英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

adobe [adobe 词源字典]: adobe: [18] Adobe is of Egyptian origin, from the time of the pharaohs. It comes from Coptic tōbe ‘brick’ (the form t.b appears in hieroglyphs). This was borrowed into Arabic, where the addition of the definite article al produced attob ‘the brick’. From Arabic it passed into Spanish (the corridor through which so many Arabic words reached other European languages), and its use by the Spanish-speaking population of North America (for a sun-dried brick) led to its adoption into English in the mid 18th century.
[adobe etymology, adobe origin, 英语词源]
allegory: allegory: [14] Etymologically, allegory means ‘speaking otherwise’. It comes from a Greek compound based on allos ‘other’ (which is related to Latin alius, as in English alibi and alias, and to English else) and agoreúein ‘speak publicly’ (derived from agorá ‘(place of) assembly’, which is the source of English agoraphobia and is related to gregarious). Greek allēgorein ‘speak figuratively’ produced the noun allēgorīā, which passed into English via Latin and French.
=> aggregate, agoraphobia, alias, alibi, else, gregarious
blaspheme: blaspheme: [14] Blaspheme has maintained a remarkable semantic and formal stability since its origins in Greek blásphēmos, which meant ‘speaking evil or profane things’ (blas- is related to blaptikós ‘hurtful’; the -phēmos element denotes ‘speaking’, and is related to phēmí ‘I say’). The derived Greek verb blasphēmein was transmitted via ecclesiastical Latin blasphēmāre to Old French and thence to English. Blastēmāre, an altered version of blasphēmāre, produced blame.
=> blame
cajun: cajun: [19] Cajun, denoting a French-speaking culture of Louisiana, USA, is an alteration of Acadian. Acadia was the name of a French colony in Canada (now Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island) whose inhabitants were driven out by the British in the 18th century and migrated to the southern states of the USA (the source of the original French Acadie is not known). The word became much more widely known in the 1980s following a sudden fashion for Cajun food and dance music.
capital: capital: [13] Etymologically, capital is something that is at the top or ‘head’; it comes from Latin caput ‘head’. The various current English uses of the word reached us, however, by differing routes. The first to come was the adjective, which originally meant simply ‘of the head’ (Milton in Paradise lost wrote of the Serpent’s ‘capital bruise’, meaning the bruise to its head); this came via Old French capital from Latin capitālis, a derivative of caput.

The other senses of the adjective have derived from this: ‘capital punishment’, for instance, comes from the notion of a crime which, figuratively speaking, affects the head, or life. Its use as a noun dates from the 17th century: the immediate source of the financial sense is Italian capitale. The architectural capital ‘top of a column’ (as in ‘Corinthian capitals’) also comes from Latin caput, but in this case the intermediate form was the diminutive capitellum ‘little head’, which reached English in the 14th century via Old French capitel.
=> cattle, chapter, head
carcass: carcass: [14] English first acquired this word from Anglo-Norman carcois, and early forms were carcays and carcoys. Spellings similar to modern English carcass begin to emerge in the 16th century, and may be due to reborrowing from French carcasse, to association with the noun case ‘container’, which meant ‘body’ in the 16th century, or to a combination of both. The usual current spelling throughout the English-speaking world is carcass, but British English also uses carcase. The word’s ultimate origin is unknown.
conjecture: conjecture: [14] A conjecture is, etymologically speaking, simply something ‘thrown together’. The word comes, perhaps via Old French, from Latin conjectūra ‘conclusion, interpretation’, a noun derived from the past participle of conicere ‘throw together’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix com- ‘together’ and jacere ‘throw’ (source of English jet, jettison, and jetty). The notion behind the word’s semantic development is that facts are ‘thrown together’ in the mind and (provisional) conclusions drawn.
=> jet, jettison, jetty
dago: dago: [18] Dago originated in the USA as a contemptuous term for a Spanish-speaking person. It is an alteration of Diego (the Spanish version of James), a common Spanish forename, which itself was used in English in the 17th century for ‘Spaniard’: ‘Next follows one whose lines aloft do raise Don Coriat, chief Diego of our days’. By the late 19th century the application of dago had broadened out to include anyone of Spanish, Portuguese, or Italian descent.
=> james
device: device: [13] A device is something which has been devised – which, etymologically speaking, amounts to ‘something which has been divided’. For ultimately devise and divide come from the same source. The noun device comes in the first instance from Old French devis ‘division, contrivance’ and latterly (in the 15th century) from Old French devise ‘plan’, both of which were derivatives of the verb deviser ‘divide, devise’ (source of English devise [13]).

