nerve: [16] Latin nervus meant ‘sinew, bowstring’. It and its Greek relative neuron (source of English neural) may belong to a wider family of words that includes Latin nēre ‘spin’ (a relative of English needle) and possibly also English narrow, perhaps with a common meaning element. The application to ‘bundle of fibres carrying sensory or other impulses’ seems to have begun in Greek, but was soon adopted into the Latin word, and was brought with it into English.
Metaphorically, the Romans used nervus for ‘strength, force’, an application perhaps lying behind the English sense ‘courage’, first recorded in the early 19th century. The use of the plural nerves for ‘agitation, apprehension’ (and of the adjective nervous [14] for ‘apprehensive’) is an English development, which probably started in the mid- 18th century. => needle, neural
nerve (n.)
late 14c., nerf "sinew, tendon," from Old French nerf and directly from Medieval Latin nervus "nerve," from Latin nervus "sinew, tendon; cord, bowstring," metathesis of pre-Latin *neuros, from PIE *(s)neu- "tendon, sinew" (cognates: Sanskrit snavan- "band, sinew," Armenian neard "sinew," Greek neuron "sinew, tendon," in Galen "nerve"). Sense of "fibers that convey impulses between the brain and the body" is from c. 1600.
Secondary senses developed from meaning "strength, vigor, energy" (c. 1600), from the "sinew" sense. Hence figurative sense of "feeling, courage," first attested c. 1600; that of "courage, boldness" is from 1809; bad sense "impudence, cheek" is from 1887. Latin nervus also had a figurative sense of "vigor, force, power, strength," as did Greek neuron. From the neurological sense come Nerves "condition of nervousness," attested from 1792; to get on someone's nerves, from 1895. War of nerves "psychological warfare" is from 1915.
nerve (v.)
c. 1500, "to ornament with threads;" see nerve (n.). Meaning "to give strength or vigor" is from 1749. Related: Nerved; nerving.
例文
1. Nerve cells have limited ability to regenerate if destroyed.
損傷を受けた場合、神経細胞再構築の能力には限界がある。
2.The mere mention of John had touched a very raw nerve indeed.
ジョンのことを言うと本当に心が痛む。
3.He had the nerve to ask me to prove who I was.
彼は私に自分の身分を証明するように要求した。
4.The brandy made him choke,but it restored his nerve .
ブランデーにむせてしまったとはいえ、勇気を取り戻してくれた。
5.Malcolm worked up the nerve to ask Grandma Rose for some help.