| 单词 | 老态龙钟 |
| 释义 | 〔senile〕In earlier writings one finds phrases such as "asenile maturity of judgment" and "green and vigorous senility, ” demonstrating that these two words have not always been burdened with their current negative connotations. Senile and senility are examples of pejoration, the process by which a word's meaning changes for the worse over time.Even thoughsenile (first recorded in 1661) and senility (first recorded in 1778) initially had neutral senses such as "pertaining to old age,” it is probable that the weakness (in particular the mental weakness) that sometimes accompanies old age eventually caused negative senses to predominate.Certainly some pejorative associations were present in Latinsenīlis, "relating to an old man, aged,” the ultimate source of both words, and in related Latin words such assenēscere, which could mean "to deteriorate with age.” But it seems that pejorative associations have taken over these words in English through general usage,perhaps because average life expectancy has risen steadily over the years.在较早的文学作品中人们可以找到形如“判断力Senile（老练） 成熟”和“精力旺盛的有魄力的 Senility（老态龙钟） ”的短语，表明这两个词一直没有表示他们流行的消极的含义。 Senile 和 senility 是词义转贬的范例， 即一个词的意思随时间变化变得越来越坏。尽管senile （首次记载于1661年）和 senility （首次记载于1778年）最初具有中性的意义，例如“关于老年的”， 可能是伴随老年出现的衰弱（特别是智力衰弱）最终导致了反面的意思居支配地位。当然有一些词义转贬的联系表现在拉丁文中的senilis （“关于老人的，老年的”），是这两个词的最早的词源， 和与之相关的拉丁词如senecer ，意为“随年纪恶化”。 但是看起来在英语中通过广泛的使用词义转贬的联系已经取代了这些词，可能是由于平均估计寿命随时代发展稳步上升〔dodder〕To shake or tremble, as from old age; totter.老态龙钟：因年老而颤抖；蹒跚而行〔caducity〕The frailty of old age; senility.老迈，衰老：老年岁人的脆弱；老态龙钟 |
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