单词 | 引文 |
释义 | 〔text〕A passage from the Scriptures or another authoritative source chosen for the subject of a discourse or cited for support in argument.引文:为论文主题或支持论点从《圣经》或其它权威著作引用的段落〔fizzle〕In Philemon Holland's 1601 translation of Pliny'sNatural History, we are surprised by the use of the wordfizzle in the statement that if asses eat a certain plant,"they will fall a fizling and farting.” Fizzle was first used in English to mean,in the decorous parlance of theOxford English Dictionary, "to break wind without noise.” During the 19th centuryfizzle took on a related but more respectable sense, "to hiss, as does a piece of fireworks,”illustrated by a quotation from the November 7, 1881, issue of theLondon Daily News: "unambitious rockets which fizzle doggedly downwards.”In the same centuryfizzle also took on figurative senses, one of which seems to have been popular at Yale.TheYale Literary Magazine for 1849 helpfully defines the word as follows: “Fizzle, to rise with modest reluctance, to hesitate often, to decline finally; generally, to misunderstand the question.”The figurative sense offizzle that has caught on is the one with which we are most familiar today, "to fail or die out.”在腓利门荷兰1601年对普林尼的博物志 中, 我们对fizzle 一词的用法感到很惊讶, 它说如果驴吃了某种植物,“他们就会放屁。” Fizzle 首先在英语中指“无声地放屁,”是在牛津英语字典 的高雅用语中出现的。 在19世纪,fizzle 有了一个相关的但更文雅的含义, “发嘶嘶声,如同烟火那样,”这个词义是通过1881年11月7日的伦敦每日新闻 的引文说明的: “抱负不大的火箭,它们顽固地嘶嘶下坠。”同一世纪,fizzle 还赋与了比喻义, 其中的一个比喻义似乎在耶鲁大学很流行。1849年的耶鲁文学杂志 给这个词下了一个有益的定义: “Fizzle, 不十分情愿地上升,常犹豫不决,最终放弃; 通常是弄错问题。”人们已接受的fizzle 的比喻义, 即今天我们最为熟悉的“失败或消失”〔headquarter〕In an earlier surveya majority of the Usage Panel found both these examples to be unacceptable in formal writing.Although ample citational evidence exists for these usages,writers who wish to avoid criticism should consider the use of alternative expressions,for example:The magazine has just assigned him to (or has stationed him in ) a building that houses many foreign journalists. 在一次较早的调查中,大部分用法专题使用小组成员认为这两个例子在正式写作中是不能被接受的。虽然在大量引文中证实存在这种用法,但为免于批评,作家应该考虑运用其它表达方法来代替,例如:杂志社派他 (或者 has stationed him in ) 去有很多外国记者的大楼。 〔ax〕To understand the origin of the idiomax to grind, we need to know thatgrind means "to sharpen.” This phrase is said to have come from a story by the 19th-century journalist Charles Miner (alias Poor Robert) about a seemingly friendly manwho was able by flattery to persuade a young boy to turn a grindstone for him.The tale first appeared in the Luzerne, Pennsylvania,Federalist on September 7, 1810, under the title "Who'll Turn Grindstones?” and later in an 1815 book entitledEssays from the Desk of Poor Robert the Scribe. Because "Poor Robert" was confused with "Poor Richard,”the story has often been erroneously attributed to Benjamin Franklin.The idiom itself is an Americanism—a word or expression originating in the United States.It was at first restricted to political contexts,but quotations from James Joyce ("Skin-the-Goat . . . evidently with an axe to grind, was airing his grievances")and George Bernard Shaw ("distinguished statesmen of different nations . . . each with a national axe to grind") attest that the phrase has traveled abroad and,as we know only too well, is no longer found only in political contexts.为了理解成语ax to grind 的出处, 我们需要知道grind 意思是“磨尖”。 这个短语据说出自19世纪旅行家查尔斯·麦纳(别名穷罗伯特)所写的关于一个似乎很友善的人的故事,他能够奉承地劝说一名男孩为他翻过一块磨光石。这个传说第一次出现在1810年9月7日宾夕法尼亚州的卢泽恩,在1810年9月7日题为“谁将推翻磨石”的联邦制拥护者 中提到, 之后1815年又在名为作家穷·罗伯特文集 一书中提到。 因为"poor Robert和"poor Richard"易被弄混淆,这个故事经常被错误地认为是本杰明·弗兰克林创作的。这个成语本身是美国式的词或表达源于美国。