| 单词 | 现代英语 |
| 释义 | 〔chrysalis〕"All that is gold does not glitter" we may say when confronted withkhrus- or khruso-, the combining form of the Greek word khrusos, "gold.” We find this form,for example, in the Greek wordkhrusallis, "chrysalis,” which refers specifically to a gold-colored pupa.This Greek word gave us ourchrysalis, first recorded in English in the 17th century. As Modern Englishchrys- or chryso- the Greek formkhrus- or khruso- has also been used to make words that did not exist in Greek. Among the more interesting of these arechrysocracy, "rule of the wealthy,” andchrysotherapy, "the treatment of disease with gold compounds.”“闪光的不都是金子”，当我们面对khrus- 或 khruso- ，即希腊词 khrusos 的结合形式时（意为“金子”），我们可以这样说。 我们发现这种形式，如希腊词khrusallis 意为“蛹”， 特别指金色的蛹。这个希腊词产生的chrysalis 首次于17世纪以英文记载。 作为现代英语中的chrys- 或 chryso- ， 希腊形式的khrus- 或 khruso- 也被用来组成希腊语中不存在的词。 其中最有趣的有chrysocracy , 意为“富裕的法则”，和chrysotherapy ， 意为“用金化合物治病”〔Richardson〕English writer whose epistolary novels includePamela (1740), often considered the first modern English novel, and Clarissa Harlowe (1747-1748). 理查森，塞缪尔：(1689-1761) 英国作家，其书信体小说包括《帕梅勒》 （1740年）,它通常被视为第一部现代英语小说，及 《克拉丽莎》 （1747-1748年） 〔tomato〕It has been said that the real contributions to world civilization were made by the unknown inhabitants of the Americas who domesticated plants such as the potato and squash and not by the great pre-Columbian civilizations, including that of the Aztecs.The tomato was another contribution,its name coming ultimately from the Nahuatl language spoken by the Aztecs as well as by other groups in Mexico and Central America.The Spanish, who conquered the area, brought back the tomato to Spain and,borrowing the Nahuatl wordtomatl for it, named ittomate, a form shared in French, Portuguese, and early Modern English.Tomate, first recorded in 1604, gave way totomato, a form created in English either because it was assumed to be Spanish or under the influence of the wordpotato. In any case,as is well known,people resisted eating this New World food at first because its membership in the Nightshade family made it suspect,but it is now eaten throughout the worldwhile Aztec civilization is memorialized by ruins.据说对世界文明真正作出贡献的并非是包括阿兹特克文明在内的哥伦布到达前的美洲文明，而是那些家庭种植土豆、南瓜等的不知名的美洲居民。西红柿是其中的另一贡献，它的名字最终的来源是阿兹特克人和其他墨西哥和中美洲居民使用的纳瓦特尔语。征服了该地区的西班牙人把西红柿带回了西班牙，并且借用了纳瓦特尔语的单词tomatl ， 把它称作tomate ， 这个形式为法语、葡萄牙语和早期现代英语所通用。Tomate ，最早记录于1604年， 后来被英语中诞生的一个形式tomato 所取代。 取代的原因可能是因为形式上更象西班牙语或是因为受单词potato 的影响。 不管怎么样，就像我们知道的，由于它属于茄科使它受到怀疑，人们起初拒绝吃它，不过现在全世界的人们都在吃西红柿，而阿兹特克文明都只存在于废墟之中了〔threshold〕Perhaps the tradition of carrying the bride over the threshold is dying out,but knowledge of the custom persists,leading one to wonder about the-hold or the thresh- in the word threshold. Scholars are still wondering about the last part of the word,but thethresh- can be explained. It is related to the wordthresh, which refers to an agricultural process. This process of beating the stems and husks of grain or cereal plants to separate the grain or seeds from the straw was at one time done with the feet of oxen or human beings.Thus, the Germanic word.therskan, or by the switching of sounds called metathesis, .threskan, meant "thresh" and "tread.” This association with the feet is probably retained in Old Englishtherscold or threscold (Modern English threshold ), "sill of a door (over which one treads).”或许抱新娘过门槛的传统已过时，但这种习俗仍为人所知，使人想到threshold 中的 -hlod 或 thresh- 。 学者们仍不清楚这个词的后半部分，但thresh- 已可作解释。 它与指一种农业加工的thresh 一词有关。 这种通过打谷子或谷类植物的茎壳以使各粒与茎管分开的作业曾一度是用牛或人的脚来做的。因此，德语词therskan 或经音位转换后的 threskan 表示“打”和“踩踏”。 这种和脚的联系可能在古英语therscold 或 threscold （现代英语 threshold ）中仍保留着， “门槛（踏过的地方）”〔analogy〕The process by which words and morphemes are re-formed or created on the model of existing grammatical patterns in a language, as Modern Englishname : names for Old English nama : naman on the model of nouns like stone : stones. 类推：一种语言的单词和语素在语言的现存语法模式基础上改变构成或产生，如现代英语的name：names 代替了古英语的 nama：naman ，这是在名词如 stone：stones 的模式上产生的 〔chirren〕The linguistic process of ellipsis allows for the deletion within words of some internal sounds, such as weakly stressed syllables and less prominent consonants.This process caused Old Englishheafod ultimately to become Modern English head, losing its internal v sound (spelled f in Old English). Ellipsis is still an active process in American regional dialects.For example, inchirren both the l and the d of children are omitted in favor of the more conspicuous r. 轻音和次要辅音等语言上的省略过程造成单词某些内部音素的缺乏。这一过程导致古英语中的heafod 省略词中内部音素 V （古英语中拼写成 f ）而最终变成现代英语中 head 一词。 在美国的地区方言中活力过程仍然起着作用。例如，为了在chirren 一词中突出更显著的音素 r ，将 children 中的 l 和 d 两个音素都省略了 〔crayfish〕The crayfish, also known as the crawfish, owes its name to a misunderstanding.The actual source of the word may be the Old High German wordkrebiz, "edible crustacean,” or a word related to it.From this Germanic source came Old Frenchcrevice, which when taken into English becamecrevise (first recorded in a document written in 1311-1312). In Old French and Middle English these words designated the crayfish.People began to pronounce and spell the last part of this word as if it werefish, the firstfish spelling (actually fysshes ) being recorded in 1555. Because of a variation in Anglo-Norman pronunciation,two forms of the word have come down to Modern English:crayfish and crawfish. 