| 单词 | 也许 |
| 释义 | 〔firm〕In these days of agribusiness,a farm and a firm are probably closer than they have been since the time before the wordsfarm and firm developed from the same Latin word, firmāre, "to strengthen, make fast, confirm, attest,” which is derived from Latinfirmus, the source offirm, meaning "secure.” In Medieval Latinfirmāre came to mean "to ratify by signature,” from which sense eventually came our word firm, first recorded in 1574 with the meaning "signature.”This wordfirm later added the senses "designation under which a firm transacts business" and "commercial house.” Latinfirmāre by way of Old French also gave us Middle English ferme, the ancestor of our wordfarm. 大农场经营年代，农场和商行也许比在farm 和 firm 从同一拉丁语 firmare， 意为“加强，使牢固，使确定，使证明”发展来之前联系更为紧密， 它是从拉丁词firmus 派生而来， 即firm 一词的来源，意为“确定的”。 在中世纪拉丁语中，firmare 开始取意为“用签名来批准，”从此含义出发，最终有了我们的 firm 这个词， 1574年它首次被记录下来，意为“签名”。Firm 这个词后来增加了两个含义，“商行借以办理事务的名称”和“经商的房屋。” 拉丁词firmare 也通过古法语给了我们中世纪英语 ferme 这个词， 它是我们的单词farm 的前身 〔pickle〕Trade with the Low Countries across the North Sea was important to England in the later Middle Ages,and it is perhaps because of this tradethat we have the wordpickle. Middle Englishpikel, the ancestor of our word,is first recorded around 1400with the meaning "a spicy sauce or gravy served with meat or fowl.”This is a different sense from the one the word brings to mind now,but it is related somewhat in sense to its possible Middle Dutch sourcepekel, a solution, such as spiced brine, for preserving and flavoring food.After coming into Englishthe wordpickle expanded its sense range in several ways. It was applied, as it had been in Middle Dutch, to a pickling solution.Laterpickle was used to refer to something so treated, such as a cucumber. The word also took on a figurative sense,"a troublesome situation,”perhaps under the influence of a similar Dutch usage in the phrasein de pekel zitten, "sit in the pickle,” and iemand in de pekel laten zitten, "let someone sit in the pickle.” 在中世纪末，穿过北海与低地国家的贸易对英格兰来说非常重要，也许就是因为这种贸易，便有了pickle 这个词。 中世纪英语中的pikel ， 也就是我们这词的祖先，大约在1400年第一次被记录，意思是“加有肉或禽肉的多香料的调味汁或肉汁。”这与现在我们所想到的意思有所不同，但从其可能的中世纪荷兰语词源pekle 的意义上讲又有些关联， 该词指如加香料的卤水等用来腌制或保存食物的溶液。进入英语后，pickle 这个词的词义在很多方面扩大了其含义。 象在中世纪荷兰语那样，它被用来指一种腌制食物的溶液。后来pickle 又用来指如此腌制的东西，如腌黄瓜。 从而这个词也有了比喻意义，即“麻烦的境地，”这大概是因为受了荷兰语中有短语坐在卤水中 和 让某人坐在卤水中 的类似用法的影响 〔deceive〕"Perhaps if I wanted to be understood or to understand I would bamboozle myself into belief, but I am a reporter" (Graham Greene).“也许如果被理解或理解，我可以哄骗自己相信，可我是个记者” （格拉姆·格林）。〔retire〕Despite the upbeat books written about retiringand the fact that it is a well-earned time of relaxation from the daily rigors of work,many people do not find it a particularly pleasant prospect.Perhaps the etymology ofretire may hint at why. The ultimate source of our word is the Old French wordretirer, made up of the prefixre-, meaning in this case "back,” and the verb tirer, "to draw,” together meaning "to take back or withdraw.” The first use of the English wordretire is recorded in 1533 in reference to a military force that withdraws.It is not until 1667 that we find the word used to mean "to withdraw from a position for more leisure.”In regard to the sting in all thiswe need to look at the source oftirer, "to draw, draw out, endure,”which ultimately may be from Old Frenchmartir, "a martyr,” probably reflecting the fact that martyrs had to endure the torture of being stretched up to and beyond the point of dislocating their bones.尽管有关于退休的乐观书籍，以及退休是从日常工作的严酷中解放出来的极好时光的事实，许多人并没有发现它特别令人愉悦的地方。也许retire 的语源学暗示了原因。 这个词最早的来源是古法语单词retirer ， 由在此意指“向后”的前缀re- 及意为“拉”的动词 tiver 合在一起组成，意为“撤回或退回”。 英语单词retire 的使用则最早记录于1553年， 指撤退的军队。直到1667年我们才发现该词用于表达“为得到更多的闲暇而退出职位。”