| 单词 | 拼法 |
| 释义 | 〔homonym〕One of two or more words that have the same sound and often the same spelling but differ in meaning.同音异义字：两个或以上单词发音及经常拼法相同但词义不同〔lagniappe〕Lagniappe derives from New World Spanish la ñapa, "the gift,” and perhaps ultimately from Quechua yapay, "to give more.” The word came into the rich Creole dialect mixture of New Orleans and there acquired a French spelling. It is still used chiefly in southern Louisiana to denote a little bonus that a friendly shopkeeper might add to a purchase. By extension, it may mean "an extra or unexpected gift or benefit.” Lagniappe 源于新大陆西班牙语中的 la~napa （“礼物”），而且也许最终来自盖丘亚语中的 yapay （“给得更多”）。这个词进入了新奥尔良富有的克里奥耳人的对话用语并因此具有了法语的拼法。直至今日它还是主要用于路易斯安那州的南部，用来形容那些友好的店主们可能会在你所购物之外给予额外的东西。根据它的延伸意，该词可以指“额外的或意料不到的礼物或收益。” 〔orthoepist〕A specialist in orthoepy, especially one of a number of 16th- and 17th-century scholars who proposed reforms of English spelling so that it would more systematically reflect pronunciation.正音学的研究者：尤指16与17世纪改良英文拼法让英文可以更系统化反应发音的正音学专家〔homophone〕One of two or more words, such asnight and knight, that are pronounced the same but differ in meaning, origin, and sometimes spelling. 同音异义词：两个及两个以上词诸如night 和 knight ，发音相同，但意义，起源及有时拼法不同 〔surly〕The fact that the wordsurly means "churlish" nicely indicates its fall in status. Churlish derives from the word churl, which in its Old English form ceorl meant "a man without rank, a member of the lowest rank of freemen,” as well as "peasant" in general. In Old Englishceorl may have been a term of contempt; it certainly became one in Middle English,wherecherl meant "base fellow, boor,” with churlish descending in meaning accordingly. Surly, on the other hand, started its life at the top of the scale but fell just as far. Looking at instances of this word in Middle English and Early Modern English,we see thatsurly was only one spelling for this word, another spelling beingsirly, which makes it clear that it came from the word sir, the term of honor for a knight or for a person of rank or importance in general. Thussirly, the form under which the early spellings of the word are entered in the Oxford English Dictionary, first meant "lordly.” Surly, entered as a separate word in the OED and first recorded in 1566, meant perhaps "lordly, majestic,” in its earliest use,subsequently being used in the sense "masterful, imperious, arrogant.” As the gloss "arrogant" makes clear, the wordsirly could have a negative sense, and it is this area of meaning that is responsible for the current "churlish" sense of the word.surly 意为“粗野的”事实生动地说明了这个词的地位下降。 Churlish 是 churl 的派生词，其古英文形式 ceorl 的意思是“没有爵位的男人，或者是自由民中最低等级的男人”，大概象“农民”一样。 古英语中ceorl 可能含有贬意； 中古英语中肯定是贬意，其cherl 的意思是“卑贱的人，粗野的人”，相应地 churlish 的意思也下降了。 另一方面，Surly 开始是个高尚的字，后来地位同样下降。 从中古英语和早期现代英语中的实例，我们可以看到，surly 的拼法只有一个， 另一个是sirly ，它清楚地表明这个字来自 sir （给于骑士或有等级或有身份的人的尊称）。 因此，sirly 这个字的最初形式记载在 牛津英语词典 中，开始的意思为（有威严的，高傲的）。 Surly 作为另一个字最初于1566年记录在 OED 中， 最初的意思是“老爷的、尊贵的”，以后的意思为“老爷般的、命令式的、傲慢的”。