| 单词 | 为什么 |
| 释义 | 〔ethnic〕When in a Middle English text written before 1400it is said that a part of a temple fell down and "mad a gret distruccione of ethnykis,”one wonders why ethnics were singled out for death.The wordethnic in this context, however, means "gentile,” coming as it does from the Greek adjectiveethnikos, meaning "national, foreign, gentile.”The adjective is derived from the nounethnos, "people, nation, foreign people,” that in the plural phraseta ethnē meant "foreign nations.” In translating the Hebrew Bible into Greek,this phrase was used for Hebrewgōyīm, "gentiles"; hence the sense of the noun in the Middle English quotation.The nounethnic in this sense or the related sense "heathen" is not recorded after 1728, although the related adjective sense is still used. But probably under the influence of other words going back to Greekethnos, such asethnography and ethnology, the adjectiveethnic broadened in meaning in the 19th century. After this broadeningthe noun sense "a member of a particular ethnic group,”first recorded in 1945, came into existence.在一篇1400年以前的中古英语文章中写道，一座神殿的一部分倒塌了并“导致一个种族的彻底毁灭”，人们想知道为什么一个种族单单被挑出去死。但是ethnic 在这个上下文中的意思是“异教徒”， 来自于希腊语的形容词ethnikos ， 意为“民族的，外来的，异教的”。该形容词源自名词ethnos， 意为“民族、种族、外来人”， 它的复数形式ta ethne， 意为“外来民族”。 在把希伯来圣经翻译成希腊语的过程中，这一词组被用作希伯来语中的goyim， 意为“异教徒”； 因此名词的含意在中世纪英语被引用。即使相关含意讲的名词ethnic 在1728年之后也未被收录，尽管这时相关的形容词含义已被应用， 但大概在那些可追溯到古希腊语ethnos 的词， 如ethnograthy 和 ethnology 的影响下， 形容词ethnic 在19世纪时对词义进行了扩充。 这次扩充后，名词词意为“某一特定的种族群体中的一员”，在1945年被首次收录并开始存在〔gauntlet〕In the first and second editions ofThe American Heritage Dictionary Usage Notes explained why the spelling gauntlet is acceptable for bothgauntlet 1 and gauntlet 2. Such has not always been the case.The story ofgauntlet 1, as into throw down the gauntlet, is unexciting: it comes from the Old French wordgantelet, a diminutive of gant, "glove.” From the time of its appearance in Middle English (in a work composed in 1449),the word has been spelled with anau as well as an a, still a possible spelling. But the othergauntlet, as into run the gauntlet, is an alteration of the earlier English formgantlope, which came from the Swedish wordgatlopp, a compound ofgata, "lane,” and lopp, "course.” The earliest recorded form of the English word,found in 1646,isgantelope, showing that alteration of the Swedish word had already occurred. The English word was then influenced by the spelling of the wordgauntlet, "glove,” and in 1676 we find the first recorded instance of the spellinggauntlet for this word, althoughgantelope is found as late as 1836. From then on spellings withau and a are both found. Theau seems to have won out, although one could say that thea is preferable because it reflects the Swedish source.In regard to a word that has been so altered in form,this seems a rather fine point.在第一和第二版的美国经典辞书 的用法说明解释了为什么拼写 gauntlet 是可接受的， 既对于gauntlet 1，又对于 gauntlet 2。 情况并不总是这样。gauntlet 1的故事， 如在拒绝挑战 中并不令人激动： 它来自于一法语老词gantelet ， gant 的小词缀“手套”。 自从它在中古英语出现之后（在1449年编的一著作中），这个词同au 的拼写已同 a 一样仍是可能的拼写形式。 但是另一个gauntlet ， 如在接受挑战 中， 是早期英语形式gantlope 的一个变体， 其来自于一瑞典词gatlopp ， gata “巷子”和 lopp “方向”的组合。 最早的这个英语单词的记录，出现于1646年，是gantelope ，表示这个瑞典单词的变体已出现。 