单词 | 想到 |
释义 | 〔slapstick〕When we talk about slapstick,we probably do not think of two sticks slapping together,yet the word has its origin in a device that was made of two flat pieces of wood fastened at one end.This device made a loud sound if one struck someone with it,a much louder sound than a single piece would have made.Such a sound and such a blow were the stuff of comedy,albeit the comedy of farce and pantomine in which this device was originally used (the word is first recorded in 1896).Through its use with other nouns,such ascomedy, slapstick developed an abstract sense that encompassed far more than its original literal meaning.Slapstick by itself (first recorded in 1926) could now refer to the whole genre of comedy in which the literal slapstick played a role. 当我们谈到闹剧时,我们可能不会想到两根木棍敲到一起,但这个词源于一种用两块一端绑在一起的平木板制成的装置。当一个人用这个装置打某人的时候,它会发出很大的声音,这种声音比一块木板所能发出的声音大得多。这种声音和打击是喜剧里的东西,尽管这种装置最初用于闹剧和哑剧中(这个词最早的有记载的使用是在1896年),通过与其它名词连用,如comedy, slapstick 发展到了抽象的含意, 包含了远比最初的字面意思要多的含意。Slapstick (最早的有记载的使用是在1926年)这个词本身现在指的是使用闹剧中的手法的一整类喜剧 〔look〕looked to his neglected guitar during vacation.在假期里想到了他那被遗忘的吉它〔echo〕One might think that our wordecho is from the name of the nymph Echo, whom Greek mythology associates with echoes.According to one version of her story,she was torn to pieces by shepherds driven to this act by the god Pan, who was hopelessly in love with her.Pieces of Echo hidden in the ground still respond to Pan's frenzied cries,producing the phenomena known as echoes.A second version of her tale has it that Echo, as a penalty for distracting Hera from observing Zeus's infidelities, lost all power of speech,except the ability to reply.This defect lost her the love of Narcissus,which caused Echo to pine away until only her voice was left.The hapless nymph, however, cannot even claim credit for echoesbecause the Greek wordēkhō, the source of Englishecho, existed with our common noun sense before any mention of Echo is found.Our wordecho is first recorded in Middle English in a work composed in 1340. 您可能想到echo 这个词来自仙女埃科的名字, 她在希腊神话中与回声有关。关于她的故事,有一种说法认为,神潘爱她无望,便指使牧羊狗将她撕成碎片。她的碎片藏在地下时仍在回答潘的疯狂叫喊,于是产生了回声。另一种说法是,埃科使得赫拉察觉不到宙斯的不忠,作为惩罚被剥夺了说话的能力,只能重复别人的话。这个缺陷使她失去了纳西色斯的爱情,于是埃科不断憔悴消损,最后只留下她的声音。可惜的是这位不幸的女神并不能因为制造了回声这个词而居功,因为希腊语ekho , 即英语中echo 的来源, 早在任何关于埃科的故事之前就存在了。我们现在的词echo 最早是在1340年出现于中世纪英文作品中 〔tin〕The history of the wordtin may take us back to a time before Europe had been settled by speakers of Indo-European languages, such as the Germanic and Celtic languages. Related words for this metal are found in almost all Germanic languages,such as GermanZinn, Swedish tenn, and Old English tin (as in Modern English), but no other Indo-European language family has such a word.The word may have been borrowed into the Germanic languages from a pre-Indo-European language of Western Europe.Such borrowing is supported by the factthat during the Bronze Age the Near East imported most of its tin and copper from Europe, where the metals were produced and metal objects were manufactured.Lest we be too amazed by this accomplishment,we might remember another remarkable achievement of pre-Indo-European society, the construction of huge megalithic monuments such as Stonehenge.