“傲慢”这个字条清楚地说明sirly 可能有过否定的意思， 也正是在这层意义上，它和目前“粗野的”意义有关〔principle〕Despite generations of spelling lessons,the wordsprinciple and principal are still commonly confused. Perhaps an understanding of their history will help in keeping them straight.Both words go back to the same Latin word,prīnceps, meaning "first, as in time, position, or authority.”The split that has caused all the trouble occurred in the next stage of development.Fromprīnceps were derived the noun prīncipium, "start, origin, guiding principle,” the adjectiveprīncipālis, "first in importance or esteem,” and the noun prīncipālis, "a leading citizen.” Clearly the latter two words with theā between the p and the l have given us the adjectiveprincipal (first recorded around 1300) and the noun principal (also first recorded in a work composed around 1300).Perhaps it should not be mentioned that one Middle English spelling for the noun wasprinciple. On the other hand,the Latin wordprīncipium and its Old French descendant principe were involved in the creation of the word principle in Middle English, first recorded in a work written around 1380.Words likemanciple and participle influenced the spelling of this new word, but again perhaps we should keep silent about the fact that we also find the word spelledprincipal and prinsipal in Middle English. A key point to remember about these seemingly aberrant Middle English spellings isthat in Middle English spelling was not nearly as fixed as it usually is today,a development that was much furthered by the invention of printing.When we interchange spellings forprinciple and principal, we are doing something that would have been less of a fault in the days before the conformity imposed on us by this marvelous invention. 尽管在拼写课上反复强调，principle 和 principal 还是被人们搞混。 或许了解一下这两个词的历史有助于我们弄清楚它们的拼写。两个词都可追溯到同一个拉丁词princeps， 意为“在时间，地位或权威上第一的”。引起所有麻烦的分裂出现在发展过程的下一个阶段。从princeps 派生出了名词 principium， 意为“开端，根源，指导性原则，” 形容词principalis “最重要的或最受尊敬的”及名词 principalis 意为“处于领导地位的公民”。 显然，后两个词在p 和 l 之间带有 ā， 这就使我们有了形容词principal （最早记录于1300年左右）和名词 principal （最早记录也是在大约1300年左右创作的作品中）。或许我们不应提到这个名词在中古英语中的一种拼法是principle 。 另一方面，拉丁词principium 和其古法词的派生词 principe 共同作用创造了中古英语单词 principle， 最早记录于写于约1380年的一部作品。象manciple 和 participle 这样的单词都影响了这个新单词的拼写， 但是或许我们应该再一次对于这个单词也曾在中古英语中被拼写成principal 和 prinsipal 这一事实保持沉默。 记住这些在中古英语中貌似反常的拼写的关键在于，在中古英语中的拼写方式几乎不象今天这么固定，因为当时还没有发明印刷术。当这项神奇的发明把拼写一致的原则加到我们头上之前，我们把principle 和 principal 的拼写互相交换，也算不上什么大错 〔china〕Our termchina for porcelain or ceramic ware is a shortening of chinaware and probably china dishes. Although the wordchina is identical in spelling to the name of the country, there are 16th- and 17th-century spellings likechiney, cheny, and cheney that reflect the borrowing into English of the Persian term for this porcelain,chīnī. The Persian word and the Sanskrit wordcīnāḥ, "Chinese people,” which gave us the English name for the country, go back to the Chinese wordQin, the name of the dynasty that ruled China from 221 to 206b.c. 我们所说的表示瓷器或陶器的词china 是 chinaware 或者可能是 china dishes 的缩写形式。 虽然china 这个词拼写上与中国的国名是一样的， 但16和17世纪时也有chiney，cheny 和 cheney 等拼法， 表明英语借用了波斯语中表示这种瓷器的词，chini 。 这个波斯词，还有梵语中cinah 一词（“中国人”，英语中中国的名称即从这个词而来）， 都来自汉语里的Qin 字， 这是从公元前 221至206年统治中国的王朝的名称 〔ketchup〕The wordketchup exemplifies the types of modifications that can take place in the borrowing process, both in the borrowing of a word and in the borrowing of a substance.The source of our wordketchup may be the Malay word kēchap, possibly taken into Malay from the Cantonese dialect of Chinese.Kēchap, like our word, referred to a kind of sauce, but a sauce without tomatoes;rather, it contained fish brine, herbs, and spices.The sauce seems to have emigrated to Europe by way of sailors,where