| 单词 | 不能确定 |
| 释义 | 〔hosey〕Children in New England, especially in the Boston area,use the expressionI hosey when they are choosing sides for a game. TheBoston Globe asked readers about it in late 1987 and received responses from Boston; Belmont, Massachusetts; New Hampshire; and Maine.Its users agree that it is a children's expressionbut are unsure of its origin—some think that it derives from a pronunciation ofchoose with a heavy Irish brogue. Another possible origin of the expression is French-Canadianchoisir, "to choose.” 新英格兰，特别是波士顿地区的孩子们在进行一种游戏时，用我加入 表示选择加入哪一边来分组。 波士顿环球 杂志在1987年后半年时就此用语向其读者进行征询， 得到了波士顿地区、马萨诸塞州贝尔蒙特地区、新罕布什尔州及缅因州的读者的响应。此语使用者同意此语为孩童用语这一说法，但都不能确定其来源。有些读者认为其来自choose 这一词的带有浓重爱尔兰土腔的发音。 另一可能的词源是加拿大法语中choisir 一词“选择” 〔never〕He had never been there before. You never can be sure.他以前从未到过那里。你永远不能确定〔doubtful〕Of uncertain outcome; undecided.不能确定的：未决的；未定的〔accidental〕 Contingent in this context describes what is possible but uncertain because of chance or unforeseen or uncontrollable factors: Contingent 被用来描述可能但因意外或不能预料或不能控制的因素而不能确定的事物： 〔chagrin〕The ultimate etymology of the wordchagrin, which comes directly to us from French, is considered uncertain by many etymologists. At one timechagrin was thought to be the same word as shagreen, "a leather or skin with a rough surface,” derived from French chagrin. The reasoning wasthat in French the word for this rough material, which was used to smooth and polish things,was extended to the notion of troubles that fret and annoy a person.It was later decided, however,that the sense "rough leather" and the sense "sorrow" each belonged to a different French wordchagrin. Other etymologists have offered an alternative explanation,suggesting that the French wordchagrin, "sorrow,” is a loan translation of the German word Katzenjammer, "a morning-after-the-night-before feeling.” A loan translation is a type of borrowing from another languagein which the elements of a foreign word,as inKatzen, "cats,” and Jammer, "distress, seediness,” are assumed to be translated literally by corresponding elements in another language,in this case,chat, "cat,” and grigner, "to grimace.” The actual etymology is less colorful,with the word probably going back to a Germanic word,.gramī, meaning "sorrow, trouble.”Chagrin is first recorded in English in 1656 in the now obsolete sense "anxiety, melancholy.”我们从法语直接借用的词chagrin 的最终词源被许多词源学家认为是不能确定的。 Charin 曾经被认为和由法语词 chagrin 派生出来的 shagreen “有粗糙表面的皮革或皮肤”是同一个词。 理由是，这种粗糙材料是用来打磨和抛光物品用的，法语里的这个词被引申到有了使人懊恼和烦恼的意思。但后来才确定，“粗糙的皮革”的含义和“沮丧”的含义分属于一个不同的法语词chagrin 。 别的词源学家提出了另外一种解释，说法语词chagrin “沮丧”是借译于日耳曼语词 Katzenjammer “醉后的难受感”。 借译是借用另一种语言，即外语词的成分，如Katzen “猫”，和 Jammer “沮丧，不舒服”， 并照那种语言的对应成分直译过来，在这种情况下为chat “猫”和 grigner “做怪相”。 实际的语源没有这么富于趣味，这个词极可能要追溯到日耳曼语词grami ， 意思为“愁苦，麻烦”。Chagrin 第一次出现在英语里有记载的时间是在1656年， 当时的含义“焦虑，忧郁”现已过时不用〔fad〕Although we do not know for certain the origin offad, first recorded in 1834with the sense "whim, crotchet,”we can suggest one possibility.In 1754, 80 years before this occurrence offad, we find an instance of the wordfidfad, meaning "a fussy person":"The youngest . . . is, in everything she does, an absolute fidfad.”Fidfad is found in the latter part of the 19th century with the sense "small detail, frill,” and the adjectivefidfad, meaning "frivolous, fussy, petty,” is recorded in 1830.Fad could thus be a shortened form of fidfad, itself shortened from fiddle-faddle. 尽管我们不能确定fad 的起源， 它于1834年首次被记录，用于表达“怪念头，异常态度或习惯”这一意思，我们仍可以提出一种可能。在1754年，比fad 的出现早80年， 我们发现了一个词例fidfad， 表示“一个小题大作的人”：“这个年轻人…所做的一切事情都完全地小题大作。”在19世纪下半叶，fidfad 被发现有“小的细节，饰边”的意思， 而且形容词fidfad 还表示“无用的，大惊小怪的，不重要的”的意思， 于1830年被记录。因此Fad 可能是 fiddle-faddle 被缩写为 fidfad 后的简便形式 〔deceptively〕There appears to be a great deal of confusion about the sense ofdeceptively when it is used to modify an adjective. Does the sentenceThe proof is deceptively simple mean that the proof is simpler or more difficult than it appears?The Usage Panel was asked to choose among paraphrases for the sentenceThe pool is deceptively shallow: 50 percent said that it means "The pool is shallower than it appears";32 percent said that it means "The pool is deeper than it appears";and 18 percent found it ambiguous.Thus the writer who used such a sentence in a warning notice could expect that at least half the public would either misinterpret the messageor would be uncertain as to which sense was intended.Where the context does not make the meaning clear,a substitute should be used,asThe pool is shallower than it looks or The proof is simple, despite appearances. 当用deceptively 修饰一形容词时，该词的意思似乎大有令人困惑之处。 The proof is deceptively simple 一句中，是比它看起来更容易的意思呢， 还是比它看起来更难的意思呢?有人曾要求用法专题使用小组的成员对The pool is deceptively shallow 一句的释义进行选择， 百分之五十的成员认为该句意为：“池塘看起来很浅”；百分之三十二的成员认为该句意为：“池塘看起很深”；而百分之十八的成员则认为该句意义含混模糊。因此，把这句话写在警告牌上的作者可能会发现至少有一半的公众不是误解这则信息，就是不能确定这句话的意图究竟是什么。在上下文不能使意义明了的地方，应该换一种表达方式，如这个池塘比它看起来要浅 或 证明很简单，尽管看起来有些难 〔overarching〕"I am not sure whether the missing ingredient . . . is surprise or an overarching radiance"(John Simon)“我不能确定缺少的成份…是使人惊奇呢，还是让人非常兴奋”(约翰·西蒙) |
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