螯虾又名crawfish，正是出于误解才有现在这个名字。该词的真正来源可能是古高地德语中krebiz 一词， 意为“可食用的甲壳类动物”，或与之相关的一词。从这个日耳曼语词源中出现了古法语crevice 一词， 该词被借用入英语中变成了crevise （初次记录在1311-1312年间所写的一个文件中）。 在古法语和中世纪英语中这一词被称为crayfish。人们开始用fish 来发音和拼写这个词的后半部分， 而第一个fish 拼写法（实际上是 fysshes )被记录于1555年。 由于英国法语发音的差异，这个词的两种变体，即crayfish 和 crawfish 就共同延续到了现代英语中 〔gift〕Gift has a long history of use as a verb meaning "to present as a gift; endow.” The practice appears to provide a useful distinction,in as much as the verbgive can sometimes be ambiguous between "to transfer physical possession" and "to transfer ownership"; and in fact a verb analogous togift is found in a number of other languages (for example, Italianregalare, "to give as a gift,” from regalo, "gift, present"). Unfortunately the verbal use ofgift in Modern English is irredeemably tainted (as is its derivative giftable ) by its association with the language of advertising and publicity (as in Gift her with this copper warming plate ). In an earlier surveythe usage was rejected by a large majority of the Usage Panel.Where clarity is required, substitutessuch asgive as a gift, bestow, or donate are recommended. · The phrasefree gift should, of course, be considered redundant. But the increasing currency of its use is indicative mainly of the degree to which the wordgift itself has been expropriated by advertisers to refer to merchandise offerings to which an obligation is attached—if not a direct price, then taking a test drive,sitting through a sales pitch, or enrolling in a book club.It is perhaps to this use ofgift, rather than to the redundancy free gift, that critics ought most strenuously to object. Gift 作动词意为“赠送礼物，赠予”的用法已有很长的历史了， 这种惯用法的出现提供了有用的区分，因为作为动词give 可能有时会在“传递有形财产“和”传递所有权“之间有模棱两可的意思； 但事实上类似于gift 的词是在其它语言上建立起来的 （如意大利语的regalare “作为礼物给予”来自于 regalo “礼物，礼品”）。 不幸的是gift 在现代英语中动词性质的用法由于广告语言和公众语言的联系而不可挽回地被污染了（如它的派生词 giftable ）（又如在 给她这个铜暖盘作为礼物 ）。 在较早的一个调查中，这种用法被大部分的用法专题使用小组的成员所反对。为了在此处的用法更清晰的一些替代词，如give as a gift, bestow 或 donate 被采纳了。 词组free gift 自然是应该被认为是多余的， 但是这种用法的迅速使用主要表示了gift 这个词被广告商所侵用而用来指提供商品优惠是一种附加的义务——如果不是直接的价格， 那么就参加一次竞赛活动，等待商品广告宣传或在一个读书俱乐部中报名登记。也许gift 的这种用法应该比冗余的 free gift 更为批评家所坚决反对 〔yes〕The wordyes is a good example of how an ordinary and frequently used word can have a complex etymology. We can traceyes back to two Indo-European roots, .i-, a pronominal stem, and .es-, "to be.” From two extended forms of.i-, .yām and .yāi, came the prehistoric Common Germanic forms.jā and jai, which gave us Old Englishgeā, an affirmative particle, the source of Modern Englishyea. The Indo-European root.es- is the source of our forms am and is. From the stem.sī- used to make verb forms in the optative mood, a mood used to express a wish, came the Germanic form.sijai-, which gave us Old Englishsīe, "may it be so.” This form, unlike the sources ofam and is, died out, but before disappearing it had combined with Old Englishgēa to form the compound gēse, the ancestor of our wordyes. Thissīe was destined to have even more of a triumph. Until around 1600yea was used to respond to positive expressions, whereasyes was used to respond to negative expressions. After that timeyes became a response to both positive and negative expressions, yea surviving primarily in voice votes. yes 一词是说明一个普通常用词如何拥有一复杂词源的极好例证。 我们可以追溯yes 到两个印欧语词根， 代名词词干i- 和 es- “是”。 从i-的两种扩展形式，yam 和 yai， 形成了史前普通日耳曼语形式ja 和 jai, 它们又带来了古英语中的肯定虚词gea ， 这便是现代英语yea 的来源。 而印欧语词根es- 是我们 am 和 is 两形式的源头。 以is- ，一个用于制造祈愿语气动词的词干， 产生出日尔曼形式sijai-， 并由此形成了古英语sie, “希望如此”。 这种形式不象am 和 is 的词源，已经灭绝了， 但在消失之前，它已经和古英语gea 混合形成复合词 gese， 即我们的单词yes 的前身。 这个sie 注定要获取更大的胜利。 直至1600年左右，yea 还被用于回答肯定的陈述； 而yes 则用于回答否定陈述。 此后，yes 既可作肯定也可否定表达的回答， yea 则主要在口头投票时使用 〔husband〕We gain an insight into the history of the wordhusband by considering the Old English word hūsbōnde, meaning "the mistress of a house.”Ifhūsbōnde had survived into Modern English, husband, its modern form, would have been very ambiguous.The fact thathūsbōnde could mean "mistress of a house" helps us see the elements that make up the Old English ancestor of our wordhusband. Hūscorresponds to house. The element-bōnde is the feminine form of -bōnda, the second element of Old Englishhūsbōnda. The entire Old English word is a borrowing of the Old Icelandic wordhūsbōndi, meaning "the master of a house.”The second element inhūsbōndi, bōndi, means "a man who has land and stock" and comes from the verbbūa, meaning "to live, dwell, have a household.” The master of the house was of course usually the spouse of a wife as well,and it would seem that our main current sense ofhusband arises from this overlap. 考察一下古英语中husbonde 这个词，我们就会对 husband 这个词的历史有一定了解， 意思是“房子的女主人”。假如husbonde 这个词能留存在现代英语中， 作为husbonde 的现代形式， 它的意思会变得很模糊。husbonde 的意思是“房子的女主人”， 这有助于我们找出那些构成古英语中我们今天的husband这个词的前身。 Hus对应 house 。 -bonde 是 -bonda 的阴性形式， 古英语中 husbonda 的第二个部分。 这个古英语中的词整体上借自冰岛语中的 husbondi ， 意思是“房子的男主人”。husbondi, bondi 第二部分的意思是“一个拥有土地和牲畜的男子”， 它来自动词 bua ，意思是“生活、居住、拥有一个家”。 