nurse

英文詞源

nurse

nurse: [13] The ultimate source of nurse was Latin nūtrīre (which also gave English nourish [13], nutriment [16], and nutrition [16]). This originally meant ‘suckle’ (it is related to Sanskrit snauti ‘drips, trickles’), but was later generalized to ‘feed, nourish’ and ‘look after’. Both ‘suckle’ and ‘look after’ are preserved in nurse, which comes via Old French nourice from the late Latin derivative nūtrīcia, although originally the ‘looking after’ was restricted to children: the notion of a nurse as a ‘carer for sick people’ did not emerge in English until the end of the 16th century.

The derivative nursery [16] retains its associations with children, and by extension with young plants. Late Latin nūtrītūra ‘feeding’, based on nūtrīre, gave English nurture [14].
=> nourish, nurture, nutriment, nutrition

nurse (n.1)

12c., nurrice "wet-nurse, foster-mother to a young child" (modern form from late 14c.), from Old French norrice "foster-mother, wet-nurse, nanny" (source of proper name Norris), from Late Latin *nutricia "nurse, governess, tutoress," noun use of fem. of Latin nutricius "that suckles, nourishes," from nutrix (genitive nutricis) "wet-nurse," from nutrire "to suckle" (see nourish). Meaning "person who takes care of sick" in English first recorded 1580s.

nurse (n.2)

"dogfish, shark," late 15c., of unknown origin.

nurse (v.)

1530s, "to suckle (an infant);" 1520s in the passive sense, "to bring up" (a child); alteration of Middle English nurshen (13c.; see nourish), Sense of "take care of (a sick person)" is first recorded 1736. Related: Nursed; nursing.