单词 | 最初出现 |
释义 | 〔telephone〕When one telephones someone else,one never gives a second thought to the linguistic and etymological processes illustrated by the wordtelephone. To begin with,the nountelephone is one of a class of technological and scientific words that are made up of combining forms, in this casetele- and -phone. These forms are derived from classical languages:tele- is from the Greek combining form tēle- or tēl-, a form of tēle, meaning "afar, far off,” while-phone is from Greek phōnē, "sound, voice.” Such words derived from classical languages can be put together in French or German,for example, as well as in English.Which language actually gave birth to them cannot always be determined.In this case Frenchtelephone (about 1830) seems to have priority. The word was used for an acoustic apparatus, as it originally was in English (1844).Alexander Graham Bell appropriated the word for his invention in 1876,and in 1877 we have the first instance of the verbtelephone meaning "to speak to by telephone.” The verb is an example of a linguistic process called functional shift.This occurs when we use a noun as a verb,an adjective as a noun, or a noun as an adjective.Thus, we are changing the syntactic function of the word,just as we do when wetelephone a friend. 当某人打电话给别人时,他决不会再想一想单词Telephone 所说明的语言学的和词源学的发展历程。 开始时,名词telephone 是由复合形式构成的一类技术和科学术语中的一个, 在这个例子中是tele- 和 -phone 。 这些形式来自于古典语言:tele- 来自于希腊语的复合形式 tele- 或 tel- ( tele 的形式,意为“在远处,遥远地”), 而-phone 则来自希腊语 phone (“声音,嗓音”)。 这些来自古典语言的词可以在法语或德语中放在一起,例如,同英语一样。这些词到底诞生于哪一种语言通常无法确认。在这个例子中,法语telephone (大约于1830年)看起来出现较早。 这个单词正如它最初出现在英语中(1844年)的意思一样,在法语中它用于指声音设备。亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔在1876年用这个词指代他的发明物,1877年我们有了第一个意为“用电话与…交谈”的动词telephone 的实例。 这个动词是称为功能转移的语言学进程的一个例子。这种情况在我们将名词作为动词,将形容词作为名词或将名词作为形容词使用时就发生。这样,我们正在改变单词的句法功能,正如在我们打电话给 一位朋友时所做的一样 〔chivalry〕The Age of Chivalry was also the age of the horse.Bedecked in elaborate armor and other trappings,horses were certainly well dressedalthough they might have wished for lighter loads.That the horse should be featured so prominently during the Age of Chivalryis etymologically appropriate,becausechivalry goes back to the Latin word caballus, "horse, especially a riding horse or packhorse.”Borrowed from French, as were so many other important words having to do with medieval English culture,the English wordchivalry is first recorded in works composed around the beginning of the 14th century and is found in several senses,including "a body of armored mounted warriors serving a lord" and "knighthood as a ceremonially conferred rank in the social system.”Our modern sense,"the medieval system of knighthood,”could not exist until the passage of several centuries had allowed the perspective for such a conceptualization,with this sense being recorded first in 1765.骑士时代同时也是马的时代。马被用精美的铠甲和其它马饰打扮起来,它们显然穿戴得很好,虽然它们可能会喜欢稍轻一些的负担。在骑士时代马被放在如此显要的地位,这从词源学上来看是恰当的,因为chivalry 一词可追溯到拉丁语中 caballus 一词, 即“马,尤其是用来骑的马或驮马”的意思。象与中世纪英国文化有关的许多其它重要的词一样,英语中chivalry 一词也是从法语中借用来的,最初出现在大约写于14世纪初的书籍中, 当时有好几个含义,其中包括:“为一名贵族服务的一队穿着铠甲、骑着马的武士”和“作为一种被正式授予的社会制度中等级的骑士资格”。我们现代的意义,即“中世纪的骑士制度”,是在几个世纪以后对这样一个概念的视角成为可能之时才出现的,这个意义最早出现在文字记载中是1765年〔Sundsvall〕A city of east-central Sweden on an inlet of the Gulf of Bothnia. Chartered in 1621, it is a major shipping center. Population, 50,600.松兹瓦尔:瑞典中东部一城市,临波的尼亚湾的一个小海湾,1621年地图上最初出现,是一个主要的航运中心。人口50,600〔chameleon〕The words referring to the animal chameleon and the plant chamomile are related etymologically by a reference to the place one would expect to find them, that is, on the ground.The first part of both words goes back to the Greek formkhamai, meaning "on the ground.” What is found on the ground in each case is quite different, of course.Thekhamaileōn is a "lion [ leōn ] on the ground,” a term translating the Akkadian phrasenēš qaqqari. Thekhamaimēlon is "an apple [ mēlon ] on the ground,” so named because the blossoms of at least one variety of this creeping herb have an applelike scent.Both words are first found in Middle English,chameleon in a work composed before 1382 andchamomile in a work written in 1373. 指动物变色蜥蜴和植物春黄菊的词,在词源上通过人们预期可找到它们的地点(即地面上)而相关联。这两个词的前一部分都可追溯到希腊形式khamai 意思为“在地面上。” 当然,两种情形下在地面上发现的东西是非常不同的。Khamaileon 是指“地面上的狮子 [ leon ]”, 即阿卡得短语nes qaqqari 翻译过来的词语。 Khamaimelon 是指“地面上的苹果 melon ”, 之所以这么命名是因为至少有一类这种蔓生草本植物所开的花具有类似苹果的气味。两个词最初出现在中古英语里面,chameleon 出现于1382年前的一部作品, chamomile 出现于1373年的一部作品里 |
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