一座房子的男主人当然通常也是妻子的配偶，看起来今天husband 这个词的中心意思源于这种重叠 〔speed〕The fable of the tortoise and the hare teaches us that speed does not always spell success.Historically in English, however, it does:the Old English wordspēd, from which our word speed is descended, originally meant "prosperity, successful outcome, ability, or quickness.” A corresponding verb,spēdan, in Modern English the verbspeed, meant "to succeed, prosper, or achieve a goal"; and an adjective,spēdig, the ancestor of our word speedy, meant "wealthy, powerful.” Except for archaic usesthe words today relate only to the general sense of "velocity.”The meaning "success" is retained chiefly in the compoundGodspeed, a noun formed from the phrase meaning "God prosper you.”乌龟与兔子这则寓言故事告诉我们速度并不总意味着成功。然而在英语的历史中，速度就意味着成功：speed 这个词来自古英语单词 spēd ， 原意为“繁荣昌盛，成功的结果，能力或速度”。与之相应的动词spedan ， 即现代英语中speed 一词，意为“取得成功，繁荣昌盛或实现一目标”； speedy 的前身，形容词 spēdig ，则表示“富有的，有力的”。 除了其古代用法，这些词今天只和“速度”这一一般意义有关。“成功”之意主要保留于Godspeed （成功、幸运、天惠） 这个词中， 这是一个来自词组“祝你成功”的一个名词〔analogy〕The process by which inflectional paradigms are made more regular by the replacement of an uncommon or irregular stem or affix by one that is common or regular, asbit in Modern English bit, bitten for Old English bāt, biten. 类推作用：用于常见或规则的词干或前缀代替不常见和不规则的词干或前缀而使词的变位更规则的过程，如bit 在现代英语里的变位是 bit，bitten ，而在古英语里是 bat，biten 〔underling〕People trying to build their vocabulary often study affixes,a not unreasonable way to proceed.But studying a group of words that share an affix can be fascinating in its own right in the way that studying common features in a photograph of an extended family can be fascinating.The suffix-ling is Germanic in origin and had several uses already in Old English.For example, it could be added to a noun to make a second noun that referred to something connected with or similar to the first noun;thus, adding the suffix to the Old English wordyrth, "ploughland,” produced the Old English word yrthling, "plowman.” The suffix could also be added to an adjective to make a noun that referred to something having the quality denoted by the adjective:from Old Englishdēore, "dear, beloved,” was derived dēorling (Modern English darling ). Adding-ling to an adverb produced a noun referring to something having the position or condition denoted by the adverb: from Old Englishunder came underling. The last use of the-ling family to be described here was actually borrowed from another Germanic source, Old Norse. The Old Norse version of the-ling suffix was used to form diminutives; thus, our wordgosling was a borrowing in Middle English of an Old Norse word, gæslingr, "gosling.” 想要扩大词汇量的人常常去研究词缀，这不失为一种明智的方式。就象研究一个扩大了的家庭的照片中家人的共同特征一样吸引人，研究一组词缀相同的单词本身可能也会令人意醉神迷。-ling 这一后缀源于日耳曼语， 在中古英语中便已有已几种用法。例如，它可以和一个名词相连形成另一个与之关联或相似的名词；这样，把这个后缀加到古英语单词yrth “耕地”后边便形成了另一古英语单词 yrthling “农夫”。 这个后缀还可以加在一个形容词后边形成具有该形容词所示特征的名词：从古英语单词deore, “亲爱的，被爱的”中派生出 deorling （现代英语中的 darling )。 把-ling 加在一副词后边可以产生具有该副词所示情况或状态的名词： 从中古英语的under 形成 underling 。 这里所要描述的-ling 家族的最后一个用法事实上是来源于另一支日耳曼语言，古挪威语。 在古挪威语中-ling 这一后缀被用作小后缀； 这样，我们的单词gosling 便是中世纪英语中的一个外来词，来源于古挪威语单词 goeslingr, “小鹅” 〔Fowler〕British lexicographer who collaborated with his brotherFrancis (1870-1918) on The King's English (1906) and the Concise Oxford Dictionary (1911). He also wrote A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926). 福勒，亨利·沃森：(1858-1933) 英国词典编纂者，和其弟弗朗西斯 (1870-1918年）合著了 《标准英语》 （1906年）和 《牛津简明英语词典》 （1911年）。他还著了 《现代英语用法词典》 （1926年） 〔Wednesday〕We say the names of the days of the week constantly,but for most of us they are nonsense syllables. The seven-day system we use is based on the ancient astrological notion that the seven celestial bodies (the sun, the moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn) revolving around stationary Earth influence what happens on itand that each of these celestial bodies controls the first hour of the day named after it.This system was brought into Hellenistic Egypt from Mesopotamia,where astrology had been practiced for millenniums and where seven had always been a propitious number.Ina.d. 321 the Emperor Constantine the Great grafted this astrological system onto the Roman calendar, made the first day of this new week a day of rest and worship for all,and imposed the following sequence and names to the days of the week:Diēs Sōlis, "Sun's Day"; Diēs Lūnae, "Moon's Day"; Diēs Martis, "Mars's Day"; Diēs Mercuriī, "Mercury's Day"; Diēs Iovis, "Jove's Day" or "Jupiter's Day"; Diēs Veneris, "Venus's Day"; andDiēs Saturnī, "Saturn's Day.” This new Roman system was adopted with modifications throughout most of western Europe:in the Germanic languages, such as Old English, the names of four of the Roman gods were converted into those of the corresponding Germanic gods.Therefore in Old English we have the following names (with their Modern English developments):Sunnandæg, Sunday; Mōnandæg, Monday; Tīwesdæg, Tuesday (the god Tiu, like Mars, was a god of war); Wōdnesdæg, Wednesday (the god Woden, like Mercury, was quick and eloquent); Thunresdæg, Thursday ( the god Thunor in Old English or Thor in Old Norse, like Jupiter, was lord of the sky;Old NorseThōrsdagr influenced the English form); Frīgedæg, Friday (the goddess Frigg, like Venus, was the goddess of love); andSaeternesdæg, Saturday. 