| 单词 | 有记载 |
| 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 〔powwow〕Because trances were so important to the Native American shaman as a means of getting in touch with spiritual forces beyond the ken of the normal person,the titlepowwaw, literally meaning "one who has visions,” was accorded him. One of the occurrences of this word in an early piece of propaganda designed to bring more settlers to New Englandrepresents fairly well the Puritan attitudes to the religion of the native inhabitants of the New World:"The office and dutie of the Powah is to be exercised principally in calling upon the Devil;and curing diseases of the sicke or wounded.”The word whose spelling was eventually settled in English aspowwow was also used as the name for ceremonies and councils, probably because of the important role played by the shaman in both.After the native peoples had been dealt withand the fear of devil worship was somewhat diminished,the newcomers decided that they could have powwows too,the first reference to one of these being recorded in the Salem, Massachusetts,Gazette of 1812: "The Warriors of the Democratic Tribe will hold a powwow at Agawam on Tuesday next.”The verbpowwow, "to confer,” was recorded even earlier, in 1780. 因为作为一种超出常人理解范围的与神灵联系的方式，催眠对于北美印第安人巫师来说是如此重要，故巫师被冠以字面意思为“有洞察力的人”的powwaw 这一名称。 这个词在早期为鼓励更多人去新英格兰定居而作的宣传中的出现，它很好地证明了清教徒们对于美洲大陆土著居民宗教的态度：“帕瓦仪式的职责与义务主要就是用来召唤魔鬼；治愈病人或伤者。”这个在英语中最后以powwow 的拼写形式固定下来的词也用作仪式及会议的名称， 这也许是因为巫师在两者中都起着重要作用。在与土著居民进行接触以后，随着对其魔鬼崇拜的恐惧逐渐消逝，那些新来者决定他们也可以举行帕瓦仪式，1812年马萨诸塞州塞勒姆的时事报 第一次提及了这种会议： “下星期二民主党派的斗士们将在阿加瓦姆召开会议”。动词意为“商讨”的powwow 则早在1780年就有记载了 〔orgy〕The wordorgy has become connected in the minds of many of us with unrestrained sexual activity, but its origins are much less licentious.We can trace the word as far back as the Indo-European rootwerg-, meaning "to do"and the source of our wordwork. Greekorgia, "secret rites, worship,” also comes from the rootwerg-, by way of the form.worg-. The Greek word was used with reference to the worship and the ritespracticed in the worship of various deities,such as Orpheus and Dionysus.The word in Greek did not denote sexual activity,although this was a part of some of the various rites.The rites of Dionysus, for example, included only music, dancing, drinking, and the eating of animal sacrifices.Having passed through Latin and Old French into Englishthe wordorgy is first recorded in English with reference to the secret rites of the Greek and Roman religions in 1589. It is interesting to note that the word is first recorded with its modern sense in 18th-century English and perhaps in 17th-century French.Whether this speaks to a greater licentiousness in society or not must be left to the historian,but certainly the religious nature of the word has gone into eclipse.单词orgy 已经以不加节制的性行为的概念深植于我们许多人的头脑之中， 但它的原意却并非是很放荡的。我们可以追溯该词到印欧的词根werg- 当中， 意思是“做”，并且是我们work 一词的来源。 希腊语orgia, “秘密仪式，崇拜”， 也来源于词根werg-， 形式为worg- 。 希腊语中用其指崇拜以及一些仪式，这些仪式用于表达对各神明的崇拜，比如俄耳甫斯和狄俄尼索斯。该词在希腊语中并不是表示性行为，尽管性行为也是各种仪式中的一个部分。例如，狄俄尼索斯的仪式中仅仅包括音乐、舞蹈、饮酒和吃祭祀动物。从拉丁语和古法语转到英语，orgy 这一词在1589年首次在英文有记载表示希腊和罗马秘密宗教仪式含义。 有趣的是，该词早在18世纪也许17世纪就已有其现代意义的首次记载了。