单词tin 的历史可以把我们带回讲印欧语系语言(如日耳曼和凯尔特语)的民族在欧洲定居以前的那个时代。 在几乎所有的日耳曼语言中都可以找到指称这种金属的相关词,如德语中的zinn ,瑞典语中的 tenn 以及古代英语中的 tin (与现代英语一样), 但是其它印欧语系语言中都没有这样的一个词。这个词可能是从西欧的前印欧语系语言借入日耳曼语的。这种转借是有据可依的,因为在青铜时代近东地区的大多数锡和铜都是从生产金属和金属器具的欧洲输入的。我们可能对当时欧洲的这种成就感到惊异,但是如果我们想到前印欧语系社会的另一个杰出成就——大型巨石纪念碑,如巨石阵的建造,我们就不会感到那么奇怪了〔permanent〕In this world of impermanenceit seems that we have tried to hold on to a few things at least by using the wordpermanent. Coming ultimately from the present participlepermanēns of Latin permanēre, "to endure,” Middle Englishpermanent (first recorded around 1425) also had to do with the enduring and the stable. When we consider some of the applications of this adjective,as inpermanent press, permanent tooth, we are struck by the relative evanescence of the so-called permanent.But perhaps never more so than in the case of the permanent wave.When asked what this phenomenon was,one journalist wrote in 1932,“(so far as my experience goes): a wave that is anything but permanent.”在这个无常的世界里,看起来我们已经试图保持一些事物,至少通过使用permanent 这个词来保持。 最终来自意为“持久,持续”的拉丁文permanere 的现在分词 permanens, 中世纪英语permanent (大约在1425年首次记录)也与持久和稳固的意思有关。 当我们考虑这个形容词的一些用法时,例如在句子耐久熨压,恒牙 中, 我们便会想到所谓永恒的相对的短暂性。但可能从不会因波浪式发型而想到此。当被问到这种现象是怎么回事时,一个新闻记者于1932年写道:“(以我的经验而言):卷曲发型恰恰不是永恒的”〔scribble〕It is not easy to think simultaneously of the carefully crafted writings of a trained scribe and the hastily scrawled jottings referred to by the wordscribble, but the two words are related.Scribe goes back to the Latin scrība, meaning "one who has charge of things such as public records or accounts,” scrība, in turn, coming from scrībere, "to write.” The Latin word was borrowed into English directly as well as by way of Old French (scribe ), giving us Middle English scribe, first recorded in a work written probably around 1200.People do not always write with great care,especially when pressed for time,as is shown by an early use of the verbscribble in a Middle English text: "Scribled in hast with mine owne hand in default of other helpe.”Hence it is easy to see why the verbscribble came into existence. From Latinscrībere English had formed its own verb scriben, "to write,” and probably from this verb with the addition of the suffix-el, denoting diminutive, repetitive, or intensive actions, came the Middle English word scriblen (first recorded around 1456), the ancestor of our wordscribble. 不容易同时想到由经过训练的抄写员细心写出来的字体和单词scribble 所指的匆忙中胡乱的涂写, 但是这两个字是有关联的。Scribe 可追溯到拉丁文 scriba 意思是“管理公众记录或记事的人”。 scriba 反过来,来自于 scribere, 即“写”。 这个拉丁文字通过古法语(scribe )被直接借入英语,这样我们就有了中世纪英语 scribe, 大概在1200年左右第一次被写入作品中。人们不是总能非常细心地写字,尤指当时间紧凑时,就如同在一个中世纪英语文章中scribble 的早期用法似的: “缺少其它帮助时用我自己的手匆匆地乱写”。因此很容易理解为什么动词scribble 出现了。 源于拉丁文scribere ,英语也形成了它自己的动词 scriben, “写”。 