考虑到所有这些词的负面含义，我们有必要看看tirer 的词源， 其意为“拉，拉出，容忍，”它可能最初源于意为“殉道者”的古法语martir ， 这可能反映了一个事实，即殉者不得不忍受四肢被拉直至骨肉脱离的酷刑〔ragamuffin〕Perhapsragamuffin should be seen as an example of melioration, or improvement in the sense of a word, since it can now be used rather affectionately of children who are normally far from dirty or unkempt.In any event,even its use for an unkempt child or man represents something of an improvementover one of its earliest uses.Ragamuffin was a name given to a demon in Piers Plowman, an allegorical poem of the 14th century. This name was once thought to be the source of our word,but researches at theMiddle English Dictionary have shown that the word was used as the last name of a woman, Isabella Ragamuffyn, earlier in the 14th century (1344), before the poem was composed.The word even then had the sense "ragged lout, tattered oaf,”though it was found only in names.The elementraga- is probably from the Middle English adjective raggi, "ragged,” also used of the devil in the sense "shaggy" and as a name.The element-muffin is probably from Middle Dutch moffel or muffe, "mitten.” 也许ragamuffin 这个词应该看作词义变良或改善的例子， 因为它现在可以用来充满感情地指那些按常规来说远非肮脏或不整洁的孩子。不论如何，即使它被用来指那些不整洁的孩子或大人的时候，其用法较最初也有了很大提高。Ragamuffin 是14世纪的一部寓言诗 犁者码头 中一个魔鬼的名字。 这个名字一度被认为是本词的来源，但对中世纪英语词典 的研究表明这个词曾在14世纪早期(1344年）用作一位妇女的姓，伊莎贝拉·拉格姆芬， 这早于那首诗创作之前。这个词甚至还曾有衣裳破烂的粗人、褴褛的呆子的意思，尽管此词仅见于姓名。构词成分raga- 可能源自中古英语的形容词 raggi “破烂的”， 也曾以“毛长而参差不齐”这个意思用于魔鬼和人名。构词成分-muffin 可能来自中世纪荷兰语中 moffel 或意为“连指手套”的 muffe 〔abrash〕[possibly of Persian origin] [也许源自波斯语] 〔Kandahar〕A city of southeast Afghanistan near the Pakistan border southwest of Kabul. Perhaps founded by Alexander the Great in the fourth centuryb.c. , the city has long been important for its strategic location on the trade routes of central Asia. Population, 178,409. 坎大哈：阿富汗东南部一城市，毗邻巴基斯坦边界，位于喀布尔西南部。该市也许于公元前 4世纪由亚历山大大帝建立，一直是通往中亚的贸易路上的战略要地。人口178,409 〔posh〕"Oh yes, Mater, we had a posh time of it down there.”So inPunch for September 25, 1918, do we find the first recorded instance of that mysterious wordposh, meaning "smart and fashionable,”although in a 1903 book by P.G. Wodehouse,Tales of St. Austin's, there is a mention of a waistcoat that was "push.” The latter may be a different word,but in either case the dates of occurrence are importantbecause they are part of the objection to derivingposh from the initials of "Port Out, Starboard Home.” This was the cooler, and thus more expensive, side of ships traveling between England and India in the mid-19th century,and the acronymPOSH was supposedly stamped on the tickets of first-class passengers traveling on that side of ships owned by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. No evidence is definitely known to exist for this theory, however.TheOxford English Dictionary Supplement may have found a possible source or sources for posh. Another wordposh was 19th- and early 20th-century British slang for "money,” specifically "a halfpenny, cash of small value.”This word is borrowed from the common Romany wordpåšh, "half,” which was used in combinations such aspåšhera, "halfpenny.” Posh, also meaning "a dandy,” is recorded in two dictionaries of slang published in 1890 and 1902,although this particularposh may be still another word. This word or these words, however, are much more likely to be the source ofposh than "Port Out, Starboard Home,” although the latter source certainly has caught the public's etymological fancy.“哦是的，妈妈，我们在那里过着豪华的生活。”因此在1918年9月25日的punch 上， 我们看到了那个神秘单词posh 的首次记录， 意为“豪华的，时髦的，”虽然早在1903年P·G·伍德豪斯的名为圣·奥斯汀传说 的作品中就提及了意为"push"的马夹这个词。 后者也可能是另外一个不同的词，但在任何一种情况下两者被使用的时间都很重要，因为它们都反对posh 这个词源于"Port Out，Starboard Home。” 这是意指19世纪中期往来于英格兰及印度的船只中较凉爽、因而票价也就较为昂贵的一侧，而POSH 这个首字缩拼词据说就印在半岛——东方蒸汽船航运公司所拥有的船只上较为凉爽的一侧头等舱的票上。 然而对于这一说法并没有确凿的证据来加以证明。牛津英语词典增补本 也许为 posh 找到了一个或多个可能的词源。 另一个词posh 则是19世纪和20世纪初英国人用来表示“钱”的俚语， 尤指“半便士，小面值钱币。”这个词源于吉卜赛常用词på歨 ，意为“一半”， 用在诸如意为“半便士”的复合词på歨era 中。 Posh 也有“花花公子”之意， 这一用法记录于1890年及1902年出版的两本俚语词典中，尽管这个特有的posh 也有可能是另一个词。 