| 单词 | 词典 |
| 释义 | 〔Roget〕British physician and scholar who compiled theThesaurus of English Words and Phrases (1852). 罗杰，彼得·马克：(1779-1869) 英国医师和学者，编纂有《英语单词和短语同类词词典》 （1852年） 〔poke〕Apig in a poke is concealed in a sack from the buyer. The nounpoke —meaning a bag or sack—dates from the 14th century in English. In many parts of Scotlandpoke means a little paper bag for carrying purchases or a cone-shaped piece of paper for an ice-cream cone. TheOxford English Dictionary gives similar forms in other languages: Icelandicpoki, Gaelic poc or poca, and French poche. Pouchand pocket are undoubtedly cognates. 一只袋子里的猪 被藏于一只麻袋中而不让买主看到。 poke 这个名词——意为一个包或袋子——在英语中可追溯到14世纪。 在苏格兰的许多地方，poke 指用来携带商品的一个小纸包或用来包冰淇淋卷的一张锥形纸片。 牛津英语词典 给出了该词在其它语言中的近似形式： 冰岛语中的poki ，盖耳语中的 poc 或 poca 和法语中的 poche。 Pouch和 pocket 无疑是同源词 〔dictionary〕A reference book containing an alphabetical list of words, with information given for each word, usually including meaning, pronunciation, and etymology.词典：含有字母顺序的参考书，提供有各个词的资料，通常包括词义、语音和词源〔tump〕The verbtump, used almost invariably with over in the intransitive sense "to fall over"and the transitive sense "to overturn,”is in common use in the South.The editors of theDictionary of American Regional English have collected evidence of its use in Arkansas, Texas, and Kentucky; it is also common in Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia.This example supplied byDARE is typical: "When he brushed against the coffee table his Coke tumped over" (Little Rock, Arkansas, informant).But another citation, taken from Gregory Jaynes's parody of detective fiction, "In New York State: Who Poisoned the Pudding?” in the June 17, 1985, issue ofTime, indicates that tump may not be exclusively Southern: "At the end he tumps over into his rice pudding, poisoned. Whodunit?” As for its ultimate origin,tump is probably related to tumble as a separate development from the same Old English verbtumbian. 动词tump 几乎总是和 over 连用， 作不及物动词表示“倾倒，翻倒”，也可作及物动词表示“弄翻，翻转”，这个词在南部普遍使用。美国方言词典 的编辑们收集证据证明这个词用于阿肯色州、得克萨斯州和肯塔基州， 也普遍用于阿拉巴马州，田纳西州和佐治亚州。美国区域英语词典 中提供的这个例句很典型： “当他擦过咖啡桌时，他的可乐打翻了” （阿肯色州小石城，密告者）。但是从格里高利·杰恩斯的模仿侦探小说的作品《在纽约州：谁往布丁里下了毒?》（该作品刊登于1985年6月17日出版的时代 )中摘录的另一处引文却显示 tump 不一定只在南方使用： “最后，他跌倒在自己的稻米布丁中，被毒死了。谁干的?” 至于这个的词的最终来源，tump 可能与 tumble 有关， 它们分别从同一个古英语动词tumbian 发展而来 〔lemma〕A word or phrase treated in a glossary or similar listing.词条，条目：在词典或类似的项目中的单词或短语〔powerful〕In the upper southern United States the wordspowerful and mighty are intensives used frequently like the adverb very : Your boy's grown powerful big.The new baby is mighty purty.Powerfulis used as an adjective in some expressions: The storm did a powerful lot of harm. In the same dialect regionthe nounpower has, in addition to its standard meaning, the sense of "a large number or amount.”This sense appears in theOxford English Dictionary as common in dialectal British English of the 18th and 19th centuries: "It has done a power of work" (Charles Dickens).All these derivative senses ofpower and might take advantage of the notion of strength inherent in these nouns, making them natural intensives. Colloquial English is always on the lookout for ways to make language more vivid with new intensives.We think of the upper southern part of the United States as linguistically conservative,but in fact it has preserved uses ofpower, powerful, and mighty that were innovative in their time. 在美国中南部powerful 及 mighty 这两个词用作强调词并与 very 一样用得很频繁： 你的儿子已长得很大了。新生儿非常干净。Powerful在有些表达中还用作形容词： 这暴风造成巨大灾害。 在同一方言区中，名词power 除了具有标准含义外， 还有“大的数字或数量”之意。该意义出现在牛津英语词典 中， 在18世纪及19世纪的英国英语方言中使用也十分普遍： “它已做了大量工作” （查尔斯·狄更斯）。所有power 及 might 的这些衍生意义都利用两个名词本身力量的含义而使它们成为强调词。 英语口语一直在寻求途径以运用新的强调词，使语言变得更为生动。我们认为美国中南部在语言的使用上是很保守的，但事实上，这部分地区却保留了在当时十分创新的power，powerful 及 mighty 的用法 〔lonely〕Henry Bradley, one of the four editors of theOxford English Dictionary, said "It is a truth often overlooked, but not unimportant, that every addition to the resources of a language must in the first instance have been due to an act (though not necessarily to a voluntary or conscious act) of some one person.”In many casesthis one person may have been an author,since the first recorded instance of a word is often found in an author's work.Of course, as Bradley warns,this is the firstrecorded instance; it is possible that a given author picked up the word or sense somewhere elseor that these reside undiscovered in an earlier work.In any caseit might be a minor relief of our condition the next time we feel lonely to know that the first recorded instance of the wordlonely occurs in the works of Shakespeare. The passage appears inCoriolanus (1607-1608) in a speech by Coriolanus to his mother Volumnia:"My mother, you wot [know] well/My hazards still have been your solace, and/Believe't not lightly—though I go alone,/Like to alonely dragon, that his fen/Makes fear'd and talk'd of more than seen—your son/Will or exceed the common or be caught/With cautelous [crafty] baits and practice.” Lonely here, of course, has the sense "solitary.” The dragon does not feel dejected,or if he does,he does not seem to know how to reach out to others effectively.