不论它是不是指社会中的一种大型的狂欢节（这是历史学家的事了），有一点是非常明确的，那就是这个词的宗教本质已经逐渐消失了〔lonely〕Henry Bradley, one of the four editors of theOxford English Dictionary, said "It is a truth often overlooked, but not unimportant, that every addition to the resources of a language must in the first instance have been due to an act (though not necessarily to a voluntary or conscious act) of some one person.”In many casesthis one person may have been an author,since the first recorded instance of a word is often found in an author's work.Of course, as Bradley warns,this is the firstrecorded instance; it is possible that a given author picked up the word or sense somewhere elseor that these reside undiscovered in an earlier work.In any caseit might be a minor relief of our condition the next time we feel lonely to know that the first recorded instance of the wordlonely occurs in the works of Shakespeare. The passage appears inCoriolanus (1607-1608) in a speech by Coriolanus to his mother Volumnia:"My mother, you wot [know] well/My hazards still have been your solace, and/Believe't not lightly—though I go alone,/Like to alonely dragon, that his fen/Makes fear'd and talk'd of more than seen—your son/Will or exceed the common or be caught/With cautelous [crafty] baits and practice.” Lonely here, of course, has the sense "solitary.” The dragon does not feel dejected,or if he does,he does not seem to know how to reach out to others effectively.牛津英语词典 的四位编纂者之一亨利·布莱德雷说： “人们经常忽视这样一个现实，但它并非不重要，那就是对某种语言词汇的每一次添加都首先是由于某一个人的行为（尽管不一定是自愿的或有意识的行为）”。许多时候，这一个人可能是个作者，因为一个词有记载的首次使用往往出自一位作者的作品。当然，正如布莱德雷所提醒人们的，这是首次有记载的 的例子； 某个作者可能是从别处学到这个词或这个意思，或是这个词或意思在更早的作品中已经出现，只是未被人们发现。不管怎样，当我们知道lonely 这个词的有记载的首次使用出现在莎士比亚的作品中时，这些都不大能减轻我们的沮丧心情。 在卡里奥拉纳斯 （1607-1608年）中， 卡里奥拉纳斯对他母亲弗罗姆尼娅讲的一段话中有这样的文字：“我的母亲，你清楚地知道／我的冒险一直是你的安慰，而且／不要轻信——尽管我要只身前往，／就象去面对一条孤单的 龙，他的沼泽／令人谈而色变，尽管并未亲见——你的儿子／决意或是胜过凡人或是被狡猾的圈套和手段擒捉”。 Lonely 在这里的意思当然是“孤单的”。 龙不会感到沮丧，即便它感到沮丧，他也不太可能知道如何让别人体会到它的感情〔mug〕Various senses of the termmug illustrate uses and abuses of the human face. One use to which the face was put in the 18th century was as a form of decoration for cups or mugs.It is probably from these grotesque and striking facesthatmug came to mean "face,” the word in this sense being first recorded in 1708.The next recorded development ofmug is its use as a verb in 1818 in the sense "to strike in the face.” This verb has developed the sense "to attack and rob,”all too familiar to urban dwellers.The face's role in conveying emotion explains the development of the verb sense "to make faces, grimace,”recorded first in 1855.Another sense of the noun, "photograph or portrait of the face,”found earliest in 1887,is an obvious development, although it is ironic that those who mug criminally end up in a mug book.The use of the face to express affection explains the sense "to kiss, fondle,”recorded first in Australia in 1890.mug 的各种不同的含义显示了对人脸的使用和滥用。 其中一个用途是在18世纪作为杯子上的装饰图案。也许正是由于这些鬼脸和令人惊讶的脸谱，mug 开始意指“脸”， 该词有此意义最先记录于1708年。此后，另一种有记录mug 的用法作为动词的意思是“打击脸部。” 这个动词以后又发展为“袭击和抢劫”之意，这对城镇居民来说真是太熟悉了。脸在表达感情时所扮演的脸色可以解释该动词的延伸义“做鬼脸，做怪像”，该意思最早记录于1855年。该名词的另一个意思：“脸部的像片或画像”最早见于1887年，虽然具有讽刺意味的是那些抢劫犯最终将被警方拍照存档，但这仍然是一个显而易见的进步。运用脸部来表达情爱意指“吻，抚爱”，此用法最早于1890年在澳大利亚有记载〔slatch〕In New Englandaslatch can be a lull between breaking waves or a lull in a high windstorm.Its use is recorded as far back as the 17th century: "Whan it hath beene a sett of foule weather and that there comes an Interim . . . of faire weather . . . they call it a little Slatch of faire weather" (Nomenclator Navalis).Occurrence of the word in both its senses,formerly in Britainand now in New England,attests continuous use down through the centuries of the Old English wordslæc, which is pronounced today as it was in Old English.Slæc is also the source of modern slack, the relationship ofslatch and slack being evidenced in the use of slatch in 17th-century nautical parlance to denote the slack part of a rope or cable on a ship. 