然而这个词及上文提到的那些词比"Port Out，Starboard Home"更有可能是posh 这个词的词源， 虽然后者早被人们确认为这个词的词源〔cannot〕The idiomatic phrasecannot but has sometimes been criticized as a double negative, perhaps because it has been confused withcan but. Thebut of cannot but, however, means "except,” as it does in phrases such asno one but, while thebut of can but has the sense only, as it does in the sentenceWe had but a single bullet left. Bothcannot but and can but are established as standard expressions. · The constructioncannot help is used with a present participle to roughly the same effect as cannot but in a sentence such as We cannot help admiring his courage. But this construction is generally restricted to contextsin which a person is unable to affect an outcome that would normally be under his or her control.It would be more precise to sayWith all the public interest in the affair, the book cannot but attract the attention of reviewers (or . . . can but gain . . . )than to say the book cannot help attracting the attention of reviewers, which suggests that the book might have had a say in the matter. · The constructioncannot help but probably arose as a blend of cannot help and cannot but; it has the meaning of the first and the syntax of the second: 习语cannot but 有时候被判定为一种双重否定， 这也许是因为它已混淆于can but 。 然而cannot but 中的 but 表示“除了”， 就如用在象no one but 这样的短语中一样， 而can but 中的 but 意思却是 only（只有） ， 就如用在我们只剩下了一颗子弹 中那样。 cannot but 和 can but 都已被确定为标准的表达法。 cannot help 结构与现在分词同用的作用和 我们禁不住钦佩他的勇气 一句中的 cannot but 大致相同。 但这一结构通常只限于这种情况，即一个人在该情况下不能实现正常情况下处于他或她控制之下的结果。由于公众对该事件的浓厚兴趣，这本书理所当然地引起了评论家的注意 （或 …can but gain… ）的说法比暗示这本书在此事中想必有决定权的 这本书情不自禁地吸引了评论家的注意 说法要更为精确。 cannot help but 也许是来自 cannot help 和 cannet but 的混合； 它具有前者的意思和后者的句法结构： 〔roster〕To be told that the wordroster is related to a gridiron upon which one roasts meat might not come as a surprise, depending on what sort of rosters one's name has graced.The connection between the roster as we know it and a gridiron was made in Dutch,where the wordrooster, meaning "gridiron" (from the verb roosten, "to roast"), was extended in sense to mean "a table, list.”This extension was made because of the resemblance of a gridiron to a piece of paper divided by parallel lines that contains a list or table.The earliest use in English (first recorded in 1727) for the wordroster borrowed from Dutch was military, referring to a list or plan that outlined when officers, men, and bodies of troops should perform their turn of duty. Roster is no longer exclusively military in usage,nor does it mean simply a list of rotating turns of duty;one could perhaps even have a roster of meats to be roasted at a barbecue.如果说roster 一词与供烤肉用的烧烤架有关也许不会令人吃惊， 这就要看名字上了什么样的花名册。荷兰语把我们所知道的roster（花名册）与gridiron（烤架）联系了起来，rooster 意为“烤架”（源于动词 roosten ，意思是“烤”）， 词义延伸后意为“表格，名单”。该词之所以有这样的延伸义是因为烤架与被平行线分成表格的纸张有相似之处。roster 一词从荷兰语中借用后，在英语中（第一次记载于1727年）最早运用于军事， 指粗略记录军官、士兵和部队轮流执行任务的名单或计划。 Roster 不再为军队专用，也不仅仅表示“轮班的名单”的意思，烧烤时我们甚至可以用“烤肉的肉单”〔broker〕Giving gifts to one's broker might be justifiable from an etymological point of viewbecause the wordbroker may be connected through its Anglo-Norman source brocour, abrocour, with Spanish alboroque, meaning "ceremony or ceremonial gift after the conclusion of a business deal.”If this connection does exist,"business deal" is the notion shared by the Spanish and Anglo-Norman wordsbecausebrocour referred to the middleman in transactions. The English wordbroker is first found in Middle English in 1355, several centuries before we find instances of its familiar compoundspawnbroker, first recorded in 1687, and stockbroker, first recorded in 1706. 从词源的角度来说，送礼物给经纪人是有一番道理的。因为broker 一词也许通过英国法语的词源 brocour，abrocour 与西班牙语 alboroque 形成亲属关系， 而后者意为“一笔交易做成时作为礼节性的礼品”。如果这一关系的确存在，那么西班牙语词汇和英国法语词汇中都有“交易”这一概念。因为brocour 指做交易的中间人。 英语单词broker 第一次被发现使用，是在1355年的中世纪英语中， 距我们发现它的为人熟知的复合词pawnbroker （1687年第一次被记录下来）和 stockbroker （1706第一次被记录下来）已有好几个世纪了 〔parent〕The Usage Panel is better disposed to accept the verbparent than in previous surveys, though a majority continues to find it unacceptable.In 1968 it was acceptable to only 19 percent of the Panel;in the most recent survey45 percent accepted it in the sentenceIn looking for foster homes, we give preference first to relatives and second to families with prior experience in parenting. · The use of the verbparent to mean "act as a parent to" is not entirely new:it occurs as early as 1884 in a metaphorical context.But its use in a literal sense with respect to children is a recent development and reflects a modern reconceptualization of family life.The word is not completely synonymous with the traditional expressionraise a child, though the precise nature of the