| 单词 | 尽管 |
| 释义 | 〔ritual〕"Prison was a ritual—reenacted daily, year in, year out. Prisoners came and went; generations came and went; and yet the ritual endured"(William H. Hallahan)“监狱总是一成不变——每天都有新的角色扮演，今年进来，明年出去。犯人来了又走了；一代又一代人来了又走了；尽管法令是保持不变的”(威廉H.哈勒汉)〔perseveration〕Uncontrollable repetition of a particular response, such as a word, phrase, or gesture, despite the absence or cessation of a stimulus, usually caused by brain injury or other organic disorder.持续症，言语重复症：对一种特定的反应难以控制的重复，如一个词、短语或手势，尽管没有受刺激或终止刺激，通常由脑部受伤或其他器官的紊乱引起〔force〕force a laugh in spite of pain.尽管疼痛但强作笑容〔itself〕Itself no great poem, it still reveals talent.尽管不是伟大的诗歌，但它仍展露了诗人的天赋〔hegemony〕Hegemony may be stressed on either the second or first syllable, though 72 percent of the Usage Panel prefers the first pronunciation. Hegemony 这个词的发音，尽管用法专题使用小组的72%成员认为重音应放在第二个音节上，但实际上重音放在第一个或第二个音节上都是可以的 〔gerrymander〕"An official statement of the returns of voters for senators give[s] twenty nine friends of peace, and eleven gerrymanders.”So reported the May 12, 1813, edition of theMassachusetts Spy. A gerrymander sounds like a strange political beast,which in fact it is, considered from a historical perspective.This beast was named by combining the wordsalamander, "a small lizardlike amphibian,” with the last name of Elbridge Gerry, a former governor of Massachusetts— a state noted for its varied, often colorful political fauna.Gerry (whose name, incidentally, was pronounced with a hardg, though gerrymander is now commonly pronounced with a soft g ) was immortalized in this way because an election district created by members of his party in 1812 looked like a salamander.According to one version of howgerrymander was coined, the shape of the district attracted the eye of the painter Gilbert Stuart,who noticed it on a map hanging in a newspaper editor's office.Stuart decorated the map with a head, wings, and clawsand then said to the editor, "That will do for a salamander!”"Gerrymander!” came the reply.A new political beast was created then and there.The word is first recorded in April 1812 with respect to the creature or its caricature,but it soon came to mean not only "the action of shaping a district to gain political advantage"but also "any representative elected from such a district by that method.”Within the same yeargerrymander was also recorded as a verb. “一份答复参议员选举人的官方声明宣布了二十九个和平伙伴和十一个不公正划分的选区。”在1813年3月12日的一期马萨诸塞州观察报 上有如上报导。 一个不公正划分选区听起来象是一个奇怪的政治怪兽，事实上它是来自历史上的观点。这个怪兽是由两个词合并而命名的，即salamander “一种蜥蜴状的两栖动物，”及马萨诸塞州州长埃尔布里奇·格里的姓。 而马萨诸萨州以其多变的、通常多姿多彩的政治动物群而闻名。格里（他的名字碰巧发重音g， 尽管 gerrymander 现在普遍发轻音 g， ）以此种方式而垂名史册， 因为1812年由他所在党成员组建的选举区就象一只蝾螈。根据一种gerrymander 如何被创造的观点， 该区的形状吸引了一位画家基尔伯特·斯图亚特，他在一家报纸的主编办公室里挂在墙上的地图中发现了它。斯图尔特又画上头、翅膀和爪子，然后对主编说，“那就象只蝾螈了！”"Gerrymander！”主编回答道。此时此地一个新的政治怪兽产生了。这个词于1812年4月首次被记录是在谈到这种牲畜或讽刺的画中，但很快，它就不仅意味“为赢得政治优势的改变区划的行动”，而且有“用此种方法选出的任何代表”的意思。同年gerrymander 也被作为一个动词而记载下来 〔tattoo〕The practice of tattooing the body is prehistoric,but the English wordtattoo was introduced fairly recently. Our word came from Polynesian languages such as Tahitian and Samoanand was introduced to English speakers by the explorer Capt. James Cook (who also gave us the wordtaboo ). The earliest use of the verbtattoo in English is found in 1769 in his account of a voyage around the world from 1768 to 1771. Cook also used a noun in his writings of 1769but treated it as a native wordso he is not given credit for the first use of the noun in English (recorded in 1777).In any event,sailors introduced the custom into Europe from the Pacific societies in which it was practiced,and it has remained associated with sailors,although many other people have tattoos as well.尽管在身体上刺出花纹这一做法在史前就已存在，但英语中tattoo 一词却是在距离现在较近的时候才被引入的。 我们这个词源于塔西提语或萨摩亚语等波利尼西亚语族，它是由探险家詹姆斯·库克船长介绍给英语使用者的（库克同时也给了我们taboo 一词）。 动词tattoo 在英语中的首次使用见于库克关于他在1768年-1771年所做的一次环球航行记录中。 库克在他1769年的日志中也把这个词用作一个名词，但因为他只是把它作为一个土著人的词汇对待，所以人们不认为他是第一个在英语中使用该词名词形式的人（记录于1777年）。但不管怎样，是水手们将这种原本是太平洋岛屿社会中的习俗带入欧洲的，所以直到今天这种做法仍然和水手们联系在一起，虽然各种职业的人们都在身上刺花纹〔mean〕She means well, despite her blunders.