牛津英语词典 的四位编纂者之一亨利·布莱德雷说： “人们经常忽视这样一个现实，但它并非不重要，那就是对某种语言词汇的每一次添加都首先是由于某一个人的行为（尽管不一定是自愿的或有意识的行为）”。许多时候，这一个人可能是个作者，因为一个词有记载的首次使用往往出自一位作者的作品。当然，正如布莱德雷所提醒人们的，这是首次有记载的 的例子； 某个作者可能是从别处学到这个词或这个意思，或是这个词或意思在更早的作品中已经出现，只是未被人们发现。不管怎样，当我们知道lonely 这个词的有记载的首次使用出现在莎士比亚的作品中时，这些都不大能减轻我们的沮丧心情。 在卡里奥拉纳斯 （1607-1608年）中， 卡里奥拉纳斯对他母亲弗罗姆尼娅讲的一段话中有这样的文字：“我的母亲，你清楚地知道／我的冒险一直是你的安慰，而且／不要轻信——尽管我要只身前往，／就象去面对一条孤单的 龙，他的沼泽／令人谈而色变，尽管并未亲见——你的儿子／决意或是胜过凡人或是被狡猾的圈套和手段擒捉”。 Lonely 在这里的意思当然是“孤单的”。 龙不会感到沮丧，即便它感到沮丧，他也不太可能知道如何让别人体会到它的感情〔mill〕Tomill, in Western U.S. English, means "to halt a cattle stampede by turning the lead animals.”In theOxford English Dictionary we find this 19th-century example of the verb: "At last the cattle ran with less energy, and it was presently easy to ‘mill’ them into a circle and to turn them where it seemed most desirable" (Munsey's Magazine).This usage ofmill comes from the resemblance of the cattle's circular motion to the action of millstones. A related intransitive sense of the verb is better known in Standard English: A crowd milled around in the street. Originally this sense ofmill also meant "circular motion"; now it means "to move around in churning confusion"with no pattern in particular.Mill 这个词在美国西部所说的英语中， 意为“通过让领头牲畜绕圈子跑来制止牛群的惊跑”。在牛津英语词典 中， 我们可以找到该动词19世纪用法的例子： “最后牛群终于跑得快没劲儿了，这时候可以容易地驱赶头牛，把其它牛绕进圈子里，然后把它们赶到最合适的地方去” （芒西杂志）。Mill 的这种用法来自牛群绕圈跑与磨石运作的相似之处。 该词作不及物动词时所具有的与此相关的意义在标准英语中更为常见： 一群人在大街上兜圈子。 Mill 的这一含义本来亦指“旋转运动”； 现在它指“在旋涡般的混乱中到处移动”，不再有其它特指〔arduous〕"the arduous work of preparing a Dictionary of the English Language"(Macaulay)“制作一本英语语言词典的艰巨工作”(麦考利)〔Florio〕English lexicographer noted for his Italian-English dictionary (1598) and his translations of Montaigne's essays (1603).弗罗里奥，约翰：(1553?-1625) 英国词典编纂者，以其意-英词典(1598年）和他蒙田散文的译著(1603年）而著名〔curmudgeon〕The etymology of the wordcurmudgeon has eluded us for at least two centuries, although some lexicographers have thought the solution was at hand, one to his embarrassment.When Samuel Johnson stated in his famous dictionary of 1755 thatcurmugeon "is a vicious manner of pronouncing c÷ur méchant, Fr. an unknown correspondent,” he was giving credit to an anonymous writer for the statement thatcurmudgeon came from French c÷ur, "heart,” and méchant, "evil.” Another lexicographer, John Ash, following in Johnson's tracks though none too carefully,gave the etymology a bit differently in his dictionary of 1775:"from the Frenchc÷ur unknown, and mechant a correspondent"; thus misinterpreting Johnson's attribution as a gloss for the French.Although its origin is unknown,curmudgeon has been around for some time, being first recorded in a work published in 1577. 单词curmudgeon 的词源已经使我们困惑了至少有两个世纪， 虽然有些词典的编辑者已经认为快找到解决方式了，但仍使某些人局促不安。当塞缪尔·约翰逊在他的举世闻名的1755年词典中指出Curmugeon “是对 cour mechant 这一法语词语的错误发音方式（它意指不知名的通讯记者）”时， 他认同一位不署名作家认为curmudgeon 一词来自法语 cour “心”和 mechant “罪恶”的陈述是正确的。 另一个名叫约翰·艾什的词典编辑者承袭了约翰逊的思路，但他也并非很严格地遵循，在他的1775年词典中对该词源作了稍有差别的解释： “从法语cour （不知名的）和 mechant （一名通讯记者）而来”； 由此他误解了约翰逊对于法语的译注。虽然该词词源未知，curmudgeon 已有了一定的历史，它首次被记录于1577年出版的一部作品中 〔adage〕It is sometimes claimed that the expressionold adage is redundant, inasmuch as a saying must have a certain tradition behind it to count as anadage in the first place. But the word adage is first recorded by the OED in the phrase old adage, showing that this redundancy itself is very old.Such idiomatic redundancy is paralleled by similar phrases such asyoung whelp. 有时人们认为old adage 这种表达方式很累赘， 因为谚语首先必须具有一定的传统才能成为adage 。 但是adage 这个词首次是以 old adage 这个词组形式收录于 《牛津英语词典》， 由此可表明这种累赘本身就很古老。这种谚语上的累赘与类似的词组对等，如年轻的幼犬 〔Estienne〕French family of printers, includingHenri (1460?-1520), who established the family business in Paris (c. 1505); his son Robert (1503-1559), who published Latin (1523) and Greek (1550) New Testaments and a Latin dictionary (1532); and his grandson Henri (1528-1598), who published ancient Greek works and his own Greek dictionary (1572). 艾蒂安纳：法国出版商家族，包括亨利 （1460?-1520年），曾于约1505年开始在巴黎创办家族产业；他的儿子 罗伯特 （1503-1559年），曾于1523年出版拉丁文《圣经》，于1550年出版希腊文《新约全书》，于1532年出版《拉丁语词典》；还有他的孙子 亨利 （1528-1598年），曾出版古希腊著作和他自己的《希腊语词典》(1572年） 〔Neilson〕British-born American scholar and lexicographer noted for his editions of Shakespeare (1906 and 1942) and as the editor in chief ofWebster's Second International Dictionary (1934). 尼尔森，威廉·阿伦：(1869-1946) 英国裔的美国学者和词典编纂者，以编辑《莎士比亚》(1906和1942年）和担任《韦伯斯特第二国际词典》 的编辑(1934年）而闻名 〔Whitney〕American geologist who measured (1864) the highest peak in the continental United States, which was later named after him. His brotherWilliam Dwight Whitney (1827-1894), a philologist and lexicographer, edited the Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia (1889-1891). 惠特尼，约西亚·德怀特：(1819-1896) 美国地质学家。他曾测量了美国大陆的最高峰(1864年），此峰后来以他的名字命名。