differences may depend on the context.For some speakers,use of the word suggests a self-conscious shift from child to parent as the focus of the parental relationship,and it may be this implication that feeds critical reservations about the verb.But the usage also reflects a widespread practical realizationthat the activities required of a parent extend well beyond the direct interactionwith the child emphasized inchild raising. Thus theparenting classes for young parents offered by schools and state agencies encompass not only the activities traditionally associated with raising a childbut also topics such as personal self-sufficiency, household financial management, and methods of dealing with schools and health care agencies.See Usage Note at father 用法小组比以往更倾向于接受动词parent 了， 虽然还有大部分人觉得不可接受。1968年仅有19％的小组成员认同这种用法；在最近的调查中，有45％的人接受了它,如在：在寻找收养家庭时，我们首先选孩子的亲戚，其次是有过养育孩子经历的家庭 这样的句子中的用法。 Parent 的意为“做…的父（母）”动词用法， 并不完全是个新用法：早在1884年，在一个比喻性的文章中就出现过了。但就孩子这方面而言，它的本义是近期发展的结果并反映了现代家庭生活的观念。这个词并不与习语 raise a child 完全同义， 尽管不同之处确切的性质可能取决于说话背景。但对一些人来说，使用这个词暗含一个把家长的关系作为重点的自觉的从孩子到父母的转换，也许正是这个隐含的用意引起了关于这个动词批评性的保留。然而，这个用法也反映了广泛的现实认识，即要求父母的活动扩展到超出直接与孩子的相互作用，这个相互作用在 child raising 这个短语中有所强调。 因此，由学校和国家专门部门向年轻家长提供的 parenting 课， 不仅包括传统上与抚养孩子有关的事务，而且还包括诸如个人自给自足、家庭财政管理和同学校和保健部门打交道的方法等课题 参见 father〔mirth〕"Perhaps [an English pub is] a place of rural jollity with log fires crackling and grinning farm lads slurping pints and squaring up to the dart board" (John Mortimer).“也许 是乡间欢乐的地方——木柴燃烧在发出爆裂声，咧嘴笑着的、咕嘟咕嘟地喝着一品脱一品脱酒的农场工们正围在飞标靶旁边” （约翰·莫蒂默）。〔dicker〕Perhaps a desire to see history repeat itself has been at work in the case of an etymology suggested for the verbdicker, first recorded in 1802with reference to horse trading and the haggling that accompanies it.In a work published in 1848James Fenimore Cooper used the word with reference to frontier trade.This use would support a connection with the noundicker, which denotes a quantity of ten and was a common unit used in trading hides or furs. If the verbdicker originated in the fur trade, a parallel would exist with the noundicker. The noun may have come into the Germanic languages and hence to English by way of trade or tribute in furs between the Germanic peoples and the Roman Empire, with the Germanic word coming from the Latin worddecuria, "a group of ten men,” which in Late Latin was used as a measure of skins. The difficulty with this parallel isthat no existing evidence proves conclusively the derivation of the verbdicker from the noun dicker. 关于对动词dicker 提出的词源问题，也许是想看看历史重演的一种欲望在起作用， 此单词第一次记载是在1802年，同马匹交易和与之伴随的价格争论有关。在1848年出版的一本著作中，詹姆斯·费尼莫尔·库珀根据边境贸易使用了这个词。这种使用将会支持与名词dicker 代表数量“十”并用于皮毛交易的联系。 如果动词dicker 起源于毛皮生意， 那么便会与名词dicker 一起并行存在。 该名词也许是随着来自于拉丁语decuria “十人一组”的日耳曼语单词一起（在拉丁语中它被用作皮革的计量单位），通过日耳曼人和罗马帝国之间毛皮交易或进贡的途径进入日耳曼语中，而从此以后进入英语中。 但是对于这种并行的困难是，没有现成的证据确凿地证明动词dicker 是从名词 dicker 中衍生来的 〔well〕Used as an adjective applied to people,well usually refers to a state of health, whereasgood has a much wider range of senses. It has always been a first principle of grammatical criticism that there should be no difference without a distinction,and perhaps for this reason, some critics have insisted that the expressionfeel good cannot be used in reference to health. It is true that there is a distinction betweenfeel well and feel good, but both can be applied to a state of health.Thus a patient suffering from a chronic disease might appropriately say to a doctorI feel good today, which implies a relative lack of physical discomfort.By contrast,I feel well today would be appropriate if the patient believes that the ailment has disappeared. See Usage Note at good 用作形容词来形容人时，well 通常指健康状况， 但是good 的意思更加广泛。 在语法评论中，没有区别就没有差别一直是第一性原则，也许正是因为如此，一些批评家坚持认为feel good 这一表达方式不能用来指健康。 诚然，feel well 与 feel good 有区别， 但是两者都可用来指健康。所以一位患有慢性病的病人完全可以对医生说I feel good today（我今天感觉不错） ， 这句话暗示着病痛相对减轻了。相反，I feel well today（我今天感到全好了） 也可以，如果病人确信病症已消失了 参见 good〔word〕A sound or a combination of sounds, or its representation in writing or printing, that symbolizes and communicates a meaning and may consist of a single morpheme or of a combination of morphemes.