| 单词 | 溯源 |
| 释义 | 〔deduce〕To trace the origin or derivation of.溯源：追溯…的源头或起源于…〔buffalo〕The buffalo is so closely associated with the Wild West that it would seem natural to assume that its name comes from a Native American word, as is the case with the wordsmoose and skunk. In fact, however,buffalo can probably be traced back by way of one or more of the Romance languages, such as Portuguese, Spanish, or Italian, through Vulgar Latin and Latin and ultimately to the Greek wordboubalos, meaning "an antelope or a buffalo.” The buffalo referred to by the Greek and Latin words was, of course, not the American one but rather an Old World mammal, such as the water buffalo of southern Asia.Applied to the North American mammal,buffalo is in fact a misnomer, bison being the preferred term. As far as everyday usage is concerned, however,buffalo, first recorded for the American mammal in 1635, is older thanbison, first recorded in 1774. 野牛同西部荒原联系如此紧密以致人们很自然地认为这个名字源于美洲本地语言，就象这两个词moose 和 skunk。 然而，实际上buffalo 一词可以通过一种或更多种日耳曼语言，如葡萄牙语、西班牙语或意大利语溯源。 通过通俗拉丁语和拉丁语最终追溯到希腊词boubalos 意思是“羚羊或野牛”。 希腊语和拉丁语所指的野牛当然不是美洲野牛，而是东半球的一种哺乳动物，如南亚水牛。就北美哺乳动物来说，buffalo 实际上是用词不当， bison 才是合适的词。 然而就日常用法而言，buffalo 于1635年首次被用于记录美国哺乳动物， 比首次记录于1774年的bison 要早些 |
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