他的弟弟威廉·德怀特·惠特尼 (1827-1894年）是一个哲学家和辞典编纂者，曾编辑 《世纪词典》 （1889-1891年） 〔Murray〕British philologist and the original lexicographer (1879-1915) of theOxford English Dictionary. 默里，詹姆斯·奥古斯都·亨利：(1837-1915) 英国文献学家以及《牛津英语词典》 的最早编纂者（1879-1915年） 〔Hoosier〕As the fame of Indiana basketball grows ever greater,perhaps a larger number of people have become curious about the origins of the wordHoosier, the nickname for a native or resident of Indiana. As more than one of the curious has discovered,the origins are rather opaque.The most likely possibility is thatHoosier is an alteration of hoozer, an English dialect word recorded in Cumberland,a former county of northwest England, in the late 19th century and used to refer to anything unusually large.The transition betweenhoozer and Hoosier is not clear. The first recorded instance ofHoosier meaning "Indiana resident" is dated 1826; however, it seems possible that senses of the word recorded later in theDictionary of Americanisms, including "a big, burly, uncouth specimen or individual; a frontiersman, countryman, rustic,”reflect the kind of use this word had before it settled down in Indiana.随着印第安纳州篮球的名声越来越响，也许很多人对Hoosier， 印第安纳州人或定居者的别称这个词的来源感到好奇。 正如若干好奇者所发现的那样，其来源非常隐晦。最大的可能性是Hoosier 是 hoozer 的变体， 这是记录于坎伯兰的英格兰方言，19世纪后期英格兰西北部以前的一个郡，用来指特别巨大的东西。Hoozer 和 Hoosier 之间的过渡并不清楚。 意思是“印第安那州居住者”的Hoosier 的首次记载是在1826年； 但是可能该词的解释后来收录于美国俗语词典 中， 包括“一个庞大的、粗壮的、野蛮的种类或个体；拓荒者，乡巴佬，庄稼人，”可能反映了它在落户印第安那之前所有的用法〔dornick〕The worddornick is used from Pennsylvania westward to Illinois. It probably comes from Irish Gaelicdornóg, "a small round stone.” However, it is not clear which group of Gaelic-speaking Irish immigrants brought the word with them.Craig M. Carver, author ofAmerican Regional Dialects, thinks it unlikely that dornick came over with the large numbers of Irish immigrants after the famine of 1846-1847 since the word was apparently well established in Missouri and Arkansas by the middle of the 19th century.Carver attributes the introduction of the term to the Scotch-Irish Protestants from Northern Ireland who emigrated to America in the 18th century. Dornick must have been one of the "few purely Irish terms" in the otherwise English and Scots lexicon of the Scotch-Irish.单词dornick 的使用范围东起宾夕法尼亚州西至伊利诺斯州。 可能起源于爱尔兰的盖尔语dornog， “小而圆的石头”。 然而，究竟哪一批操盖尔语的爱尔兰移民带来的这个词尚不清楚。美国地区方言 的作者克雷格M·卡弗尔认为 dornick 不可能是在1846至1847年的大饥荒之后由爱尔兰人带来的， 因为该词在19世纪中叶就很明显地在密苏里州和阿肯色州使用起来了。卡弗尔认为该词是由来自北爱尔兰的苏格兰爱尔兰新教徒在18世纪带到美国来的。 Dornick 肯定是“少有的纯正爱尔兰语”之一，在苏格兰爱尔兰词典中是英语或苏格兰词语〔nonstandard〕The termnonstandard was introduced by linguists and lexicographers to describe usages and language varieties that had previously been labeled with terms such as vulgar and illiterate. Nonstandardis not simply a euphemism but reflects the empirical discoverythat the varieties used by low-prestige groups have rich and systematic grammatical structuresand that their stigmatization more often reflects a judgment about their speakersrather than any inherent deficiencies in logic or expressive power.Note, however, that the use of nonstandard forms is not necessarily restricted to the communities with which they are associated in the public mind.Many educated speakers freely use forms such ascan't hardly or ain't I to set a popular or informal tone. · Some dictionaries use the termsubstandard to describe forms, such asain't, associated with uneducated speech, while reservingnonstandard for forms such as irregardless, which are common in writingbut are still regarded by many as uneducated.Butsubstandard is itself susceptible of disparaging interpretation, and most linguists and lexicographers now use onlynonstandard, the practice followed in this Dictionary.词条nonstandard 被语言学家和词典编辑人引进用来描述以前已被词条，例如 vulgar 和 illiterate归类的用法和语言种类。 Nonstandand不只是委婉的说法， 而且反映了凭经验得到的发现：被具有权威的群体所用的语种有丰富而且系统的语法结构，而且这些误解被轻蔑描绘更经常地反映了对其说话者的判断，而不是对任何天生的逻辑和表达力的缺乏。然而，要注意，非标准语形式的运用并不必要限制于在公众心目中与其所联系的团体。许多受过教育的说话者自由地用这些形式如can't hardly 或者 ain't I 说流行或非正式的句子。 有些字典用substandard 来描述此类形式， 如ain't， 并与未受教育的言语相联系， 而同时保留nonstandard 用来形容 irregardless 这一类形式， 这些形式普遍用于写作中，但仍被许多人认为是未受教育的用法。但是substandard 本身很容易引起贬低含义的翻译， 大多数语言学家和词典编辑现在只用nonstandard， 在此词典后边有练习〔scan〕In the 1969 edition ofThe American Heritage Dictionary a dead issue was buried by our Usage Panel, 85 percent of whom thought it was acceptable to usescan in the sense "to look over quickly,” though the note stated that this was less formal usage.The usage issue was raised becausescan in an earlier sense meant "to examine closely.” From a historical perspective it is easy to see how these two opposite senses ofscan developed. The source of our word, Latinscandere, which meant "to climb,” came to mean "to scan a verse of poetry,” because one could beat the rhythm by lifting and putting down one's foot.The Middle English verbscannen, derived from scandere, came into Middle English in this sense (first recorded in a text composed before 1398). In the 16th century this highly specialized sense having to do with the close analysis of verse developed other senses,such as "to criticize, examine minutely, interpret, perceive.” From these senses having to do with examination and perception,it was an easy step to the sense "to look at searchingly" (first recorded in 1798),perhaps harking back still to the careful, detailed work involved in analyzing prosody.But a thorough search can change into a quick one, as it seems to have done in the case of the verbscan. 