dote

英文词源

dote

dote: [13] English may have borrowed dote from Middle Dutch doten ‘be silly’, but its ultimate origins are not known. To begin with it meant ‘be silly’ in English too (a sense now mainly preserved in its various derivatives), and ‘show excessive fondness’ did not develop until the 15th century. Related forms include dotage [14], where the notion of ‘simple-mindedness due to senility’ (implicit in the verb from earliest times) has passed to simply ‘senility’; dotterel [15], the name of a sort of plover, supposedly so called because it was foolish enough to allow itself to get caught; and dotty [19], an alteration of Scottish English dottle ‘fool’, which was a derivative of dote.
=> dotage, dotterel, dotty

dote (v.)

c. 1200, "to be feeble-minded from age," from Middle Low German doten "be foolish," which is of unknown origin. Meaning "to be infatuated" is from late 15c. Related: Doted; dotes; doting.