一开始被限于在政治性言词的情况中使用,但是从以下的引文表明这个短语已广泛地传播,一个是引于詹姆斯·琼斯(“这个显然别有企图的披着人皮的狼,正在诉苦”),另一个引自乔治·萧伯纳(“辨认出不同国家的人…每个国家都有自己国家的打算”),正如我们所熟知的,它不会只在政治性言论的上下文间才可以找到的〔healthy〕The distinction in meaning betweenhealthy ("possessing good health") and healthful ("conducive to good health") was ascribed to the two terms only as late as the 1880's. This distinction, though tenaciously supported by some critics,is belied by citational evidence—evidence clearly indicating thathealthy and healthful have shared the meaning "conducive to good health" since at least the mid-16th century, or for more than 400 years. Use ofhealthy in this sense is to be found in the works of a broad group of distinguished speakers and writers of English, with this example being typical: Healthy (“拥有良好的健康状况”)和 healthful (“有益于健康的”)在意思上的区别直到19世纪80年代才被确定。 虽然有些专家固执地支持这种区别,但它与引文中得出的证据不符——这些证据清楚地表明至少从16世纪中叶或者说四百多年来,healthy 和 healthful 都有“有益于健康的”这一意义。 Healthy 这一意义从一大群杰出的演讲者和作家的作品中可以找到,在这个意义上的用法以这个例子最具代表性: 〔Helvetia〕An ancient region of central Europe occupying a plateau between the Alps and the Jura Mountains. It was named by the Romans for its predominantly Celtic inhabitants. Helvetia corresponded roughly to the western part of modern Switzerland, and the name is still used in poetic references and on the country's postage stamps.赫尔维西亚:中欧的一个古老地区,覆盖了位于阿尔卑斯山与侏罗山脉之间的一个高原。是罗马人根据势力强大的凯尔特人起的名字。赫尔维西亚大体上相当于今瑞士的西部,这个名字至今仍被使用于诗歌引文中及印刷于国家的邮票之上〔document〕To support (statements in a book, for example) with written references or citations; annotate.评述:为(书中叙述等)引用参考资料或引文等以支持;为…作注解,评注〔wanigan〕Wanigan is apparently borrowed from Ojibwa waanikaan, "storage pit,” from the verbwaanikkee-, "to dig a hole in the ground.” Nineteenth-century citations in theOxford English Dictionary indicate that the word was then associated chiefly with the speech of Maine. It denoted a storage chest containing small supplies for a lumber camp,a boat outfitted to carry such supplies,or, as in Algonquian, the camp equipment and provisions.In Alaska, on the western edge of the vast territory inhabited by Algonquian-speaking tribes,the same word was borrowed into English to indicate a little temporary hut, usually built on a log raft to be towed to wherever men were working. According to Russell Tabbert of the University of Alaska,wanigan is still used in the northernmost regions of Alaska to mean "a small house, bunkhouse, or shed mounted on skids" to be dragged along behind a tractor train as a place for a work crew to eat and sleep. However, Tabbert notes that in southeast Alaska, where mobile homes are a common option for housing,wanigan now means an addition built onto a trailer house for extra living or storage space. Classified advertisements for trailer homes frequently mentionwanigans. Wanigan 很显然是从奥吉布瓦语 waanikdan 而来, “储物处”从动词waanikkee (意为“在地上挖洞”)而来。 牛津英语词典 里的19世纪的引文表明,该词当时主要与缅因语相连。 它指示供应木料营地用的贮物箱,载有供应品的小船,或如在阿尔贡金语中所指的宿营装备或供应品。在阿拉斯加讲阿尔贡金语部族居住的广大土地西端,该词被借入到英语中,表示一个通常是建在木筏上的临时性小屋,每当人们搬迁的时候就将其拽走。根据阿拉斯加大学的拉塞尔·泰伯特所言,wanigan 仍然用于阿拉斯加最北部地区,意为用牵引车牵引着的供一工作组食宿的“建于轮子上的小房子、工房或工棚”。 但是泰伯特指出,在阿拉斯加东南部常选择活动房作为住所,wanigan 现在的意思是供额外居住或贮存用的一个活动房屋的附加物。 关于活动房屋的分类广告经常提到wanigans 〔lard〕larded the report with quotations.在报道中加入引文〔quote〕To give a quotation, as from a book.引用:(如从一本书中)举出一段引文〔sneak〕Snuck is an Americanism first introduced in the 19th century as a nonstandard regional variant ofsneaked. But widespread use ofsnuck has become more common with every generation. It is now used by educated speakers in all regions,and there is some evidence to suggest that it is more frequent among younger speakers thansneaked is. Formal written English is naturally and properly more conservative than other varieties, of course,and heresnuck still meets with much resistance. Many writers and editors have a lingering unease about the form,particularly if they recall its nonstandard origins.In fact, our consolidated citations, exhibiting almost 10,000 instances ofsneaked and snuck, indicate thatsneaked is preferred by a factor of 7 to 2. And 67 percent of the Usage Panel disapproves ofsnuck. Nevertheless, in recent yearssnuck has been quietly establishing itself in formal writing. An electronic search of a wide range of reputable publications turns up hundreds of citations forsnuck, not just in sports writingbut in news columns and commentary: Snuck 是一个美国独创词, 19世纪作为sneaked 的不标准的地方变体被首次引入。 