并用加上后缀-el, 表示小的、反复的或者强调的行为的单词,可能衍生了那个中世纪英语单词 scriblen (最早被记录于1456年左右), 即我们现在的单词scribble 的前身 〔scarce〕The phrasescarce excerpt, if it ever should occur to one, is an excellent example of how two intimately related words can diverge from one another in form while passing from one language to another over the centuries.Both words can be traced back to the Latin wordexcerpo (past participle stem excerpt- ), meaning "to pick out,” "to pick out mentally,” and "to select a passage for quotation.”This is clearly the ultimate source of our nounexcerpt (first recorded before 1638) and verb (first recorded around 1536), a past participle usage already being recorded in the 15th century. A more tangled path leads to our wordscarce. It is assumed that side by side with Latinexcerpere existed the Vulgar Latin form .excarpere. .Excarpsus, an adjective formed with the past participle of .excarpere in Vulgar Latin, meant "narrow, cramped,” and from this Vulgar Latin form came the Old French wordéchars, "insufficient, cramped,” and "stingy.” The Old French word, which existed in a variety of forms in Old French,includingscars and the chiefly Old North French form escarse, was borrowed into Middle English asscarse, being first recorded in a manuscript written around 1300.如果人们能够想到scarce excerpt 这个词语, 是一个说明两个关系密切的词语如何历经几个世纪,在一种语言转化到另一种语言的同时从一种形式转化到另一种形式的极佳例子。两个词可追溯到拉丁词excerpo (过去分词词根为 excerpt- ), 意为“选出”、“在思想上进行选择”和“为了引用而选择一个段落”。很清楚,名词excerpt (第一次记录于1638年前)和动词(首次记录于约1536年)及过去分词用法的最终词源,在15世纪时就已经被记录下来。 词语scarce 的变化更为复杂。 据猜测与拉丁文中excerpere 同时存在的有拉丁俗语形式 excarpere。 Excarpsus在拉丁俗语中是由 excarpere 的过去分词形成的,意为“狭窄的、受限制的”, 从这一拉丁俗语形式形成了古法语词echars ,意为“不足的、受限制的”及“吝啬的”。 这些在古法语中以多种形式存在的古法语词,包括scars 和北部古法语的主要形式 escarse , 被引入中世纪英语中成为scarse , 在1300年左右第一次被记载在一手稿本中〔vague〕Indistinctly felt, perceived, understood, or recalled; hazy:迷惑的:不清楚地感觉、观察、了解或想到;有些迷惑的:〔watt〕One might well ask how many European scientists it takes to turn on a light bulb.If we think in terms of the names used for various units in the International, or meter-kilogram-second, System,a fair number are involved.Alphabetically arranged, these units are theampere, named for the French scientist Andr? Marie Ampère (1775-1836); thecoulomb, after the French scientist Charles A. de Coulomb (1736-1806); thefarad and the faraday, after the British scientist Michael Faraday (1791-1867); thejoule, after the British scientist James P. Joule (1818-1889); thenewton, after the British scientist Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727); theohm, after the German scientist Georg S. Ohm (1789-1854); thevolt, after the Italian scientist Count Alessandro Volta (1745-1827); and thewatt, after the British scientist James Watt (1736-1819). Definitions such as that ofohm, "a unit of electrical resistance equal to that of a conductor in which a current of one ampere is produced by a potential of one volt across its terminals,” take on more human connotations when we think of how human contributions to the study of electricity are memorialized in them.The dates of first recorded use of the terms in English are as follows:ampere, 1881; coulomb, 1881; farad, 1861; faraday, 1904; joule, 1882; newton, 1904; ohm, 1870 (suggested in 1861); volt, 1873; and watt, 1882. 