在1969年版的美国传统词典 中，我们的用法委员会放弃了一个已废弃的争议， 其中85%的人认为scan 意为“快速浏览”是可接受的， 虽然注释上说这是非正式的用法。之所以这么用是因为scan 在较早的意义上表示“仔细检查”。 从历史的角度了解scan 的两个相反意思如何发展是容易的。 这个单词的词源是拉丁语scandere ，意为“攀登”，后又演化为“标出诗之格律”， 因为人们可以通过抬起或放下脚来打拍子。中世纪英语动词scannen 即是在这个意义上从 scandere 转化而来的（首次被记载在一本1398年之前编辑的教科书上）。 在16世纪这个已经高度专门化并且用来表示仔细分析诗歌的词语又发展出了其它的意项，如“批评、细致入微地检查、翻译或理解”。从这些表示检查和察觉的意思，很容易就过渡到“细察”(1798年首次被记载）的意义，也可能返回到仔细分析诗体的细微工作。但就象这个动词scan 一样，彻底地搜查可能变成快速地浏览 〔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〔Bradley〕English lexicographer who was senior editor (1915-1923) of theOxford English Dictionary. 布拉德利，亨利：(1845-1923) 英国词典编辑者，是《牛津英语词典》 的高级编辑（1915-1923年） 〔bludgeon〕The origin of some words is simply not known,andbludgeon is one such word. An interesting suggestion is that this word for a club used as a weapon comes from cant,the secret jargon of people such as thieves and beggars,and is related to the wordblood. We do know thatbludgeon is first recorded in a dictionary in 1730, while its first recorded use in running text (1755) is simple and to the point: "These villains . . . knocked him down with a bludgeon.”有一些词的词源不详，bludgeon 就是这样一个词。 一个很有意思的说法认为这个词作武器用棒解释时来源于黑话，是窃贼和乞丐们的秘密行话，与blood 这个词有关联。 然而我们确实知道bludgeou 首次收载于词典中是1730年， 而它第一次用于行文时意思简单明了(1755年）：“这些恶棍…用短棒将他们击倒”〔syphilis〕In 1530 Girolamo Fracastoro, a physician, astronomer, and poet of Verona,published a poem entitled "Syphilis, sive Morbus Gallicus,” translated as "Syphilis, or the French Disease.” In Fracastoro's poem the name of this dreaded venereal disease is an altered form of the hero's name,Syphilus. The hero, a shepherd, is supposed to have been the first victim of the disease. Where the nameSyphilus itself came from is not known for certain, but it has been suggested that Fracastoro borrowed the name from Ovid'sMetamorphoses. In Ovid's work Sipylus (spelledSiphylus in some manuscripts) is the oldest son of Niobe, who lived not far from Mount Sipylon in Asia Minor.Fracastoro's poem about Syphilus was modeled on the story of Niobe.Although the etymology involving Sipylus was known to the editors of theOxford English Dictionary, it was not accepted as their last word on the subject.C.T. Onions, one of the dictionary's editors, writing in theOxford Dictionary of English Etymology, says that “ Syphilus [the shepherd's name] is of unkn[own] origin.” Fracastoro went on to use the termsyphilis again in his medical treatise De Contagione, published in 1546. The word that Fracastoro used in Latin was eventually borrowed into English, being first recorded in 1718.1530年，吉罗拉莫·弗拉卡斯特罗，一位医生，天文学家，也是维罗纳的诗人，发表了名为"Syphius, sive Morbus Gallicus"的诗，译作“梅毒，或法国疾病”。在弗拉卡斯特罗的诗中，这种可怕的性病的名字是主人公名字 Syphilus（西弗乐斯） 的变体。 主人公是一名牧羊人，据认为是该病的第一个受害者。 Syphilus（西弗乐斯） 这一名字本身的来源并不明确， 但有人认为弗拉卡斯特罗是从奥维德的变形记 中借用的。 在奥维德的作品中，西皮卢斯（Sipylus）（有些版本写作Siphylus ）是尼俄柏的大儿子， 他住在小亚细亚的锡皮劳恩山附近。弗拉卡斯特罗的有关西弗乐斯的诗是以尼俄柏的故事为原型的。尽管牛津英语词典 的编者们知道有关西弗乐斯的词源， 这种词源解释还没有被最终确认下来。该词典的编者之一，C·T·奥尼恩斯在牛津英语词源 中写道“ 西弗乐斯 的词源不详”。 在弗拉卡斯特罗发表于1546年的医学论文传染病 中，他继续用 梅毒 这一词语。 弗拉卡斯特罗用的这一拉丁语词是终被借用进英语，其最早的记录出现于1718年〔party〕Party is unexceptionable when used to refer to a participant in a social arrangement, as inShe was not named as a party in the conspiracy. It is this sense that underlies the legal use of the term,as when one speaks of theparties to a contract. The legal use has in turn led to the presence of the word in many fixed expressions,such asinjured party and third party. Butparty is also widely used as a general substitute for person, as inWould all parties who left packages at the desk please reclaim their property. This usage has been established for many centuries,but in the Victorian era it came to be associated with the language of the semieducated(theOxford English Dictionary describes it as "shoppy"), and it has been the subject of many later criticisms.This use ofparty may have been reinforced by its modern adoption by telephone operators. In other contexts,when used in earnest,it may be perceived as a superfluous variant forperson. But the jocular use of the term is well established,particular in references such asa wise old party. Party 用作指一项社会活动的参与者是很常见的， 如她不是这一阴谋的参与者。 正是这一意义构成了这一词的法律用法，如人们说及 parties to a contract 。 这种法律用法反过来又使得这一词出现在许多固定的短语中，如injured party 和 third party。 但party 也被广泛地用于对 person 的泛称， 如在所有将包裹放在桌子上的人请来认领他们的东西。 这种用法已确立了许多个世纪，但在维多利亚时代，它开始与受过部分教育的人的语言联系起来（牛津英语词典 把它描述为“三句话不离本行的”）， 并且它已成为后来许多批判家批评的对象。Party 的这一用法由于话务员的经常采用而被强化了。 