empty: [OE] The original meaning of Old English ǣmtig appears to have been ‘unoccupied, at leisure’, and it was only secondarily that it developed the physical connotations of ‘not full’ which have come down to us in empty. (It also meant ‘unmarried’.) It was a derivative of the noun ǣmetta ‘rest, leisure’. This is a word of uncertain history, but it has been plausibly analysed as the negative prefix ǣ- plus a derivative of the root which produced modern English mete (as in ‘mete out’), meaning something like ‘not assigned’. => mete
empty (adj.)
c. 1200, from Old English æmettig "at leisure, not occupied; unmarried," also "containing nothing, unoccupied," from æmetta "leisure," from æ "not" + -metta, from motan "to have" (see might (n.)). The -p- is a euphonic insertion.
Sense evolution from "at leisure" to "containing nothing, unoccupied" is paralleled in several languages, such as Modern Greek adeios "empty," originally "freedom from fear," from deios "fear." "The adj. adeios must have been applied first to persons who enjoyed freedom from duties, leisure, and so were unoccupied, whence it was extended to objects that were unoccupied" [Buck]. Related: Emptier. Figurative sense of empty-nester attested by 1960.
empty (n.)
"an empty thing" that was or is expected to be full, 1865, from empty (adj.). At first of barges, freight cars, mail pouches.
empty (v.)
1520s, from empty (adj.); replacing Middle English empten, from Old English geæmtigian. Related: Emptied; emptying.
双语例句
1. Empty the contents of the pan into the sieve.
将锅里的东西倒到筛子上。
来自柯林斯例句
2. She showed him around the ground floor of the empty house.
她带他参观了这处空房子的底楼。
来自柯林斯例句
3. She went to the sink and ran water into her empty glass.
她走到水槽边，把空玻璃杯灌上水。
来自柯林斯例句
4. His voice sounded oddly resonant in the empty room.
他的声音在这空荡荡的房间里听起来异常嘹亮。
来自柯林斯例句
5. Her parting words left him feeling empty and alone.