单词 | 前身 |
释义 | 〔myelocyte〕A large cell of the bone marrow that is a precursor of the mature granulocyte of the blood.髓细胞:骨髓的一种大型细胞,是血液成熟的有粒细胞的前身〔predecessor〕Something that has been succeeded by another:原有事物,前身:由另一东西接替的东西:〔Agassiz〕American educator who helped organize the predecessor of Radcliffe College (1879) and served as Radcliffe's first president (1894-1899).阿加西,伊丽莎白·卡伯特·卡里:(1822-1907) 美国教育家,帮助组建拉德克利夫学院的前身(1879年)并担任该院的首任校长(1894-1899年)〔Townsend〕American physician and social reformer whose plan for a government-sponsored old-age pension was a precursor of the Social Security Act of 1935.汤森,弗朗西斯·埃弗里特:(1867-1960) 美国内科医生及社会改革家,他提出的由政府资助的老军人养老金计划是1935年通过的社会保障法案的前身〔worry〕"Don't worry" is a much milder injunction than it once would have been,for the wordworry has softened its sense greatly over the course of its history. Its Old English ancestor,wyrgan, meant "to strangle.” Its Middle English descendant,worien, kept this sense and developed the new sense "to grasp by the throat with the teeth and lacerate" or "to kill or injure by biting and shaking.” This is the way wolves or dogs might attack sheep, for example.In the 16th centuryworry began to be used in the sense "to harass, as by rough treatment or attack,” or "to assault verbally,” and in the 17th century the word took on the sense "to bother, distress, or persecute.”It was a small step from this sense to the main modern senses "to cause to feel anxious or distressed" and "to feel troubled or uneasy,” first recorded in the 19th century.与过去相比,“别担心”这句话的命令意味减少了许多,因为随着历史的变迁worry 这个词的“攻击性”意味大大削弱了。 其古英语中的前身wyrgan, 意为“扼杀”。 在中世纪英语中的worien 保留了这个意思并衍生出一个新意思“用牙齿咬住喉咙并且撕裂”或“咬住并来回甩动以杀死或伤害”。 例如,这是狼或狗袭击羊的方式。16世纪,worry 开始含有“以粗暴手段或袭击方式来骚扰”,“口头攻击”的意思, 到了17世纪这个词产生了“干扰、使焦虑和烦扰”的意思。19世纪,这个词义向前发展了一点,产生了适用于当代的主要意思“使感到焦虑或痛苦”和“感到烦恼或不安”〔iconoclast〕An iconoclast can be unpleasant company,but at least the modern iconoclast only attacks such things as ideas and institutions.The original iconoclasts destroyed countless works of art.Eikonoklastēs, the ancestor of our word, was first formed in Medieval Greek from the elements eikōn, "image, likeness,” and -klastēs, "breaker,” fromklan, "to break.” The images referred to by the word are religious images,which were the subject of controversy among Christians of the Byzantine Empire in the 8th and 9th centuries, when iconoclasm was at its height.Those who opposed images did not, of course, simply destroy them, although many were demolished;they also attempted to have the images barred from display and veneration.During the Protestant Reformationimages in churches were again felt to be idolatrous and were once more banned and destroyed.It is around this time thaticonoclast, the descendant of the Greek word, is first recorded in English (1641), with reference to the Greek iconoclasts.In the 19th centuryiconoclast took on the secular sense that it has today, as in "Kant was the great iconoclast" (James Martineau).亵渎偶像者可能令人生厌,但至少现代的偶像毁坏者只是攻击思想和制度这类东西。最初的偶像破坏者却毁掉了无数的艺术作品。Eikonoklastes 最早见于中世纪希腊语,是我们现代词的前身,由 eikon 意为“图象,相象”和 -klastes 意为“毁坏者”组成, 它又来源于klan “打碎”的意思。 此词所说的肖像是指宗教的肖像,8至9世纪当毁坏偶像主义在拜占庭帝国盛行时,宗教偶像成为基督教徒中争执的焦点。反对宗教肖像的人尽管销毁了不少画像,但这并不是他们唯一的形式,他们也试图禁止偶像展览和偶像崇拜。在新教改革时期,教堂里的宗教画像再次被认为是盲目崇拜而遭到禁止和毁灭。正是在这一时期iconoclast 一词开始作为希腊语的衍生词在英语中出现, 第一次记录于1641年。