单词 | 很有趣 |
释义 | 〔ofay〕The commonly seen etymology ofofay —Pig Latin for foe —is perhaps of less interest than the more likely story of this word's origins. The word, which is first recorded in the first quarter of the 20th century,must have been in use much longer if it is, as some scholars think, borrowed from an African source.Although this source has not been pinned down,the suggested possibilities are in themselves interesting.One would trace it to the Ibibio wordafia, "white or light-colored.” Another would have it come from Yorubaofe, a word that was said in order to protect oneself from danger. The term was then transferred to white people,regarded as a danger to Black people throughout the wretched days of slavery and beyond.ofay 一词的最常见的词形变化是 foe ,一种儿童黑话说法——可能更有趣的是关于这个词来源的故事: 在20世纪前二十五年里有次记载,如果按一些学者们所想,如果它是从非洲借过来的,它被使用的时间应更长一些。虽然这个说法还没有定下来,但它蕴含的可能性本身就很有趣。人们可能将它追溯到一个伊比比奥词afia ,意思是“白色或浅色”。 另还有人将它追溯到约鲁巴语ofe ,这个词是为了保持自己,避开危险的意思。 此后这个术语被移用于白人,这些白人在奴隶制及以前的悲惨日子里,被认为是对黑人们的危险〔trek〕Fans ofStar Trek and others may be interested to know that the wordtrek originally had to do with a slow journey by a very different mode of transportation, a wagon drawn by oxen. Trek was borrowed into English in South Africa, where the word was used by speakers of Afrikaans for a journey by ox wagon.The British, who at the turn of the century were to seize control of South Africa from the descendants of the original Dutch settlers,borrowed the wordtrek during the 19th century. Trek is recorded earliest in 1822 in the compound trektow, "a rope joining the wagon pole and the yoke to which oxen were fastened.”Trek in this compound is either the noun or the stem of the corresponding verb in Afrikaans, trekken. The earliest recorded use of the noun by itself is found in 1849,where it means "a stage in a journey by ox wagon.”The word has long since migrated from South African into general English—and into space travel.电影星际旅行 的影迷们和其他人可能很有趣知道: trek 这个词原来与一种非常与众不同的运输方式,即用牛拉马车所进行的一种很慢的旅行有关。 Trek 这个词在南非被借入英语, 在南非讲南非荷兰语的人用来指用牛车所进行的旅行。英国人在19世纪和20世纪之交从荷兰拓居者的后裔那里夺取了对南非的控制权,他们在19世纪借用了trek 这个词。 Trek 的最早记录在1822年出现于复合词 trektow 中, 其意指“连接车辕和系牛车轭的绳子”。Trek 在这个复合词中既作名词又作为其在南非荷兰语的对应动词 trekken 的词干。 这个词最早作为名词使用的记载是在1849年,那时这个词的意思是“一段用牛车进行的旅程”。这个词很早就从南非迁移到了一般的英语中,并且进入了星际旅行之中〔alright〕"Alright, it might be fun to hunt tigers"(Carl Icahn)See Usage Note at all right “对,去猎捕老虎可能很有趣”(卡尔·伊卡恩) 参见 all right〔lingo〕A look at the entry in the Indo-European roots entry fordöghū- will show that the wordstongue, language, and lingo are related, all going back to the Indo-European rootdöghū-, "tongue.” The relationship betweenlanguage and lingo is not particularly surprising given their related meanings and common root, but one might be curious as to the routes by which these two words came into English.Language, as did so many of our important borrowings from Latin, passed through French into English during the Middle Ages, the forms involved being Latinlingua, "language,” its descendant, Old French langue, and its derivative, langage. Lingo, on the other hand, entered English after the end of the Middle Ages when Europe had opened itself to the larger world. We have probably borrowedlingo from lingoa, a Portuguese descendant of Latin lingua. The Portuguese were great traders before the English were,and it is not unlikely that the sense "foreign language" was strengthened as the Portuguese traveled around the world.Interestingly enough,the first recorded instance oflingo in English is in the New World (1660) in a reference to the "Dutch lingo.” The development in sense to "unintelligible language" and "specialized language" is an obvious one.当我们看到印欧语系词根条目dnghu- 时, 我们就可以看出tongue,language 和 lingo 之间的联系, 它们都拥有共同的印欧语系词根dnghu- “舌头”。 当我们知道language 和 lingo 拥有共同的词根并且在意思上有关联时,我们就不会惊异于他们之间的联系, 但我们可能会对这两个词是通过何种方式进入英语的感到很好奇。和许多重要的从拉丁语借来的词一样,language 是在中世纪时通过法语传入英语的, 变换的形式为拉丁语的lingua “语言”、它的变体,古法语中的 langue 和它的派生词 langage。 另一方面,Lingo是在欧洲向一个更广阔的世界开放自己的时候即在中世纪结束后期进入英语的。 我们可能从拉丁文lingua 的葡萄牙语变体 lingoa 借入了 lingo 。 葡萄牙人是英国人之前的大商人,当他们在周游世界的同时,很可能那种“外语”的意义得到了加强。很有趣的是,最先出现在英语中的lingo 新大陆(1660年)一书中用来指“荷兰语”。 所以变成“难懂的话”和“行话”的意思的发展过程是很明显的〔find〕found the gadget surprisingly useful; found the book entertaining.发觉这个妙计非常有用;认为这本书很有趣 |
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