| 单词 | 英语单词 |
| 释义 | 〔plantation〕It has probably seemed ironic to more than one reader that the same wordplantation appears in the name Plimoth Plantation, a settlement of people seeking freedom of religion,albeit their particular form of religion,and also as the term for the estates of the pre-Civil War Southwith their beautiful mansions for the white elite and their hovels for the oppressed Black slaves.These two uses of the wordplantation illustrate two sense developments of the word, which is first recorded in Middle English asplantacioun in a work probably written during the first quarter of the 15th century. Latinplantātiō, the source of our English word, originally meant "propagation of a plant, as from cuttings,”but in Medieval Latin developed other related senses,such as "planting,” "foundation, establishment,” and "nursery, or collection of growing plants that have been planted.”The two senses that were used in New England and in the South can thus be explained.The Plimoth sense is derived from the notion of a settlement or colony that has been established or planted in a new country.The Southern sense goes back to the notion of simply planting crops,in this casecrops such as tobacco or cottonthat are grown on estates or farms in subtropical or tropical climatesand were at one time worked by slave labor.同样的单词plantation 出现在名称 Plimoth Plantation （普利茅斯种植园）中，这对不止一名读者来说，可能看起来是具讽刺意味的， 该名称指寻求宗教自由的人的小型社区，虽然他们的宗教形式很特别，也是作为内战前南方庄园的术语，指供高贵白种人居住的漂亮公馆和受压迫的黑人奴隶居住的破旧茅屋。单词plantation 的这两种用法说明了这个单词两种意思的发展， 其以可能于15世纪最初二十五年创作的一部作品中的plantacioun 形式首次记录进中世纪英语。 拉丁文plantatio 是我们这个英语单词的词源， 最初意为“植物的繁殖，如通过供插栽小枝，”但是在中世纪拉丁文中又发展了其它的相关的意思，例如“种植、”“建立、设立”和“苗圃或已被种植的活的植物的集合。”这样，用在新英格兰和南方的这两种意思就能够解释了。普利茅斯种植园的意思是从在新的国家中建立或移民的新拓居地或殖民地的概念中引申出来的。南方庄园的意思则可追溯到简易耕种作物的概念上来，在这种情况下，例如烟草或棉花等农作物，生长在亚热带或热带气候的庄园或农场，且一段时间以来由奴隶种植〔dentist〕“Dentist figures [appears] now in our newspapers, and may do well enough for a French puffer [a writer of inflated advertisements];but we fancy Rutter is content with being called atooth-drawer. ” In this quotation from the September 15, 1759, issue of theEdinburgh Chronicle we seedentist in its infancy as an English word, trailing evidence of its French origin.If we had formed a word in English likedentist, which comes from the French word dent, "tooth,” we would havetoothist, a word that does not exist. Buttoothist and tooth-drawer lack the elegance of the French borrowing dentist, an elegance that is shared by other borrowings from French during the past four centuries,such asballet, champagne, coquette, coterie, and negligee. “Dentist 现在在我们的报纸里出现了， 可能常是法国吹嘘者宣传的对象；但是，我们猜测鲁特会对被称为tooth-drawer 的东西感到满意”。 在这段引自1759年9月15日的杂志爱丁堡年记 的话中， 我们看到dentist 最初是作为一个英语单词产生的， 它却起源于法语。如果我们当时在英语中构造了象dentist （它源于法语 dent ）的这样一个英语词"tooth"， 我们将会得到一个根本就不存在的形式：toothist 。 但是toothist 和 tooth-drawer 缺乏法语借用词 dentist 的高雅， 这种高雅为其他在这四百年里从法语中借用的词所共有，如ballet，champagne，coquette，coterie 和 negligee 〔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〔erudite〕One might like to beerudite but hesitate to berude. This preference is supported by the etymological relationship betweenerudite and rude. Erudite comes from the Latin adjectiveērudītus, "well-instructed, learned,” from the past participle of the verbērudīre, "to educate, train.” The verb is in turn formed from the prefixex-, "out, out of,” and the adjective rudis, "untaught, untrained,” the source of our word rude. The English worderudite is first recorded in a work possibly written before 1425 with the senses "instructed, learned.”Erudite meaning "learned" is supposed to have become rare except in sarcastic use, at least during the latter part of the 19th century, but the word now seems to have been restored to favor.一个人想成为erudite （博学的）， 但却犹豫会成为rude （粗鲁的）。 这个优先选择可以由erudite 和 rede这两个词在语源学上的关系得出。 Erudite 源于拉丁语的形容词eruditus ，指“受过良好教育的、博学的，” 来源于动词erudire 的过去分词，指“教育、训练”。 这个动词反过来由前缀ex- ，（表示“出、离开”）和形容词 rudis 意为“没受教育的，没受训练的”组成，它又是现代词 rude 的来源。 英语单词erudite 最早记录于大约写在1425年以前的一本著作中， 那时意思是“受教育的、博学的”。