到19世纪,iconoclast 一词开始有了现代的含意, 比如在“康德是一位伟大的传统叛逆者”(詹姆士·马提诺)〔Philistine〕It has never been good to be a Philistine.Samson, Saul, and David in the Bible helped bring the Philistines into prominence because they were such prominent opponents.Even though the Philistines have long since disappeared,their name has lived on in the Old Testament.The English name for them,Philistines, which goes back through Late Latin and Greek to Hebrew, is first found in Middle English,wherePhilistiens, the ancestor of our word, is recorded in a work composed before 1325. Beginning in the 17th centuryphilistine was used as a common noun usually in the plural to refer to various groups considered the enemy,such as literary critics.In Germany in the same centuryit is said that in a memorial at Jena for a student who had been killed in a town-gown quarrel,the minister preached a sermon from the text "Philister über dir Simson! [The Philistines be upon thee, Samson!],”the words of Delilah to Samson after she attempted to render him powerless before his Philistine enemies.From this usage it is said that German students came to usePhilister, the German equivalent of Philistine, to denote nonstudents and hence uncultured or materialistic people.Both usages were picked up in English in the early 19th century.做非利士人从来没有好处。《圣经》中的参孙、索尔和大卫使非利士人出名是因为他们是很优秀的对手。尽管非利士人已消失很久了,他们的名字却仍存在于《旧约》当中。他们的英文名称Philistines 可由晚期拉丁语和希腊语追溯到希伯来语, 是在中世纪英语中首先发现的,其中我们所用词的前身Philistines 记载在一部1325年前的著作中。 17世纪以来,Philistine 被用作普通名词并且常以复数形式出现, 意指被认为是敌人的各种团体,如文学批评家。在同一世纪的德国,据说在耶拿举行的纪念一名在市民和大学生争执中被杀的学生的纪念会上,牧师从“[非利士人比你强,参孙!]”中选取了一段做布道,就是迪莱勒在试图使参孙在他的非利士手面前变得软弱无力后说的那些话。这段话的用法中可见德国学生开始使用philister 作为 philistine 的德语替代语, 意指不是学生因此也就是没有文化以及不务实的人。这两种用法在19世纪早期的英语中均能找到〔Burt〕American surveyor and inventor who in 1829 patented his "Typographer,” a forerunner of the typewriter. He also invented (1836) a solar compass to offset magnetic attraction.伯特,威廉·奥斯丁:(1792-1858) 美国勘测员和发明家。他在1829年因“活版印刷机”,即打字机的前身,而获得专利权。他还发明了太阳罗盘来抵消磁力(1836年)〔speed〕The fable of the tortoise and the hare teaches us that speed does not always spell success.Historically in English, however, it does:the Old English wordspēd, from which our word speed is descended, originally meant "prosperity, successful outcome, ability, or quickness.” A corresponding verb,spēdan, in Modern English the verbspeed, meant "to succeed, prosper, or achieve a goal"; and an adjective,spēdig, the ancestor of our word speedy, meant "wealthy, powerful.” Except for archaic usesthe words today relate only to the general sense of "velocity.”The meaning "success" is retained chiefly in the compoundGodspeed, a noun formed from the phrase meaning "God prosper you.”乌龟与兔子这则寓言故事告诉我们速度并不总意味着成功。然而在英语的历史中,速度就意味着成功:speed 这个词来自古英语单词 spēd , 原意为“繁荣昌盛,成功的结果,能力或速度”。与之相应的动词spedan , 即现代英语中speed 一词,意为“取得成功,繁荣昌盛或实现一目标”; speedy 的前身,形容词 spēdig ,则表示“富有的,有力的”。 除了其古代用法,这些词今天只和“速度”这一一般意义有关。“成功”之意主要保留于Godspeed (成功、幸运、天惠) 这个词中, 这是一个来自词组“祝你成功”的一个名词〔ilk〕When one usesilk, as in the phrasemen of his ilk, one is using a word with an ancient pedigreeeven though the sense ofilk, "kind or sort,” is actually quite recent,having been recorded no earlier than the end of the 18th century.This sense grew out of an older use ofilk in the phrase of that ilk, meaning "of the same place, territorial designation, or name.” This phrase was used chiefly in names of landed families,Guthrie of that ilk meaning "Guthrie of Guthrie.” "Same" is the fundamental meaning of the word.The ancestors ofilk, Old Englishilca and Middle English ilke, were common words, usually appearing with such words asthe or that, but the word hardly survived the Middle Ages in those uses.当我们使用ilk 一词, 例如在词组men of his ilk 中那样, 我们实际上在使用一个历史悠久的词。