spider

1、spider 字面"纺织者"：来自 spin（纺线、吐丝）一族，织网的行当直接印在名字上。日耳曼亲戚一目了然——德语里 spider 本字就是"纺"。古英语里它还不是正名，蜘蛛当时叫 loppe 之类。
2、-der 尾巴是工具格后缀的遗存（同 rudder 船桨、tether 缰绳一族的构词化石），不必硬拆；记住 spin+动作者=织者就行。
3、动物搭便车：spider crab 蜘蛛蟹、spider monkey 蛛猴，皆因腿长如蛛得名。读 /ˈspaɪ.dər/ 两拍。

spider 蜘蛛

来自古英语 spider,蜘蛛， 来自 Proto-Germanic*spin, 纺织， 来自 PIE*spen, 纺织， 词源同 spin,spindle.-der,-ther,工具格后缀，词源同 rudder,tether.因蜘蛛善织网而得名。

spider

spider: [OE] The spider is etymologically the ‘spinner’. Its name goes back to a primitive Old English *spinthron, a derivative of the verb spinnan ‘spin’. The inspiration is the same, and much more obvious, behind other Germanic words for ‘spider’, such as German spinne, Dutch spinner, Swedish spindel, and Danish spinder.
=> spin

spider (n.)

late 14c., spydyr, from earlier spiþre, spiþur, spiþer (14c.), from Old English spiðra, from Proto-Germanic *spin-thron- (cognate with Danish spinder), literally "the spinner," from *spen-wo- "to spin" (see spin (v.)) + formative or agential *-thro. The connection with the root is more transparent in other Germanic cognates (such as Middle Low German, Middle Dutch, Middle High German, German spinne, Dutch spin "spider").

The male is commonly much smaller than the female, and in impregnating the female runs great risk of being devoured. The difference in sizes is as if the human female should be some 60 or 70 feet tall. [Century Dictionary]

Not the common word in Old English, which identified the creatures as loppe, lobbe, also atorcoppe, and, from Latin, renge. Another Old English word was gangewifre "a weaver as he goes," and Middle English had araine "spider" (14c.-15c., from French). In literature, often a figure of cunning, skill, and industry as well as poisonous predation; in 17c. English used figuratively for poisonousness and thread-spinning but also sensitivity (to vibrations), lurking, independence. As the name for a type of two-pack solitaire, it is attested from 1890. Spider crab is from 1710, used of various species; spider monkey is from 1764, so called for its long limbs.

1. The spider must wait for prey to be ensnared on its web.

蜘蛛必须等待猎物被它的蛛网困住。

2. The woolly spider monkey is the largest primate in the Americas.

绒毛蛛猴是美洲最大的灵长类动物。

3. the geometry of a spider's web

蜘蛛网的几何形状

4. to be caught in a spider's web of confusion

陷入混乱不堪的局面

5. A spider had spun a perfect web outside the window.

蜘蛛在窗外结了一张完整的网。