This in turn came from Vulgar Latin *dīvisāre, a verb based on the past participial stem of Latin dīvidere, source of English divide. The semantic development by which ‘divide’ passed to ‘contrive’, presumably based on the notion that dividing something up and distributing it needs some planning, happened before the word reached English, and English device has never meant ‘division’.

The sense ‘simple machine’ essentially evolved in the 16th century.
=> devise, divide, individual, widow
dialect: dialect: [16] The notion underlying dialect and its relatives dialectic [14] and dialogue [13] is of ‘conversation’. They come ultimately from Greek dialégesthai ‘converse’, a compound verb formed from the prefix dia- ‘with each other’ and légein ‘speak’ (source of English lecture and a wide range of related words). This formed the basis of two derived nouns.

First diálektos ‘conversation, discourse’, hence ‘way of speaking’ and eventually ‘local speech’, which passed into English via Latin dialectus and Old French dialecte (from it was produced the adjective dialektikós ‘of conversation, discussion, or debate’, which was eventually to become English dialectic). Secondly diálogos ‘conversation’, which again reached English via Latin and Old French.
=> lecture
euphemism: euphemism: [17] Etymologically, euphemism means ‘speaking with good words’. Greek euphēmismós, a compound formed ultimately from the prefix eu- ‘good, well’ and phémē ‘speech, saying’ (a relative of English fable, fame, and fate), originally denoted the avoidance of words of ill omen at religious ceremonies, but it was subsequently taken up by grammarians to signify the substitution of a less for a more offensive word. Its opposite, dysphemism ‘use of a more offensive word’, is a modern coinage, formed in the late 19th century using the Greek prefix dus- ‘bad, difficult’.
=> fable, fame, fate
glacier: glacier: [18] Latin glaciēs meant ‘ice’ (it probably came from Indo-European *gel- ‘cold’, which also produced English cold and Latin gelidus ‘cold’). Its Vulgar Latin descendant was *glacia, which passed into French as glace (whence English glacé ‘iced, crystallized’ [19]). A derivative glacière was used in Frenchspeaking areas of the Alps for a ‘moving mass of ice’. It later became glacier, the form in which English borrowed it. Glacial [17] comes from the Latin derivative glaciālis.
=> cold, glance, jelly
idiosyncracy: idiosyncracy: [17] Greek idios meant ‘of a particular person, personal, private, own’. Among the words it has contributed to English are idiom [16] (etymologically ‘one’s own particular way of speaking’), idiot, and idiosyncracy. This was a compound formed in Greek with súgkrāsis, itself a compound noun made up of sún ‘together’ and krāsis ‘mixture’ (a relative of English crater). Súgkrāsis originally meant literally ‘mixture’, but it was later used metaphorically for ‘mixture of personal characteristics, temperament’, and so idiosúgkrāsis was ‘one’s own particular mix of traits’.
=> idiom, idiot
iron: iron: [OE] Iron is probably a Celtic contribution to English, but the borrowing took place in the prehistoric period, before the Germanic dialects separated, and so English shares the word with German (eisen), Dutch (ijzen), Swedish (järn), etc. The prehistoric Celtic form from which these all ultimately came was *īsarnon, which some have linked with Latin aes ‘bronze’ and Sanskrit isira- ‘strong’. The ancient Indo- European peoples had already split up into groups speaking mutually unintelligible tongues by the time iron came into general use, so there was never any common Indo-European term for it.