在新英格兰，slatch 可能是中断的波浪之间的平静， 也可能是强烈风暴中的平静。它有记载的使用可以追溯到17世纪： “当一段坏天气中出现一阵…好天气时…他们把它叫做一小强烈风暴间的好天气” （诺曼克莱特·那瓦利斯）。这个词出现在这两个意思中，以前在英国使用，现在是在新英格兰，这证明了古英语中sloc 这个词经历几个世纪的不断的使用， 它现在的发音与它在古英语中的发音一样。Sloc 还是现代英语中 slack 这个词的词源， 17世纪航海用语中用slatch 这个词来表示船上绳索松散的部分，这清楚地表明了 slatch 与 slack 这两个词之间的联系 〔blood〕Recorded descent from purebred stock.良种：有记载的纯种出身〔limerick〕Etymologies can sometimes be a bit disappointing,as, for example,when one is told thatlimerick is named after a city or county in Ireland without being told why it is so named.Unfortunately, we run into a difficulty here that is not uncommonly faced by etymologists,namely, that no one is precisely sure why this piece of humorous verse was so named.One theory is that it was named for a group of poets who wrote in Limerick in the 18th century;another, that it came from a custom at parties of making up a nonsense verse and following it with a chorus of "Will you come up to Limerick.”In any case,the first limericks appeared in books published in 1820 and 1821,and the form was popularized by Edward Lear in a collection published in 1846.The word itself, however, is not recorded until 1896.Let us sum up by saying:"There once was a verse form named limerick./No one can account for the name of it./Some think from a game/Or from poets it came./If you know please come up to Limerick.”查看词源学后会经常令我们失望，这是因为，比如，当某人得知limerick 是由爱尔兰的一城市（或一个郡的）名字而来， 却并不告知这样命名的原因。不幸的是，我们碰到了一个词源学家经常遇到的难题，那就是，没有一个人能确定为什么这种幽默的诗歌这样命名。一种理论认为它是源于18世纪在利默里克写作的一群诗人；还有一种看法认为它是源于一种集会上的风俗，这种风俗要求写完一毫无意义的诗后众人合唱“你将去利默里克吗”。不管怎样，1820年和1821年出版的这种五行打油诗集子广为流传，爱德华·利尔于1846年出版的集子使这种形式得到普及。但是，这个单词直到1896年才有记载。我们可以通过这么说来总结：“曾经有种诗的形式名叫利默里克。/但没有人能解释它的名字。/有人认为源于一种游戏/或源于一群诗人。/如果你知道就到利默里克来。”〔kludge〕The wordkludge is not "etymologist-friendly,” having many possible origins,none of which can be definitively established.This term, found frequently in the jargon of the engineering and computer professions,denotes a usually workable but makeshift system, modification, solution, or repair.Kludge has had a relatively short life (first recorded in 1962 although it is said to have been used as early as 1944 or 1945) for a word with so many possible origins. The proposed sources of the word, Germanklug, kluge, "intelligent, clever,” or a blend ofklutz and nudge or klutz and refudge, do not contain all the necessary sounds to give us the word,correctly pronounced at least.The notions thatkludge may have been coined by a computer technician or that it might be the last name of a designer of graphics hardware seem belied by the possibility that it is older than such origins would allow.It seems most likely that the wordkludge originally was formed during the course of a specific situation in which such a device was called for.The makers of the word,if still alive,are no doubt unaware that etymologists need informationso they can stop trying to "kludge" an etymology together.单词kludge 不是“词源学家的朋友”， 有很多可能的来源，每一个都不能准确成立。这个词，经常在工程和电脑业的行话中找到，表示一个通常能工作但是临时凑合的系统、修改、解答或修理。作为一个有这么多可能的来源的词，kludge 却有一个相对小的年纪（1962年第一次有记载，尽管据说早到1944年或1945年就已经使用）。 