it was made with locally available ingredients such as the juice of mushrooms or walnuts.At some point, when the juice of tomatoes was first used,ketchup as we know it was born.However, it is important to realize that in the 18th and 19th centuriesketchup was a generic term for sauces whose only common ingredient was vinegar. The word is first recorded in English in 1690 in the formcatchup, in 1711 in the formketchup, and in 1730 in the formcatsup. These three spelling variants of a foreign borrowing remain current.ketchup 这个词显示出在借词过程中的变异， 既发生在借词上又发生物质转借上。ketch up 这个词的来源大约是马来词 kechap ， 可能是从中国广东方言变为马来语的。Kechap 也象ketchup一样指一种酱， 但是不含番茄的酱，而是含咸鱼汁、药草和香料。大概是由水手们传到欧洲，在欧洲只能用当地有的调料如蘑菇或胡桃汁制成。当番茄汁初次被被使用时，我们所指的调味番茄酱便产生了。但应注意的是18和19世纪时，ketchup 是表示一般成分只含醋的调料的通用词。 1690年这个词首先以catchup 的形式在英语中出现， 1711年改为ketchup ， 1730年又改为catsup 。 这个外来词的三种不同拼法现在都通行〔fuck〕The obscenityfuck is a very old word, first recorded in English in the 15th century.Age has not dimmed its shock value,even though it is seen in print much more often now than in the past.Its first known occurrence, in a poem entitled "Flen flyys" written sometime before 1500, is in code,illustrating the unacceptability of the word even then.The poem, composed in a mixture of Latin and English,satirizes the Carmelite friars of Cambridge, England,with the title taken from the first words of the poem, "Flen, flyys, and freris,” that is, "fleas, flies, and friars.”The line that containsfuck reads "Non sunt in coeli, quia gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk.” The Latin words "Non sunt in coeli, quia" mean "they [the friars] are not in heaven, since.”The code"gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk" is easily broken by simply writing the preceding letter in the alphabet. As we decode,we must watch for differences in the alphabet and in spelling between then and now.Forg write f ; for x, v (used for u and v ); d, c ; b, a ; o, n ; v, t ; xx, vv (which equals w ); k, i ; x, v ; z, y ; t, s ; p, o ; g, f ; i, h ; f, e ; m, l ; and for k, i. This yields "fvccant [a fake Latin form] vvivys of heli.”The whole thus reads in translation: "They are not in heaven because they fuck wives of Ely [a town near Cambridge].”猥亵语fuck 是个很古老的词， 最早见于15世纪的英语。年代并未削弱其令人震惊的价值，甚至在书面语中比以前出现的更频繁。最早出现于写于1500年前的诗“跳蚤和苍蝇”，并且是以代号出现的，可见当时此词即有不被接受性。此诗由拉丁语和英语混合写成，讽刺了英国剑桥的卡尔梅修道士，其诗题取自第一句"Flen，flyys，and freris"即，“跳蚤，苍蝇和修道士。”有fuck 一词的一行是"Non sunt in coeli，quia gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk。” 拉丁文"Non sunt in coeli，quia"意为“自那以来他们（修道士们）不在天堂。”代号"gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk" 只要写下前述词即可被很容易破译。 破译代码时，必须注意以前和现在单词拼法的不同。因为g 写做 f ； x，v （用作 u 和 v ）； d，c ； b，a ； o，n ； v，t ： xx，vv （等同于 w ）； k，i ； x，v ； z，y ； t，s ； p，o ； g，f ； i，h ； f，e ； m，l ； k，i 。 这形成句子"fvccant（假拉丁语）vvivys of heli。”全句译为“他们不再能上天堂因为他们与伊利的妇人性交”〔dungeon〕The worddungeon may have gone down in the world quite literally, if one etymology of the word is correct. Dungeon may go back to a Vulgar Latin word,domniō, meaning "the lord's tower,”which came from Latindominus, "master.” In Middle English,in which our word is first recorded in a work composed around the beginning of the 14th century,it meant "a fortress, castle,” and "the keep of a castle" as well as "a prison cell underneath the keep of the castle.”Dungeon can still mean "keep,” although the usual spelling for this sense is donjon, but the meaning most usually associated with it is certainly not elevated.It is also possible thatdungeon goes back to a Germanic word related to our word dung. This assumed Germanic word would have meant "an underground house constructed of dung.”If this etymology is correct, the worddungeon has ended up where it began. 