| 单词 | 褒义 |
| 释义 | 〔brute〕 Brute, the least derogatory,stresses a lack of the understanding or sensibility regarded as distinguishing people from animals: Brute 最具褒义，强调缺乏理解力和敏感性，而这两点使人与动物区分开来： 〔fair〕The history of the wordfair illustrates how words can weaken in meaning over time. In Old English the ancestor offair, fæger, had senses such as "lovely, beautiful, pleasant, agreeable,” a far cry from our modern sense "mildly good or satisfying.”The Old English senses passed into Middle English,where the wordfair started to take a slight turn in the direction already alluded to. Fair could mean "highly to be approved of, splendid, good,”but it could also be used ironically,as in Chaucer's observation after a horse threw the Cook on the pilgrimage to Canterbury:"that was a fair feat of horsemanship by the Cook.”This ironic use was probably not responsible for the semantic weakening offair, but it shows how a positive word can have its meaning reversed.The weakening offair was most likely caused by "the determined optimism which led to the use of fair . . . rather than direct expression of discontent,”in the words of George H. McKnight.One might add as another cause the desire to avoid hurting other people's feelings.单词fair 的历史表明随岁月的流逝单词的语意变弱。 在古英语中fair，f?ger 本意是“可爱的，漂亮的，愉快的”， 与我们现在的“比较好或满意的”大相径庭。古英语传到中世纪英语时，fair 已开始在引申的方向上有微小的转变。 Fair 可以表达“被高度赞许的，辉煌的，好的，”但也可用作反语，如在往坎特伯雷朝圣的途中马将科克摔下时后，乔尔斯评论道：“那是科克精湛骑术的体现”。这种反语用法也许对fair 语义学上的弱化没有联系， 但它表明了一个褒义的单词可以变得意思完全相反。fair 的弱化很大程度上缘于“坚决的乐观主义导致 fair 的用法改变， 而不是直接表达不满意的意思，”乔治赫·马克奈特如此评论。人们可以再添上其它原因以免伤害别人的感情〔perseverance〕“'Tis known by the name of perseverance in a good cause,—and of obstinacy in a bad one" (Laurence Sterne). “大家都知道，毅力用于褒义而顽固用于贬义” （劳伦斯·斯顿）。 〔scold〕A scold is no poet and a scolding is not poetry, at least to the one being scolded,but it seems that the wordscold has a poetic background. It is probable thatscold, which is first recorded in Middle English in a work probably composed around 1150, has a Scandinavian source that is related to the Old Icelandic wordskāld, "poet.” Middle Englishscolde may in fact mean "a minstrel,” but of that we are not sure.However, its Middle English meanings, "a ribald, abusive person" and "a shrewish, chiding woman,”may be related toskāld, as shown by the senses of some of the Old Icelandic words derived fromskāld. Old Icelandicskāldskapr, for example, meant "poetry" in a good sense but also "a libel in verse,” whileskāld-stöng meant "a pole with imprecations or charms scratched on it.” It would seem that libelous, cursing verse was a noted part of at least some poets' productions and that this association with poets passed firmly along with the Scandinavian borrowing into English.骂人者不是诗人，谩骂不是诗，至少对被骂的人来说是这样的，但是scold 这个词似乎有着诗的背景。 Scold 这个词在中世纪英语中第一次被记录在一部大约于1150年创作的作品中，它有可能源于斯堪的纳维亚语， 与skald 这个在冰岛古语中表示“诗人”的词有关。 中世纪英语中的scolde 实际上可能意为“吟游诗人”， 但对此没有肯定说法。然而，它在中世纪英语中的意思是“说脏话、辱骂人的人”和“悍泼的、好骂人的女人”，可能与skald 有关， 如一些起源于skald 的冰岛古词语的意思显示的那样。 例如，古冰岛语中的skaldskapr 其褒义为“诗”，但也有“诽谤性的诗”的意思, 而skald-stong 意思是“刻有诅咒或符咒的杆子”。 看来，诽谤、辱骂性的诗歌至少是一些诗人作品突出的部分并与诗人这种联系稳步地随斯堪的纳维亚语被借入英语中〔mascot〕The wordmascot, which usually denotes something or someone that brings good luck, enjoys a positive meaning that is a distinct improvement over the meanings of some of its ancestors. Mascot came into English as a borrowing of the French wordmascotte, meaning "mascot, charm.”The English word is first recorded in 1881 shortly after the French word, itself first recorded in 1867,was popularized by the operaLa Mascotte, performed in December 1880. The French word in turn came from the Modern Provençal wordmascoto, "piece of witchcraft, charm, amulet,”a feminine diminutive ofmasco, "witch.” This word can probably be traced back to Late Latinmasca, "witch, specter.”Perhaps a mascot is as powerful as people think;fortunately, it is now in our corner.mascot 这个词通常指能够带来好运的某物或某人， 与其最早来源的几个词的词意相比，这个词所具有的褒义色彩是明显的进步。 Mascot 是借自法语的mascotte， 意思是“符咒，魔力。”该法语词的记录1867年出现不久，就在1881年有了这个英语词汇的最早记录，因1880年12月演出的一出歌剧La Mascotte 而流传开来。 法语中单词来源于现代普罗旺斯语mascoto ， 意思是“女巫的魔法，魔术，护身符”，一个意为“女巫”的masco 的阴性小词。 这个词可能追溯到后期拉丁语的masca ， 意为“女巫，幻象”。或许吉祥物这个词是指象人们想的一样魔力无边；幸运的是，它被我们记录进来了〔prude〕Being a prude has never been widely considered a good thing,but if we dig further into the history of the wordprude, we will find that it had a noble past.The change for the worse took place in French.Frenchprude first had a good sense, "wise woman,” but apparentlya woman could be too wise or, in the eyes of some,too observant of decorum and propriety,and soprude took on the sense in French that was brought into English along with the word, first recorded in 1704.The French word first meant "wise woman"becauseprude was a shortened form of prude femme (earlier in Old Frenchprode femme ), a word that was modeled on earlierpreudomme, "a man of experience and integrity.” The second part of this word is, of course,homme, "man.” Old Frenchprod, meaning "wise, prudent,” is from Vulgar Latin prōdis with the same sense. Prōdis in turn comes from Late Latin prōde, "advantageous,” derived from the verbprodesse, "to be good.” We can see that the history ofprude is filled with usefulness, profit, wisdom, and integrity, but in spite of all this,things did not turn out that well.人们从来没有普遍地认为做一个拘守礼仪的人是一件好事，但是如果我们深挖prude 这个词的历史， 我们会发现这个词有一个体面的过去。这个词变成贬义是在法语中发生的。法语词prude 开始时是褒义的，意为“明智或聪明的女人，” 但是很显然，女人可能会过于聪明或者在某些人的眼里，对仪表和行为的得体过分注重，这样法语词prude 就有了这个和词一起被引入英语的意思， 并最早记载于1704年。这个法语词开始时的意思之所以是“聪明的女人”，因为prude 是 prudefemme 的缩写形式 （更早的时候在古法语中为prodefemme )， 这个词模仿更早的一个词preudomme “一个富有经验而又正直的男人”而来。 这个词的第二部分当然是意为“男人”的homme。 意思是“聪明，谨慎”的古法语prod 由一个相同意思的俗拉丁词 prodis 而来。 Prodis 从后期拉丁语 prode 演变而来，意为“有利的”， 该词又从意思为“从善”的动词prudesse 衍生而来。 我们现在明白prude 的历史充满了有利、利益、智慧或忠诚的意思， 但尽管如此，事情并没有变得那么好 |
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