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attempt [attempt 词源字典]: attempt: [14] Attempting is etymologically related to tempting. The Latin verb attemptāre was formed with the prefix ad- from temptāre, which meant ‘try’ as well as ‘tempt’ (the semantic connection is preserved in modern English try, with the contrasting senses ‘attempt’ and ‘put to the test’). The Latin form passed into Old French as atenter (hence modern French attenter), but was later latinized back to attempter, the form in which English acquired it.
=> tempt[attempt etymology, attempt origin, 英语词源]
contemplate: contemplate: [16] Etymologically, to contemplate something is to observe it in a ‘temple’. The word comes from the past participle of Latin contemplārī, a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix com- and templum. This word, source of course of English temple, originally signified a space marked out by augurs (priests in ancient Rome who interpreted omens) for making observations. Hence contemplārī originally meant ‘observe omens carefully’, but its application soon became more general.
=> temple
distemper: distemper: English has two distinct words distemper, although ultimately they come from the same source, Latin temperāre ‘mingle’ (source of English temper, temperate, and temperature). This formed the basis of two separate medieval Latin verbs, both compounded from the prefix dis- but using it in quite different ways. Dis- in the sense ‘reversal of a current state’ joined with temperāre in the specialized meaning ‘mingle in proper proportion’ to produce distemperāre ‘upset the proper balance of bodily humours’, hence ‘vex, make ill’.

This passed directly into English as distemper [14], and survives today mainly as the term for an infectious disease of dogs. Disjoined with temperāre in its intensive function produced medieval Latin distemperāre ‘mix thoroughly, soak’, which entered English via Old French destemprer in the 14th century. The meaning ‘soak, steep, infuse’ survived until the 17th century: ‘Give the Horse thereof every morning … the quantity of a Hasel-nut distempered in a quart of Wine’, Edward Topsell, History of Four-footed Beasts 1607.

The word’s modern application, to a water-based decorator’s paint, comes from the fact that the pigment is mixed with or infused in water (the same notion lies behind tempera [19], borrowed from Italian).
=> temper, temperate, temperature
extempore: extempore: [16] An extempore speech is one that is given literally ‘out of time’ – that is, ‘on the spur of the moment’. That was the meaning of the Latin phrase extempore (ex ‘out of’ and tempore, the ablative case of tempus ‘time’), which was the source of the Latin adjectives extemporālis and extemporāneus. Both of these were acquired by English, as extemporal [16] and extemporaneous [17], but only the latter has survived. Ex tempore itself was first lexicalized in English as an adverb, and was not used as an adjective until the 17th century.
September: September: [11] September is etymologically the ‘seventh’ month. The word comes from Latin September, a derivative of septem ‘seven’ (the Roman year started with March). Other English descendants of Latin septem, which is a distant relative of English seven, include septet [19] and septuagenarian [18].
=> seven
stem: stem: The stem [OE] of a tree is etymologically the upright part, the part that ‘stands’ up. The word comes from prehistoric Germanic *stamniz, a derivative of the base *sta- ‘stand’ (which also produced English stand). The application to the ‘front of a vessel’ (as in from stem to stern) comes from the notion of an ‘upright beam’ at the prow (and originally the stern also) of a boat, which dates back to the Anglo-Saxon period. Stem ‘stop’ [13] was borrowed from Old Norse stemma, a descendant of prehistoric Germanic *stamjan.

This was formed from the base *stam- ‘stop, check’, which also produced English stammer and stumble.
=> stand, statue; stammer, stumble
system: system: [17] A system is etymologically something that is ‘brought together’. The word comes via French système and late Latin systēma from Greek sústēma ‘combined or organized whole, formed from many parts’. This was a derivative of sunistánai ‘bring together, combine’, a compound verb formed from the prefix sun- ‘together’ and histánai ‘cause to stand’ (a relative of English stand).
=> stand
temerity: temerity: [15] Someone who behaves with temerity is etymologically acting in the ‘dark’. The word was adapted from Latin temeritās ‘rashness’, a derivative of temere ‘blindly’, hence ‘rashly’. This in turn was formed from an unrecorded *temus ‘darkness’, a relative of tenebrae ‘darkness’, and hence originally denoted ‘acting in the dark, so that one cannot see’.
temper: temper: [OE] The verb temper was borrowed into Old English from Latin temperāre ‘mix, blend’. This seems originally to have meant ‘mix in due proportion’, and so may have been derived from Latin tempus ‘time, due time’ (source of English temporary). The noun temper was derived from the verb in the 14th century in the sense ‘mixture of elements’, and this led on in the 17th century to ‘set of mental traits’ (a meaning that has now largely passed to the derivative temperament [15]).

