单词 | 早已 |
释义 | 〔transpire〕Transpire has been used since the mid-18th century in the sense "leak out, become publicly known,” as inDespite efforts to hush the matter up, it soon transpired that the colonels had met with the rebel leaders. This usage was objected to as a Gallicism when it was first introducedbut has long been standard.The more common use oftranspire to mean "occur" or "happen" has had a more troubled history.Though it dates at least to the beginning of the 19th century,it has been the object of critical opprobrium for more than a hundred years,charged with being both pretentious and unetymological.There is some signthat resistance to this sense oftranspire is abating, however. In a 1969 survey the usagewas acceptable only to 38 percent of the Usage Panel;in the most recent surveyit was acceptable to 58 percent in the sentenceAll of these events transpired after last week's announcement (though many of the Panelists who accepted the usage also remarked that it was pretentious or pompous).Transpire 这个词从18世纪中叶开始一直有“泄漏,为公众所知”的意思, 如尽管竭力掩盖事实真相,但人们很快就得知军官们已经与反叛者的领导人会晤。 当这种用法一开始出现时,有人把它当作法国式用法而提出异议,但现在它早已成为标准用法。Transpire 更为普通的用法是“发生”或“碰巧发生”的意思, 这个用法的历史更为复杂。尽管这种用法至少可以追溯到19世纪初期,但一百多年以来它一直遭到批评反对,人们认为这个用法不仅矫饰而且在词源上毫无根据。但是有迹象表明,对transpire 的这个词义的异议正在消失。 在一次1969年进行的调查中,用法委员会成员中只有38%的人接受这种用法。在最近进行的一次调查中,有58%的人认为象在所有这些事件都发生在上个星期的宣告之后 这样的句子中,这个词的用法是可以接受的 (许多接受这种用法的使用者也指出这种用法很矫柔造作)〔so〕Such as has already been suggested or specified; the same:这样:象早已指出或确定的那样的;同样的:〔doubtless〕as you doubtless already know.正如你很可能早已知道的那样〔hopefully〕And though this use ofhopefully may have been a vogue word when it first gained currency 30 years ago, it has long since lost any taint of jargon or pretentiousness for the general reader.The well-attested acceptance of the usage reflects an implicit popular recognition of its usefulness;there is no precise substitute.Someone who saysHopefully, the treaty will be ratified makes a hopeful prediction about the fate of the treaty,whereas someone who saysI hope (or We hope or It is hoped ) the treaty will be ratified expresses a bald statement about what is desired. Only the latter could be continued with a clause such asbut it isn't likely. · It might have been expected, then, that the initial flurry of objections tohopefully would have subsided once the usage became well established. Instead, increased currency of the usage appears only to have made the critics more adamant.In the 1969 Usage Panel survey the usage was acceptable to 44 percent of the Panel;in the most recent survey it was acceptable to only 27 percent.(By contrast, 60 percent accepted the analogous use ofmercifully in the sentence Mercifully, the game ended before the opponents could add another touchdown to the lopsided score. ) Yet the Panel has not shown any signs of becoming generally more conservative:in the very same survey panelists were disposed to accept once-vilified usagessuch as the employment ofcontact and host as verbs. · It seems that this use ofhopefully has been made a litmus test, which distinguishes writers who take an active interest in questions of grammar or usage from the great mass of people who keep their own linguistic counsel.No one can be blamed who useshopefully in blithe ignorance of the critics' disdain for it, since the rule could not be derived from any general concern for clarity or precision.But writers who are aware of the critical controversy face a more delicate decision.Some will simply flout the rule,seeing no reason that they should be deprived of a useful construction.Others may choose to avoid the usage,whether they are motivated by discretion or civility. ·Like other sentence adverbs such asbluntly and happily, hopefully may occasionally be ambiguous. In the sentenceHopefully, the company has launched a new venture, the word hopefully might be construed as describing the point of view of either the speaker or the subject. Such ambiguities can be resolved either by repositioning the adverb (as inThe company has launched the new venture hopefully ) or by choosing a paraphrase ( One may hope that the company has launched the new venture ). 