| 单词 | 事实上 |
| 释义 | 〔gift〕Gift has a long history of use as a verb meaning "to present as a gift; endow.” The practice appears to provide a useful distinction,in as much as the verbgive can sometimes be ambiguous between "to transfer physical possession" and "to transfer ownership"; and in fact a verb analogous togift is found in a number of other languages (for example, Italianregalare, "to give as a gift,” from regalo, "gift, present"). Unfortunately the verbal use ofgift in Modern English is irredeemably tainted (as is its derivative giftable ) by its association with the language of advertising and publicity (as in Gift her with this copper warming plate ). In an earlier surveythe usage was rejected by a large majority of the Usage Panel.Where clarity is required, substitutessuch asgive as a gift, bestow, or donate are recommended. · The phrasefree gift should, of course, be considered redundant. But the increasing currency of its use is indicative mainly of the degree to which the wordgift itself has been expropriated by advertisers to refer to merchandise offerings to which an obligation is attached—if not a direct price, then taking a test drive,sitting through a sales pitch, or enrolling in a book club.It is perhaps to this use ofgift, rather than to the redundancy free gift, that critics ought most strenuously to object. Gift 作动词意为“赠送礼物，赠予”的用法已有很长的历史了， 这种惯用法的出现提供了有用的区分，因为作为动词give 可能有时会在“传递有形财产“和”传递所有权“之间有模棱两可的意思； 但事实上类似于gift 的词是在其它语言上建立起来的 （如意大利语的regalare “作为礼物给予”来自于 regalo “礼物，礼品”）。 不幸的是gift 在现代英语中动词性质的用法由于广告语言和公众语言的联系而不可挽回地被污染了（如它的派生词 giftable ）（又如在 给她这个铜暖盘作为礼物 ）。 在较早的一个调查中，这种用法被大部分的用法专题使用小组的成员所反对。为了在此处的用法更清晰的一些替代词，如give as a gift, bestow 或 donate 被采纳了。 词组free gift 自然是应该被认为是多余的， 但是这种用法的迅速使用主要表示了gift 这个词被广告商所侵用而用来指提供商品优惠是一种附加的义务——如果不是直接的价格， 那么就参加一次竞赛活动，等待商品广告宣传或在一个读书俱乐部中报名登记。也许gift 的这种用法应该比冗余的 free gift 更为批评家所坚决反对 〔underling〕People trying to build their vocabulary often study affixes,a not unreasonable way to proceed.But studying a group of words that share an affix can be fascinating in its own right in the way that studying common features in a photograph of an extended family can be fascinating.The suffix-ling is Germanic in origin and had several uses already in Old English.For example, it could be added to a noun to make a second noun that referred to something connected with or similar to the first noun;thus, adding the suffix to the Old English wordyrth, "ploughland,” produced the Old English word yrthling, "plowman.” The suffix could also be added to an adjective to make a noun that referred to something having the quality denoted by the adjective:from Old Englishdēore, "dear, beloved,” was derived dēorling (Modern English darling ). Adding-ling to an adverb produced a noun referring to something having the position or condition denoted by the adverb: from Old Englishunder came underling. The last use of the-ling family to be described here was actually borrowed from another Germanic source, Old Norse. The Old Norse version of the-ling suffix was used to form diminutives; thus, our wordgosling was a borrowing in Middle English of an Old Norse word, gæslingr, "gosling.” 想要扩大词汇量的人常常去研究词缀，这不失为一种明智的方式。就象研究一个扩大了的家庭的照片中家人的共同特征一样吸引人，研究一组词缀相同的单词本身可能也会令人意醉神迷。-ling 这一后缀源于日耳曼语， 在中古英语中便已有已几种用法。例如，它可以和一个名词相连形成另一个与之关联或相似的名词；这样，把这个后缀加到古英语单词yrth “耕地”后边便形成了另一古英语单词 yrthling “农夫”。 这个后缀还可以加在一个形容词后边形成具有该形容词所示特征的名词：从古英语单词deore, “亲爱的，被爱的”中派生出 deorling （现代英语中的 darling )。 把-ling 加在一副词后边可以产生具有该副词所示情况或状态的名词： 从中古英语的under 形成 underling 。 这里所要描述的-ling 家族的最后一个用法事实上是来源于另一支日耳曼语言，古挪威语。 在古挪威语中-ling 这一后缀被用作小后缀； 这样，我们的单词gosling 便是中世纪英语中的一个外来词，来源于古挪威语单词 goeslingr, “小鹅” 〔haywire〕It may seem oddthat the wordhaywire should have come to describe something or someone that is not functioning properly. Haywire originally was in fact simply a compound of the words hay and wire, denoting wire used to bale things such as hay or straw.The term is first recorded as a noun in a debate that occurred in the Canadian House of Commons (1917);hence it is a Canadianism, or since it soon thereafter appeared in a United States publication, a North Americanism.We find an earlier (1905) attributive use,however, in the phrasehay wire outfit, a term used contemptuously for poorly equipped loggers. What lies behind this term is the practice of making repairs with haywire.Haywire is found in other contexts with the general sense "makeshift, inefficient,” from which comes the extended senses "not functioning properly" and "crazy.”看起来或许很奇怪，haywire 一词竟可以用来形容某物或某人不能正常运转。 事实上，haywire 是由 hay 和 wire 两个词组成的一个简单复合词， 指用来捆绑诸如干草或麦秆的铁丝，这个词在1917年加拿大众议院的一次辩论中第一次以一个名词的形式被记录下来，因此这是一个加拿大俗语或者说是北美俗词，因此这词很快就出现在美国出版物中。我们可以找到一个更早的（1905年）形容性用法，词组hay wire outfit, 是对装备不足的伐木工人的鄙称。 这个词的内涵是指准备用铁丝捆干草的工作。在其它语境中，haywire 被用来表示“临时的，效率低的”这种笼统的意思， 由此扩展出“不能正常工作的”以及“疯狂的”这些意义〔really〕In actual truth or fact:实际上：确实地或事实上：〔dervish〕The worddervish calls to mind the phrases howling dervish and whirling dervish. Certainly there are dervisheswhose religious exercises include making loud howling noises or whirling rapidly so as to bring about a dizzy, mystical state.But a dervish is really the Moslem equivalent of a monk or friar,the Persian worddarvēsh, the ultimate source of dervish, meaning "religious mendicant.”The word is first recorded in English in 1585.Dervish 一词让人想起 howling dervish 以及 whirling dervish 这些词组。 