她用意是好的，尽管她因为无知犯了大错误〔council〕Council, counsel, and consul are never interchangeable as such, though their meanings are related.Council and councilor refer principally to a deliberative assembly (such as a city council or student council), its work, and its membership. Counsel and counselor pertain chiefly to advice and guidance in general and to a person (such as a lawyer or camp counselor) who provides it.Consul denotes an officer in the foreign service of a country. Council，counsel 和 consul 是不能互相代替的， 尽管他们的意义有联系。Council 和 councilor 主要指评议集会（例如市议会或学生会），及其工作和会籍。 Counsel 和 counselor 主要涉及大体上的建议和指导， 并涉及提供建议的人（如律师或军营参谋者）。Consul 指参与国家外事服务的官员 〔wilderness〕Deer comes from the Old English word dēor, meaning "beast.” Clearly the word has narrowed in meaning and lost its general sense.But another word in English,wilderness, may point to this general sense of Old English dēor. The etymology ofwilderness is variously given, but one etymology traces the-der- of wilderness back to dēor and wild- back to Old English wilde, "wild.” Der- may thus carry on dēor in its general sense, reminding us that wild beasts might be the only inhabitants of a wilderness.Wilderness, though it may have existed in Old English, is first found in 13th-century Middle English.Deer 来自于古英语中意为“野兽”的一词 deor 。 很明显这个词的词义缩小了，失去了它较笼统的意义。但英语中的另一个词wilderness, 大概会指出古英语中 deor 的笼统意义。 wilderness 的词源很多， 但一种说法顺着wilderness 中的 -der- 找到 deor ，顺着 wild- 中找到古英语中的 wilde “野蛮的”。 Der- 大概因此具有笼统意义上的 deor 的意义， 提醒我们野兽大概是荒野处的唯一居民。Wilderness 尽管在古英语中已存在， 但是在13世纪中世纪英语中首次出现的〔celibate〕Historically,celibate means only "unmarried"; its use to mean "abstaining from sexual intercourse" is a 20th-century development.But the new sense of the word appears more or less to have displaced the old,and the use ofcelibate to mean "unmarried" is now almost sure to invite misinterpretation in other than narrowly ecclesiastical contexts.Sixty-eight percent of the Usage Panel rejected the older use in the sentenceHe remained celibate [unmarried] , although he engaged in sexual intercourse. 历史上，celibate 只作“未婚的”解； 用作“禁欲”的意思是在20世纪发展起来的。但是该词的新含义多少有取代原含义的趋势，并用celibate 作“未婚的”意义， 现在除了在狭小的神学领域外几乎都会引起误解。用法专题使用小组百分之六十八的成员在句子他仍是单身的 ［未婚的］ ，尽管他仍保有性生活 中，拒绝使用该词的旧含义 〔thusly〕Thusly was introduced in the 19th century as an alternative for thus in sentences such asHold it thus or He put it thus. The increasingly literary character of such uses ofthus may have facilitated coinage of the new adverbthusly, particularly by poorly educated speakers who were straining for a stylish effect.Early citations for the word indicate clear association with rustic or illiterate speech,and though the word has subsequently gained some currency in educated usage,it is still widely regarded as incorrect.In an earlier surveythe use of the word was judged unacceptable by a large majority of the Usage Panel.In formal writingthus can still be used as in the examples above; in other styles,expressions such asthis way and like this are more natural. Thusly 在19世纪时被作为 thus 的替代语使用， 如用在 Hold it thus 或 He put it thus 等句中。 thus 这些用法日益具有书面语的特点， 这可能促成了一个新的副词thusly 的产生， 这对那些受教育程度不高但又尽量追求文采的人尤其有用。这个词的早期引用清楚地表明了它与乡村或文盲语言的联系，尽管后来它在受教育的人中得以一定传播，但仍被普便认为是一种不正确的用法。早期进行的一次调查中，用法委员会小组绝大多数都认为这个词的使用是不能接受的。在正式的文字中，thus 这个词仍然能用于上面所举的例子； 在其它风格的作品中，this way 和 like this 等表达方式更为普遍 〔Taylor〕English-born American Puritan cleric and poet. Although his works were unpublished until 1939, he is now recognized as one of colonial America's finest poets. His poems include "God's Determinations Touching His Elect" (c. 1685).泰勒，爱德华：(1645?-1729) 英裔美国清教徒牧师和诗人。尽管他的作品直到1939年才出版，现在他还是被认为是殖民地美国的最优秀诗人。他的诗包括《上帝的决心感化了他的选民》（作于1685年）〔noumenon〕In the philosophy of Kant, an object, such as the soul, that cannot be known through perception, although its existence can be demonstrated.