sail: [OE] Sail has numerous relatives in the other Germanic languages, among them German and Swedish segel, Dutch zeil, and Danish sejl. These all come from a prehistoric Germanic *seglam, which some have traced back to an Indo-European *seklom. This was presumably formed from the same Indo-European base (*sek- ‘cut’) that produced English dissect, saw, segment, etc, and so sail may signify etymologically a piece of ‘cut’ cloth. => dissect, saw, segment
sail (n.)
Old English segl "sail, veil, curtain," from Proto-Germanic *seglom (cognates: Old Saxon, Swedish segel, Old Norse segl, Old Frisian seil, Dutch zeil, Old High German segal, German Segel), of obscure origin with no known cognates outside Germanic (Irish seol, Welsh hwyl "sail" are Germanic loan-words). In some sources (Klein, OED) referred to PIE root *sek- "to cut," as if meaning "a cut piece of cloth." To take the wind out of (someone's) sails (1888) is to deprive (someone) of the means of progress, especially by sudden and unexpected action, "as by one vessel sailing between the wind and another vessel," ["The Encyclopaedic Dictionary," 1888].
sail (v.)
Old English segilan "travel on water in a ship; equip with a sail," from the same Germanic source as sail (n.); cognate with Old Norse sigla, Middle Dutch seghelen, Dutch zeilen, Middle Low German segelen, German segeln. Meaning "to set out on a sea voyage, leave port" is from c. 1200. Related: Sailed; sailing.
实用例句
1. They were going to sail around the little island, against the tide.
他们打算绕着小岛逆潮航行。来自柯林斯例句
2. He loaded his vessel with another cargo and set sail.
他给自己的船装上另一批货后便启航了。来自柯林斯例句
3. We decided, more or less on a whim, to sail to Morocco.
我们多少有点心血来潮，决定航海去摩洛哥。来自柯林斯例句
4. Christopher Columbus set sail for the New World in the Santa Maria.
克里斯托弗·哥伦布从圣玛丽亚启航前往新大陆。来自柯林斯例句
5. He went ashore leaving me to start repairing the torn sail.