至少在19世纪后半期，Erudite 意思为“博学的”，除了讽刺的用法外已经很少被人所用， 但是现在这个单词好象又逐渐被人们使用起来〔reindeer〕Although Saint Nick uses reins on his reindeerand reindeer are used to pull sleds in Lapland and northern Siberia,the wordreindeer has nothing to do with reins. The element-deer is indeed our word deer, but therein- part is borrowed from another language, specifically from the Scandinavian languages spoken by the chiefly Danish and Norwegian invaders and settlers of England from the 9th to the 11th century.Even though the Old Icelandic language in which much of Old Norse literature is written is not the same variety of Old Norse spoken by these settlers of England,it is close enough to give us an idea of the words that were borrowed into English.Thus we can cite the Old Icelandic wordhreinn, which means "reindeer,” as the source of the first part of the English word. The wordreindeer is first recorded in Middle English in a work composed before 1400. 尽管圣诞老人在他的驯鹿身上用缰绳，且驯鹿过去在拉普兰和西伯利亚北部曾被用来拖拉雪撬，reindeer 这个字却和缰绳没有任何关系。 构词元素-deer 确实是我们的单词 deer， 但是rein 这一部分是从其他语言中借用过来的， 特别是主要从丹麦和挪威的入侵者及9世纪到11世纪列英格兰定居者说的斯堪的纳维亚语借用的。尽管许多古代北欧文学都使用的古冰岛语与这些到英格兰定居的人所说的古代北欧语并不是同一变体，但它对于我们认识借进英语的词汇也是足够接近的。这样，我们便可以引用意为“驯鹿”的古冰岛语hreinn 来作为英语单词第一部分的来源。 Reindeer 最早在1400年以前所著的一部作品中以中古英语记录下来 〔junk〕The wordjunk is an example of the change in meaning known as generalization, and very aptly too, since the amount of junk in the world seems to be generalizing and proliferating rapidly. The Middle English wordjonk, ancestor of junk, originally had a very specific meaning restricted to nautical terminology.First recorded in 1353,the word meant "an old cable or rope.”On a sailing ship it made little sense to throw away useful materialsince considerable time might pass before one could get new supplies.Old cable was used in a variety of ways,for example, to make fenders,that is, material hung over the side of the ship to protect it from scraping other ships or wharves.Junk came to refer to this old cable as well. The big leap in meaning taken by the word seems to have occurred whenjunk was applied to discarded but useful material in general. This extension may also have taken place in a nautical context,for the earliest, more generalized use ofjunk is found in the compound junk shop, referring to a store where old materials from ships were sold.Junk has gone on to mean useless waste as well. Junk 一词是被称为词义扩大化的例子；由于世界上垃圾的数量正在迅速扩散和激增，该词词义的扩大也是很适宜的。 junk 一词源自古英语单词 jonk ， 其最初的意思只限于航海术语当中。1353年首次记载下来时，该词义为“旧缆绳或旧绳子”。在帆船上，扔掉有用的东西是不明智的，因为也许要过去好长一段时间才有可能得到新的供应品。旧缆绳可用在很多不同的方面，例如用来做防撞物，即悬在船舷上保护船舷不受其它船只或码头刮擦的材料。Junk 同样也用来指旧缆绳。 当junk 普遍地被用来指丢弃了的然而有用的材料时，该词的词义发生了巨大的变化。 该词的词义延伸也可能已经出现在与航海有关的背景中，因为junk 一词最早的、更为概括性的使用是在 junk shop 这一复合词中发现的。 该词指出售船上旧材料的商店。Junk 仍继续用来指没用的废旧物品 〔kudos〕Kudos is one of those words like congeries that look like pluralsbut are etymologically singular:correctness requiresKudos is (not are ) due her for her brilliant work on the score. Some writers have tried to defend the use ofkudos with a plural verb, or even the introduction of a new singular form ofkudo, on the grounds that these innovations follow the pattern whereby the English words pea and cherry were re-formed from nouns ending in-s that were thought to be plural. Perhaps the singularkudo would have to be acknowledged as a legitimate formation if it came to be widely adopted in the popular language in the way that cherry and pea have. But at presentkudos is still regarded as a slightly pretentious variant for praise and can scarcely claim to be part of the linguistic folkways of the community.When writers reach for an unfamiliar Greek word for the sake of elegance,it is fair to ask that they get it right.Still, it is worth notingthat even people who are carefulto treat the word syntactically as a singularoften pronounce it as if it were a plural:etymology would require that the final consonant be pronounced as a voiceless (s),rather than as a voiced (z).Kudos 和 congeries 那些词一样， 看上去好象是复数，但从词源上看是单数：因此正确的用法应该是Kudos is （不是 are ） due her for her brilliant work on the score 。 许多作者为kudos 后跟动词复数形式的做法辩护， 他们甚至发明了一个新的词kudo 作为该词的单数形式，他们这样做是以英语单词 pea 和 cherry 的形成模式为依据的， 这些词都是从原先结尾带-s 的复数形式名词演化而来。 kudo 这种单数形式只有在象 cherry 和 pea 这样为大众语言所普遍接受之后才能被认可为一种正确的形式。 但是现在kudos 这个词仍被看作是 praise 这个词稍稍有些做作的变体， 还很难成为社群的习惯用语的一部份。当一个作家为了行文的优雅用一个生僻的希腊词的时候，他应该正确地使用它。