virtue

英文词源

virtue

virtue: [13] Latin virtūs ‘bravery, strength, capacity, skill, merit’ was derived from vir ‘man’ (source also of English virago ‘manlike woman’ [14] and virile [15]), and so etymologically it denoted ‘manliness’. It passed into English via Old French vertu. Derivatives include virtual [14] which, preserving another semantic aspect of its source, originally meant ‘having power, in effect’, but by the 17th century had evolved into its modern sense ‘so in effect or in essence’; and virtuoso [17], which was borrowed from Italian and goes back to the ancestral sense ‘skill’.
=> virago, virile, virtual, virtuoso

virtue (n.)

c. 1200, vertu, "moral life and conduct; a particular moral excellence," from Anglo-French and Old French vertu "force, strength, vigor; moral strength; qualities, abilities" (10c. in Old French), from Latin virtutem (nominative virtus) "moral strength, high character, goodness; manliness; valor, bravery, courage (in war); excellence, worth," from vir "man" (see virile).

For my part I honour with the name of virtue the habit of acting in a way troublesome to oneself and useful to others. [Stendhal "de l'Amour," 1822]

Especially (in women) "chastity, sexual purity" from 1590s. Phrase by virtue of (early 13c.) preserves alternative Middle English sense of "efficacy." Wyclif Bible has virtue where KJV uses power. The seven cardinal virtues (early 14c.) were divided into the natural (justice, prudence, temperance, fortitude) and the theological (hope, faith, charity). To make a virtue of a necessity (late 14c.) translates Latin facere de necessitate virtutem [Jerome].