英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

selfie (n.)[selfie 词源字典]: "photograph taken by pointing the camera at oneself," by 2005, said to be in use by 2002, from self + -ie.[selfie etymology, selfie origin, 英语词源]
selfish (adj.): 1630s, from self- + -ish. Said in Hacket's life of Archbishop Williams (1693) to have been coined by Presbyterians. In the 17c., synonyms included self-seeking (1620s), self-ended and self-ful.
Let us understand what our own selfish genes are up to, because we may then at least have the chance to upset their designs. [Richard Dawkins, "The Selfish Gene," 1976]
Related: Selfishly; selfishness. Similar formations in German selbstisch, Swedish sjelfvisk, Danish selvisk.
selfless (adj.): "devoted to others' welfare or interest and not one's own," 1825, from self + -less. First attested in Coleridge. Related: Selflessly; selflessness.
selfsame: "identical," early 15c., from self + same. Written as two words until c. 1600.
Selina: fem. proper name, nativized form of French Céline, from Latin caelina "heavenly," from caelum (see celestial).
Seljuk: Turkish dynasty of 11c.-13c., c. 1600 (Selzuccian), from Turkish seljuq, name of reputed ancestor of the dynasty.
sell (v.): Old English sellan "to give, furnish, supply, lend; surrender, give up; deliver to; promise," from Proto-Germanic *saljan "offer up, deliver" (cognates: Old Norse selja "to hand over, deliver, sell;" Old Frisian sella, Old High German sellen "to give, hand over, sell;" Gothic saljan "to offer a sacrifice"), ultimately from PIE root *sel- (3) "to take, grasp."

Meaning "to give up for money" had emerged by c. 1000, but in Chaucer selle still can mean "to give." Students of Old English learn early that the word that looks like sell usually means "give." An Old English word for "to sell" was bebycgan, from bycgan "to buy."

Slang meaning "to swindle" is from 1590s. The noun phrase hard sell is recorded from 1952. To sell one's soul is from c. 1570. Sell-by date is from 1972. To sell like hot cakes is from 1839. Selling-point attested from 1959.

To sell (someone) down the river figuratively is by 1927, probably from or with recollection of slavery days, on notion of sale from the Upper South to the cotton plantations of the Deep South (attested in this literal sense since 1851).
seller (n.): c. 1200, agent noun from sell (v.).
Sellotape (n.): 1949, proprietary name, Great Britain.
sellout (n.): also sell-out, "corrupt bargain," 1862 (in Mary Chesnut's diary), from the verbal phrase (at that time often meaning "dispose of one's interests" in a company, etc.), from sell (v.) + out (adv.). Meaning "event for which all tickets have been sold" is attested from 1923. The verbal phrase sell out "prostitute one's ideals or talents" is attested from 1888.
seltzer: 1741, from German Selterser (Wasser), a kind of mineral water, literally "of Selters," village near Weisbaden in Hesse-Nassau, where the mineral water is found.
selvage (n.): mid-15c., "edge of web or cloth so finished as to prevent raveling," apparently literally "its own edge," a corruption of self + edge (n.); on analogy of Middle Flemish selvegge (compare also Low German sulfegge; Dutch zelfkant, from kant "border;" Middle High German selbende, German Selbend, literally "self-end").
semantic (adj.): 1894, from French sémantique, applied by Michel Bréal (1883) to the psychology of language, from Greek semantikos "significant," from semainein "to show by sign, signify, point out, indicate by a sign," from sema "sign, mark, token; omen, portent; constellation; grave" (Doric sama), from PIE root *dheie- "to see, look" (cognates: Sanskrit dhyati "he meditates;" see zen).
semantics (n.): "science of meaning in language," 1893, from French sémantique (1883); see semantic (also see -ics). Replaced semasiology (1847), from German Semasiologie (1829), from Greek semasia "signification, meaning."
semaphore (n.): "apparatus for signaling," 1816, probably via French sémaphore, literally "a bearer of signals," ultimately from Greek sema "sign, signal" (see semantic) + phoros "bearer," from pherein "to carry" (see infer). Related: Semaphoric (1808).
sematic (adj.): "significant, indicative," 1890, from Greek semat-, comb. form of sema (genitive sematos) "sign" (see semantic) + -ic. Used especially in biology, in reference to "warning" colors, etc.
semblable (adj.): "resembling," late 14c., from Old French semblable (12c.), from sembler "to be like" (see semblance).
semblance (n.): c. 1300, "fact of appearing to view," from Old French semblance, from semblant "likeness, appearance," present participle of sembler "to seem, appear," from Latin simulare "to resemble, imitate," from similis "like" (see similar (adj.)). Meaning "person's appearance or demeanor" is attested from c. 1400; that of "false, assumed or deceiving appearance" is from 1590s. Meaning "person or thing that resembles another" is attested from 1510s.
seme (n.): in linguistics, 1866, from Greek sema "sign" (see semantic). Compare pheme, etc.
seme (adj.): "covered with a small, constantly repeating pattern," 1560s, from Middle French semée "strewn, sprinkled," past participle of semer, from Latin seminare "to sow," from semen (genitive seminis) "seed" (see semen).