但是值得注意的是，即使是那些非常仔细的人，他们在句子中把它用作单数，但在读的时候却读成复数的形式：根据词源来看，这个词最后一个辅音应该发成清辅音（s），而不是浊辅音（z）〔modern〕The wordmodern, first recorded in 1585 in the sense "of present or recent times,” has traveled through the centuriesdesignating things that inevitably must become old-fashionedas the word itself goes on to the next modern thing.We have now invented the wordpostmodern, as if we could finally fixmodern in time, but evenpostmodern (first recorded in 1949) will seem fusty in the end, perhaps sooner thanmodern will. Going back to Late Latinmodernus, "modern,” which is derived frommodo in the sense "just now,” the English wordmodern (first recorded at the beginning of the 16th century) was not originally concerned with anything that could be later considered old-fashioned. It simply meant "being at this time, now existing,” an obsolete sense today.Beginning in the later 16th century, however, we see the word contrasted with the wordancient and also used of technology in a way that is clearly related to our own modern way of using the word.Modern was being applied specifically to what pertained to present times and also to what was new and not old-fashioned.Thus in the 19th and 20th centuries the word could be used to designate a movement in art,which is now being followed by postmodernism.单词modern 首次于1585年以“现在的或最近的时代”的意义被记载， 它已经历了数个世纪，表明必然会变得过时的事物，就象这个词本身也会继续走向更加现代。现在我们已发明了单词postmodern， 仿佛我们终于能及时固定住modern 的了， 但即使是postmodern （首次于1949年记载）最终也会显得过时， 也许比modern 更快。 可追溯至近代拉丁词modernus “现代的”， 源自表示“刚才”意思的modo ， 英语单词modern （首先在16世纪初被记载）原本与后来被认为过时的事物没有任何联系。 它只意味着“现时的，现存的”，今天已废弃了的一个意思。然而从16世纪晚期我们看到这个词成为ancient 的反义词并且用于科技， 其意义与我们现在使用的意义明显相关。Modern 当时特指现时的事物， 也指新的且不过时的事物。因此在19世纪和20世纪这个词能被用来表示艺术上的一个运动，现在尾随其后的是后现代主义〔dirge〕The history of the worddirge illustrates how a word with neutral connotations, such asdirect, can become emotionally charged because of a specialized use. The Latin worddīrige is a form of the verb dīrigere, "to direct, guide,” that is used in uttering commands.In the Office for the Deaddīrige is the first word in the antiphon for the first nocturn of matins. The complete opening words of this antiphon are"Dirige, Domine, Deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam,” "Direct, O Lord, my God, my way in thy sight.” The part of the Office for the Dead that begins with this antiphon was namedDīrige in Ecclesiastical Latin, a use ofdirige as an English word that is first recorded in a work possibly written before 1200. Dirige was then extendedto refer to the chanting or reading of the Office for the Deadas part of a funeral or memorial service.In Middle Englishthe word was shortened todirge, although it was pronounced as two syllables.After the Middle Agesthe word took on its more general senses of "a funeral hymn or lament" and "a mournful poem or musical composition"and developed its one-syllable pronunciation.dirge 一词的历史表明一个中性词， 如direct 如何因特殊用法而带上了感情色彩。 拉丁词dirige 是动词 dirigere, “指示，指导”的一种形式， 用于发布命令。在为死者每日七次的祈祷中，dirige 是为第一次宵祷而启应轮流吟唱颂歌的首词。 这个颂歌完整开始语是"Dirige, Domine, Deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam,” “指引吧，我的主，我的上帝，您可看到我的行为” 。 以这首颂歌开始的为死者的祈祷部分过去用教会拉丁文被命名为Dirige , dirige 作为英语单词的一种用法， 此词可能第一次被记录在1200年前的作品中。 Dirge 是那时词义的延伸，用来指为死者的祈祷时的唱歌或读经，作为葬礼或纪念的一部分。在中古英语中，该词缩写为dirge ， 尽管它作为两个音节发音。中世纪后，该词有了更广的意义，指“哀乐，挽歌”和“悼念性的诗或其他音乐作品”，并且发展了它的单音节发音〔retire〕Despite the upbeat books written about retiringand the fact that it is a well-earned time of relaxation from the daily rigors of work,many people do not find it a particularly pleasant prospect.Perhaps the etymology ofretire may hint at why. The ultimate source of our word is the Old French wordretirer, made up of the prefixre-, meaning in this case "back,” and the verb tirer, "to draw,” together meaning "to take back or withdraw.” The first use of the English wordretire is recorded in 1533 in reference to a military force that withdraws.It is not until 1667 that we find the word used to mean "to withdraw from a position for more leisure.”In regard to the sting in all thiswe need to look at the source oftirer, "to draw, draw out, endure,”which ultimately may be from Old Frenchmartir, "a martyr,” probably reflecting the fact that martyrs had to endure the torture of being stretched up to and beyond the point of dislocating their bones.尽管有关于退休的乐观书籍，以及退休是从日常工作的严酷中解放出来的极好时光的事实，许多人并没有发现它特别令人愉悦的地方。也许retire 的语源学暗示了原因。 这个词最早的来源是古法语单词retirer ， 由在此意指“向后”的前缀re- 及意为“拉”的动词 tiver 合在一起组成，意为“撤回或退回”。 