在其它的上下文中，当用于严肃的场合时，它可以被视作是person 不必要的变体。 但这一词诙谐的用法确立已久，尤其在提及如一个精明的老人 时 〔film〕One indication of the gulf between us and our Victorian predecessorsis that theOxford English Dictionary fascicle containing the word film, published in 1896, does not have the sense "a motion picture.” The one hint of the future to be found among still familiar older senses of the word,such as "a thin skin or membranous coating" or "an abnormal thin coating on the cornea,”is the sense offilm used in photography, a sense referring to a coating of material, such as gelatin,that could substitute for a photographic plate or be used on a plate or on photographic paper.Thus a word that has been with us since Old English times took on this new use,first recorded in 1845,which has since developed and now refers to an art form,a sense first recorded in 1920.我们同我们维多利亚时代祖先之间的巨大隔阂的表现，就是1896年出版的《牛津英语词典》 分册包含的 film 一词没有“电影”这个含义。 在当中发现的对未来的提示仍然同这个词的旧有意思相近，例如“一层薄的皮或覆盖的薄膜”或“角膜上一种不正常的薄的覆盖物”，就是film 用于摄影的含义， 意思指覆盖物，如胶，可以代替感光板或用于感光板上或在相纸之上。因此从古英语时代出现这个新用法开始，这个词已同我们在一起了，在1845年首次被记录，随着时代发展并指一门艺术形式，这个含义于1920年才首次记录〔posh〕"Oh yes, Mater, we had a posh time of it down there.”So inPunch for September 25, 1918, do we find the first recorded instance of that mysterious wordposh, meaning "smart and fashionable,”although in a 1903 book by P.G. Wodehouse,Tales of St. Austin's, there is a mention of a waistcoat that was "push.” The latter may be a different word,but in either case the dates of occurrence are importantbecause they are part of the objection to derivingposh from the initials of "Port Out, Starboard Home.” This was the cooler, and thus more expensive, side of ships traveling between England and India in the mid-19th century,and the acronymPOSH was supposedly stamped on the tickets of first-class passengers traveling on that side of ships owned by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. No evidence is definitely known to exist for this theory, however.TheOxford English Dictionary Supplement may have found a possible source or sources for posh. Another wordposh was 19th- and early 20th-century British slang for "money,” specifically "a halfpenny, cash of small value.”This word is borrowed from the common Romany wordpåšh, "half,” which was used in combinations such aspåšhera, "halfpenny.” Posh, also meaning "a dandy,” is recorded in two dictionaries of slang published in 1890 and 1902,although this particularposh may be still another word. This word or these words, however, are much more likely to be the source ofposh than "Port Out, Starboard Home,” although the latter source certainly has caught the public's etymological fancy.“哦是的，妈妈，我们在那里过着豪华的生活。”因此在1918年9月25日的punch 上， 我们看到了那个神秘单词posh 的首次记录， 意为“豪华的，时髦的，”虽然早在1903年P·G·伍德豪斯的名为圣·奥斯汀传说 的作品中就提及了意为"push"的马夹这个词。 后者也可能是另外一个不同的词，但在任何一种情况下两者被使用的时间都很重要，因为它们都反对posh 这个词源于"Port Out，Starboard Home。” 这是意指19世纪中期往来于英格兰及印度的船只中较凉爽、因而票价也就较为昂贵的一侧，而POSH 这个首字缩拼词据说就印在半岛——东方蒸汽船航运公司所拥有的船只上较为凉爽的一侧头等舱的票上。 然而对于这一说法并没有确凿的证据来加以证明。牛津英语词典增补本 也许为 posh 找到了一个或多个可能的词源。 另一个词posh 则是19世纪和20世纪初英国人用来表示“钱”的俚语， 尤指“半便士，小面值钱币。”这个词源于吉卜赛常用词på歨 ，意为“一半”， 用在诸如意为“半便士”的复合词på歨era 中。 Posh 也有“花花公子”之意， 这一用法记录于1890年及1902年出版的两本俚语词典中，尽管这个特有的posh 也有可能是另一个词。 然而这个词及上文提到的那些词比"Port Out，Starboard Home"更有可能是posh 这个词的词源， 虽然后者早被人们确认为这个词的词源〔lexicography〕The process or work of writing or compiling a dictionary.词典编撰：词典的编纂或撰写的过程或工作〔Bailey〕British lexicographer whoseUniversal Etymological English Dictionary, first published in 1721, was used as a reference by Samuel Johnson and was the first English dictionary to treat etymology consistently. 贝利，内森：(卒于 1742) 英国词典编辑者，他的《世界词源英语词典》 首次出版于1721年，被塞缪尔·约翰逊用作参考书，它是第一本能连贯地论述词源学的英语词典 〔lexical〕Of or relating to lexicography or a lexicon.词典的：属于或关于词典编撰的或词典的〔agin〕The spelling ofagin reflects both the raised vowel before a nasal consonant, typical of Southern dialects, and a reduced final consonant cluster, typical of several regional varieties.Agin has a wide spectrum of senses in the regional speech of those who pronounce it this way. Indeed, these regional senses are tied to the pronunciation,for standard Englishagainst does not quite capture the full implication of the assertion "I'm agin him" — that is, "opposed to him and all that he stands for.”Another regional sense recalls the original literal Old English sense of "facing; next to" (see the first four senses ofagainst in the Oxford English Dictionary), where standard English would haveby: Their house is agin the mountain.Agin may be used figuratively with regard to time chiefly in South Midland dialects,meaning "by or before (a specified time)”: "I'll be there agin daylight" (North Carolina informant in DARE).词汇agin 的拼写既反映了典型的南部方言──鼻辅音前的元音的提高， 又反映了压缩的后辅音群──几种典型的地方变体的特征。Agin 在它被如此发音的地方方言有广泛的意思。 确实，这些地域意义是和读音联系在一起的，因为标准英语中against 没有完全表达 "I'm agin him" 所隐含的意义── 即“反对他及他所代表的一切。”另外一个地域意义使人想起古英语中最初的文学用语“面对；紧靠着”（参阅《牛津英语词典》中against 的前四个释义）， 而在标准英语中应该用by： 傍山而建的房屋。