- stamina
[stamina 词源字典] - stamina: [17] Etymologically, stamina is the plural of stamen ‘male reproductive part of a flower’ [17]. The ultimate source of both is Latin stāmen ‘thread of woven cloth’, which went back to Indo-European *stāmen-, a derivative of the base *stā- ‘stand’ (source also of English stand). The application to the plant-part appears to go back to the Roman naturalist Pliny, who used stāmen for the stamens of a sort of lily, which resembled threads of cloth. The Latin plural stāmina was borrowed into English in the metaphorical sense ‘threads of human life, vital capacities’, and by the 18th century it had broadened out to ‘vigour’.
=> stamen, stand[stamina etymology, stamina origin, 英语词源] - stammer
- stammer: [OE] To stammer is etymologically to be ‘impeded’ in speech. The word comes (along with Dutch stameren) from a prehistoric West Germanic *stamrōjan, which was derived from the base *stam-, *stum- ‘check, impede’ (source also of English stem ‘halt, check’ and stumble).
=> stem, stumble - stamp
- stamp: [12] Stamp originally meant ‘crush into small pieces, pound’. The sense ‘slam the foot down’ did not emerge until the 14th century, and ‘imprint with a design by pressure’ (which forms the semantic basis of postage stamp [19]) is as recent as the 16th century. The word comes, probably via an unrecorded Old English *stampian, from prehistoric Germanic *stampōjan (source also of German stampfen, Dutch stampen, Swedish stampa, and Danish stampe).
This was derived from the noun *stampaz ‘pestle’, which was formed from the base *stamp- (a non-nasalized version of which, *stap-, lies behind English step). The Germanic verb was borrowed into Vulgar Latin as *stampīre, whose past participle has given English, via Mexican Spanish, stampede [19].
=> stampede, step - stance
- stance: see stanza
- stand
- stand: [OE] Stand goes back ultimately to the prehistoric Indo-European base *stā- ‘stand’. This passed into Germanic as *sta-, *stō-. Addition of the suffix *-nd- produced *standan, source of English stand, while past forms were created with the suffix *-t-, which has given English stood. Another descendant of the Indo- European base was Latin stāre ‘stand’, a prolific source of English words (among them stage, stanza, state, station, statue, etc).
=> stable, stage, stall, stamina, stanza, state, static, station, statue, steed, stool, stud, system - standard
- standard: Standard ‘flag, banner’ [12] denotes etymologically something that is ‘extended’ or unfurled. The word comes from Anglo-Norman estaundart ‘flag displayed on a battlefield so that troops can rally to it’. This was a derivative of Old French estendre ‘extend’ (first cousin of English extend). The sense ‘criterion, norm’, which emerged in the 15th century, is probably a metaphorical application of the notion of the ‘royal standard’ or banner as being the point from which authoritative commands (as of standards of weight and measurement) are issued. Standard ‘upright object, such as a tree’ [13] is probably an alteration of stander.
=> extend; stand - stanza
- stanza: [16] Etymologically, a stanza is a place where one ‘stands’ or stops. The word was borrowed from Italian stanza, a descendant of Vulgar Latin *stantia ‘standing, stopping-place’, which in turn was derived from the present participle of Latin stāre ‘stand’ (source of English stage, state, station, etc). Its application to a ‘verse of poetry’ arose in Italian from the notion of ‘stopping’ at the end of a section. Stanza was borrowed into French as stance, from which English gets stance [16].
=> stance, stand, state, station - staple
- staple: English has two distinct words staple, but they come from a common ancestor – prehistoric Germanic *stapulaz ‘pillar’. This evolved into English staple [OE], which at first retained its ancestral meaning ‘post, pillar’. The modern sense ‘U-shaped metal bar’ did not emerge until the end of the 13th century, and the details of its development from ‘pillar’ are obscure.
The Middle Low German and Middle Dutch descendant of *stapulaz was stapel, which had the additional meaning ‘market, shop’ (presumably from the notion of a stall situated behind the ‘pillars’ of an arcade). This was borrowed into Old French as estaple, which in turn gave English staple ‘market’ [15], hence ‘principal commercial commodity’.
- star
- star: [OE] Star is a general Germanic word, with relatives in German stern, Dutch ster, Swedish stjärna, and Danish stjerne. These were all descended from a prehistoric Germanic base *ster-, which had come down unaltered from Indo-European *ster- ‘star’, source also of Latin stēlla ‘star’ (from which English gets stellar [16]) and Greek astér ‘star’ (from which English gets asterisk, astronomy, disaster, etc).
The ultimate source of the Indo-European base is not known for certain, but the traditional view is that it comes from the base *ster- ‘spread out’, the underlying notion being of the stars ‘spread out’ in the sky. Sterling ‘British money’ was originally named from the design of a small ‘star’ on a coin, but starling is not etymologically related. The modern sense of star, ‘leading performer’, is first recorded in the early 19th century.
=> asterisk, astronomy, disaster, stellar, sterling - starboard
- starboard: [OE] Starboard is etymologically ‘steer-board’. The word originated as an Old English compound formed from stēor ‘paddle, rudder’ (a relative of the verb steer) and bord ‘board’. The early Germanic peoples propelled and steered their boats by means of a paddle on the right-hand side of the vessel – hence the use of starboard as the nautical equivalent of right.
=> steer - stare
- stare: [OE] The etymological notion underlying stare is of ‘fixity’ or ‘rigidity’. It goes back ultimately to the prehistoric Germanic base *star-, *ster- ‘be rigid’, which also produced English starch [15], stark [OE], starve (originally ‘be stiff’, hence ‘die’), stern ‘severe’, and stork (etymologically the ‘stiff’-legged bird). Thus to stare is to ‘look fixedly’. (Greek stereós ‘solid’, source of English stereo, came from the same Indo-European base as produced *ster-.)