judge: judge: [13] Etymologically, a judge is someone who ‘speaks the law’. The word comes via Old French juge from Latin jūdex, which was originally a compound noun made up of jūs ‘law’ and the element -dicus ‘speaking’ (related to English diction, dictionary, etc). Parallel formations to have reached English are juridical [16] and jurisdiction [13], while derivatives of jūdex itself include judicature [16], judicial [14], judiciary [16], and judicious [16].
=> diction, dictionary, judicious, jury, just
mend: mend: [12] Mend originated as a shortened form of amend [13] – or rather, of the Old French source of amend, which did not arrive in English until after mend. The Old French verb was amender, a descendant of Vulgar Latin *admendāre ‘remove faults, correct’. This in turn was an alteration of classical Latin ēmendāre (source of English emend [15]), a compound verb formed from the prefix exdenoting ‘removal’ and menda, mendum ‘fault, defect’. (Other Latin derivatives of mendum were mendīcus ‘injured’, which was used as a noun meaning ‘beggar’ – hence English mendicant [15]; and perhaps mendāx ‘speaking faultily’, hence ‘lying’, from which English gets mendacious [17].)
=> amend, emend, mendicant
mention: mention: [14] The etymological notion underlying mention is of ‘reminding’. For it comes via Old French from Latin mentiō, which originally meant ‘remembrance’ (it was a derivative of the Indo-European base *men-, which also produced English memory, remember, etc). It developed via ‘cause to remember something by speaking or writing of it’ (a sense still present in Middle English) to simply ‘refer to something’.
=> memory, mind, remember
ombudsman: ombudsman: [20] The word ombudsman, denoting an ‘investigator of public complaints’, was introduced into English from Swedish, and was first used as a quasi-official term in the 1960s: New Zealand was the first Englishspeaking country to introduce such a post, in 1962, and Britain followed four years later. The Swedish word is a descendant of Old Norse umbothsmathr, literally ‘administration-man’; and umboth was originally a compound of um ‘about’ and both ‘command’ (a relative of English bid).
=> bid
orator: orator: [14] Orator is one of a small family of English words that go back to the Latin verb ōrāre ‘speak’. Others include oracle [14], oration [14] (whence, by back-formation, orate [16]), and oratory ‘public speaking’ [16]. And besides these, there is a special subset of words that depend on a later, extended sense of ōrāre, ‘pray’: adore [15] (etymologically ‘pray to’), inexorable, oratory ‘small chapel’ [14] (whose Italian form has given English oratorio [18]), and the now archaic orison ‘prayer’ [12] (etymologically the same word as oration).
=> adore, inexorable, oracle, orison
pass: pass: [13] Strictly speaking, English has two distinct words pass, although they come from the same ultimate source, and have now virtually merged together again. That source was Latin passus ‘step’, which gave English pace. From it was derived the Vulgar Latin verb *passāre, which came to English via Old French passer. The past participle of the English verb has become past; and other related English words include passage and passenger.