单词dungeon 的一种词源是它以其字面意义流传下来， 如果这个单词其中的一种语源是正确的话。 Dungeon 可追溯到拉丁俗词domnio， 意为“领主的塔”，这一拉丁俗词又来自拉丁文dominus， 意为“主人”。 在中古英语时期，该词首次记录于作于14世纪初的一部作品，意为“要塞，城堡”，“城堡主楼”以及“城堡方楼下的地牢”。Dungeon 仍有城堡主楼的意思，但最常与之联系在一起的这一拼法为 donjon， 但最常与之联系在一起的这一意义显然流传不广。Dungeon 还可能上溯到与之相联系的日耳曼语词 dung。 这一假设的日耳曼语词可能曾意为“由粪建构的地下房屋“。假如这一词源正确，dungeon 一词结束于它起源的地方 〔glamour〕Many words, such ashonor, vapor, and labor, are usually spelled with an -or ending in American English but with an-our ending in British English. The preferred spelling ofglamour, however, is -our, making it an exception to the usual American practice.The adjective is more often spelledglamorous in both American and British usage. 美式英语中的许多词，如honor，vapor 和 labor 经常以 -or 作为拼写的结尾， 而在英式英语中却以-our 作为结尾。 但glamour 的拼法却以 -our 作为结尾， 成为美式英语中的例外。无论是在美式英语还是英式英语中这个形容词更经常地被拼为glamorous 〔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” 〔homograph〕One of two or more words that have the same spelling but differ in origin, meaning, and sometimes pronunciation.同形异义词：两个或以上单词拼法相同，但在起源、意义和有时读音上不同〔stob〕The Southern wordstob means a short, straight stick of wood: "Jim Rozier's skill with a piece of iron and a hardwood stob sets up a vibration in the earth that Sopchoppy worms find extremely disagreeable" (Charles Kuralt).Related tostub and stubby, stob is one of numerous Indo-European cognates, for example, Greekstupos, meaning "stump (of a tree or branch).” In Middle Englishstob seems to have been a variant spelling of stub, with one of its meanings being "the amputated stump of a human limb.”However, the word has chiefly denoted a short piece of wood,such as "a small post or stake or stump of a shrub, [and is] commonly so used in many, if not all, parts of the [American] South"(Charles F. Smith).南方语言stob 指一段短而直的树枝： 吉姆·罗泽尔的铁条或硬木树枝技术使大地呈现一片繁荣，苏普乔皮虫感到极为不快” （查尔斯·库拉尔特）。许多印欧语系同源词与stub 和 stubby，stob 有关， 例如，希腊语stupos 指 “（树或树枝的）树桩”。 在中古英语中，stob 看起来是 stub 的另一种拼法， 并有“人类肢体切断的残余”的意思。但是，这个词主要指一短块树木，如一小段桩子或柱子或树枝的残存部分，广泛用于［美国］南部大部分地区，如果不是全部地区的话”（查尔斯·F·史密斯）〔artichoke〕Those who have been warned to watch out for the sharp-tipped bracts toward the innermost part of an artichoke may have wondered whether the name of this vegetable has anything to do with choking.Originally it did not.Our word goes back to an Arabic word for the same plant,al-Caršūf. The Arabic word passed into Spanish,a not uncommon occurrence given the fact that Moslems ruled much of Spain for several centuries during the Middle Ages.The Old Spanish wordalcarchofa was variously modified as it passed through Italian, a Northern dialect form beingarticiocco, which looks more like artichoke than al-Caršūf. In English, where the word is first recorded in the early 16th century, a potpourri of spellings and explanations of it are found.For example, people who did not know the long history of the word explained it by the notion that the flower had a "choke,”that is, something that chokes, in its "heart.”那些被告知要当心这种朝鲜蓟的最内层部分的尖苞片的人，可能会猜想这种蔬菜与窒息有一些联系。最初并没有。