单词 | 经常遇到 |
释义 | 〔appendicitis〕Even though the wordappendicitis was in use in 1885, the year in which theOxford English Dictionary published the section "Anta-Battening" that would have contained the word, the editor, James Murray, omitted this "crack-jaw medical and surgical word" on the advice of Oxford's Regius Professor of Medicine, Sir Henry Wentworth Acland.As K.M. Elisabeth Murray, the granddaughter and biographer of James Murray, points out,"The problem of what scientific words to include was a continuing one, and James Murray was always under pressure—from his advisers . . . who thought the emphasis should be on words from good literature and from those in the [Oxford University] Press who wanted to save cost and time—not to include scientific words of recent origin.”In 1902 no less a person than Edward VII had his appendix removed,and his coronation was postponed because of the operation.Appendicitis hence came into widespread use and has remained so, thereby pointing up the lexicographer's difficult task of selecting the new words that people will look for in their dictionaries.尽管appendicitis 这个词于1885年就已使用, 在这一年出版的牛津英语词典 的“安塔族-增长论”这一分册应包括有这个词, 但在牛津皇家医学院教授亨利·温特华斯·阿克兰的建议下,主编詹姆斯·莫雷删掉了这个“拗口的医学和外科用词”。正如詹姆斯·莫雷的孙女和传记作者K·M·伊莉莎白·莫雷指出的那样, “应包括什么科学用语是一个长期以来的问题,詹姆斯·莫雷经常遇到来自他的顾问的压力…他们认为重点应放到从好文学作品中收来的词汇上,还受到来自出版社的压力,他们为了节约成本和时间而不愿收录新近的科学词汇”。1902年恰恰正是爱德华七世割除了阑尾,他的加冕典礼也因为这次手术而延迟。Appendicitis 一词因此得到了普遍的使用并保持至今, 这也表明了词典编纂者在选择人们要查找的新单词时所面临的艰难任务〔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。” |
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