这个英语单词然后被单词gauntlet “手套”的拼写所影响， 在1676年，我们发现了gauntlet 第一个有记录的例子， 尽管gantelope 直到1836年才发现。 此后，带有au 和 a 的拼写形式都被发现过。 au 似乎占优势， 尽管一个人可能说a 更好， 因它反映了瑞典语源。说到一个形式已发生了如此变化的单词，这似乎是个好建议〔gringo〕The wordgringo is an offensive term in Latin America for a foreigner, particularly an American or English person.But the word existed in Spanish before this particular sense came into being.In fact,gringo may be an alteration of the word griego, the Spanish development of LatinGraecus, "Greek.” Griego first meant "Greek, Grecian,”as an adjective and "Greek, Greek language,” as a noun.The saying "It's Greek to me" exists in Spanish,as it does in English,and helps us understand whygriego came to mean "unintelligible language" and perhaps, by further extension of this idea,"stranger, that is, one who speaks a foreign language.”The altered formgringo lost touch with Greek but has the senses "unintelligible language,” "foreigner, especially an English person,”and in Latin America, "North American or Britisher.”Its first recorded English use (1849) is in John Woodhouse Audubon'sWestern Journal: "We were hooted and shouted at as we passed through, and called ‘Gringoes.’”在拉丁美洲，gringo 一词是对外国人， 尤其是英美人的不尊敬的称呼。但在有这一特定含义之前这个词已存在于西班牙语之中。事实上，gringo 也许是 griego 一词的变体， 而后者则是西班牙语对拉丁语中Graecus “希腊的”一词的发展。 Griego 开始作形容词时意为“希腊的”； 作名词时意为“希腊，希腊语”。在西班牙语中也有“这对我来说象希腊语一样”的说法，这同英语中一样。这就帮我们理解为什么griego 开始有“胡说八道”的意思， 随着这层意思地延伸，就指“陌生人，即一个讲外语的人”。gringo 的变体已与希腊毫无关系而却有了“胡说八道”、 “外国人，尤指讲英语的人”等含义；在拉丁美洲它更指“北美人或英国人”。此词有记载的第一次在英语中的运用（1849年）是在约翰·伍德豪斯·奥杜邦的西部游记 中： “我们走过时四周都是叫喊声、怪叫声和‘外国佬’的叫骂声”〔envy〕Why begrudge him his success?为什么不愿承认他的成功?〔how〕How is it that he left early?他为什么会这么早离开?〔scold〕"Why rail at fate? The mischief is your own" (John Greenleaf Whittier).“为什么要抱怨命运呢? 错过在于你自己” （约翰·格林利夫·惠蒂埃）〔black〕Use of the capitalized form has the advantage of acknowledging the parallel with other ethnic groups and nationalities,such asItalian and Sioux. It can be argued thatblack is different from these other terms because it was derived from an adjective rather than from a proper name.However, a precedent exists for the capitalization of adjectives used to denote specific groups,as in theReds and the Whites (of the Russian Civil War) or the Greens (the European political party). The capitalization ofBlack does raise ancillary problems for the treatment of the term white. Orthographic evenhandedness would seem to require the use of the uppercase formWhite, but this form might be taken to imply that whites constitute a single ethnic group,an issue that is certainly debatable.On the other hand, the use of the lowercase formwhite in the same context as the uppercase form Black will obviously raise questions as to how and why the writer has distinguished between the two groups.There is no entirely happy solution to this problem.In all likelihood, uncertainty as to the mode of styling ofwhite has dissuaded many publications from adopting the capitalized form Black. See Usage Note at color 大写字母的好处在于对于其他种族和民族平等关系的承认，如意大利人 和 苏人。 有人可以争辩说black 与其他词不同， 因为他是由一个形容词而不是专有名词派生而成的。但是，大写形容词意指一组人已有前例，如Reds 和 Whites （俄国内战中）或 Greens （欧洲政党）。 大写的Black 确实引起了该如何对待 White 一词的有关问题。 正字法的公正要求使用White 的大写形式White， 但这种形式可能被认为暗示白人组成了单独的种族，这是会引起争论的问题。另一方面，在有black 大写形式White出现的相同语境中使用 White 的小写形式white， 显然会引起如何及为什么作者要对这两组人区别对待的问题。