英语单词retire 的使用则最早记录于1553年， 指撤退的军队。直到1667年我们才发现该词用于表达“为得到更多的闲暇而退出职位。”考虑到所有这些词的负面含义，我们有必要看看tirer 的词源， 其意为“拉，拉出，容忍，”它可能最初源于意为“殉道者”的古法语martir ， 这可能反映了一个事实，即殉者不得不忍受四肢被拉直至骨肉脱离的酷刑〔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” 〔milquetoast〕An indication of the effect on the English language of popular culture such as that found in comic strips is the adoption of names from the strips as English words.Casper Milquetoast, created by Harold Webster in 1924, was a timid and retiring man,whose name was, of course, created from the name of a timid food.The first instance ofmilquetoast as a common noun is found in the mid-1930's. Milquetoast thus joins the ranks of other such words, includingsad sack, from a blundering army private invented by George Baker in 1942,andWimpy, from J. Wellington Wimpy in the Popeye comic strip, which became a trade name for a hamburger.If we look to the related world of the animated cartoon,we must of course acknowledgeMickey Mouse, which has become a slang term for something that is easy, insignificant, small-time, worthless, or petty. 如果我们要在戏剧漫画中找到流行文化对英语语言的影响，那么漫画中的人物的名字被接受为英语单词可以算是例证了，1924年赫拉德·韦伯斯特所创造的卡斯珀·米尔克吐斯特是一个胆小如鼠的人，他的名字当然是从一种非常柔软的食品而得来。Milquetoast 作为一个普通名词的第一例子于20世纪30年代中期被发现。 这样milquetoast 就加入了一类词， 这类词包括sad sack ， 一个由乔治·贝克于1942年发明指代愚蠢的陆军士兵的词汇，和Wimpy ，一个从滑稽漫画 突眼 中的丁·惠灵顿·温皮而得来的词， 它现在已成为汉堡包的商标。如果我们再看看相关的动画世界，我们当然得承认米奇老鼠 现在已成为指代容易的、不重要的、没有价值的或琐碎的东西的一个俚语词 〔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”〔Saxonism〕An English word, phrase, or idiom of Anglo-Saxon origin.撒克逊语风：源于盎格鲁-撒克逊的英语单词、短语或成语〔immaterial〕The wordimmaterial, meaning "of no importance or relevance,” has made its way in the world in spite of the opposition of no less a figure than Samuel Johnson. Johnson stated that "this sense has crept into the conversation and writings of barbarians; but ought to be utterly rejected.”More than two centuries laterit is difficult for us to recover Johnson's strength of feeling,and this tale might in fact serve as a warning to those who believe that the usages they abominate will not survive and become standard.Although Johnson was a man of immense learning,he did not have the lexicographical resources available today.If Johnson had had access to theOxford Latin Dictionary and the Middle English Dictionary, among other works, he would have seen that frommāter, meaning "a mother,” "a plant as the source of things such as cuttings or fruit,” and "a source,”was derived the wordmāteria, meaning "wood as a building material,” "any substance of which a physical object is made,” "the subject matter of a speech or book,” and "the condition whereby an action is effected.”The adjectivemāteriālis derived from māteria only meant "of or concerned with subject matter" in Classical Latin, but its descendant in Late and Medieval Latin and its descendants in Old French (materiel ) and Middle English ( material ) developed other meanings, such as "consisting of matter.”One Middle English sense, "important, relevant,”that probably harks back to senses of Classical Latinmāteria such as "subject matter" continued in existence after Middle English times. So it was natural for the English wordimmaterial, first recorded in the 15th century, to come to mean "not important,” in spite of Johnson's wrath.尽管不只塞缪尔·约翰逊一个人反对意思为“不重要的，无关紧要的”，immaterial 这个词还是产生了。 约翰逊声明：“这个意思偷偷出现在野蛮民族的对话和写作中；但应该遭到完全抵制。”两个多世纪之后，我们很难重新找到约翰逊强烈的感受。这个故事实际上可以算是对那些认为他们厌恶的用法不可能生存和标准化的人的一种警告。尽管约翰逊是一个博学的人，但是他没有今天可以得到的词汇学的资料。如果约翰逊除了其他著作外能得到牛津拉丁语词典 和 中古英语词典 的话， 他就能从中认识到这一点：mater ， 意思为“母亲”，“作为诸如剪下的东西或水果来源的一株植物”和“来源”，是由materia ， 意思为“建筑用的木材”，“用于制造物体的任何材料”，“讲话或著作的主题”和“影响一个行动的条件”而衍变而来的。形容词materalis 是由在古典拉丁语中仅仅意味着“和主题有关的” materia 衍变而来的， 但它在中古拉丁语和后期拉丁语中的衍生词和古法语中的衍生词(materiel )以及中古英语中的衍生词( material )继续发展有了其他的意思， 如“由物质组成的”。中古英语的一个意思“重要的、有关的”，很可能追溯到古典拉丁语materia 的意思如“主题”在中古英语时期之后继续存在。 