=> starch, stark, starve, stereo, stern, stork - starling
- starling: [OE] Starling is a diminutive form. The original Old English name of the bird was stær, which together with German star, Swedish stare, and Danish stær goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *staraz. This was related to Latin sturnus ‘starling’.
- start
- start: [OE] Start originally meant ‘jump, leap, caper’ (‘Him lust not [he did not like] to play nor start, nor to dance, nor to sing’, Chaucer, Romance of the Rose 1366). This gradually evolved via ‘make a sudden movement’ to ‘begin a journey’, but it did not emerge as a fully-fledged synonym for ‘begin’ until the end of the 18th century. Startle [OE], which came from the same Germanic base *start-, has kept more closely to the notion of ‘sudden movement’.
=> startle - starve
- starve: [OE] Starve means etymologically ‘be stiff’ – it goes back to a prehistoric Germanic base *star-, *ster- ‘be stiff’, which also produced English starch, stare, etc. The ‘stiffness’ of a corpse led to its use for ‘die’ – a meaning which it retains in the related German sterben and Dutch sterven. In English, however, from the 12th century onwards, starve gradually narrowed down in meaning to ‘dying from cold’ (which survived into the modern era in northern dialects) and ‘dying from hunger’.
=> starch, stare, stork - state
- state: [13] State comes, partly via Old French estat (source of English estate), from Latin status ‘way of standing, condition, position’, which was formed from the same base as stāre ‘stand’ (a distant relative of English stand). The word’s political sense, ‘body politic’, first recorded in the 16th century, comes from Latin expressions such as status rei publicae ‘condition of the republic’ and status civitatis ‘condition of the body politic’.
The verb state originally meant ‘put, place’; its modern meaning ‘declare’ arose from the notion of ‘placing’ something on record, setting it out in detail. English borrowed status itself in the 17th century.
=> estate, stand, station, statistic, statue; statute - static
- static: [17] Static means etymologically ‘causing to stand’. Its ultimate ancestor is Greek statós ‘placed, standing’, a derivative of the base *sta- ‘stand’ (to which English stand is related). From this was derived statikós ‘causing to stand’, which passed into English via Latin staticus.
=> stand - station
- station: [14] A station is etymologically a ‘standing’, hence a ‘place for standing’ – a guard who takes up his ‘station’ outside a building goes and ‘stands’ there. The word comes via Old French station from Latin statiō ‘standing’, a descendant of the base *stā- ‘stand’ (to which English stand is related). Various metaphorical senses emerged in Latin, such as ‘post, job’ and ‘abode, residence’, but ‘stopping place for vehicles’ is a post-Latin development.
It came out of an earlier ‘stopping place on a journey’, and is first recorded in English at the end of the 18th century, in the USA, with reference to coach routes. The application to ‘railway stations’ dates from the 1830s. The notion of ‘standing still’ is preserved in the derived adjective stationary [15].
=> constant, instant, stand, state, stationary, stationery, statue - stationer
- stationer: [15] In medieval Latin a statiōnārius was originally a ‘trader who kept a permanent stall’ (as opposed to an itinerant seller). The word was derived from Latin statiō ‘standing, keeping still’ (source of English station), which in the post-classical meaning evolved in meaning to ‘shop’. Such permanent shops were comparatively rare in the Middle Ages.
Of those that did exist, the commonest were bookshops, licensed by the universities, and so when English adopted the Latin term, it was used in the sense ‘bookseller’. It has since come down in the world somewhat to ‘seller of paper, pens, etc’ (a sense first recorded in the mid 17th century), but the earlier application is preserved in the name of the Stationers’ Company, a London livery company to which booksellers and publishers belong.
The derivative stationery dates from the 18th century.
=> station - statistic
- statistic: [18] The term statistics [18] etymologically denotes the ‘science of the state’. It comes from statisticus ‘of state affairs’, a modern Latin coinage based on classical Latin status (source of English state). It was the 18thcentury German political scientist Aschenwall who brought it (in German statistisch) into general usage, in the specific sense ‘of the collection and evaluation of data (particularly numerical data) relating to the study of the state and its functions and institutions’. By the 1830s it had broadened out into its modern general sense. English acquired the word from German.
=> state - statue
- statue: [14] A statue is etymologically something that has been ‘set up’ or ‘erected’. The word comes via Old French statue from Latin statua, a derivative of statuere ‘cause to stand, erect, establish’ (source of English constitute, destitute [14], institute, prostitute, restitution [13], statute [13], and substitute [16]).
This in turn was formed from status (source of English state and status), the past participle of Latin stāre ‘stand’ (source of English contrast [16], cost, stage, station, stay, etc). And stāre came ultimately from the Indo-European base *stā- ‘stand’, which is also the ancestor of English stable, stand, stead, stem, etc.
Amongst the host of other English words that come from the prolific Latin stāre are (via its present participle stāns) circumstance [13], constant, distant, instant, stance, stanza, substance, etc, and (via the derivative sistere ‘stand’) assist, consist, desist [15], exist, insist [16], persist [16], and resist [14].
=> assist, circumstance, consist, constant, contrast, cost, desist, destitute, distant, estate, exist, insist, instant, institute, persist, prostitute, resist, restitution, stable, stance, stand, stanza, state, station, statistic, status, statute, stay, stead, stem, stoic, substance, substitute
