- root
[root 词源字典] - root: Root of a plant [OE] and root ‘dig with the nose’ [14] are distinct words. The former was borrowed from Old Norse rót, which goes back ultimately to the Indo-European base *wrd-. This also produced Latin rādīx ‘root’, source of English radical, radish, etc. Root ‘dig’ is an alteration of an earlier wroot, which went back to Old English wrōtan. It is usually assumed that root ‘cheer, support’, which first emerged in America in the late 19th century, is the same word.
=> radical, radish[root etymology, root origin, 英语词源] - rope
- rope: [OE] Rope is a general Germanic term, represented also by German reif, Dutch reep, Swedish rep, and Danish reb (the German word now means ‘hoop, loop’). These point to a prehistoric Germanic ancestor *raipaz, whose ultimate origins are not known. A stirrup is etymologically a ‘climbing rope’.
=> stirrup - rosary
- rosary: [14] Rosary comes from Latin rosārium ‘rose garden’, a derivative of rosa ‘rose’. It was a common conceit in the Middle Ages to name collections of verse or similar short pieces after bunches of flowers (anthology comes from the Greek word for ‘flower’, and a similar inspiration underlies florilegium, while a 13thcentury volume of the collected works of the Persian poet Sa’di was called the Rose garden).
That was the background against which a collection of Roman Catholic prayers, consisting of Aves, Paternosters, and Glorias, came to be known as a rosary. A string of beads of varying sizes came to be used for counting off how far one has got in saying these prayers (English bead itself comes from a word meaning ‘prayer’), and this too was termed rosary.
=> rose - rose
- rose: [OE] Rose is a general European term, represented also in French, German, and Danish rose, Italian and Spanish rosa, Dutch roos, Swedish ros, Russian roza, etc. These all go back ultimately to Latin rosa, which was either borrowed from, or came from the same source as Greek rhódon ‘rose’, a word of eastern Mediterranean origin.
=> rhododendron - rosemary
- rosemary: [15] Originally, rosemary had no connection with either ‘roses’ or ‘Mary’. Etymologically it means ‘sea-dew’. It comes, probably via Old French rosmarin, from late Latin rōsmarīnum. This in turn was a conflation of Latin rōs marīnus, rōs meaning ‘dew’ and marīnus ‘of the sea’ (an allusion to the fact that the plant grew near sea coasts). The word originally entered English in the 14th century as rosmarine, but association with rose and Mary (the Virgin Mary, no doubt) led to its alteration to rosemary.
=> marine, mere, mermaid - rosin
- rosin: see resin
- roster
- roster: see roast
- rostrum
- rostrum: [16] Latin rōstrum originally meant ‘beak’ or ‘muzzle of an animal’ – it was derived from the verb rōdere ‘gnaw’ (source of English corrode [14], erode [17], and rodent [19]). The word was also applied metaphorically to the ‘beaklike’ prows of ships. In 338 BC the platform for public speakers in the Forum in Rome was adorned with the prows of ships captured from Antium (modern Anzio), and so in due course all such platforms came to be known as rostra – whence the English word.
=> corrode, erode, rodent - rot
- rot: [OE] Rot goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *rutjan, which also produced Dutch rotten. It may be related ultimately to Latin rudis ‘rough’, source of English rude. The adjective rotten [13] was borrowed from Old Norse rotinn, which came from the same Germanic stem as produced *rutjan. The mild imprecation drat [19] is a conflation of God and rot.
=> rude - rota
- rota: [17] Latin rota denoted ‘wheel’: it came ultimately from a prehistoric Indo-European base *reth- meaning ‘run, roll’, which also produced German rad ‘wheel’. It was introduced into English in 1659 by the republican James Harrington as the name for a political club he founded to advocate his idea that government office should be held in rotation. Derivatives of rota have contributed richly to English.
Medieval Latin rotārius has given rotary [18]. From the verb rotāre ‘revolve’ have come rotate [19] and, via its Spanish descendant rodear, rodeo [19] (etymologically a ‘roundingup’ or ‘surrounding’ of cattle). Rotundus, a derivative of rotāre, has produced rotund [18] and round. The diminutive form rotulus has given control and roll.
And roue ‘wheel’, the French descendant of rota, is the source of roué [18], etymologically someone broken on the ‘wheel’.
=> control, prune, rodeo, roll, rondo, rotate, rotund, round - rouge
- rouge: see red
- rough
- rough: [OE] Rough goes back to a prehistoric West Germanic *rūkhwaz, which also produced German rauh and Dutch ruw. Despite the similarity of form and sense, ruffian is not related, and there is no evidence that ruffle is either.
- round
- round: [13] Round goes back ultimately to Latin rotundus ‘round’, source of English rotund. In Vulgar Latin this became *retundus, which passed into Old French as reont, later ront. Its stem form rond- gave English round. Derivatives to have reached English include prune ‘cut branches’, rondo [18], roundel [13], and roundelay [16]; but surround, despite the similarity, is not related.
=> rota, rotund - rout
- rout: English has two words rout. ‘Disorderly retreat’ [16] comes via archaic French route ‘dispersed group’ and Italian rotta ‘breakage’ from Vulgar Latin *rupta, a noun use of the past participle of Latin rumpere ‘break’ (source of English corrupt, disrupt [17], erupt, and rupture and related to English rob). Other English descendants of *rupta are route, routine, and rut. Rout ‘dig with the nose’, hence ‘search, rummage’ [16] is a variant form of root.
=> corrupt, disrupt, erupt, rob, robe, route, routine, rupture, rut; root - route
- route: see rut
- routine
- routine: see rut
- roux
- roux: see russet
- rover
- rover: see rob
- row
- row: There are three distinct words row in English. The one meaning ‘use oars’ [OE] goes back to a prehistoric Germanic base *rō- ‘steer’, which also produced Dutch roeijen and Swedish ro, not to mention English rudder. Row ‘orderly line’ [OE] comes from a prehistoric Germanic *raigwa, and is probably related to German reihe ‘row’. Row ‘noisy quarrel’ [18] seems to have originated in the late 18th century as a piece of Cambridge University slang, but where it came from is not known.
=> rudder - royal
- royal: [14] Royal and regal are ultimately the same word. Both go back to the Latin adjective rēgālis, a derivative of rēx ‘king’. But whereas regal was probably borrowed direct from Latin, royal was acquired via Old French, where rēgālis became roial.
=> regal