因此，最早在15世纪被记录下来的英语单词immaterial 至今仍有“不重要的”的意思是很自然的， 尽管约翰逊对此很愤怒〔scuba〕To goscuba diving sounds much more desirable than to go self-contained underwater breathing apparatus diving. In talking about such an apparatus, first successfully tested in 1943, it must have seemed much simpler to sayscuba, taking the first letter of each word in the phrase and putting them together to form one word.Scuba, like other acronyms, as such words are called, has a vowel at a point that allows it to be pronounced like an English word.The word, first recorded in 1952, has been accepted to the extent that people probably rarely think of it as a collection of initials and furthermore have used it in forming other words, such asscuba-dive. In fact, a verbscuba was first recorded in 1973 and is still in use. 用scuba diving 要比用 self-contained underwater breathing apparatus diving 听起来更能令有接受。 当谈及这种首次在1943年试验成功的装置时，能不费力地说scruba ， 把词组中每个单字的第一个字母都集合在一起形成一个单词。Scuba 与其它同样叫法的首字缩略词一样， 在某一点有一元音，这样使它在发音时听起来象一个英语单词。自从这个单词首次在1952年出现后，已经被人们广为使用，大概人们很少会把它看作是首字母的集合体，甚至人们把它还用于其它单词中，例如scuba-dive 。 事实上，动词scuba 是在1973年首次被记录，并一直延用至今 〔purty〕Purty is probably the most common American example of metathesis, a linguistic process in which two adjacent sounds are reversed in order.Metathesis in English often involves the consonantr and a vowel, since the phonetic properties ofr are so vowellike. For example,the wordthird used to be thrid, and bird, brid. By the same process,Englishpretty often came to be realized as purty in regional speech. Most such words stabilized because of the influence of printing and the resultant standardized spelling,butpurty for pretty has survived in regional American dialects. Purty 可能是美国换位词最普遍的一个例子， 换位是两个相邻的音在顺序上调换位置的语法过程。英语中的换位经常包括辅音r 和一个元音， 因为r 的语音属性是非常像元音的。 举个例子来说，单词third 过去曾是 thrid 及 bird和brid。 具有同样的过程，英语单词pretty 在区域性语言中常被渐渐地认作 purty。 大部分这样的单词固定下来是因为印刷的影响以及由此而产生的标准化拼写，但是代替pretty 的 purty 却在美国区域性的方言中存在下来了 〔oyez〕Hearing the cry "Oyez, oyez, oyez,” in a courtroommay have puzzled more than one auditor,especially if pronounced "O yes.” (Many people have thought that in fact it is likeO yes. ) This cry serves to remind us that up until the 18th century,speaking English in a British court of law was not requiredand one could instead use Law French,a form of French that evolved after the Norman Conquest, when Anglo-Norman became the language of the official class in England.Oyez descends from the Anglo-Norman oyez, the plural imperative form ofoyer, "to hear"; thusoyez means "hear ye" and was used as a call for silence and attention. Although it would have been much heard in Medieval England,it is first recorded as an English word fairly late in the Middle English period,in a work composed around 1425.在审判室里听到"Oyez，oyez，oyez"的声音，被迷惑的不仅仅是一个听者，尤其是当它的发音为"O yes"时。（许多人本认为事实上它象Oyes。 ) 这叫声用来提醒我们一直用到18世纪，当时不要求在英国法庭上讲英语，且人们可用法国法律，这是在诺曼底征服之后，当盎格鲁-诺曼语言成为英格兰官方阶级语言时发展起来的一种法语形式。Oyez 源于盎格鲁-诺曼语言 oyez， 是oyer 的复数祈使动词，意思是“听”； oyez 并被用来作为要求安静和注意的号令。 虽然这个词在中世纪的英格兰听得较多，但它第一次作为英语单词被记录下来是在中古英语时期的后期 ，出现于1425年左右创作的一本作品上〔juke〕Gullah, the English-based Creole language spoken by Black people off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina,retains a number of words from the West African languages brought over by slaves.One such word isjuke, "bad, wicked, disorderly,”the probable source of the English wordjuke. Used chiefly in the Southeastern states,juke (also appearing in the compound juke joint ) means a roadside drinking establishment that offers cheap drinks, food, and music for dancingand often doubles as a brothel."To juke" is to dance,particularly at a juke joint or to the music of a jukebox whose name, no longer regional and having lost the connotation of sleaziness, contains the same word.格勒语是沿美国乔治亚洲和南卡罗来纳州海岸的黑人说的以英语为基础的克里奥耳语。该语言仍保留着一些由奴隶带过来的西非各种语言中的单词。其中之一就是juke ， 意为“坏的，邪恶的，杂乱无序的”，这可能就是英语单词juke 的词源。 主要在东南部各州使用的juke （也出现在复合词 juke joint 中）， 意为公路旁边供应廉价饮料、食物和跳舞的音乐，以及经常兼作妓院的小酒馆。"To juke"意为跳舞，尤其是在廉价小酒店里跳或伴着自动唱机里的音乐跳。这种投币或自动唱机的名称不再具地方性，也失去了低级庸俗的涵义〔kaput〕The games people play can become deadly serious,as exemplified by the wordkaput. Our word is an adoption of the German word kaputt, whose senses are similar to those of the English word.German in turn borrowed this word from the French gaming tables,wherecapot as an adjective meant "not having won a single trick at piquet.” Devastating as this might be to a piquet player,it would surprise kibitzers to see how widely the word's range of meaning has been extended in German and English,in which it is first recorded in 1895.For example, one's car can be kaput and so can oneself.As for the ultimate source of Frenchcapot we cannot be certain,but it seems to go back to a modern Provençal word,of which the first element iscap, "head.” 