bottom

英文词源

bottom

bottom: [OE] Bottom is a word with cognates widely represented in other Indo-European languages. It comes ultimately from the Indo- European base *bhudh- or *bhundh- ‘base, foundation’, source of Latin fundus, from which English gets fund, fundamental, foundation, and founder ‘sink’. An extended form of the base passed into Germanic as *buthm- or *buthn-, which produced German boden ‘ground, earth’ and English bottom. The application of the word to the ‘buttocks’ seems to have arisen towards the end of the 18th century.
=> foundation, fund, fundamental

bottom (n.)

Old English botm, bodan "ground, soil, foundation, lowest part," from Proto-Germanic *buthm- (cognates: Old Frisian boden "soil," Old Norse botn, Dutch bodem, Old High German bodam, German Boden "ground, earth, soil"), from PIE root *bhu(n)d(h)- (cognates: Sanskrit budhnah, Avestan buna- "bottom," Greek pythmen "foundation," Latin fundus "bottom, piece of land, farm," Old Irish bond "sole of the foot"). Meaning "posterior of a person" is from 1794. Bottom dollar "the last dollar one has" is from 1882. Bottom-feeder, originally of fishes, is from 1866.

bottom (v.)

1540s, "to put a bottom on," from bottom (n.). Meaning "to reach the bottom of" is from 1808 (earlier figuratively, 1785). Related: Bottomed; bottoming.