fuel: [14] The notions of ‘fuel’ and ‘fire’ are closely connected etymologically. Fuel comes via Anglo-Norman fuaille from medieval Latin focālia, which was used in legal documents as a term for the ‘right to demand material for making a fire’. It was a derivative of Latin focus ‘fireplace, fire’, which also gave English focus, foyer, and fusillade. => focus, foyer, fusillade
fuel (n.)
c. 1200, feuel, feul "fuel, material for burning," also figurative, from Old French foaille "fuel for heating," from Medieval Latin legal term focalia "right to demand material for making fire, right of cutting fuel," from classical Latin focalia "brushwood for fuel," from neuter plural of Latin focalis "pertaining to a hearth," from focus "hearth, fireplace" (see focus (n.)). Figurative use from 1570s. Of food, as fuel for the body, 1876. As "combustible liquid for an internal combustion engine" from 1886. A French derivative is fouailler "woodyard." Fuel-oil is from 1882.
fuel (v.)
1590s, "feed or furnish with fuel," literal and figurative, from fuel (n.). Intransitive sense "to get fuel" (originally firewood) is from 1880. Related: Fueled; fueling.
双语例句
1. His comments are bound to add fuel to the debate.
他的话必将为争论推波助澜。
来自柯林斯例句
2. Investigators say that a fuel explosion may have caused the crash.
调查员说燃料爆炸有可能是失事的根源。
来自柯林斯例句
3. The rationale of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel is inevitably being questioned.
对核废料进行再加工的理由不可避免地受到了质疑。
来自柯林斯例句
4. The authorities have urged people to stock up on fuel.
当局已经敦促人们储备燃料。
来自柯林斯例句
5. The new Metro is designed to run on unleaded fuel.
