held in honor of Bacchus, from neuter plural of Latin bacchanalis (see bacchanal ). A participant is a Bacchant (1690s), fem. Bacchante , from French. The plural of both is Bacchantes . 中文词源 bacchanalia （酒神节）：罗马神话中的酒神巴库斯 酒神是古希腊及古罗马人民普遍崇拜
• bishop 英文词源 bishop bishop: [OE] Bishop originally had no ecclesiastical connections; its Greek source, episkopos , at first meant simply ‘overseer’, from epi - ‘around’ and skopein ‘look’ (antecedent of English scope , and related to spy ). From the general sense, it came to be applied as the term for various government officials, and was waiting to be called into service for a ‘chu
• balm 英文词源 balm balm: [13] In origin, balm and balsam are the same word. Both come via Latin balsamum from Greek bálsamon , an ‘aromatic oily resin exuded from certain trees’. Its ultimate source may have been Hebrew bāśām ‘spice’. Latin balsamum passed into Old French, and thence into English, as basme or baume (hence the modern English pronunciation), and in the 15th to 16th centur
• bacon 英文词源 bacon bacon: [12] Originally, bacon meant literally ‘meat from a pig’s back’. It comes ultimately from a prehistoric Germanic * bakkon , which was related to * bakam , the source of English back . It reached English via Frankish báko and Old French bacon , and at first meant ‘a side of pig meat (fresh or cured)’. Gradually it narrowed down to ‘a side of cured pig meat’
• belladonna 英文词源 belladonna (n.) 1590s, "deadly nightshade" ( Atropa belladonna ), from Italian, literally "fair lady;" the plant so called supposedly because women made cosmetic eye-drops from its juice (an 18c. explanation; atropic acid, found in the plant, has a well-known property of dilating the pupils) or because it was used to poison beautiful women. Perhaps a folk etymology alteration; Gamills
• barn 英文词源 barn (n.) Old English bereærn "barn," literally "barley house," from bere "barley" (see barley ) + aern "house," metathesized from *rann , *rasn (cognates: Old Norse rann , Gothic razn "house," Old English rest "resting place;" sealtærn "saltworks"). Barley was not always the only crop grown as the data recovered at Bishopstone might suggest but it is always the most commonly repres
• brassiere 英文词源 brassiere (n.) 18c., "woman's underbodice," from French brassière "child's chemise; shoulder strap" (17c.), from Old French braciere "arm guard" (14c.), from bras "an arm," from Latin bracchium (see brace (n.)). Modern use is a euphemistic borrowing employed in the garment trade by 1902. 中文词源 brassiere （胸罩）：儿童穿的背心或紧身内衣 在英语中，常用bras
• boudoir 英文词源 boudoir (n.) 1777, "room where a lady may retire to be alone," from French boudoir (18c.), literally "pouting room," from bouder "to pout, sulk," which, like pout , probably ultimately is imitative of puffing. 中文词源 boudoir （闺房）：欧洲贵妇心情不佳时独处的内室 在中世纪欧洲的上流家庭中，妇女或成年女子的闺房通常都是套间，包括好几
• boat 英文词源 boat boat: [OE] In origin, the word boat seems to be restricted to northern parts of Europe: Old English bāt and Old Norse beit are the only early examples (German boot was borrowed from them, and French bateau comes from the English word). They point to a common Germanic origin in * bait -. It has been speculated that this may be related to bitt ‘post for fastening ship’s cables’
• broom 英文词源 broom broom: [OE] Broom was originally the name of the yellow-flowered bush; its application to the long-handled brush did not come about until the 15th century (the underlying notion is of a brush made from broom twigs tied to a handle). The plant-name occurs throughout the Germanic languages, but it is applied to quite a wide range of plants: Old High German brāmma , for instance,
• bribe 英文词源 bribe bribe: [14] The origin of bribe is obscure, and its semantic history is particularly involved. The word first turns up in Old French, as a noun meaning ‘piece of bread, especially one given to a beggar’. From this, the progression of senses seems to have been to a more general ‘alms’; then to the ‘practice of living on alms’; then, pejoratively, to simple ‘begging’
• bread 英文词源 bread bread: [OE] The general Germanic word for ‘bread’ in prehistoric times was what we now know as loaf; bread probably originally meant simply ‘(piece of) food’, but as bread was among the commonest foods, the word bread gradually became more specialized, passing via ‘piece of bread’, ‘broken bread’, to simply ‘bread’. Old English brēad and related Germanic for
• butler 英文词源 butler butler: see bottle butler (n.) late 12c., from Anglo-French buteillier "cup-bearer," from Old French boteillier "cup-bearer, butler, officer in charge of wine," from boteille "wine vessel, bottle" (see bottle (n.)). The word reflects the position's original function as "chief servant in charge of wine." In Old French, fem. boteilliere was used of the Virgin Mary as "dispenser"
• bust 英文词源 bust bust: There are two different words bust in English. The one meaning ‘break’ [18] is simply an alteration of burst . Bust ‘sculpture of head and chest’ [17] comes via French buste from Italian busto ‘upper body’, of uncertain origin (Latin had the temptingly similar bustum ‘monument on a tomb’, but this does not seem to fit in with the word’s primary sense ‘up
• bureau 英文词源 bureau bureau: [17] Etymologically, bureau seems to mean ‘red’. Its ultimate source is probably Greek purrhós ‘red’, a derivative of pur ‘fire’ (as in English pyre and pyrotechnic ), which is related to English fire . This was borrowed into Latin as burrus , which developed into Old French bure ‘dark brown’. This seems to have formed the basis of a derivative burel ,
• blackmail 英文词源 blackmail blackmail: see mail blackmail (n.) 1550s, from black (adj.) + Middle English male "rent, tribute," from Old English mal "lawsuit, terms, bargaining, agreement," from Old Norse mal "speech, agreement;" related to Old English mæðel "meeting, council," mæl "speech," Gothic maþl "meeting place," from Proto-Germanic *mathla- , from PIE *mod- "to meet, assemble" (see meet (v.)
