单词 | 不是完全 |
释义 | 〔flimsy〕The origin offlimsy, although uncertain, is not completely obscure.The word is first recorded in English in the 17th century in a dictionary of cant, the jargon of people such as thieves and beggars.Its early senses "frail" and "trivial"as well as its form may link it withflim-flam, recorded first around 1538.The nounflim-flam could mean "a piece of nonsense or idle talk,” and the adjective could mean "frivolous.” Flim-flam itself is a reduplication in which the patternfl—m occurs twice, the first time with the sound (ĭ);the second, with the sound (ă). Flim may be related to the Old Norse wordflim, meaning "a lampoon, libel.”Flimsy 的词源虽然不确定, 但并不是完全不清楚。这个单词在17世纪首次用英语记载于一本行话字典里,即记载如小偷和乞丐等人所使用的隐语的字典。它最初的意思是“脆弱的”和“轻微的”,其形式可能与flim-flam 有联系, 首次记载大约是在1538年。Flim-flam 作名词时意思为“一句无意义的或无聊的话,” 作形容词时可当作“琐屑的,无意义的”讲。 Flim-flam 本身是一个重叠词,fl-m 这样形式出现两次, 第一次是与语音(i)组合;第二次是与语音(a)组合。 Flim 可能与古斯堪的纳维亚语flim 有关, 其意思为“讽刺,诽谤”〔semisterile〕Not completely fertile; partly sterile:半能育的:不是完全能育的;部分不育的:〔news〕If you take the first letters of the directions North, East, West, and South,it is true that you have the letters of the wordnews, but it is not true that you have the etymology ofnews, contrary to what has often been thought. The history of the word is much less clever than this and not at all unexpected.News is simply the plural of the noun new, which we use, for example, in the adage "Out with the old, in with the new.”The first recorded user of this plural to mean "tidings" may have been James I of Scotland;a work possibly written by him around 1437 contains the words "Awak . . . I bring The [thee] newis [news] glad.”It is pleasant to see that the first news was good.However, his descendant James I of England is the first person recorded (1616) to have said"No newis is better than evill newis,”or as we would put it, "No news is good news.”如果你取北、东、西、南四个单词各自的首字母,就得到单词news 的所有字母, 但是这并非news 的出处。 这个词的历史远比这巧妙且不是完全不可想象的。News 是名词 new 的复数形式, 举例来说,我们在谚语“旧的去了,新的来了”中使用了这个词。关于把这个词的复数作为“音讯”来用的最早记录是苏格兰的詹姆士一世,在他写的一本约1437年的书里有这样的话语“阿瓦克……,我给你带来好消息,”看到第一条是好消息是很让人高兴的。然而,他的后代英格兰的詹姆士一世却是记载(1616年)最先说出下面的话的人:“没有消息比坏消息好”或者如我们所说的“没有消息就是好消息” |
随便看 |
|
英汉汉英双解词典收录301015条英汉双解翻译词条,可根据汉字查询相应的英文词汇,基本涵盖了全部常用汉字的英文读音、翻译及用法,是英语学习及翻译工作的有利工具。