- maverick
[maverick 词源字典] - maverick: [19] Originally, in the American West, a maverick was an unbranded calf that had become separated from its mother and its herd (by convention, any farmer or stockman who came upon such a calf could add it to his herd and brand it as his own). The name probably comes from Samuel Augustus Maverick (1803– 70), a Texas cattle-owner (and ancestor of the Maury Maverick who coined the word gobbledegook) who did not brand the calves of one of his herds. The familiar modern metaphorical application to an awkwardly independent-minded person was in place before the end of the 19th century.
[maverick etymology, maverick origin, 英语词源] - awkward (adj.)
- mid-14c., "in the wrong direction," from awk "back-handed" + adverbial suffix -weard (see -ward). Meaning "clumsy" first recorded 1520s. Related: Awkwardly. Other formations from awk, none of them surviving, were awky, awkly, awkness.
- flounder (v.)
- "struggle awkwardly and impotently," especially when hampered somehow, 1590s, of uncertain origin, perhaps an alteration of founder (q.v.), influenced by Dutch flodderen "to flop about," or native verbs in fl- expressing clumsy motion. Figurative use is from 1680s. Related: Floundered; floundering. As a noun, "act of struggling," by 1867.
- fumble (v.)
- mid-15c., "handle clumsily," possibly from Old Norse falma "to fumble, grope." Similar words in Scandinavian and North Sea Germanic (Swedish fumla; Dutch fommelen) suggest onomatopoeia from a sound felt to indicate clumsiness (compare bumble, stumble, and obsolete English famble, fimble of roughly the same meaning). Intransitive sense "do or seek awkwardly" is from 1530s. Sense in football is from 1889. Related: Fumbled; fumbling.
- glom (v.)
- 1907, glahm "grab, snatch, steal," American English underworld slang, from Scottish glaum (1715), apparently from Gaelic glam "to handle awkwardly, grab voraciously, devour." Sense of "look at, watch" (1945) apparently is derived from the same source. Related: Glommed; glomming.
- lanky (adj.)
- 1630s, "straight and flat," used of hair, from lank + -y (2); sense of "awkwardly tall and thin" is first recorded 1818. Related: Lankiness.
- patois (n.)
- "a provincial dialect," 1640s, from French patois "native or local speech" (13c.), of uncertain origin, probably from Old French patoier "handle clumsily, to paw," from pate "a paw," from Vulgar Latin *patta (see patten), from notion of clumsy manner of speaking. Compare French pataud "properly, a young dog with big paws, then an awkwardly built fellow" [Brachet]. Especially in reference to Jamaican English from 1934.
- shamble (v.)
- "to walk with a shuffling gait, walk awkwardly and unsteadily," 1680s, from an adjective meaning "ungainly, awkward" (c. 1600), from shamble (n.) "table, bench" (see shambles), perhaps on the notion of the splayed legs of bench, or the way a worker sits astride it. Compare French bancal "bow-legged, wobbly" (of furniture), properly "bench-legged," from banc "bench." The noun meaning "a shambling gait" is from 1828. Related: Shambled; shambling.
- slattern (n.)
- 1630s, "a woman negligent or disordered in her dress or household," of uncertain origin, probably related to Low German Slattje, Dutch slodder, dialectal Swedish slata "slut" (in the older, non-sexual sense; compare slut). Compare dialectal English verb slatter "to spill or splash awkwardly, to waste," used of women or girls considered untidy or slovenly.
- splay (v.)
- early 14c., "unfold, unfurl;" c. 1400, "to spread out," shortened form of desplayen (see display (v.)). Meaning "to spread out awkwardly" is from 1848. Past participle adjective splayed "spread out" is attested from 1540s.
