robust: [16] By a series of semantic twists, robust is related to red. It comes ultimately from Indo- European *reudh- ‘red’ (source of English red). This produced Latin rōbus, which was applied to a particular sort of oak tree with reddish wood. The oak being synonymous with strength, rōbus in due course came to mean ‘strength’. This was carried over into the derived rōbustus ‘firm, strong, solid’, from which English gets robust, and also into the verb rōborāre ‘strengthen’, source of English corroborate [16]. => corroborate, red
robust (adj.)
1540s, from Middle French robuste (14c.) and directly from Latin robustus "strong and hardy," literally "as strong as oak," originally "oaken," from robur, robus "hard timber, strength," also "a special kind of oak," named for its reddish heartwood, from Latin ruber "red" (related to robigo "rust"), from PIE *reudh- (see red (adj.1)). Related: Robustly; robustness. Robustious (1540s) was a common form in 17c. (see "Hamlet" iii.2); it fell from use by mid-18c., but was somewhat revived by mid-19c. antiquarian writers.
实用例句
1. The Neanderthals were very robust and quite different from us.