The noun pass ‘mountain defile’ originated as a sense of pace, but since the early modern English period has been spelled (and pronounced) pass, partly through reassociation with French pas, partly under the influence of the verb pass.
=> pace, passage, passenger
phrase: phrase: [16] Greek phrásis ‘speech, way of speaking’ was a derivative of the verb phrázein ‘show, explain’. English adopted it via Latin phrasis as phrasis, whose plural phrases eventually gave rise to a new singular phrase. From the same source comes periphrasis [16].
=> periphrasis
silent: silent: [16] Silent comes from the present participle of Latin silēre ‘be silent’. It is not clear what the origins of this were, although it seems likely to be related in some way to Gothic anasilan, a verb which denoted the wind dying down, and also perhaps to Latin dēsinere ‘stop’ (in which case its underlying meaning would be ‘stop speaking’). The Latin-derived noun silentium actually reached English much earlier than the adjective, as silence [13].
speech: speech: [OE] Speech originated as a derivative of the late Old English verb specan, ancestor of modern English speak. It was originally used for the ‘action of speaking’ in general, or for ‘conversation’; the modern application to an ‘address delivered to an audience’ did not emerge until the 16th century.
=> speak
tact: tact: [17] Tact originally denoted the ‘sense of touch’ (that is what Alexander Ross was referring to when he wrote ‘Of all the creatures, the sense of tact is most exquisite in man’, Arcana microcosmi 1651). But by the end of the 18th century it had evolved semantically via ‘refined faculty of perception’ to ‘skill in behaving or speaking with propriety or sensitivity’.

It was acquired via French tact from Latin tactus ‘sense of touch’, a noun use of the past participle of tangere ‘touch’ (source of English contact, tangent, tangible, etc). Tactile [17], from the Latin derivative tactilis, preserves the original notion of ‘touching’.
=> contact, contagion, tactile, tangent, tangible
tsunami: tsunami: [19] Japanese tsunami means literally ‘harbour waves’, a reference to the devastating effect Pacific tsunamis have had on Japanese coastal communities. For most of the 20th century the term was largely restricted to the specialized vocabulary of oceanographers and earth scientists, lay people preferring the more familiar tidal wave (a misnomer: strictly speaking, a tidal wave is one caused by the movement of the tide, whereas a tsunami is specifically generated by an undersea earthquake), but the disastrous inundation of southern Asian coasts at the end of 2004 lodged it firmly in the language’s everyday lexicon.
ventriloquist: ventriloquist: [17] A ventriloquist is etymologically a ‘stomach-speaker’. The word is an anglicization of late Latin ventriloquus, a compound formed from Latin venter ‘stomach’ (source also of English ventral [18] and ventricle [14]) and loquī ‘speak’ (source of English colloquial [18], elocution [15], eloquent [14], loquacious [17], etc).

The ultimate model for this was Greek eggastrímuthos ‘speaking in the stomach’. The term was originally a literal one; it referred to the supposed phenomenon of speaking from the stomach or abdomen, particularly as a sign of possession by an evil spirit. It was not used for the trick of throwing one’s voice until the end of the 18th century.
=> colloquial, elocution, eloquent, locution, loquatious, ventral, ventricle
allegory (n.): late 14c., from Old French allegorie (12c.), from Latin allegoria, from Greek allegoria "figurative language, description of one thing under the image of another," literally "a speaking about something else," from allos "another, different" (see alias (adv.)) + agoreuein "speak openly, speak in the assembly," from agora "assembly" (see agora).
Anglo (n.): "American, English-speaking white person," 1941, southwestern U.S., from Anglo-American. Anglo was used similarly of native, English-speakers in Canada from 1800 and Britain from 1964.
Anglo-Saxon: Old English Angli Saxones (plural), from Latin Anglo-Saxones, in which Anglo- is an adjective, thus literally "English Saxons," as opposed to those of the Continent (now called "Old Saxons"). Properly in reference to the Saxons of ancient Wessex, Essex, Middlesex, and Sussex.
I am a suthern man, I can not geste 'rum, ram, ruf' by letter. [Chaucer, "Parson's Prologue and Tale"]
After the Norman-French invasion of 1066, the peoples of the island were distinguished as English and French, but after a few generations all were English, and Latin-speaking scribes, who knew and cared little about Germanic history, began to use Anglo-Saxones to refer to the pre-1066 inhabitants and their descendants. When interest in Old English writing revived c. 1586, the word was extended to the language we now call Old English. It has been used rhetorically for "English" in an ethnological sense from 1832, and revisioned as Angle + Saxon.
Anglophone (adj.): "English-speaking," 1895, from Anglo- + -phone.
anthropology (n.): "science of the natural history of man," 1590s, originally especially of the relation between physiology and psychology, from Modern Latin anthropologia or coined independently in English from anthropo- + -logy. In Aristotle, anthropologos is used literally, as "speaking of man."
are (v.): present plural indicative of be (q.v.), from Old English earun (Mercian), aron (Northumbrian). Also from Old Norse cognates. In 17c., began to replace be, ben as first person plural present indicative in standard English. The only non-dialectal survival of be in this sense is the powers that be. But in southwest England, we be (in Devonshire us be) remains non-standard idiom as a contradictory positive ("You people aren't speaking correct English." "Oh, yes we be!").
articulate (adj.): 1580s in the speech sense (1570s as "formulated in articles"), from Latin articulatus (see articulate (v.)). Literal meaning "composed of segments united by joints" is from c. 1600; the general sense of "speaking accurately" is short for articulate-speaking (1829). Related: Articulately.
Aryan: c. 1600, as a term in classical history, from Latin Arianus, Ariana, from Greek Aria, Areia, names applied in classical times to the eastern part of ancient Persia and to its inhabitants. Ancient Persians used the name in reference to themselves (Old Persian ariya-), hence Iran. Ultimately from Sanskrit arya- "compatriot;" in later language "noble, of good family."