本体：在康德哲学理论中的本体，如灵魂，尽管它的存在可被证明，却无法为知觉所知〔center〕According to traditional canons of usage,the verbcenter may be freely used with the prepositions on, upon, in, or at; but its use witharound is excoriated as "ungrammatical,” "illogical,” "geometrically senseless,” and "physically impossible.” But the fact that writers persist in using this phrase in sentencessuch asThe discussion centered around the need for curriculum revision (where traditionalists would require revolved around ) suggests a widespread perception that center around, for all its apparent illogicality,may sometimes represent the true nature of experience.Center may denote a variety of relations involving having, finding, or turning about a center, and the choice of a preposition depends on what is intended.There is reputable precedent for usagessuch asOur hope centered in the young sovereign; 根据传统用法，动词center 可以和介词 on，upon，in 或 at 自由连用； 但它和around 连用却被严厉指责为“不合语法”，“不合逻辑”，“几何上无意义”，“物理上不可能”。 然而事实上作家们坚持在句子里使用这个短语，比如讨论围绕修订工作的需求展开 （这里传统人士将用 rovolve around ）表明 center around 揭示了一个普遍的认识， 即尽管它明显不合逻辑，有时也会代表经验的真正特性。Center 可以指示包括拥有，发现或围绕中心转动在内的多种关系， 介词的选择取决于具体意向。用法上有著名的先例，如我们的希望集中于年轻的帝王身上； 〔apparent〕For all his apparent wealth, Pat had no money to pay the rent. 尽管帕特貌似富有，但他没有钱付租金。 〔nonchalant〕A nonchalant person is not likely to become warm or heated about anything,a fact that is underscored by the etymology of the wordnonchalant. Non-,the first part of the word, is easy to spot as a familiar negative prefix;since this word was formed in Old French,we havenon-, the Old French descendant of Latin nōn-. The second element,chalant, is the Old French present participle of the verb chaloir, meaning "to be concerned.”This in turn came from the Latin wordcalēre, which from its concrete sense "to be hot or warm" developed the figurative sense "to be roused or fired with hope, zeal, or anger.”Obviously the Old French verbchaloir has lost some of the warmth of Latin calēre, but then, the nonchalant person has little warmth or concern.The wordnonchalant is first recorded in English before 1734, although Frenchnonchalance, a derivative of French nonchalant, seems to have entered English first. Englishnonchalance is first recorded in 1678. 态度冷漠的人是不太可能变得热心或对某事激动的，这一事实被词语nonchalant的词源所强调。 Non-，这个词的第一部分， 很容易认出是个很熟悉的否定前缀；因为此词形成于古法语，我们可以说non-，来自 拉丁语 non- 在古法语中的衍生词。 第二个组成部分chalant， 是动词 chaloir 的古法语现在分词， 意思是“担忧的，关心的”。此词同样也来自于拉丁词calere ， 从其具体的感觉“热的或暖和的”演变到比喻的感觉“被激起或引起希望、热心或愤怒”。很明显古法语动词chaloir 已去掉了一些拉丁语 calere 的温暖， 不过，冷漠的人确是几乎没有什么热心或关心的。词语nonchalant 在1734年前第一次被记录在英语中， 尽管法语nonchalence, 是法语 nonchalant 的派生词似乎已首先进入英语。 英语中的nonchalance 于1678年第一次被记录下来 〔vibrate〕"Even as the film moved . . . to the more deadly fields of Vietnam, old hatreds vibrated in me"(Loudon Wainwright)“尽管电影移向越南更加死气沉沉的区域，古老的憎恨仍在我的心中震动”(劳登·韦恩赖特)〔parameter〕In recent yearsparameter has become the archetype for the borrowing of scientific terms into general usage and as such has occasioned a good deal of skeptical comment.Some of its new uses can be justified as useful extensions of the technical senses of the word.For example, the provisions of a zoning ordinance that limit the height or density of new construction can be reasonably likened to mathematical parameters that establish the limits of other variables.Therefore one can properly sayThe zoning commission announced new planning parameters for the historic Lamping district of the city. But other uses suggest that the writer has not understood the technical senseand has chosen it primarily as a way of injecting an aura of scientific precision into what would otherwise be a pedestrian communication.Thus there is no semantic justification for usingparameter as a general substitute for characteristic, as inThe Judeo-Christian ethic is one of the important parameters of Western culture, an example found unacceptable by 80 percent of the Usage Panel. ·Some of the difficulties with nontechnical use ofparameter appear to arise from its resemblance to the word perimeter, with which it shares the sense "limit,” though the two words differ in their precise meaning.This confusion doubtless explains the use ofparameter in a sentence such as U.S. forces report that the parameters of the mine area in the Gulf are fairly well established, where the wordperimeter would have expressed the intended sense more exactly. This example of a use ofparameter was unacceptable to 61 percent of the Usage Panel. 近些年来，parameter 已成为一个从科技术语借用到普通用法的原形， 同时也引起了大量的怀疑批评。