我们经常说一周各天的名字，但对我们中的大多数人来说，它们是毫无意义的音节。我们使用的七天制度是建立在古代星象学的观点上，即绕着静止不动的地球旋转的七个天体（太阳、月亮、火星、水星、木星、金星和土星），影响着地球上发生的事情，并且这些天体控制着以它们的名字命名的周日的第一个小时。这个体制从美索不达米亚引进到具有古希腊文明的埃及，在美索不达米亚，星象术已流行了上百万年，七一直是个吉利的数字。在公元 321年伟大的康斯坦丁国王把星相学系统用于罗马历， 把这种新星期的第一天作为休息与做礼拜的一天，并把以下的次序及名字加在其它的周日上：Dies solis ，“太阳日”； Dies Lunae “月亮日”； Dies Martis “金星日”； Dies Mercurii ，“水星日”； Dies Iovis， “朱维日”或“木星日”； Dies Veneris， “金星日”； 和Dies Saturni, “土星日”。 这种新罗马体制在西欧的大部地区有所改变后被采用：在日耳曼语言中，如古英语中，四位罗马神的名字被改为相应的日耳曼神的名字。所以在古英语中我们看到以下的名字（以及他们的现代英语形式）：Sunnanhd?g, 星期日； Monand?g, 星期一； Tiwesd?g， 星期二（蒂乌神，象玛尔斯一样，是战神）； Wodnesd?g, 星期三（沃登，象墨丘利一样，行动敏捷，善于词辩）； Thunresd?g， 星期四( 古英语中的撒纳及古挪威语的索，象朱庇特一样，是宇宙之主；古挪威语的Thorsdagr 影响了英语中的该词的形式）； Friged?g, 星期五（女神弗丽嘉，象维纳斯一样，是爱神）； 和Saeternesd?g, 星期六 〔etymon〕An earlier form of a word in the same language or in an ancestor language. For example, Indo-European.duwo and Old English twā are etymons of Modern English two. 词的原形：在同一语言中和在祖系语言中一个词的原始形式。例如，印欧语中的duwo 和古英语中的 twa 都是现代英语中 two 的原形词 〔rape〕Although three senses are listed in our entry for the verbrape, it is unlikely that many people think of the word as having more than one sense.The Latin wordrapere from which rape comes had an even wider range of meanings, including "to ravish.”It must be kept in mind, however, that most of its senses had to do with the notion of seizing or carrying offand that sexual violation was confined to the one sense.In the case of the Middle Englishwordrapen, taken from Latin rapere, fewer senses existed, but some of them differed quite significantly from any in which we would use the word today.It could mean "to fix or set a certain time" ("The tyme he wild [would] not rape" ) or "to carry off somebody to heaven from earth" ( "the visions of seynt poul wan [when] he was rapt in to paradys" ). The past participlerapt has survived in Modern English, where it has become a separate wordreferring to states of deep delight or absorption,far removed from the hideous cruelties ofrape. The sense involving these cruelties was probably present in Middle Englishand has largely taken over the word.尽管在动词rape 这一词条中，我们列了三个意思， 但实际很多人并不认为该词有这么多意思。Rape 从其起源的拉丁语单词 rapere 甚至有更多的词义， 其中包括“使销魂”这一含意。然而，我们必须记住所有这些词义都同“用武力夺取或抢走”有关，性方面的侵犯只是其中的一个意思。在中古英语中，由拉丁语rapere 一词产生的动词 rapen 的词义已经减少， 不过其中有些词义和现在的词义完全不同。它可以意为“约定或确定时间”(“他不肯 约定时间” )或“由人间带某人进入天堂”( “圣保罗进入天堂 的情景” )。 该词的过去分词rapt 仍存在于现代英语中， 在这里它已成为一个单独的单词，意为一种极其兴奋或被深深吸引的状态，这个意思与rape 一词丑恶的词义相去甚远。 与残酷行为有关的词义可能在中世纪就存在，后来被保留了下来〔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 〔pollster〕An understanding of the history of the-ster in pollster may perhaps raise more questions than it answers. In the first place apollster does not have to be a woman, despite the fact that the suffix-ster, originally-estre in Old English, was used to form feminine agent nouns.Hoppestere, for example, meant "female dancer.” But in Old English-estre was occasionally applied to men, although perhaps largely or completely in the case of translations of Latin masculine nouns denoting occupations that were held by women in Anglo-Saxon society.An example isbæcester, "baker,” glossing Latinpistor; it survives as the Modern English nameBaxter. In Middle Englishthe suffix was still largely feminine in the south of Englandbut masculine and feminine in the north,a tendency that became general in English starting with the 16th century.As an example of this tendencyseamster was remade into the feminineseamstress. In Modern English the suffix is usually derogatory.This use probably arose from the occurrence of the suffix with ambiguous verbs,such asgame, "to play at sports, to play at sex,” or with pejorative verbs,such asrime or rhyme. In some modern formations on neutral words-ster is not derogatory, as inyoungster (1589), but in most cases,as withpollster (1939), -ster has pejorative force. 对于pollster 中的 -ster 的历史的理解也许会引发比它能回答的问题更多的问题。 首先pollster 不一定非得是妇女， 尽管-ster 这一后缀， 源于古英语中的-estre ， 被用来构成阴性名词。比如hoppestere 一词意为“女舞蹈者。” 但在古英语中-estre 也偶尔可以用在男性身上， 虽然也许这种情况大多或者完全出现在表示盎格鲁-撒克逊社会中由妇女从事的职业的一些阳性拉丁文名词的翻译中。其中一个例子是boecester 意为“面包师”， 来自拉丁语的pistor； 这个词在现代英语名字Baxter 中保存了下来。 在中世纪英语中，该后缀在英格兰南部仍然主要地被用作阴性，但在英格兰北部却被同时用作阳性和阴性，而后一种趋势自16世纪以来逐渐在英语中变得普遍。反映这种趋势的一个例子是seamster ， 该词被改造成了阴性的seamstress。 在现代英语中这一后缀通常是含贬义的。这种用法可能是因为此后缀与一些有歧义的动词合用而产生的，比如game 可表示“进行体育活动，进行性游戏，” 或者是因为与轻蔑动词合用而产生的，比如rime 或 rhyme。 在某些现代英语中性名词中，-ster 不是贬损的， 如在youngster (1589年）中， 但在大多数情况下，如pollster (1939年）这个词中 -ster 仍是有贬义的 〔ted〕In 15th-century Englandthe verbted meant to spread newly cut hay to facilitate its drying. In the mid-19th centuryan American inventor produced a machine to ted the hay automaticallyand called it atedder. Since modern English is inclined to make verbs out of nouns meaning implements or machines,the nountedder became a verb with the same meaning as the original word ted. Tedder, a New England verb,also turns up in those parts of the Midwest that received settlers from New England.在15世纪的英格兰，动词ted 意为铺开新割的草来加速它的干燥。 