词，文字：一种声音或声音的结合，或以书写或印刷为代表，它象征或传达一个意思，也许包含一个词素或几个词素的组合〔Nostratic〕A hypothetical language proposed as the parent language of Afro-Asiatic, Altaic, Dravidian, Indo-European, Kartvelian, Uralic-Yukaghir, and perhaps other language families.乡土语：作为非亚、阿尔泰、德拉威、印欧、卡特威连、乌拉尔—尤卡吉尔以及也许其它语系的祖语而被提出的一种假设语言〔kaput〕The games people play can become deadly serious,as exemplified by the wordkaput. Our word is an adoption of the German word kaputt, whose senses are similar to those of the English word.German in turn borrowed this word from the French gaming tables,wherecapot as an adjective meant "not having won a single trick at piquet.” Devastating as this might be to a piquet player,it would surprise kibitzers to see how widely the word's range of meaning has been extended in German and English,in which it is first recorded in 1895.For example, one's car can be kaput and so can oneself.As for the ultimate source of Frenchcapot we cannot be certain,but it seems to go back to a modern Provençal word,of which the first element iscap, "head.” 人们在玩牌时可能变得非常认真，如kaput 一词例示的这个英语单词是吸收了德语 kaputt 一词演变而来的。 该德语词的词义与它的词义相似。而德国人又从法国人的赌桌上借用了该词。在赌桌上，capot 作为一个形容词又为“打皮克牌时未赢一圈的”。 尽管这样可能会令玩皮克牌的人晦气，旁观并议论牌局的人也许会吃惊地发现该词在德语和英语中的引申义是多么广泛。该词于1895年首次记载在德语和英语中。例如，车主的车可能会损坏，车主也可能失败。至于法语capot 一词的词源， 我们不甚了解，但似乎可以追溯到现代普罗旺斯语，其中的第一个成分cap 表示“头”的意思 〔ballyhoo〕The origin ofballyhoo has been the subject of much speculation. This spelling has actually graced four different words:ballyhoo, "sensational advertising"; ballyhoo, a spelling of balao, a kind of fish; ballyhoo, a part of the name ballyhoo bird, about which more later; andballyhoo, a sailor's epithet for a disliked ship. This lastballyhoo (first recorded in 1836) was thought to be related to, or the same as, the word ballahou, from Spanishbalahú, "a type of schooner common in the Antilles.” First recorded in 1867,ballahou, besides being a term for a specific kind of ship, was also used contemptuously of inferior ships.But the connection between these sailing terms or the name of the fish and our wordballyhoo, first recorded in 1901, has not been established. There may, however, be a tie betweenballyhoo and the creature called a ballyhoo bird. According to a July 1880 article inHarper's, the bird had four wings and two heads and could whistle through one bill while singing through the other.Anyone who has ever hunted a snipe will know what hunting ballyhoo birds was like.单词ballyhoo 的来源一直存在种种推测。 这个词的拼写实际上包含有四个不同的词：ballyhoo， 意为“耸人听闻的广告”； ballyhoo， 是 balao 的一种拼写，是一种鱼； ballyhoo， 是 ballyhoo bird 的一部分,其出现更晚； 还有一个是ballyhoo， 是水手对不喜欢的船的称呼。 这最后一个ballyhoo （最早记载于1836年）被认为与 ballahou 有关或相同， 该词来自西班牙语balahu， 意为“流行于安的列斯群岛的一种纵帆船。” 首次记载于1867年，ballahou 一词除表示一种特殊的船外， 还表示同时代的劣等船。但这些与航海有关的词或鱼类名称的词与我们所使用的、首次记载于1901年的一词ballyhoo 之间尚未建立联系。 然而也许ballyhoo 一词与被称为 ballyhoo bird 的生物之间有某种联系。 根据1880年7月哈帕斯 杂志中一篇文章的描写， 这种鸟有四翅双头，可以用其中一张嘴吹哨，同时用另一张嘴唱歌。任何曾经猎过鹬鸟的人将会知道捕猎“巴里嗬”鸟是怎样的一种情景〔mastiff〕The mastiff, which was at one time used in bullbaiting and bearbaiting as well as in dogfights,is ultimately named not for its fierceness but for its tameness.To find this tamenesswe must look back to the ultimate source ofmastiff in the Latin word mānsuētus, "tame, domesticated,” itself derived from the past participle ofmanusuēscere, "to tame,” made up of the rootman- found in the wordmanus, "hand,” and the verb suēscere, "to become accustomed to.” Tame beasts are accustomed to the hand.To explain howmansuēscere became mastiff, we must follow it through its Vulgar Latin development,.mansuētīnus, "domesticated,” and the later Old French development, mastin, "mastiff.” While being borrowed into English,mastin was probably blended with the Old French word mestif, "mongrel,” and was possibly influenced by the Medieval Latin wordmastīvus, "mastiff,” probably itself an error formastīnus, which came from the same Vulgar Latin source as the Old French word. Mastiff is first recorded in Middle English (as mastif ) in a work written before 1387. 曾经一度被用于纵狗斗牛、纵狗斗熊以及斗狗的大驯犬，最终并不是因为它的凶狠而是因为它的驯顺命名。要找到这种驯顺，我们必须回溯到mastiff 的最终拉丁语词源 mansuetus 意为“驯服，驯养”， 该词本身源于manusuescere “驯养”的过去分词， 由man- 构成， 始于manus （意为“手”）和动词 suesere “适应，习惯于”。 