尽管hopefully 的这一用法在30年前首次通用的时候曾是个时兴词, 但对于广大读者来说它早已失去了俚语或矫饰的色彩。屡经证实的对这一用法的接受反映了对其实用性的普遍默认;而且并不存在其他精确的代用词。有人如果说但愿条约能被批准 , 便是对条约的命运作了充满希望的预测,反之如果有人说我希望 (或 我们希望 或 希望 ) 条约将会被批准 则表达了对其期望之物的大胆声明。 只有后者可以接从句象但这不大可能 。 也许我们本可以期待当这一用法已变得根深蒂固之后, 对hopefully 的一片反对声可稍事平息。 然而,这一用法的流行似乎反而使批评家们更为坚定。在1969年用法调查使用小组的调查中44%的成员接受这一用法;在最近一次的调查中却只有27%的成员接受。(相比之下,60%的人接受mercifully 在句子 幸好,在对手能够给这一边倒的比分再加上一分之前,比赛就结束了 中的类似用法) 但是并没有任何迹象表明调查小组成员正在普遍变得更保守:在同一次调查中小组成员们倾向于接受被一度废除的某些用法,如把contact 和 host 用作动词看来。 似乎hopefully 的用法已经成了一块试金石, 它把对语法和用法怀有浓厚兴趣的作家和保留着他们自己的语言学顾问的广大民众区分开来。那些全然忽视批评家们的蔑视使用hopefully 的人不该受到指责, 因为规则并不来源于任何对清晰和精确的关注。但是意识到了批评界争议的作者们面对着一个更为微妙的决定。有些人干脆违反规则,他们认为没有理由要失去这么一个实用的结构。另外一些人则选择避免这一用法,无论其动机是出于谨慎还是出于礼貌。象许多其它句中副词如bluntly 和 happily一样,hopefully 经常出现歧义。 在下句 Hopefully, the company has launched a new venture 中, hopefully 一词可以解释为记述说话者的观点或者句中主语的观点。 这种歧义可以通过调换副词位置(如公司已经满怀希望地到办了一个新企业 )或选择另一种说法( 有人希望这个公司已经创办了一个新企业 )来消除 〔already〕By this or a specified time; before:早已,已经:到现在为止或到某一特点为止;先前:〔horse〕To dwell tiresomely on a matter that has already been decided.白费口舌:在一件早已决定的事情上浪费口舌〔macabre〕The wordmacabre is an excellent example of a word formed with reference to a specific context that has long since disappeared for everyone but scholars. Macabre is first recorded in the phrase Macabrees daunce in a work written around 1430 by John Lydgate. Lydgate expressed it so because he thoughtMacabree was a French author, although he was actually dealing with the Old French phraseDanse Macabre, "the Dance of Death,” a subject of art and literature.In this dance,Death leads people of all classes and walks of life to the same final end.Themacabre element is thought by some to be an alteration of Macabe , "a Maccabee.” The Maccabees were Jewish martyrswho were honored by a feast throughout the Western Church,and reverence for them was linked to reverence for the dead.One of the biblical books of Maccabees also contains a passage (II Maccabees 12:43-45) mentioning sacrifices for the dead and their future resurrection,which has been used to defend the doctrine of Purgatory.Todaymacabre has no connection with the Maccabees and little connection with the Dance of Death,but it still has to do with death.单词macabre 是一个极好的例子,创造该词的来龙去脉除了学者之外早已被世人所遗忘。 Macabre 最早见于短语 Macabrees daunce 是在1430年前后约翰·利德盖特写的一本书中。 利德盖特这样表达是因为他认为Macabree 是源于法语的词, 实际上他指的是一个古老的法语短语Danse Macabre, “死神之舞,” 一个艺术与文学的主题。在这个舞蹈中,死神把各种各样的人带到了同一个终点。有人认为macabre 是 Macabe 的变体,“马加比人”。 马加比们就是那些犹太殉道者,在天主教会中通过节日表达对他们的敬意,对他们的尊敬和对死的敬畏是联系在一起的。基督教典籍中关于马加比人的书中有一段文字(Ⅱ马加比人12:43-45)提到对死者的祭祀和他们未来的复活,这段文字被用来捍卫关于炼狱的教义。今天macabre 与马加比人毫无联系, 与死神之舞相关甚少,但它仍与死亡有关〔stranger〕a stranger to our language; no stranger to hardship.初学我们的语言的人;对困难早已习惯之人〔importance〕 Moment implies importance or consequence that is readily apparent: Moment 指的是早已明显的重要性或者意义: 〔play〕Our strength was played out early in the contest.比赛中我们的力量早已耗尽了〔factoid〕"What one misses finally is what might have emerged beyond both facts and factoids—a profound definition of the Marilyn Monroe phenomenon"(Christopher Lehmann-Haupt)“人所最终错过的是可能早已暴露出来的超出事实和被描述为事实的东西——玛丽莲·梦露现象的一个深奥的定义”(克里斯托夫·莱曼-豪普特)〔tycoon〕Business tycoons may consider themselves captains or even princes of industry,but by virtue of being calledtycoons, they have already achieved princely status,at least from an etymological point of view.Tycoon came into English from Japanese, which had borrowed the title, meaning "great prince,” from Chinese.Use