它的某些新用法可被看作是该词科技含义的有益扩展。例如，某一区域性法规中关于新建筑高度或密度的条文能被合理地与制定其它变量限度的数学参量进行比较。因而，人们当然可以说地区委员会公布了历史上该城有名的灯区新计划方案 。 但其它的一些用法说明说话人还没有理解它的科技含义，并且选用了这个词主要作为给将是普通交流的东西注入一些精确的科学气息的途径。因此，用parameter 作为 characteristic 的一般等价词毫无语义上的合理性， 如在犹太教与基督教的道德规范是西方文化中重要的限制因素 ， 是80%的用法小组成员不接受的例子。Parameter 的非科技运用中的一些难点是由于它与 perimeter 都有“限制”的含义造成的， 尽管两个词的确切含义是不相同的。这种混淆无疑解释了parameter 在例如 美军报告说，海湾地雷区的环形防线设置得相当不错 的句子中的运用， 这里perimeter 可能会更确切地表达这种引申含义。 61%的用法小组成员不接受这个运用parameter 的例子 〔mozo〕In the world of pack trains and cattle roundups,amozo provides a useful pair of extra hands. Back home on the ranch,the mozo helps with odd jobs,especially heavy work around the house.In the southwest United Statesmozo has taken on a general sense of "assistant,” even in areas not related to ranching: "An enterprising deputy of the opposition Partido de Acción Nacional (PAN) called a quorum count, only to find that . . . many of the reclining figures occasionally raising their hands were mozos (attendants)” (Latin America).In fact, to call an assistant amozo is essentially to call him a "boy,” formozo is Spanish for "young man.” Even though a mozo may not be a boy in years,the word is not used disparagingly.In other languagesporters or guides are commonly referred to as "boys"—for example,gillie, from Scottish Gaelic gille, means "boy.” 在行李车上或养牛场里，一个mozo 很能帮上一把。 回到农场的家中，男佣帮着做各种杂活，尤其是重体力家务活。在美国西南地区mozo 一般是“服务员”的意思， 甚至在与农场无关的地方也是如此： “一个有胆量的PAN的代表要求法庭达到法定人数，但只发现…许多偶尔举手的、可依靠的人都是随从” （拉丁美洲）。实际上，把一个帮手称为mozo 是称他为“男孩”， 因为mozo 是西班牙语的“年轻人”。 尽管男孩在年龄上并不是个男孩了，但该词不按原意来使用。在别的语言中，看门小厮或保安通常也被称作“男孩”，例如：gillie 源自苏格兰方言 gille 意思是“男孩” 〔parent〕The Usage Panel is better disposed to accept the verbparent than in previous surveys, though a majority continues to find it unacceptable.In 1968 it was acceptable to only 19 percent of the Panel;in the most recent survey45 percent accepted it in the sentenceIn looking for foster homes, we give preference first to relatives and second to families with prior experience in parenting. · The use of the verbparent to mean "act as a parent to" is not entirely new:it occurs as early as 1884 in a metaphorical context.But its use in a literal sense with respect to children is a recent development and reflects a modern reconceptualization of family life.The word is not completely synonymous with the traditional expressionraise a child, though the precise nature of the differences may depend on the context.For some speakers,use of the word suggests a self-conscious shift from child to parent as the focus of the parental relationship,and it may be this implication that feeds critical reservations about the verb.But the usage also reflects a widespread practical realizationthat the activities required of a parent extend well beyond the direct interactionwith the child emphasized inchild raising. Thus theparenting classes for young parents offered by schools and state agencies encompass not only the activities traditionally associated with raising a childbut also topics such as personal self-sufficiency, household financial management, and methods of dealing with schools and health care agencies.See Usage Note at father 用法小组比以往更倾向于接受动词parent 了， 虽然还有大部分人觉得不可接受。1968年仅有19％的小组成员认同这种用法；在最近的调查中，有45％的人接受了它,如在：在寻找收养家庭时，我们首先选孩子的亲戚，其次是有过养育孩子经历的家庭 这样的句子中的用法。 Parent 的意为“做…的父（母）”动词用法， 并不完全是个新用法：早在1884年，在一个比喻性的文章中就出现过了。但就孩子这方面而言，它的本义是近期发展的结果并反映了现代家庭生活的观念。这个词并不与习语 raise a child 完全同义， 尽管不同之处确切的性质可能取决于说话背景。但对一些人来说，使用这个词暗含一个把家长的关系作为重点的自觉的从孩子到父母的转换，也许正是这个隐含的用意引起了关于这个动词批评性的保留。然而，这个用法也反映了广泛的现实认识，即要求父母的活动扩展到超出直接与孩子的相互作用，这个相互作用在 child raising 这个短语中有所强调。 因此，由学校和国家专门部门向年轻家长提供的 parenting 课， 不仅包括传统上与抚养孩子有关的事务，而且还包括诸如个人自给自足、家庭财政管理和同学校和保健部门打交道的方法等课题 参见 father〔slapstick〕When we talk about slapstick,we probably do not think of two sticks slapping together,yet the word has its origin in a device that was made of two flat pieces of wood fastened at one end.This device made a loud sound if one struck someone with it,a much louder sound than a single piece would have made.Such a sound and such a blow were the stuff of comedy,albeit the comedy of farce and pantomine in which this device was originally used (the word is first recorded in 1896).Through its use with other nouns,such ascomedy, slapstick developed an abstract sense that encompassed far more than its original literal meaning.Slapstick by itself (first recorded in 1926) could now refer to the whole genre of comedy in which the literal slapstick played a role. 