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pace [pace 词源字典]: pace: [13] Latin passus ‘step’, the source of English pace (and also ultimately of English pass), denoted etymologically a ‘stretch of the leg’. It was based on passus, the past participle of the verb pandere ‘stretch’ (source also of English expand and spawn). English acquired it via Old French pas, and at first used it not just for ‘step’ and ‘rate of movement’, but also for a ‘mountain defile’. In this last sense, though, it has since the early modern English period been converted to pass, partly through reassociation with French pas, partly through the influence of the verb pass.
=> expand, pass, spawn[pace etymology, pace origin, 英语词源]
pacific: pacific: see peace
pacify: pacify: see peace
pack: pack: [13] The ultimate origins of pack are unknown. English borrowed it from one of the Germanic languages of northeastern Europe (both Middle Dutch and Middle Low German had pak), but where they got it from is not clear. Its derivatives package [16] and packet [16] are both English formations.
pact: pact: see compact
pad: pad: [16] English has two words pad, both of them borrowed from Low German or Dutch. The ancestral meaning of pad ‘cushion’ seems to be ‘sole of the foot’, although that sense did not emerge in English until the 18th century. Flemish pad and Low German pad both denote ‘sole’, as does the presumably related Lithuanian pādas. Pad ‘tread, walk’ comes from Low German padden, a descendant of the same Germanic source as produced English path.

It was originally a slang term used by 16th- and 17th-century highwayman, muggers, and the like, and its corresponding noun pad survives in footpad [17]. Paddle ‘walk in shallow water’ [16] comes from a Low German or Dutch derivative (the other paddle, ‘oar, bat’ [15], is of unknown origin).
=> paddle, path
paddock: paddock: [17] Paddock is ultimately the same word as park. Their common ancestor was a prehistoric Germanic word which took a route through Latin and French to reach English as park. Its direct Old English descendant, however, was pearruc. This in due course became parrock, which survived dialectally into the 20th century. But in the early modern English period a variant form paddock appeared. It is not clear how this arose, but it may be a hypercorrect form reflecting the change in the opposite direction, from /d/ to /r/, in words such as porridge for pottage and geraway for get away.
=> park
pagan: pagan: [14] The history of pagan is a bizarre series of semantic twists and turns that takes it back ultimately to Latin pāgus (source also of English peasant). This originally meant ‘something stuck in the ground as a landmark’ (it came from a base *pāg- ‘fix’ which also produced English page, pale ‘stake’, and pole ‘stick’ and is closely related to pact and peace).

It was extended metaphorically to ‘country area, village’, and the noun pāgānus was derived from it, denoting ‘country-dweller’. But then this in its turn began to shift semantically, first to ‘civilian’ and then (based on the early Christian notion that all members of the church were ‘soldiers’ of Christ) to ‘heathen’ – whence English pagan.
=> pact, page, pale, peace, peasant, pole
page: page: English has two nouns page. The one that now denotes ‘boy servant’ originally meant simply ‘boy’ [13]. It was borrowed from Old French page, itself an adaptation of Italian paggio. This is generally assumed to have come from Greek paidíon, a diminutive form of pais ‘boy, child’ (source of English encyclopedia, paediatric [19], paedophilia [20], pedagogue [14], pederast [18], etc). Page of a book [15] depends ultimately on the notion of ‘fastening’.

