arch | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

91 entries found.

1640s, "that which borders on something else, the part abutting on or against," from abut (v.) + -ment. Originally any junction; the architectural usage, "solid structure where one arch of a bridge, etc., meets another" is attested from 1793 (the notion is of the meeting-place of the arches of a bridge, etc.).

toxoplasmosis (n.)

disease caused by infection of the common protozoan eukaryote Toxoplasma gondii (found in cat feces, contaminated food, etc.), by 1951, with -osis + toxoplasma (1913), coined 1909 in French from Greek toxon "bow, arch," in reference to the organism's lunate shape (see toxic), + plasma (see plasma).

instep (n.)

"arch of the foot," mid-15c., apparently from in + step, "though this hardly makes sense" [Weekley]. An Old English word for "instep" was fotwelm. Middle English had also a verb instep "to track, trace" (c. 1400). Old English instæpe (n.) meant "an entrance."

spandrel (n.)

"triangular space between the outer curve of an arch and the molding enclosing it," late 15c., apparently a diminutive of Anglo-French spaundre (late 14c.), which is of uncertain origin, perhaps a shortening of Old French espandre "to expand, extend, spread," from Latin expandre "to spread out, unfold, expand," from ex "out" (see ex-) + pandere "to spread, stretch" (from nasalized form of PIE root *pete- "to spread").

keystone (n.)

"stone in the middle of an arch (typically the uppermost stone), which holds up the others," 1630s, earlier simply key (1520s), from key (n.1) in figurative sense of "that which holds together other parts," or from its Middle English architectural sense "projecting ornament of at the intersections of ribs of vaulted or flat ceilings" (mid-14c.). Being the last put in, it is regarded as "keying," or locking together, the whole structure.

Figurative sense "chief element of a system" is from 1640s. Pennsylvania was called the Keystone State because of its position (geographical and political) in the original American confederation, occupying the middle (7th) place in the "arch" of states along the Atlantic, between eastern states and southern ones. Keystone cops were the bumbling police in the slapstick silent movies produced by Keystone Studios, formed in 1912 in Edendale, Calif., by Canadian-born U.S. film director Mack Sennett (1884-1960).

arc (n.)

late 14c., "part of a curved line," originally in reference to the sun's apparent motion across the sky, from Old French arc "bow, arch, vault" (12c.), from Latin arcus "a bow, arch," from Proto-Italic *arkwo- "bow."

This has Germanic cognates in Gothic arhvazna, Old English earh, Old Norse ör "arrow," from Proto-Germanic *arkw-o- "belonging to a bow." It also has cognates in Greek arkeuthos, Latvian ercis "juniper," Russian rakita, Czech rokyta, Serbo-Croatian rakita "brittle willow." De Vaan sees an Italo-Germanic word for "bow" which can be connected with Balto-Slavic and Greek words for "willow" and "juniper" "under the well-founded assumption that the flexible twigs of juniper or willow were used as bows." The Balto-Slavic and Greek forms point to *arku-; "as with many plant names, this is likely to be a non-IE loanword." Electrical sense is from 1821.

weeping (adj.)

late Old English, present-participle adjective from weep (v.). Used of various trees whose branches arch downward and suggest drooping, such as weeping elm (c. 1600); weeping cherry (1824). Weeping willow (French saule pleureur, German trauerweide) is recorded from 1731. The tree is native to Asia; the first brought to England were imported 1748, from the Euphrates. It replaced the cypress as a funerary emblem.

vault (n.1)

"arched roof or ceiling," c. 1300, vaute, from Old French voute "arch, vaulting, vaulted roof or chamber," from Vulgar Latin *volta, contraction of *volvita, noun use of fem. of *volvitus, alteration of Latin volutus "bowed, arched," past participle of volvere "to turn, turn around, roll," from PIE root *wel- (3) "to turn, revolve." The -l- appeared in English c. 1400, an etymological insertion in imitation of earlier forms (compare fault (n.), assault (n.)).

fingerprint (n.)

also finger-print, 1834, from finger (n.) + print (n.). Attempts to classify fingerprint types as a means of identification began in the 1820s; the current arch-loop-whorl system was introduced by Francis Galton in 1892. Admissibility as evidence as valid proof of guilt in murder trials in U.S. was upheld in 1912. From 1900 as a verb. Related: Fingerprinted; fingerprinting.

fornicate (v.)

1550s, "have illicit sexual intercourse" (said of an unmarried person), from Late Latin fornicatus, past participle of fornicari "to fornicate," from Latin fornix (genitive fornicis) "brothel" (Juvenal, Horace), originally "arch, vaulted chamber, a vaulted opening, a covered way," probably an extension, based on appearance, from a source akin to fornus "brick oven of arched or domed shape" (from PIE root *gwher- "to heat, warm"). Perhaps in some cases a back-formation from fornication. Related: Fornicated; fornicating.

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