| 单词 | 奉承拍马 |
| 释义 | 〔spaniel〕A docile or servile person.走狗：奉承拍马卑躬曲膝的人〔toady〕A toady is not a pleasant individual,and the origin of the word makes being a toady even less pleasant.Toady is obviously derived from the word toad. The-y suffix can have diminutive force, and the earliest recorded sense (around 1690) oftoady (now obsolete), "a little or young toad,” illustrates this force. The sense we know has nothing to do with baby toadsbut rather with the practice of certain quacks or charlatans who claimed that they could cast out poison.Toads were thought to be poisonous,so these charlatans would have an attendant eat a toad or pretend to eat oneand then remove the poison from the attendant.Such an attendant is obviously a type of person who would do anything,and thustoadeater (first recorded 1629) was the perfect name for a flattering, fawning parasite. Toadeater and the verb derived from it, toadeat, influenced the sense of the noun and verb toad and the noun toady, so that both nouns could mean "sycophant"and the verbtoady could mean "to act like a toady to someone.” 拍马者并不是一个讨人喜欢的人，这个词的来源使做拍马者这种作法更加不令人喜欢。Toady 很显然是从 toad 这个词衍生而来。 后缀-y 可以有一种指小的效力， Toady 这个词最早有记载(1690年左右）的含义“一只小或幼年蟾蜍”（现已废弃）正说明了这种效力。 我们现在知道的含义与年幼的蟾蜍没有什么关系，而与某些宣称能够驱毒的冒牌医生或江湖郎中的某些做法有关。当时人们认为蟾蜍有毒，所以这些江湖朗中会叫一个手下人吃下一只蟾蜍或假装吃下一只蟾蜍，然后把毒物从他的手下人身体中驱除出去。很明显，这样一个帮手是一种什么事都会做的人，这样，用toadeater （最早记载于1629年）这个词来称呼奉承拍马的寄生者是再合适不过了。 Toadeater 和从它衍生而来的动词 toadeat 影响了作为名词或动词的 toad 和作为名词 toady 的含义， 于是二个名词都可以理解为“拍马者”的意思，而动词toady 有“在某人面前象一个拍马者一样行动”的意思 |
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