• brand 英文词源 brand brand: [OE] A brand was originally a ‘piece of burning wood’; the word comes from West and North Germanic * brandaz , a derivative of the same base (* bran -, * bren -) as produced burn , brandy , and perhaps broil . In the 16th century it came to be applied to an ‘(identifying) mark made with a hot iron’, which provided the basis for the modern sense ‘particular make
• bonus 英文词源 bonus bonus: see beauty bonus (n.) 1773, "Stock Exchange Latin" [Weekley], from Latin bonus "good" (adj.); see bene- . The correct noun form would be bonum . In U.S. history the bonus army was tens of thousands of World War I veterans and followers who marched on Washington, D.C., in 1932 demanding early redemption of their service bonus certificates (which carried a maximum value of
• budget 英文词源 budget budget: [15] Originally, a budget was a ‘pouch’. English got the word from Old French bougette , which was a diminutive form of bouge ‘leather bag’ (from which we get bulge ). This came from Latin bulga , which may have been of Gaulish origin (medieval Irish bolg ‘bag’ has been compared). The word’s financial connotations arose in the 18th century, the original no
• bank 英文词源 bank bank: [12] The various disparate meanings of modern English bank all come ultimately from the same source, Germanic * bangk -, but they have taken different routes to reach us. Earliest to arrive was ‘ridge, mound, bordering slope’, which came via a hypothetical Old Norse * banki . Then came ‘bench’ [13] (now obsolete except in the sense ‘series of rows or tiers’ –
• buff 英文词源 buff buff: [16] Buff originally meant ‘buffalo’; it was presumably an alteration of the French word buffe ‘buffalo’. That sense had died out by the early 18th century, but since then the word has undergone a bizarre series of semantic changes. First, it came to mean ‘leather’, originally from buffalo hides, but later from ox hides. This was commonly used in the 16th and 17
• bootleg 英文词源 bootleg (n.) "leg of a boot," 1630s, from boot (n.1) + leg (n.). As an adjective in reference to illegal iquor, 1889, American English slang, from the trick of concealing a flask of liquor down the leg of a high boot. Before that the bootleg was the place to secret knives and pistols. 中文词源 bootleg （私卖）：美国禁酒期间私酒贩子用靴筒藏匿私酒 美国最初的
• bandy 英文词源 bandy bandy: [16] To ‘bandy words with someone’ may go back to an original idea of ‘banding together to oppose others’. The word comes from French bander ‘oppose’, which is possibly a derivative of bande ‘group, company’ (source of English band ). The rather complex semantic development goes from ‘taking sides’, through ‘opposing a third party’, ‘exchanging b
• bowling 英文词源 bowling (n.) 1530s, originally "playing at bowls ," verbal noun from bowl (v.). Bowling alley is from 1550s. 中文词源 bowling （保龄球）：滚动撞击目标的圆球 保龄球运动（bowling）历史悠久，英国考古学家曾经在公元前5200年的埃及古墓中发现与现代保龄球类似的石球。因此，保龄球运动可以说是人类历史中最早的体育运
• blurb 英文词源 blurb (n.) used by U.S. scholar Brander Matthews (1852-1929) in 1906 in "American Character;" popularized 1907 by U.S. humorist Frank Gelett Burgess (1866-1951). Originally mocking excessive praise printed on book jackets. Gelett Burgess, whose recent little book, "Are You a Bromide?" has been referred to above, then entertained the guests with some characteristic flashes of Burgessia
• bluestocking 英文词源 bluestocking bluestocking: [18] The term bluestocking ‘female intellectual’ derives from the gatherings held at the houses of fashionable mid-18th- century hostesses to discuss literary and related topics. It became the custom at these not to put on full formal dress, which for gentlemen included black silk stockings. One habitué in particular, Mr Benjamin Stillingfleet, used to
• ballot 英文词源 ballot ballot: see ball ballot (n.) 1540s, "small ball used in voting," also "secret vote taken by ballots," from Italian pallotte , diminutive of palla "ball," for small balls used as counters in secret voting (see balloon ). Earliest references are to Venice. By 1776 extended to tickets or sheets of paper used in secret voting. Ballot box attested from 1670s; metonymically from 1834