emblem

英文词源

emblem

emblem: [15] The Latin term emblēma referred to ‘inlaid work’ – designs formed by setting some material such as wood or ivory, or enamel, into a contrasting surface. This usage survived into English as a conscious archaism (‘The ground more colour’d then with stone of costliest emblem’, John Milton, Paradise Lost 1667), but for the most part English has used the word metaphorically, for a ‘design which symbolizes something’.

The Latin word was borrowed from Greek émblēma, a derivative of embállein ‘throw in, put in, insert’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix en- ‘in’ and bállein ‘throw’ (source of the second syllable of English problem, and closely related to that of symbol).
=> problem, symbol

emblem (n.)

1580s, "relief, raised ornament on vessels, etc.," from Latin emblema "inlaid ornamental work," from Greek emblema (genitive emblematos) "an insertion," from emballein "to insert," literally "to throw in," from assimilated form of en "in" (see en- (2)) + ballein "to throw" (see ballistics). Meaning "allegorical drawing or picture" is from 1730, via sense development in French emblème "symbol" (16c.).