| 单词 | 来讲 |
| 释义 | 〔politics〕Politics, although etymologically plural, takes a singular verb when used to refer to the art or science of governing or to political science: Politics 虽然从词源角度来讲是复数性质的， 但当它被用来指统治的艺术或科学或是指政治学时却要接一个单数形式的动词： 〔unscripted〕"his unscripted encounters with the press"(Eleanor Clift)“他在与新闻界的接触中示按照他先前所写的稿子来讲话”(埃莉诺·克利夫特)〔rent〕When young people talk about theirrents, that is, their parents, they are using a slang term that is of interest to language historians, if not necessarily thrilling for parents themselves. The term is a prime example of one of the fundamental characteristics of slang, which continually creates novel ways of expressing what are often rather ordinary things (if parents may be considered ordinary things). Slang has recently produced two expressions for "parents" that have gained wide currency— rents and parental units. Both expressions demonstrate slang's use of unusual or creative linguistic means to achieve novelty of expression. While there are many slang terms, such as bod for body or rad for radical, that result from the clipping of unstressed syllables, rents is a clipping that drops a stressed syllable, much like the similar term za, "pizza.” The desire to coin new ways of referring to things also leads speakers of slang to use circumlocutions like knuckle sandwich for "punch.” Parental units falls into this category. It plays on the jargon of bureaucrats and social science, in which the world is viewed as so much data waiting to be quantified. The appearance of terms such as rents and parental units also shows that all available styles and levels of language can be grist for slang's mill—so long as the material is perceived as irreverent, funny, or just plain cool. 年轻人谈论他们的rents （即父母）时，即使肯定不会令他们的父母感到兴奋，他们却使用了一个令语言历史学家很感兴趣的俚语。Rents是俚语一个基本特色的典范，这一基本特色就是不断创造新颖词汇来表示通常极为普通的事物（如果父母会被认为是普通事物的话）。最近俚语中产生了两个"父（母）亲"的词语并被普遍使用── rents 和 parental units 。这两个词语表明俚语用不同寻常的或创造性的语言工具来获取表达上的新颖。虽然因省略非重读音节产生了许多俚语词汇，如用 bod 指body、用 rad 指radical，但 rents 却是省略重读音节后的部分，非常类似相近词汇 za "pizza（比萨饼）"。期望创造指代事物的新词也使得满口俚语的人运用赘语，如用 knuckle sandwich 指"punch（用拳击）"。 Parental units 也属于赘语的范围。它用作官僚主义者的行话以及科学术语，因为对于官僚主义者和科学工作者来讲世界就是等待量化的大量数据。诸如 rents 和 parental units 这些俚语的出现也表明语言现有的全部风格和水平都是俚语的有益补充──只要认为内容是不敬的、有趣的或者纯粹扮酷的 〔unwonted〕"Her unwonted breach of delicacy . . . perplexed him"(George Meredith)“对于她来讲很罕见的直接了当…让他迷惑不解”(乔治·梅雷迪恩)〔minimal〕Under the strict interpretation ofminimal, this sentence should mean only "Alcohol has an unpleasant effect when I have eaten nothing.”If the looser interpretation is allowed, however,the sentence can also mean “ . . . when I have eaten a bit.”Presented with the sentence, 29 percent of the Usage Panel said that it could have only the "eaten nothing" (that is, the strict) interpretation;34 percent said that it could have only the "eaten a bit" (that is, the looser) interpretation;and 37 percent said that it could have either meaning.Thus the looser sense ofminimal is accepted by 71 percent of the Panel and must be considered acceptable in nontechnical use. · In an analogous shift,the verbminimize is often used to mean "to reduce,” an extension of its strict etymological sense of "to reduce to the smallest possible level.”This looser usage is the result of the imprecision that usually attaches to the use of the verb in most nontechnical contexts.When a manager announces thatThe company wants to minimize the risk of accidents to line workers, we naturally interpret the manager