Also the name Sanskrit-speaking invaders of India gave themselves in the ancient texts, from which early 19c. European philologists (Friedrich Schlegel, 1819, who linked the word with German Ehre "honor") applied it to the ancient people we now call Indo-Europeans (suspecting that this is what they called themselves); this use is attested in English from 1851. The term fell into the hands of racists, and in German from 1845 it was specifically contrasted to Semitic (Lassen).

German philologist Max Müller (1823-1900) popularized the term in his writings on comparative linguistics, recommending it as the name (replacing Indo-European, Indo-Germanic, Caucasian, Jshortened) for the group of related, inflected languages connected with these peoples, mostly found in Europe but also including Sanskrit and Persian. Arian was used in this sense from 1839 (and is more philologically correct), but this spelling caused confusion with Arian, the term in ecclesiastical history.

Gradually replaced in comparative linguistics c. 1900 by Indo-European, except when used to distinguish Indo-European languages of India from non-Indo-European ones. Used in Nazi ideology to mean "member of a Caucasian Gentile race of Nordic type." As an ethnic designation, however, it is properly limited to Indo-Iranians (most justly to the latter) and has fallen from general academic use since the Nazi era.
babble (v.): mid-13c., babeln "to prattle, chatter," akin to other Western European words for stammering and prattling (cognates: Swedish babbla, Old French babillier) attested from the same era, some of which probably were borrowed from others, but etymologists cannot now determine which were original. Probably imitative of baby-talk, in any case (compare Latin babulus "babbler," Greek barbaros "non-Greek-speaking"). "No direct connexion with Babel can be traced; though association with that may have affected the senses" [OED]. Meaning "to repeat oneself incoherently, speak foolishly" is attested from c. 1400. Related: Babbled; babbler; babbling; babblement.
barbarian (adj.): mid-14c., from Medieval Latin barbarinus (source of Old French barbarin "Berber, pagan, Saracen, barbarian"), from Latin barbaria "foreign country," from Greek barbaros "foreign, strange, ignorant," from PIE root *barbar- echoic of unintelligible speech of foreigners (compare Sanskrit barbara- "stammering," also "non-Aryan," Latin balbus "stammering," Czech blblati "to stammer").