被驯养的野兽习惯于驯养者的手。要知道mansuecere 如何成 mastiff ， 我们必须紧跟它在俗拉丁语中的发展，mansuetinus （“驯服的”）以及后来古法语的发展 mastin “猛犬”。 当mastin 一词借用到英语中时，它可能和古法语词 mestif （“杂种狗”）相混合， 还可能受中世纪拉丁语词mastivus （“大驯犬”）的影响， 但也许这个词本身就是同样作为古法语词来源于俗拉丁语的mastinus 的误写。 Mastiff 在1387年的一部作品中首次出现在中世纪英语里（当时写作 mastif ） 〔fraction〕One might think that a word likefraction as well as its ancestors might have always referred to the mathematical fraction. Certainly the mathematical notion of a fraction was known to the Babylonians, perhaps as early as 2000b.c. But our wordfraction goes back only to the Latin word frangere, "to break.” From the stem of the past participlefrāctus is derived Late Latin frāctiō, "a breaking" or "a breaking in pieces,”as in the breaking of the Eucharistic Host.In Medieval Latin the wordfrāctiō developed its mathematical sense, which was taken into Middle English along with the word.The earliest recorded sense of our word is "an aliquot part of a unit, a fraction or subdivision,”found in a work by Chaucer written about 1400.One of the next recorded instances of the word recalls its origins, referring to the "brekying or fraccioun" of a bone.人们也许认为一个词如fraction 以及它的词源总是指数学上的分数。 当然，分数的数学概念也许早在公元前 2000年就已被巴比伦人所熟知。 但fraction 一词仅能追溯到拉丁词 frangere ，“打碎”。 源自过去分词fractus 的词干是派生的后期拉丁语 fractio ， 意为“破裂”或“碎成一片片的”，如感恩节的饼的碎块。在中世纪拉丁语中，fractio 一词出现了数学意义， 这个词连同此意义都被记入中世纪英语中。这个词最早记载的意义是“一个数学单元，繁分数或再分数的约数”，出现在约1400年乔臾写的一部作品里。后来此词有记录的例子之一，指骨头上的“裂痕或碎片”，使人回忆起它的起源〔kind〕To this may be added a word of caution to American writers:despite the existence of ample literary precedent forthese kind of films, the construction has been so thoroughly stigmatized by native grammariansthat its use would have to be reckoned indiscreet, if not strictly incorrect.关于这一点也许可以给美国作家加上一句警告：尽管有大量的像these kind of films 一样的文学上的先例存在， 这一结构已被本国的语法专家彻底否定掉，以至于它的用法即使不认为是严格的错误，也会被认作不慎重〔queasy〕[perhaps of Scandinavian origin] [也许来源于斯堪的纳维亚语] 〔jungle〕One might be surprised to learn that the wordjungle is not African in origin nor does it come from a word that only meant "land densely overgrown with tropical vegetation and trees.” Jungle goes back to the Sanskrit word jaṅgalam, meaning "desert, wasteland,”and also "any kind of uncultivated area, such as heavily forested land.”The Sanskrit wordjaṅgala- passed into various Indian languages and from one or more of these languages into English.In Englishjungle was used for land overgrown with vegetation, for the vegetation itself,and for such land outside India.The word was also extended figuratively in various ways.We have, for example, asphalt jungles, concrete jungles, blackboard jungles, academic jungles, corporate jungles,and, in a February 1972 issue of theGuardian, the government official who "lit up some lurid corners of the taxation jungle.”jungle 一词的词源不是非洲语，也不是来自仅仅意为“长满茂密的热带植物和树木的地带”的单词；知道这一点也许会让人吃惊。 Jungle 可追溯到梵语词 jangalam ， 其意为“荒漠，荒原”，也指“任何未开垦的地域，如茂密的森林”。梵语词jangala- 传入多种印度语中， 又从这其中的一种或多种语言再传入英语。在英语中jungle 用来指长满植物的地带， 指植物本身，也指印度以外的类似地带。该词也在多方面引申为比喻意义。例如，我们有柏油丛林、水泥丛林、黑板丛林、学术丛林、公司丛林，此外在1972年2月发行的一期卫报 上， 还出现了“揭露税收丛林中鲜为人知的龌龊勾当”的政府官员〔ermine〕[possibly of Germanic origin] [也许由日尔曼语演变而来] 〔industry〕A clear indication of the way in which human effort has been harnessed as a force for the commercial production of goods and services is the change in meaning of the wordindustry. Coming from the Latin wordindustria, meaning "diligent activity directed to some purpose,”and its descendant, Old Frenchindustrie, with the senses "activity,” "ability,” and "a trade or occupation,”our word (first recorded in 1475) originally meant "skill,” "a device,” and "diligence" as well as "a trade.”As more and more human effort over the course of the Industrial Revolution became involved in producing goods and services for sale,the last sense ofindustry as well as the slightly newer sense "systematic work or habitual employment" grew in importance, to a large extent taking over the word.We can even speak now of the Shakespeare industry,rather like the garment industry.The sense "diligence, assiduity,” lives on, however,perhaps even to survive industry itself.industry 有一个明显的含义，即指将人力组织转化成进行货物商业性生产和进行商业性服务的方法，而在有此含义前，这个词经历了多次变化。 