单词 | 引申为 |
释义 | 〔jungle〕One might be surprised to learn that the wordjungle is not African in origin nor does it come from a word that only meant "land densely overgrown with tropical vegetation and trees.” Jungle goes back to the Sanskrit word jaṅgalam, meaning "desert, wasteland,”and also "any kind of uncultivated area, such as heavily forested land.”The Sanskrit wordjaṅgala- passed into various Indian languages and from one or more of these languages into English.In Englishjungle was used for land overgrown with vegetation, for the vegetation itself,and for such land outside India.The word was also extended figuratively in various ways.We have, for example, asphalt jungles, concrete jungles, blackboard jungles, academic jungles, corporate jungles,and, in a February 1972 issue of theGuardian, the government official who "lit up some lurid corners of the taxation jungle.”jungle 一词的词源不是非洲语,也不是来自仅仅意为“长满茂密的热带植物和树木的地带”的单词;知道这一点也许会让人吃惊。 Jungle 可追溯到梵语词 jangalam , 其意为“荒漠,荒原”,也指“任何未开垦的地域,如茂密的森林”。梵语词jangala- 传入多种印度语中, 又从这其中的一种或多种语言再传入英语。在英语中jungle 用来指长满植物的地带, 指植物本身,也指印度以外的类似地带。该词也在多方面引申为比喻意义。例如,我们有柏油丛林、水泥丛林、黑板丛林、学术丛林、公司丛林,此外在1972年2月发行的一期卫报 上, 还出现了“揭露税收丛林中鲜为人知的龌龊勾当”的政府官员〔czar〕The wordczar can also be spelled tsar. Czar is the most common form in American usageand virtually the only one employed in the extended senses "any tyrant" or informally, "one in authority.”Buttsar is preferred by most scholars of Slavic studies as a more accurate transliteration of the Russian and is often found in scholarly writing with reference to one of the Russian emperors.单词czar 也能拼写为 tsar。 Czar 是最普遍的美国用法,并且实际上是唯一引申为“任何独裁者”或者非正式指“当权者”的词语。但是tsar 是大多数斯拉夫语研究学者更多地用作俄语的更加正确的翻译, 并且经常在学术文章中指其中的一位沙皇〔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”〔pay〕Given the unpeaceful feelings one often has in paying bills or income taxes,it is difficult to believe that the wordpay ultimately derives from the Latin word pāx, "peace.” However, it is not the peace of the one who pays that is involved in this development of meaning.Frompāx, meaning "peace" and also "a settlement of hostilities,” was derived the word pācāre, "to impose a settlement on peoples or territories.” In Late Latinpācāre was extended in sense to mean "to appease.” The Old French wordpaiier that developed from Latin pācāre came to have the specific application "to pacify or satisfy a creditor,”a sense that came into Middle English along with the wordpaien (first recorded around the beginning of the 13th century), the ancestor of our wordpay. 人常常在支付帐单或收入调节税时有不安之感情,因而很难令人相信单词pay 来源于拉丁词语 pax “和平”。 但是,并不是支付人内心的平和与这个词意义的延伸意有关连。因为意思是“和平”和“敌视的和解”的单词pax 源于 pacare “给人民或领土以安宁”。 在后拉丁语中pacare 的意义被引申为“抚慰,使缓和。” 古法语单词paiier 来源于拉丁语 pacave, 后来开始具有“缓和、平息或使债主满意”这个具体用意,这种意思随同单词paien (大约在13世纪初首次记录)进入中世纪英语, 这个词就是单词pay 的前身 〔decimate〕Decimate originally referred to the killing of every tenth person, a punishment used in the Roman army for mutinous legions.Today this meaning is commonly extended to include the killing of any large proportion of a group.Sixty-six percent of the Usage Panel accepts this extension in the sentenceThe Jewish population of Germany was decimated by the war, even though it is common knowledge thatthe number of Jews killed was much greater than a tenth of the original population.However, when the meaning is further extended to include large-scale destruction other than killing,as inThe supply of fresh produce was decimated by the accident at Chernobyl, the usage is accepted by only 26 percent of the Panel.Decimate 最初指杀死每十人中的一个, 用于古罗马军队对反叛军团的一种惩罚。现在这一层意思通常引申为大批杀死。用法专题使用小组中66%的成员认为在德国的犹太人在战争中被大批杀死 一句中该词的这一引申义可接受, 尽管众所周知,被杀的犹太人的数目远比最初人口的十分之一要多。可是,当词义外延至包括大量毁灭而不是戳杀,如在新鲜农产品的供应由于车诺比事故极大地受到了破坏 一句中, 用法专题使用小组中只有26%的成员接受这一用法。〔tortuous〕Althoughtortuous and torturous both come from the Latin word torquēre, "to twist,” their primary meanings are distinct.Tortuous means "twisting" ( a tortuous road ) or by extension "complex" or "devious.” Torturous refers primarily to torture and the pain associated with it. However,torturous also can be used in the sense of "twisted" or "strained,” andtortured is an even stronger synonym: 尽管tortuous 和 torturous 都来自同一个拉丁词 torquere (“弯曲”), 但这两个词的基本意思完全不同。Tortuous 的意思是“弯曲的”( 一条蜿蜓的道路 )或引申为“复杂”或“迂回”的意思。 Torturous 主要指折磨、痛苦以及与之相关的意思。 不过,Torturous 同样也有“扭曲的”和“受压的”意思, 而tortured 是一个意思更为强烈的同义词: |
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