这一问题尚无令人满意的解决办法。White 书写方式的不确定性很可能已经使许多出版物不再采用大写形式的 Black 参见 color〔go〕First I go, "Thank you,” then he goes, "What for?”我首先说：“谢谢，”他接着问，“为什么要谢我?”〔let〕Why don't you let up on the poor child?你为什么不能较宽容地对待这个可怜的孩子呢?〔limerick〕Etymologies can sometimes be a bit disappointing,as, for example,when one is told thatlimerick is named after a city or county in Ireland without being told why it is so named.Unfortunately, we run into a difficulty here that is not uncommonly faced by etymologists,namely, that no one is precisely sure why this piece of humorous verse was so named.One theory is that it was named for a group of poets who wrote in Limerick in the 18th century;another, that it came from a custom at parties of making up a nonsense verse and following it with a chorus of "Will you come up to Limerick.”In any case,the first limericks appeared in books published in 1820 and 1821,and the form was popularized by Edward Lear in a collection published in 1846.The word itself, however, is not recorded until 1896.Let us sum up by saying:"There once was a verse form named limerick./No one can account for the name of it./Some think from a game/Or from poets it came./If you know please come up to Limerick.”查看词源学后会经常令我们失望，这是因为，比如，当某人得知limerick 是由爱尔兰的一城市（或一个郡的）名字而来， 却并不告知这样命名的原因。不幸的是，我们碰到了一个词源学家经常遇到的难题，那就是，没有一个人能确定为什么这种幽默的诗歌这样命名。一种理论认为它是源于18世纪在利默里克写作的一群诗人；还有一种看法认为它是源于一种集会上的风俗，这种风俗要求写完一毫无意义的诗后众人合唱“你将去利默里克吗”。不管怎样，1820年和1821年出版的这种五行打油诗集子广为流传，爱德华·利尔于1846年出版的集子使这种形式得到普及。但是，这个单词直到1896年才有记载。我们可以通过这么说来总结：“曾经有种诗的形式名叫利默里克。/但没有人能解释它的名字。/有人认为源于一种游戏/或源于一群诗人。/如果你知道就到利默里克来。”〔speak〕"Why don't you speak for yourself, John?” (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow). “你为什么不替自己说话呢，约翰?” （亨利·华兹华斯·朗费罗）。 〔why〕For what purpose, reason, or cause; with what intention, justification, or motive:为什么：为什么目的、原因或起源；以什么目标、借口或动机：〔rambunctious〕The origins oframbunctious are not clearly established, a situation that may be better understood after looking at the evidence.The development that is generally accepted is from the wordrobustious, derived fromrobust and first recorded in a work written before 1548, torumbustious, first recorded in 1778, to rambunctious, first recorded in 1830, all three words having more or less the same meaning.But how didrobustious lead to rumbustious ? It has been suggested that the wordrumble played a part in this, although the wordrumbustion, meaning "the alcoholic beverage rum,” might also have been involved. The first form in whichrambunctious is recorded is rumbunctious, showing howrumbustious was involved in the alteration of robustious to rambunctious, but how the sound indicated bys became that indicated by nc or why the first u became a is a mystery. Rambunctious 的词源并没有十分清楚地确定， 看一下证据就能更好地理解这一点。通常认为它的发展过程是源于robustious 这个词， 它来自robust 并最早记载于1548年以前的一篇作品中， 至于rumbustious 则首次见载于1778年， rumbunctious 的最早的文字记载是在1830年， 这三个词的意思大致相同。但是robustious 怎样演变到 rumbustious 的呢? 有人认为，rumble 这个词起了一定的作用， 尽管rumbustion 意为“含酒精饮料甜酒，”但可能也参与了其演变。 Rambunctious 有记载的最早形式是 rumbunctious ， 这表明了rumbustious 这个词如何参与了从 robustious 到 rambunctious 的演变， 但s 所代表的声音是如何变成 nc 所代表的声音的或为什么第一个 u 变成了 a 仍然还是谜 〔peg〕I pegged her as an opportunist. Why do you have me pegged as the rowdy one?