implement

英文词源

implement

implement: [15] The idea underlying implement is of ‘filling up’. It comes ultimately from Latin implēre, a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix in- and plēre ‘fill’ (as in English complete). This originally meant ‘fill up’, and hence ‘fulfil’, but in post-classical times, under the influence of implicāre (source of English employ) it came to mean ‘use, employ’, and so the derived plural noun implēmenta denoted ‘things used, equipment’.

It was originally used in the plural in English too, and it was not until the 16th century that the singular ‘tool’ emerged. The original Latin sense ‘fulfil’ is preserved much more closely in the verb implement, which was an independent and considerably later introduction, first recorded in Scottish English in the 19th century. (From the same source come English complement and supplement.)
=> complement, complete, supplement

implement (n.)

mid-15c., from Late Latin implementem "a filling up" (as with provisions), from Latin implere "to fill," from assimilated form of in- "into, in, on, upon" (see in- (2)) + plere "to fill" (see pleio-). Sense of "tool" is 1530s, from notion of things provided to do work, that which "fills up" or "completes" a household (c. 1500).

implement (v.)

1806, originally chiefly in Scottish, where the noun was a legal term meaning "fulfillment," from implement (n.). It led to the wretched formation implementation, first recorded 1913. Related: Implemented.