havoc的词源

英文词源

havoc: havoc: [15] The ancestry of havoc is a mystery, but it seems originally to have been an exclamation, probably Germanic, used as a signal to begin plundering. This was adopted into Old French as havot, which was used in the phrase crier havot ‘shout ‘havot’,’ hence ‘let loose destruction and plunder’. Havot became altered in Anglo-Norman to havok, the form in which English adopted it; and in due course cry havoc gave rise to the independent use of havoc as ‘destruction, devastation’.
havoc (n.): early 15c., from the expression cry havoc "give the signal to pillage" (Anglo-French crier havok, late 14c.). Havok, the signal to soldiers to seize plunder, is from Old French havot "pillaging, looting" (in crier havot), which is related to haver "to seize, grasp," hef "hook," probably from a Germanic source (see hawk (n.)), or from Latin habere "to have, possess." General sense of "devastation" first recorded late 15c.

来自诺曼法语crier havok,即cry havoc,准许士兵抢劫的信号，词源不详，可能来自拉丁语habere,抓，占有，词源同habit,give(古义为拥有).

该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：havoc 词源，havoc 含义。