有人可能会问经过了多少位欧洲科学家才点亮了灯泡。如果我们以国际单位制或米—千克—秒单位制中各种单位之名称的形式来考虑的话,相当数量的人被包括了。这些单位按字母顺序排列是安培, 以法国科学家安德烈·马里耶·安培(1775—1836年)命名; 库仑, 以法国科学家夏尔·埃·德库仑(1736-1806年)命名; 法拉 和 法拉第, 以英国科学家迈克尔·法拉第(1791—1867年)命名; 焦耳 以英国科学家詹姆斯·皮·焦耳(1818—1889年)命名; 牛顿, 以英国科学家伊萨克·牛顿爵士(1642—1727年)命名; 欧姆, 以德国科学家格奥尔格·斯·欧姆(1789—1854年)命名; 伏特, 以意大利科学家亚历山德罗·沃尔塔伯爵(1745—1827年)命名; 瓦特, 以英国科学家詹姆士·瓦特(1736—1819年)命名。 定义诸如欧姆, “电阻单位,等于一伏特电压加于导体两端在导体内部产生一安培电流之导体电阻”, 当我们想到人们对电学做出的贡献是怎样在这之中得到纪念的时候,就带上了更多的人文内涵。英语中首次有记录的使用这些说法的时间如下:安培, 1881; 库仑, 1881; 法拉, 1861; 法拉第, 1904; 焦耳, 1882; 牛顿, 1904; 欧姆, 1870(在1861年建议使用); 伏特, 1873;和 瓦特, 1882 〔synesthete〕A person who experiences synesthesia, as by having a secondary sensation of sound as color or of color as sound.有联觉者:经历联觉的人,如听到声音而有第二种感觉,便似看到色彩或看到色彩而似想到声音〔help〕"Mr. Harding thought . . . of the worn-out, aged men he had succored" (Anthony Trollope).See also Synonyms at improve “哈丁先生想到…那些得到过他救济的穷人和老人” (安东尼·特罗洛普) 参见同义词 improve〔acorn〕A thoughtful glance at the wordacorn might produce the surmise that it is made up of oak and corn, especially if we think ofcorn in its sense of "a kernel or seed of a plant,” as in peppercorn. The fact that others thought the word was so constituted partly accounts for the present formacorn. Here we see the workings of the process of linguistic change known as folk etymology,an alteration in form of a word or phrase so that it resembles a more familiar term mistakenly regarded as analogous.Acorn actually goes back to Old English æcern, "acorn,” which in turn goes back to the Indo-European root ōg-, meaning "fruit, berry.” 对acorn 稍加分析我们可能会产生这样的假设,它是由 oak 和 corn 两个词组成的, 特别是当我们想到corn 作为“植物的核或种子”的意思用时,如 胡椒粒。 有人认为这种组合方式就可解释现在acorn 这种形式。 在这我们就看到了语言学上被称为俗语源学的语言变化形式。一词或词组在形式上改变从而错误地被认为是类似性地代表另一个更为熟悉的词。Acorn 在古英语中实际上是 æcern, "acorn"的印欧语系中的词根是 og- ,意指“水果,浆果。” 〔resent〕When we read the statement "Should we not be monstrously ingratefull if we did not deeply resent such kindness?” (from theSermons of Isaac Barrow, written before 1677), we may be pardoned for momentarily thinking we are in never-never land.For a time ranging roughly from the last part of the 17th century to the second half of the 18th,the wordresent did refer to gratefulness and appreciation as well as injury and insult. Resent has also been used in other senses that seem strange to us, such as "to feel pain" or "to perceive by smell.”The thread that ties the senses together is the notion of feeling or perceiving.The Old French source of our word,resentir, "to feel strongly,” is made up of the prefix re-, acting in this case as an intensive, and sentir, "to feel or perceive.” There is much that one can feel,but at least for now this word has narrowed its focus to a feeling of indignation.当我们读到“假如我们对这种仁慈不深表感激,我们就应该极度地忘恩负义吗”(选自伊萨克·巴罗的启示 ,写于1677年以前)这一叙述时, 我们瞬间地想到我们处于人烟稀少的边远地区就可以得到原谅了。在大致从17世纪后期到18世纪下半期这段时间内,resent 一词确实意指感激和赏识,同时又可以指伤害和侮辱。 Resent 还可以用于在我们看来很古怪的其它意义上, 如“感到痛楚”或“通过气味感知”等。