该词被推荐的来源是德文klug, kluge “聪明的，灵巧的”， 或者klutz 和 nudge 的混合或 klutz 和 refudge 的混合， 没有包含能向我们给出这个词的所有必需的声音，至少是正确的发音。kludge 可能是由电脑技术人员杜撰的或者它可能是图形显示硬件的一名设计者的姓， 这些看法由于它比这些来源能允许的时间要早的可能性而被误解。看起来最可能的是单词kludge ， 最早是在需要这样的设备的特定环境中形成的。这一单词的制造者，如果还健在的话，毫无疑问意识不到词源学家需要此类信息，这样他们才能终止“临时搭配”成一个词源的努力〔afraid〕The notion of removal from a state of peace happens to be the basis for constructing.exfredāre, literally "to remove from peace,” the Vulgar Latin ancestor of our wordafraid. This Vulgar Latin word is made up of the Latin prefixex-, "out of,” and a Vulgar Latin verb of the form .fridāre or .fretāre, which came from Germanic.frithuz, "peace.” The Old French wordesfraier, "to disturb,” which subsequently developed from .exfredāre, came into Middle English asaffraien, a verb whose earliest recorded sense, found in a text composed possibly around 1300, is "to frighten, disturb.” Affray, the descendant of affraien, is little used in contemporary writing and speech, but the same cannot be said of the descendant of the past participle ofaffraien, our adjective afraid. 离开平静的状态，这个概念恰好是exfredare 一词的构词基础。 这个词字面意思为“离开平静”，是afraid 一词的俗拉丁语始祖。 这个俗拉丁语词汇由意为“离开”的拉丁语前缀ex- 和俗拉丁语动词形式的 fridare 或 fretare 组成， 这一俗拉丁语动词形式又源自日耳曼语frithuz, 意为“平静”。 古法语单词esfraier, 意为“打扰”是随后从 exfredare 发展而来的， 其以affraien 的动词形式传入中古英语，这个词最早的有记载的意义为“吓唬，打扰”，见载于约1300年的一篇文章中。 Affray 为 affraien 的派生词，其很少在当代文章以及口语中使用， 但这不等于说明affraien 的过去分词的派生词，现在的形容词 afraid 也很少使用 〔rambunctious〕The origins oframbunctious are not clearly established, a situation that may be better understood after looking at the evidence.The development that is generally accepted is from the wordrobustious, derived fromrobust and first recorded in a work written before 1548, torumbustious, first recorded in 1778, to rambunctious, first recorded in 1830, all three words having more or less the same meaning.But how didrobustious lead to rumbustious ? It has been suggested that the wordrumble played a part in this, although the wordrumbustion, meaning "the alcoholic beverage rum,” might also have been involved. The first form in whichrambunctious is recorded is rumbunctious, showing howrumbustious was involved in the alteration of robustious to rambunctious, but how the sound indicated bys became that indicated by nc or why the first u became a is a mystery. Rambunctious 的词源并没有十分清楚地确定， 看一下证据就能更好地理解这一点。通常认为它的发展过程是源于robustious 这个词， 它来自robust 并最早记载于1548年以前的一篇作品中， 至于rumbustious 则首次见载于1778年， rumbunctious 的最早的文字记载是在1830年， 这三个词的意思大致相同。但是robustious 怎样演变到 rumbustious 的呢? 有人认为，rumble 这个词起了一定的作用， 尽管rumbustion 意为“含酒精饮料甜酒，”但可能也参与了其演变。 Rambunctious 有记载的最早形式是 rumbunctious ， 这表明了rumbustious 这个词如何参与了从 robustious 到 rambunctious 的演变， 但s 所代表的声音是如何变成 nc 所代表的声音的或为什么第一个 u 变成了 a 仍然还是谜 〔protolanguage〕A language that is the recorded or hypothetical ancestor of another language or group of languages. Also called Ursprache 原始母语：一种是另一语言或语组的有记载的或假设的母语的语言 也作 Ursprache〔gringo〕The wordgringo is an offensive term in Latin America for a foreigner, particularly an American or English person.But the word existed in Spanish before this particular sense came into being.In fact,gringo may be an alteration of the word griego, the Spanish development of LatinGraecus, "Greek.” Griego first meant "Greek, Grecian,”as an adjective and "Greek, Greek language,” as a noun.The saying "It's Greek to me" exists in Spanish,as it does in English,and helps us understand whygriego came to mean "unintelligible language" and perhaps, by further extension of this idea,"stranger, that is, one who speaks a foreign language.”The altered formgringo lost touch with Greek but has the senses "unintelligible language,” "foreigner, especially an English person,”and in Latin America, "North American or Britisher.”Its first recorded English use (1849) is in John Woodhouse Audubon'sWestern Journal: "We were hooted and shouted at as we passed through, and called ‘Gringoes.’”