| 单词 | 并不那么 |
| 释义 | 〔midwife〕The wordmidwife is the sort of word whose etymology is perfectly clear until one tries to figure it out.Wife would seem to refer to the woman giving birth, who is usually a wife,butmid ? A knowledge of older senses of words helps us with this puzzle.Wife in its earlier history meant "woman,” as it still did when the compoundmidwife was formed in Middle English (first recorded around 1300). Mid is probably a preposition, meaning "together with.”Thus amidwife was literally a "with woman" or "a woman who assists other women in childbirth.” Even though obstetrics has been rather resistant to midwifery until fairly recently,the etymology ofobstetric is rather similar, going back to the Latin wordobstetrīx, "a midwife,” from the verbobstāre, "to stand in front of,” and the feminine suffix -trix; theobstetrīx would thus literally stand in front of the baby. 单词midwife 属于那类语源看起来相当明了的词， 可当人们试着搞清楚时，才发现并不那么简单。Wife 似乎是指临产的妇女， 通常都身为人妇，但是mid 指的是什么呢？ 通过了解词语原有的含义我们可以解开这个谜。Wife 早期时意指“妇女”， 当midwife 这个复合词在中古英语中形成的时候它仍然有此含义（首次记载于1300年前后）。 Mid 有可能是个介词， 意为“与…在一起”。这样midwife 字面上的意思就是“与妇女在一起”或者“帮助临产妇女生产的妇女”。 虽然直到近期产科学还一直抵制助产术一词，但是obstetric 的语源却与其很相似。 它可以上溯到拉丁词语obstetrix 意为“接生者”， 该词由动词obstare “站在…的前面”再加上阴性后缀 -trix 构成； 于是obstetrix 这个词字面上的意思是站在婴儿前面的人 〔all〕The constructionall that is used informally in questions and negative sentences to mean "to the degree expected,” as inI know it won an Oscar, but the film is not all that exciting. In an earlier survey, the Usage Panel rejected the use of this construction in formal writing. · Sentences of the formAll X's are not Y may be ambiguous. All of the departments did not file a report may mean that some departments did not file, or that none did. If the first meaning is intended,it can be unambiguously expressed by the sentenceNot all of the departments filed a report. If the second meaning is intended, a paraphrase such asNone of the departments filed a report or All of the departments failed to file a report can be used. Note that the same problem can arise with other universal terms likeevery in negated sentences, as in the ambiguousEvery department did not file a report. See Usage Note at every all that 这种句法作为非正式用语用于问句和否定句中，意思为“达到所期望的程度地”， 如我知道这部影片获了奥斯卡奖，但它并不那么激动人心 一句中。 在早先的一次调查中，用法使用小组不同意在正式书面语中用这一短语。All X's are not Y 类型的句子可能会造成歧义。 All of the departrnents did not file a report 可以指一些部门没有提出，也可以指没有一个部门提出。 如果指的是第一个意思，它可以通过以下这句话明确地表达出来，Not all of the departments file a report。 如果指的是第二个意思，如None of the departments file a report 或者 All of the departments failed to file a report 都可以把意思表达清楚。 注意这种情况在其他整体词如every 用在否定句时也会碰到， 如下面这个有歧义的句子Every department did not file a report 参见 every |
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