这个词来源于拉丁文industria ， 意思是“为某种目的而进行的勤奋的活动”；后来这个拉丁字发展成古法语单词industrie ， 其意思是“活动性”、“能力”和“一种行业和职业”。英文单词（最早的记载是1475年）原意是“技巧”、“方法”、“勤奋”，也有“一种行业”之意。随着产业革命的开展，越来越多的人力被用于进行货物生产和商业服务，industry 最新的含义及其较新的意思“有组织的劳动或习惯性的雇佣”变得重要起来， 并逐渐成为这个词最主要的意思。现在，我们甚至在提到莎士比亚研究时，就象提及成衣制造业。不过，“勤劳、勤奋”这层含义仍在使用，也许只要这个单词存在，这层含义就不会消失〔care〕It is true that a close examination of the syntax of the phraseI could care less reveals that it ought by rights to mean something like "I care more than I might,” rather than "I don't care at all.” But while the illogicality of a phrase may be reason enough for excluding it from formal writing,this illogicality cannot be invoked as grounds for keeping it out of the colloquial language,particularly when the phrase is itself an expression of casual indifference.See Usage Note at cannot 对短语I could care less 的句法的仔细研究揭示，该短语按理应有类似“我极其在意，甚于我应该做的”的意思，而不表示“我一点儿也不介意”，这一点确凿无疑。 但是，尽管由于一个短语有不合逻辑性的含义，也许这一点足以使其不合逻辑的用法被排除在正式文体之外；这不合逻辑性却不能被援引作为把它排除在口语用法之外的根据，尤其是当该短语本身只是一个非正式的或随意的表达语时 参见 cannot〔about〕This use has lately been extended to refer to the relation between various nonlinguistic entities and the things they make manifest,as inThe party was mostly about showing off their new offices or His designs are about the use of rough-textured materials. This practice probably originates with the expressionThat's what it's all about and may partly reflect implicit deference to the postmodern doctrine that every social artifact and activity can be regarded as a text subject to interpretation. But the usage is still too voguish to have won general acceptance;it is rejected by 59 percent of the Usage Panel in the example 这种用法现已被扩展到表示各种非语言作品和它所表现的事物之间的关系，比如在该政党大肆吹嘘他们的新官员 或 他的设计使用天然质地的原材料。 这种用法可能是源自这就是全部情况 的表示法，也许部分地反应了一种内在的区别：以后现代主义的观点来看，每一社会产物或活动都可视为需解释的一种主题。 但这种用法流行期太短暂而没有得到普遍的认可；百分之五十九的用法小组人员都认为下面的例子是不正确的： 〔otherwise〕Otherwise I might have helped.不然我也许可以帮得上忙的〔nook〕[probably of Scandinavian origin] ; akin to Norwegian dialectal nōk [hook] [也许源自斯堪的纳维亚语的] ；类似于 挪威方言 nōk [钩子] 〔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〔porpoise〕from Old French [probably translation of a Germanic compound meaning sea-pig] 源自 古法语 [这个词也许是从一个意为“海猪”的德语合成词翻译过来的] 〔hamburger〕After having eaten countless hamburgers,one may perhaps be interested in knowing more about the origins of the name.By the middle of the 19th century people in Hamburg, Germany,the busiest port in West Germany today,enjoyed pounded beefsteak in some form.Perhaps brought to America by the large numbers of Germans who migrated around that time,this sort of dish with the nameHamburg steak may have appeared on a menu as early as 1836. The first recorded use ofHamburg steak is found in 1884 in the Boston Journal, withhamburger steak being first recorded in a Walla Walla, Washington, newspaper in 1889. A 1902 cookbook contains a recipe for Hamburg steak that is closer to our conception,a recipe using ground beef mixed with onion and pepper.The hamburger was on its way,as was the Americanismhamburger. 在吃完了数不清的汉堡包之后，人们可能会有兴趣更多地知道一些关于这个名字由来的知识。直至19世纪中叶住在德国汉堡，这个今日德国最为繁忙的港口的人们，喜欢把牛排捣碎成一定形状。也许是被当时的大量德国移民传至美洲，这道以Hamburg steak 命名的菜最早出现在菜单上是在1836年。 Hamburg steak 第一次见诸于铅字是在1884年的 波士顿日报 ， 而hamburger steak 第一次见诸于铅字是在1889年华盛顿州的沃拉沃拉市的一家报纸上。 到1902年烹饪书上关于汉堡牛排的调制法与我们今天的概念已经很接近了，就是用碎牛肉和洋葱与胡椒粉拌在一起。汉堡包已被广泛使用，如美国方式的hamburger 〔debut〕probably because of the association of the form with the language of show-business publicity.这也许是因为其形式和娱乐界广告的语言之间有联系的缘故〔Kanaka〕Kanaka, which simply means "human being" in Hawaiian, is mostly found today in historical contextsand is not usually appropriate in ordinary discourse.As with many terms that refer to ethnic identity,Kanaka can suggest ethnic pride in some contexts while in others it may be taken as derogatory.Kanaka 在夏威夷语中意思是“人”。 现今该词主要在历史语境中出现，通常不适用于普通的交谈中。