在拉丁美洲，gringo 一词是对外国人， 尤其是英美人的不尊敬的称呼。但在有这一特定含义之前这个词已存在于西班牙语之中。事实上，gringo 也许是 griego 一词的变体， 而后者则是西班牙语对拉丁语中Graecus “希腊的”一词的发展。 Griego 开始作形容词时意为“希腊的”； 作名词时意为“希腊，希腊语”。在西班牙语中也有“这对我来说象希腊语一样”的说法，这同英语中一样。这就帮我们理解为什么griego 开始有“胡说八道”的意思， 随着这层意思地延伸，就指“陌生人，即一个讲外语的人”。gringo 的变体已与希腊毫无关系而却有了“胡说八道”、 “外国人，尤指讲英语的人”等含义；在拉丁美洲它更指“北美人或英国人”。此词有记载的第一次在英语中的运用（1849年）是在约翰·伍德豪斯·奥杜邦的西部游记 中： “我们走过时四周都是叫喊声、怪叫声和‘外国佬’的叫骂声”〔toady〕A toady is not a pleasant individual,and the origin of the word makes being a toady even less pleasant.Toady is obviously derived from the word toad. The-y suffix can have diminutive force, and the earliest recorded sense (around 1690) oftoady (now obsolete), "a little or young toad,” illustrates this force. The sense we know has nothing to do with baby toadsbut rather with the practice of certain quacks or charlatans who claimed that they could cast out poison.Toads were thought to be poisonous,so these charlatans would have an attendant eat a toad or pretend to eat oneand then remove the poison from the attendant.Such an attendant is obviously a type of person who would do anything,and thustoadeater (first recorded 1629) was the perfect name for a flattering, fawning parasite. Toadeater and the verb derived from it, toadeat, influenced the sense of the noun and verb toad and the noun toady, so that both nouns could mean "sycophant"and the verbtoady could mean "to act like a toady to someone.” 拍马者并不是一个讨人喜欢的人，这个词的来源使做拍马者这种作法更加不令人喜欢。Toady 很显然是从 toad 这个词衍生而来。 后缀-y 可以有一种指小的效力， Toady 这个词最早有记载(1690年左右）的含义“一只小或幼年蟾蜍”（现已废弃）正说明了这种效力。 我们现在知道的含义与年幼的蟾蜍没有什么关系，而与某些宣称能够驱毒的冒牌医生或江湖郎中的某些做法有关。当时人们认为蟾蜍有毒，所以这些江湖朗中会叫一个手下人吃下一只蟾蜍或假装吃下一只蟾蜍，然后把毒物从他的手下人身体中驱除出去。很明显，这样一个帮手是一种什么事都会做的人，这样，用toadeater （最早记载于1629年）这个词来称呼奉承拍马的寄生者是再合适不过了。 Toadeater 和从它衍生而来的动词 toadeat 影响了作为名词或动词的 toad 和作为名词 toady 的含义， 于是二个名词都可以理解为“拍马者”的意思，而动词toady 有“在某人面前象一个拍马者一样行动”的意思 〔bistro〕According to a popular story,bistro came into existence as a French word when Russian soldiers entered Parisian restaurants and cafés after the fall of Napoleon in 1815 shouting "bystro, bystro,” Russian for "quickly, quickly.” Bistros seem to have been named not for this desire for quick servicebut possibly for a commodity to be found in at least some of them,since the French wordbistro may be related to the word bistouille, "raw spirits, rotgut.” Another possibility is that the wordbistro comes from the dialectal word bistraud, "young cowherd.” In Standard French the term may have come to mean "wine merchant's helper" and then "an establishment selling wine.”Although the French wordbistro is first recorded in 1884, evidence for the English wordbistro is not found until the early 1920's. 根据传说，bistro 原是一个法国词而产生的，当1815年拿破仑失败后俄国士兵进入巴黎饭馆和咖啡店，就叫嚷着 "bistro，bistro，” 俄语的意思为“快点，快点”。 “酒馆”似乎是因这种要求快速服务的愿望而得名，但可能是源于在酒馆中至少可以找到的一种商品，因为法国词bistro 可能与另一个意为“生酒，劣等烧酒”的词 bistouille 有关。 另一种可能是bistro 一词来自方言 bistrand， 意为“年轻的放牛娃”。 在标准法语中该词可能指“酒商的助手”，后来指“卖酒的企业。”