我把她视为机会主义者。为什么你认为我是行为粗暴的那一类人呢〔how〕How is it so:怎么会这样，为什么：〔Marsh〕American painter whose works, such asWhy Not Use the 'L? and The Bowery (both 1930), depict life in New York City. 马什，雷金纳德：(1898-1954) 美国画家，作品如《为什么不乘高架电车》 和 《鲍渥利街》 （均作于1930年）描绘了纽约的都市生活 〔how〕How is it that; why:怎么会；为什么：〔scribble〕It is not easy to think simultaneously of the carefully crafted writings of a trained scribe and the hastily scrawled jottings referred to by the wordscribble, but the two words are related.Scribe goes back to the Latin scrība, meaning "one who has charge of things such as public records or accounts,” scrība, in turn, coming from scrībere, "to write.” The Latin word was borrowed into English directly as well as by way of Old French (scribe ), giving us Middle English scribe, first recorded in a work written probably around 1200.People do not always write with great care,especially when pressed for time,as is shown by an early use of the verbscribble in a Middle English text: "Scribled in hast with mine owne hand in default of other helpe.”Hence it is easy to see why the verbscribble came into existence. From Latinscrībere English had formed its own verb scriben, "to write,” and probably from this verb with the addition of the suffix-el, denoting diminutive, repetitive, or intensive actions, came the Middle English word scriblen (first recorded around 1456), the ancestor of our wordscribble. 不容易同时想到由经过训练的抄写员细心写出来的字体和单词scribble 所指的匆忙中胡乱的涂写， 但是这两个字是有关联的。Scribe 可追溯到拉丁文 scriba 意思是“管理公众记录或记事的人”。 scriba 反过来，来自于 scribere, 即“写”。 这个拉丁文字通过古法语(scribe )被直接借入英语，这样我们就有了中世纪英语 scribe, 大概在1200年左右第一次被写入作品中。人们不是总能非常细心地写字，尤指当时间紧凑时，就如同在一个中世纪英语文章中scribble 的早期用法似的： “缺少其它帮助时用我自己的手匆匆地乱写”。因此很容易理解为什么动词scribble 出现了。 源于拉丁文scribere ，英语也形成了它自己的动词 scriben, “写”。 并用加上后缀-el, 表示小的、反复的或者强调的行为的单词，可能衍生了那个中世纪英语单词 scriblen （最早被记录于1456年左右）， 即我们现在的单词scribble 的前身 〔set〕He set out to understand why the plan had failed.他开始明白为什么计划失败了〔explain〕Why do you construe my silence as a sign of disapproval? 为什么你把我的沉默当成不同意的标志？ 〔larva〕The wordlarva referring to the newly hatched form of insects before they undergo metamorphosis comes from the Latin wordlārva, meaning "evil spirit, demon, devil.”To understand why this should be so,we need to know that the Latin word also was used for a terrifying mask,and it is this sense of the word that has come down to us.In Medieval Latinlarva could mean "mask or visor.” Larva is therefore an appropriate term for that stage of an insect's life during which its final form was still hidden or masked, and New Latinlārva was thus applied by Carolus Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist who originated our system of classifying plants and animals.The wordlarva is first recorded in English in its scientific sense in 1768, although it had been used in its "spirit" sense in 1651 and in a way that foreshadowed the usage by Linnaeus in 1691. larva 一词指昆虫在变形前刚孵化出来的幼虫， 来源于拉丁词larva ， 意为“邪恶的精灵，鬼怪，恶魔”。为了了解为什么，我们需要知道这个拉丁词语还用于指一种令人恐惧的面具，而且正是该词的这一层含义流传了下来。在中世纪的拉丁语中，larva 有“面具或面甲”的意思。 Larva 在形容昆虫成熟之前被隐藏或遮盖的这一段时期的时候，成为一个适合的名称， 这样新拉丁语的larva 一词首先由瑞典植物学家卡罗拉斯里纽斯赋予以上含义， 卡罗拉斯是首创动植物分类系统的第一人。虽然larva 一词在1651年曾经以其“精灵”一层意思被使用并在一定程度上预示了于1691年出现的里纽斯的用法，但是于1768年才以科学术语的形式首先在英语中出现的 〔how〕You say the answer is wrong. How so?