不过ilk 这个词有“一种或一类”这个意思, 却是近期的事情,其最早的使用记录不超过18世纪末。过去ilk 这个词用于词组 of that ilk 之中,意为“相同地方的,相同封地的,相同名号的”,现代意义就是从这个意思演化而来。 这个词组主要用于拥有土地的家族的名称前面:Guthrie of that ilk 意指“格思里这个地方叫格思里的人”。 这个词的基本意义为“相同”。ilk 这个词的前身, 古英语的ilca 和中古英语的 ilke 都是常用词汇, 常常和the 或 that 等词一起使用, 不过这些词经过中世纪后都没能存在下来〔Howe〕American humanitarian and reformer who founded (1832) and directed for 44 years what later became the Perkins Institute for the Blind.豪,塞缪尔·格里德雷:(1801-1876) 美国人道主义者及改革家,他于1832年创立了盲人帕金斯学院的前身,并管理该校长达四十四年〔Lassalle〕German politician. A founder (1863) of the predecessor of the Social Democratic Party, he promoted the political involvement of the working class.拉萨尔,费迪南德:(1825-1864) 德国政治家。作为社会民主党前身的创立者(1863年),他促进了工人阶级对政治的参与〔xanthine〕A yellowish-white, crystalline purine base, C5H 4N 4O 2, that is a precursor of uric acid and is found in blood, urine, muscle tissue, and certain plants. 黄嘌呤:一种黄白色结晶的嘌呤硷,C5H 4N 4O 2,它是尿酸的前身,常见于血液、尿液、肌肉组织和某些植物中 〔impeach〕Nothing hobbles a President so much as impeachment,and there is an etymologicalas well as procedural reason for this.The wordimpeach can be traced back through Anglo-Norman empecher to Late Latin impedicāre, "to catch, entangle,”from Latinpedica, "fetter for the ankle, snare.” Thus we find that Middle Englishempechen, the ancestor of our word,means such things as "to cause to get stuck fast,” "hinder or impede,” "interfere with,” and "criticize unfavorably.”A legal sense ofempechen is first recorded in 1384. This sense, which had previously developed in Old French,was "to accuse, bring charges against.”A further development of the sense had specific reference to Parliament and its formal accusation of treason or other high crimes,a process that the United States borrowed from the British.Although we have used it rarely at the federal level,impeachment stands as the ultimate snare for those who would take advantage of the public trust.没有事能象弹劾那样会使总统陷入窘境了,这既有词源的原因,又有程序上的原因。impeach 这个词能够通过英国法语中的 empecher 追溯到后期拉丁语中的 impedicare , 意思为“抓住,牵连”,源自拉丁语中的pedica ,意思是“脚镣,圈套”。 于是我们发现中古英语中的empechen , 我们现在这个词的前身,有着诸如“使牢牢困住”,“妨碍或阻止”,“干涉”和“令人不利地批评”等意思。empechen 在法律方面的意思最早在1384年被记录下来。 这个意思,原先在古法语中有一定发展,意思是“控告,指控。”这个意思的进一步发展到议会和议会对叛国罪或其他重大罪行的指控,这一程序是美国从英国那里借鉴而来的。尽管我们在联邦一级上很少使用,但是弹劾对于那些滥用公众信任的人来说是最终的陷阱〔pay〕Given the unpeaceful feelings one often has in paying bills or income taxes,it is difficult to believe that the wordpay ultimately derives from the Latin word pāx, "peace.” However, it is not the peace of the one who pays that is involved in this development of meaning.Frompāx, meaning "peace" and also "a settlement of hostilities,” was derived the word pācāre, "to impose a settlement on peoples or territories.” In Late Latinpācāre was extended in sense to mean "to appease.” The Old French wordpaiier that developed from Latin pācāre came to have the specific application "to pacify or satisfy a creditor,”a sense that came into Middle English along with the wordpaien (first recorded around the beginning of the 13th century), the ancestor of our wordpay. 人常常在支付帐单或收入调节税时有不安之感情,因而很难令人相信单词pay 来源于拉丁词语 pax “和平”。 但是,并不是支付人内心的平和与这个词意义的延伸意有关连。因为意思是“和平”和“敌视的和解”的单词pax 源于 pacare “给人民或领土以安宁”。 在后拉丁语中pacare 的意义被引申为“抚慰,使缓和。” 