clay: [OE] Clay is named from its consistency – its stickiness, its squidginess, its capacity for being smeared. Its ultimate source is the Indo- European base *gloi-, *glei-, *gli-, from which English also gets glue and gluten. From it was descended the Germanic base *klai-, on which was formed West Germanic *klaijō-. This passed into Old English as cl?g – hence modern English clay. (Clammy comes from the same Germanic source, and clag, from which we get claggy ‘muddy’, is essentially the same word as clay, although it reached English via a Scandinavian route.) => clammy, clean
clay (n.)
Old English cl?g "stiff, sticky earth; clay," from Proto-Germanic *klaijaz (cognates: Old High German kliwa "bran," German Kleie, Old Frisian klai "clay," Old Saxon klei, Middle Dutch clei, Danish kl?g "clay;" also Old English cl?man, Old Norse kleima, Old High German kleiman "to cover with clay"), from PIE root *glei- "clay" (cognates: Greek gloios "sticky matter;" Latin gluten "glue;" Old Church Slavonic glina "clay," glenu "slime, mucus;" Old Irish glenim "I cleave, adhere").
in Scripture, the stuff from which the body of the first man was formed; hence "human body" (especially when dead). Clay pigeon is from 1888. Feet of clay "fundamental weakness" is from Dan. ii:33.
雙語例句
1. As the wheel turned, the potter shaped the clay.
輪子一邊轉動，制陶工人一邊拉坯。
來自柯林斯例句
2. The clay court was slippery and he was unable to move freely.
紅土網球場很滑，他不能自如地移動。
來自柯林斯例句
3. When the clay feels like putty, it is ready to use.
黏土摸起來像油灰時，就可以用了。
來自柯林斯例句
4. He studied sculpture because he enjoyed working with clay.