英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

dove (v.)[dove 词源字典]: past tense of dive (q.v.).[dove etymology, dove origin, 英语词源]
dovecote (n.): early 15c., from dove (n.) + cote.
Dover: port in Kent, Old English Dofras (c.700), from Latin Dubris (4c.), from British Celtic *Dubras "the waters." Named for the stream that flows nearby.
dovetail: late 16c. (n.), 1650s (v.), from dove (n.) + tail. So called from resemblance of shape in the tenon or mortise of the joints to that of the birdâs tailfeather display. Related: Dovetailed.
Dow Jones: short for Dow Jones Industrial Average, first published 1884 by Charles Henry Dow (1851-1902) and Edward D. Jones (1856-1920), later publishers of "The Wall Street Journal."
dowager (n.): 1520s, from Middle French douagere "widow with a dower" literally "pertaining to a dower," from douage "dower," from douer "endow," from Latin dotare, from dos (genitive dotis) "dowry" (see dowry).
dowdy: 1580s (n.), "an aukward, ill-dressed, inelegant woman" [Johnson]; 1670s (adj.), perhaps a diminutive of doue "poorly dressed woman" (early 14c.), which is of uncertain origin. The modern use of dowd (n.) is most likely a back-formation from dowdy. "If plaine or homely, wee saie she is a doudie or a slut" [Barnabe Riche, "Riche his Farewell to Militarie profession," 1581].
You don't have to be dowdy to be a Christian. [Tammy Faye Bakker, "Newsweek," June 8, 1987]
Related: Dowdily; dowdiness.
dowel (n.): mid-14c., dule "rim or section of a wheel," perhaps akin to Middle Low German dovel "plug, tap" (of a cask). Modern meaning is first attested 1794.
dower (n.): late 13c., from Old French doaire "dower, dowry, gift" (see dowry).
down (adv.): late Old English shortened form of Old English ofdune "downwards," from dune "from the hill," dative of dun "hill" (see down (n.2)). A sense development peculiar to English.

Used as a preposition since c. 1500. Sense of "depressed mentally" is attested from c. 1600. Slang sense of "aware, wide awake" is attested from 1812. Computer crash sense is from 1965. As a preposition from late 14c.; as an adjective from 1560s. Down-and-out is from 1889, American English, from situation of a beaten prizefighter. Down home (adj.) is 1931, American English; down the hatch as a toast is from 1931; down to the wire is 1901, from horse-racing. Down time is from 1952. Down under "Australia and New Zealand" attested from 1886; Down East "Maine" is from 1825; Down South "in the Southern states of the U.S." is attested by 1834.
down (n.1): "soft feathers," late 14c., from Old Norse dunn, perhaps ultimately from PIE root *dheu- (1) "to fly about (like dust), to rise in a cloud."
down (n.2): Old English dun "down, moor; height, hill, mountain," from Proto-Germanic *dunaz- (cognates: Middle Dutch dunen "sandy hill," Dutch duin), "probably a pre-insular loan-word from Celtic" [Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names], in other words, borrowed at a very early period, before the Anglo-Saxon migration, from PIE root *dheue- "to close, finish, come full circle." Meaning "elevated rolling grassland" is from c. 1300.

The non-English Germanic words tend to mean "dune, sand bank" (see dune), while the Celtic cognates tend to mean "hill, citadel" (compare Old Irish dun "hill, hill fort;" Welsh din "fortress, hill fort;" and second element in place names London, Verdun, etc.). German Düne, French dune, Italian, Spanish duna are said to be loan-words from Dutch.
down (v.): 1560s, from down (adv.). Meaning "swallow hastily" is by 1860; football sense of "bring down (an opposing player) by tackling" is attested by 1887. Related: Downed; downing.
Down's Syndrome: 1961, from J.L.H. Down (1828-1896), English physician; chosen as a less racist name for the condition than earlier mongolism.
down-hearted (adj.): also downhearted, 1774 (downheartedly is attested from 1650s), a figurative image from down (adv.) + hearted.
down-to-earth (adj.): also down to earth, as an adjectival phrase, attested from 1932.
downbeat: 1876 (n.), in reference to downward stroke of a conductor's baton; 1952 (adj.) in figurative sense of "pessimistic," but that is probably via associations of the word down (adv.), because the beat itself is no more pessimistic than the upbeat is optimistic.
downcast (adj.): c. 1600, from past participle of obsolete verb downcast (c. 1300), from down (adv.) + cast (v.). Literal at first; figurative sense is 1630s.
downer (n.): 1966 in sense of "barbiturate;" 1970 in sense of "depressing person;" agent noun from down (v.).
downfall (n.): "ruin, fall from high condition," c. 1300, from down (adv.) + fall (v.).