在19世纪中叶，一位美国发明家制造了能自动摊晒干草的机器，并称之为翻晒机 。 自从现代英语正在倾向于将意为工具或机器的名词变成动词以来，名词tedder 变成了意思与其源词 ted Tedder 一样的动词， 一个新英格兰的动词，也出现在接受从新英格兰来的移民的中西部的地区〔reek〕Reek is a word that can be said to have been degraded by the company that it has kept. The Old English wordrēocan, one of two ancestors of our word, meant "to emit vapor, steam, or smoke,” while the other Old English ancestor,rēcan, meant "to fumigate, expose to smoke,” or "to cause to emit smoke, burn incense.”Burning incense and fumigating are certainly a far cry from the sort of thing now denoted by the verbreek. But at least in one case Old Englishrēocan did mean "to stink,” hardly a surprise when one considers how bad some smoke smells. Middle Englishreken, the descendant of these two Old English words, never meant "to stink,” but it could refer to a stench while meaning "to rise, ascend.”It would seem that the various exhalations of heated persons and animals, of freshly shed blood, and of smoke referred to by Middle Englishreken and its Modern English descendantreek eventually overwhelmed the word, so that as far as concrete senses are concerned, we largely think of it as meaning "to stink.”Reek 这个词可以说是近墨者黑的典型。 意为“散发出蒸气或烟”的古英语单词是reocan 的两个词源之一， 而另一个古英语词源是recan ， 意为“熏，与烟接触，”或“使散发烟，焚香”。焚香和熏的义项与今天使用的动词reek 的意义已相差甚远。 但至少古英语中reocan 确有“发出恶臭”之意，想到烟有多难闻，生出这一意思也就不足为奇了。 中古英语reken 是这两个古英语词的后代， 但却从无“发出恶臭”之意，在表示“上升，登高”之意时可以指臭气。中古英语reken 一词可指发热的人和畜的各种呼气、刚流出的鲜血以及烟， 其现代英语传下的词reek 最终覆盖了此词的本来意义， 以致我们一般认为该词的具体意思是“发出难闻的气味”〔off〕In Modern Englishthe compound prepositionoff of is generally regarded as informal and is best avoided in formal speech and writing: 在现代英语中，复合介词off of 一般被认为是非正式的， 最好在正式讲演和作品中回避使用： 〔adder〕The biblical injunction to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves looks somewhat alien in the Middle English guise "Loke ye be prudent as neddris and symple as dowves.”Neddris, which is perhaps the strangest-looking word in this Middle English passage, would beadders in Modern English, with a different meaning and form. Adder, an example of specialization in meaning, no longer refers to just any serpent or snake, as it once did, but now denotes only specific kinds of snakes.Adder also illustrates a process known as false splitting, or juncture loss: the word came from Old Englishnǣdre and kept its n into the Middle English period, but later during that stage of the language people started analyzing the phrasea naddre as an addre —the false splitting that has given us adder. “象蟒蛇一样聪明，象白鸽一样无邪”的圣经训谕与在中古英语中的“象蛇一样智虑，象鸽子一样简单”的表达法看起来颇为不同。Neddris 也许是中古英语的中看起来较奇怪的一个词， 在现代英语中为adders ，意义和形式相差很大。 Adder 作为意义特殊化的一个例子，不再象从前一样表示蟒蛇或蛇， 而只表示蛇的特殊种类。Adder 同时也说明了错误分离或连音遗失的过程： 这个词来源于古英语的needre 并在中古英语中保留 n ， 但是在后来的英语发展阶段，人们开始将词组a naddre 分析为 an adder --这种错误的分离给我们提供了 adder 一词 〔tin〕The history of the wordtin may take us back to a time before Europe had been settled by speakers of Indo-European languages, such as the Germanic and Celtic languages. Related words for this metal are found in almost all Germanic languages,such as GermanZinn, Swedish tenn, and Old English tin (as in Modern English), but no other Indo-European language family has such a word.The word may have been borrowed into the Germanic languages from a pre-Indo-European language of Western Europe.Such borrowing is supported by the factthat during the Bronze Age the Near East imported most of its tin and copper from Europe, where the metals were produced and metal objects were manufactured.Lest we be too amazed by this accomplishment,we might remember another remarkable achievement of pre-Indo-European society, the construction of huge megalithic monuments such as Stonehenge.单词tin 的历史可以把我们带回讲印欧语系语言（如日耳曼和凯尔特语）的民族在欧洲定居以前的那个时代。 在几乎所有的日耳曼语言中都可以找到指称这种金属的相关词，如德语中的zinn ，瑞典语中的 tenn 以及古代英语中的 tin （与现代英语一样）， 但是其它印欧语系语言中都没有这样的一个词。这个词可能是从西欧的前印欧语系语言借入日耳曼语的。这种转借是有据可依的，因为在青铜时代近东地区的大多数锡和铜都是从生产金属和金属器具的欧洲输入的。我们可能对当时欧洲的这种成就感到惊异，但是如果我们想到前印欧语系社会的另一个杰出成就——大型巨石纪念碑，如巨石阵的建造，我们就不会感到那么奇怪了〔neighbor〕Loving one's neighbor as oneself would be much easier,or perhaps much more difficult,if the wordneighbor had kept to its etymological meaning. The source of our word,the assumed West Germanic form.nāhgabūr, was a compound of the words.nēhwiz, "near,” and .būram, "dweller, especially a farmer.” A neighbor, then, was a near dweller.Nēahgebūr, the Old English descendant of this West Germanic word, and its descendant in Middle English, neighebor, and our Modern English neighbor have all retained the literal notion,even though one can now have many neighbors whom one does not know,a situation that would have been highly unlikely in earlier times.The extension of this word to mean "fellow" is probably attributable to the Christian concern with the treatment of one's fellow human beings,as in the passage in Matthew 19:19 that urges love of one's neighbor.象爱自己一样爱邻居会更容易，也可能更难，如果neighbor 这个词保持其词源意义的话。 这个词的来源，假定在西日耳曼语中形式为nahgabur， 是nehwiz “附近的”和 buram “居住者，尤指农夫”的合成词。 那么邻居就是附近的居住者。Neahgebur 这个西日耳曼词发展的古英语形式， 中世纪英语形式nerghebor 及现代英语 neighbor 形式， 都保持了字面意义，即使现在一个可能有许多人都不认识的邻居，这是一种以前很不可能有的情况。