人们在玩牌时可能变得非常认真，如kaput 一词例示的这个英语单词是吸收了德语 kaputt 一词演变而来的。 该德语词的词义与它的词义相似。而德国人又从法国人的赌桌上借用了该词。在赌桌上，capot 作为一个形容词又为“打皮克牌时未赢一圈的”。 尽管这样可能会令玩皮克牌的人晦气，旁观并议论牌局的人也许会吃惊地发现该词在德语和英语中的引申义是多么广泛。该词于1895年首次记载在德语和英语中。例如，车主的车可能会损坏，车主也可能失败。至于法语capot 一词的词源， 我们不甚了解，但似乎可以追溯到现代普罗旺斯语，其中的第一个成分cap 表示“头”的意思 〔cushy〕Sincecushy has such an informal, breezy, American ring, it is difficult to believe that it is an import, as some etymologists claim.Members of the British army in India are supposed to have picked up the Anglo-Indian version of the Hindi word±hūush, meaning "pleasant,” to which the suffix-y, as in empty and sexy, was added, thus forming a new English word. Cushy, however, is actually first recorded in a letter from the European battlefront during World War I. This fact, in conjunction with our inability to find an Anglo-Indian source,casts some doubt on the Hindi or Anglo-Indian origin ofcushy. Two other possibilities are thatcushy is a shortening of cushion with the -y suffix or that it is a borrowing of Frenchcouchée, "lying down; a bed.” 既然cushy 一词具有如此非正式的、愉快的美国意义， 很难相信某些词源学者所认为的说它是一个外来词。驻印度的英国军队士兵被认为是选用了印度英语±hūush 的英语说法，意思是“愉悦的”， 并如同empty 和 sexy 等词在其上加了 -y 这个后缀，从而形成了一个新英语单词。 然而，事实上cushy 一词却最先被记录在第一次世界大战期间发自欧洲战斗前线的一封信里。 这一事实，再加上我们无法找到其印度英语的词源，使我们对于cushy 一词源于印地语或印度英语的说法产生了某些怀疑。 另两种可能性，一种是cushy ，它是 cushion 的缩略形式再加上后缀 -y ； 另一种是法语couchee “躺下；床”的外来语 〔broker〕Giving gifts to one's broker might be justifiable from an etymological point of viewbecause the wordbroker may be connected through its Anglo-Norman source brocour, abrocour, with Spanish alboroque, meaning "ceremony or ceremonial gift after the conclusion of a business deal.”If this connection does exist,"business deal" is the notion shared by the Spanish and Anglo-Norman wordsbecausebrocour referred to the middleman in transactions. The English wordbroker is first found in Middle English in 1355, several centuries before we find instances of its familiar compoundspawnbroker, first recorded in 1687, and stockbroker, first recorded in 1706. 从词源的角度来说，送礼物给经纪人是有一番道理的。因为broker 一词也许通过英国法语的词源 brocour，abrocour 与西班牙语 alboroque 形成亲属关系， 而后者意为“一笔交易做成时作为礼节性的礼品”。如果这一关系的确存在，那么西班牙语词汇和英国法语词汇中都有“交易”这一概念。因为brocour 指做交易的中间人。 英语单词broker 第一次被发现使用，是在1355年的中世纪英语中， 距我们发现它的为人熟知的复合词pawnbroker （1687年第一次被记录下来）和 stockbroker （1706第一次被记录下来）已有好几个世纪了 〔mediterranean〕When one hears the wordmediterranean, one thinks of a specific placeand perhaps of the great cultures that have surrounded it.But the word can also apply to any large body of water that is surrounded completely or almost completely by dry land.This usage goes back to the use in Late Latin of the Latin wordmediterrāneus, the source of our word,as part of the nameMediterrāneum mare for the mostly landlocked Mediterranean Sea. But Latinmediterrāneus, which is derived from medius, "the middle of, the heart of,” and terra, "land,” in Classical Latin actually meant "remote from the coast, inland.”In Late Latin,in referring to the sea,mediterrāneus probably meant originally "in the middle of the earth"rather than "surrounded by land,”for to the Mediterranean cultures without knowledge of much of the earth,the Mediterranean Sea was in the center of the world.Our wordmediterranean is first recorded in English in 1594 as the name of the sea.当一个人听说mediterranean 这个词时， 他所想到的是一具体的地方，而且可能还想到了这个地方周围的那些伟大文明。但这个词同样可以用来指任何几乎被陆地所包围或完全被陆地所包围的大水体。这个用法可以追溯到近代拉丁文中mediterraneus 这个词， 就是我们这个词的词源，亦即表绝大部分被陆地所包围的地中海的名称Mediterraneum mare 的组成部分。 但是拉丁词mediterraneus ，从 medius 意为“…中间的，…的中心”派生而来的，以及意为“陆地”的 terra 这个词， 在古典拉丁语中的确切含义为“远离海岸的，内陆的”。在近代拉丁语中，当mediterraneus 这个词用来指地中海时， 其最早的含义可能是“在地球中央的”，而不是“被陆地所包围的”，因为对于缺乏有关地球知识的各地中海文明来说，地中海就是世界的中心。