当我们谈到闹剧时，我们可能不会想到两根木棍敲到一起，但这个词源于一种用两块一端绑在一起的平木板制成的装置。当一个人用这个装置打某人的时候，它会发出很大的声音，这种声音比一块木板所能发出的声音大得多。这种声音和打击是喜剧里的东西，尽管这种装置最初用于闹剧和哑剧中（这个词最早的有记载的使用是在1896年），通过与其它名词连用，如comedy, slapstick 发展到了抽象的含意， 包含了远比最初的字面意思要多的含意。Slapstick （最早的有记载的使用是在1926年）这个词本身现在指的是使用闹剧中的手法的一整类喜剧 〔transpire〕Transpire has been used since the mid-18th century in the sense "leak out, become publicly known,” as inDespite efforts to hush the matter up, it soon transpired that the colonels had met with the rebel leaders. This usage was objected to as a Gallicism when it was first introducedbut has long been standard.The more common use oftranspire to mean "occur" or "happen" has had a more troubled history.Though it dates at least to the beginning of the 19th century,it has been the object of critical opprobrium for more than a hundred years,charged with being both pretentious and unetymological.There is some signthat resistance to this sense oftranspire is abating, however. In a 1969 survey the usagewas acceptable only to 38 percent of the Usage Panel;in the most recent surveyit was acceptable to 58 percent in the sentenceAll of these events transpired after last week's announcement (though many of the Panelists who accepted the usage also remarked that it was pretentious or pompous).Transpire 这个词从18世纪中叶开始一直有“泄漏，为公众所知”的意思， 如尽管竭力掩盖事实真相，但人们很快就得知军官们已经与反叛者的领导人会晤。 当这种用法一开始出现时，有人把它当作法国式用法而提出异议，但现在它早已成为标准用法。Transpire 更为普通的用法是“发生”或“碰巧发生”的意思， 这个用法的历史更为复杂。尽管这种用法至少可以追溯到19世纪初期，但一百多年以来它一直遭到批评反对，人们认为这个用法不仅矫饰而且在词源上毫无根据。但是有迹象表明，对transpire 的这个词义的异议正在消失。 在一次1969年进行的调查中，用法委员会成员中只有38%的人接受这种用法。在最近进行的一次调查中，有58%的人认为象在所有这些事件都发生在上个星期的宣告之后 这样的句子中，这个词的用法是可以接受的 （许多接受这种用法的使用者也指出这种用法很矫柔造作）〔cayuse〕The nouncayuse comes from the name of the Cayuse people in the Pacific Northwest. Cayuse is used chiefly in the territory of the word's origin—the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho—although its use has also spread into other Western states. A verb meaning "to buck,” derived from the noun,is cited by Ramon F. Adams inOld-Time Cowhand (1961): "What cowboys in other sections calledbuckin', the Texan called pitchin', and a term used in South Texas, though seldom heard in other sections, wascayusein'. ” 名词cayuse 源自太平洋西北部卡尤塞人的名字。 Cayuse 一词主要在该词的起源地区——华盛顿州、俄勒冈州和衣阿华州使用——尽管它也被其它一些西部州使用。 从名词引申的动词意为“碰撞”，被拉门·F·亚当斯在过去时代的牛仔 （1961年）中引用： “牛仔们在其它地区称为buckin'， 得克萨斯人称 pitchin'， 而在南得克萨斯经常使用， 在其他地区很少听到的一个词是cayusein' ” 〔glitch〕Although in retrospectglitch seems to be a word that people would always have found useful, it is first recorded in English in 1962in the writing of John Glenn:"Another term we adopted to describe some of our problems was ‘glitch.’”Glenn then gives the technical sense of the word the astronauts had adopted:"Literally, a glitch is a spike or change in voltage in an electrical current.”In this very passage we see how the word moved from its narrow, technical electronic sense to a more general sense, even if the astronauts were not necessarily the first to extend the meaning ofglitch. Since then the word has passed beyond technical useand now covers a wide variety of malfunctions and mishaps.回溯历史，尽管glitch 似乎是一个向来有用的单词， 但是直到1962年它才首次在英语中有记录，在约翰·格林著作中：“我们所采用的另一个用来描述我们的问题的词汇是‘glitch’”。格林给这个词下了为宇航员所采用的专业定义， “严格来说，glitch是指电流中电压受阻或变化。”。在这里，即使宇航员不一定是第一个引申了glitch 的含义，可是我们看到这个词是如何从它狭义的电子技术上的意义发展到更普遍的意义。 此后这个词超出了技术上的使用范围，现在可指多种功能故障和灾祸〔precipitate〕An already ailing economy precipitated into ruin despite foreign intervention.尽管有外来的协助，已千疮百孔经济仍陷入崩溃状态〔worth〕Here's my advice, for what it's worth.这是我的建议，尽管可能用处不大，你姑且听听〔kind〕To this may be added a word of caution to American writers:despite the existence of ample literary precedent forthese kind of films, the construction has been so thoroughly stigmatized by native grammariansthat its use would have to be reckoned indiscreet, if not strictly incorrect.