Greek barbaroi (n.) meant "all that are not Greek," but especially the Medes and Persians. Originally not entirely pejorative, its sense darkened after the Persian wars. The Romans (technically themselves barbaroi) took up the word and applied it to tribes or nations which had no Greek or Roman accomplishments. The noun is from late 14c., "person speaking a language different from one's own," also (c. 1400) "native of the Barbary coast;" meaning "rude, wild person" is from 1610s.
barrio (n.): 1841, "ward of a Spanish or Spanish-speaking city," sometimes also used of rural settlements, from Spanish barrio "district, suburb," from Arabic barriya "open country" (fem.), from barr "outside" (of the city). Main modern sense of "Spanish-speaking district in a U.S. city" is 1939; original reference is to Spanish Harlem in New York City.
battology (n.): "needless repetition in speaking or writing," c. 1600, from Greek battologia "a speaking stammeringly," from battos "stammerer," of imitative origin, + -logia (see -logy).
bilingual (adj.): 1818, from bi- + lingual. Latin bilinguis meant literally "two-tongued," and, figuratively, "speaking a jumble of languages," also "double-tongued, hypocritical, false."
bite (v.): Old English bitan (class I strong verb; past tense bat, past participle biten), from Proto-Germanic *bitan (cognates: Old Saxon bitan, Old Norse and Old Frisian bita, Middle Dutch biten, Dutch bijten, German beissen, Gothic beitan "to bite"), from PIE root *bheid- "to split, crack" (see fissure).

To bite the bullet is said to be 1700s military slang, from old medical custom of having the patient bite a lead bullet during an operation to divert attention from pain and reduce screaming. Figurative use from 1891; the custom itself attested from 1840s. To bite (one's) tongue "refrain from speaking" is 1590s. To bite the dust "die" is 1750 (Latin had the same image; compare Virgil's procubuit moriens et humum semel ore momordit). To bite off more than one can chew (c. 1880) is U.S. slang, from plug tobacco.
blaspheme (v.): mid-14c., from Old French blasfemer "to blaspheme" (14c., Modern French blasphémer), from Church Latin blasphemare (also in Late Latin "revile, reproach"), from Greek blasphemein "to speak lightly or amiss of sacred things, to slander," from blasphemos "evil-speaking" (see blasphemy). A reintroduction after the original word had been worn down and sense-shifted to blame (v.). Related: Blasphemed; blaspheming.
blasphemy (n.): early 13c., from Old French blasfemie "blasphemy," from Late Latin blasphemia, from Greek blasphemia "a speaking ill, impious speech, slander," from blasphemein "to speak evil of." Second element is pheme "utterance," from PIE root *bha- (2) "to speak, tell, say" (see fame); first element uncertain, perhaps related to blaptikos "hurtful," though blax "slack (in body and mind), stupid" also has been suggested.
boll (n.): Old English bolla "bowl, cup, pot," merged with Middle Dutch bolle "round object," borrowed 13c., both from Proto-Germanic *bul-, from PIE *bhel- (2) "to blow, inflate, swell" (see bole). Influenced in meaning by Latin bulla "bubble, ball," ultimately from the same PIE root. Extended c. 1500 to "round seed pod of flax or cotton." Boll weevil is 1895, American English.
In south Texas, among Spanish-speaking people, the insect is generally known as the 'picudo,' a descriptive name which refers to the snout or beak of the insect. English-speaking planters generally referred to the insect at first as 'the sharpshooter,' a term which for many years has been applied to any insect which causes through its punctures the shedding of the squares or the rotting of the bolls. As there are several native insects that are commonly called sharpshooters and which, though injurious, are by no means to be compared with this insect, it becomes necessary to discourage in every way the use of the word sharpshooter as applied to this weevil. The adoption of the term 'Mexican cotton-boll weevil' for the new pest is recommended. [New Mexico College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin No. 19, April 1896]
A case of entomology meddling in etymology.
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. Representative Felix Walker (1753-1828) began what promised to be a "long, dull, irrelevant speech," and he resisted calls to cut it short by saying he was bound to say something that could appear in the newspapers in the home district and prove he was on the job. "I shall not be speaking to the House," he confessed, "but to Buncombe." Bunkum has been American English slang for "nonsense" since 1841 (from 1838 as generic for "a U.S. Representative's home district").
MR. WALKER, of North Carolina, rose then to address the Committee on the question [of Missouri statehood]; but the question was called for so clamorously and so perseveringly that Mr. W. could proceed no farther than to move that the committee rise. [Annals of Congress, House of Representatives, 16th Congress, 1st Session, p. 1539]
circumlocution (n.): c. 1400, from Latin circumlocutionem (nominative circumlocutio) "a speaking around" (the topic), from circum- "around" (see circum-) + locutionem (nominative locutio) "a speaking," noun of action from past participle stem of loqui "to speak" (see locution). A loan-translation of Greek periphrasis (see periphrasis).
clumsy (adj.): 1590s, "acting as if benumbed," alteration of Middle English clumsid "numb with cold" (14c.), past participle of clumsen "to benumb, stiffen or paralyze with cold or fear," from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse klumsa "make speechless, palsy; prevent from speaking," intensive of kluma "to make motionless." For insertion of -s-, see flimsy.

