- fa (n.)
[fa 词源字典] - fourth note in Guidonian scale; see gamut. Used from 13c. in Old French. It represents the first syllable in Latin famulus.[fa etymology, fa origin, 英语词源]
- fab (adj.)[fab 词源字典]
- 1957, slang shortening of fabulous.[fab etymology, fab origin, 英语词源]
- Fabian (n.)[Fabian 词源字典]
- "socialist," 1884, from Fabian Society, founded in Britain 1884, named for Quintus Fabius Maximus (surnamed Cunctator "the Delayer"), the cautious tactician who opposed Hannibal in the Second Punic War. The Fabians chose the name to draw a distinction between their slow-going tactics and those of anarchists and communists. The Latin gens name possibly is from faba "a bean."[Fabian etymology, Fabian origin, 英语词源]
- fable[fable 词源字典]
- fable: [13] The Indo-European base *bha- ‘speak’ has produced a wide range of English words, including (via Germanic) ban and (via Latin fārī ‘speak’) affable, confess, fairy, fame, fate, ineffable, infant, nefarious, and profess. Fable is a member of this latter group; it comes via Old French fable from Latin fābula ‘narrative, story’ (source also of English fabulous [15]), which was a derivative of fārī. Fib [17] is probably short for an earlier fible-fable ‘nonsense’, a fanciful reduplication of fable.
=> affable, ban, confess, fabulous, fairy, fame, fate, fib, ineffable, infant, nefarious, profess, prophet[fable etymology, fable origin, 英语词源] - fable (n.)
- c. 1300, "falsehood, fictitious narrative; a lie, pretense," from Old French fable "story, fable, tale; drama, play, fiction; lie, falsehood" (12c.), from Latin fabula "story, story with a lesson, tale, narrative, account; the common talk, news," literally "that which is told," from fari "speak, tell," from PIE root *bha- (2) "speak" (see fame (n.)). Restricted sense of "animal story" (early 14c.) comes from Aesop. In modern folklore terms, defined as "a short, comic tale making a moral point about human nature, usually through animal characters behaving in human ways" ["Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore"].
- fabled (adj.)[fabled 词源字典]
- c. 1600, "unreal, invented," past participle adjective from fable (v.) "to tell tales" (late 14c.), from Old French fabler "tell, narrate; chatter, boast," from Latin fabulari, from fabula (see fable). Meaning "celebrated in fable" is from 1706.[fabled etymology, fabled origin, 英语词源]
- fabric[fabric 词源字典]
- fabric: [15] Latin faber was a term for an artisan who worked with hard materials – a carpenter, for example, or a smith (it probably came from a prehistoric Indo-European base meaning ‘fit things together’). From it was derived fabrica, which denoted the trade such a man followed, the place where he worked, or in general terms the product of his work – in the case of a carpenter, a ‘building’.
And ‘building’ was the original sense of the word in English when it acquired it via French fabrique: ‘He had neuer studye in newe fabrykes ne buyldynges’, William Caxton, Golden Legend 1483. Remnants of the usage survive in the current sense ‘walls, roof, and floor of a building’. It was not until the mid 18th century that the underlying notion of ‘manufactured material’ gave rise to the word’s main present-day meaning ‘textile’.
Derivatives include fabricate [18], from Latin fabricāre, and forge.
=> forge[fabric etymology, fabric origin, 英语词源] - fabric (n.)
- late 15c., "building; thing made; a structure of any kind," from Middle French fabrique (14c.), verbal noun from fabriquer (13c.), from Latin fabricare "to make, construct, fashion, build," from fabrica "workshop," also "an art, trade; a skillful production, structure, fabric," from faber "artisan who works in hard materials," from Proto-Italic *fafro-, from PIE *dhabh- "to fit together" (cognates: Armenian darbin "smith;" also see daft).
The noun fabrica suggests the earlier existence of a feminine noun to which an adj. *fabriko- referred; maybe ars "art, craft." [de Vaan]
Sense in English evolved via "manufactured material" (1753) to "textile, woven or felted cloth" (1791). Compare forge (n.)) which is a doublet.
- fabricate (v.)[fabricate 词源字典]
- mid-15c., "to fashion, make, build," from Latin fabricatus, past participle of fabricare "to make, construct, fashion, build," from fabrica (see fabric). In bad sense of "tell a lie (etc.)," it is recorded by 1779. Related: Fabricated; fabricating.[fabricate etymology, fabricate origin, 英语词源]
- fabrication (n.)[fabrication 词源字典]
- c. 1500, "manufacturing, construction," from Middle French fabrication and directly from Latin fabricationem (nominative fabricatio) "a structure, construction, a making," noun of action from past participle stem of fabricare "to make, construct" (see fabricate). Meaning "lying, falsehood, forgery" is from 1790.[fabrication etymology, fabrication origin, 英语词源]
- fabulist (n.)[fabulist 词源字典]
- 1590s, "inventor or writer of fables," from French fabuliste, from Latin fabula "story, tale" (see fable (n.)). The earlier word in English was fabler (late 14c.); the Latin term was fabulator.[fabulist etymology, fabulist origin, 英语词源]
- fabulous (adj.)[fabulous 词源字典]
- early 15c., "mythical, legendary," from Latin fabulosus "celebrated in fable;" also "rich in myths," from fabula "story, tale" (see fable (n.)). Meaning "pertaining to fable" is from 1550s. Sense of "incredible" first recorded c. 1600, hence "enormous, immense, amazing," which was trivialized by 1950s to "marvelous, terrific." Slang shortening fab first recorded 1957; popularized in reference to The Beatles, c. 1963.
Fabulous (often contracted to fab(s)) and fantastic are also in that long list of words which boys and girls use for a time to express high commendation and then get tired of, such as, to go no farther back than the present century, topping, spiffing, ripping, wizard, super, posh, smashing. [Gower's 1965 revision of Fowler's "Modern English Usage"]
Related: Fabulously; fabulousness.[fabulous etymology, fabulous origin, 英语词源]