The modern sense ‘ill humour’ emerged from this in the 19th century. Another meaning of Latin temperāre was ‘restrain oneself’, which has come through into the derivatives temperance [14] and temperate [14]. Other relatives include distemper and temperature. Tamper probably originated as an alteration of temper.
=> distemper, tamper, tempera, temperature
tempera: tempera: see distemper
temperature: temperature: [16] Like its relatives temper and temperament, temperature originally meant ‘mixture’ (Philemon Holland in 1601 wrote of ‘a temperature of brass and iron together’). The modern sense ‘degree of heat’ emerged in the late 17th century, and seems to have evolved from another early and now obsolete sense, ‘mild weather’. This reflected the ‘restraint’ strand of meaning in the word’s ultimate source, Latin temperāre, which also survives in English temperance and temperate.
=> temper
tempest: tempest: [13] Latin tempestās started off meaning nothing more alarming than ‘period of time’ (it was a derivative of tempus ‘time’, source of English temporary). Gradually, however, it progressed via ‘weather’ to ‘bad weather, storm’. Tempus moved in to take its place in the neutral sense ‘weather’, and provides the word for ‘weather’ in modern French (temps), Italian (tempo), Spanish (tiempo), and Romanian (timp). Other languages whose word for ‘weather’ comes from a term originally denoting ‘time’ include Russian (pogoda), Polish (czas), Czech (počasí), Latvian (laiks), and Breton (amzer).
=> temporary
temple: temple: Temple for worship [OE] and temple at the side of the head [14] are distinct words. The former was borrowed from Latin templum, which originated as a term relating to divination, used by priests in ancient times. It denoted a space marked out or ‘cut’ out as suitable for making observations on which auguries were based – some say a space marked out on the ground, others a section of the night sky.

It probably came ultimately from the base *tem- ‘cut’, which also produced Greek témein ‘cut’ and the English suffix -tomy ‘surgical cutting’. It has found its way into most western European languages, including German, Dutch, Swedish, and Danish tempel and Welsh teml as well as the Romance languages. Temple ‘area at the side of the head’ comes via Old French temple from Vulgar Latin *tempula, an alteration of tempora, the plural of Latin tempus.