当然，有这样的托钵僧，他们的宗教活动包括大声号叫、快速旋转以令人进入昏眩、神秘的状态。但托钵僧事实上是穆斯林僧侣或行乞道士，波斯词darvesh 是 dervish 的起源， 其意思是“宗教行乞者”。该词于1585年第一次记载于英语中〔challenged〕People who object to the termsdisabled and handicapped as being too negative sometimes propose the substitution of challenged instead, as in referring to persons with physical disabilities as physically challenged. While this particular phrase is quite popular, it is sometimes taken to be condescending, and similar usages such as mentally challenged have failed to win equal acceptance. Indeed, the widespread parody of challenged in such expressions as electronically challenged for "inept at using computers" has effectively eliminated it as an all-purpose alternative to disabled or handicapped. 一些觉得使用disabled 和 handicapped 字眼过于负面的人，偶会以委婉的 challenged 代替，如用 physically challenged 指肢体有缺陷。这个特别词汇的使用相当普遍，因为有时会被视为较谦逊的用法，不过相似用法的接受度不一定相同， mentally challenged 这个用法便无法获得相同的认同。事实上，广为流传的 challenged 谐谑用法如以 electronically challenged（计算机残障） 来形容计算机白痴，已使得其全面替代 disabled 或 handicapped 沦为梦想 〔hooker〕In hisPersonal Memoirs Ulysses S. Grant described Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker as "a dangerous man . . . not subordinate to his superiors.” Hooker had his faults, of course.He may indeed have been insubordinate;undoubtedly he was an erratic leader.But there is one thing of which he is often accused that "Fighting Joe" Hooker certainly did not do:he did not give his name to prostitutes.According to a popular story,the men under Hooker's command during the Civil War were a particularly wild bunch.When his troops were on leave,we are told, they spent much of their time in brothels.For this reason, as the story goes,prostitutes came to be known ashookers. It is not difficult to understand how such a theory might have originated.The major general's name differs from the wordhooker only in the capital letter that begins it. And it is true that Hooker's men were at times ill-disciplined (although it seems that liquor, not women, was the main source of their difficulties with the provost marshal).However attractive this theory may be,it cannot be true.The wordhooker, with the sense "prostitute,” is in fact older than the Civil War. It appeared in the second edition (although not in the first) of John Russell Bartlett'sDictionary of Americanisms, published in 1859.Bartlett definedhooker as "a strumpet, a sailor's trull.” He also said that the word was derived from Corlear's Hook,a district in New York City,but this was only a guess.There is no evidence that the term originated in New York.Norman Ellsworth Eliason has traced this use ofhooker back to 1845 in North Carolina. He reported the usage inTarheel Talk; an Historical Study of the English Language in North Carolina to 1860, published in 1956. The fact that we have no earlier written evidence does not mean thathooker was never used to mean "prostitute" before 1845. The history ofhooker is, quite simply, murky; we do not know when or where it was first used,but we can be very certain that it did not begin with Joseph Hooker.Also, we have no firm evidence that it came from Corlear's Hook.Scholarly evidence or lack thereof notwithstanding,the late Bruce Catton, the Civil War historian, did not go so far as to exonerate completely the Union general.Although "the term ‘hooker’ did not originate during the Civil War,”wrote Catton, "it certainly became popular then.During these war years, Washington developed a large [red-light district] somewhere south of Constitution Avenue.This became known as Hooker's Division in tribute to the proclivities of General Joseph Hookerand the name has stuck ever since.”If the termhooker was derived neither from Joseph Hooker nor from Corlear's Hook, what is its derivation?It is most likely that thishooker is, etymologically, simply "one who hooks.” The term portrays a prostitute as a person who hooks, or snares, clients.尤利西斯·S·格兰特在他的个人回忆录 中把陆军少将约瑟夫·胡克描写成“一个危险人物…从不服从于他的顶头上司”。 胡克当然有他的缺点。他也许曾是一个难以屈服的人；但他无疑是一个怪癖的军官。但是“好战的乔”，胡克却因为一件他肯定没有干过的事情而屡遭指责；他从不对妓女透露他的姓名。根据一个流行故事，内战中胡克的手下有一伙特别狂野的人们。当他的队伍即将离开时，据说他们总在妓院里消磨时日。故事还说正因为如此，妓女开始被叫做hookers。 我们不难理解这样一个故事的起源的推测。这个将军的名字和hooker 只差开头的一个大写字母。 而且胡克的手下在当时确实纪律涣散（尽管看来是酒而非女人才导致了他们与宪兵司令之间的矛盾）。不管这个故事多么诱人，它不可能是真实的。事实上hooker 一词作为“妓女”的意思比内战的历史还要早。 它出现于约翰·罗素·巴特利特编纂的美国俗语词典 的第二版（尽管第一版中没有）， 出版于1859年。巴特利特把hooker 定义为“一个妓女，水手的妓女”。 他还说这个词来源于科利尔的胡克，纽约市的一个地区，但这只是一个猜想。没有证据证明这一说法源于纽约。诺曼·爱尔斯华斯·艾利森把hooker 的用法追溯到1845年的北卡罗来纳州。 他在1956年出版的北卡罗来纳州闲话； 1860年前北卡罗来纳英语历史研究 中说明了这一用法。 缺乏早期书面证据这一事实并不意味着在1845年之前hooker 没有被用作“妓女”一义。 很简单，hooker 的历史隐晦难知； 我们不知道它在何时何地被首次使用，但我们可以肯定它并不始于约瑟夫·胡克。而且我们没有确凿证据证明它来源于科利尔的胡克。不管有无学术性的证据，已故的内战历史学家布鲁斯·卡通并没有做到为联邦将军彻底开脱的地步。尽管“‘hooker’这一词语并不是来源于内战，”卡通写道，“在那之后它肯定流行了起来。在战争年代，华盛顿在宪法大街南部某个地方发展了很大的［红灯区］。人们把这里称作胡克的辖区，作为对约瑟夫·胡克将军怪癖的献礼，这个名字从此便生根发芽”。如果hooker 这一词语既不是源于约瑟夫·胡克也不来自于科利尔的胡克， 那么它的词源究竟是什么呢?从词源学上来说hooker 很有可能仅仅是“引…上钩的人”。 