Not in general use until 18c., with senses "manifesting awkwardness; so made as to be unwieldy." Related: Clumsily; clumsiness. Compare Swedish dialectal klummsen "benumbed with cold," Norwegian klumsad (past participle) "speechless, palsied by a spasm or by fear or witchery;" German verklammen "grow stiff or numb with cold." Also compare clumse (n.) "a stupid fellow."
colloquy (n.): mid-15c., "discourse," from Latin colloquium "conference, conversation," literally "a speaking together," from com- "together" (see com-) + -loquium "speaking," from loqui "to speak" (see locution). Meaning "conversation" is attested in English from 1580s.
comic (adj.): late 14c., "of comedy in the dramatic sense," from Latin comicus "of comedy, represented in comedy, in comic style," from Greek komikos "of or pertaining to comedy," from komos (see comedy). Meaning "intentionally funny" first recorded 1791, and comedic (1630s) has since picked up the older sense of the word.
Speaking of the masters of the comedic spirit (if I call it, as he does, the Comic Spirit, this darkened generation will suppose me to refer to the animal spirits of tomfools and merryandrews) .... [G.B. Shaw, 1897]
Something that is comic has comedy as its aim or origin; something is comical if the effect is comedy, whether intended or not.
conservative (adj.): late 14c., conservatyf, from Middle French conservatif, from Late Latin conservativus, from Latin conservatus, past participle of conservare (see conserve).

As a modern political tradition, conservatism traces to Edmund Burke's opposition to the French Revolution (1790), but the word conservative is not found in his writing. It was coined by his French disciples, (such as Chateaubriand, who titled his journal defending clerical and political restoration "Le Conservateur").

Conservative as the name of a British political faction first appeared in an 1830 issue of the "Quarterly Review," in an unsigned article sometimes attributed to John Wilson Croker. It replaced Tory (q.v.) by 1843, reflecting both a change from the pejorative name (in use for 150 years) and repudiation of some reactionary policies. Extended to similar spirits in other parties from 1845.
Strictly speaking, conservatism is not a political system, but rather a way of looking at the civil order. The conservative of Peru ... will differ greatly from those of Australia, for though they may share a preference for things established, the institutions and customs which they desire to preserve are not identical. [Russell Kirk (1918-1994)]
Phrases such as a conservative estimate make no sense etymologically. The noun is attested from 1831, originally in the British political sense.
considerable (adj.): mid-15c., "capable of being considered," from Medieval Latin considerabilis "worthy to be considered," from Latin considerare (see consider). Meaning "pretty large" is from 1640s (implied in considerably).
CONSIDERABLE. This word is still frequently used in the manner out by Dr. Witherspoon in the following remark: "He is considerable of a surveyor; considerable of it may found in the country. This manner of speaking in the northern parts." [Pickering, 1816]