| 单词 | 能追溯 |
| 释义 | 〔stalactite〕The wordsstalagmite and stalactite have confused many a person. A look into the history of the Greek sources of these two words may help.Both words can be traced back to the wordstalassein, "to drip,” which is appropriatesince both words denote deposits in caves formed by the dripping of mineral-rich water.The Greek base from whichstalassein was formed was stalak- and to this base were added several endings that concern us,specifically-ma, a noun suffix most frequently denoting the result of an action, -mo-, a suffix denoting the action of a verb as well as a result, and -to-, an adjective suffix forming verbal adjectives. With these suffixes and the addition of the inflectional endings, as well as a sound change from (k) to (g) before (m),we getstalagma, "that which drops, a drop,” stalagmos, "dropping, dripping of stalactites,” and stalaktos, "dropping, dripping.” Using these Greek words,Olaus Wormius formed the Modern Latin wordstalactītēs, the stalac- part meaning "dripping" and the-ītēs part being commonly used to name fossils and minerals when preceded by a form expressing a physical characteristic, in this case "dripping.” Wormius also used the termstalagmītēs, the stalag- portion expressing the notion of what drops, taken either fromstalagma, "that which drops, a drop,” or stalagmos, "dropping of stalactites.” Stalactītēs and stalagmītēs, of course, are the sources of our English words stalactite (first recorded in 1677), the formation on the tops of caves, and stalagmite (first recorded in 1681), the formation on the bottoms of caves. They have been causing trouble ever since.单词stalagmite 和 stalactite 令许多人混淆。 对这两个词的希腊起源历史进行研究可能会帮助理解。这两个字都能追溯到单词stalassein （“滴下”）， 这是很恰当的，因为两个字都表示洞里由富含矿物的水下滴而形成的沉积。形成stalassein 的希腊根源是 stalak- ， 在这个根源上加上几个与我们有关的词尾，特别是-ma （往往用来表示动作结果的名词后缀）， -mo- （用来表示动词的动作和结果的后缀）和 -to- （形成动词性形容词的形容词后缀）。 通过这些后缀和屈折变化词尾的添加以及在(m)前面由(k)到(g)的变音，我们得到了stalagma （“滴下的东西，一滴”）、 stalagmos “滴，滴下钟乳石”和 stalaktos （“落下，滴下的”）。 利用这些希腊字，奥罗斯·沃米斯组成了现代拉丁单词stalactites ， stalac- 意指“滴”。 而-ites 当由一个表示物理特征的形式开头时，通常用来表示化石和矿物，指“滴下”。 沃米斯也使用stalagmites ， stalag- 表示滴下的东西的概念， 源于stalagma （“滴下的东西，一滴”）或 stalagmos （“滴下的钟乳石”）。 stalacitites 和 stalagmites ，当然是我们的英语单词 stalactite （首次出现于1677年）即洞穴顶部的形成物和 stalagmite （最早记载于1681年）即洞穴底部的形成物的源头。 自那以后它们就常造成一些麻烦〔fraction〕One might think that a word likefraction as well as its ancestors might have always referred to the mathematical fraction. Certainly the mathematical notion of a fraction was known to the Babylonians, perhaps as early as 2000b.c. But our wordfraction goes back only to the Latin word frangere, "to break.” From the stem of the past participlefrāctus is derived Late Latin frāctiō, "a breaking" or "a breaking in pieces,”as in the breaking of the Eucharistic Host.In Medieval Latin the wordfrāctiō developed its mathematical sense, which was taken into Middle English along with the word.The earliest recorded sense of our word is "an aliquot part of a unit, a fraction or subdivision,”found in a work by Chaucer written about 1400.One of the next recorded instances of the word recalls its origins, referring to the "brekying or fraccioun" of a bone.人们也许认为一个词如fraction 以及它的词源总是指数学上的分数。 当然，分数的数学概念也许早在公元前 2000年就已被巴比伦人所熟知。 但fraction 一词仅能追溯到拉丁词 frangere ，“打碎”。 源自过去分词fractus 的词干是派生的后期拉丁语 fractio ， 意为“破裂”或“碎成一片片的”，如感恩节的饼的碎块。在中世纪拉丁语中，fractio 一词出现了数学意义， 这个词连同此意义都被记入中世纪英语中。这个词最早记载的意义是“一个数学单元，繁分数或再分数的约数”，出现在约1400年乔臾写的一部作品里。后来此词有记录的例子之一，指骨头上的“裂痕或碎片”，使人回忆起它的起源 |
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