- dally (v.)[dally 词源字典]
- c. 1300, "to talk, converse," possibly from Anglo-French dalier "to amuse oneself," which is of uncertain origin. Sense of "waste time" emerged by late 14c. Related: Dallied; dallying.[dally etymology, dally origin, 英语词源]
- Dalmatia
- region along the eastern Adriatic coast in what is now Croatia, of uncertain origin. Perhaps from a derivative of PIE *dhal- "to bloom," in a sense of "young animal," in reference to the mountain pastures.
- Dalmatian
- 1810, spotted dog, presumably named for Dalmatia, but dog breeders argue over whether there is a Croatian ancestry for the breed, which seems to be represented in Egyptian bas-reliefs and Hellenic friezes. Popular in early 1800s as a carriage dog, to trot alongside carriages and guard them in owner's absence. Even fire departments nowadays tend to spell it *Dalmation.
- Dalton
- in reference to a system of school education designed by Helen Parkhurst, 1920, from Dalton, Massachusetts, U.S., where it was first adopted. For Daltonism see color blindness.
- dam (n.1)
- "water barrier," early 14c., probably from Old Norse dammr or Middle Dutch dam, both from Proto-Germanic *dammaz (cognates: Old Frisian damm, German Damm), which is of unknown origin.
- dam (n.2)
- "animal mother," c. 1300, variant of dame (q.v.), also originally used, like that word, for "lady, mother;" but meanings diverged into separate spellings by 16c.
- dam (v.)
- late 15c., from dam (n.1). Related: Dammed; damming.
- damage (n.)
- late 13c., from Old French damage (12c., Modern French dommage) "loss caused by injury," from dam "damage," from Latin damnum "loss, hurt, damage" (see damn).
- damage (v.)
- early 14c., from Old French damagier, from damage (see damage (n.)). Related: Damaged; damaging.
- Damascus
- ancient city in Syria, famous in medieval times for silk and steel, mid-13c., from Latin Damascus, from Greek Damaskos, from Semitic (compare Hebrew Dammeseq, Arabic Dimashq), from a pre-Semitic name of unknown origin. Related: Damascene, from Latin Damascenus "of Damascus."
- damask (n.)
- late 14c., Damaske "cloth from Damascus," the Syrian city.
- dame (n.)
- early 13c., from Old French dame "lady, mistress, wife," from Late Latin domna, from Latin domina "lady, mistress of the house," from Latin domus "house" (see domestic). Legal title for the wife of a knight or baronet. Slang sense of "woman" first attested 1902 in American English.
- dammit (interj.)
- representation of the exclamation damn it! as it usually is sounded, attested from 1908.
- damn (v.)
- late 13c., "to condemn," from Old French damner "damn, condemn; convict, blame; injure," derivative of Latin damnare "to adjudge guilty; to doom; to condemn, blame, reject," from noun damnum "damage, hurt, harm; loss, injury; a fine, penalty," possibly from an ancient religious term from PIE *dap- "to apportion in exchange" [see Watkins]. The Latin word evolved a legal meaning of "pronounce judgment upon." Theological sense is first recorded early 14c.; the optative expletive use likely is as old.
Damn and its derivatives generally were avoided in print from 18c. to c. 1930s (the famous line in the film version of "Gone with the Wind" was a breakthrough and required much effort by the studio). The noun is recorded from 1610s; to be not worth a damn is from 1817. The adjective is 1775, short for damned; Damn Yankee, characteristic Southern U.S. term for "Northerner," is attested from 1812. Related: Damning. - damnable (adj.)
- mid-14c., from Old French damnable or directly from Late Latin damnabilis, from Latin damnare "to doom, condemn" (see damn). Related: Damnably.
- damnation (n.)
- c. 1300, "condemnation to Hell by God," also "fact of being condemned by judicial sentence," from Old French damnation, from Latin damnationem (nominative damnatio), noun of action from past participle stem of damnare (see damn). As an imprecation, attested from c. 1600.
Damnation follows death in other men,
But your damn'd Poet lives and writes agen.
[Pope, letter to Henry Cromwell, 1707 or 1708]
- damnedest (adj.)
- also damndest, originally damnedst, 1830, superlative of damned (see damn).
- Damocles
- courtier of Dionysius I, tyrant of Syracuse; his name in Greek means literally "fame of the people," from demos, damos "people" (see demotic) + -kles "fame," a common ending in Greek proper names (as in Sophocles, Pericles), from PIE *klew-es, from root *kleu- "to hear" (see listen). To teach Damocles how a tyrant lives, Dionysius seated him at a banquet with a sword suspended above his head by a single hair.
- damp (n.)
- early 14c., "noxious vapor," perhaps in Old English but there is no record of it. If not, probably from Middle Low German damp; ultimately in either case from Proto-Germanic *dampaz (cognates: Old High German damph, German Dampf "vapor;" Old Norse dampi "dust"). Sense of "moisture, humidity" is first certainly attested 1706.
- damp (adj.)
- 1580s, "dazed," from damp (n.). Meaning "slightly wet" is from 1706. Related: Dampness.