Agin 主要在中南部方言中可以比喻地用来表示时间，意思是“到或在…（特定时间）前”： “天亮前我可到达” （美国区域英语词典的北卡罗来纳提供资料者）〔Fowler〕British lexicographer who collaborated with his brotherFrancis (1870-1918) on The King's English (1906) and the Concise Oxford Dictionary (1911). He also wrote A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926). 福勒，亨利·沃森：(1858-1933) 英国词典编纂者，和其弟弗朗西斯 (1870-1918年）合著了 《标准英语》 （1906年）和 《牛津简明英语词典》 （1911年）。他还著了 《现代英语用法词典》 （1926年） 〔anesthesia〕The following passage, written on November 21, 1846, by Oliver Wendell Holmes,a physician-poet and the father of the Supreme Court justice of the same name,allows us to pinpoint the entry ofanesthesia and anesthetic into English: "Every body wants to have a hand in a great discovery. All I will do is to give you a hint or two as to names—or the name—to be applied to the state produced and the agent. The state should, I think, be called ‘Anaesthesia’ [from the Greek word anaisthēsia, "lack of sensation"]. This signifies insensibility . . . The adjective will be ‘Anaesthetic.’ Thus we might say the state of Anaesthesia, or the anaesthetic state.”This citation is taken from a letter to William Thomas Green Morton,who in October of that year had successfully demonstrated the use of ether at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.Althoughanaesthesia is recorded in Nathan Bailey's Universal Etymological English Dictionary in 1721, it is clear that Holmes really was responsible for its entry into the language.TheOxford English Dictionary has several citations for anesthesia and anesthetic in 1847 and 1848, indicating that the words gained rapid acceptance.下面是奥立佛·万德·霍姆斯写于1846年11月21的一段话。作者是个诗人医生和与其同名的最高法庭法官的父亲。这段话能使我们断定anesthesia 和 anesthetic 进入英语的背景： “每个人都希望能够参与一次伟大的发现。我所要做的是告诉你一两个提示去命名，或能被应用于某种状态的名称。我认为这种状态应该被叫做Anaesthesia ［从希腊词anaisthesia “感觉缺失”发展而来］。 这个词表示无感觉…其形容词应该是‘Anaesthetic’。这样我们可以说感觉缺失的状态或感觉缺失”。这段话是从寄给威廉·托马斯·格林·莫顿的一封信上摘录下的，莫顿同年十月在波士顿的马萨诸塞总医院曾成功使用了醚。尽管南森·巴利于1721年把anaethesia 选入了 通用英语词源词典 ， 但是很显然是霍姆斯首先把这个词引入英语。牛津英语词典 上有几处引用了1847年和1848年有 anesthesia 和 anesthetic 的句子， 说明这两个词很快就被人们所接受〔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〔quark〕"Three quarks for Muster Mark! / Sure he hasn't got much of a bark / And sure any he has it's all beside the mark.” This passage of James Joyce'sFinnegans Wake is part of a scurrilous 13-line poem directed against King Mark,the cuckolded husband in the Tristan legend.The poem and the accompanying prose are packed with names of birds and words suggestive of birds,and the poem is a squawk,like the cawing of a crow, against King Mark.Thus, Joyce uses the wordquark, which comes from the standard English verbquark, meaning "to caw, croak,” and also from the dialectal verb quawk, meaning"to caw, screech like a bird.” But Joyce'squark was not what it has become: "any of a group of hypothetical subatomic particles proposed as the fundamental units of matter.”Murray Gell-Mann, the physicist who proposed these particles, in a private letter of June 27, 1978, to the editor of theOxford English Dictionary, said that he had actually been influenced by Joyce's word in naming the particle,although the influence was subconscious at first.Gell-Mann was thinking of using the pronunciation (kwôrk) for the particle,possibly something he had picked up fromFinnegans Wake, which he "had perused from time to time since it appeared in 1939. . . . The allusion to three quarks seemed perfect" (originally there were only three subatomic quarks).Gell-Mann, however, wanted to pronounce the word with (ô) not (ä), as Joyce seemed to indicate by rhyming words in the vicinity such asMark. Gell-Mann got around that "by supposing that one ingredient of the line ‘Three quarks for Muster Mark’was a cry of ‘Three quarts for Mister . . . ’ heard in H.C. Earwicker's pub.”冲马克王呱叫三声! / 很显然一声狗吠对他还不够 / 很显然他所有的一切都和盛名无关。 这一段出自詹姆斯·乔伊斯的为芬尼根守灵 ， 是对马克王进行侮辱谩骂的一首十三行诗中的一部分。马克王是特里斯特拉姆传奇故事中被戴了绿帽子的丈夫。这首诗和随同的叙述中充斥着鸟类的名字和暗示鸟类的词。这首诗是对马克王的粗声抗诉，就象乌鸦的啼叫。所以乔伊斯用了quark 一词， 它来源于标准英语动词quark （意思为“呱呱地叫，乌鸦叫”）和方言中的动词 quawk （意思为“象鸟一样呱呱地叫、尖叫”）。 乔伊斯笔下的quark 一词并不是现在形成的意思： “任何一组假想的亚原子粒子，被认为是物质的基本单位”。这些粒子的提出者——物理学家默里·基尔曼在1978年6月27日写给牛津英语词典 编者的一封私人信件中说, 他给这种粒子命名时确实受到了乔伊斯这个词的影响，虽然这种影响起初只是潜意识的。基尔曼本想用(kwôrk)这个发音来代表这种粒子，可能也是从为芬尼根守灵 一书中汲取出来的。 自从1939年这书出版以来，他曾时常精读…关于三声呱叫的暗示看上去很完满（最初只有三种亚原子夸克）。但是基尔曼想让这个词发音为(o)而不是(a)——乔伊斯将韵押为与Mark 相近的音好象表明该发这个音。 