early 15c., "action of carrying, transportation," said to be from Old French portage and directly from Medieval Latin portaticum, though the meaning of these was "tax paid on entering a town," from Latin portare "to carry" (from PIE root *per- (2) "to lead, pass over"). The sense of "a break in a chain of water-communication over which goods, boats, etc. must be carried," also "the carrying of boats from one navigable water to another" is from 1690s, reinforced in U.S. and Canada by Canadian French.
The compound is cognate with Old English Æþelbeorht (which sometimes was metathesized as Æþelbriht, hence the surname Albright). As a kind of watch chain, from 1861 (see Prince Albert).
1846, introduced by William Hamilton for "doctrine of the necessitarian philosophers" (who hold that human action is not free but necessarily determined by motives, regarded as external forces acting on the will or character of the person). See determine + -ism.
Determinism does not imply materialism, atheism, or a denial of moral responsibility; while it is in direct opposition to fatalism and to the doctrine of the freedom of the will. [Century Dictionary]
From 1876 in general sense of "doctrine that everything happens is determined by a necessary chain of causation," from French déterminisme, from German Determinismus, perhaps a back-formation from Praedeterminismus.
late 14c., constreinte, "distress, oppression," a sense now obsolete, from Old French constreinte "binding, constraint, compulsion" (Modern French contrainte), fem. noun from constreint, past participle of constreindre, from Vulgar Latin *constrinctus, from Latin constrictus, past participle of constringere "to bind together, tie tightly, fetter, shackle, chain," from assimilated form of com "with, together" (see con-) + stringere "to draw tight" (see strain (v.)).
Meaning "coercion, compulsion, irresistible force or its effect to restrict or compel" is from 1530s. Especially "repression of emotion or of the expression of one's thoughts or feelings" (1706).
Sense extended to material for working with in various trades (c. 1400), then "matter of an unspecified kind" (1570s). Meaning "narcotic, dope, drug" is attested from 1929. To know (one's) stuff "have a grasp on a subject" is recorded from 1927.
chain of mountains between France and Spain, 1550s, from French Pyrénées, from Latin Pyrenæi montes, from Greek Pyrēnē, name of a daughter of Bebryx/Bebrycius who was beloved of Herakles; she is said to be buried in these mountains (or that the mountains are the tomb Herakles reared over her corpse).
The name is said to mean literally "fruit-stone," but Room says it might be Greek pyr "fire" + eneos "dumb, speechless," which perhaps translates or folk-etymologizes a Celtic goddess name. "In medieval times there was no overall name for the range and local people would have known only the names of individual mountains and valleys" [Adrian Room, "Place Names of the World," 2nd ed., 2006]. Related: Pyrenean.
"the abiding place of poetry, the home of the poets," late 14c., Parnaso, from Italian, from Latin Parnassus, from Greek Parnassos, Parnasos, mountain chain in central Greece, sacred to Apollo and the Muses, thus symbolic of poetry. Ancient sources say the older name was Larnassos; Beekes hints at a Pre-Greek origin. Related: Parnassian.
Various kinds of literary fame seem destined to various measures of duration. Some spread into exuberance with a very speedy growth, but soon wither and decay; some rise more slowly, but last long. Parnassus has its flowers of transient fragrance, as well as its oaks of towering height, and its laurels of eternal verdure. [Samuel Johnson, "The Rambler," March 23, 1751]
Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to line up."
It forms all or part of: assert; assertion; assort; consort; desert (v.) "to leave one's duty;" desertion; dissertation; ensorcell; exert; exsert; insert; seriatim; seriation; series; sermon; serried; sorcerer; sorcery; sort.
It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit sarat- "thread;" Greek eirein "to fasten together in rows;" Latin serere "to join, link, bind together," series "row, chain, series, sequence, succession;" Gothic sarwa (plural) "armor, arms;" Old Norse sörve "necklace of stringed pearls;" Old Irish sernaid "he joins together;" Welsh ystret "a row."
The Greek name traditionally is interpreted as "The Bearer (of the Heavens)," from a-, copulative prefix (see a- (3)), + stem of tlenai "to bear," from PIE root *tele- "to lift, support, weigh." But Beekes compares Berber adrar "mountain" and finds it plausible that the Greek name is a "folk-etymological reshaping" of this. Mount Atlas, in Mauritania, was important in Greek cosmology as a support of the heavens.
