| 单词 | 奇妙 |
| 释义 | 〔prodigious〕No one would now say, as did a character in Fanny Burney'sEvelina (1778), "You are prodigiously kind!”But this utterance, exclamation point and all,illustrates two important points about intensives, linguistic elements,such asextremely or awfully, that provide force or emphasis.One point is that we press words that originally had other meanings into service as intensives.Prodigiously is an adverb formed on prodigious, which meant such things as "ominous, amazing, enormous,” going back to the Latinprōdigiōsus, "portentous, marvelous, unnatural.”Prodigiously, first recorded in 1595, meant "portentously, ominously,”and was later used to mean "wonderfully, astonishingly,”therefore making a perfect candidate for use as an intensive.The other point about intensives illustrated byprodigiously is that they go in and out of fashion. The character inEvelina used prodigiously in a way that was no doubt very stylish; no one would find it so today.Perhaps the main reason for such shifts in the use of these intensives is that once they have been used for a whilethey no longer intensify.现在没有人会象芬妮·伯尼的小说埃维莉娜 (1778年）中的人物那样说， “您真是太好了!”但这种说法，感叹号和全句，说明了关于加强语气的重要两点，如extremely 或 awfully 这样的语言要素， 具有加强语气或表示强调的作用。要点之一是我们把一些最初有其他意思的词当作了加强语气的词来使用。Prodigiously 是在意为“不祥的，惊人的，巨大的”的形容词 prodigious 基础上形成的副词， 可追溯到拉丁词prodigiosus， 意思是“不祥的，奇异的，不自然的。”Prodigiously 最早记录于1595年， 意为“预兆性地，不祥地，”后来意为“奇妙地，惊人地，”因此很适于用作强调词。Prodigiously 说明的关于强调词的另一个要点是这些词流行一时然后就过时了。 埃维莉娜 中的人物使用 prodigiously 的方式无疑是很时髦的； 但今天已没有人这样用了。或许这些强调词用法变换的主要原因是一旦这些词被使用了一段时间后，其加强语气或强调作用就不再明显了〔passing〕"I will mention only one particular aspect of the current mess because . . . this one is surely something new and passing strange"(Walker Percy)“我将只提及目前的困境中一个特殊的方面…这一方面的确新颖并且极其奇妙”(沃克·珀西)〔sarcastic〕"a man of eccentric charm, ironic humor, and—above all—profound literary genius" (Jonathan Kirsch).“一个具有奇妙魔力、讽刺性幽默以及—特别是—高深的文学天份的人” （乔纳森·基尔希）。〔conjuration〕"a theatrical magician who knows how to make a dance program an evening of fantastic conjurations"(New York Times)“戏院魔术师知道怎样把一个舞蹈节目变成晚会中的奇妙梦幻”(纽约时报)〔Oz〕After the fantasy land Oz created by L. Frank Baum in The Wonderful World of Oz and other novels 源自奇妙之地 Oz ，弗兰克·巴姆所创作的 绿野仙踪 和其它小说 |
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英汉汉英双解词典收录301015条英汉双解翻译词条，可根据汉字查询相应的英文词汇，基本涵盖了全部常用汉字的英文读音、翻译及用法，是英语学习及翻译工作的有利工具。