This of course originally meant ‘time’ (English gets temporary from it), and it seems that the sense ‘area at the side of the head’ arose via an intermediate ‘appropriate time, proper period’, hence ‘right place (for dealing someone a fatal blow)’.
=> tome; temporary
temporary: temporary: [16] Temporary was adapted from Latin temporārius, a derivative of tempus ‘time’. The origins of this are not certain, but it could go back ultimately to the prehistoric base *ten- ‘stretch’ (source of English tend, tense, thin, etc), in which case it would denote etymologically a ‘stretch of time’. Other English derivatives include extempore, tempest, temple ‘side of the head’, tempo [18] (via Italian), temporal [14], and tense ‘verb category’.
=> extempore, tempest, temple, tempo, tense
totem: totem: [18] Totem is of native American origin, and denotes etymologically ‘belonging to a family or group’. Its ultimate source is the stem *ōtē- ‘belong to a local group’, and it was adapted from an Ojibwa derivative formed with a possessive prefix ending in t, such as otōtēman ‘his group or family’, hence ‘his family mark’.
abatement (n.): mid-14c., from Old French abatement, from abattre (see abate).
abstemious (adj.): c. 1600, from Latin abstemius "sober, temperate," from ab(s)- "from" (see ab-) + stem of temetum "strong drink," related to temulentus "drunken." Technically, of liquor, but extended in Latin to temperance in living generally. Related: Abstemiously; abstemiousness.
antemundane (adj.): "existing or happening before the creation of the world," 1731; see ante- + mundane.
Artemis: Greek goddess of the moon, wild animals, hunting, childbirth, etc.; sister of Apollo; her name is of unknown origin.
atemporal (adj.): 1870, from a- "not" + temporal. Related: Atemporally.
attemper (v.): late 14c., from Old French attemprer, from Latin attemperare, from ad- "to" (see ad-) + temperare (see temper (v.)). Related: Attempered; attempering.
attempt (v.): late 14c., from Old French attempter (14c.), earlier atenter "to try, attempt, test," from Latin attemptare "to try" (cognates: Italian attentare, Old Provençal, Portuguese attentar, Spanish atentar), from ad- "to, upon" (see ad-) + temptare "to try" (see tempt). Related: Attempted; attempting.
attempt (n.): 1530s, from attempt (v.). Meaning "effort to accomplish something by violence" is from 1580s, especially as an assault on someone's life.
azotemia (n.): 1900, also azotaemia, from azote "nitrogen" (see azo-) + -emia "blood."
batement (n.): mid-15c., shortening of abatement.
blastema (n.): 1849, Modern Latin, from Greek blastema "offspring, offshoot," from stem of blastanein "to shoot forth," from blastos "sprout, germ," which is of unknown origin. Related: Blastemal.
contemn (v.): mid-15c., from Old French contemner (15c.), from Latin contemnere "to despise, scorn" (see contempt).
contemplate (v.): 1590s, from Latin contemplatus, past participle of contemplari "survey, observe" (see contemplation). Related: Contemplated; contemplating.
contemplation (n.): c. 1200, "religious musing," from Old French contemplation or directly from Latin contemplationem (nominative contemplatio) "act of looking at," from contemplat-, past participle stem of contemplari "to gaze attentively, observe," originally "to mark out a space for observation" (as an augur does). From com-, intensive prefix (see com-), + templum "area for the taking of auguries" (see temple (n.1)).
contemplative (adj.): mid-14c., from Old French contemplatif (12c.), from Latin contemplativus, from contemplat-, past participle stem of contemplari (see contemplation).
contemporaneous (adj.): 1650s, from Late Latin contemporaneus "contemporary," from the same source as contemporary but with a form after Late Latin temporaneous "timely." Related: Contemporaneously; contemporaneity.
contemporary (adj.): 1630s, from Medieval Latin contemporarius, from Latin com- "with" (see com-) + temporarius "of time," from tempus "time" (see temporal (v.)). Meaning "modern, characteristic of the present" is from 1866.
contemporary (n.): "one who lives at the same time as another," 1630s, originally cotemporary, from co- + temporary; modified by influence of contemporary (adj.). Replacing native time-fellow (1570s).
contempt (n.): late 14c., from Latin contemptus "scorn," from past participle of contemnere "to scorn, despise," from com-, intensive prefix (see com-), + *temnere "to slight, scorn," which is of uncertain origin. Phrase contempt of court is attested from 19c., though the idea is several centuries older.
contemptible (adj.): late 14c., from Latin contemptibilis "worthy of scorn," from contempt-, past participle stem of contemnere (see contempt). Related: Contemptibility; contemptibly.
contemptuous (adj.): 1590s, from Latin contemptus (see contempt). Related: Contemptuously.
contretemps (n.): 1680s, "a blunder in fencing," from French contre-temps "motion out of time, unfortunate accident, bad times;" from Latin contra + tempus (see temporal). As a ballet term, from 1706; as "an unfortunate accident," 1802; as "a dispute," from 1961.
Dewey Decimal system: proposed 1876 by Melvil Dewey (1851-1931) while acting librarian of Amherst College. He also crusaded for simplified spelling and the metric system.
distemper (v.): mid-14c., "to disturb," from Old French destemprer, from Medieval Latin distemperare "vex, make ill," literally "upset the proper balance (of bodily humors)," from dis- "un-, not" (see dis-) + Latin temperare "mingle in the proper proportion" (see temper (v.)). Related: Distempered.
distemper (n.): 1550s, from distemper (v.); in reference to a disease of dogs, from 1747.
ecosystem (n.): 1935; see eco- + system. Perhaps coined by English ecologist Sir Arthur George Tansley (1871-1955).
epistemic (adj.): "pertaining to knowledge," 1886, from Greek episteme "knowledge," especially scientific knowledge (see epistemology) + -ic.
epistemology (n.): "theory of knowledge," 1856, coined by Scottish philosopher James F. Ferrier (1808-1864) from Greek episteme "knowledge, acquaintance with (something), skill, experience," from Ionic Greek epistasthai "know how to do, understand," literally "overstand," from epi "over, near" (see epi-) + histasthai "to stand," from PIE *sta- "to stand" (see stet). The scientific (as opposed to philosophical) study of the roots and paths of knowledge is epistemics (1969). Related: Epistemological; epistemologically.
excitement (n.): early 15c., "encouragement;" c. 1600, "something that tends to excite," from excite + -ment. Meaning "condition of mental and emotional agitation" is from 1846.
extemporaneous (adj.): "made, done, procured, or furnished 'at the time,'" hence "unpremeditated," 1650s, from Medieval Latin extemporaneus, from Latin ex tempore (see extempore). Earlier was extemporal (1560s); extemporanean (1620s). Related: Extemporaneously; extemporaneousness.
extemporary (adj.): c. 1600, from extempore + -ary.
extempore (adv.): 1550s, from Latin phrase ex tempore "offhand, in accordance with (the needs of) the moment," literally "out of time," from ex "out of" (see ex-) + tempore, ablative of tempus (genitive temporis) "time" (see temporal). Of speaking, strictly "without preparation, without time to prepare," but now often with a sense merely of "without notes or a teleprompter." As an adjective and noun from 1630s.
extemporize (v.): 1640s (implied in extemporizing), "to speak ex tempore," from extempore + -ize. Related: Extemporized.
Guatemala: Central American country, from words in a native language, variously identified as Quauhtemellan "land of the eagle" or Uhatzmalha "mountain where water gushes." Related: Guatemalan.
incitement (n.): 1590s, from incite + -ment.