你说答案是错的。为什么?〔irregardless〕The labelNon-Standard does only approximate justice to the status of irregardless. More precisely,it is a form that many people mistakenly believe to be a correct usage in formal stylebut that in fact has no legitimate antecedents in either standard or nonstandard varieties. (The word was likely coined from a blend ofirrespective and regardless. ) Perhaps this is why critics have sometimes insisted that there is "no such word" asirregardless, a charge they would not think of leveling at a bona fide nonstandard word such asain't, which has an ancient genealogy.给irregardless 贴上 Non-Standard 的标签只是对其地位做了近似恰当的评价。 更精确地说，许多人错误地相信它是正式语体中的规范用法，但实际上无论在标准或非标准变体中都没有这个词真正的前身。(该词可能是把irrespective 和 regardless 合在一起生造出来的。） 也许这就是为什么批评者们有时坚持认为“没有irregardless 这么个词”的原因， 他们不会把这项指责安在一个象ain't 这样一个正牌的非标准用词上， 因为这个词的家史渊源流长〔hopefully〕Writers who usehopefully as a sentence adverb, as inHopefully the measures will be adopted, should be aware that the usage is unacceptable to many critics,including a large majority of the Usage Panel.But it is not easy to explain why critics dislike this use ofhopefully. It is justified by analogy to the unexceptionable uses of many other adverbs,as inMercifully, the play was brief or 当作者们把hopefully 用作句中副词， 如在但愿这些措施能被采用 中时， 应当意识到很多批评家并不接受这一用法，其中包括用法专题小组的大多数成员。但是批评家们为什么不喜欢hopefully 的这个用法却并不容易解释。 与许多其他副词无可指摘的使用进行类比，它有着充分正当的理由，比如幸好，这出戏很短 或 〔presume〕Why do you assume that I'm angry?为什么你会认为我在生气?〔try〕Why don't you try and see if you can work the problem out between yourselves? See Usage Note at and “为什么你不试试看你自己能否解决这个问题?” 参见 and〔stodgy〕"Why is the middle-class so stodgy—so utterly without a sense of humor!”(Katherine Mansfield)See Synonyms at dull “为什么中产资级那么古板——丝毫没有幽默感！”(凯瑟琳·曼斯菲尔德) 参见 dull〔shoe〕You would understand my decision if you put yourself in my shoes.如果你处于我的位置，你就会明白我为什么会作这个决定了〔why〕Why is the door shut? Why do birds sing?门为什么关了?鸟为什么唱歌?〔various〕Various is sometimes used as a pronoun, as inHe spoke to various of the members. It is not clear why this usage should be regarded as an error, since it is supported by analogy to the uses of quantifiers such asfew, many, and several. But it has occasioned widespread critical objections;in an earlier survey the usage was found unacceptable by 91 percent of the Usage Panel.Various 有时用做代词， 如在他和成员中的好几个人谈过话。 因为，对数量词如few, many 和 several 的用法的类推支持这种用法，所以为什么这种用法被看做是一种错误就不明确了。 但是也遇到不同的广泛流传的批评性的反对，在一次早期调查中发现，用法专题使用小组的百分之九十一的成员对此用法不予接受〔period〕Perhaps more than once one may have wonderedwhy the wordperiod has the sense "punctuation mark ( . )” as well as some of its other senses having to do with time.The answer to this question lies in the senses of the Greek wordperiodos from which our word is descended. Periodos, made up of peri-, "around,” and hodos, "way,” meant such things as "going round, way round, going round in a circle, circuit,”and with regard to time "cycle or period of time.”The word also meant "the period of menstruation.”In rhetoric it referred to "a group of words organically related in grammar and sense.”The Greek word was adopted into Latin asperihodos with only its rhetorical sense and one other sense,but in Medieval Latin it reacquired senses it had in Greek,such as "cycle,” and acquired a new sense,"a punctuation mark used at the end of a rhetorical period.”Although this sense is recorded in Medieval Latin,it is not recorded in English until 1609.But the wordperiod had entered Middle English from Medieval Latin and Old French, first being recorded in a work written around 1425in the sense "a cycle of recurrence of a disease.”