这一词语把妓女描绘成一个勾引或引诱客人的人〔literally〕The practice does not stem from a change in the meaning ofliterally itself—if it did, the word would long since have come to mean "virtually" or "figuratively"—but from a natural tendency to use the word as a general intensive meaning "without exaggeration,”as inThey had literally no help from the government on the project, where no contrast with the figurative sense of the words is intended.This looser use of the wordliterally does not usually create problems, but it can lead to an inadvertently comic effect when the word is used together with an idiomatic expression that has its source in a frozen figure of speech,such as inI literally died laughing. 这一用法并不根源于literally 本身意义的演变——如果是这样的话， 这个词早就会有“几乎”或“比喻地”的意思——而是来源于把这个词用作一个一般的加强词表示“毫不夸张”这样一个自然趋势，正如在事实上他们没有获得政府对这一计划的帮助 中， 并没有与句子的喻意形成任何对比。literally 的这一不精确的用法通常并不会产生什么问题， 但当它与一个源于固定修饰的俗语连用时，会偶尔产生喜剧性效果，如我真的笑死了 〔he〕Beginning early in the 20th century, however,the traditional usage has come under increasing criticismfor reflecting and perpetuating gender discrimination. ·Defenders of the traditional usage have argued that the masculine pronounshe, his, and him can be used generically to refer to men and women. This analysis of the generic use ofhe is linguistically doubtful.Ifhe were truly a gender-neutral form, we would expect that it could be used to refer to the members of any group containing both men and women.But in fact the English masculine form is an odd choice when it refers to a female member of such a group.There is something plainly disconcerting about sentences such as 可是从20世纪早期起，传统用法不断受到指责，因为它反映并长久维持性别歧视。传统用法辩护者认为阳性代词he，his 和 him 可以用来指代男人和女人的总称。 有关he 的属性用法的分析， 从语言学角度上来说，是有疑问的。如果he 果真是一个中性形式， 我们猜想它可以用来指代任何包含有男人和女人的群体中的成员。但事实上，在英语中用阳性形式来指代上述一群体中的女性成员构成一种很奇特的选择。如下面这个句子中明显存在使人困窘之处： 〔gremlin〕Elves, goblins, and trolls seem to be the timeless creations of the distant past,but gremlins were born in the 20th century.In fact,gremlin is first recorded only in the 1920's, as a Royal Air Force term for a low-ranking officer or enlisted man saddled with oppressive assignments. Said to have been invented by members of the Royal Naval Air Service in World War I,gremlin is used in works written in the 1940's for "an imaginary gnomelike creature who causes difficulties in aircraft.”The word seems likely to have been influenced bygoblin, but accounts of its origin are various and none are certain.One source calls in Fremlin beer bottles to explain the word;another, the Irish Gaelic wordgruaimín, "ill-humored little fellow.” Whatever the word's origin,it is certain that gremlins have taken on a life of their own.小精灵、小妖怪和侏儒似乎很久以前就被创造出来而且流传至今，而小妖精一词则是20世纪的产物。事实上，gremlin 在20世纪20年代首次被记录下来时为皇家空军对一个承受严酷任务的低级军官或征召者的称呼。 据说这是在第一次世界大战中由皇家空军的成员创造出来的。1904年，gremlin 被用在书面的作品中， 意为“一种想象中的在飞机上制造麻烦的小生物。”这个词看起来很有可能受了goblin 一词的影响， 但对其词源说法不一，莫衷一是。一种说法用弗来姆林啤酒瓶来解释这一词；而另一种认为爱尔兰凯尔特语词汇gruaimin 意为“坏脾气的小家伙”为其词源。 不管源自何处，有一点是肯定的，小妖精自身有其生命力〔themed〕Their disapproval may stem from the inference that this adjectival participle must come from a verb "to theme,” rather than from the nountheme (as left-handed comes from the noun hand ). Although many common verbs, such as telephone, began their lives as nouns, there is often very strong resistance when a noun first begins to be used as a verb. There are indeed instances of theme being used as a verb, but they are relatively rare—a fact that seems to suit the Usage Panel. Ninety-two percent reject the sentence 他们不赞同的理由或许源自于此形容词themed应该自动词"to theme（设计主题）”而来，而不是从名词theme 而来（如 left-handed 源自名词 hand ）。虽然许多普通动词原本是名词，如 telephone ，但当名词开始当动词用时常会引起激烈反对。事实上像 theme 这样用作动词的例子相对较少——看来它较迎合用法专家小组。92%的小组成员反对此句型 〔practically〕For all practical purposes; virtually.实质地：从实际出发地；实际上，事实上〔stampede〕The Spanish wordestampida, meaning "explosion, bang, crash, uproar,” seems very fitting to describe a rush of animals, such as buffaloes, horses, or cattle,and was so used first in American Spanish.From this use came our wordstampede (actually from the Spanishestampido, a masculine noun corresponding to the feminine estampida, first recorded in 1828). Thusstampede, now a general English word, is an Americanism, that is, a word or expression that originated in the United States.Later the United States was to see stampedes of miners who rushed westward to find gold.Not surprisingly, an early instance of this word to describe a stampede of human beings is found in theSan Francisco Herald in 1851. 西班牙语estampida 的意思是“爆炸，巨响，击碎，吼叫”， 似乎很适合形容兽群如野牛、马群或牛的惊跑，并且首先被使用于美国西班牙语中。由此就出现了我们的stampede （事实上源于与西班牙语estampida 相对应的 estampido ，于1828年首次被记录下来）。 因此，stampede ，一个目前很普遍的英语词，是一种美国英语， 也就是说来源于美国的一个单词或词组。后来，美国目睹了成千上万向西淘金的人群。1851年在旧金山的先驱 中出现了形容大批人群蜂拥而至的这个字就不足为怪了 〔cushy〕Sincecushy has such an informal, breezy, American ring, it is difficult to believe that it is an import, as some etymologists claim.Members of the British army in India are supposed to have picked up the Anglo-Indian version of the Hindi word±hūush, meaning "pleasant,” to which the suffix-y, as in empty and sexy, was added, thus forming a new English word. Cushy, however, is actually first recorded in a letter from the European battlefront during World War I. This fact, in conjunction with our inability to find an Anglo-Indian source,casts some doubt on the Hindi or Anglo-Indian origin ofcushy. Two other possibilities are thatcushy is a shortening of cushion with the -y suffix or that it is a borrowing of Frenchcouchée, "lying down; a bed.” 