这个词的引申意义“人”大概出自基督徒关心如何对待世人，比如在《马太19：19》中就有要求热爱自己邻居的篇章〔winter〕Winter, spring, summer, fall.It is not too difficult to see how the season namesspring and fall came into being, but without some background information it is impossible to tell what the origins of the wordswinter and summer are. Summer goes back to the Indo-European root .sem-, meaning "summer.” From a suffixed form of this root came the prehistoric Common Germanic word.sumaraz, the ancestor of Old Englishsumor and its descendant, Modern English summer. This is the only Indo-European root referring to a season that has survived in an English name for a season.Of the other three,.wesr-, "spring,” has produced words such as vernal; ghyem-, "winter,” has given us words such as hibernate; andesen-, "harvest, fall,” has yielded earn ( from the prehistoric Common Germanic word.aznōn, "to do harvest work, serve"). Winter does, however, go back to the Indo-European root wed-, "water, wet.” From the formwe-n-d- of this root with the nasal infix -n- was derived the Germanic word .wintruz, with the underlying meaning "wet season" and the literal meaning "winter.”The Germanic word is the source of Old Englishwinter, the ancestor of Modern English winter. 冬，春，夏，秋。说出季节名spring 和 fall 的来历不是很难， 但如果没有一些背景知识，不可能知道winter 和 summer 的词源。 Summer 可追溯到印欧语中的词根 sem- ，意思是“夏天”。 给这个词根加后缀后又转化为史前的普通日尔曼词sumaraz， 这是古英语中sumor 的前身，由此又发展来现代英语中的 summer。 这是印欧语中表季节的词根在英语中作为季节名保留下来的唯一一个。另外三个wesr- “春”产生了象 vernal这类的词； ghyem-“冬”又给了我们单词 hibernate； esen- “收获，秋天”衍生出 earn ( 从史前的普通日尔曼词aznon “做收获的工作，服务”而来）。 然而winter 得追溯到印欧词根 wed- “水，湿的”。 由这个词根的we-n-d 形式和鼻音中缀 -n- 衍生出日尔曼语词 wintruz， 其隐含的意思是“湿润的季节”和字面意义“冬天”。这个日尔曼词是古英语中winter 的前身，也是现代英语 winter 的前身 〔s〕The 19th letter of the modern English alphabet.S字母：现代英语字母表的第十九个字母〔whore〕Derivatives of Indo-European roots often make strange bedfellows. A prime example is the case of.kā-, "to like, desire.” From the stem.kāro- derived from this root came the prehistoric Common Germanic word .hōraz with the underlying meaning "one who desires" and the effective meaning "adulterer.” From this word came the Old English wordhōre, the ancestor of Modern Englishwhore. The same stem produced the Latin wordcārus, "dear,” from which came Modern Englishcaress, cherish, and charity, the highest form of love. Contact with East Indian culture has added yet another pair of derivatives from this Indo-European root to the English language.From the stem.kāmo- came the Sanskrit word kāmaḥ, "love, desire,” from which are derived the English borrowingsKama, "the Hindu god of love,” andKamasutra, "a Sanskrit treatise on the rules of love and marriage according to Hindu law.” 从印欧语词根派生出的词常产生奇怪的词伴。一个很好的例子就是ko- “喜欢，渴望”。 从这个词根派生出karo 这个词干，然后又产生出史前共同日尔曼语的 horaz 一词，暗指“渴望…的人”，也含有显著的意义“通奸者”。 从这个词又产生古英语中的hore， 这是现代英语whore 的前身。 这一词干产生了拉丁词carus “亲爱的”， 又由它而引出现代英语中的caress,cherish 和 charity 这是爱的最高形式。 与东印度文化的接触又给英语语言加上了另外两个从这个印欧词根派生出的词。从词干kamo- 产生出梵语词 kamah “爱，欲望”， 从这个词又产生出英语的外来词Kama “印度人的爱神”， 和Kamasutra “根据印度法律所制定的关于爱情和婚姻的规定的梵语论述” 〔be〕Traditional grammar requires the nominative form of the pronoun in the predicate of the verbbe : It is I (not me ); That must be they (not them ), and so forth. Even literate speakers of Modern English have found the rule difficult to conform to,but the stigmatization ofIt is me is by now so deeply lodged among the canons of correctness that there is little likelihood that the construction will ever be entirely acceptable in formal writing.Adherence to the traditional rule in informal speech, however, has come to sound increasingly pedantic,and begins to sound absurd when the verb is contracted, as inIt's we. · The traditional rule creates particular problems when the pronoun followingbe also functions as the object of a verb or preposition in a relative clause, as in It is not them/they that we have in mind when we talk about "crime in the streets" nowadays, where the plural pronoun serves as both the predicate ofis and the object of have. In this example, 57 percent of the Usage Panel preferred the nominative formthey, 33 percent preferred the accusativethem, and 10 percent accepted both versions.But H.W. Fowler, like other authorities, argued that the use of the nominative here is an error caused by "the temptation . . . to assume, perhaps from hearingIt is me corrected to It is I, that a subjective [nominative] case cannot be wrong after the verb to be. ” Writers can usually find a way to avoid this problem: They are not the ones we have in mind, We have someone else in mind, and so on. See Usage Note at I 1we 传统语法要求系动词谓语中的代词用主格形式be ： It is I （而不是 me ）； That must be they （而不是 them ），等等。 即使现代英语有文化的人也发现很难遵守这个规则，而It is me 的烙印现在已深刻地印入了判断是否正确的准则之中， 以致很少有可能使这种用法在正式书面语中被完全接受。但是在非正式讲话中奉行传统规则已经日益变得象在卖弄学问。并且当系动词被缩减时，就象在It's we 中一样，听起来反而象是不合语法的。 当代词跟在be 后面做动词宾语或做关系从句中的介语宾语时，传统的规则就象在 当我们谈到当今“街上的犯罪”时，他们不是我们心中所想的那些人， 句中复数代词同时充当is 的宾语和 have 的宾语。 在这个例子中57%的用法使用小组更喜欢用主格形式they， 33%更喜欢用宾格形式them， 而10%则两种都接受。但是象其他的权威一样，H.W.福勒争论道，在这里用主格是一个错误，它之所以错是因为“多半听到了It is me 都被改正成 It is I 而拿不定主意，以为主格的情况在动词 to be 后面不可能错。” 