as meaning that the risk is to be reduced to the smallest level consistent with considerations of efficiency and cost,not that risks are to be reduced to the lowest level logically possible.Even when used with allowable imprecision, however, the verbminimize should carry some implication that the relevant quantity is reduced as much as could reasonably be expected in the circumstances.Thusminimize retains at least an approximately superlative sense and so is inconsistent with modification by adverbs such asgreatly or considerably, which imply that the verb is being used as a simple synonym forlessen or reduce. 若句中的minimal 的意思比较严格， 那么这一句就只能理解为“当我什么没吃时喝酒会搞得我很难受。”但是如果比较宽泛的词义得到承认，那么这一句同时也有“…当我吃过一点东西时”这层意思。百分之二十九的用法专题使用小组成员认为这一词只能当“什么都不吃”（即严格意义上的词义）来讲；百分之三十四的成员说它只有“吃过一点”（即宽泛一些的）词义；百分之三十七的成员说两种含义都可适用。所以minimal 宽泛的含义被用法专题使用小组的百分之七十一的成员接受。 与其相类似的是，动词minimize 经常被用来指“减少”， 是其“减少到最可能小的水平”的严格意义上的延伸。这一较宽泛的含义是非技术性文章使用这一动词的不精确性而带来的结果。当一个经理宣称公司试图将生产线上工人面临出事故的风险降至最低， 我们自然会认为经理的意思是工厂的事故风险将被降至一个同时又考虑效率和成本的最小程度，而不是逻辑上可以达到的最低程度。即使在可以允许不精确的程度内使用时，动词mininize 也应有一层隐含的意思， 即其相对数量已被减少到了情况所期望的合理的程度。这样，minimize 至少仍然保留着一种大致为最高级的意思， 因而它与这些副词如greatly 或 considerably 不能搭配使用， 因为这些副词暗示着这一动词被当成了lessen 或 reduce 简单同义词而使用 〔sloppy〕Slipshod suggests a relaxed indulgence toward imperfection, a casual inattention to detail,and a general absence of meticulousness: Slipshod 意味着对不完美的随意放纵，对细节的散漫不留心，整体上来讲缺少细心： 〔cornerback〕Either of two defensive halfbacks stationed a short distance behind the linebackers and relatively near the sidelines.防御后卫：两个防守前卫之一，位置在争球线一段短距离之后，相对来讲靠近边界线〔carry〕A non-Southerner is always amused when a Southerner offers to "carry" rather than to drive him or her somewhere,imagining it to be an invitation to be picked up and bodily lugged to the destination.However, the verbcarry, which to Southerners means "to transport (someone) in a motor vehicle, such as an automobile,” is etymologicallymore precise in the Southern usage than anywhere else.Carry derives from the Latin noun carrus, "cart,” from which we get the nounscarriage and our modern car. Therefore,carry is more closely related to car than is drive, which only makes literal sense if the vehicle is drawn by a team of animals.当一个南方人提出把一个非南方人“运送”而不是开车带到某地时，这个非南方人总是觉得好笑，会以为是一个把他或她“拖运”到某地的邀请。然而，carry 这个动词对南方人来说意思是“用机动车辆（例如汽车）运送某人，” 从词源学的角度来讲，该词在南部的用法比在其它任何地方者更为确切。Carry 一词从拉丁语中的名词 carrus “货车”发展而来， 从此我们又得到了名词carriage 和现在的 car 。 因此，carry 比 drive 而更为与 car 的关系密切， 因为如果一辆车由一组动物拉着，那么它就只能表示字面上的意思〔vermicelli〕We are now going to open an etymological can of worms by discussing the origin of the wordvermicelli. This word, like the food itself, is Italian in origin.Italianvermicelli is the plural of vermicello, a diminutive of verme, "worm,” from the Latin wordvermis, having the same sense. Perhaps you might prefer spaghetti instead;the wordspaghetti is derived from the Italian plural of the diminutive of spago, "string.” 现在我们将通过讨论vermicelli 这一词的词源来开一个关于蠕虫的词源学的罐子。 就象食物一词一样，这个词语从词源上来讲是一个意大利语。意大利语vermicelli 是 vermicello 这个 verme “蠕虫”的小词的复数， 源于与其具有相同含义的拉丁词语vermis 。 当然，你也可能提出意大利式细面条一词；spaghetti 一词源于 spago “细绳”的小词的意大利语复数 〔fun〕The use offun as an attributive adjective, as ina fun time, a fun place, most likely originated in a playful reanalysis of the use of the word in sentencessuch asIt is fun to ski, wherefun behaves syntactically like an adjective such as amusing or swell. The usage became popular in the 1950's and 1960's, though there is some evidence to suggest that it has 19th-century antecedents.Certainly the sense of this word makes it particularly susceptible to jocular treatment.But as with other such reanalyses (for example, in the expressiona whole 'nother ), the usage appears to have persisted after the original flavor had been lost.Thus there is no intimation of humorous intent in a press release that announces: fun 作为定语形容词使用， 如一段愉快的时光，一个娱乐场所， 极有可能源于对此词在某些句中用法的玩笑性再分析，如滑雪真好玩 从句法功能来讲， fun 在这里的用法象 amusing 或 swell 之类的形容词。 