虽然法语bistro 一词在1884年最先有记载， 但英语bistro 一词直到19世纪20年代初期才有出现的迹象 〔chagrin〕The ultimate etymology of the wordchagrin, which comes directly to us from French, is considered uncertain by many etymologists. At one timechagrin was thought to be the same word as shagreen, "a leather or skin with a rough surface,” derived from French chagrin. The reasoning wasthat in French the word for this rough material, which was used to smooth and polish things,was extended to the notion of troubles that fret and annoy a person.It was later decided, however,that the sense "rough leather" and the sense "sorrow" each belonged to a different French wordchagrin. Other etymologists have offered an alternative explanation,suggesting that the French wordchagrin, "sorrow,” is a loan translation of the German word Katzenjammer, "a morning-after-the-night-before feeling.” A loan translation is a type of borrowing from another languagein which the elements of a foreign word,as inKatzen, "cats,” and Jammer, "distress, seediness,” are assumed to be translated literally by corresponding elements in another language,in this case,chat, "cat,” and grigner, "to grimace.” The actual etymology is less colorful,with the word probably going back to a Germanic word,.gramī, meaning "sorrow, trouble.”Chagrin is first recorded in English in 1656 in the now obsolete sense "anxiety, melancholy.”我们从法语直接借用的词chagrin 的最终词源被许多词源学家认为是不能确定的。 Charin 曾经被认为和由法语词 chagrin 派生出来的 shagreen “有粗糙表面的皮革或皮肤”是同一个词。 理由是，这种粗糙材料是用来打磨和抛光物品用的，法语里的这个词被引申到有了使人懊恼和烦恼的意思。但后来才确定，“粗糙的皮革”的含义和“沮丧”的含义分属于一个不同的法语词chagrin 。 别的词源学家提出了另外一种解释，说法语词chagrin “沮丧”是借译于日耳曼语词 Katzenjammer “醉后的难受感”。 借译是借用另一种语言，即外语词的成分，如Katzen “猫”，和 Jammer “沮丧，不舒服”， 并照那种语言的对应成分直译过来，在这种情况下为chat “猫”和 grigner “做怪相”。 实际的语源没有这么富于趣味，这个词极可能要追溯到日耳曼语词grami ， 意思为“愁苦，麻烦”。Chagrin 第一次出现在英语里有记载的时间是在1656年， 当时的含义“焦虑，忧郁”现已过时不用〔rendezvous〕A word that refers to the process of bringing two spacecraft together and to a meeting between lovers might be thought to have a source having to do with connection.The history ofrendezvous, however, had originally to do with the process of getting to a meeting place. The French wordrendezvous, which English borrowed, is made up of the second person plural imperative of the verb rendre, meaning in this case "to present or betake,” and vous, the second person plural reflexive pronoun meaning "yourselves.” The wordrendezvous in French denoted the place at which you were supposed to present yourselves or the meeting you were to attend. The first recorded use of the word in English (1591) is for a place where troops are to assemble.用来指把两个宇宙飞船连接在一起的过程或者情人之间的约会的某个词语可能被认为具有与连接有关的词源。然而，rendezvous 一词的历史最初与前往某个会面地点的过程有关。 Rendzvous 这一英语中借用的法语词语是由意为“出现或去往”的动词 rendre 的第二人称复数的祈使形态以及意为“你们自己”的 vous 的第二人称复数的反身代词构成的。 在法语中，rendezvous 一词指的是你被期望要出现的地方或者你将要参加的会议。 在英语中该词的第一个有记载的用法(1951年）是指军队将要集合的地方〔Minsk〕A city of western European U.S.S.R. southwest of Moscow. First mentioned in 1067, it was ruled from the 13th to the 18th century by various powers, including Lithuania, Russia, Poland, and Sweden. Minsk passed finally to Russia in 1793 and is now the capital of Belorussia. Population, 1,472,000.明斯克：俄罗斯欧洲部分西部的城市，位于莫斯科西南。1067年始有记载。从13世纪至18世纪它分别被立陶宛、俄罗斯、波兰和瑞典统治过。最后于1793年归属俄罗斯，现为白俄罗斯首都。