box

英文词源

box

box: English has two distinct words box. The ‘receptacle’ [OE] probably comes from late Latin buxis, a variant of Latin pyxis (whence English pyx ‘container for Communion bread’ [14]). This was borrowed from Greek puxís, which originally meant not simply ‘box’, but specifically ‘box made of wood’; for it was a derivative of Greek púxos, which via Latin buxus has given English box the tree [OE]. Box ‘fight with the fists’ first appeared in English as a noun, meaning ‘blow’ [14], now preserved mainly in ‘a box round the ears’.

Its ancestry is uncertain: it may be related to Middle Dutch bōke and Danish bask ‘blow’, or it could simply be an obscure metaphorical extension of box ‘receptacle’.
=> pyx

box (n.1.)

Old English box "a wooden container," also the name of a type of shrub, from Late Latin buxis, from Greek pyxis "boxwood box," from pyxos "box tree," which is of uncertain origin. See OED entry for discussion. German Büchse also is a Latin loan word.

Meaning "compartment at a theater" is from c. 1600. Meaning "pigeon-hole at a post office" is from 1832. Meaning "television" is from 1950. Slang meaning "vulva" is attested 17c., according to "Dictionary of American Slang;" modern use seems to date from c.World War II, perhaps originally Australian, on notion of "box of tricks." Box office is 1786; in the figurative sense of "financial element of a performance" it is first recorded 1904. Box lunch (n.) attested from 1899. The box set, "multiple-album, CD or cassette issue of the work of an artist" is attested by 1955.

box (n.2.)

"a blow," c. 1300, of uncertain origin, possibly related to Middle Dutch boke, Middle High German buc, and Danish bask, all meaning "a blow," perhaps imitative.

box (v.1)

"to put into storage, put into a box," mid-15c., from box (n.1). Related: Boxed; boxing.

box (v.2)

"to beat or whip," late 14c., from box (n.2). Meaning "to fight with the fists" is from 1560s. Related: Boxed; boxing.