It comes via Old French page from Latin pāgina, a derivative of the base *pāg- ‘fix’ (source also of English pagan, pale ‘stake’, etc). This was used for ‘vine-stakes fastened together into a trellis’, which perhaps inspired its metaphorical application to a ‘column of writing’ in a scroll. When books replaced scrolls, pāgina was transferred to ‘page’.
=> encyclopedia, paediatric, pedagogue; pagan, pale, pole
pagoda: pagoda: [17] The immediate source of pagoda was Portuguese pagoda, but this is generally assumed to have been an adaptation of Persian butkada, a compound put together from but ‘idol’ and kada ‘dwelling, temple’. Its form was no doubt influenced by bhagodī, a word for ‘holy’ in the vernacular languages of India.
pain: pain: [13] ‘Punishment’ (now encountered only in such phrases as on pain of death) is the ancestral meaning of pain; ‘suffering’ is a secondary development. The word comes via Old French peine and Latin poena from Greek poiné ‘punishment, penalty’. Its original connotations are preserved in the related penal [15], penalty [16], penance [13], penitence [12], and punish, its later associations in the related verb pine.
=> penal, penalty, penance, pine, punish
paint: paint: [13] Paint comes ultimately from an Indo- European base *pik-, *pig-. This originally meant ‘cut’ (English file comes from it), but it broadened out via ‘decorate with cut marks’ and simply ‘decorate’ to ‘decorate with colour’ (whence English pigment). A nasalized version of the base produced Latin pingere ‘paint’, which reached English via Old French peindre and its past participle peint (the Latin past participle pictus is the source of English Pict and picture, and also lies behind depict).
=> depict, picture, pigment
pair: pair: [13] Like English par [17], parity [16], and peer ‘noble’ [13], pair comes ultimately from Latin pār ‘equal’, a word of unknown origin. Its derivative paria ‘equal things, similar things’ passed into English via Old French paire. Other English descendants of Latin pār include compare, disparage [14], nonpareil [15], and umpire.
=> compare, disparage, nonpareil, par, parity, peer, umpire
pal: pal: [17] Pal is a Travellers’ contribution to English. It was borrowed from British Romany pal ‘brother, friend’, an alteration of continental Romany pral. This was descended ultimately from Sanskrit bhrátar- ‘brother’, a member of the same Indo-European word-family as English brother.
=> brother
palace: palace: [13] The Palātium, or Mons Palātīnus (in English the ‘Palatine hill’), was one of the seven hills of ancient Rome. On it the emperor Augustus built a house, which in due course grew into a grand imperial palace, also called the Palātium. This came to be used as a generic term for such residences, and passed into English via Old French paleis. The derived Latin adjective palātīnus has given English paladin [16] and palatine [15].
=> paladin, palatine
Palaeolithic: Palaeolithic: see lithograph
palaver: palaver: [18] Palaver originated as a piece of naval slang picked up by English sailors in Africa. There they came across Portuguese traders negotiating with the local inhabitants, a process known in Portuguese as palavra ‘speech’ (a descendant of Latin parabola, source of English parable). They took the Portugese word over as palaver, applying it first to ‘negotiations’, and then by extension to ‘idle chatter’.
=> parable
pale: pale: English has two words pale. The adjective [13] comes via Old French from Latin pallidus (source also of English appal – originally ‘turn pale’ – pall ‘become wearisome’ [14] – originally a shortening of appal – and pallid [17]). This was a derivative of the verb pallēre ‘be pale’, which was descended from *pol-, *pel-, the same Indo-European base as produced English fallow.

The noun pale [14] comes via Old French pal from Latin pālus ‘stake’. This was a descendant of the base *pāg- ‘fix’, which also produced English pagan, page, and pole ‘stick’. English palisade [17] comes ultimately from *pālicea, a Vulgar Latin derivative of pālus, and the closely related Latin pāla ‘spade’ produced English palette [17] and pallet [16].
=> appal, fallow, pall, pallid; pagan, page, palette, palisade, pallet, pole, travel
palfrey: palfrey: [12] Etymologically, a palfrey is an ‘extra horse’. The word comes via Old French palefrei from medieval Latin palefrēdus, an alteration of an earlier paraverēdus (source of German pferd ‘horse’). This was a compound formed from Greek pará ‘extra’ (source of the English prefix para-) and late Latin verēdus ‘light fast horse used by couriers’, a word of Gaulish origin.
palisade: palisade: see pale