人口1,472,000〔taxi〕"Taxi" is much easier to yell into the traffic thantaximeter cabriolet, the form from which taxi has ultimately been shortened. Taximeter comes from the French word taximètre, ultimately derived from Medieval Latintaxāre, "to tax,” and the French combining form -metre. Taximètre originally meant, as did its English companion, "a device for measuring distance traveled,” but this device was soon adapted to measure waiting time and compute and indicate the fare as well.Taximeter, first recorded in English in 1898 (an earlier form, taxameter, borrowed through French from German, was recorded in 1894), joined forces withcab, a shortening (1827) of cabriolet, "a two-wheeled, one-horse carriage.” This word, first found in English in 1766,came from Frenchcabriolet, of the same meaning, which in turn was derived fromcabriole, "caper,” because the vehicle moves along with a springing motion.Cab, the shortened form, was applied to other vehicles as well, including eventually public conveyances.Fitted with a taximeter, such a vehicle,first horse-drawn and then motorized,was known as ataxameter cab (1899), a taximeter cab (1907), and a taxicab (1907), among other names, includingtaxi (1907), a shortening of eithertaximeter or taxicab. Interestingly enough,the fullest form possible,taximeter cabriolet, is not recorded until 1959."Taxi"比taximeter cabriolet （最终缩写成 taxi 的形式）更容易在交通中叫出。 Taximeter 来源于法语 taximètre ， 它最早来自中世纪拉丁文taxare （“征税”）和法语复合形式 -metre。 Taximètre（与它的英语同伴一样，最初意为“测量行驶距离的设备”）， 这一设备很快适合于测量等待时间并计算和显示车费。Taximeter 在英语中首次记载于1898年（更早的形式 taxameter 是从德语通过法语借来的，记载于1894年）， 同cabriolet （“一种双轮双马马车”）的缩写形式(1827年） cab 结合。 这一单词最早于1766年在英语中发现，来源于具有同一种意思的法语cabriolet ， 它依次来源于cabride （“跳跃”）， 因为这种车辆移动时有跳跃的运动；缩写形式cab 还可以适用于其它的车辆， 包括最终的公共运输工具；被安装了自动计费器的车辆，开始是马拉的，后来装上马达，被称作taxameter cab (1899年）、 taximeter cab (1907年）和 taxicab (1901年）。 在其它的名称中包括taxi (1907年）， 它是taximeter 或 taxicab 的缩写形式。 非常有趣的是，可能是最全的形式的taximeter cabriolet ， 直到1959年才有记载〔period〕Perhaps more than once one may have wonderedwhy the wordperiod has the sense "punctuation mark ( . )” as well as some of its other senses having to do with time.The answer to this question lies in the senses of the Greek wordperiodos from which our word is descended. Periodos, made up of peri-, "around,” and hodos, "way,” meant such things as "going round, way round, going round in a circle, circuit,”and with regard to time "cycle or period of time.”The word also meant "the period of menstruation.”In rhetoric it referred to "a group of words organically related in grammar and sense.”The Greek word was adopted into Latin asperihodos with only its rhetorical sense and one other sense,but in Medieval Latin it reacquired senses it had in Greek,such as "cycle,” and acquired a new sense,"a punctuation mark used at the end of a rhetorical period.”Although this sense is recorded in Medieval Latin,it is not recorded in English until 1609.But the wordperiod had entered Middle English from Medieval Latin and Old French, first being recorded in a work written around 1425in the sense "a cycle of recurrence of a disease.”或许任何人都会不止一次的发出疑问，为什么period 有“标点符号（。）”的意思， 同时其它意思与时间有关。此问的答案来自我们的单词源自的希腊语单词periodos 的意思。 Periodos ，由意为“周围”的 peri- 和意为“方式”的 hodos 组成， 该词意味着“围绕…走，围绕…的路，转圈走，围绕，”同时也指时间，意为“一段时间或时间周期”。此词也意为“经期”。在修辞学中指“一组在语法和词意上有机相连的词。”这个希腊词作为perihodos 被拉丁文所采用， 仅带有修辞和一个其他的意思，但在中世纪拉丁语中它重新得到了它在希腊语中的意思，例如“周期”，后来又得到一个新的意思，即“用于修辞部分末尾的标点符号”。尽管此意在中世纪拉丁语中有记载，但直到1609年才在英语中有记载。而period 从中世纪拉丁文和古法语中进入中世纪英语， 并首次记载于约1425年所著的作品中，意为“疾病发作的周期” |
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