waft: [16] A wafter was an ‘armed ship used for convoying others’ (the word was borrowed from Middle Dutch wachter ‘guard’, which came from the same prehistoric Germanic base as English wait, wake, and watch). The verb waft was derived from it by back-formation, and at first was used for ‘convey by water, convoy’ (‘Because certain pirates … were lurking at the Thames mouth … Thomas Lord Camoys with certain ships of war was appointed to waft over the king’, Edward Hall, Chronicle 1548). The change from ‘conveyance by water’ to ‘conveyance through the air’ began in the 17th century. => wait, wake, watch
waft (v.)
c. 1500, transitive, "to move gently" (through the air), probably from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German, ultimately from wachten "to guard" (perhaps via notion of a ship that guards another as it sails), related to waken "rouse from sleep," from Proto-Germanic *waht- (see wake (n.1)). Possibly influenced by northern dialect waff "cause to move to and fro" (1510s), a variant of wave. Intransitive sense from 1560s. Related: Wafted; wafting.
雙語例句
1. A waft of perfume drifted into Ingrid's nostrils.
一股香水味飄進了英格麗德的鼻子里。
來自柯林斯例句
2. A good year , which this is, of course, will waft.
像這樣,好年份產的酒, 當然十里飄香.
來自電影對白
3. A waft of perfume can revitalize, cleanse , chan ge how you feel and even as individual.