end

英文词源

end

end: [OE] End is an ancient word, that has been traced back to an Indo-European *antjó. This also produced Sanskrit ántas ‘end’, as well as Latin ante ‘before’ and Greek anti ‘opposite’. Its Germanic descendant was *andja, from which came Gothic andeis, German ende, Dutch einde, Swedish ända, and English end.

end (n.)

Old English ende "end, conclusion, boundary, district, species, class," from Proto-Germanic *andja (cognates: Old Frisian enda, Old Dutch ende, Dutch einde, Old Norse endir "end;" Old High German enti "top, forehead, end," German Ende, Gothic andeis "end"), originally "the opposite side," from PIE *antjo "end, boundary," from root *ant- "opposite, in front of, before" (see ante).

Worldly wealth he cared not for, desiring onely to make both ends meet. [Thomas Fuller, "The History of the Worthies of England," 1662]

Original sense of "outermost part" is obsolete except in phrase ends of the earth. Sense of "destruction, death" was in Old English. Meaning "division or quarter of a town" was in Old English. The end "the last straw, the limit" (in a disparaging sense) is from 1929. The end-man in minstrel troupes was one of the two at the ends of the semicircle of performers, who told funny stories and cracked jokes with the middle-man. U.S. football end zone is from 1909 (end for "side of the field occupied by one team" is from 1851). The noun phrase end-run is attested from 1893 in U.S. football; extended to military tactics by 1940. End time in reference to the end of the world is from 1917. To end it all "commit suicide" is attested by 1911. Be-all and end-all is from Shakespeare ("Macbeth" I.vii.5).

end (v.)

Old English endian "to end, finish, abolish, destroy; come to an end, die," from the source of end (n.). Related: Ended; ending.