我们这里所说的英语单词mediterranean 最早于1594年出现于英语中， 也是用来指地中海〔scribble〕It is not easy to think simultaneously of the carefully crafted writings of a trained scribe and the hastily scrawled jottings referred to by the wordscribble, but the two words are related.Scribe goes back to the Latin scrība, meaning "one who has charge of things such as public records or accounts,” scrība, in turn, coming from scrībere, "to write.” The Latin word was borrowed into English directly as well as by way of Old French (scribe ), giving us Middle English scribe, first recorded in a work written probably around 1200.People do not always write with great care,especially when pressed for time,as is shown by an early use of the verbscribble in a Middle English text: "Scribled in hast with mine owne hand in default of other helpe.”Hence it is easy to see why the verbscribble came into existence. From Latinscrībere English had formed its own verb scriben, "to write,” and probably from this verb with the addition of the suffix-el, denoting diminutive, repetitive, or intensive actions, came the Middle English word scriblen (first recorded around 1456), the ancestor of our wordscribble. 不容易同时想到由经过训练的抄写员细心写出来的字体和单词scribble 所指的匆忙中胡乱的涂写， 但是这两个字是有关联的。Scribe 可追溯到拉丁文 scriba 意思是“管理公众记录或记事的人”。 scriba 反过来，来自于 scribere, 即“写”。 这个拉丁文字通过古法语(scribe )被直接借入英语，这样我们就有了中世纪英语 scribe, 大概在1200年左右第一次被写入作品中。人们不是总能非常细心地写字，尤指当时间紧凑时，就如同在一个中世纪英语文章中scribble 的早期用法似的： “缺少其它帮助时用我自己的手匆匆地乱写”。因此很容易理解为什么动词scribble 出现了。 源于拉丁文scribere ，英语也形成了它自己的动词 scriben, “写”。 并用加上后缀-el, 表示小的、反复的或者强调的行为的单词，可能衍生了那个中世纪英语单词 scriblen （最早被记录于1456年左右）， 即我们现在的单词scribble 的前身 〔sierra〕Perhaps in formal contextsit is wise after mentioning a mountain range such as the Sierra Nevadato refer to it next asthe Sierras rather thanthe Sierra Mountains, sincemountains is inherent in sierra. Nonetheless, many Californians and Nevadans in particular will be very familiar with phrases such asthe Sierra Mountains. Such phrases are used because to a non-Spanish speakersierra does not necessarily have a meaning, unless one is familiar with the English wordsierra, "a rugged range of mountains having an irregular profile,” borrowed from Spanish. In Spanishsierra originally meant "saw" and so was aptly applied to a range of hills or mountains rising in peaks that suggested the teeth of a saw.It comes from Latinserra, "saw,” to which can also be traced our wordserrated. 也许在正式的语境中，提到了一山脉如内华达山脉之后，紧接着再提到时称为the Sierra ， 而不是the Sierra Mountains ， 因为mountains 是包含在 sierra 之中的。 尽管如此，许多加利福尼亚人，尤其是内华达人对类似the Sierra Mountains 这样的词组很熟悉。 使用这样的词组是因为对一个非西班牙语的人来说，sierra 一词并不一定有意义， 除非是一个熟悉这个从西班牙语中借用来的英语单词sierra （一崎岖的山脉，有曲折的轮廓）的人。 在西班牙语中，sierra 原意为“锯子”， 所以很恰当地被用来指峰峦叠起，使人联想起锯齿的山脉或群山。这个词来源于拉丁文serra （锯子）， serrated 也可以追溯到这个拉丁词 〔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〔spill〕One is not supposed to cry over spilled milk,but at one time the wordspill was associated with many tears. Old Englishspillan, the ancestor of Modern Englishspill, had meanings such as "to destroy, mutilate, kill.”The hints of its future life in connection with substances falling out of containers, often wastefully, were contained in the senses "to waste" and "to shed blood.”But many people, castles, and fortunes were "spilled" before people started spilling milk,at least judging from the recorded evidence.Spill is first recorded in the sense "to cause a substance to fall out of a container" in a work composed in the 14th century.Since then, much water, milk, and gravy have been spilled,while most of the senses having to do with destruction and bloodshed have become obsolete or archaic.对着打翻的牛奶哭是无济于事的，但spill 这个词曾经和眼泪有联系。 古英语单词spillan ， 即现代英语单词spill 的祖先， 具有例如“毁灭，破坏，杀死”等意思。而其“浪费”及“使血流出”的含意则暗示着这个古词将来会与通常是浪费性质的从容器中溢出之物发生联系。但在人们开始洒牛奶之前就已“杀死”了许多人命，“毁坏”了许多城堡，“浪费”了许多财富，这一点至少可以从记载下来的证据判断出来。Spill 最初记录下来的意思是“使一物质溢出一容器”， 这一含意出现于14世纪的一本著作中。从那时起，这个词表达人们泼洒了大量的水、牛奶及肉汁，而这个词与毁灭及流血有联系的有关意思则都成了过时用法或古代用法〔numb〕One of the more frequently used words in English,take, is evidence of the importance of the Scandinavian influence on English. Chiefly Danes and Norwegians, the invaders and settlers of the 8th through the 11th century contributed more than 900 words to the English language,but perhaps few so important astake. The Old Norse wordtaka was adopted as Old English tacan, the ancestor of ourtake. But Old English already had a word that paralleledtacan in sense, and that wasniman. In Middle Englishnimen, from niman, still thrived, but by the 16th century the word had all but disappeared,surviving today only asnim in the archaic sense "to steal.” However, all was not lost,for the past participle ofnimen, nomin, was used as an adjective, meaning "deprived of the power of movement, unable to move, paralyzed.”We know this word in the formnumb, from which the new verbnumb has been derived. 