- endorse
[endorse 词源字典] - endorse: [16] To endorse something is literally to write ‘on the back’ of it. The word comes from medieval Latin indorsāre, a compound verb formed from the prefix in- ‘in’ and dorsum ‘back’ (source of English dorsal, doss, and dossier). (An earlier English version of the word was endoss [14], acquired via Old French endosser, which died out in the 17th century.)
=> dorsal, doss, dossier[endorse etymology, endorse origin, 英语词源] - endorse (v.)
- c. 1400, endosse "confirm or approve" (a charter, bill, etc.), originally by signing or writing on the back of the document, from Old French endosser (12c.), literally "to put on the back," from en- "put on" (see en- (1)) + dos "back," from Latin dossum, variant of dorsum "back" (see dorsal). Assimilated 16c. in form to Medieval Latin indorsare. Figurative sense of "confirm, approve" is recorded in English first in 1847. Related: Endorsed; endorsing.
You can endorse, literally, a cheque or other papers, &, metaphorically, a claim or argument, but to talk of endorsing material things other than papers is a solecism. [Fowler]
