dear的词源

英文词源

dear: dear: [OE] Dear is one of the English language’s more semantically stable words. By the 11th century it had already developed its two major present-day senses, ‘much-loved’ and ‘expensive’, which are shared by its Germanic relative, German teuer (Dutch has differentiated dier ‘much loved’ from duur ‘expensive’). All these words go back to a prehistoric West and North Germanic *deurjaz, whose ultimate origin is not known.

In the 13th century an abstract noun, dearth, was derived from the adjective. It seems likely that this originally meant ‘expensiveness’ (although instances of this sense, which has since disappeared, are not recorded before the late 15th century). This developed to ‘period when food is expensive, because scarce’, and eventually to ‘scarcity’ generally.
=> dearth
dear (adj.): Old English deore "precious, valuable, costly, loved, beloved," from Proto-Germanic *deurjaz (cognates: Old Saxon diuri, Old Norse dyrr, Old Frisian diore, Middle Dutch dure, Dutch duur, Old High German tiuri, German teuer), ultimate origin unknown. Used interjectorily since 1690s. As a polite introductory word to letters, it is attested from mid-15c. As a noun, from late 14c., perhaps short for dear one, etc.

.来自古英语deore,珍贵的，昂贵的。引申义亲爱的，珍重的。比较汉语成语物以稀为贵。

该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：dear 词源，dear 含义。