关于这一点也许可以给美国作家加上一句警告：尽管有大量的像these kind of films 一样的文学上的先例存在， 这一结构已被本国的语法专家彻底否定掉，以至于它的用法即使不认为是严格的错误，也会被认作不慎重〔similar〕Related in appearance or nature; alike though not identical.相似的：与外表或性质相关的；尽管不完全相同但相像的〔copacetic〕We know very little about the origin of the wordcopacetic, meaning "excellent, first-rate.” Is its origin to be found in Italian, in the speech of southern Black people, in the Creole French dialect of Louisiana, or in Hebrew?John O'Hara, who used the word inAppointment in Samarra, later wrote thatcopacetic was "a Harlem and gangster corruption of an Italian word.” O'Hara went on to say, "I don't know how to spell the Italian,but it's something like copacetti.” His uncertainty about how to spell the Italian is paralleled by uncertainty about how to spellcopacetic itself. Copacetic has been recorded with the spellings copasetic, copasetty, copesetic, copisettic, and kopasettee. The spelling is now more or less fixed, however, ascopacetic or copasetic, even though the origin of the word has not been determined.The Harlem connection mentioned by O'Hara would seem more likely than the Italian,sincecopacetic was used by Black jazz musicians and is said to have been Southern slang in the late 19th century. Ifcopacetic is Creole French in origin, it would also have a Southern homeland.According to this explanation,copacetic came from the Creole French word coupersètique, which meant "able to be coped with,” "able to cope with anything and everything,” "in good form,”and also "having a healthy appetite or passion for life or love.”Those who support the Hebrew or Yiddish origin ofcopacetic do not necessarily deny the Southern connections of the word. One explanation has it that Jewish storekeepers used the Hebrew phrasekol bĕṣedeq, "all with justice,”when asked if things were O.K. Black children who were in the store as customers or employees heard this phrase ascopacetic. No explanation of the origin ofcopacetic, including the ones discussed here, has won the approval of scholars, as is clearly shown by the etymology ofcopacetic in the first volume of the Dictionary of American Regional English, published in 1985: "Etym unknown.” 我们对copacetic 这个词的词源所知甚少，其意为“极好的、一流的”。 它是起源于意大利语、南方黑人口语、路易斯安那州的克里奥耳人的法语方言还是希伯来语？约翰·奥哈拉在撒马拉的约会 中用到这个词， 他后来写到copacetic 是“变成哈莱姆黑人居住区和强盗土语的意大利词”。 奥哈拉还说，“我不知道原来的意大利词是如何拼写的，但是有点象copacetti"。与他不敢肯定如何拼写这个意大利词一样，他对copacetic 一词本身的拼法也不敢肯定。 Copacetic 曾经被拼写成 copasetic, copasetty, copesetic, copisettic 以及 kopasettee。 现在它的拼法多少已经固定成copacetic 或 copasetic， 尽管这个词的词源仍未被确定。奥哈拉所提及的它与哈莱姆黑人居住区的关系看上去比它和意大利语的关系更有可能，因为黑人爵士歌手曾用过copacetic 这个词，并且据说在19世纪晚期它曾是南方的俚语。 如果copacetic 在词源上是克里奥耳人的法语， 那么它也是从南方来的。根据这一解释，copacetic 来自克里奥耳人法语中 coupersetique 一词， 表示“有能力与人竞争的”、“有能力处理任何事情及一切事情的”、“以好的方式的”，还表示“对生活或爱情有正常的欲望或激情的”。那些认为copacetic 来自希伯来语或意第绪语的人并不一定否认这个词与南方的关系。 一种解释认为，犹太店主们在被询问是否一切都好时用了希伯来语中的短语kol bĕṣedeq 即“一切太平”之意， 在店里作工或买东西的黑人儿童将这个短语听成了copacetic。 在关于copacetic 词源的解释中，包括以上讨论的这些，没有一种得到学者们的认可， 这一点我们可以在美国方言英语辞典 （1985年出版）第一册关于 copacetic 一词的词源解释中清楚地看到：“词源不知” 〔pun〕The origin of the wordpun is lost in obscurity, perhaps deservedly so in the eyes of those who consider the pun the feeblest form of wit. The wordpun is first recorded in a work of 1662 written by John Dryden. In a slightly later passage of 1676we find the wordpun in the company of the words pundigrion and punnet with the same sense. Punnet is probably a diminutive of pun, as are the laterpunlet (used by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1819) and punkin (Henry James, 1866). Butpundigrion, although recorded later, may have been around earlier than pun and might be its source.Pundrigrion in turn might be an alteration of the obsolete Italian word puntiglio, "fine point,” which we have in English aspunctilio. In any case,the wordpun has given birth to some derivatives of its own, including punnigram, modeled onepigram, and punnology. 可能在那些认为双关语是智慧的最虚弱表现形式的人眼里，pun 的本源难以考证是当然的。 1662年在约翰·德莱登的一篇文章中最早出现了pun 这个词。 其后不久1676年的一篇文章中，pun 同 pundigrion 和 punnet 具有相同的意思而列在一起。 