既然cushy 一词具有如此非正式的、愉快的美国意义， 很难相信某些词源学者所认为的说它是一个外来词。驻印度的英国军队士兵被认为是选用了印度英语±hūush 的英语说法，意思是“愉悦的”， 并如同empty 和 sexy 等词在其上加了 -y 这个后缀，从而形成了一个新英语单词。 然而，事实上cushy 一词却最先被记录在第一次世界大战期间发自欧洲战斗前线的一封信里。 这一事实，再加上我们无法找到其印度英语的词源，使我们对于cushy 一词源于印地语或印度英语的说法产生了某些怀疑。 另两种可能性，一种是cushy ，它是 cushion 的缩略形式再加上后缀 -y ； 另一种是法语couchee “躺下；床”的外来语 〔unique〕Over the course of the centuryunique has become the paradigmatic example of the class of terms that do not allow comparison or modification by an adverb of degree such as very, somewhat, or quite. Thus, most grammarians believe that it is incorrect to say that something isvery unique or more unique than something else, though phrases such asnearly unique and almost unique are acceptable. In the most recent survey the sentenceHer designs are quite unique in today's fashion scene was unacceptable to 80 percent of the Usage Panel. · Critical objections to the comparison and degree modification of absolute terms date to the 18th centuryand have been applied to a wide group of adjectives includingequal, fatal, omnipotent, parallel, perfect, and unanimous. According to the standard argument, such words denote properties that a thing either does or does not have but cannot have to a qualifiable degree.Thus ifunique is properly used to mean "without equal or equivalent,” something either is unique or it isn't, and phrases such asvery unique and more unique can only betray a weakening of the sense to mean something like "unusual" or "distinctive.” It is true that comparison and modification ofunique are often associated with the style favored by copywriters, as in the advertisement announcing thatOmaha's most unique restaurant is now even more unique or in the claim that a new automobile is So unique, it's patented. But modification ofunique is also found in the work of reputable writers, where it may lack any connotations of hyperbole.A painting is described asthe most unique of Beckman's self-portraits, and a travel writer states thatChicago is no less unique an American city than New York or San Francisco. The relative acceptability of these usages reflects the semantic subtlety ofunique itself. If we were to useunique only according to the strictest criteria of logic, after all, we might freely apply the term to anything in the worldsince nothing is wholly equivalent to anything else.Clearly, then, when we say that a restaurant or painting is unique,we mean that it is worthy of inclusion in a class by itself according to certain implicit but generally accepted criteria.Thus a legitimately unique painting might be one that realizes an unparalleled aesthetic vision,but not one that is rendered only in pigments whose names begin with the lettero; and a legitimately unique restaurant might be one that serves 18th-century French cuisine according to the original recipes,not one that has been installed in a converted sardine cannery.Given this understanding, it is not inherently impossible to think of uniqueness as a matter of degree,in the sense that one painting or restaurant may be more or less worthy of inclusion in a class by itself than some other. ·What is troubling about the copywriters' use ofunique is not that the word has become a synonym for unusual. Rather, it is the copywriters who are using the word in conformity with strict logic.Uniqueness is claimed for a restaurant in virtue of some trivial properties of its decor or menu,or for a resort hotel that simply happens to have a singularly picturesque view of the bay.Though it may be true that such properties render these thingslogically unique, they do not constitute legitimate grounds for putting the things into a class by themselves according to the criteria ordinarily invoked when things are sorted into classes.In fact, the abuse ofunique can be cloying even when no modification or comparison is involved; when we read an advertisement for a line of sportswear that featuresa unique selection of colors, we may suspect that the distinctive properties of the color selection are not so remarkable as the advertiser would have us believe. But it is not surprising that these uses ofunique should lend themselves to promiscuous modification and comparison; for once it is granted that uniqueness can be claimed for any product or service that is somehow distinctive from all its competitors,it is inevitable that an increase in uniqueness will be seen in every minor innovation.See Usage Note at equal ,infinite ,parallel ,perfect 在本世纪整个过程中unique 已成为不能由程度副词，例 very、somewhat 或 quite， 比较或修饰的一类术语的例证。 因此，多数语法学家认为说某事是very unique 或 more unique than 是不正确的， 虽然短语例如nearly unique 和 almost unique 是可接受的。 在最近的调查中，句子Her designs are quite unique in today's fashion scene （她的设计在现今流行样式的场面中是很独特的） 对用法专题使用小组的百分之八十成员是不可接受的。 对纯粹术语的比较和程度修饰的主要异议可追述到18世纪，并已广泛用到许多形容词中，包括equal, fatal, omnipotent, parallel, perfect 和 unanimous。 根据标准论据，这些单词表示一事有或没有但不能有可修饰的程度的性质。