这个词可以追溯到阿拉伯语言关于这种植物的名称，al-harsuf。 这个阿拉伯名称又传入了西班牙，这件极普通的事情指出，在中世纪时期穆斯林曾统治西班牙大部地区，长达几个世纪的事实。旧的西班牙词alcarchofa 又经历了不同的变化，如传入意大利， 北方方言的形式形成articicco， 这看起来更象 artichoke 而非 al-harsuf。 在英语中，这个词在16世纪初被记录下来时，有许多不同的拼法和解释。例如，不知道这个词的悠久历史的人解释这个词时依据的看法是花会令人“窒息”，也就是说，是一种在它“心中”窒息的东西。〔carouse〕The origin of the wordcarouse can be found in a German interjection that meant "time to leave the bar.” Germangaraus, which is derived from the phrase gar ("all") aus ("out"), meaning "all out,” then came to mean "drink up, bottoms up,” and "a last drink before closing time.”The English borrowed this noun, with the meaning "the practice of sitting around drinking until closing time,”sometimes spelling the wordgaraus but usually spelling it closer to the way it is spelled today.Soon after the word is first recorded as a noun in 1559,we find the verbcarouse, in 1567. 单词carouse 的词源可以在意为“是离开酒吧的时候了”的日耳曼语感叹词中找到。 日耳曼语garaus 是从短语 gar （“所有的”） aus （“出去”），即“竭尽全力。全力以赴”的意思中衍生出来的； 接着又表示“喝光，干杯”和“打烊前的最后一杯”的意思。英语中借用这个名词，意为“坐着饮酒直至打烊的做法”；有时拼写成garaus ， 但通常其拼写更接近于现今的拼法。该词于1559年首次做名词记录下来后，我们很快地在1567年发现了动词carouse 〔krewe〕In order to organize and stage the enormous Mardi Gras carnival every year,many New Orleans families have belonged for generations tokrewes, groups that create elaborate costumes and floats for the many Mardi Gras parades in the two weeks leading up to "Fat Tuesday.”Not only do the krewes participate in the parades,but, as leaders of New Orleans society,they also hold balls and other elaborate events during the carnival season,which lasts from Christmas up to Mardi Gras itself.The krewes are responsible for electing Rex,the annual king of the carnival,whose parade is the climax of Mardi Gras.While masked paraders had long been a part of Mardi Gras,the first carnival group organized as such was the Mystick Krewe of Comus in 1857.Krewe is only a fanciful spelling of crew in its standard meaning, but the word, thanks to its association with Mardi Gras and New Orleans high society,has taken on some of the mystique of the carnival.为了组织和筹划每年盛大的大斋日前夜狂欢节，许多新奥尔良家庭世世代代都属于krewes 这种团体。 这些团体要在“油腻的星期二”来临前的两周，制作华丽服装和彩车供狂欢节游行使用。克鲁的成员们不仅参加游行，作为新奥尔良的上层人物，他们还要在狂欢节节期举行舞会和其它盛大的活动，这从圣诞节一直延续到大斋首日的前一天。克鲁成员还要选出一个Rex，即每年狂欢节的国王，他的游行是整个大斋首日前夜的高潮。化妆游行长期以来一直是大斋首日前夜狂欢节的一部份，而第一个这种狂欢节团体在1857年才建立，名叫“科摩斯神秘的群体”。Krewe 这个词是对普通意义的 crew 这个词一个花哨的拼法， 但是这个词由于与大斋首日前夜狂欢节和新奥尔良的上流社会联系在一起，便带上那个狂欢节的一些神秘气氛〔spelling〕The forming of words with letters in an accepted order; orthography.拼字，拼法：以正确顺序将字母拼成字的行为；缀字法〔crocodile〕The crocodile may owe its name to its resemblance to a much smaller creature, a lizard that lived in the stone walls of Ionia.This lizard's name,krokodilos, is thought to be a compound of krokē, "pebble, gravel,” and drilos, which is only attested as meaning "circumcised man" but is assumed to mean "worm" as well. According to Herodotus, Ionians in Egypt noted the resemblance, probably humorously, between basking crocodiles and their own "worm of the stones.”The modern form of Englishcrocodile represents a return to the Classical Latin spelling crocodīlus, Latin having borrowed the word from Greek.But other spellings occurred in Classical Greek and Latin, and one of these Latin spellings,cocodrillus, passed into Medieval Latin and Old French (cocodril ) and then into English, so that our earliest possible use of the word, in a work perhaps composed before 1300, is spelledcokedrille. It was not until the 16th century that the word came to have its present spelling.The various spellings met with in the history ofcrocodile reflect the same sort of variations that occurred in the history of alligator. 