尽管有证据表明19世纪就出现这种用法了，但开始变得流行却在19世纪50,60年代。当然，此词的这层含义尤令人怀疑对方是否在打趣。但正如其他这类再分析词（例如，在句子a whole 'nother 中一样）， 此用法在最初的含义都失去之后，还一直坚持使用下来。因此当报界发布以下消息时就从中找不出任何滑稽意味了： 〔half〕The phrasesa half, half of, and half a or half an are all correct, though they may differ slightly in meaning.For example,a half day is used when day has the special sense "a working day,” and the phrase then means "4 hours.” Half of a day and half a day are not restricted in this way and can mean either 4 or 12 hours.短语a half，half of 和 half a 或者 half an 都是正确的， 尽管它们可能在意义上稍有不同。例如当day 当工作日来讲时， a half day 这个短语的意思是“四个小时”。 Half of a day 和 half a day 的意思不限于此， 它们可以表示四小时或者十二小时〔unthinkable〕Raising taxes was politically unthinkable.增加税收在政治上来讲是不能考虑的〔humanity〕Human beings considered as a group; the human race.人类：作为整体来讲的人类；人类〔vulgar〕The wordvulgar brings to mind off-color jokes, but this was not always so.Ironically the wordvulgar is itself an example of pejoration, the process by which the semantic status of a word changes for the worse over a period of time.The ancestor ofvulgar, the Latin word vulgāris (from vulgus, "the common people"), meant "of or belonging to the common people, everyday,”as well as "belonging to or associated with the lower orders.”Vulgāris also meant "ordinary,” "common (of vocabulary, for example),” and "shared by all.” Its only sense of the sort we might expect was related to the notion of general sharing, that is, "sexually promiscuous.”Our word, first recorded in a work composed in 1391,entered English during the Middle English period,and in Middle English and later English we find not only the senses mentioned above but also related senses.What is common can be seen as debased,and in the 17th century we begin to find instances ofvulgar that made very explicit what was already implicit. Vulgar now meant "deficient in taste, delicacy, or refinement.” From such usevulgar has gone downhill, and at present "crudely indecent" is probably one of the first senses ofvulgar that occurs to many when the word is used. Vulgar 这个词使人想起下流的玩笑， 但这并不尽然。具有讽刺意味的是vulgar 这个词本身就是一个贬义词， 是一个词的语义经过一段时间变为贬义的过程。Vulgar 的语源，拉丁词 vulgaris （来自于 vulgrs， “普通人”）， 意思是平常人的、属于平常人的或日常的，”也意味着“属于低等阶级的，与低阶级有关的。”Vulgaris 也意味着“平常的”，“普通的（如词汇表的）”，和“大家共有的。” 我们可能会想到的这一类的唯一意思与“大家共有的”的意思是有关，即“滥交的。”这个词，首先记载于1391年编的一部书里，在中古英语期间进入英语，在中古英语和后期的英语中我们不仅发现它有上述的意思，也有其它相关的意思。普通的可以被看作是低下的，在17世纪我们开始发现vulgar 把含蓄的意思变得很明显的例子。 现在vulgar 指“品味、格调或教养不高的。” 以这个意思vulgar 开始走下坡路， 现在当人们使用vulgar 时，对许多人来讲“粗野下流的”可能是第一个意思 〔winter〕The usually coldest season of the year, occurring between autumn and spring, extending in the Northern Hemisphere from the winter solstice to the vernal equinox, and popularly considered to be constituted by December, January, and February.冬，冬季：通常是一年中最冷的季节，介于秋天和春天之间，在北半球从冬至到春分，通常来讲包括十二月、一月和二月〔hard〕restrictions that were hard on welfare applicants.这些限制对于那些福利申请人来讲实在太刻薄了〔isotropic〕Identical in all directions; invariant with respect to direction.同向性的：所有方向上都相同的；就方向上来讲不变的 |
| 随便看 |
英汉汉英双解词典收录301015条英汉双解翻译词条，可根据汉字查询相应的英文词汇，基本涵盖了全部常用汉字的英文读音、翻译及用法，是英语学习及翻译工作的有利工具。