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saw [saw 词源字典]: saw: Not counting the past tense of see, English has two words saw. The one meaning ‘toothed cutting tool’ [OE] comes from a prehistoric Germanic *sagō, a close relative of which produced German säge ‘saw’. This in turn was descended from an Indo-European base *sak-, *sek- ‘cut’, which also lies behind English section, segment, sickle, etc. The now seldom heard saw ‘saying, adage’ [OE] comes from a different prehistoric Germanic *sagō, which was derived from the verb *sagjan ‘say’ (ancestor of English say) and also produced Old Norse saga ‘narrative’ (source of English saga [18]).
=> section, segment, sickle; saga, say[saw etymology, saw origin, 英语词源]
saxifrage: saxifrage: [15] The saxifrage is etymologically the ‘stone-breaker’. The word comes via Old French saxifrage from late Latin saxifraga, a compound formed from Latin saxum ‘rock’ and frag-, the stem of frangere ‘break’ (source of English fraction, fracture, etc). The name is an allusion to the fact that the plant grows in crevices in rock, and so gives the impression of splitting the rock.
=> fraction, fracture, fragment
saxophone: saxophone: [19] The saxophone commemorates the name of its inventor, the Belgian musical instrument maker Adolphe Sax (1814–94) (his real Christian names were Antoine Joseph). He seems to have devised it around 1840, and the term saxophone first appeared in English in 1851, in the catalogue of the Great Exhibition. His father Charles Joseph Sax (1791–1865) was also an instrument maker, and similarly had an instrument of his invention named after him – the saxhorn [19].
say: say: [OE] Say is part of a widespread Germanic family of ‘say’-verbs, which also contains German sagen, Dutch zeggen, Swedish säga, and Danish sige. These point back to a common Germanic ancestor *sagjan, which was descended from the Indo-European base *seq-. This originally signified ‘point out’, but evolved to ‘say’, and it also lies behind Lithuanian sakýti, Latvian sacīt, Welsh eb, and Latin inquit, all of which mean ‘say’.
=> saga, saw
scab: scab: [13] Old English had a word sceabb ‘scab’. This survived into modern English as shab, a dialectal synonym of scab, but it is only represented in the mainstream language by its derivative shabby. It is its Old Norse relative skabbr, borrowed in the 13th century as scab, which has become the general English term for a ‘crust over a wound’.

The derogatory sense ‘strike-breaker’ emerged in the 19th century from an earlier, 16th-century ‘despicable person’. The word comes ultimately from the Germanic base *skab- ‘scratch, shave’ (source also of English shave [OE]), which was descended from the same Indo-European base that produced Latin scabiēs ‘itch’ (source of English scabies [14], scabious [14] – a plant so called because it was supposed to cure skin diseases – and scabrous [17]).
=> scabies, shabby, shave
scabbard: scabbard: [13] English acquired scabbard from Anglo-Norman escaubers. This appears to have been a compound formed from Old High German scār, which usually meant ‘scissors’ but was also used for ‘sword’ (it came from the same base that produced English shear), and the element -berc ‘protection’ (as in hauberk [13], which etymologically means ‘neck-protection’), which was derived from bergan ‘protect’ (a relative of English borough, borrow, bury, etc). So essentially, a scabbard is ‘sword-protection’.
=> borough, borrow, bury, share, shear, shirt, short, skirt
scabies: scabies: see scab
scabrous: scabrous: see scab
scaffold: scaffold: [14] Historically, scaffold and catafalque [17] ‘coffin-stand’ are virtually the same word. Catafalque comes via French catafalque and Italian catafalco from Vulgar Latin *catafalcum, a word of uncertain origin. Combination with the prefix ex- produced *excatafalcum, which passed into English via Old French eschaffaut and Anglo-Norman *scaffaut.

The word originally denoted any sort of platform, and did not narrow down to ‘platform for executions’ until the 16th century. The derivative scaffolding, a term which originally alluded to the platforms set up around a building rather than to poles supporting them, also dates from the 14th century.
=> catafalque
scald: scald: [13] Scald comes ultimately from Latin calidus ‘hot’ (source also of English cauldron and chowder and related to calorie and nonchalant). From it was derived the verb excaldāre ‘wash in hot water’, which passed into English via Anglo-Norman escalder as scald.
=> calorie, cauldron, chowder, nonchalant
scale: scale: English has three separate words scale. The oldest, ‘pan of a balance’ [13], was borrowed from Old Norse skál ‘bowl, drinking cup’ (ancestor of Swedish skåal, from which English gets the toast skol [16]). This was descended from a Germanic base *skal-, *skel-, *skul-, denoting ‘split, divide, peel’, which also produced English scalp, shell, shelter, shield, skill, probably skull, and also scale ‘external plate on fish, etc’ [14].

