exquisite是什么意思

英文词源

exquisite

exquisite: [15] Etymologically, exquisite means ‘sought out’. It comes from the past participle of Latin exquīrere, a compound formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and quaerere ‘search’ (source of English query, quest, and question). Already in Latin it had acquired the metaphorical sense ‘sought after, choice, excellent’, which it brought with it into English.

From the 15th to the 18th centuries, however, the adjective underwent something of an explosion (being used in such widely varied senses as ‘ingenious, far-fetched’, ‘abstruse’, ‘affected’, ‘careful’, ‘elaborate’, and even – in relation to diseases – ‘true, typical’: ‘an exquisite diabetes caused by attraction of urine’, translation of Théophile Bonet’s Mercurius Compitalitius 1684) before settling back into the now familiar ‘excellent in beauty’.
=> query, quest, question

exquisite (adj.)

early 15c., "carefully selected," from Latin exquisitus "choice," literally "carefully sought out," from past participle stem of exquirere "search out thoroughly," from ex- "out" (see ex-) + quaerere "to seek" (see query (v.)).

Originally in English of any thing (good or bad, torture and diseases as well as art) brought to a highly wrought condition, sometimes shading into disapproval. The main modern meaning, "of consummate and delightful excellence" is first attested 1579, in Lyly's "Euphues." Related: Exquisitely; exquisiteness. The noun meaning "a dandy, fop" is from 1819. Bailey's Dictionary (1727) has exquisitous "not natural, but procured by art."