| 单词 | 并不一定 |
| 释义 | 〔internecine〕In the first edition of theAmerican Heritage Dictionary 91 percent of the Usage Panel approved the use ofinternecine relating to internal struggle within a nation or organization that did not necessarily imply fatal or destructive conflict.The objection that had been overcome for most of the Panel was thatinternecine should imply such destruction because it came from the Latin wordinternecīnus, a variant ofinternecīvus, "fought to the death, murderous,” ultimately derived fromnecāre, "to kill.” Inter- in this compound is simply an intensive, supplying the notion of "all the way to" in the sense "fought to the death.”Internecine in English, first recorded in 1663, indeed meant "deadly, destructive,”but Samuel Johnson, inserting the word in his dictionary of 1755,thought thatinter- meant "mutual" and so defined it as "endeavoring mutual destruction.”This definition set the word incorrectly on its present course,and wheninternecine was further extended simply to mean "relating to internal struggle,” the original error was compounded.However, the point is that the meaning of words can be changed by mistakes and that mistaken meanings adhere to words.Only an occasional etymologist points out that the emperor's new clothes are patched.在美国经典辞书 第一版中， 百分之九十一的用法专题使用小组成员赞同internecine 与一个国家或组织内部的斗争有关， 但并不一定是致命的或有破坏性的冲突。为大多数小组成员说服的反对意见为internecine 应该暗指这种破坏， 因为它来源于拉丁词internecinus ， 是internecivus 的变体，意为“战至死亡的，谋杀的”， 它最终来源于意为“杀害”的necare 。 在这个复合词中inter- 只是简单的一个强调成分， 在“战至死亡的”这个意义上加上“一直”这个概念。在英语中internecine 最早记载于1663年， 确实意味着“致死的，破坏性的”，但是塞缪尔·约翰逊在其1755年的字典中插入此词，认为inter- 意为“共同的”， 并且将它定义为“竭力造成共同破坏的”。这个定义造成此词今日用法的不准确，而且当internecine 更进一步被简单地引申为“关于内部斗争的”时， 其起源的错误就加重了。但是，重要的是词的意思被错误改变并且为错误意思所追随。只有偶尔的一个词源学家指出“皇帝的新衣服打满补丁”〔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” 〔acrostic〕An acrostic gives the reader two for one,and the etymology of the word emphasizes one of these two.Our word goes back to the Greek wordakrostikhis, "acrostic,” which is a combination of Greekakron, "head,” and stikhos, "row, line of verse.” Literallyakrostikhis means "the line at the head,” emphasizing the fact that an acrostic has in addition to horizontal rows a vertical row formed of the letters at the "head" or start of each line.In ancient manuscripts, in which a line of verse did not necessarily correspond to a line of text,an acrostic would have looked particularly striking, with each of its lines standing by itself and beginning with a capital letter.Our word for this type of composition is first found in English in the 16th century.离合诗一词实际上有两种含义，在此这个词的语源只强调其中的一种。此词可追溯到希腊词akrostikhis “藏头诗”， 是希腊字akron “头，”和 stikhos “诗行”的合并。 akrostikhis 本来指“在开头的诗行”， 强调一首离合诗除了水平方向的行数外，还有由每一行的“头”或起首词组成的垂直方向的诗行。在古代的作品中，一诗行并不一定要和文章中的一行相对应。一首离合诗，当其每一行单列出来，且以一大写字母开头， 那就非常引人注目了。在英语中首次用藏头诗一词表示这种作品是在16世纪〔if〕Note also that the presence of the modal verbwould in the main clause should not be taken as a sign that the verb in the if clause must be in the subjunctive, if the content of that clause is not presupposed to be false: 另须注意，在主句中使用情态动词would 并不表明 if 从句中一定使用虚拟语气，因为从句的内容并不一定原先就认为是错误的： 〔college〕A school, sometimes but not always a university, offering special instruction in professional or technical subjects.专科学校：对职业或技术项目提供特殊咨询的学校，并不一定是一个综合大学〔sierra〕Perhaps in formal contextsit is wise after mentioning a mountain range such as the Sierra Nevadato refer to it next asthe Sierras rather thanthe Sierra Mountains, sincemountains is inherent in sierra. Nonetheless, many Californians and Nevadans in particular will be very familiar with phrases such asthe Sierra Mountains. Such phrases are used because to a non-Spanish speakersierra does not necessarily have a meaning, unless one is familiar with the English wordsierra, "a rugged range of mountains having an irregular profile,” borrowed from Spanish. In Spanishsierra originally meant "saw" and so was aptly applied to a range of hills or mountains rising in peaks that suggested the teeth of a saw.It comes from Latinserra, "saw,” to which can also be traced our wordserrated. 也许在正式的语境中，提到了一山脉如内华达山脉之后，紧接着再提到时称为the Sierra ， 而不是the Sierra Mountains ， 因为mountains 是包含在 sierra 之中的。 尽管如此，许多加利福尼亚人，尤其是内华达人对类似the Sierra Mountains 这样的词组很熟悉。 使用这样的词组是因为对一个非西班牙语的人来说，sierra 一词并不一定有意义， 除非是一个熟悉这个从西班牙语中借用来的英语单词sierra （一崎岖的山脉，有曲折的轮廓）的人。 在西班牙语中，sierra 原意为“锯子”， 所以很恰当地被用来指峰峦叠起，使人联想起锯齿的山脉或群山。这个词来源于拉丁文serra （锯子）， serrated 也可以追溯到这个拉丁词 〔ruin〕 Ruin usually implies irretrievable harmbut not necessarily total destruction: Ruin 通常暗指无可挽回的伤害，但并不一定指完全毁灭： 〔ability〕 Competence suggests the ability to do something satisfactorily but not necessarily outstandingly well: Competence 指能做到使人满意但并不一定特别出众的能力： 〔couple〕 Couple does not necessarily imply more than association: Couple 并不一定必指多于联系的意思： 〔solitude〕 Seclusion suggests removal or a setting apart from others,though not necessarily complete inaccessibility;the term often connotes a withdrawal from social contact: Seclusion 表示与他人离开或分开，虽然并不一定表示完全的不可接近；该词常常指与社会接触的疏远： |
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