基尔曼认为这行诗中的一部分“对马克王呱叫三声”，实际上是在酒店中听到的“给这位先生来三夸脱酒”叫喊声〔surly〕The fact that the wordsurly means "churlish" nicely indicates its fall in status. Churlish derives from the word churl, which in its Old English form ceorl meant "a man without rank, a member of the lowest rank of freemen,” as well as "peasant" in general. In Old Englishceorl may have been a term of contempt; it certainly became one in Middle English,wherecherl meant "base fellow, boor,” with churlish descending in meaning accordingly. Surly, on the other hand, started its life at the top of the scale but fell just as far. Looking at instances of this word in Middle English and Early Modern English,we see thatsurly was only one spelling for this word, another spelling beingsirly, which makes it clear that it came from the word sir, the term of honor for a knight or for a person of rank or importance in general. Thussirly, the form under which the early spellings of the word are entered in the Oxford English Dictionary, first meant "lordly.” Surly, entered as a separate word in the OED and first recorded in 1566, meant perhaps "lordly, majestic,” in its earliest use,subsequently being used in the sense "masterful, imperious, arrogant.” As the gloss "arrogant" makes clear, the wordsirly could have a negative sense, and it is this area of meaning that is responsible for the current "churlish" sense of the word.surly 意为“粗野的”事实生动地说明了这个词的地位下降。 Churlish 是 churl 的派生词，其古英文形式 ceorl 的意思是“没有爵位的男人，或者是自由民中最低等级的男人”，大概象“农民”一样。 古英语中ceorl 可能含有贬意； 中古英语中肯定是贬意，其cherl 的意思是“卑贱的人，粗野的人”，相应地 churlish 的意思也下降了。 另一方面，Surly 开始是个高尚的字，后来地位同样下降。 从中古英语和早期现代英语中的实例，我们可以看到，surly 的拼法只有一个， 另一个是sirly ，它清楚地表明这个字来自 sir （给于骑士或有等级或有身份的人的尊称）。 因此，sirly 这个字的最初形式记载在 牛津英语词典 中，开始的意思为（有威严的，高傲的）。 Surly 作为另一个字最初于1566年记录在 OED 中， 最初的意思是“老爷的、尊贵的”，以后的意思为“老爷般的、命令式的、傲慢的”。“傲慢”这个字条清楚地说明sirly 可能有过否定的意思， 也正是在这层意义上，它和目前“粗野的”意义有关〔umpire〕The anguished, hostile cry "Kill the ump" could have been "kill the nump" had it not been for the linguistic process known as false splitting or juncture loss.In the case ofumpire we can almost see the process in action if we study the Middle English Dictionary entry for noumpere, the Middle English ancestor of our word. Noumpere comes from the Old French nonper, made up ofnon, "not,” and per, "equal,” as is someone who is requested to act as arbiter of a dispute between two people; that is, the arbiter is not paired with one of them.In Middle English the earliest recorded form isnoumper (about 1350). The earliest dated form without ann in the entry is owmpere ( a Middle English variant spelling),in a text composed in 1440.How then was lost can be seen if we compare the sequence a noounpier in a text written in 1426-1427 with the sequence an Oumper from a text written probably around 1475. Then of noumpere became attached to the indefinite article, giving usan instead of a and, eventually,umpire instead of .numpire. 要不是因为被称为假分裂或失去连音的语言学过程，"Kill the ump"（杀掉裁判）这样痛苦，仇恨的呐喊可能会成为"kill the nmup"。在umpire 这一例子中，如果我们研究一下 中古英语词典 中 noumpere 这一词条，即该词在中古英语中的原型，便会了解这一语言学现象的过程。 Noumpere 来自于古法语 nonper， 由non, “不”，和 per, “平等的”组成，表示一个应要求就两人之间的争议做出仲裁的人； 也就是说，不与任何一人合作的公断人。中古英语的最先记录形式是noumper （约1350年）。 词条中没有n 的最早形式是 owmpere ( 中古英语的变体拼写），出现于1440年所做的一篇文章。通过比较两个顺序可以看出n 是我们被省略的：一个是 a noounpier ，出现于写于1426年至1427年间的一篇文章；另一个是 an Oumper 摘自可能写于1475年的文章。 noumpere 中的 n 变得和不定冠词连在一起， 成为an 而非 n ， 最后就出现了umpire 而不是 ·numpire 〔wanigan〕Wanigan is apparently borrowed from Ojibwa waanikaan, "storage pit,” from the verbwaanikkee-, "to dig a hole in the ground.” Nineteenth-century citations in theOxford English Dictionary indicate that the word was then associated chiefly with the speech of Maine. It denoted a storage chest containing small supplies for a lumber camp,a boat outfitted to carry such supplies,or, as in Algonquian, the camp equipment and provisions.In Alaska, on the western edge of the vast territory inhabited by Algonquian-speaking tribes,the same word was borrowed into English to indicate a little temporary hut, usually built on a log raft to be towed to wherever men were working. According to Russell Tabbert of the University of Alaska,wanigan is still used in the northernmost regions of Alaska to mean "a small house, bunkhouse, or shed mounted on skids" to be dragged along behind a tractor train as a place for a work crew to eat and sleep. However, Tabbert notes that in southeast Alaska, where mobile homes are a common option for housing,wanigan now means an addition built onto a trailer house for extra living or storage space. Classified advertisements for trailer homes frequently mentionwanigans. Wanigan 很显然是从奥吉布瓦语 waanikdan 而来， “储物处”从动词waanikkee （意为“在地上挖洞”）而来。 牛津英语词典 里的19世纪的引文表明，该词当时主要与缅因语相连。 它指示供应木料营地用的贮物箱，载有供应品的小船，或如在阿尔贡金语中所指的宿营装备或供应品。在阿拉斯加讲阿尔贡金语部族居住的广大土地西端，该词被借入到英语中，表示一个通常是建在木筏上的临时性小屋，每当人们搬迁的时候就将其拽走。根据阿拉斯加大学的拉塞尔·泰伯特所言，wanigan 仍然用于阿拉斯加最北部地区，意为用牵引车牵引着的供一工作组食宿的“建于轮子上的小房子、工房或工棚”。 但是泰伯特指出，在阿拉斯加东南部常选择活动房作为住所，wanigan 现在的意思是供额外居住或贮存用的一个活动房屋的附加物。 