在每一代,snuck 这个词都得到了广泛应用。 现在,任何地区受过教育的人都使用它,而且证据显示在年轻的使用者中,它比sneaked 更加常用。 当然,正式的文字英语自然要比其它语体保守一些,在这里,snuck 一词还是受到了排挤。 许多作家和编辑对这个词的形式有一种长久的反感,特别是联系到它不标准的起源。实际上,在我们反复验证过的显示约一万个使用sneaked 和 snuck 的引文中, 表明sneaked 受到青睐的程度为七比二。 用法专题使用小组成员中百分之六十七的人的反对snuck 一词。 但是,最近几年,snuck 在正式文体中也悄悄确立了它的地位。 对一系列著名出版物的电子扫描调查显示出几百处使用snuck 的地方, 而且不光是在体育文章中,在新闻专栏和评论中也有使用: 〔unquote〕Used by a speaker to indicate the end of a quotation.引用作结:被一名发言者用来表示一段引文的结束〔janitor〕A holiday for janitors ought to take place in January,for both words are linked.In Latiniānus was the word for "archway, gateway, or covered passage" and also for the god of gates, doorways, and beginnings in general.As many schoolchildren know,our month January—a month of beginnings—is named for the god.Latiniānitor, the source of our word janitor and ultimately also fromiānus, meant "doorkeeper or gatekeeper.”Probably becauseiānitor was common in Latin records and documents, it was adopted into English,first being recorded in the sense "doorkeeper" around 1567 in a Scots text.In an early quotation Saint Peter is called "the Janitor of heaven.”The term can still mean "doorkeeper,”but in Scots usagejanitor also referred to a minor school official. Apparently this position at times involved maintenance duties and doorkeeping,and the maintenance duties took over the more exalted tasks,giving us the position of janitor as we know it today.看门人的假日应该放在一月,因为以下两个词都同一月有联系。拉丁文中的ianus 表示的是“拱门、道路或走廊”, 也是通常所说的门神、门口和开始。正如许多小学生知道的那样,我们的一月——最初的一个月——是以神的名字命名的。拉丁文ianitor 是单词 janitor 的来源, 追根溯源它也来自ianus, 意思是“看门人或管门人”。也许因为ianitor 这个词在拉丁文记录和文件中很普遍, 它才被英语所采用,最早被记录为“看门人”之意时大约在1567年的一篇苏格兰文章中。圣彼得在早期的引文中被称为“天堂守护神”。这个词仍然是“看门人”的意思,但在苏格兰用法中janitor 也指代低层的学校公务员。 显然这个职位时不时地也包含着维护的责任和守门的义务,这种维护的责任吸取了更为崇高的任务,于是就有了正如我们今天所知道的看门人这个职务〔tump〕The verbtump, used almost invariably with over in the intransitive sense "to fall over"and the transitive sense "to overturn,”is in common use in the South.The editors of theDictionary of American Regional English have collected evidence of its use in Arkansas, Texas, and Kentucky; it is also common in Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia.This example supplied byDARE is typical: "When he brushed against the coffee table his Coke tumped over" (Little Rock, Arkansas, informant).But another citation, taken from Gregory Jaynes's parody of detective fiction, "In New York State: Who Poisoned the Pudding?” in the June 17, 1985, issue ofTime, indicates that tump may not be exclusively Southern: "At the end he tumps over into his rice pudding, poisoned. Whodunit?” As for its ultimate origin,tump is probably related to tumble as a separate development from the same Old English verbtumbian. 动词tump 几乎总是和 over 连用, 作不及物动词表示“倾倒,翻倒”,也可作及物动词表示“弄翻,翻转”,这个词在南部普遍使用。美国方言词典 的编辑们收集证据证明这个词用于阿肯色州、得克萨斯州和肯塔基州, 也普遍用于阿拉巴马州,田纳西州和佐治亚州。美国区域英语词典 中提供的这个例句很典型: “当他擦过咖啡桌时,他的可乐打翻了” (阿肯色州小石城,密告者)。但是从格里高利·杰恩斯的模仿侦探小说的作品《在纽约州:谁往布丁里下了毒?》(该作品刊登于1985年6月17日出版的时代 )中摘录的另一处引文却显示 tump 不一定只在南方使用: “最后,他跌倒在自己的稻米布丁中,被毒死了。谁干的?” 至于这个的词的最终来源,tump 可能与 tumble 有关, 它们分别从同一个古英语动词tumbian 发展而来 〔citation〕A source so cited; a quotation.引文,引言:被引用的东西;引言 |
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