把这些意义联结在一起的线是感觉或感知的概念。该词意为“强烈地感觉”的古法语语源resentir 是由用于加强语气的前缀 re- 以及意为“感觉或感知”的 sentir, 构成的。 可以感觉到的东西很多,但至少现在这个词的重点用法已被集中于愤怒的感觉〔frank〕"George was a straightforward soul . . . ‘See here!’ he said. ‘Are you engaged to anybody?’” (Booth Tarkington).“乔治是个想到什么说什么的家伙…‘喂’他说。‘你和谁订婚了吗? ’” (布思·塔基顿)。〔pickle〕Trade with the Low Countries across the North Sea was important to England in the later Middle Ages,and it is perhaps because of this tradethat we have the wordpickle. Middle Englishpikel, the ancestor of our word,is first recorded around 1400with the meaning "a spicy sauce or gravy served with meat or fowl.”This is a different sense from the one the word brings to mind now,but it is related somewhat in sense to its possible Middle Dutch sourcepekel, a solution, such as spiced brine, for preserving and flavoring food.After coming into Englishthe wordpickle expanded its sense range in several ways. It was applied, as it had been in Middle Dutch, to a pickling solution.Laterpickle was used to refer to something so treated, such as a cucumber. The word also took on a figurative sense,"a troublesome situation,”perhaps under the influence of a similar Dutch usage in the phrasein de pekel zitten, "sit in the pickle,” and iemand in de pekel laten zitten, "let someone sit in the pickle.” 在中世纪末,穿过北海与低地国家的贸易对英格兰来说非常重要,也许就是因为这种贸易,便有了pickle 这个词。 中世纪英语中的pikel , 也就是我们这词的祖先,大约在1400年第一次被记录,意思是“加有肉或禽肉的多香料的调味汁或肉汁。”这与现在我们所想到的意思有所不同,但从其可能的中世纪荷兰语词源pekle 的意义上讲又有些关联, 该词指如加香料的卤水等用来腌制或保存食物的溶液。进入英语后,pickle 这个词的词义在很多方面扩大了其含义。 象在中世纪荷兰语那样,它被用来指一种腌制食物的溶液。后来pickle 又用来指如此腌制的东西,如腌黄瓜。 从而这个词也有了比喻意义,即“麻烦的境地,”这大概是因为受了荷兰语中有短语坐在卤水中 和 让某人坐在卤水中 的类似用法的影响 〔reek〕Reek is a word that can be said to have been degraded by the company that it has kept. The Old English wordrēocan, one of two ancestors of our word, meant "to emit vapor, steam, or smoke,” while the other Old English ancestor,rēcan, meant "to fumigate, expose to smoke,” or "to cause to emit smoke, burn incense.”Burning incense and fumigating are certainly a far cry from the sort of thing now denoted by the verbreek. But at least in one case Old Englishrēocan did mean "to stink,” hardly a surprise when one considers how bad some smoke smells. Middle Englishreken, the descendant of these two Old English words, never meant "to stink,” but it could refer to a stench while meaning "to rise, ascend.”It would seem that the various exhalations of heated persons and animals, of freshly shed blood, and of smoke referred to by Middle Englishreken and its Modern English descendantreek eventually overwhelmed the word, so that as far as concrete senses are concerned, we largely think of it as meaning "to stink.”Reek 这个词可以说是近墨者黑的典型。 意为“散发出蒸气或烟”的古英语单词是reocan 的两个词源之一, 而另一个古英语词源是recan , 意为“熏,与烟接触,”或“使散发烟,焚香”。焚香和熏的义项与今天使用的动词reek 的意义已相差甚远。 但至少古英语中reocan 确有“发出恶臭”之意,想到烟有多难闻,生出这一意思也就不足为奇了。 中古英语reken 是这两个古英语词的后代, 但却从无“发出恶臭”之意,在表示“上升,登高”之意时可以指臭气。