| 单词 | 比较好 |
| 释义 | 〔fair〕gave only a fair performance of the sonata.一次比较好的奏鸣曲演出〔fair〕The history of the wordfair illustrates how words can weaken in meaning over time. In Old English the ancestor offair, fæger, had senses such as "lovely, beautiful, pleasant, agreeable,” a far cry from our modern sense "mildly good or satisfying.”The Old English senses passed into Middle English,where the wordfair started to take a slight turn in the direction already alluded to. Fair could mean "highly to be approved of, splendid, good,”but it could also be used ironically,as in Chaucer's observation after a horse threw the Cook on the pilgrimage to Canterbury:"that was a fair feat of horsemanship by the Cook.”This ironic use was probably not responsible for the semantic weakening offair, but it shows how a positive word can have its meaning reversed.The weakening offair was most likely caused by "the determined optimism which led to the use of fair . . . rather than direct expression of discontent,”in the words of George H. McKnight.One might add as another cause the desire to avoid hurting other people's feelings.单词fair 的历史表明随岁月的流逝单词的语意变弱。 在古英语中fair，f?ger 本意是“可爱的，漂亮的，愉快的”， 与我们现在的“比较好或满意的”大相径庭。古英语传到中世纪英语时，fair 已开始在引申的方向上有微小的转变。 Fair 可以表达“被高度赞许的，辉煌的，好的，”但也可用作反语，如在往坎特伯雷朝圣的途中马将科克摔下时后，乔尔斯评论道：“那是科克精湛骑术的体现”。这种反语用法也许对fair 语义学上的弱化没有联系， 但它表明了一个褒义的单词可以变得意思完全相反。fair 的弱化很大程度上缘于“坚决的乐观主义导致 fair 的用法改变， 而不是直接表达不满意的意思，”乔治赫·马克奈特如此评论。人们可以再添上其它原因以免伤害别人的感情〔respectable〕Of moderately good quality:质量比较好的：〔fair〕Moderately good; mildly satisfying:普通的：比较好；比较令人满意的： |
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