| 单词 | 弄清楚 |
| 释义 | 〔principle〕Despite generations of spelling lessons,the wordsprinciple and principal are still commonly confused. Perhaps an understanding of their history will help in keeping them straight.Both words go back to the same Latin word,prīnceps, meaning "first, as in time, position, or authority.”The split that has caused all the trouble occurred in the next stage of development.Fromprīnceps were derived the noun prīncipium, "start, origin, guiding principle,” the adjectiveprīncipālis, "first in importance or esteem,” and the noun prīncipālis, "a leading citizen.” Clearly the latter two words with theā between the p and the l have given us the adjectiveprincipal (first recorded around 1300) and the noun principal (also first recorded in a work composed around 1300).Perhaps it should not be mentioned that one Middle English spelling for the noun wasprinciple. On the other hand,the Latin wordprīncipium and its Old French descendant principe were involved in the creation of the word principle in Middle English, first recorded in a work written around 1380.Words likemanciple and participle influenced the spelling of this new word, but again perhaps we should keep silent about the fact that we also find the word spelledprincipal and prinsipal in Middle English. A key point to remember about these seemingly aberrant Middle English spellings isthat in Middle English spelling was not nearly as fixed as it usually is today,a development that was much furthered by the invention of printing.When we interchange spellings forprinciple and principal, we are doing something that would have been less of a fault in the days before the conformity imposed on us by this marvelous invention. 尽管在拼写课上反复强调，principle 和 principal 还是被人们搞混。 或许了解一下这两个词的历史有助于我们弄清楚它们的拼写。两个词都可追溯到同一个拉丁词princeps， 意为“在时间，地位或权威上第一的”。引起所有麻烦的分裂出现在发展过程的下一个阶段。从princeps 派生出了名词 principium， 意为“开端，根源，指导性原则，” 形容词principalis “最重要的或最受尊敬的”及名词 principalis 意为“处于领导地位的公民”。 显然，后两个词在p 和 l 之间带有 ā， 这就使我们有了形容词principal （最早记录于1300年左右）和名词 principal （最早记录也是在大约1300年左右创作的作品中）。或许我们不应提到这个名词在中古英语中的一种拼法是principle 。 另一方面，拉丁词principium 和其古法词的派生词 principe 共同作用创造了中古英语单词 principle， 最早记录于写于约1380年的一部作品。象manciple 和 participle 这样的单词都影响了这个新单词的拼写， 但是或许我们应该再一次对于这个单词也曾在中古英语中被拼写成principal 和 prinsipal 这一事实保持沉默。 记住这些在中古英语中貌似反常的拼写的关键在于，在中古英语中的拼写方式几乎不象今天这么固定，因为当时还没有发明印刷术。当这项神奇的发明把拼写一致的原则加到我们头上之前，我们把principle 和 principal 的拼写互相交换，也算不上什么大错 〔detect〕To discover or ascertain the existence, presence, or fact of.查明：发现或弄清楚事实真相〔sure〕To establish something without doubt; make certain:弄清楚；确保：〔shyster〕The origin ofshyster was not known for certain until recently. According to one etymology,shyster comes from the surname of one Scheuster, a disreputable and almost certainly nonexistent mid-19th-century attorney.In his bookHuman Words, a collection of words formed from the names of people, Robert Hendrickson says that Dr. Henry Bosley Woolf and others "list the New York advocate as a possible source.”But the actual etymology, according to Gerald L. Cohen, a student of the word,is less flattering.According to this etymology,the word is derived from the German termscheisser, meaning literally "one who defecates,”from the verbscheissen, "to defecate,” with the English suffix-ster, "one who does,” substituted for the German suffix -er, meaning the same thing. Sheisser, which is chiefly a pejorative term, is the German equivalent of our English termsbastard and son of a bitch. Sheisser is generally thought to have been borrowed directly into English as the word shicer, which, among other things, is an Australian English term for an unproductive mine or claim,a sense that is also recorded for the wordshyster. shyster 一词的来源直到最近才能较确切地弄清楚。 根据词源，shyster 来自一个叫 Scheuster 的人的姓， 他是一位声名狼籍而且很可能并不存在的19世纪中期的律师。罗伯特·亨德里克森在他的人类词汇 （一本由人名组成的词汇集）一书中说， 亨利·博斯利·任尔夫博士和其他的人“将纽约的鼓吹者列为一种可能的出处”。但是据加兰德·L·科恩——一位研究词汇的学生看来，这个词的真正词源更令人不快。根据这种词源，这个词来自德语Scheisser， 字面意义为“大便的人”，是从动词scheissen “排泄”而来， 用一英语词缀-ster （做…的人）代替了表相同意义的德语词缀 -er 。 Sheisser 主要用作贬蔑语， 在德语中相当于我们英语中bastard 及 son of a bitch。 Sheisser一般被认为是直接借入英语作为 Schicer 一词， 在澳式英语中指不再产出的矿山或没有结果的要求，这一意义也被记录在Shyster 这个词中 〔ravel〕To clarify by separating the aspects of.弄清楚：通过分开…各部分而使清楚〔determination〕The ascertaining or fixing of the quantity, quality, position, or character of something:查明，确定：弄清楚某事物的数量，质量，位置或特征：〔argument〕from arguere [to make clear] * see argue 源自 arguere [弄清楚] * 参见 argue〔argue〕from Latin argūtāre [to babble, chatter] [frequentative of] arguere [to make clear] * see arg- 源自 拉丁语 argūtāre [唠叨，闲谈] arguere的重复动词 [弄清楚] * 参见 arg- |
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