英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

dowse (v.)[dowse 词源字典]: 1690s, a south England dialect word, of uncertain origin, said to have been introduced to Devon by German miners in Elizabethan times. Related: Dowsed; dowsing.[dowse etymology, dowse origin, 英语词源]
doxology (n.): "hymn of praise," 1640s, from Medieval Latin doxologia, from Ecclesiastical Greek doxologia "praise, glory," from doxologos "praising, glorifying," from doxa "glory, praise" (from dokein "to seem good;" see decent) + logos "a speaking" (see lecture (n.)).
doxy (n.): "rogue's girlfriend," 1520s, slang, of unknown origin (see dell (n.2)). Liberman says it is probably from Low German dokke "doll," "with the deterioration of meaning from 'sweetheart' and 'wench' to 'whore.'"
doyen: early 15c., from Middle French doyen "commander of ten," from Old French deien (see dean).
doyenne: 1905, from fem. of French doyen (see doyen). As a type of pear, from 1731.
doze (v.): 1640s, probably from a Scandinavian source (compare Old Norse dusa "to doze," Danish døse "to make dull," Swedish dialectal dusa "to sleep"); related to Old English dysig "foolish" (see dizzy). May have existed in dialect earlier than attested date. Related: Dozed; dozing. As a noun, from 1731.
dozen (n.): c. 1300, from Old French dozaine "a dozen," from doze (12c.) "twelve," from Latin duodecim "twelve," from duo "two" + decem "ten" (see ten).

The Old French fem. suffix -aine is characteristically added to cardinals to form collectives in a precise sense ("exactly 12," not "about 12"). The dozens "invective contest" (1928) originated in slave culture, the custom probably African, the word probably from bulldoze (q.v.) in its original sense of "a whipping, a thrashing."
dozy (adj.): "drowsy," 1690s, from doze + -y (2).
Dr. Pepper (n.): soft drink, patented 1906 by the Dr. Pepper Co., Dallas, Texas; named for U.S. physician Dr. Charles Pepper.
drab (n.): 1680s, "color of natural, undyed cloth," from Middle French drap "cloth, piece of cloth" (see drape (v.)). Figurative sense is c. 1880. Apparently not related to earlier word drab, meaning "a dirty, untidy woman" (1510s), "a prostitute" (1520s), which might be related to Irish drabog, Gaelic drabag "dirty woman," or perhaps it is connected with Low German drabbe "dirt;" compare drabble (Middle English drabelen) "to soil (something); trail in the mud or on the ground" (c. 1400). Ultimately perhaps from PIE *dher- (1) "to make muddy." Meaning "small, petty debt" (the sense in dribs and drabs) is 1828, of uncertain connection to the other senses.
drachma (n.): 1570s, from Latinized form of Greek drakhme, an Attic coin and weight, probably originally "a handful" (see dram). Earlier in English as dragme (late 14c.), from Old French dragme, from Medieval Latin dragma.
Draco (n.): northern constellation representing a dragon, from Latin draco "dragon" (see dragon). Identified as such since ancient times.
draconian (adj.): 1876 (earlier Draconic, implied from 1640s), from Draco, Greek statesman who laid down a code of laws for Athens 621 B.C.E. that mandated death as punishment for minor crimes. His name seems to mean literally "sharp-sighted" (see dragon).
Dracula (n.): the vampire from in Bram Stoker's novel (1897). It was a surname of Prince Vlad II of Wallachia (d.1476), and means in Romanian "son of Dracul," literally "the dragon," from the name and emblem taken by Vlad's father, also named Vlad, c. 1431 when he joined the Order of the Dragon, founded 1418 by Sigismund the Glorious of Hungary to defend the Christian religion from the Turks and crush heretics and schismatics.
draft (n.): c. 1500, spelling variant of draught (q.v.) to reflect change in pronunciation. Among the senses that have gone with this form of the word in American English, the meaning "rough copy of a writing" (something "drawn") is attested from 14c.; that of "preliminary sketch from which a final copy is made" is from 1520s; that of "flow of a current of air" is from c. 1770. Of beer from the 1830s, in reference to the method of "drawing" it from the cask. Sense in bank draft is from 1745. The meaning "a drawing off a group for special duty" is from 1703, in U.S. especially of military service; the verb in this sense first recorded 1714. Related: Drafted; drafting.
draftee (n.): 1864, in a military context, American English, from draft + -ee.
draftsman (n.): 1660s, variant of draughtsman; also see draft.
drafty (adj.): 1580s, from draft "current of air" + -y (2). Related: Draftiness.
drag (v.): mid-15c., from Old Norse draga, or a dialectal variant of Old English dragan "to draw," both from Proto-Germanic *dragan "to draw, pull," from PIE root *dhragh- "to draw, drag on the ground" (cognates: Sanskrit dhrajati "pulls, slides in," Russian drogi "wagon;" but not considered to be directly the source of Latin trahere).

Meaning "to take a puff" (of a cigarette, etc.) is from 1914. Related: Dragged; dragging. Drag-out "violent fight" is from c. 1859. To drag (one's) feet (1946, in figurative sense) supposedly is from logging, from a lazy way to use a two-man saw.
drag (n.): c. 1300, "dragnet," perhaps from a Scandinavian source (compare Swedish dragg "grapnel") or from Old English dræge "dragnet," related to dragan "to draw" (see drag (v.)).

Sense of "annoying, boring person or thing" is 1813, perhaps from the notion of something that must be dragged as an impediment. Sense of "women's clothing worn by a man" is said to be 1870 theater slang, from the sensation of long skirts trailing on the floor (another guess is Yiddish trogn "to wear," from German tragen); drag queen is from 1941.

Drag racing (1947), is said to be from thieves' slang drag "automobile" (1935), perhaps ultimately from slang sense of "wagon, buggy" (1755), because a horse would drag it. By 1851 this was transferred to "street," as in the phrase main drag (which some propose as the source of the racing sense).
In addition to the time trials there are a number of "drag races" between two or more cars. They are run, not for record, but to satisfy the desire of most Americans to see who can get from here to there in the fastest time. ["Popular Mechanics," January 1947]