英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

spike [spike 词源字典]: spike: English has two etymologically distinct words spike, although they are so similar in meaning that they are commonly regarded as one and the same. Spike ‘long sharp piece’ [13] was probably borrowed from Middle Dutch spīker. It has another relative in Swedish spik ‘nail’, and goes back ultimately to prehistoric Germanic *speik-, *spaik- (source also of English spoke).

The spick of spick and span [17] is a variant of spike. The expression is an elaboration of an earlier span-new ‘brand-new’, which was borrowed from Old Norse spánnýr ‘as new as a new chip of wood’ (spánn ‘chip’ is related to English spoon, which originally meant ‘chip’). The spick was added in imitation of Dutch spiksplinter nieuw ‘spike-splinter new’. Spike ‘ear of corn, arrangement of flowers on a stalk similar to this’ [14] was borrowed from Latin spīca, a close relative of spīna ‘thorn’ (source of English spine). Spīca is also ultimately responsible for English spigot [14], perhaps via the diminutive spiculum; and it forms the first syllable of spikenard [14], the name of a sort of ancient aromatic ointment or of the plant that probably produced it.
=> spick; spigot, spine, spoke[spike etymology, spike origin, 英语词源]
spill: spill: Spill ‘let fall’ [OE] and spill ‘thin piece of wood’ are distinct words. The former originally meant ‘destroy, kill’; the modern sense ‘allow liquid to pour out or fall’, which did not emerge until the 14th century, arose as a rather grisly metaphor based on the notion of ‘shedding blood’. The ultimate origins of the word, which has relatives in Dutch spillen and Swedish spilla, are not known. Spill ‘thin piece of wood’ was probably borrowed from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch spile ‘splinter, wooden pin, bar, etc’, which also gave English spile ‘bung’ [16].

This in turn went back to a prehistoric West Germanic *spinla (source also of English spindle). The familiar modern use of spill for a ‘small slip of wood, paper, etc used for carrying a flame’ did not emerge until the early 19th century.
=> spin, spindle
spin: spin: [OE] Spin is a general Germanic word, with relatives in German and Dutch spinnen, Swedish spinna, and Danish spinde. It goes back ultimately to a prehistoric Indo-European base *spen- or *pen- ‘stretch’ which also produced English span, Lithuanian pinti ‘plait’, and Old Church Slavonic peti ‘stretch’. English words derived from it or its immediate Germanic ancestor include spider, spill ‘slip of wood’, spindle [OE], and spinster [14] (originally a ‘female spinner’, and not used as a designation of an unmarried woman until the 17th century).
=> spider, spill, spindle, spinster
spinach: spinach: [16] The ultimate origin of the word spinach is Persian aspanākh, which passed via Arabic isfināj, medieval Latin spinachia, and Spanish espinaca into Old French as espinache. Middle Dutch borrowed this as spinaetse, the probable source of English spinach. It has been speculated that the change of form from Arabic to Latin may have been partly motivated by the ‘spiny’ seeds of certain types of spinach.
spindle: spindle: see spin
spine: spine: [14] Spine comes via Old French espine from Latin spīna ‘thorn’, which was probably derived from the same base as spīca ‘ear of corn’ (source of English spike ‘pointed flower head’). The metaphorical extension ‘backbone’ developed in Latin, perhaps via ‘prickle’ and ‘fish bone’. A spinney [16] is etymologically a ‘thorny thicket’. The word comes via Old French espinei from Vulgar Latin *spīnēta, an alteration of Latin spīnētum ‘thorny hedge’, which was derived from spīna.
=> spike, spinney
spinet: spinet: [17] A spinet is a sort of small harpsichord. English acquired the term via early modern French espinette from Italian spinetta, and one version of its origin is that it came from the name of one Giovanni Spinetti, a Venetian who supposedly invented the instrument at the beginning of the 16th century. A more prosaic story is that it was a diminutive form of spina ‘thorn’ (a relative of English spine), the allusion being to the plucking of the strings with thornlike quills.
spinnaker: spinnaker: see sphinx
spinster: spinster: see spin
spiral: spiral: [16] Spiral comes via French spiral from medieval Latin spīrālis ‘coiled’, a derivative of Latin spīra. This in turn went back to Greek speira ‘coil’. English also acquired the noun, as spire [16], which is used for the ‘tip of a spiral shell’. It is not the same word as the spire of a church [OE], which originally meant ‘stalk, stem’, and may go back ultimately to the base *spī- (source of English spike ‘pointed flower head’ and spine). The spiraea [17] is etymologically the ‘coiled’ plant; and spiraea in turn was used to form the term aspirin.
=> aspirin, spiraea
spirit: spirit: [13] Latin spīritus originally meant ‘breath’: it was derived from the verb spīrāre ‘breathe’ (source of English aspire [15], conspire [14], expire [15], inspire [14], perspire [17], respire [14], transpire [16], etc), which probably came ultimately from the prehistoric Indo-European base *speis- or *peis-, imitative of the sound of blowing or breathing out (source also of Old Church Slavonic piskati ‘whistle’, Serbo-Croat pistati ‘hiss’, and Old Norse físa ‘fart’).

