| 单词 | 反语 |
| 释义 | 〔fair〕The history of the wordfair illustrates how words can weaken in meaning over time. In Old English the ancestor offair, fæger, had senses such as "lovely, beautiful, pleasant, agreeable,” a far cry from our modern sense "mildly good or satisfying.”The Old English senses passed into Middle English,where the wordfair started to take a slight turn in the direction already alluded to. Fair could mean "highly to be approved of, splendid, good,”but it could also be used ironically,as in Chaucer's observation after a horse threw the Cook on the pilgrimage to Canterbury:"that was a fair feat of horsemanship by the Cook.”This ironic use was probably not responsible for the semantic weakening offair, but it shows how a positive word can have its meaning reversed.The weakening offair was most likely caused by "the determined optimism which led to the use of fair . . . rather than direct expression of discontent,”in the words of George H. McKnight.One might add as another cause the desire to avoid hurting other people's feelings.单词fair 的历史表明随岁月的流逝单词的语意变弱。 在古英语中fair，f?ger 本意是“可爱的，漂亮的，愉快的”， 与我们现在的“比较好或满意的”大相径庭。古英语传到中世纪英语时，fair 已开始在引申的方向上有微小的转变。 Fair 可以表达“被高度赞许的，辉煌的，好的，”但也可用作反语，如在往坎特伯雷朝圣的途中马将科克摔下时后，乔尔斯评论道：“那是科克精湛骑术的体现”。这种反语用法也许对fair 语义学上的弱化没有联系， 但它表明了一个褒义的单词可以变得意思完全相反。fair 的弱化很大程度上缘于“坚决的乐观主义导致 fair 的用法改变， 而不是直接表达不满意的意思，”乔治赫·马克奈特如此评论。人们可以再添上其它原因以免伤害别人的感情〔irony〕The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning.反语：用词语表达与它们的字面意思相异或相反的用法〔irony〕A literary style employing such contrasts for humorous or rhetorical effect.See Synonyms at wit 1反语：一种文学风格，使用这类对比以达到幽默或修辞的效果 参见 wit1〔cuirass〕"A carefully primped irony, that cuirass of art in the early Eighties, is necessary—a distance so affected as to constitute a hopeless impediment to feeling"(Robert Hughes)"18世纪早期艺术的保护物——细心整饰的反语，是必需的——这一距离是如此的不自然以致于造成了对感觉的彻底失望的阻碍”(罗伯特·休斯)〔ironic〕Characterized by or constituting irony.用反语的：有反语特征的或构成反语的〔wit〕"A drayman in a passion [a rage] calls out, ‘You are a pretty fellow,’ without suspecting that he is uttering irony" (Macaulay).See also Synonyms at mind “激动［生气］ 的卡车司机叫道，‘你真是个好家伙，’表达的意思无疑是反语” （麦考利） 参见同义词 mind〔dynamite〕The same man who gave us dynamite gave us the Nobel Peace Prize,an irony that was surely not lost on the pacifistic Alfred Nobel himself.It is perhaps less well known that Nobel also contributed the worddynamite. Coined in Swedish in the formdynamit, the word was taken from Greekdunamis, "power,” and the Swedish suffix-it, which corresponds to our suffix-ite used in various scientific fields. Greekdunamis also gave us words such as dynamic and dynamo and itself probably goes back to the verbdunasthai, "to be able,” from which comesdynasty. 正是那个为我们制造炸药的人建立了诺贝尔和平奖，这种反语在阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔，这个和平主义者身上反映出来。而鲜为人知的是诺贝尔还创造了dunamite 这个词。 该词以瑞典语dynamit 形式创造， 取自希腊文dunamis ，意为“力量”， 再加上瑞典语的后缀-it， 相当于英文用于各种科学领域的后缀-ite。 希腊词dunamis 还向我们提供了其他词，如 dynamic 和 dynamo ， 而后者本身可能追源到动词dunasthai ， 由此又产生了dynasty |
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