古法语单词paiier 来源于拉丁语 pacave, 后来开始具有“缓和、平息或使债主满意”这个具体用意,这种意思随同单词paien (大约在13世纪初首次记录)进入中世纪英语, 这个词就是单词pay 的前身 〔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 〔nap〕The famous verse 4 in Psalm 121,rendered in the King James Version as "Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep,”is rendered in a Middle English translation as "Loo, ha shal not nappen ne slepen that kepeth ireal.”The wordnappen is indeed the Middle English ancestor of our wordnap. Lest it be thought undignified to say that God could nap,it must be realized that our wordnap was at one time not associated only with the younger and older members of society nor simply with short periods of rest.The ancestors of our word,Old Englishhnappian and its descendant, Middle Englishnappen, could both refer to prolonged periods of sleep as well as short ones and also, as in the quotation from Psalm 121, to sleepiness.But these senses have been lost.Since the word has become less dignified,we would not findnap used in a translation of Psalm 121 any longer. 圣经诗篇121中著名的第四节,在钦定圣经译本中记为“看吧,他,守卫以色列的人既不能熟睡也不能打盹,”在中世纪英语中被译为"Loo , ha shal not nappen ne slepen that kepeth ireal"。单词nappen 在中世纪英语中就存在, 是单词nap 的前身。 避免人们不尊敬地认为上帝也能打盹,我们必须认识到单词nap 某些时候不只是与社会中的年轻人和老年人相关, 当然它也不仅指短暂的休息。这个单词的前身,古英语中hnappian 及后来它的衍生词, 中世纪英语中的nappen 都能表示延长时间的睡眠及短暂的睡眠, 如同圣经诗篇121中的引语,表示小睡。但这些意思都已经失传了。因为这个单词逐渐变得不再神圣,我们已无法再找到nap 用于圣经诗篇121的翻译中的意思了 〔myeloblast〕An immature cell of the bone marrow that is the precursor of a myelocyte.成髓细胞,原始粒细胞:骨髓的一种未成熟细胞,是髓细胞的前身〔Oporto〕A city of northwest Portugal near the mouth of the Douro River north of Lisbon. Probably of pre-Roman origin, it was captured by the Moors in 716. Its wine trade was established in 1678. Population, 327,368.波尔图:葡萄牙西北部一城市,位于里斯本北部,杜罗河口附近。很可能是罗马的前身,716年被摩尔人占领。1678年建立起了它的葡萄酒贸易。人口327,368〔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 〔yes〕The wordyes is a good example of how an ordinary and frequently used word can have a complex etymology. We can traceyes back to two Indo-European roots, .i-, a pronominal stem, and .es-, "to be.” From two extended forms of.i-, .yām and .yāi, came the prehistoric Common Germanic forms.jā and jai, which gave us Old Englishgeā, an affirmative particle, the source of Modern Englishyea. The Indo-European root.es- is the source of our forms am and is. From the stem.sī- used to make verb forms in the optative mood, a mood used to express a wish, came the Germanic form.sijai-, which gave us Old Englishsīe, "may it be so.” This form, unlike the sources ofam and is, died out, but before disappearing it had combined with Old Englishgēa to form the compound gēse, the ancestor of our wordyes. Thissīe was destined to have even more of a triumph. Until around 1600yea was used to respond to positive expressions, whereasyes was used to respond to negative expressions. After that timeyes became a response to both positive and negative expressions, yea surviving primarily in voice votes. yes 一词是说明一个普通常用词如何拥有一复杂词源的极好例证。 我们可以追溯yes 到两个印欧语词根, 代名词词干i- 和 es- “是”。 从i-的两种扩展形式,yam 和 yai, 形成了史前普通日耳曼语形式ja 和 jai, 它们又带来了古英语中的肯定虚词gea , 这便是现代英语yea 的来源。 而印欧语词根es- 是我们 am 和 is 两形式的源头。 以is- ,一个用于制造祈愿语气动词的词干, 产生出日尔曼形式sijai-, 并由此形成了古英语sie, “希望如此”。 这种形式不象am 和 is 的词源,已经灭绝了, 但在消失之前,它已经和古英语gea 混合形成复合词 gese, 即我们的单词yes 的前身。 这个sie 注定要获取更大的胜利。 直至1600年左右,yea 还被用于回答肯定的陈述; 而yes 则用于回答否定陈述。 此后,yes 既可作肯定也可否定表达的回答, yea 则主要在口头投票时使用 〔forequarter〕The foreleg, shoulder, and adjacent lateral parts of an animal, especially a horse.