But in the Augustan period it gradually began to take over as the word for ‘soul’ from anima (source of English animal, animate, etc), which itself originally denoted ‘breath’, and in Christian Latin writings it was the standard term used.
=> aspire, conspire, expire, inspire, perspire, respire, transpire
spit: spit: English has two words spit in current usage. Spit ‘eject saliva’ [OE] is one of a sizable group of English words beginning sp- which denote ‘ejecting or discharging liquid’. Others include spew [OE], spout [14], spurt [16], and sputter [16]. They all go back ultimately to an Indo- European base *spyēu-, *spyū-, etc, imitative of the sound of spitting, which also produced Latin spuere ‘spit’ (source of English cuspidor [18] and sputum [17]).

The immediate source of spit itself was the prehistoric Germanic base *spit-, a variant of which, *spāt-, produced English spittle [15] (originally spattle, but changed through association with spit). Spit for roasting things on [OE] comes from a prehistoric Germanic *spituz, which also produced German spiess and Dutch spit.
=> cuspidor, spew, spout, spurt, sputter, sputum
spite: spite: [13] Spite was adapted from Old French despit ‘scorn, ill will’, which was also borrowed intact as despite [13]. This came from Latin dēspectus, the past participle of dēspicere ‘look down on’ (source of English despise [13]), which was a compound verb formed from the prefix dē- ‘down’ and specere ‘look’ (source of English spectacle, spy, etc). The use of in spite of and despite for ‘notwithstanding’ goes back via an intermediate ‘in defiance of’ to an original ‘in contempt of’.
=> despise, species, spectator, spy
spleen: spleen: [13] Spleen comes via Old French esplen and Latin splēn from Greek splén, which may have been related to Latin liēn ‘spleen’ and Greek splágkhnon ‘entrails’ (source of English splanchnic ‘of the viscera’ [17]). In medieval physiology many internal organs were held to be the seat of a particular emotion, and the spleen was no exception. It had several conflicting states of mind attributed to it, but the one which survives is ‘moroseness’ or ‘bad temper’, in the derived adjective splenetic [16].
splendid: splendid: [17] Splendid comes via French splendide from Latin splendidus, a derivative of the verb splendēre ‘shine’. This went back ultimately to the Indo-European base *splēnd- or *plēnd- ‘bright’, which also produced Old Lithuanian splendeti ‘shine’ and Welsh llathru ‘polish’. Amongst the derivatives adopted by English are resplendent [15], splendiferous [15] (from splendiferus, a medieval alteration of late Latin splendōrifer, literally ‘bearing brightness’, hence ‘full of splendour’ – its modern use, as a jocular alternative to splendid, is a 19th-century American innovation), and splendour [15].
=> resplendent
split: split: [16] Split was borrowed from Middle Dutch splitten. This, like German spleissen ‘splice’ and English splice [16], goes back to a prehistoric base *spleid-, which may have been related to *spel-, the source of English spill.
=> splice
spoil: spoil: [13] Latin spolium originally denoted ‘skin stripped from a killed animal’ (it went back ultimately to the Indo-European base *spel- ‘split, burst’, which also produced German spalten ‘split’, and probably English spill and split). It broadened out metaphorically via ‘weapons stripped from a fallen enemy’ to ‘booty’ in general, which lies behind English spoils.

The word itself was borrowed from Old French espoille, a derivative of the verb espoillier, which in turn went back to Latin spoliāre ‘despoil’ (source of English spoliation [14]), a derivative of spolium. The verb spoil came either from Old French espoillier, or is short for despoil [13], which went back via Old French despoillier to Latin dēspoliāre.

It used to mean ‘strip of possessions’, as despoil still does, but in the 16th century it moved across to take over the semantic territory of the similarsounding spill (which once meant ‘destroy, ruin’).
=> despoil, spoliation
spoke: spoke: [OE] Like its relatives German speiche and Dutch speek, spoke goes back to prehistoric Germanic *spaikōn. This was derived from the base *spaik-, *speik-, which also produced English spike.
=> spike
spoliation: spoliation: see spoil
sponsor: sponsor: [17] Etymologically, a sponsor is someone who makes a ‘solemn promise’. The word was borrowed from Latin sponsor, a derivative of spondēre ‘promise solemnly’, which denoted ‘someone who stands surely for another’. In the Christian era it came to be used for a ‘godparent’, which was its original sense in English. From the same source come English despond, respond, spouse, and probably spontaneous [17].
=> despond, respond, spontaneous, spouse