make-work | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

36 entries found.

c. 1600, "get along, succeed," from make (v.) + out (adv.). Sense of "obtain a clear understanding of" is from 1640s; that of "discern or discover visually" is by 1754; sense of "have sexual relations with" is attested by 1939.

hors d'oeuvre

1714, as an adverb, "out of the ordinary," from French hors d'oeuvre, "outside the ordinary courses (of a meal)," literally "apart from the main work," from hors, variant of fors "outside" (from Latin foris; see foreign) + de "from" + oeuvre "work," from Latin opera (from PIE root *op- "to work, produce in abundance"). Meaning "extra dish set out before a meal or between courses" attested in English from 1742.

hand job (n.)

1940s, from hand (n.) + job (n.) "piece of work."

curriculum vitae (n.)

"brief account of one's life and work," 1902, Latin, literally "course of one's life" (see curriculum + vital). Abbreviated c.v.

dusty miller (n.)

common name for auricula, 1825, so called from the powder on the leaves and flower; millers, by the nature of their work, being famously dusty.

op. cit.

abbreviation of Latin opus citatum "the work quoted;" see opus; citatum is neuter singular past participial of citare "to call, call forward, summon" (see cite).

rain forest (n.)

"dense forest in an area of high rainfall with little seasonal variation," 1899, apparently a loan-translation of German Regenwald, coined by A.F.W. Schimper for his 1898 work "Pflanzengeographie."

gandy dancer

"railroad maintenance worker," 1918, American English slang, of unknown origin; dancer perhaps from movements required in the work of tamping down ties or pumping a hand-cart, gandy perhaps from the name of a machinery belt company in Baltimore, Maryland.

hors de combat (adv.)

1757, French, literally "out of combat." Hors (prep.) "out, beyond," is from Latin foris (adv.) "outside," literally "out of doors" (see foreign). De is from Latin de "of." For combat see combat (n.). A similar expression from French is hors concours "out of competition" (1884), of a work of art in an exhibition.

big bang (n.)

hypothetical explosive beginning of the universe, developed from the work of astronomers Monsignor Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître and George Gamow; the phrase is first attested 1950 (said to have been used orally in 1949) by British astronomer Fred Hoyle (1915-2001) in an attempt to explain the idea in laymen's terms.

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