于是如果unique 适当地用于表示“没有相等或相当的”，则某事是唯一的或不是唯一的， 而短语像very unique 和 more unique 仅能表露出说明某事像“不寻常的”或“独特的”的意义的减弱。 的确，unique 的比较和修饰常与撰稿人喜欢的文体相联系， 如在广告中称Omaha's most unique restaurant is now even more unique（奥马哈城的最独特的餐馆现在甚至是更加独特） 或声称新汽车是 So unique, it's patented（如此独特，它取得了专利权）。 但是unique 的修饰也在著名作家的作品中发现， 那里可能缺乏夸张法的任何涵义。描述一张油画为the most unique of Beckman's self-portraits（最独特的贝克曼的自画像）， 一位旅游作家叙述Chicago is no less unique an American city than New York or San Francisco（芝加哥比纽约或旧金山是不逊独特的美国城市）。 这些用法的相对可接受性反映unique 自身语义的巧妙。 如果我们仅按照逻辑的严格标准使用unique ， 则我们终于会自由地把此术语使用于世界上的任何事，因为没有完全等同于另一事的事。于是，显然当我们说餐馆或油画是独特的时，我们意味着根据某种隐含的但可普遍接受的判据它是值得包含在一个等级内的。于是合理独特的油画可能是实现空前未有的审美型的，而不是仅给予名字以字母O开始的颜料； 合理独特的餐馆可能根据原来的食谱提供18世纪法国菜肴的餐馆，而不是配备转换的沙丁鱼罐头食品的餐馆。按这样了解，将独特性视为程度问题不是本来就不可能的，在这个意义上一张油画或一个餐馆或多或少可能是极好的有价值的内涵物而不是其他。关于撰稿人使用unique 的困惑不是此单词已成为 unusual 的同义词。 相反地，正是撰稿人使用此单词与严密的逻辑相一致。对餐馆声称独特性是由于它的布置或菜单的某些不重要的性质，或者对于人们常去的旅馆仅因为有海湾的独一无二地别致的景象。虽然这样的性质使得这些事logically 独特的可能是真实的， 但是当事情进行了分类，根据平常实行的判据把这些事情自身放到一类，他们不组成正常的基础。事实上unique 的滥用会使人发腻，即使在没有涉及修饰或比较的时候； 当我们读运动服装的unique selection of colors（颜色的独特选择） 的一行广告时， 我们会怀疑颜色选择的独特性质并非广告商希望我们所认为的那么明显。但不必惊讶于unique 的这些用法应当适用于杂乱的修饰和比较； 就这一次可以承认，独特性能用来指任何产品或服务，它们与所有的竞争者相比较有某种程度的特色，在每一小的创新中可以看到独特性的增加是必然会发生的 参见 equal,infinite,parallel,perfect〔myriad〕Throughout most of its history in Englishmyriad was used as a noun, as ina myriad of men. In the 19th centuryit began to be used as an adjective,as inmyriad men; this usage became so well entrenchedthat many people came to consider it as the only correct possibility.In fact, both uses have not only ample precedent in English but also etymological justification from Greek,in as much as the Greek wordmurias from which myriad derives could be used as either a noun or an adjective.Both uses may be considered equally acceptable,as in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's"Myriad myriads of lives.” 在英语中，myriad 的大部分历史一直被用作名词， 如在数以万计的男子 。 在19世纪，它开始被用作形容词，如在myriad men 中， 这种用法很快就被人们认可了，而且还认为它是唯一的正确用法。事实上，这两种用法不仅在英语中而且在希腊语的语源纠正中都有许多先例，因为源于myriad 的希腊语单词 munias ， 既可用作名词也可用作形容词。两种用法同样被接受，如塞缪尔·泰勒尔里奇的"Myriad myriad of lives" 〔interior〕"She thinks she has no soul, no interior life, but the truth is that she has no access to it"(David Denby)“她认为她没有灵魂，没有精神生活，但事实上却是她没有办法去接近它”(戴维·登比)〔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”〔rhetoric〕The wordrhetoric was once primarily the name of an important branch of philosophy and an art deserving of serious study. In recent yearsthe word has come to be used chiefly in a pejorative senseto refer to inflated language and pomposity.Deprecation of the term may result from a modern linguistic puritanism,which holds that language used in legitimate persuasion should be plainand free of artifice—itself a tendentious rhetorical doctrine,though not often recognized as such.But many writers still prefer to bear in mind the traditional meanings of the word.Thus, according to the newer use of the term,the phraseempty rhetoric, as in The politicians talk about solutions, but they usually offer only empty rhetoric, might be construed as redundant. But in fact only 35 percent of the Usage Panel judged this example to be redundant.Presumably, it can be maintained that rhetoric can be other than empty.单词rhetoric 曾主要是哲学的一个重要分支的和一种值得严肃研究的艺术的名称。 近年来，这个词已开始主要用于贬义，指夸大的语言和虚夸。这个词的改变可能源于一种现代语言的刻板做法，认为用于正当劝说中的语言应是朴素，没有人工雕饰的——它自身便是一种宣传性的修辞教条，虽然未常常被如此认为。但许多作家仍愿意记住这个词的传统含义。这样，根据这个词较新的含义，在The politician talk about solutions, but they usually offer only empty rhetoric 中，短语 empty rhetoric 可能被分析为多余的。 但事实上，用法委员会成员中只有百分之三十五的人认为在这个例子中是多余的。大概该词除了空的以外还有其他的意思吧〔refer〕It is sometimes believed that the phraserefer back is redundant, since the prefixre- means "back,” but the objection is misplaced.In fact, an expression can refer either to something that has already been mentionedor to something that is yet to be mentioned,and the distinction betweenrefer back and refer ahead may thus be required for clarification. For example, the sentenceJones promised that if he was elected to the council, Harris would be made the council president is ambiguous, because the pronounhe may either refer back or refer ahead. See Usage Note at allude ,redundancy 人们有时认为短语refer back 是重复的， 因为前缀re- 意为“过去的，后面的”， 但这一异议是错误的。事实上，一种表达方法可以指已经提到的东西，也可以指即将提到的东西，所以refer back 和 refer ahead 之间的区别可能会要求进行区分。 例如句子琼斯保证如果他被选进委员会，哈里斯将被选为委员会主席 是不明确的， 因为代词他 可以指后面的，也可以指前面的 参见 allude,redundancy〔dive〕Eitherdove or dived is acceptable as the past tense of dive. Dived is actually the earlier form,and the emergence ofdove may appear anomalous in light of the general tendencies of change in English verb forms. Old English had two classes of verbs:strong verbs, whose past tense was indicated by a change in their vowel (a process that survives in such present-day English verbsasdrive/drove or fling/flung ); and weak verbs,whose past was formed with a suffix related to-ed in Modern English (as in present-day Englishlive/lived and move/moved ). Since the Old English period,many verbs have changed from the strong pattern to the weak one;for example, the past tense ofhelp, formerly healp, became helped, and the past tense ofstep, formerly stop, became stepped. Over the years, in fact, the weak pattern has become so prevalentthat we use the termregular to refer to verbs that form their past tense by suffixation of -ed. However, there have occasionally been changes in the other direction:the past tense ofwear, now wore, was once werede ; that ofspit, now spat, was once spitede ; and the development ofdove is an additional example of the small group of verbs that have swum against the historical tide. dove 或 dived 都可用作 dive的过去式形式。 