中古英语reken 一词可指发热的人和畜的各种呼气、刚流出的鲜血以及烟, 其现代英语传下的词reek 最终覆盖了此词的本来意义, 以致我们一般认为该词的具体意思是“发出难闻的气味”〔mantis〕The female mantis has the habit of eating the male after mating.In spite of such behaviorthe mantis is graced with a religious name.Mantis is from the Greek word mantis, meaning "prophet, seer.”The Greeks, who made the connection between the upraised front legs of a mantis waiting for its prey and the hands of a prophet in prayer,used the namemantis to mean "the praying mantis.” This word and sense were picked up in Modern Latin and from there came into English,being first recorded in 1658.Once we know the origin of the termmantis, we realize that the species namespraying mantis and Mantis religiosa are a bit redundant. Two other names of this sort that have been used for mantises arepraying locust and orator mantis. To understand the latter,we must keep in mind the obsolete sense oforator, "one who makes a prayer or petition.” 雌性螳螂习惯于在交配后吃掉雄性螳螂。尽管存在着这种行为,螳螂还是被赋予了一个具有宗教色彩的名字。Mantis 来源于希腊语 mantis 一词, 意为“先知,预言家”。希腊人把螳螂捕食前高举的前肢与预言家祷告时的双手联系起来,用mantis 一词来表示“祈祷的预言家”。 新拉丁语吸收了这个词及其意义,英语又从拉丁语中吸取了该词,最早记载见于1658年。我们既然知道了mantis 的来源, 就会发现其属种名praying mantis 和 Mantis religiosa 略有重复。 用来表示螳螂的其它类似名称还有praying locust 和 orator mantis。 要想弄清楚后者,我们必须想到orator 一词的过时的意思“做祷告或祈求的人” 〔face〕made a face at the prospect of eating lemons.想到吃柠檬时做了一个怪相〔think〕To call to mind; remember:记忆:想到;记起:〔strike〕To enter one's mind; occur to:想入脑海;想到:〔mediterranean〕When one hears the wordmediterranean, one thinks of a specific placeand perhaps of the great cultures that have surrounded it.But the word can also apply to any large body of water that is surrounded completely or almost completely by dry land.This usage goes back to the use in Late Latin of the Latin wordmediterrāneus, the source of our word,as part of the nameMediterrāneum mare for the mostly landlocked Mediterranean Sea. But Latinmediterrāneus, which is derived from medius, "the middle of, the heart of,” and terra, "land,” in Classical Latin actually meant "remote from the coast, inland.”In Late Latin,in referring to the sea,mediterrāneus probably meant originally "in the middle of the earth"rather than "surrounded by land,”for to the Mediterranean cultures without knowledge of much of the earth,the Mediterranean Sea was in the center of the world.Our wordmediterranean is first recorded in English in 1594 as the name of the sea.当一个人听说mediterranean 这个词时, 他所想到的是一具体的地方,而且可能还想到了这个地方周围的那些伟大文明。但这个词同样可以用来指任何几乎被陆地所包围或完全被陆地所包围的大水体。这个用法可以追溯到近代拉丁文中mediterraneus 这个词, 就是我们这个词的词源,亦即表绝大部分被陆地所包围的地中海的名称Mediterraneum mare 的组成部分。 但是拉丁词mediterraneus ,从 medius 意为“…中间的,…的中心”派生而来的,以及意为“陆地”的 terra 这个词, 在古典拉丁语中的确切含义为“远离海岸的,内陆的”。在近代拉丁语中,当mediterraneus 这个词用来指地中海时, 其最早的含义可能是“在地球中央的”,而不是“被陆地所包围的”,因为对于缺乏有关地球知识的各地中海文明来说,地中海就是世界的中心。