前身:动物之前腿、肩以及毗连的侧部,尤指马〔whore〕Derivatives of Indo-European roots often make strange bedfellows. A prime example is the case of.kā-, "to like, desire.” From the stem.kāro- derived from this root came the prehistoric Common Germanic word .hōraz with the underlying meaning "one who desires" and the effective meaning "adulterer.” From this word came the Old English wordhōre, the ancestor of Modern Englishwhore. The same stem produced the Latin wordcārus, "dear,” from which came Modern Englishcaress, cherish, and charity, the highest form of love. Contact with East Indian culture has added yet another pair of derivatives from this Indo-European root to the English language.From the stem.kāmo- came the Sanskrit word kāmaḥ, "love, desire,” from which are derived the English borrowingsKama, "the Hindu god of love,” andKamasutra, "a Sanskrit treatise on the rules of love and marriage according to Hindu law.” 从印欧语词根派生出的词常产生奇怪的词伴。一个很好的例子就是ko- “喜欢,渴望”。 从这个词根派生出karo 这个词干,然后又产生出史前共同日尔曼语的 horaz 一词,暗指“渴望…的人”,也含有显著的意义“通奸者”。 从这个词又产生古英语中的hore, 这是现代英语whore 的前身。 这一词干产生了拉丁词carus “亲爱的”, 又由它而引出现代英语中的caress,cherish 和 charity 这是爱的最高形式。 与东印度文化的接触又给英语语言加上了另外两个从这个印欧词根派生出的词。从词干kamo- 产生出梵语词 kamah “爱,欲望”, 从这个词又产生出英语的外来词Kama “印度人的爱神”, 和Kamasutra “根据印度法律所制定的关于爱情和婚姻的规定的梵语论述” 〔husband〕We gain an insight into the history of the wordhusband by considering the Old English word hūsbōnde, meaning "the mistress of a house.”Ifhūsbōnde had survived into Modern English, husband, its modern form, would have been very ambiguous.The fact thathūsbōnde could mean "mistress of a house" helps us see the elements that make up the Old English ancestor of our wordhusband. Hūscorresponds to house. The element-bōnde is the feminine form of -bōnda, the second element of Old Englishhūsbōnda. The entire Old English word is a borrowing of the Old Icelandic wordhūsbōndi, meaning "the master of a house.”The second element inhūsbōndi, bōndi, means "a man who has land and stock" and comes from the verbbūa, meaning "to live, dwell, have a household.” The master of the house was of course usually the spouse of a wife as well,and it would seem that our main current sense ofhusband arises from this overlap. 考察一下古英语中husbonde 这个词,我们就会对 husband 这个词的历史有一定了解, 意思是“房子的女主人”。假如husbonde 这个词能留存在现代英语中, 作为husbonde 的现代形式, 它的意思会变得很模糊。husbonde 的意思是“房子的女主人”, 这有助于我们找出那些构成古英语中我们今天的husband这个词的前身。 Hus对应 house 。 -bonde 是 -bonda 的阴性形式, 古英语中 husbonda 的第二个部分。 这个古英语中的词整体上借自冰岛语中的 husbondi , 意思是“房子的男主人”。husbondi, bondi 第二部分的意思是“一个拥有土地和牲畜的男子”, 它来自动词 bua ,意思是“生活、居住、拥有一个家”。 一座房子的男主人当然通常也是妻子的配偶,看起来今天husband 这个词的中心意思源于这种重叠 〔numb〕One of the more frequently used words in English,take, is evidence of the importance of the Scandinavian influence on English. Chiefly Danes and Norwegians, the invaders and settlers of the 8th through the 11th century contributed more than 900 words to the English language,but perhaps few so important astake. The Old Norse wordtaka was adopted as Old English tacan, the ancestor of ourtake. But Old English already had a word that paralleledtacan in sense, and that wasniman. In Middle Englishnimen, from niman, still thrived, but by the 16th century the word had all but disappeared,surviving today only asnim in the archaic sense "to steal.” However, all was not lost,for the past participle ofnimen, nomin, was used as an adjective, meaning "deprived of the power of movement, unable to move, paralyzed.”We know this word in the formnumb, from which the new verbnumb has been derived. 一个更为使用频繁的英语单词take, 是斯堪的纳维亚语对英语重要影响的证明。 侵略者和移民者,主要是丹麦和挪威人从8世纪到11世纪为英语带来了900多个单词,但是可能都没有take 一词重要。 古斯堪的纳维亚语taka 一词被古英语采用成为 tacan , 是take 的前身。 但古英语中已知有一个词在意义上和tacan 相同, 即niman 。 中古英语中,来自niman 的 nimen 仍很盛行, 但在16世纪这个词几乎消失了,到今天nim 只是作古义表示“偷”的含义出现。 但是,不是所有意义都失去了,nimen,nomin 的过去分词,作形容词用, 指“失去了移动能力的,动不了的,麻木的”。