单词 | 我不知道 |
释义 | 〔anyway〕I don't know if it was lost or stolen; anyway, it's gone.我不知道它是丢了还是被偷了;不管怎么说,它没了〔get〕I don't know what you're getting at.我不知道你在暗示什么〔keep〕I don't know which is more difficult—to earn money or to keep it.我不知道挣钱和存钱哪个更难。〔copacetic〕We know very little about the origin of the wordcopacetic, meaning "excellent, first-rate.” Is its origin to be found in Italian, in the speech of southern Black people, in the Creole French dialect of Louisiana, or in Hebrew?John O'Hara, who used the word inAppointment in Samarra, later wrote thatcopacetic was "a Harlem and gangster corruption of an Italian word.” O'Hara went on to say, "I don't know how to spell the Italian,but it's something like copacetti.” His uncertainty about how to spell the Italian is paralleled by uncertainty about how to spellcopacetic itself. Copacetic has been recorded with the spellings copasetic, copasetty, copesetic, copisettic, and kopasettee. The spelling is now more or less fixed, however, ascopacetic or copasetic, even though the origin of the word has not been determined.The Harlem connection mentioned by O'Hara would seem more likely than the Italian,sincecopacetic was used by Black jazz musicians and is said to have been Southern slang in the late 19th century. Ifcopacetic is Creole French in origin, it would also have a Southern homeland.According to this explanation,copacetic came from the Creole French word coupersètique, which meant "able to be coped with,” "able to cope with anything and everything,” "in good form,”and also "having a healthy appetite or passion for life or love.”Those who support the Hebrew or Yiddish origin ofcopacetic do not necessarily deny the Southern connections of the word. One explanation has it that Jewish storekeepers used the Hebrew phrasekol bĕṣedeq, "all with justice,”when asked if things were O.K. Black children who were in the store as customers or employees heard this phrase ascopacetic. No explanation of the origin ofcopacetic, including the ones discussed here, has won the approval of scholars, as is clearly shown by the etymology ofcopacetic in the first volume of the Dictionary of American Regional English, published in 1985: "Etym unknown.” 我们对copacetic 这个词的词源所知甚少,其意为“极好的、一流的”。 它是起源于意大利语、南方黑人口语、路易斯安那州的克里奥耳人的法语方言还是希伯来语?约翰·奥哈拉在撒马拉的约会 中用到这个词, 他后来写到copacetic 是“变成哈莱姆黑人居住区和强盗土语的意大利词”。 奥哈拉还说,“我不知道原来的意大利词是如何拼写的,但是有点象copacetti"。与他不敢肯定如何拼写这个意大利词一样,他对copacetic 一词本身的拼法也不敢肯定。 Copacetic 曾经被拼写成 copasetic, copasetty, copesetic, copisettic 以及 kopasettee。 现在它的拼法多少已经固定成copacetic 或 copasetic, 尽管这个词的词源仍未被确定。奥哈拉所提及的它与哈莱姆黑人居住区的关系看上去比它和意大利语的关系更有可能,因为黑人爵士歌手曾用过copacetic 这个词,并且据说在19世纪晚期它曾是南方的俚语。 如果copacetic 在词源上是克里奥耳人的法语, 那么它也是从南方来的。根据这一解释,copacetic 来自克里奥耳人法语中 coupersetique 一词, 表示“有能力与人竞争的”、“有能力处理任何事情及一切事情的”、“以好的方式的”,还表示“对生活或爱情有正常的欲望或激情的”。那些认为copacetic 来自希伯来语或意第绪语的人并不一定否认这个词与南方的关系。 一种解释认为,犹太店主们在被询问是否一切都好时用了希伯来语中的短语kol bĕṣedeq 即“一切太平”之意, 在店里作工或买东西的黑人儿童将这个短语听成了copacetic。 在关于copacetic 词源的解释中,包括以上讨论的这些,没有一种得到学者们的认可, 这一点我们可以在美国方言英语辞典 (1985年出版)第一册关于 copacetic 一词的词源解释中清楚地看到:“词源不知” 〔strange〕"I do hate to be chucked in the dark aboard a strange ship. I wonder where they keep their fresh water" (Joseph Conrad).“我的确憎恨黑夜中在一艘不熟悉的船上被抛弃。我不知道他们在哪里保存淡水” (约瑟夫·康拉德)。〔else〕I have always done it this way and I do not know how else it could be done. Where else would you like to go besides San Francisco?我总是这样做的,我不知道还有别的方法。除了旧金山你还要去什么地方?〔fidelity〕"I know no South, no North, no East, no West, to which I owe any allegiance. . . . The Union, Sir, is my country" (Henry Clay).“我不知道什么东西南北,对这些我毫无职责可言…只有美国,先生,才是我的祖国” (亨利·克莱)。 |
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