of the word was intended to make the shogun,the commander in chief of the Japanese army, more impressive to foreigners (his official titleshōgun merely meant "general"). In fact, the shogun actually ruled Japan,although he was supposedly acting for the emperor.When Matthew C. Perry opened Japan to the West in 1854,he negotiated with the shogun, thinking him to be the emperor.The shogun's title,taikun, was brought back to the United States after Perry's visit.Abraham Lincoln's cabinet members usedtycoon as an affectionate nickname for the President. The word soon came to be used for business and industry leaders—perhaps at times for those who had as much right to such an impressive title as did the shogun.The word itself now has an old-fashioned sound,but when we encounter it,we should think back to the days of Commodore Perry and President Lincoln,both of whom were real tycoons in their own ways.商界大亨可能把他们自己当成是工业界的长官或甚至王子,但是因为被叫做tycoon , 他们早已达到了王子般的地位,至少从词源学的观点来说是这样。Tycoon 由日语进入英语, 而日语的这个头衔是从汉语借来的,意思是“大王”。使用这个词是为了使幕府将军,日本军队的总指挥官给外国人以深刻的印象(他的官方头衔shogun 的意思仅仅是“将军”)。 实际上,是幕府将军统治着日本,尽管他被认为是为天皇办事。当马修·C·佩里1854年使日本向西方开放时,他和幕府将军进行了谈判,以为他就是日本天皇。幕府将军的头衔taikun , 在佩里访问美国后带到了美国。亚伯拉罕·林肯的内阁成员把tycoon 用作总统的充满感情的绰号。 这个词很快也被用于商界和工界的领导人,也许有时这些人象幕府将军那样有权以致给人深刻的印象。这个词本身听起来有点老派,但是当我们遇到它时,我们应该回想起佩里海军准将和林肯总统的时代,他们两人以各自的方式成为真正的巨头〔simoom〕"Stephen's heart had withered up like a flower of the desert that feels the simoom coming from afar"(James Joyce)Also called samiel “斯蒂芬早已心灰意冷,就象沙漠中的花朵感受到西蒙风从远方吹来(詹姆斯·乔伊丝) 也作 samiel〔method〕"For she and I were long acquainted/And I knew all her ways" (A.E. Housman).“因为她和我早已认识/我知道她所有的样子。” (A·E·惠斯曼)〔time〕Long overdue:早已超过时间:〔credential〕The participlecredentialed is well established in reference to certified teachers and some other professions, but its more general use to mean "possessing professional or expert credentials" is still widely considered jargon.The sentenceThe board heard testimony from a number of credentialed witnesses was unacceptable to 85 percent of the Usage Panel. 其分词形式credentialed 用于指合格的教师和一些其他专业人员的用法早已被接受, 但它作为“持有专业或专家证书的”这种更通用的用法却仍需慎思后才能使用。“委员会听取了一些资格证人的证词” 这句话在85%的用法调查中都不被接受 〔tradition〕A time-honored practice or set of such practices.早已确定的实践或一套这样的实践〔amateur〕When Mrs. T.W. Atkinson remarked in her 1863Recollections of the Tartar Steppes and their Inhabitants, "I am no amateur of these melons,” she usedamateur in a sense unfamiliar to us. That sense, "a lover, an admirer,” is, however, clearly descended from the senses of the word's ultimate Latin source,amātor, "lover, devoted friend, devotee, enthusiastic pursuer of an objective,” and from its immediate Latin-derived French source,amateur, with a similar range of meanings. First recorded in English in 1784 with the sense in which Mrs. Atkinson used it,amateur is found in 1786 with a meaning more familiar to us, "a person who engages in an art, for example, as a pastime rather than as a profession,” a sense that had already developed in French.Given the limitations of doing something as an amateur,it is not surprising that the word is soon after recorded in the disparaging sensewe still use to refer to someone who lacks professional skill or ease in performance.当T.W.阿特金森夫人在她1863年出版的塔塔·史坦普和其居民回忆录, 中提到“我并不喜欢这些瓜果”时, 她使用的amateur 是我们所不熟悉的一个意思。 可是这种“爱好者,喜爱者,”的意思显然有其正宗拉丁语来源,amator, 意思是“爱人,忠实的朋友,奉献者,对某目标热情的追求者”, 还有由拉丁语直接派生出的法语来源,amateur, 具有相似的意思。 1784年记录在英语文字中出现的这个词正是阿特金森夫人使用的意思,1786年出现的amateur 有我们更为熟悉的意思, “如一个从事艺术,把它作为一项消遣,而不是一个职业的人,”法语的词早已发展了这种意思。如果把意思限定为从事业余活动的人,这个词被记录下来后不久就有了贬义含意,也就不足为奇了,我们用它来指在表演中缺乏专业技巧或缺乏得心应手的感觉〔flash〕"The antique flash and trash of an older southern California have given way to a sleeker age of cultural hip"(Newsweek)“旧南加州往日的炫丽与糟粕,早已被文化嬉皮的时髦时代取代”(新闻周刊) |
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