或许任何人都会不止一次的发出疑问，为什么period 有“标点符号（。）”的意思， 同时其它意思与时间有关。此问的答案来自我们的单词源自的希腊语单词periodos 的意思。 Periodos ，由意为“周围”的 peri- 和意为“方式”的 hodos 组成， 该词意味着“围绕…走，围绕…的路，转圈走，围绕，”同时也指时间，意为“一段时间或时间周期”。此词也意为“经期”。在修辞学中指“一组在语法和词意上有机相连的词。”这个希腊词作为perihodos 被拉丁文所采用， 仅带有修辞和一个其他的意思，但在中世纪拉丁语中它重新得到了它在希腊语中的意思，例如“周期”，后来又得到一个新的意思，即“用于修辞部分末尾的标点符号”。尽管此意在中世纪拉丁语中有记载，但直到1609年才在英语中有记载。而period 从中世纪拉丁文和古法语中进入中世纪英语， 并首次记载于约1425年所著的作品中，意为“疾病发作的周期”〔limbo〕Our use of the wordlimbo to refer to states of oblivion, confinement, or transition is derived from the theological sense ofLimbo as a place where souls remain that cannot enter heaven, for example, unbaptized infants.Limbo in Roman Catholic theology is located on the border of Hell, which explains the name chosen for it.The Latin wordlimbus, having meanings such as "an ornamental border to a fringe" and "a band or girdle,” was chosen by Christian theologians of the Middle Ages to denote this border region.English borrowed the wordlimbus directly, but the formlimbo that caught on in English, first recorded in a work composed around 1378,is from the ablative form oflimbus, the form that would be used in expressions such asin limbō, "in Limbo.” 我们用limbo 这个词指被忘却、监禁或过渡的状态， 此用法源于Limbo 的神学含义， 指那些不能升入天堂的灵魂（如未受洗的儿童）所在地。Limbo 在罗马天主教的教义中指位于地狱的边境， 这也是为什么选这个词指地狱的边境的原因。拉丁词limbus 有诸如“流苏或穗状的装饰性花边“和”嵌条或腰带”的意思， 中世纪的基督教神学家选用这个词来指这种边界地区。英语直接借用了limbus 这个词， 但出现于英语中的limbo 这种形式， 首次记载于1378年左右完成的作品中，它源自limbus 的夺格形式， 这种用法是在短语in limbo 中出现的，意思是“在地狱的边界地区” 〔Angelou〕American poet, playwright, and novelist best known for her autobiographical novels, includingI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970). 安吉娄，马亚：美国诗人、剧作家和小说家，以其自传体小说闻名，包括《我知道笼中鸟为什么歌唱》 （1970年） 〔credit〕Why should he get all the credit?为什么他受到了所有人的赞扬?〔what〕"I've often wondered why some good crime writer . . . hasn't taken up with New Orleans, what with its special raffishness, its peculiar flavor of bonhomie and a slightly suspect charm"(Walker Percy)“考虑到它那特殊的大胆不羁，它特有的欢乐气氛的风味以及它略为人所怀疑的魅力，我时常纳闷为什么一些很好的犯罪小说作家还没有对新奥尔产生兴趣”(沃克·珀西)〔strawberry〕Izaak Walton's 1655 comment,"We may say of Angling as Dr. Boteler said of Strawberries; Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did,”is perhaps the nicest use of the wordstrawberry in its history. This history goes back much further in English to the Old English period when the word is first recorded.We know thatstrawberry was formed during that period from the Old English ancestors of our words straw and berry. What is not known is why the wordstraw is the first part of this compound. One possibility is that the small, one-seeded fruits on the surface of a strawberry resemble fragments of straw.尹扎卡·沃尔顿在1655年的评论道，“我们可以谈论钓鱼就如同包特勒医生谈论草莓；无疑地，上帝可以创造一种更好的浆果，但毫无疑问他从来没有做”，这一评论可能是strawberry 这个词在其历史上最好的用法。 在英语中，这个词的最早记录历史可更远地追溯到古英语时期。我们知道，strawberry 这个词在那时来自于我们的词语 straw 和 berry 的古英语祖先。 