正如许多指称种族特性的术语，Kanaka 在某些语境中含有种族自豪的意思， 而在另一些语境中也许被当作贬义语〔cappuccino〕The history of the wordcappuccino exemplifies how words can develop new senses because of resemblances that the original coiners of the terms might not have dreamed possible.The Capuchin order of friars, established after 1525,played an important role in bringing Catholicism back to Reformation Europe.Its Italian name came from the long, pointed cowl,orcappuccino, derived fromcappuccio, "hood,” that was worn as part of the order's habit.The French version ofcappuccino was capuchin (now capucin ), from which came EnglishCapuchin. The name of this pious order was later used as the name (first recorded in English in 1785) for a type of monkey with a tuft of black, cowllike hair.In Italiancappuccino went on to develop another sense, "espresso coffee mixed or topped with steamed milk or cream,”so called because the color of the coffee resembled the color of the habit of a Capuchin friar.The first use ofcappuccino in English is recorded in 1948 in a work about San Francisco. cappuccino 一词的历史很好地说明了词语如何可以因一些相似性而发展出新的意思， 而这些词的创造者也许做梦都没想过这些相似性是可能的。嘉布遣会建于1525年后，在将天主教带回经历宗教改革的欧洲的过程中发挥了重要作用。它的意大利语名称来自一种长而尖的蒙斗篷，或称cappuccino， 这个词又来自coppuccio， 意为“风帽”， 蒙头斗篷是这一派修士所穿衣服的一部分。Cappuccino 在法语中成了 capuchin （现在是 capucin ）， 英语中的Capuchin 就来自这个法语词。 这一虔诚教派的名字后来被用来作一种带一撮黑色的、蒙面斗篷似毛发的驴子的名字（于1785年首次用英语记录）。在意大利语中，cappuccino 接着又发展出一个新的意思， 意为“混以或加入煮过的牛奶或奶油的浓别啡，”这样叫是因为这种咖啡的颜色类似于嘉布遣会修士所穿衣服的颜色。Cappuccino 在英语中的第一次使用记载于1948年一本关于旧金山的著作中 〔junk〕The wordjunk is an example of the change in meaning known as generalization, and very aptly too, since the amount of junk in the world seems to be generalizing and proliferating rapidly. The Middle English wordjonk, ancestor of junk, originally had a very specific meaning restricted to nautical terminology.First recorded in 1353,the word meant "an old cable or rope.”On a sailing ship it made little sense to throw away useful materialsince considerable time might pass before one could get new supplies.Old cable was used in a variety of ways,for example, to make fenders,that is, material hung over the side of the ship to protect it from scraping other ships or wharves.Junk came to refer to this old cable as well. The big leap in meaning taken by the word seems to have occurred whenjunk was applied to discarded but useful material in general. This extension may also have taken place in a nautical context,for the earliest, more generalized use ofjunk is found in the compound junk shop, referring to a store where old materials from ships were sold.Junk has gone on to mean useless waste as well. Junk 一词是被称为词义扩大化的例子；由于世界上垃圾的数量正在迅速扩散和激增，该词词义的扩大也是很适宜的。 junk 一词源自古英语单词 jonk ， 其最初的意思只限于航海术语当中。1353年首次记载下来时，该词义为“旧缆绳或旧绳子”。在帆船上，扔掉有用的东西是不明智的，因为也许要过去好长一段时间才有可能得到新的供应品。旧缆绳可用在很多不同的方面，例如用来做防撞物，即悬在船舷上保护船舷不受其它船只或码头刮擦的材料。Junk 同样也用来指旧缆绳。 当junk 普遍地被用来指丢弃了的然而有用的材料时，该词的词义发生了巨大的变化。 该词的词义延伸也可能已经出现在与航海有关的背景中，因为junk 一词最早的、更为概括性的使用是在 junk shop 这一复合词中发现的。 该词指出售船上旧材料的商店。Junk 仍继续用来指没用的废旧物品 〔process〕In recent yearsthere has been a tendency to pronounce the plural ending-es of processes as (-ēz), perhaps by analogy with words of Greek origin such asanalysis and neurosis. Butprocess is not of Greek origin, and there is no etymological justification for this pronunciation of its plural.The pronunciation may someday become so widespread as to be a standard variant,but it still strikes some listeners as a bungled affectation.近年来，有把processes 的复数词尾 -es 读成(-ez)的趋势， 这也许与源于希腊语的词analysis 和 neurosis 相似。 但是process 不是来源于希腊语， 因此从词源学的角度来说，其复数形式不应这么发音。或许有一天这种发音会被广泛采用而成为标准的变体，但仍有一些人听了这种发音后会觉得这是一种拙劣的矫揉造作〔ponder〕"And musing there an hour alone,/I dreamed that Greece might still be free" (Byron).“在那默想一个钟头，/我梦见希腊也许仍然自由” （拜伦）〔lagniappe〕Lagniappe derives from New World Spanish la ñapa, "the gift,” and perhaps ultimately from Quechua yapay, "to give more.” The word came into the rich Creole dialect mixture of New Orleans and there acquired a French spelling. It is still used chiefly in southern Louisiana to denote a little bonus that a friendly shopkeeper might add to a purchase. By extension, it may mean "an extra or unexpected gift or benefit.” Lagniappe 源于新大陆西班牙语中的 la~napa （“礼物”），而且也许最终来自盖丘亚语中的 yapay （“给得更多”）。这个词进入了新奥尔良富有的克里奥耳人的对话用语并因此具有了法语的拼法。直至今日它还是主要用于路易斯安那州的南部，用来形容那些友好的店主们可能会在你所购物之外给予额外的东西。根据它的延伸意，该词可以指“额外的或意料不到的礼物或收益。” |
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