Dived 实际上是早期词形，根据英语动词词形变化的趋势，dove 的出现似乎是不规则的。 古英语有两类动词：强式动词，其过去时形式由元音变化来体现（这一过程还存在于现代英语里，诸如drive/drove 或 fling/flung 等动词中）； 另一类为弱式动词，其过去时态形式由与现代英语-ed 后缀有关 （如现代英语中的live/lived 和 move/moved )。 自古英语时期以来，许多动词由强式变为弱式；例如help 的过去式形式以前为 healp ，已变为 helped ， step 的过去式由以前的 stop 变为 stepped 。 事实上，多年来弱式动词变得非常普遍，我们用术语规则动词 来指那些由加后缀 -ed 来构成过去式形式的动词， 然而偶尔也会向另一方向发生变化：wear 的过去形式现为 wore ，曾为 weared ； spit 的过去式现为 spat ，曾为 spitede ； dove 的发展是反历史潮流而动的一小组动词中的另外一小组动词的例子 〔center〕According to traditional canons of usage,the verbcenter may be freely used with the prepositions on, upon, in, or at; but its use witharound is excoriated as "ungrammatical,” "illogical,” "geometrically senseless,” and "physically impossible.” But the fact that writers persist in using this phrase in sentencessuch asThe discussion centered around the need for curriculum revision (where traditionalists would require revolved around ) suggests a widespread perception that center around, for all its apparent illogicality,may sometimes represent the true nature of experience.Center may denote a variety of relations involving having, finding, or turning about a center, and the choice of a preposition depends on what is intended.There is reputable precedent for usagessuch asOur hope centered in the young sovereign; 根据传统用法，动词center 可以和介词 on，upon，in 或 at 自由连用； 但它和around 连用却被严厉指责为“不合语法”，“不合逻辑”，“几何上无意义”，“物理上不可能”。 然而事实上作家们坚持在句子里使用这个短语，比如讨论围绕修订工作的需求展开 （这里传统人士将用 rovolve around ）表明 center around 揭示了一个普遍的认识， 即尽管它明显不合逻辑，有时也会代表经验的真正特性。Center 可以指示包括拥有，发现或围绕中心转动在内的多种关系， 介词的选择取决于具体意向。用法上有著名的先例，如我们的希望集中于年轻的帝王身上； 〔fear〕Old Englishfǣr, the ancestor of our word fear, meant "calamity, disaster,”but not the emotion engendered by such an event.This is in line with the meaning of the prehistoric Common Germanic word.fēraz, "danger,” which is the source of words with similar senses in other Germanic languages,such as Old Saxon and Old High Germanfār, "ambush, danger,” and Old Icelandic fār, "treachery, damage.” Scholars, in fact, have determined the form and meaning of Germanic.fēraz by working backward from the forms and the meanings of its descendants. The most important cause of the change of meaning in the wordfear was probably the existence in Old English of the related verb fǣran, which meant "to terrify, take by surprise.” Fear is first recorded in Middle English with the sense "emotion of fear" in a work composed around 1290.古英语f?r 是 fear 的前身， 意为“不幸，灾难”，而不是因不幸或灾难引起的情绪。这符合史前普通日耳曼词feraz 的意思“危险的”， 是其他日耳曼语言中有相近意思的词的起源，如古撒克逊语和古高地德语far， “埋伏，危险，”和古冰岛语 far “挖掘，破坏”。 事实上，学者们已经通过对它的衍生词的形式和意思的反向研究决定德语feraz 的形式和意思。 引起词语fear 变化的最重要原因可能是古英语中相关动词 f?ran的存在， 意为“害怕，被惊奇抓住。” Fear 第一次在中世纪英语作为“害怕的情绪”被记录下来是在一部约1290年左右创作的作品中〔point〕In point of fact, I never lived at the address stated on the form.事实上，我从未在表中所填的那个地址居住过〔kabbalah〕There are no less than two dozen variant spellings ofkabbalah, the most common of which include kabbalah, kabala, kabalah, qabalah, qabala, cabala, cabbala, kaballah, kabbala, kaballah, and qabbalah. This sort of confusion is frequently seen with Hebrew and Arabic words borrowed into English because there exist several different systems of transliterating the Hebrew and Arabic alphabets into Roman letters. Often a more exact or scholarly transliteration, such as Qur'an, will coexist alongside a spelling that has been heavily Anglicized ( Koran ). The fact that the Hebrew and Arabic alphabets do not as a rule indicate short vowels or the doubling of consonants compounds the difficulties. Spellings of kabbalah with one or two b 's are equally "correct,” insofar as the single b accurately reproduces the spelling of the Hebrew, while the double b represents the fact that it was once pronounced with a double b. kabbalah 有超过十二种以上不同的拼法，最常见的包括 kabbalah, kabala, kabalah, qabalah, qabala, cabala, cabbala, kaballah, kabbala, kaballah 及 qabbalah 。此类混淆情形最常见于自希伯来及阿拉伯文字转借给英语时，这是由于在希伯来及阿拉伯字母音译为罗马字母时有数种不同系统存在所致。通常较精确或是学究上的音译，例如 Qur'an ，会与已经偏重于英语化的拼法（ Koran ）共同存在。事实上，希伯来及阿拉伯字母并没有一种明确指出短元音及双子音为何的原则增加其困难度， kabbalah 有一到两个 b 的拼法都一样“正确”，到目前为止单 b 精确地重现希伯来文的拼法，而双 b 则表示它曾经以双 b 发音的事实 〔tangerine〕The nametangerine is like the skin of an orange, which when peeled off reveals something of interest.The name reflects the geographic source of the fruit, Tangier, Morocco,from which port the first tangerines were shipped to Europe in 1841.The wordtangerine, from Tangier or Tanger, was already an English word (first recorded in 1710), meaning "of or pertaining to Tangier.”This word had been formed with the suffix-ine, as in Florentine. The fruit was first called atangerine orange, later reduced simply totangerine. Confusion exists between the nametangerine and the name mandarin, and with good reason.The tangerine is a type of mandarin orange,so in fact the oranges shipped from Tangier could have been calledmandarins. However, although both names can be used interchangeably in a general sense,there does now exist a particular type of orange calledtangerine as distinguished from another type called specifically mandarin. The mandarin orange, which is native to China,is thought probably to have received its namebecause of its resemblance in color to the robes of a mandarin.