为什么这个复合词的前半部分为straw 无从得知。 一种可能是草莓表面小的单个种子状的果实象稻草的碎片〔glum〕Why so glum? The votes haven't been counted yet.为什么那么气馁？选举结果还没出来呢。〔soldier〕Why do soldiers fight?One answer is hidden away in the wordsoldier itself. Its first recorded occurrence is found in a work composed around 1300,the word having come into Middle English (assoudier ) from Old French soudoior and Anglo-Norman soudeour. The Old French word,first recorded in the 12th century,is derived fromsol or soud, Old French forms of Modern French sou. There is no longer a French coin namedsou, but the meaning of the wordsou alerts us to the fact that money is involved. Indeed, Old Frenchsol referred to a coin and also meant "pay,”and asoudoior was a man who fought for pay. This was a concept worth expressing in an era when many men were not paid for fighting but did it in service to a feudal superior.Thussoldier is parallel to the word mercenary, which goes back to Latinmercēnnārius, derived frommerces, "pay,” and meaning "working for pay.”The word could also be used as a noun,one of whose senses was "a soldier of fortune.”士兵们为什么而打仗?其中一个答案就隐藏在soldier 这个单词里面。 在大约1300年的一本著作中发现了这个词的最早记载。这个词由古法语的soudoior 和盎格鲁诺曼底语中的 soudeour 进入中古英语（形式为 soudier )。 古法语中的这个单词，最早记录于12世纪，是由sol 或 soud ，现代法语单词 sou 的古法语形式衍变而来的。 已经没有叫做sou 的法国硬币了， 但是单词sou 的意思使我们意识到这和钱有关。 实际上，古法语中的sol 指的是一枚硬币， 也意味着“报酬”，而soudoior 是一个为了报酬而打仗的人。 在许多人打仗并没有得到报酬而是给封建王服役的时代里，这种概念是值得表达出来的。这样，士兵(soldier) 类似于 雇佣兵(mercenary) ， 可以追溯到拉丁文mercennarius ， 由merces “报酬”衍变而来， 意思是“为报酬而工作”。这个词也能当名词使用，其中的一个意思是“雇佣兵”〔wherefore〕For what purpose or reason; why.为何：为什么目的或原因，为何〔bylaw〕A casual glance at the wordbylaw might make one think that the element by- means "secondary, subsidiary,” especially sincebylaw can mean "a secondary law.” It is possible thatby-, as in byway, has influencedbylaw in the sense "secondary law"; however,bylaw existed long before the sense in question. The word is first recorded in 1283 with the meaning "a body of customs or regulations, as of a village, manor, religious organization, or sect.”By- in this word comes from Old Norse, as may the wordbylaw, and is related to if not identical with the element -by in the names of many places, such as Whitby, where Scandinavians settled when they invaded England during the early Middle Ages.We get the sense of this-by if we compare the related word entered as bær, b÷r, bȳr, in the standard dictionary of Old Icelandic, meaning "a town or village" in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark and "a farm or landed estate" in Iceland. We thus see whybylaw would mean "a body of customs of a village or manor" and why we use the word to mean "a law or rule governing the internal affairs of an organization.”随意瞟一眼单词bylaw 可能会使人想起前缀 by- ，意为“第二位的，次要的”， 因为bylaw 意为“附属的法规”。 可能因为前缀by- 位于 byway 中， 它影响了bylaw “附属法规”这一意义； 然而bylaw 一词在上述意义产生之前早已存在。 该词最初是在1283年以“一种习俗或规章体系，如村庄、县邑、宗教组织或派系之中”这种含义记载的。前缀By- 来自古斯堪的纳维亚语中， 正如bylaw 一词在许多地名之中与后缀 -by 若不是完全一致，就是彼此相关， 如惠特比，这是斯堪的纳维亚人在中世纪早期侵入英格兰之后的定居地。如果我们将古冰岛标准字典中的相关词bær, b÷r, bȳr （在挪威、瑞典和丹麦这些国家中意为“城镇或村庄”而在冰岛意为“农场或庄园”）加以比较，就会得出后缀 -by 的含义。 我们因而可以明白为什么bylaw 一词意为“村庄或县邑的习俗体系” 以及我们为什么使用其“一种法规或规则，用于管理一个组织的内部事务”这一意义 |
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