- vermilion
[vermilion 词源字典] - vermilion: [13] Etymologically, vermilion is ‘worm’-coloured. The word comes from Old French vermeillon, a derivative of vermeil ‘vermilion’. This in turn came from Latin vermiculus ‘little worm’, a diminutive form of vermis ‘worm’ (source of English vermicelli, vermin, etc and related to English worm). The link between ‘worms’ and ‘red’ is that in the post-classical period, Latin vermiculus was used for the ‘kermes’, a sort of scale insect from which red dye was obtained.
=> vermin[vermilion etymology, vermilion origin, 英语词源] - vermin
- vermin: [13] Vermin comes via Old French vermin from Vulgar Latin *vermīnum ‘noxious animals’, a derivative of Latin vermis ‘worm’. This came ultimately from Indo-European *wrmi-, which also produced English worm, and among the other contributions it has made to English are vermicelli [17] (from an Italian diminutive meaning ‘little worms’), vermicular [17], vermiculite [19] (so called because when heated it produces wormlike projections), vermifuge [17], and vermilion.
=> vermicelli, vermilion, worm - vermouth
- vermouth: [19] Vermouth gets its name from its being originally flavoured with wormwood, a bitter-tasting plant. The German term for the plant, and the drink, is wermut, a word of unknown origin, and this passed into English via French vermout. (The corresponding Old English name for the plant, incidentally, was wermōd, and this was later altered to wormwood from the use of the plant as a cure for intestinal worms.)
- verse
- verse: [OE] Verse is one of a large family of English words that come ultimately from the Latin verb vertere or its past participial stem vers-. Others include versatile [17], version [16], versus [15], vertebra, vertical, and vertigo, as well as prefixed forms such as controversy [14], conversation, convert, diverse, invert [16], pervert [14], and reverse [14].
Latin vertere itself came from the Indo-European base *wert-, which also produced English weird and the suffix -ward. Verse was borrowed from the Latin derivative versus ‘turning, turning of the plough’, hence ‘furrow’, and by further metaphorical extension ‘line, line of poetry’.
=> controversy, conversation, convert, diverse, invert, pervert, reverse, subvert, versatile, version, versus, vertebra, vertical, vertigo, weird - vertebra
- vertebra: [17] A vertebra is etymologically a bony pivot, a bone on which other bones ‘turn’. The word’s Latin source, vertebra, was derived from the verb vertere ‘turn’ (source also of English verse, version, etc).
=> verse - vertical
- vertical: [16] Latin vertex originally meant ‘whirl’ (it was derived from vertere ‘turn’, source also of English verse, version, etc, and was itself borrowed into English in the 16th century). It came to be applied metaphorically to the ‘spiral of hair on top of the head’, and was then extended further to ‘highest point’. From it was derived late Latin verticālis, which passed into English via French vertical.
It originally denoted ‘of the highest point in the sky, the zenith’, and since this is directly overhead, by the 18th century vertical had come to be used for ‘perpendicular’. Also from vertere came Latin vertīgō ‘whirling’, borrowed into English as vertigo ‘dizziness’ [16].
=> verse - verve
- verve: see verb
- very
- very: [13] Latin vērus meant ‘true’ (it came ultimately from Indo-European *wēros, source also of German wahr ‘true’, and it has also given English verdict, verify [14], verisimilitude [17], and veritable [15]). From it was derived Vulgar Latin *vērāius, which passed into English via Old French verai. Very was originally exclusively an adjective, meaning ‘true’. It was not used as an adverb, meaning ‘truly’, until the 14th century, and its modern role as an intensifier did not begin to emerge until the 15th century.
=> verdict, verify - vespers
- vespers: [17] Latin vesper meant ‘evening’, and like Greek hésperos it went back ultimately to Indo-European *wespero-. This was formed from a base *we- which denoted ‘down’ and also produced English west, so etymologically vesper signified ‘time when the sun goes down’. (Russian vecher ‘evening’ comes from another version of the same base.) English vespers itself goes back via Old French vespres to the plural of the variant Latin form vespera.
=> west - vessel
- vessel: [13] Latin vascellum meant ‘small dish or utensil’. It was a diminutive form of vas ‘dish, vessel’ (source of English vase). It passed into English via Old French vaissel and Anglo- Norman vessel, on the way acquiring the additional meaning ‘ship’.
=> vase - vest
- vest: [17] Vest was originally used fairly generally for a ‘robe’ or ‘gown’. Its earliest specific application was to a ‘sleeveless jacket worn under an outer coat’. It was Charles II of England who introduced the fashion, and the first reference to vest in this sense is in Samuel Pepy’s diary for 8 October 1666: ‘The King hath yesterday, in Council, declared his resolution for setting a fashion in clothes … It will be a vest, I know not well how; but it is to teach the nobility thrift’.
The direct descendant of this is American English vest for ‘waist-coat’. The British application of the word to an undergarment for the upper part of the body did not emerge until the 19th century. The word came via French veste and Italian veste from Latin vestis ‘clothing, garment’. This went back to the Indo- European base *wes-, which also produced English wear.
The derived Latin verb vestīre originally meant ‘clothe’, and hence ‘induct into an office by dressing in the appropriate garments’. It has given English its verb vest [15], as well as divest [17] and invest. Other English words from the same source include travesty, vestment [13], vestry [14], and vesture [14].
=> divest, invest, travesty, vestry, wear - vestige
- vestige: [17] Vestige comes via French vestige from Latin vestīgium ‘footprint, trace’, a word of uncertain origin. From it was derived vestīgāre ‘track, trace’, which has given English investigate.
=> investigate - vestment
- vestment: see vest
- vestry
- vestry: see vest
- vet
- vet: [19] Vet is short for veterinary surgeon. As a verb, it was originally used (in the 1890s) for ‘examine an animal medically’, but before the end of the 19th century this had broadened out to ‘investigate, screen’. Veterinary [18] itself came from Latin veterīnārius, a derivative of veterīnus ‘of cattle and similar domestic animals’.
- veteran
- veteran: [16] Veteran comes via French vétéran from Latin veterānus ‘old’. This was a derivative of vetus ‘old’, which is the ancestor of French vieux, Italian vecchio, and Spanish viejo. It went back ultimately to Indo-European *wetus- (source also of Latvian vecs ‘old’). This may be related to Greek étos ‘year’, in which case ‘old’ could derive from an ancestral meaning ‘full of years’.
- veto
- veto: [17] Latin vetō meant ‘I forbid’ (it was the first person present singular of vetāre ‘forbid’, a verb of uncertain origin which may be related to Welsh gwadu ‘deny’). It was used in the Roman senate by tribunes of the people as a formula for objecting to proposals, and it was originally introduced into English as part of the terminology of parliamentary procedure.
- vex
- vex: see vehicle
- via
- via: see voyage
- viable
- viable: see vital
