| 单词 | 小词缀 |
| 释义 | 〔caterpillar〕It seems that the larvae of moths and butterflies are popularly seen as resembling other, larger animals.Consider the Italian dialect wordgatta, "cat, caterpillar"; the German dialect termtüfelskatz, "caterpillar" (literally "devil's cat"); the French wordchenille, "caterpillar" (from a Vulgar Latin diminutive, .canīcula, of canis, "dog"); and last but not least,our own wordcaterpillar, which appears probably to have come through Northern French from the Old French termchatepelose, meaning literally "hairy cat.”Our wordcaterpillar is first recorded in English in 1440 in the formcatyrpel. Catyr, the first part of catyrpel, may indicate the existence of an English word.cater, meaning "tomcat,”otherwise attested only incaterwaul. Cater would be cognate with Middle High German kater and Dutch kater. The latter part ofcatyrpel seems to have become associated with the word piller, "plunderer.” By giving the variant spelling -ar, Johnson's Dictionary set the spelling caterpillar with which we are familiar today. 似乎蛾子和蝴蝶的幼虫经常会被看成与其它较大动物相似。意大利方言中gatta， 一字，“猫，毛虫”； 日耳曼方言中tüfelskatz 一字“毛虫”（直译为“邪恶的猫”）； 法语词chenille， “毛虫”（来自民间拉丁语小词缀， canicula， 源自 canis ，是“狗”的意思）； 最后但并非不重要的一点，英语中caterpillar 一词， 可能是来源于从法国北部传来的古法语词汇chatepelose， 字面意思是“多毛的猫”。caterpillar 一字于1440年最早记录在英语中， 以catyrpel的形式出现。 Catyr是 catyrpel 的第一部分， 可能指明英语词cater 的存在， 意指“雄猫”，否则只能存在于caterwaul一词中。 Cater可能与中世纪高地德语 kater 和荷兰语 kater 有关。 catyrpel 一词的后一部分似乎与 piller 一词有关，意思是“强盗”。 约翰逊的词典 给出了不同的拼写- ar， 从而形成了我们今天所熟悉的 caterpillar 〔cormel〕-el [diminutive suff.] from Latin -ellus -el [小词缀] 源自 拉丁语 -ellus 〔gauntlet〕In the first and second editions ofThe American Heritage Dictionary Usage Notes explained why the spelling gauntlet is acceptable for bothgauntlet 1 and gauntlet 2. Such has not always been the case.The story ofgauntlet 1, as into throw down the gauntlet, is unexciting: it comes from the Old French wordgantelet, a diminutive of gant, "glove.” From the time of its appearance in Middle English (in a work composed in 1449),the word has been spelled with anau as well as an a, still a possible spelling. But the othergauntlet, as into run the gauntlet, is an alteration of the earlier English formgantlope, which came from the Swedish wordgatlopp, a compound ofgata, "lane,” and lopp, "course.” The earliest recorded form of the English word,found in 1646,isgantelope, showing that alteration of the Swedish word had already occurred. The English word was then influenced by the spelling of the wordgauntlet, "glove,” and in 1676 we find the first recorded instance of the spellinggauntlet for this word, althoughgantelope is found as late as 1836. From then on spellings withau and a are both found. Theau seems to have won out, although one could say that thea is preferable because it reflects the Swedish source.In regard to a word that has been so altered in form,this seems a rather fine point.在第一和第二版的美国经典辞书 的用法说明解释了为什么拼写 gauntlet 是可接受的， 既对于gauntlet 1，又对于 gauntlet 2。 情况并不总是这样。gauntlet 1的故事， 如在拒绝挑战 中并不令人激动： 它来自于一法语老词gantelet ， gant 的小词缀“手套”。 自从它在中古英语出现之后（在1449年编的一著作中），这个词同au 的拼写已同 a 一样仍是可能的拼写形式。 但是另一个gauntlet ， 如在接受挑战 中， 是早期英语形式gantlope 的一个变体， 其来自于一瑞典词gatlopp ， gata “巷子”和 lopp “方向”的组合。 最早的这个英语单词的记录，出现于1646年，是gantelope ，表示这个瑞典单词的变体已出现。 这个英语单词然后被单词gauntlet “手套”的拼写所影响， 在1676年，我们发现了gauntlet 第一个有记录的例子， 尽管gantelope 直到1836年才发现。 此后，带有au 和 a 的拼写形式都被发现过。 au 似乎占优势， 尽管一个人可能说a 更好， 因它反映了瑞典语源。说到一个形式已发生了如此变化的单词，这似乎是个好建议 |
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