作家们常常能够找到一个办法来避免这个问题： 他们不是我们所想的人，我们脑子里想的是另一些人等等 参见 I1we〔dive〕Eitherdove or dived is acceptable as the past tense of dive. Dived is actually the earlier form,and the emergence ofdove may appear anomalous in light of the general tendencies of change in English verb forms. Old English had two classes of verbs:strong verbs, whose past tense was indicated by a change in their vowel (a process that survives in such present-day English verbsasdrive/drove or fling/flung ); and weak verbs,whose past was formed with a suffix related to-ed in Modern English (as in present-day Englishlive/lived and move/moved ). Since the Old English period,many verbs have changed from the strong pattern to the weak one;for example, the past tense ofhelp, formerly healp, became helped, and the past tense ofstep, formerly stop, became stepped. Over the years, in fact, the weak pattern has become so prevalentthat we use the termregular to refer to verbs that form their past tense by suffixation of -ed. However, there have occasionally been changes in the other direction:the past tense ofwear, now wore, was once werede ; that ofspit, now spat, was once spitede ; and the development ofdove is an additional example of the small group of verbs that have swum against the historical tide. dove 或 dived 都可用作 dive的过去式形式。 Dived 实际上是早期词形，根据英语动词词形变化的趋势，dove 的出现似乎是不规则的。 古英语有两类动词：强式动词，其过去时形式由元音变化来体现（这一过程还存在于现代英语里，诸如drive/drove 或 fling/flung 等动词中）； 另一类为弱式动词，其过去时态形式由与现代英语-ed 后缀有关 （如现代英语中的live/lived 和 move/moved )。 自古英语时期以来，许多动词由强式变为弱式；例如help 的过去式形式以前为 healp ，已变为 helped ， step 的过去式由以前的 stop 变为 stepped 。 事实上，多年来弱式动词变得非常普遍，我们用术语规则动词 来指那些由加后缀 -ed 来构成过去式形式的动词， 然而偶尔也会向另一方向发生变化：wear 的过去形式现为 wore ，曾为 weared ； spit 的过去式现为 spat ，曾为 spitede ； dove 的发展是反历史潮流而动的一小组动词中的另外一小组动词的例子 〔empty〕In Old EnglishIc eom ǣmtig could mean "I am empty,” "I am unoccupied,” or "I am unmarried.” The sense "unoccupied, at leisure,” which did not survive Old English,points to the derivation ofǣmtig from the Old English word ǣmetta, "leisure, rest.” The wordǣmetta may in turn go back to the Germanic root mōt-, meaning "ability, leisure.”In any case, Old Englishǣmtig also meant "vacant,” a sense that was destined to take over the meaning of the word. Empty, the Modern English descendant of Old Englishǣmtig, has come to have the sense "idle,” so that one can speak of empty leisure.在古英语里，Ic eom cemfig 可以表示“我饿”，“我现在失业”或“我没有结婚。” “未占用的，空闲的”这个意思没有在古英语中保留下来，这表明æmtig ， 派生自古英语词 æmetta ，意为“空闲，休息”。 鎚etta 可以追溯到日耳曼语词根 mot-， 意为“能力，空闲”。无论如何，古英语æmtig 也表示“空的”， 这个意思是注定要取代这个词的意义。 Empty 这个古英语鎚tig 在现代英语中的变形具有了“空闲的”的意思， 所以我们可以说空闲〔surly〕The fact that the wordsurly means "churlish" nicely indicates its fall in status. Churlish derives from the word churl, which in its Old English form ceorl meant "a man without rank, a member of the lowest rank of freemen,” as well as "peasant" in general. In Old Englishceorl may have been a term of contempt; it certainly became one in Middle English,wherecherl meant "base fellow, boor,” with churlish descending in meaning accordingly. Surly, on the other hand, started its life at the top of the scale but fell just as far. Looking at instances of this word in Middle English and Early Modern English,we see thatsurly was only one spelling for this word, another spelling beingsirly, which makes it clear that it came from the word sir, the term of honor for a knight or for a person of rank or importance in general. Thussirly, the form under which the early spellings of the word are entered in the Oxford English Dictionary, first meant "lordly.” Surly, entered as a separate word in the OED and first recorded in 1566, meant perhaps "lordly, majestic,” in its earliest use,subsequently being used in the sense "masterful, imperious, arrogant.” As the gloss "arrogant" makes clear, the wordsirly could have a negative sense, and it is this area of meaning that is responsible for the current "churlish" sense of the word.surly 意为“粗野的”事实生动地说明了这个词的地位下降。 Churlish 是 churl 的派生词，其古英文形式 ceorl 的意思是“没有爵位的男人，或者是自由民中最低等级的男人”，大概象“农民”一样。 古英语中ceorl 可能含有贬意； 中古英语中肯定是贬意，其cherl 的意思是“卑贱的人，粗野的人”，相应地 churlish 的意思也下降了。 另一方面，Surly 开始是个高尚的字，后来地位同样下降。 从中古英语和早期现代英语中的实例，我们可以看到，surly 的拼法只有一个， 另一个是sirly ，它清楚地表明这个字来自 sir （给于骑士或有等级或有身份的人的尊称）。 因此，sirly 这个字的最初形式记载在 牛津英语词典 中，开始的意思为（有威严的，高傲的）。 Surly 作为另一个字最初于1566年记录在 OED 中， 最初的意思是“老爷的、尊贵的”，以后的意思为“老爷般的、命令式的、傲慢的”。“傲慢”这个字条清楚地说明sirly 可能有过否定的意思， 也正是在这层意义上，它和目前“粗野的”意义有关〔agenda〕It is true that Cicero would have usedagendum to refer to a single item of business before the Roman Senate, with agenda as its plural. But in Modern English a phrase such asitem on the agenda expresses the sense of agendum, andagenda is used as a singular noun to denote the set or list of such items, as inThe agenda for the meeting has not yet been set. If a plural ofagenda is required, the form should be agendas: The agendas of both meetings are exceptionally varied. 在罗马元老院之前西塞罗确实就已经在用agendum 来指一个议事日程，而用 agenda 作为复数。 但是在现代英语中item on the agenda 这个短语表达了 agendum 的意义， 同时agenda 作为单数名词意为“一组或一列项目”， 如：The agenda for the meeting has not yet been set（会议议程尚未确定）。 如果需要用agenda 的复数，应该用 agendas： The agendas of both meetings are exceptionally varied（两会议议程迥然不同）。 