单词tangerine 这个名称就好象桔子的皮， 当我们把它剥下来时就会发现有趣的东西。这个名称反映了它所指的水果的地理来源，即摩洛哥的丹吉尔；第一批柑橘就是在1841年从该港口用船运往欧洲的。源于Tangier 或 Tanger 的 tangerine 一词在这时已经是一个英语词汇（它第一次见于文献是在1710年）， 意为“属于或关于丹吉尔的”。这个词是用加后缀-ine 的方法构成的，就象 Florentine 一词的构词法一样。 丹吉尔所产的这种水果一开始被称作tangerine orange ， 后来被简化成tangerine。 在tangerine 和 mandarion 之间一直存在着混淆， 而这种混淆是有原因的。丹吉尔柑橘确为一种中国柑桔种类，所以事实上从丹吉尔运出的那批桔子在当时可能就被称为mandarin 。 然而，尽管这两个名称在一般的使用中是可以互换的，但世界上确实存在着与另一种被称为manderin 的类型不同的一种被称作 tangerine 的桔类。 中国柑桔原产于中国，它之所以被这样命名，可能是因为它的颜色类似清朝的高官所穿的官服的颜色〔scuba〕To goscuba diving sounds much more desirable than to go self-contained underwater breathing apparatus diving. In talking about such an apparatus, first successfully tested in 1943, it must have seemed much simpler to sayscuba, taking the first letter of each word in the phrase and putting them together to form one word.Scuba, like other acronyms, as such words are called, has a vowel at a point that allows it to be pronounced like an English word.The word, first recorded in 1952, has been accepted to the extent that people probably rarely think of it as a collection of initials and furthermore have used it in forming other words, such asscuba-dive. In fact, a verbscuba was first recorded in 1973 and is still in use. 用scuba diving 要比用 self-contained underwater breathing apparatus diving 听起来更能令有接受。 当谈及这种首次在1943年试验成功的装置时，能不费力地说scruba ， 把词组中每个单字的第一个字母都集合在一起形成一个单词。Scuba 与其它同样叫法的首字缩略词一样， 在某一点有一元音，这样使它在发音时听起来象一个英语单词。自从这个单词首次在1952年出现后，已经被人们广为使用，大概人们很少会把它看作是首字母的集合体，甚至人们把它还用于其它单词中，例如scuba-dive 。 事实上，动词scuba 是在1973年首次被记录，并一直延用至今 〔gerrymander〕"An official statement of the returns of voters for senators give[s] twenty nine friends of peace, and eleven gerrymanders.”So reported the May 12, 1813, edition of theMassachusetts Spy. A gerrymander sounds like a strange political beast,which in fact it is, considered from a historical perspective.This beast was named by combining the wordsalamander, "a small lizardlike amphibian,” with the last name of Elbridge Gerry, a former governor of Massachusetts— a state noted for its varied, often colorful political fauna.Gerry (whose name, incidentally, was pronounced with a hardg, though gerrymander is now commonly pronounced with a soft g ) was immortalized in this way because an election district created by members of his party in 1812 looked like a salamander.According to one version of howgerrymander was coined, the shape of the district attracted the eye of the painter Gilbert Stuart,who noticed it on a map hanging in a newspaper editor's office.Stuart decorated the map with a head, wings, and clawsand then said to the editor, "That will do for a salamander!”"Gerrymander!” came the reply.A new political beast was created then and there.The word is first recorded in April 1812 with respect to the creature or its caricature,but it soon came to mean not only "the action of shaping a district to gain political advantage"but also "any representative elected from such a district by that method.”Within the same yeargerrymander was also recorded as a verb. “一份答复参议员选举人的官方声明宣布了二十九个和平伙伴和十一个不公正划分的选区。”在1813年3月12日的一期马萨诸塞州观察报 上有如上报导。 一个不公正划分选区听起来象是一个奇怪的政治怪兽，事实上它是来自历史上的观点。这个怪兽是由两个词合并而命名的，即salamander “一种蜥蜴状的两栖动物，”及马萨诸塞州州长埃尔布里奇·格里的姓。 而马萨诸萨州以其多变的、通常多姿多彩的政治动物群而闻名。格里（他的名字碰巧发重音g， 尽管 gerrymander 现在普遍发轻音 g， ）以此种方式而垂名史册， 因为1812年由他所在党成员组建的选举区就象一只蝾螈。根据一种gerrymander 如何被创造的观点， 该区的形状吸引了一位画家基尔伯特·斯图亚特，他在一家报纸的主编办公室里挂在墙上的地图中发现了它。斯图尔特又画上头、翅膀和爪子，然后对主编说，“那就象只蝾螈了！”"Gerrymander！”主编回答道。此时此地一个新的政治怪兽产生了。这个词于1812年4月首次被记录是在谈到这种牲畜或讽刺的画中，但很快，它就不仅意味“为赢得政治优势的改变区划的行动”，而且有“用此种方法选出的任何代表”的意思。同年gerrymander 也被作为一个动词而记载下来 〔effete〕The fact thateffete has come to mean "effeminate" marks a return to its etymological roots. Effete came into English from the Latin wordeffētus, made up ofex-, "out,” and the adjective fētus, "having recently given birth,” which is related to the nounfētus, "offspring,” a word we have borrowed as well. Latineffētus was used of plants that had borne fruit or of animals that had borne young, buteffētus could also mean "worn out with bearing young, exhausted, feeble.” The English wordeffete, whose earliest appearance is recorded in 1621, was first used in senses similar or identical to senses of Latineffētus ; however, in the last two centuries or so the senses "characterized by weakness or decadence" and "overrefined, effeminate,” have appeared.Botheffeminate and effete go back to the same Indo-European root, dhē(i)-, meaning "to suck.” Ineffeminate we see the development from a form of the root meaning literally "she who suckles"; ineffete, the development from a form of the root that refers to the baby who sucks milk from the mother. 事实上，effete 这个词表示“女人气的”意义反而表明其意义更接近于其词根的意义。 