Punnet 可能是 pun 的一个词尾， 后来的punlet (1819年萨缪尔·泰勒·柯利芝使用）和 punkin （亨利·詹姆斯于1866年使用）可能也是如此。 但尽管pundigrion 比 pun 的记载晚，却很可能比它略早出现， 且可能是它的来源。Pundrigrion 按顺序来说可能是已废弃的意大利语 puntiglio 的变形，意为“妙处”， 英语中相应的词是punctilio。 不论如何，pun 自身还衍生了一些词，包括 punnigram ， 它是模仿epigram 和 punnology 而成的 〔sad〕"No one is so accursed by fate,/No one so utterly desolate,/But some heart, though unknown,/Responds unto his own" (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow).“没人注定交厄运，/没人如此悲伤以至无法安慰，/但是某个心灵，尽管不为人知，/对着自己回应” （亨利·华兹华斯·朗费罗）〔paradox〕An assertion that is essentially self-contradictory, though based on a valid deduction from acceptable premises.逆说，悖论：一种尽管从可接受的假设中推导出来但其核心是自相矛盾的论断〔wish〕 This usage is consonant with formal style,where it is natural to treat the desires of others with exaggerated deference.The corresponding use ofwish with a noun-phrase object is less frequent, though it cannot be regarded as incorrect: 这种用法符合正式文体，因正式文体中对别人的愿望表示出夸大的尊重很自然。尽管不会认为是错误的，但wish 加上名词短语作宾语不太常见： 〔input〕The nouninput has been used as a technical term for about a century in fields such as physics and electrical engineering, but its recent popularity grows out of its use in computer science,where it refers to data or signals entered into a system for processing or transmission.In general discourseinput is now widely used to refer to the transmission of information and opinion, as inThe report questioned whether a President thus shielded had access to a sufficiently varied input to have a realistic picture of the nation or The nominee herself had no input on housing policy. In this last sentence the meaning of the term is uncertain:it may mean either that the nominee provided no opinions to the policymakersor that she received no information about housing policy.This vagueness in the nontechnical use ofinput may be one reason that some critics have objected to it (including, in an earlier survey, a majority of the Usage Panel). Though the usage is well established,care should be taken not to use the word merely as a way of pretending to a scientific precision unwarranted by the facts of the case.名词input 作为一个专业名词在象物理和电子工程领域已经被用了大约一个世纪， 但是它在计算机科学上的最新流行超出了原来的用法，在计算机科学上它指输入系统进行运行或传送的信息和信号。总的来说，input 广泛地用来指信息和观点的传送， 就象在报告怀疑这样保护起来的总统是否能获得接近足够多样信息的机会，从而有一幅这个国家的现实图景 或 被提名人自己没有关于房产政策的任何信息 。 在后一句中单词的定义是不确定的：它既可以指被提名人未向决策者提供任何建议，也可以指她未收到任何有关房产政策的信息。这种模糊在input 的非专业用法中有可能是一些批评家反对它（在一个早期调查中，其中包括大部分用法专题小组成员）的一个原因。 尽管这种用法已完全确立，用这个词时也应谨慎，不能把这个词仅仅用来伪装一种科学的精确性，而在这样的情况下，如此的精确性是不被事实所证明的〔sunbeam〕The period of European history from the 5th to the 11th century,although often called the Dark Ages,in fact did much to preserve and extend the light of civilization.One of the relatively minor contributions of the time, albeit a fortunate one for us, is the addition of the wordsunbeam to the English language. The word is believed to have entered English in the 9th century through the work of the English king Alfred the Great. A scholar as well as a king, Alfred undertook a number of translations of great Latin writings,rendering them into the English of his time, now known as Old English.Among the works translated during Alfred's reign was a store of narratives and information about England's earliest connections with the Church,called theHistoria Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, or The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, a work composed by the Venerable Bede. Several times in his book Bede uses the Latin phrasecolumna lucis, which we would today translate as "a column of light.”Since the Old English translator did not have the wordcolumn in his vocabulary, he substituted the word beam, which meant "a tree" or "a building post made from a tree.”Columna lucis thus became sunnebeām, or "sun post,” which survives as our sunbeam. Ifsunbeam is perhaps a less stately expression than "column of light,” it has nevertheless served us well. From it the wordbeam alone came to mean "a ray or rays of light"; it subsequently became a verb meaning "to radiate.”It now allows us not only to beam with pride or happinessbut also to beam our broadcasts to other countries and ourselves, as some would have it, through space.Column would never do. 