我们以numb 的形式知道了这个词, 从中派生出新的动词numb 〔theater〕Those who have theories about the theater are no doubt quite observant,at least the etymology of the word leads one to think so.The wordstheory and theater are related in ancestry if we look back to the Greek sources of our words. The Greek ancestor oftheater is theatron, "a place for seeing, especially for dramatic representation, theater.” Theatron is derived quite logically from the verb theasthai, "to gaze at, contemplate, view as spectators, especially in the theater,” fromthea, "a viewing.” The Greek ancestor oftheory is theōria, which meant among other things"the sending oftheōroi (state ambassadors sent to consult oracles or attend games),” "the act of being a spectator at the theater or games,” "viewing,” "contemplation by the mind,” and "theory or speculation.” The source oftheōria, theōros, "an envoy sent to consult an oracle, spectator,” is a compound of thea, "viewing,” and -oros, "seeing.” Thus, viewing is at the root of a theory and the theater.有戏剧理论的人无疑是相当善于观察的,至少这个词的词源学让我们这么想。如果我们追溯它们的希腊词源,单词theory 和 theater 的起源相关。 theater 的希腊语前身是 theatron (“尤指看喜剧表演的地方,剧院”)。 theatreon 相当符合逻辑地来自动词 theasthai (“盯着,注视,观看,尤指在剧院作为观众”), 来自thea, “观看”。 theory 的希腊语前身是 theoria , 其意义介于其它几件事物之间,它们是“派遣theoroi (派出咨询神谕或参加竟技会的政府使节)”“在剧院或竞技会上作为观众的行为”,“观看”,“专心注视”,和“看法和推测”。 theoria,theoros (“派出咨询神谕的使节;观众”)是 thea (“观看”)和 -oros (“看见”)的复合词。 这样,观看是theory(理论)和theater(剧院)的根源〔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〔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〔Russell〕American religious leader who founded (1884) the sect now called Jehovah's Witnesses.拉塞尔,查尔斯·泰兹:(1852-1916) 美国宗教领袖,组织了现称为耶和华见证会的前身(1884年)〔sack〕The wordsack may seem an odd candidate for preserving a few thousand years of history, but this word for an ordinary thing probably goes back to Middle Eastern antiquity.Sack owes its long history to the fact that it and its ancestors denoted an object that was used in trade between peoples. Thus the Greeks got their wordsakkos, "a bag made out of coarse cloth or hair,” from the Phoenicians with whom they traded. We do not know the Phoenician word,but we know words that are akin to it,such as Hebrewsaq and Akkadian saqqu. The Greeks then passed the sack, as it were, to the Latin-speaking Romans, who transmitted their wordsaccus, "a large bag or sack,” to the Germanic tribes with whom they traded, who gave it the form .sakkiz (other peoples as well have taken this word from Greek or Latin, including speakers of Welsh, Russian, Polish, and Albanian).The speakers of Old English, a Germanic language, used two forms of the word,sæc, from .sakkiz, and sacc, directly from Latin; the second Old English form is the ancestor of oursack. sack 这个词具有几百年的历史看起来可能很奇怪, 但这个词用来指一件普通的物品大概可追溯到古代中东。Sack 的长久历史归功于它和它的前身,即指用于人们之间贸易的一个物品。 因此希腊人从与他们做买卖的腓尼基人处得到sakkos 这个词,指“用粗布或毛发制成的袋子”。 我们不懂腓尼基语指什么,但知道一些与它相关的词,如希伯莱语中的Saq 和阿卡德语中的 Saqqu。 希腊人于是又把这个词传到说拉丁语的罗马人中,罗马人把他们的词saccus (“大袋子,大麻袋”)传给与他们做贸易的日耳曼人部落,他们用 Sakkiz 这种形式 (其他民族也从希腊语或拉丁语中得到这个词,其中包括说威尔士语、俄语、波兰语和阿尔巴尼亚语的人们)。讲古英语(一种日耳曼语言)的人用这个词的两种形式:源自sakkiz 的 sæc 和源自拉丁语的 sacc ; 这第二种古英语的形式是我们现在的sack 的前身 〔fornication〕The wordfornication had a lowly beginning suitable to what has long been the low moral status of the word. The Latin wordfornix, from which fornicātiō, the ancestor offornication, is derived, meant "a vault, an arch.” The term also referred to a vaulted cellar or similar place where prostitutes plied their trade.This sense offornix in Late Latin yielded the verb fornicārī, "to commit fornication,” from which is derivedfornicātiō, "whoredom, fornication.” Our word is first recorded in Middle English about 1303.