Effete 是从拉丁语effetus 传入英语的， 这个拉丁语词是由ex- 表“出”和形容词 fetus 表“刚刚生产”组成的， 该词与我们借用来的名词fetus 表示“后代”有关。 拉丁语effetus 用于指植物刚刚结出果实或动物刚产幼仔， 但effetus 可能也表示“刚出生而精疲力竭、无力、柔弱”。 英语词语effete 第一次记载于1621年， 当时的意义与拉丁语effetus 的意义基本相同或相似， 但从以后近两个世纪以来，表示“柔弱或堕落”和“娇柔或女人气”的意义相继出现。effeminate 和 effete 都源于同一印欧语系的词根 dhe(i-) 意为“吸”。 在effeminate 中，我们看到从词根形式拓展来的意义大体上是“喂奶的女人”； effete 从词根形式发展而来的意义是指从母体身上汲取乳汁的幼儿 〔powerful〕In the upper southern United States the wordspowerful and mighty are intensives used frequently like the adverb very : Your boy's grown powerful big.The new baby is mighty purty.Powerfulis used as an adjective in some expressions: The storm did a powerful lot of harm. In the same dialect regionthe nounpower has, in addition to its standard meaning, the sense of "a large number or amount.”This sense appears in theOxford English Dictionary as common in dialectal British English of the 18th and 19th centuries: "It has done a power of work" (Charles Dickens).All these derivative senses ofpower and might take advantage of the notion of strength inherent in these nouns, making them natural intensives. Colloquial English is always on the lookout for ways to make language more vivid with new intensives.We think of the upper southern part of the United States as linguistically conservative,but in fact it has preserved uses ofpower, powerful, and mighty that were innovative in their time. 在美国中南部powerful 及 mighty 这两个词用作强调词并与 very 一样用得很频繁： 你的儿子已长得很大了。新生儿非常干净。Powerful在有些表达中还用作形容词： 这暴风造成巨大灾害。 在同一方言区中，名词power 除了具有标准含义外， 还有“大的数字或数量”之意。该意义出现在牛津英语词典 中， 在18世纪及19世纪的英国英语方言中使用也十分普遍： “它已做了大量工作” （查尔斯·狄更斯）。所有power 及 might 的这些衍生意义都利用两个名词本身力量的含义而使它们成为强调词。 英语口语一直在寻求途径以运用新的强调词，使语言变得更为生动。我们认为美国中南部在语言的使用上是很保守的，但事实上，这部分地区却保留了在当时十分创新的power，powerful 及 mighty 的用法 〔faubourg〕The close political ties between Scotland and France during the 15th through 17th centuries were reflected in linguistic borrowing from French to Scots,as in the case offaubourg, a synonym for suburb. In Englandfaubourg seems to have lost the competition with the more popular suburb. However, in contemporary American English the word still exists,although it is virtually confined to the city of New Orleans, where,in fact,faubourg remains in use because of the city's French background. Even there it is used not as a common noun likesuburb but in combination in the names of various quarters of the city,for example,Faubourg Sainte Marie. These city districts, like their counterparts in Paris,such asFaubourg Saint-Germain and Faubourg Saint-Antoine, originally lay outside the city limits, hence the designationfaubourg, originally from Old French fors, "outside,” and borc, "town.” As the population grew outward,these former suburbs became part of the city proper.在苏格兰语对法语语言上的借用反应了15世纪到17世纪之间苏格兰与法国紧密的政治纽带，例如faubourg， 是 suburb 的同义词。 在英国，faubourg 看起来已丧失了与更流行的 suburb 的竞争力。 然而，在当代美国英语中，这个词仍然存在，尽管实际上它限于新奥尔良城。事实上，faubourg 保持在新奥尔良的使用是因为这个城市的法语背景。 它甚至不是像suburb 那样作为一个普通名词使用， 而是与城市的不同区的名字连在一起，例如圣玛丽亚区 。 这些城区，就像它们在巴黎的对应地区，如圣格梅茵区 和 圣安东尼区 一样，一般位于城区的外围， 因此名称faubourg 源自于古法语 fors ，“外面”，和 borc， “城镇”。 随着人口的向外增长，这些前郊区成了城区的一部分〔fact〕In reality or in truth; actually.实际上，确实情况；事实上〔quip〕perhaps from Latin quippe [indeed] 可能源自 拉丁语 quippe [事实上] 〔belfry〕The wordsbell and belfry seem obviously related, but in fact thebel- portion of belfry had nothing to do with bells until comparatively recently. Belfry goes back to a compound formed in prehistoric Common Germanic. It is generally agreed that the second part of this compound is the element.frij-, meaning "peace, safety.” The first element is either.bergan, "to protect,” which would yield a compound meaning "a defensive place of shelter,” or.berg-, "a high place,” which would yield a compound meaning "a high place of safety, tower.”Whatever the meaning of the original Germanic source, its Old French descendantberfrei, which first meant "siege tower,” came to mean "watchtower.” Presumably because bells were used in these towers, the word was applied to bell towers as well.The Old North French alterationbelfroi, which reminded English speakers of their native word belle (our bell ), entered Middle English with the sense "bell tower,” first recorded in 1272.bell 和 belfry 这两个词似乎显著相关， 但事实上直到最近，belfry 词里的 bel 部分才同“钟”这个词联系起来。 Belfry 源于史前普通日耳曼语的复合词。 一般认为这个复合词的第二部分是frij-， 意思是“和平、安全”。 它的第一部分或是"bergan"， 意为“保护”， 该复合词就当“隐蔽防御之地”讲；或是berg 意为“高处”， 该词就是“安全高处；塔”的意思。无论其日耳曼语来源意思是什么，它衍生成古法语的berfrei， 原意为“围塔”，后意为“望塔”。据推测由于钟被用于这些塔里，所以这个词也开始指钟塔了。belfroi 作为古北法语的变体它使英语使用者想到了自己的母语中 belle 一字（我们写做 bell ）， 进入中古英语后意为“钟楼”，首次记载于1272年〔sweep〕The incident in effect swept away all her dreams.这场事故事实上毁灭了她所有的梦想〔reality〕In fact; actually.事实上；实际上〔effectively〕For all practical purposes; in effect:事实上：为了全部实际目地；实际上：〔lifestyle〕"an anticonventional lifestyle is no sure sign of feminist politics, or indeed, of any politics at all.” “反传统的生活方式不是女权主义政治主张的显著标志，或事实上，它不是任何政治主张的标志”。 〔criticize〕"No man can justly censure or condemn another,because indeed no man truly knows another" (Thomas Browne).“没有人能够公正地苛评或谴责他人，因为事实上没有人能够真正地了解他人” （托马斯·布朗）。〔actual〕Existing and not merely potential or possible.See Synonyms at real 1事实上的，实际的：存在着的，不仅仅是潜在的或可能的 参见 real1 |
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