- feisty
[feisty 词源字典] - feisty: [19] Feisty, nowadays a colloquial Americanism for ‘quarrelsome’ or ‘spirited’, originated in Middle English as a term for a ‘farting dog’. It goes back to the now obsolete English verb fist ‘fart’, which came ultimately from Indo-European *pezd- (source also of Latin pēdere ‘break wind’, whence English petard ‘small bomb’ [16], as in ‘hoist with one’s own petard’); like *perd-, the Indo-European ancestor of English fart, this was probably of imitative origin.
In the 16th and 17th centuries the expression fisting dog, literally ‘farting dog’, was applied contemptuously to a ‘mongrel’ or ‘cur’. This eventually became shortened to feist, and (mongrels being notoriously combative) feisty was born.
=> fizzle, petard[feisty etymology, feisty origin, 英语词源] - felicity
- felicity: [14] Felicity and its relatives felicitous [18] and felicitate [17] all come ultimately from Latin fēlīx. This originally meant ‘fruitful’ (it is probably related to English fecund and foetus) but by classical times had progressed semantically via ‘favourable, fortunate’ to ‘happy’.
=> fecund, foetus - fell
- fell: English has no fewer than four separate words fell, not counting the past tense of fall. Fell ‘cut down’ [OE] originated as the ‘causative’ version of fall – that is to say, it means literally ‘cause to fall’. It comes ultimately from prehistoric Germanic *falljan, causative of *fallan ‘fall’. Fell ‘animal’s skin’ [OE] goes back via Germanic *fellam (source also of English film) to Indo-European *pello- (whence Latin pellis ‘skin’, from which English gets pellagra [19], pellicle [16], and pelt ‘skin’ [15]). Fell ‘hill’ [13] was borrowed from Old Norse fjall ‘hill’; this seems to be related to German fels ‘rock’, whose ultimate ancestor was Indo-European *pels-.
And the adjective fell ‘fierce, lethal’ [13] was borrowed from Old French fel, ancestor of English felon.
=> fall; film, pelt; felon - fellow
- fellow: [11] Etymologically, a fellow is somebody who ‘lays money’. The word originated as an Old Norse compound félagi, formed from fé ‘money’ and *lag-, a verbal base denoting ‘lay’. Someone who puts down money with someone else in a joint venture is his or her associate: hence a fellow is a ‘companion’ or ‘partner’. When English adopted the Old Norse word in the 11th century, it translated its first element into Old English fēoh ‘property’, giving late Old English féolaga and eventually modern English fellow. (Both Old English fēoh and Old Norse fé originally meant ‘cattle’, and are probably related to modern English fee.)
=> fee, lay - felon
- felon: [13] Medieval Latin fellō (a word of uncertain origin, sometimes referred to Latin fel ‘gall, poison’) meant ‘evil-doer’. Its nominative form gave English the adjective fell ‘fierce, lethal’, via Old French fel, while its stem form, fellōn-, passed into English through Old French felon. The derivative felony [13] comes from Old French felonie.
=> fell - felt
- felt: [OE] Etymologically, felt is a fabric that is formed by ‘beating’ (as indeed is the case, for it is made from compressed fibres). The word comes via West Germanic *feltaz or *filtiz (source also of German filz and Dutch vilt ‘felt’, and of English filter) from prehistoric Indo- European *peldos, a derivative of the same base as produced Latin pellere ‘strike, beat’ and the second syllable of English anvil.
=> anvil, filter - female
- female: [14] The symmetry between female and male is a comparatively recent development. Female started as Latin fēmella, a diminutive form of fēmina ‘woman’ (whence English feminine [14]). This in turn was a derivative of Latin fēlāre ‘suck’, and so etymologically signified ‘person from whom milk is sucked’ (it came ultimately from the Indo-European base *dhēi-, which also produced Latin filia ‘daughter’ and filia ‘son’, source of English filial [15]). Fēmella passed into English via Old French femelle as femele, but as early as the end of the 14th century began to change, by association with male, to female.
=> feminine, filial - fence
- fence: [14] Fence is short for defence, and indeed until the 16th century meant ‘defence’ (‘Yet, for [that is, despite] the fence that he could make, she struck it from his hand’, Felon Sowe Rokeby 1500). Of its present-day meanings, ‘enclosing structure’ (originally a ‘defence’ against intruders) and ‘sword-fighting’ (originally the use of a sword for ‘self-defence’, now used only as a verb) developed in the 16th century.
The sense ‘dealer in stolen property’ came along in the 17th century; it arose from the notion that such transactions are carried out under the cover, or ‘defence’, of secrecy. Similarly, fend [13] and fender [15] came by loss of the initial syllable from defend.
=> defence, fend, fender - feral
- feral: see fierce
- ferment
- ferment: see fervent
- fern
- fern: [OE] Fern is a fairly widespread Indo- European word, represented among the other West Germanic languages by German farn and Dutch varen. It comes ultimately from Indo- European *porno-. This also produced Sanskrit parnám, which meant ‘feather’ as well as ‘leaf’, suggesting that the fern may have been named originally from the feathery leaves of some species.
- ferocious
- ferocious: [17] Etymologically, ferocious means ‘wild-eyed’. It comes from Latin ferox, which was originally a compound formed from ferus ‘fierce, wild’ (source of English feral [17]) and an element -oc-, -ox meaning ‘looking, appearing’. This also appears in atrocious and ocular, and goes back to an Indo-European source which also produced Greek ōps ‘eye’ and English eye.
=> atrocious, eye, feral, ocular - ferret
- ferret: [14] A ferret is, from an etymological point of view, a ‘thieving animal’. The word comes via Old French fuiret or furet from Vulgar Latin *fūrittus, literally ‘little thief’. This was a derivative of Latin fūr ‘thief’, which is related to English furtive. The verbal senses ‘search about’ and ‘search out’ developed in the 16th century.
=> furtive - ferrous
- ferrous: see farrier
- ferrule
- ferrule: [17] Despite appearances, ferrule ‘metal cap on the end of a stick’ has no etymological connection with Latin ferrum ‘iron’, although its present form has been heavily influenced by it. It is an alteration of an earlier virolle, which was borrowed in the 15th century from Old French. The Old French word in turn came from Latin viriola ‘little bracelet’, a diminutive form of viriae ‘bracelet’.
- ferry
- ferry: [12] A ferry is etymologically a boat on which you ‘travel’ from one place to another. The word comes ultimately from the Indo- European base *por- ‘going, passage’, which has produced a wide range of other English words, including emporium, ford, and port. Its Germanic descendant was *fer- ‘go’, source of English fare as well as ferry. Ferry itself was probably borrowed from the Old Norse element ferju-, denoting ‘passage across water’, and that was what it at first meant in English.
The word’s main modern use, which is essentially an abbreviation of ferry-boat, is not recorded before the 16th century, and does not seem to have really become established until the 20th century.
=> emporium, fare, ford, port - fertile
- fertile: [15] Etymologically, something that is fertile can ‘bear’ offspring. The word comes via French from Latin fertilis. This was a derivative of *fertus, the original past participle of ferre ‘bear’ (a distant relative of English bear).
=> bear - fervent
- fervent: [14] Fervent comes from the present participle of Latin fervēre ‘boil’. This verb also produced English effervescent [17] and comfrey [15], a plant-name which means literally ‘boil together’, and moreover its derivative fermentum led to English ferment [14]. It goes back ultimately to the Indo-European base *bhreu- or *bhru-, from which English also gets brew, broth, and fry, and possibly bread and burn.
=> brew, broth, comfrey, effervescent, ferment, fry - festival
- festival: see feast
- festoon
- festoon: see feast