欧洲历史上从5世纪到11世纪这段时期，尽管经常成为黑暗的年代，但为保存和发展文明之光做了很多努力。这个时期相对不太重要的贡献之一，但对我们来说 十分幸运的就是阳光光束 这个单词加进了英语语言中。 人们相信这个词是通过英格兰国王阿尔费雷德大帝的努力于9世纪进入英语的。阿尔费雷德不仅是位国王，他还是位学者，他着手翻译了许多部重要的拉丁文作品，他将它们译成他那个时代的英文，即现在所说的古英语。在阿尔费雷德统治时期翻译的作品中，有一部有关于英格兰与教会的最早联系的丰富叙述和信息，书名是Historia Ecclesiastic Gentis Anglorum 或 The Ecclesiastical History of the English People （英国人民的基督教历史），作者是尊敬的比德。 在这本书中，比德数次使用了拉丁文短语columna hucis ， 今天我们将其译为“一束阳光”。因为古英语翻译家在他所掌握的词汇中还没有column （柱子）这个词，所以他用 beam 这个词代替， 当时的意思是“树”或“用树做成的建筑物的支柱”。Columna lucis 就这样成了 sunnebeam 或“光束”， 它以 sunbeam 的形式存在。 或许sunbeam（阳光光束） 这种表达方法不如“光柱”这么堂皇，但是它很合我们用。 由此，beam 这个词单独也可作“一束光或多束光”讲， 而且它逐渐地变成了动词，意思是“发射，发光”。现在我们不仅可以说因骄傲或幸福而散发光彩，还可以说通过大气向其它国家和我们自己广播，如果他们进行的话。Column 可不行 〔apartheid〕Although South Africa has not furnished a great number of words that have achieved general currency in British and American English,one in particular,apartheid, has gained wide circulation. The first recorded use ofapartheid as an English term, in the Cape Times on October 24, 1947, is an ironic commentary on much of the word's use since then: "Mr. Hofmeyr said apartheid could not be reconciled with a policy of progress and prosperity for South Africa.” According to the March 15, 1961, issue of theLondon Times, the wordself-development was supposed to replace apartheid as the official term used by the South African Broadcasting Corporation for "the Government's race policies. ” And inMove Your Shadow, published in 1985, Joseph Lelyveld says that the "word is [now] shunned, even resented by the [National Party's] high priests as if it were an epithet fashioned by the country's enemies.” Butapartheid as a word and as a reality has been slow to disappear. The history ofapartheid, however, offers a possible model for change in this policy, for the word is an example of a mixture and combination of resources, in this case linguistic.Apartheid is an English word that came into South African English from Afrikaans, the language of the Dutch settlers of South Africa. They in turn had made up the word from the Dutch wordapart, "separate,” and the suffix -heid, which corresponds to our suffix -hood. Thusapartheid literally means "separateness.” The Dutch had earlier borrowed the wordapart, as did we, from the French phrase à part, meaning "to one side.” 尽管南非并没有向英国和美国英语里加入很多得以普遍使用的词汇，但尚有一例外，apartheid 这个词就得到了普遍应用。 apartheid 一词作为英语词汇的使用最早记录于1947年10月24日的 开普时报 上，从那时起对该词的使用就作了反讽式的评论： “霍夫梅伊先生说种族隔离制不能与南非进步及繁荣的政策相容。”根据1961年3月15日的一期伦敦时报 ， 南非广播公司试图以self-development 作为官方用语来代替 apartheid 表示“政府的种族政策”。 在1985年出版的移动你的影子 中，约瑟夫·莱莉瓦德说“这个词为高级牧师们所回避甚至痛恨， 似乎它是这个国家的敌人创造出来的修饰语。”但apartheid 作为词汇和作为现实存在消失得很慢。 然而apartheid 的历史为这种政策的变化提供了一个可能的模式， 因为这个词是语言学方面各种来源混合及联合的一个例子。Apartheid 是从南非的荷兰殖民者的语言进入南非英语的一个英语词汇。 依次由荷兰词apart “分隔”，和后缀 -heid （其与后缀 -hood 相对应）构成。 这样，apartheid 可逐字译为“分隔，隔离。” 荷兰人较早地借用了apart 一词，就如我们从法语里借用了意为“到一边”的 a part 一样 〔wart〕All defects and imperfections notwithstanding:尽管有各种缺点与瑕疵：〔Hispanic〕There are a number of words denoting persons who trace their origins to a Spanish-speaking country or culture.Hispanic is the broadest of these terms, encompassing all Spanish-speaking peoples in both hemispheresand emphasizing the common denominator of language between communitiesthat sometimes have little else in common.It is widely used in both official and unofficial contextsand is entirely acceptable,although like the termSpanish American, it has occasionally been criticized as unduly emphasizing the role of European influences in shaping ethnic identity to the neglect of indigenous cultures.Latino is also in wide use, but it is somewhat less formal in most contextsand is generally restricted to persons of Latin-American descent.See Usage Note at Chicano 有许多单词表示那些来历或出身可以溯及西班牙语国家或文化的人，Hispanic 是这些词中应用最广泛的， 包括了两个半球所有讲西班牙语的民族，并且强调不同团体的语言上的共同特征，尽管它们在别的方面共同点很少。这个词被广泛地用于官方和非官方的语境中，并且被完全接受，尽管象Spanish American 一样， 偶然会有人批评它过分地强调在形成忽视本土文化的种族特性的欧洲影响。Latimo 应用得很广泛， 但在大多数语境下它不太正式，并且一般只限于有拉丁美洲血统的人 参见 Chicano〔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 |
| 随便看 |
|
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。