单词fornication 开始时用作指道德水准低的含义。 拉丁语中fornix 一词源自于单词 fornicatio, fornication 一词的前身,词义为“拱顶,穹隆”。 此词也指一个拱顶室或类似结构的妓院。后期拉丁语中fornix 的这种含义衍生出动词 fornicario, 来表示“私通”的含义, 又由此衍生而来fornicari ,表示“卖淫,通奸。” 此词于1303年左右首次出现于中世纪英语中〔university〕The universe in the worduniversity is not the universe as we know it, thoughuniversity is derived from the ancestor of our word universe. This ancestor, Latinūniversus, was made up of ūnus, "one,” and versus, "in a specified direction.” Universus thus literally meant "in one specified direction" but actually meant "the whole of, entire,” and "regarded as a whole, regarded as a group.”Universum, the neuter singular of ūniversus, used as a noun, meant "the universe,”as did the derivativeūniversitās, which also meant "a corporate body of persons, community.” During the Middle Ages, when Latin continued to be used in areas such as government, religion, and education,the wordūniversitās was applied to the new corporate bodies of teachers and students, as at Salerno, Paris, and Oxford, that were the ancestors of our universities of today.Our worduniversity, going back to the Latin word, is first recorded around 1300, with reference to this corporate body.University 一词中的"universe"并不是我们所知道的宇宙这个词, 虽然university 是由我们的 universe 这个词的前身派生而来的。 这一前身,即拉丁文中的universus 是由表示“一”的 unus 和表示“沿着某一特定的方向”的 versus 构成的。 Universus 字面上的意思因此就是“沿着一个特定的方向”, 但它实际的意思却是“整个、全部”和“被视为一个整体的,被视为一个群体的”。Universum ,是 universus 的中性单数形式, 用作名词时指“宇宙”,同样派生词universitas 也指“一群个人的联合体,社团”。 在中世纪,拉丁文继续在诸如政府、宗教和教育等领域得到使用,universitas 这个词被用来指由教师和学生所构成的新联合体,比如在萨勒诺、巴黎和牛津出现的这种联合体, 而这类联合体即是我们今天的大学的最初形式。我们今天的university 这个词可以上溯到拉丁词, 它首次被记录下来是在大约1300年,当时就是用来指这种联合体〔Donovan〕American army officer and public official who founded and directed (1942-1945) the Office of Strategic Services, an intelligence-gathering agency that was a forerunner of the CIA.多诺万,威廉·约瑟夫:(1883-1959) 美国军官和官员,建立并领导了(1942-1945年)战略局。战略局是中央情报局前身,从事收集情报工作〔shawm〕Any of various early double-reed wind instruments, forerunners of the modern oboe.肖姆管:任一种早期双簧管乐器,是现代双簧管的前身〔fellow〕A jolly good fellow might or might not be the ideal business associate,but the ancestor of our wordfellow definitely referred to a business partner. Fellow, borrowed into English from Old Norse,is related to the Old Icelandic wordfēlagi, meaning "a partner or shareholder of any kind.”Old Icelandicfēlagi is derived from fēlag, "partnership,” a compound made up offē, "livestock, property, money,” and lag, "a laying in order" and "fellowship.” The notion of putting one's property together lies behind the senses offēlagi meaning "partner" and "consort.”In Old Icelandicfēlagi also had the general sense "fellow, mate, comrade,” whichfellow has as well, indicating perhaps that most partnerships turned out all right for speakers of Old Icelandic.极好的伙伴可能是但也可能不是理想的商业伙伴,但fellow 这个词的前身确实是指商业伙伴。 Fellow 从古挪威语中借入英语,与古冰岛词felagi 有关, 意思是“任何一种形式的伙伴或股东”。古冰岛的felagi 源于 felag, “伙伴关系,” 一个由fe “家畜,财产,钱,”和 lag, “整齐的布置”和“伙伴关系” 组成的合成词。 将某人的财产放在一起的概念隐藏在felagi 的意义中, 意思是“伙伴”和“同事”。在古冰岛语中felagi 也有概括的含义“伙伴,同事,同志”, 这些意思fellow 也有, 暗示着也许大多数同伴关系对讲古冰岛语的人来说结果都不错〔thymocyte〕A lymphocyte that derives from the thymus and is the precursor of a T cell.