鳄鱼可能是因为与一种比它小得多的生物，即生长在爱奥尼亚的石墙中的蜥蜴外表相似而得名。这种蜥蜴的名字krokodilos 被认为是由 kroke （意为“卵石，砾石”）一词和 drilos 这一（只被证明有“受割的人”的意思但又被假定有“蠕虫”的意思的）词组成的复合词。 希罗多德认为，埃及境内的爱奥尼亚人可能出于幽默而记下了晒太阳的鳄鱼和他们本地的“石头中的蠕虫”之间的类似点。英语的crocodile 的现代形式反映了古拉丁语拼法 crocodilus 的回归， 拉丁语中的这个词是从希腊语中引入的。但是出现在古希腊语和古拉丁语中的其它拼法以及其中一种拉丁语拼法，cocodrillus ， 却进入到中世纪拉丁语和古法语(cocodril )中，然后又进入到英语中， 所以出现在可能写于1300年以前的一篇文章中的我们最早有可能使用该词时的拼法是cokedrille 。 直到16世纪，这个词才变成现在这种拼法。在crocodile 一词的演变历史中的多种拼法也反映了在 alligator 一词的演变历史中的相似变化 〔critter〕Critter, a pronunciation spelling of creature, actually reflects a pronunciation that would have been very familiar to Shakespeare:16th- and 17th-century English had not yet begun to pronounce the-ture suffix with its modern (ch) sound. This archaic pronunciation still exists in regional Americancritter and in Irishcreature, pronounced (krāʹtŭr) and used in the same senses as the American regionalism. The most common meaning ofcritter is "a living creature,” whether wild or domestic; it also can mean "a child" when used as a term of sympathetic endearment,or it can mean "an unfortunate person.”In old-fashioned regional speech,critter and beast denoted a large domestic animal. The more restricted senses "a cow,” "a horse,” or "a mule" are still characteristic of the speech in specific regions of the United States.The use ofcritter among younger speakers almost always carries with it a jocular or informal connotation. Critter 是 creature 这一词的发音拼法， 实际上反映了一种莎士比亚极其通晓的发音法：16和17世纪的英语中还没有开始用现代英语中的(ch)音来发-ture 这一后缀的音。 这一古发音法仍存在于地区性美语critter 中， 而且在爱尔兰语中creature (kra'tur)的发音和用法与地区性美语相同。 critter 这一词的最通用的意思是“生物”，无论是野生的还是家养的； 作为昵称时，它可以作“小孩”解释；它还可以指“一个不幸运的人”。在老式的地区性语言中，critter 和 beast 意指大型的家畜。 它的更狭窄的含义“牛”、“马”或“驴”则仍然是美国某些特定地区的方言中的特有含义。年轻人对于critter 的用法则几乎总认为是带有恢谐或非正式的含义 〔kabbalah〕There are no less than two dozen variant spellings ofkabbalah, the most common of which include kabbalah, kabala, kabalah, qabalah, qabala, cabala, cabbala, kaballah, kabbala, kaballah, and qabbalah. This sort of confusion is frequently seen with Hebrew and Arabic words borrowed into English because there exist several different systems of transliterating the Hebrew and Arabic alphabets into Roman letters. Often a more exact or scholarly transliteration, such as Qur'an, will coexist alongside a spelling that has been heavily Anglicized ( Koran ). The fact that the Hebrew and Arabic alphabets do not as a rule indicate short vowels or the doubling of consonants compounds the difficulties. Spellings of kabbalah with one or two b 's are equally "correct,” insofar as the single b accurately reproduces the spelling of the Hebrew, while the double b represents the fact that it was once pronounced with a double b. kabbalah 有超过十二种以上不同的拼法，最常见的包括 kabbalah, kabala, kabalah, qabalah, qabala, cabala, cabbala, kaballah, kabbala, kaballah 及 qabbalah 。此类混淆情形最常见于自希伯来及阿拉伯文字转借给英语时，这是由于在希伯来及阿拉伯字母音译为罗马字母时有数种不同系统存在所致。通常较精确或是学究上的音译，例如 Qur'an ，会与已经偏重于英语化的拼法（ Koran ）共同存在。事实上，希伯来及阿拉伯字母并没有一种明确指出短元音及双子音为何的原则增加其困难度， kabbalah 有一到两个 b 的拼法都一样“正确”，到目前为止单 b 精确地重现希伯来文的拼法，而双 b 则表示它曾经以双 b 发音的事实 |
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