一个更为使用频繁的英语单词take, 是斯堪的纳维亚语对英语重要影响的证明。 侵略者和移民者，主要是丹麦和挪威人从8世纪到11世纪为英语带来了900多个单词，但是可能都没有take 一词重要。 古斯堪的纳维亚语taka 一词被古英语采用成为 tacan ， 是take 的前身。 但古英语中已知有一个词在意义上和tacan 相同， 即niman 。 中古英语中，来自niman 的 nimen 仍很盛行， 但在16世纪这个词几乎消失了，到今天nim 只是作古义表示“偷”的含义出现。 但是，不是所有意义都失去了，nimen，nomin 的过去分词，作形容词用， 指“失去了移动能力的，动不了的，麻木的”。我们以numb 的形式知道了这个词， 从中派生出新的动词numb 〔cockroach〕The word forcockroach in Spanish is cucaracha, which should certainly set anyone with an eye for etymology to thinking.Users of English did not simply borrow the Spanish word, however.Instead, they made it conform in appearance to other English words:cock, the word for rooster, and roach, the name of a fish. We do not know exactly why these words were chosenother than their resemblance to the two parts of the original Spanish word.We do know that the first recorded use of the word comes from a 1624 work by the colonist John Smith.The form Smith used,cacarootch, is closer to the Spanish. A form more like our own,cockroche, is first recorded in 1657. cockroach 一词在西班牙语中是 cucaracha ， 这当然使人们去思考语源。然而英语使用者不轻易地借用西班牙词。相反的，他们使它与其他英语单词的外形一致：cock ，意为公鸡的单词，以及 roach ，鱼的名称。 我们完全不知道这些单词是如何选择的，而不像西班牙原单词的两个部分。我们的确知道首次有记录使用该单词是在自由移住民约翰·史密斯1624年的作品中。史密斯使用的形式是cacarootch， 接近于西班牙语。 更加像我们自己的形式的cockroche ，在1657年首次有记录 〔gauntlet〕In the first and second editions ofThe American Heritage Dictionary Usage Notes explained why the spelling gauntlet is acceptable for bothgauntlet 1 and gauntlet 2. Such has not always been the case.The story ofgauntlet 1, as into throw down the gauntlet, is unexciting: it comes from the Old French wordgantelet, a diminutive of gant, "glove.” From the time of its appearance in Middle English (in a work composed in 1449),the word has been spelled with anau as well as an a, still a possible spelling. But the othergauntlet, as into run the gauntlet, is an alteration of the earlier English formgantlope, which came from the Swedish wordgatlopp, a compound ofgata, "lane,” and lopp, "course.” The earliest recorded form of the English word,found in 1646,isgantelope, showing that alteration of the Swedish word had already occurred. The English word was then influenced by the spelling of the wordgauntlet, "glove,” and in 1676 we find the first recorded instance of the spellinggauntlet for this word, althoughgantelope is found as late as 1836. From then on spellings withau and a are both found. Theau seems to have won out, although one could say that thea is preferable because it reflects the Swedish source.In regard to a word that has been so altered in form,this seems a rather fine point.在第一和第二版的美国经典辞书 的用法说明解释了为什么拼写 gauntlet 是可接受的， 既对于gauntlet 1，又对于 gauntlet 2。 情况并不总是这样。gauntlet 1的故事， 如在拒绝挑战 中并不令人激动： 它来自于一法语老词gantelet ， gant 的小词缀“手套”。 自从它在中古英语出现之后（在1449年编的一著作中），这个词同au 的拼写已同 a 一样仍是可能的拼写形式。 但是另一个gauntlet ， 如在接受挑战 中， 是早期英语形式gantlope 的一个变体， 其来自于一瑞典词gatlopp ， gata “巷子”和 lopp “方向”的组合。 最早的这个英语单词的记录，出现于1646年，是gantelope ，表示这个瑞典单词的变体已出现。 这个英语单词然后被单词gauntlet “手套”的拼写所影响， 在1676年，我们发现了gauntlet 第一个有记录的例子， 尽管gantelope 直到1836年才发现。 此后，带有au 和 a 的拼写形式都被发现过。 au 似乎占优势， 尽管一个人可能说a 更好， 因它反映了瑞典语源。说到一个形式已发生了如此变化的单词，这似乎是个好建议〔clever〕Being too clever is thought to be unwise,and support for this popular notion may be afforded by the fact that the devil seems to have been the first "clever" one in English.The source of our wordclever is probably the Middle English word cliver, recorded only once in a work written before 1250,in which it is said that the devil is "cliver on sinnes.”This means something like "skillful in respect to sins.”Cliver probably goes back to the Indo-European root gleubh-, "to cut, cleave.” Although the intermediate ancestry ofcliver is unclear, the semantic connection has to do with penetration or incisiveness—that is, cutting through to the heart of the matter,just as a woodcarver cuts through material in order to realize a certain vision.太聪明被认为是愚蠢的，英语中魔鬼被认为是第一“聪明的”，这一事实可能是这一普遍概念的例证。clever 的词源可能是中世纪英语单词 cliver , 仅在一本1250年以前写的著作中出现过一次，书中说魔鬼“在犯罪方面很聪明”。这个含义有些类似于“在犯罪方面很有本事。”Cliver 可以追溯到印欧词根 gleubh- “切、削”。 虽然cliver 的中介来源尚不清楚， 但语义的联系肯定与穿透力或透彻性有关--即穿透事物的本质，就象木工劈开材料以了解其内在材质 |
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