胸腺细胞:一种由胸腺繁殖而成的淋巴细胞,是T细胞的前身〔lobster〕A lobster and a locust may share a common source for their name,that is, the Latin wordlocusta, which was used for the locustand also for a crustacean that was probably a kind of lobster.We can see thatlocusta would be the source of locust, but it looks like an unlikely candidate as the source oflobster. It is thought, however, that Old Englishloppestre, the ancestor of lobster, was formed from locusta and the suffix-estre used to make agent nouns (our -ster ). The change from Latinlocusta to Old English loppestre may have been influenced by Old English loppe, meaning "spider.” 龙虾和蝗虫的名字可能源于同一出处,即拉丁词Locusta , 它用于指蝗虫,也用于表示可能是一种龙虾的甲壳类动物。我们可以看到,Locusta 可能是 locusa 的来源, 但不象是lobster 的来源。 但是,lobster 在古英语里的前身 loppestre 被认为是由 locusta 形成的, 后缀-estre 用于组成代理者的名词(现在的 -soer )。 从拉丁文locusta 到古英语 loppstre 的变化可能受古英语 loppe 的影响(意为“蜘蛛”) 〔governor〕The American Revolution did away with much that was British,but it neglected to discard an important British political term.The wordgovernor certainly seems to denote a very American office, and England has no corresponding official with that title for its counties.Nonetheless,governor has had a long history in English with reference to political rulers. In Middle Englishgovernour, the ancestor of governor, meant both "a sovereign ruler" and "a subordinate or substitute ruler.”In the later sense it was a natural term to use for heads of the British colonies in North America as well as elsewhere.During our colonial periodroyal governors were often unpopular,yet the word was not dropped after the Revolutionary Warand in fact was chosen to designate the executive head of a state when the United States of America was created.美国独立战争扫除了英国的许多东西,但却忽略了摒弃一个重要的英国政治术语。governor 这个单词肯定被看作是一个美国官方职务, 因为英国没有这样的官方职务。然而governor 作政权统治者含义在英国有很长的历史。 在中世纪的英语里,governour 是 governor 的前身, 意思是“主权统治者”和“下一级统治者或代理统治者。”用后一个意思来指英国在北美的殖民地或其他地方的首脑是很贴切的。在美国殖民地时期,皇家总督不大为人所知,然而这个词在独立战争以后并没被废除,实际上它被用来指美国建国以后各州的州长了〔winter〕Winter, spring, summer, fall.It is not too difficult to see how the season namesspring and fall came into being, but without some background information it is impossible to tell what the origins of the wordswinter and summer are. Summer goes back to the Indo-European root .sem-, meaning "summer.” From a suffixed form of this root came the prehistoric Common Germanic word.sumaraz, the ancestor of Old Englishsumor and its descendant, Modern English summer. This is the only Indo-European root referring to a season that has survived in an English name for a season.Of the other three,.wesr-, "spring,” has produced words such as vernal; ghyem-, "winter,” has given us words such as hibernate; andesen-, "harvest, fall,” has yielded earn ( from the prehistoric Common Germanic word.aznōn, "to do harvest work, serve"). Winter does, however, go back to the Indo-European root wed-, "water, wet.” From the formwe-n-d- of this root with the nasal infix -n- was derived the Germanic word .wintruz, with the underlying meaning "wet season" and the literal meaning "winter.”The Germanic word is the source of Old Englishwinter, the ancestor of Modern English winter. 冬,春,夏,秋。说出季节名spring 和 fall 的来历不是很难, 但如果没有一些背景知识,不可能知道winter 和 summer 的词源。 Summer 可追溯到印欧语中的词根 sem- ,意思是“夏天”。 给这个词根加后缀后又转化为史前的普通日尔曼词sumaraz, 这是古英语中sumor 的前身,由此又发展来现代英语中的 summer。 这是印欧语中表季节的词根在英语中作为季节名保留下来的唯一一个。另外三个wesr- “春”产生了象 vernal这类的词; ghyem-“冬”又给了我们单词 hibernate; esen- “收获,秋天”衍生出 earn ( 从史前的普通日尔曼词aznon “做收获的工作,服务”而来)。 然而winter 得追溯到印欧词根 wed- “水,湿的”。 由这个词根的we-n-d 形式和鼻音中缀 -n- 衍生出日尔曼语词 wintruz, 其隐含的意思是“湿润的季节”和字面意义“冬天”。这个日尔曼词是古英语中winter 的前身,也是现代英语 winter 的前身 |
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