英语词源

• adept 英文词源 adept (adj.) 1690s, "completely skilled" from Latin adeptus "having reached, attained," past participle of adipisci "to come up with, arrive at," figuratively "to attain to, acquire," from ad- "to" (see ad- ) + apisci "grasp, attain," related to aptus "fitted" (see apt ). Related: Adeptly . adept (n.) "an expert," especially "one who is skilled in the secrets of anything," 1660s, from
• atom 英文词源 atom atom: [16] Etymologically, atom means ‘not cut, indivisible’. Greek átomos ‘that which cannot be divided up any further’ was formed from the negative prefix a - ‘not’ and the base * tom - ‘cut’ (source also of English anatomy and tome ), and was applied in the Middle Ages not just to the smallest imaginable particle of matter, but also to the smallest imaginable
• anthem 英文词源 anthem anthem: [OE] Anthem is ultimately an alteration of antiphon ‘scriptural verse said or sung as a response’ (which was independently reborrowed into English from ecclesiastical Latin in the 15th century). It comes from Greek antíphōnos ‘responsive’, a compound formed from anti - ‘against’ and phōné ‘sound’ (source of English phonetic , telephone , etc). By the
• angel 英文词源 angel angel: [12] In a sense, English already had this word in Anglo-Saxon times; texts of around 950 mention englas ‘angels’. But in that form (which had a hard g ) it came directly from Latin angelus . The word we use today, with its soft g , came from Old French angele (the ‘hard g ’ form survived until the 13th century). The French word was in its turn, of course, acquired
• atone 英文词源 atone atone: [16] As its spelling suggests, but its pronunciation disguises, atone comes from the phrase at one ‘united, in harmony’, lexicalized as atone in early modern English. It may have been modelled on Latin adūnāre ‘unite’, which was similarly compounded from ad ‘to, at’ and ūnum ‘one’. = at , one atone (v.) 1550s, from adverbial phrase atonen (c. 1300) "in
• auspice 英文词源 auspice auspice: see augur 中文词源 auspice （赞助）：古罗马人的观鸟占卜法 古罗马的伊特鲁利亚人有通过观看飞鸟来占卜凶吉的做法。巫师用一个魔杖（lituus）在天空中画出一个区域，观察鸟在该区域的飞行，通过鸟的飞行来判断吉凶。这种观鸟占卜法称为auspice，源自拉丁语avis（bird，鸟）+specere（
• abyss 英文词源 abyss abyss: [16] English borrowed abyss from late Latin abyssus , which in turn derived from Greek ábussos . This was an adjective meaning ‘bottomless’, from a - ‘not’ and bussós ‘bottom’, a dialectal variant of buthós (which is related to bathys ‘deep’, the source of English bathyscape ). In Greek the adjective was used in the phrase ábussos limnē ‘bottomless
• adonis 英文词源 Adonis (n.) "a beau," 1620s, from Greek Adonis , name of the youth beloved by Aphrodite, from Phoenician adon "lord," probably originally "ruler," from base a-d-n "to judge, rule." Adonai is the Hebrew cognate. 中文词源 adonis （美男子）：捕获爱神芳心的的美少年阿多尼斯 阿多尼斯Adonis是希腊神话中的美男子。他的母亲是绝世美女米拉（Myrrh
• academy 英文词源 academy academy: [16] Borrowed either from French académie or from Latin acadēmia , academy goes back ultimately to Greek Akadēmíā , the name of the place in Athens where the philosopher Plato (c. 428–347 BC) taught. Traditionally thought of as a grove (‘the groves of Academe’), this was in fact more of an enclosed piece of ground, a garden or park; it was named after the A
• Amazon 英文词源 Amazon (n.) late 14c., from Greek Amazon (mostly in plural Amazones ) "one of a race of female warriors in Scythia," probably from an unknown non-Indo-European word, possibly from an Iranian compound *ha-maz-an- "(one) fighting together" [Watkins], but in folk etymology long derived from a- "without" + mazos "breasts," hence the story that the Amazons cut or burned off one breast so t
• amethyst 英文词源 amethyst amethyst: [13] The amethyst gets its name from a supposition in the ancient world that it was capable of preventing drunkenness. The Greek word for ‘intoxicate’ was methúskein , which was based ultimately on the noun methú ‘wine’ (source of English methyl , and related to English mead ). The addition of the negative prefix a - ‘not’ produced the adjective améth
• argus 英文词源 Argus hundred-eyed giant of Greek mythology, late 14c., from Latin, from Greek Argos , literally "the bright one," from argos "shining, bright" (see argent ). His epithet was Panoptes "all-eyes." After his death, Hera transferred his eyes to the peacock's tail. Used in figurative sense of "very vigilant person." 中文词源 argus （警惕的人）：希腊神话中的百眼巨人阿尔
• Athens 英文词源 Athens city of ancient Attica, capital of modern Greece, from Greek Athenai (plural because the city had several distinct parts), traditionally derived from Athena , but probably assimilated from a lost name in a pre-Hellenic language. 中文词源 Athens （雅典）：希腊神话中的智慧女神雅典娜 希腊神话中，雅典娜（Athena）是奥林巴斯十二主神之一，是
• altas 英文词源 Balthazar masc. proper name, from French, from Latin, from Greek Baltasar , from Hebrew Belteshatztzar (Dan. x:1), from Babylonian Balat-shar-usur , literally "save the life of the king." Baltic 1580s, from Medieval Latin Balticus , perhaps from Lithuanian baltas "white" or Scandinavian balta "straight" (in reference to its narrow entranceway). In German, it is Ostsee , literally "eas
• aphrodisia 英文词源 antaphrodisiac 1742 (adj.), 1753 (n.), "used against venereal disease;" see anti- + aphrodisiac . aphrodisiac (n.) 1719, from Greek aphrodisiakos "inducing sexual desire," from aphrodisios , "pertaining to Aphrodite ; sexual pleasure; a temple of Aphrodite," Greek goddess of love and beauty. As an adjective from 1830 (earlier was aphrodisical , 1719) 中文词源 aphrodisia （性欲）
• Apollo 英文词源 Apollo Olympian deity, god of music, poetry, medicine, etc., later identified with Helios, the sun god; the name is a Latin form of Greek Apollon , said to be perhaps related to an obsolete Greek verb meaning "to drive away" (evil, etc.) [Klein, citing Usener]. 中文词源 Apollo （美男子）：希腊神话中的光明神阿波罗 阿波罗（Apollo）是希腊神话中奥林巴斯十