关于活动房屋的分类广告经常提到wanigans 〔hooker〕In hisPersonal Memoirs Ulysses S. Grant described Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker as "a dangerous man . . . not subordinate to his superiors.” Hooker had his faults, of course.He may indeed have been insubordinate;undoubtedly he was an erratic leader.But there is one thing of which he is often accused that "Fighting Joe" Hooker certainly did not do:he did not give his name to prostitutes.According to a popular story,the men under Hooker's command during the Civil War were a particularly wild bunch.When his troops were on leave,we are told, they spent much of their time in brothels.For this reason, as the story goes,prostitutes came to be known ashookers. It is not difficult to understand how such a theory might have originated.The major general's name differs from the wordhooker only in the capital letter that begins it. And it is true that Hooker's men were at times ill-disciplined (although it seems that liquor, not women, was the main source of their difficulties with the provost marshal).However attractive this theory may be,it cannot be true.The wordhooker, with the sense "prostitute,” is in fact older than the Civil War. It appeared in the second edition (although not in the first) of John Russell Bartlett'sDictionary of Americanisms, published in 1859.Bartlett definedhooker as "a strumpet, a sailor's trull.” He also said that the word was derived from Corlear's Hook,a district in New York City,but this was only a guess.There is no evidence that the term originated in New York.Norman Ellsworth Eliason has traced this use ofhooker back to 1845 in North Carolina. He reported the usage inTarheel Talk; an Historical Study of the English Language in North Carolina to 1860, published in 1956. The fact that we have no earlier written evidence does not mean thathooker was never used to mean "prostitute" before 1845. The history ofhooker is, quite simply, murky; we do not know when or where it was first used,but we can be very certain that it did not begin with Joseph Hooker.Also, we have no firm evidence that it came from Corlear's Hook.Scholarly evidence or lack thereof notwithstanding,the late Bruce Catton, the Civil War historian, did not go so far as to exonerate completely the Union general.Although "the term ‘hooker’ did not originate during the Civil War,”wrote Catton, "it certainly became popular then.During these war years, Washington developed a large [red-light district] somewhere south of Constitution Avenue.This became known as Hooker's Division in tribute to the proclivities of General Joseph Hookerand the name has stuck ever since.”If the termhooker was derived neither from Joseph Hooker nor from Corlear's Hook, what is its derivation?It is most likely that thishooker is, etymologically, simply "one who hooks.” The term portrays a prostitute as a person who hooks, or snares, clients.尤利西斯·S·格兰特在他的个人回忆录 中把陆军少将约瑟夫·胡克描写成“一个危险人物…从不服从于他的顶头上司”。 胡克当然有他的缺点。他也许曾是一个难以屈服的人；但他无疑是一个怪癖的军官。但是“好战的乔”，胡克却因为一件他肯定没有干过的事情而屡遭指责；他从不对妓女透露他的姓名。根据一个流行故事，内战中胡克的手下有一伙特别狂野的人们。当他的队伍即将离开时，据说他们总在妓院里消磨时日。故事还说正因为如此，妓女开始被叫做hookers。 我们不难理解这样一个故事的起源的推测。这个将军的名字和hooker 只差开头的一个大写字母。 而且胡克的手下在当时确实纪律涣散（尽管看来是酒而非女人才导致了他们与宪兵司令之间的矛盾）。不管这个故事多么诱人，它不可能是真实的。事实上hooker 一词作为“妓女”的意思比内战的历史还要早。 它出现于约翰·罗素·巴特利特编纂的美国俗语词典 的第二版（尽管第一版中没有）， 出版于1859年。巴特利特把hooker 定义为“一个妓女，水手的妓女”。 他还说这个词来源于科利尔的胡克，纽约市的一个地区，但这只是一个猜想。没有证据证明这一说法源于纽约。诺曼·爱尔斯华斯·艾利森把hooker 的用法追溯到1845年的北卡罗来纳州。 他在1956年出版的北卡罗来纳州闲话； 1860年前北卡罗来纳英语历史研究 中说明了这一用法。 缺乏早期书面证据这一事实并不意味着在1845年之前hooker 没有被用作“妓女”一义。 很简单，hooker 的历史隐晦难知； 我们不知道它在何时何地被首次使用，但我们可以肯定它并不始于约瑟夫·胡克。而且我们没有确凿证据证明它来源于科利尔的胡克。不管有无学术性的证据，已故的内战历史学家布鲁斯·卡通并没有做到为联邦将军彻底开脱的地步。尽管“‘hooker’这一词语并不是来源于内战，”卡通写道，“在那之后它肯定流行了起来。在战争年代，华盛顿在宪法大街南部某个地方发展了很大的［红灯区］。人们把这里称作胡克的辖区，作为对约瑟夫·胡克将军怪癖的献礼，这个名字从此便生根发芽”。如果hooker 这一词语既不是源于约瑟夫·胡克也不来自于科利尔的胡克， 那么它的词源究竟是什么呢?从词源学上来说hooker 很有可能仅仅是“引…上钩的人”。 这一词语把妓女描绘成一个勾引或引诱客人的人〔caterpillar〕It seems that the larvae of moths and butterflies are popularly seen as resembling other, larger animals.Consider the Italian dialect wordgatta, "cat, caterpillar"; the German dialect termtüfelskatz, "caterpillar" (literally "devil's cat"); the French wordchenille, "caterpillar" (from a Vulgar Latin diminutive, .canīcula, of canis, "dog"); and last but not least,our own wordcaterpillar, which appears probably to have come through Northern French from the Old French termchatepelose, meaning literally "hairy cat.”Our wordcaterpillar is first recorded in English in 1440 in the formcatyrpel. Catyr, the first part of catyrpel, may indicate the existence of an English word.cater, meaning "tomcat,”otherwise attested only incaterwaul. Cater would be cognate with Middle High German kater and Dutch kater. The latter part ofcatyrpel seems to have become associated with the word piller, "plunderer.” By giving the variant spelling -ar, Johnson's Dictionary set the spelling caterpillar with which we are familiar today. 似乎蛾子和蝴蝶的幼虫经常会被看成与其它较大动物相似。意大利方言中gatta， 一字，“猫，毛虫”； 日耳曼方言中tüfelskatz 一字“毛虫”（直译为“邪恶的猫”）； 法语词chenille， “毛虫”（来自民间拉丁语小词缀， canicula， 源自 canis ，是“狗”的意思）； 最后但并非不重要的一点，英语中caterpillar 一词， 可能是来源于从法国北部传来的古法语词汇chatepelose， 字面意思是“多毛的猫”。caterpillar 一字于1440年最早记录在英语中， 以catyrpel的形式出现。 Catyr是 catyrpel 的第一部分， 可能指明英语词cater 的存在， 意指“雄猫”，否则只能存在于caterwaul一词中。 Cater可能与中世纪高地德语 kater 和荷兰语 kater 有关。 catyrpel 一词的后一部分似乎与 piller 一词有关，意思是“强盗”。 约翰逊的词典 给出了不同的拼写- ar， 从而形成了我们今天所熟悉的 caterpillar |
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