hub的词源

英文词源

hub: hub: [17] Hub is one of those words that emerge unheralded from the undergrowth of language, its forbears uncertain. It seems originally to have meant ‘lump’, and is probably ultimately the same word as hob [16]. This was at first spelled hub and may have denoted a lump of clay used as a bakestone, or a brick or clay projection at the back of a fire on which things were placed to keep warm. And hobnail [16] is etymologically a nail with a large ‘lumpy’ head.
=> hob
hub (n.): "solid center of a wheel," 1640s, perhaps from hubbe, originally "lump," the source of hob of a fireplace and hobnail, as in boots. A wheelwright's word, not generally known or used until c. 1828; it reached wider currency in connection with bicycles. Meaning "center of interest or activity or importance" first recorded 1858 in writings of Oliver W. Holmes, and originally especially of Boston.
"Boston State-House is the hub of the solar system." [O.W. Holmes, "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table"]

"[E]verybody knows that Boston used to be called the Hub, meaning the hub of the universe. It may still be the hub, because the center of a wheel moves slowly." [J.P. Marquand, "Life," March 24, 1941]

车轮工匠行话，可能来自hubbe,大块，来自PIE*kap,抓住，持，握，词源同capable,heave,hob.引申词义轮轴，中心。

该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：hub 词源，hub 含义。