This second scale was borrowed from Old French escale, which itself was acquired from prehistoric Germanic *skalō – another derivative of *skal-. Its modern German descendant, schale, is the probable source of English shale [18]. The third scale, which originally meant ‘ladder’ [15], came from Latin scāla ‘ladder’, a descendant of the same base as Latin scandere ‘climb’, from which English gets ascend, descend, scan, and scandal. (In modern French scāla has evolved to échelle, whose derivative échelon has given English echelon [18].) The modern meanings of the word, variations on the theme ‘system of graduations used for measuring’, are metaphorical extensions of the original ‘ladder, steps’.

Its use as a verb, meaning ‘climb’, goes back to the medieval Latin derivative scālāre.
=> scalp, shell, shelter, shield, skill, skol, skull; shale; ascend, descend, echelon, scan, scandal
scallion: scallion: see shallot
scalp: scalp: [13] Scalp originally meant ‘top of the head, cranium’; it was not used for the ‘skin on top of the head’ until the 17th century. It is not altogether clear where the word came from, but its resemblance to Old Norse skálpr ‘sheath, shell’ and the fact that it first appeared in Scotland and the north of England suggest that it was borrowed from a Scandinavian language. Its ultimate ancestor was no doubt the Germanic base *skal-, *skel-, *skul-, source also of English shell and probably skull.
=> scale, shell, skull
scalpel: scalpel: see sculpture
scan: scan: [14] Latin scandere meant ‘climb’ (it has given English ascend and descend). In the postclassical period it was used metaphorically for ‘analyse the rising and falling rhythm of poetry’, and it was in this sense that it passed into English as scan. It was broadened out semantically to ‘examine’ in the 16th century, and to ‘look at widely’ in the 18th century. The Latin past participle scansus formed the basis of the noun scansiō, from which English gets scansion [17].
=> ascend, descend, scandal
scandal: scandal: [16] Greek skándalon originally meant literally ‘trap’ (it came from prehistoric Indo- European *skand- ‘jump’, which also produced Latin scandere ‘climb’, source of English ascend, descend, and scan). It was extended metaphorically to ‘snare for the unwary, stumbling block’, and passed into late Latin as scandalum, which was used for ‘cause of offence’. It came down to Old French as escandle, which was not only the source of a short-lived Middle English scandle, but also lies behind English slander. It was the later French form scandale that gave English scandal.
=> ascend, descend, scan, slander
scapegoat: scapegoat: [16] In biblical times the ritual of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, included a ceremony involving two goats: one was sacrificed to God, and the other was sent off into the wilderness as the symbolic bearer of the people’s sins. This second goat was termed ‘azāzēl. That appears to have been a proper name, said in Jewish tradition to be that of a demon to whom the goat was sent, and may be linked with Aziz, the name of a Canaanite god.

Later commentators, however, interpreted it as equivalent to Hebrew ‘ēz ōzēl, which means ‘goat that departs’. In the Latin of the Vulgate, that was rendered as caper emissarius (whence the French expression bouc émissaire, literally ‘goat sent forth’), and William Tindale, in his 1530 translation of the Bible, expressed it as scapegoat (the first part, scape, is a shortened form of escape).

The modern metaphorical application to someone who takes the blame for others’ faults dates from the early 19th century.
scarce: scarce: [13] Scarce comes via Anglo-Norman scars, earlier escars, from Vulgar Latin *excarpsus ‘picked out’, hence ‘rare’. This was the past participle of *excarpere, an alteration of classical Latin excerpere ‘picked out. select’ (source of English excerpt [17]). And excerpere was a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and carpere ‘pluck’ (source of English carpet and related to harvest).
=> carpet, excerpt, harvest
scarf: scarf: English has two words scarf. The older, but now less frequent, is ‘joint between two pieces of wood’ [14]. This may have been borrowed from an Old French *escarf, which itself was possibly based ultimately on a Scandinavian source (Swedish has skarf ‘joint between pieces of wood’). The scarf that is worn [16] comes from Old Northern French escarpe. This was equivalent to central Old French escarpe, escherpe, which originally denoted a ‘pilgrim’s bag hung round the neck’. It came via a Frankish *skirpja from Latin scirpea ‘basket made from rushes’, a derivative of scirpus ‘rush’.
scarlet: scarlet: [13] Scarlet originally denoted a sumptuous sort of cloth, which came in various colours, not just red. Red was evidently the commonest colour, however, for by the 15th century we find the word scarlet being used for ‘red’. It was borrowed from Old French escarlate, but where that came from is not known (some have derived it from Persian saqalāt ‘rich cloth’, but this has not been conclusively established).