〔favor〕When a Southernerfavors a relative, he or she is not giving that person special privileges;rather, the Southerner looks like that relative.Favor can be either transitive— She favors her father — or intransitive with a compound subject: She and her father favor. This sense offavor goes back to early modern English: "This young lord Chamont/Favors my mother" (Ben Jonson).The verb derives from the nounfavor, which was used from the 15th to the 19th century to mean "appearance, aspect; the countenance, face": "What makes thy favor like the bloodless head/Fall'n on the block?” (Tennyson).This sense of the noun is now archaic,but the verb thrives in the English of the Southern United States.当一个南方人favors 一个亲属， 他（或她）不是给这个人特权；而是这个南方人长得像那个亲属。Favor 可以是及物的—— 她像她父亲—— 或不及物的，与复合主语连用： 她和她父亲相象。 Favor 的这种含义可以上溯到早期的现代英语： “这个年轻的贵族像我妈妈” （本·杰森）。这动词来源于名词favor， 在15世纪到19世纪被作为“外貌，样子；面貌，脸部”的意思用： “什么使你的脸毫无血色，脑袋耷拉下来?” （坦尼森）。名词的这一用法现在已经陈旧了，但动词仍在美国南部英语中流行〔critter〕Critter, a pronunciation spelling of creature, actually reflects a pronunciation that would have been very familiar to Shakespeare:16th- and 17th-century English had not yet begun to pronounce the-ture suffix with its modern (ch) sound. This archaic pronunciation still exists in regional Americancritter and in Irishcreature, pronounced (krāʹtŭr) and used in the same senses as the American regionalism. The most common meaning ofcritter is "a living creature,” whether wild or domestic; it also can mean "a child" when used as a term of sympathetic endearment,or it can mean "an unfortunate person.”In old-fashioned regional speech,critter and beast denoted a large domestic animal. The more restricted senses "a cow,” "a horse,” or "a mule" are still characteristic of the speech in specific regions of the United States.The use ofcritter among younger speakers almost always carries with it a jocular or informal connotation. Critter 是 creature 这一词的发音拼法， 实际上反映了一种莎士比亚极其通晓的发音法：16和17世纪的英语中还没有开始用现代英语中的(ch)音来发-ture 这一后缀的音。 这一古发音法仍存在于地区性美语critter 中， 而且在爱尔兰语中creature (kra'tur)的发音和用法与地区性美语相同。 critter 这一词的最通用的意思是“生物”，无论是野生的还是家养的； 作为昵称时，它可以作“小孩”解释；它还可以指“一个不幸运的人”。在老式的地区性语言中，critter 和 beast 意指大型的家畜。 它的更狭窄的含义“牛”、“马”或“驴”则仍然是美国某些特定地区的方言中的特有含义。年轻人对于critter 的用法则几乎总认为是带有恢谐或非正式的含义 〔apocope〕The loss of one or more sounds from the end of a word, as in Modern Englishsing from Middle English singen. 词尾脱落：词尾处一个或多个音节的脱落，如现代英语里的sing 是由中古英语 singen 一词变来的 〔bleed〕It seems only common sense thatbleed should be related to blood, but one needs some knowledge of historical linguistics to understand the relationship fully.In prehistoric Common Germanic, the hypothetical predecessor of Germanic languages such as English, German, and Swedish,the word.blōdha-, "blood,” the ancestor of our word blood, is assumed to have existed. From this noun was derived the verb.blōdhjan, "to bleed.” A change of sound then came into play in Old English, that is, thej, pronounced like the y in your, caused the vowelō, pronounced as in go, to become pronounced like the ö in German schön. Later in Old English thisō changed to ē, pronounced like the a in labor, eventually becoming like thee in bee by 1500. By this change, as well as others,.blōdhjan became Modern English bleed. 根据常识bleed 好象应该和 blood 联系在一起， 但要想全面理解这种关系，应具备一些历史语言学的知识。在史前日耳曼共同语，即日耳曼语言（如英语、德语和瑞典语）的假设前任语言中，我们使用的单词blood 源于 blodha- 意为“血”，被认为已经存在了。 从这一名词派生出动词blodhjan， 意为“流血”。 发音的改变出现于古英语中，即j， 发音与 your 中的 y 相似， 引起go 中的元音 ō 变得如德语 schon 中的 ö 。 后来在古英语中ō 变为 ē， 发音如 labor 中的 a， 最后在1500年前变得如bee 中的 e 。 通过这种变化，以及其他变化，blodhjan 成为了现代英语的 bleed 〔premise〕Why do we call a single buildingthe premises ? To answer this question,we must go back to the Middle Ages.But first, let it be noted thatpremises comes from the past participle praemissa, which is both a feminine singular and a neuter plural form of the Latin verbpraemittere, "to send in advance, utter by way of preface, place in front, prefix.” In Medieval Latin the feminine formpraemissa was used as a term in logic, for which we still use the termpremise descended from the Medieval Latin word (first recorded in a work composed before 1380).Medieval Latinpraemissa in the plural meant "things mentioned before" and was used in legal documents, almost always in the plural,a use that was followed in Old French and Middle English, both of which borrowed the word from Latin.A more specific legal sense in Middle English,"that property, collectively, which is specified in the beginning of a legal document and which is conveyed, as by grant,”was also always in the plural in Middle English and later Modern English.And so it remained when this sense was extended to mean "a house or building with its grounds or appurtenances,”a usage first recorded before 1730.为什么我们把单独的一幢建筑称为the premises ？ 为了回答这个问题，我们必须回到中世纪。但首先必须注意的是premises 是从过去式 praemissa 而来的， 这是意思为“预先发送,以前言的方式说出，放在前边，前缀”的拉丁动词praemittere 的阴性单数形式及中性复数形式。 在中世纪拉丁语中，praemissa 作为阴性形式被用作逻辑状语， 因此我们仍然使用这个来源于中世纪拉丁语的术语premise （第一次记载于1380年前编纂的作品中）。中世纪拉丁语praemissa 的复数形式意为“前面提到的事物”， 用于法律文件并总是以复数形式出现，古法语和中古英语中都从拉丁语中借用了这个词及其用法。中古英语中有一种更特殊的法律方面的意义，“法律文件开头指明并根据转让的财产，如通过赠送”,在中世纪英语和后来的现代英语中也是以复数形式使用。因此当它的意思被扩展为“连同其土地及设施一所房子或一幢建筑”时仍保留这一用法，该用法最初记载于1730年前。 |
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