我们这里所说的英语单词mediterranean 最早于1594年出现于英语中, 也是用来指地中海〔belfry〕The wordsbell and belfry seem obviously related, but in fact thebel- portion of belfry had nothing to do with bells until comparatively recently. Belfry goes back to a compound formed in prehistoric Common Germanic. It is generally agreed that the second part of this compound is the element.frij-, meaning "peace, safety.” The first element is either.bergan, "to protect,” which would yield a compound meaning "a defensive place of shelter,” or.berg-, "a high place,” which would yield a compound meaning "a high place of safety, tower.”Whatever the meaning of the original Germanic source, its Old French descendantberfrei, which first meant "siege tower,” came to mean "watchtower.” Presumably because bells were used in these towers, the word was applied to bell towers as well.The Old North French alterationbelfroi, which reminded English speakers of their native word belle (our bell ), entered Middle English with the sense "bell tower,” first recorded in 1272.bell 和 belfry 这两个词似乎显著相关, 但事实上直到最近,belfry 词里的 bel 部分才同“钟”这个词联系起来。 Belfry 源于史前普通日耳曼语的复合词。 一般认为这个复合词的第二部分是frij-, 意思是“和平、安全”。 它的第一部分或是"bergan", 意为“保护”, 该复合词就当“隐蔽防御之地”讲;或是berg 意为“高处”, 该词就是“安全高处;塔”的意思。无论其日耳曼语来源意思是什么,它衍生成古法语的berfrei, 原意为“围塔”,后意为“望塔”。据推测由于钟被用于这些塔里,所以这个词也开始指钟塔了。belfroi 作为古北法语的变体它使英语使用者想到了自己的母语中 belle 一字(我们写做 bell ), 进入中古英语后意为“钟楼”,首次记载于1272年〔vulgar〕The wordvulgar brings to mind off-color jokes, but this was not always so.Ironically the wordvulgar is itself an example of pejoration, the process by which the semantic status of a word changes for the worse over a period of time.The ancestor ofvulgar, the Latin word vulgāris (from vulgus, "the common people"), meant "of or belonging to the common people, everyday,”as well as "belonging to or associated with the lower orders.”Vulgāris also meant "ordinary,” "common (of vocabulary, for example),” and "shared by all.” Its only sense of the sort we might expect was related to the notion of general sharing, that is, "sexually promiscuous.”Our word, first recorded in a work composed in 1391,entered English during the Middle English period,and in Middle English and later English we find not only the senses mentioned above but also related senses.What is common can be seen as debased,and in the 17th century we begin to find instances ofvulgar that made very explicit what was already implicit. Vulgar now meant "deficient in taste, delicacy, or refinement.” From such usevulgar has gone downhill, and at present "crudely indecent" is probably one of the first senses ofvulgar that occurs to many when the word is used. Vulgar 这个词使人想起下流的玩笑, 但这并不尽然。具有讽刺意味的是vulgar 这个词本身就是一个贬义词, 是一个词的语义经过一段时间变为贬义的过程。Vulgar 的语源,拉丁词 vulgaris (来自于 vulgrs, “普通人”), 意思是平常人的、属于平常人的或日常的,”也意味着“属于低等阶级的,与低阶级有关的。”Vulgaris 也意味着“平常的”,“普通的(如词汇表的)”,和“大家共有的。” 我们可能会想到的这一类的唯一意思与“大家共有的”的意思是有关,即“滥交的。”这个词,首先记载于1391年编的一部书里,在中古英语期间进入英语,在中古英语和后期的英语中我们不仅发现它有上述的意思,也有其它相关的意思。普通的可以被看作是低下的,在17世纪我们开始发现vulgar 把含蓄的意思变得很明显的例子。 现在vulgar 指“品味、格调或教养不高的。” 以这个意思vulgar 开始走下坡路, 现在当人们使用vulgar 时,对许多人来讲“粗野下流的”可能是第一个意思 〔where〕They will go where they are happy.他们想到他们快乐的地方去〔expect〕To consider likely or certain:预期:好象或肯定地想到:〔bargain〕"I never bargained for this tearing feeling inside me"(Anne Tyler)“我从来没想到自己内心有如此激烈的感情”(安妮·泰勒)〔accident〕An unforeseen incident:意外:未曾想到事: |
随便看 |
|
英汉汉英双解词典收录301015条英汉双解翻译词条,可根据汉字查询相应的英文词汇,基本涵盖了全部常用汉字的英文读音、翻译及用法,是英语学习及翻译工作的有利工具。