单词 | 词根 |
释义 | 〔triliteral〕Consisting of three letters, especially of three consonants. Used chiefly of roots in Semitic languages.三字母的:由三个字母,尤其是三个辅音字母构成的。主要用于闪语的三辅音词根〔war〕A piece of liverwurst may perhaps help us gain some insight into the nature of war,at least into the semantic history of the wordwar. War and the -wurst part of liverwurst can be traced back to the same Indo-European root, wers-, "to confuse, mix up.” In the Germanic family of the Indo-European languages,this root gave rise to several words having to do with confusion or mixture of various kinds.In the case of the ancestry ofwar, the hypothetical Germanic stem .werza-, "confusion,” became .werra-, which passed into Old French, a language descended from spoken Latin but supplemented by more than 200 words borrowed from the Frankish invaders of the 5th century.From the Germanic stem came both the formwerre in Old North French, the form borrowed into English in the 12th century, and guerre (the source of guerilla ) in the rest of the Old French-speaking area. Both forms meant "war,” a very confused condition indeed.Meanwhile another Indo-European form derived from the same Indo-European root had developed into Old High Germanwurst, meaning "sausage,” from an underlying sense of "mixture,” which is, of course, related to the sense of the root "to confuse, mix up.”Modern Germanwurst was borrowed into English in the 19th century, first by itself (recorded in 1855) and then as part of the wordliverwurst (1869), the liver being a translation of Germanleber in leberwurst. 一块肝肠也许会帮助我们对战争的性质增加些认识,至少可了解war这一词的语义史。 War和 liverwurst 的一部分 -wurst 可以追溯到同一印欧语系词根 wers- “使迷惑,混杂”。 在印欧语系中的日耳曼语系中,该词根造出了好几个与迷惑或各种东西的混合物有关的词语。在war 的词源一例中,假定的日耳曼语词干 werza- “迷惑”变成了 werra- , 又传入了来自拉丁语口语的古法语中,但是又附加了由5世纪法兰克侵略者带来的200多个单词。从日耳曼语词干中,既产生了古老的北部法语中的werre (12世纪该词传入英语),又产生了其它讲古法语地区的人用的 guerre ( guerilla 的词源)。 两个形式都表示“战争”,一个的确很糟糕的局面。同时,另一个从相同的印欧语系词根派生来的印欧语形式发展成了旧高地德语wurst “香肠”, 这是从其潜含义“混合物”而来的,“混合物”显然与“使困惑,混杂”的词根的含义有关。现代德语中的wurst 于19世纪传入英语中, 首先是它的独立形式(记载于1855年),然后是liverwurst 的一部分(1869年), “肝”这层含义是由德语leberwurst 中的 leber 翻译而来 〔joke〕It is hard to imagine the English language without the wordjoke , butjoke is only first recorded in 1670. Sincejoke was originally considered a slang or informal usage, it was not suitable to all contexts.The change in status ofjoke from then to now provides us with an excellent example of how usage changes. Joke has a decent enough heritage at any rate, coming from Latiniocus, "jest, sport, laughingstock, trifle.”Iocus in turn can be traced back to the Indo-European root yek-, meaning "to speak,” from which also comes the Umbrian wordiuka, "prayers,” and the Welsh wordiaith, "speech.” 我们很难想象英语中如果没有joke 这个词会怎样, 但是joke 在1670年才首次有文字记载。 因为joke 起初被认为是俚语或非正式用语, 以前它并不是在所有的文章中都适用的。从那时到现在joke 地位上的变化给我们提供了一个关于语言用法如何变化的极好的例子。 不管怎样joke 的词源算得上很体面, 它来自于拉丁语中iocus 一词, 表示“玩笑,游戏,笑柄,琐事”。Iocus 反过来又可追溯到印欧语系中的词根 yek- 表示“说话”, 从这个词根还派生出翁布里亚语中iuka 一词,即“祈祷”, 以及威尔士语中iaith 一词,即“讲话,演说” 〔winter〕Winter, spring, summer, fall.It is not too difficult to see how the season namesspring and fall came into being, but without some background information it is impossible to tell what the origins of the wordswinter and summer are. Summer goes back to the Indo-European root .sem-, meaning "summer.” From a suffixed form of this root came the prehistoric Common Germanic word.sumaraz, the ancestor of Old Englishsumor and its descendant, Modern English summer. This is the only Indo-European root referring to a season that has survived in an English name for a season.Of the other three,.wesr-, "spring,” has produced words such as vernal; ghyem-, "winter,” has given us words such as hibernate; andesen-, "harvest, fall,” has yielded earn ( from the prehistoric Common Germanic word.aznōn, "to do harvest work, serve"). Winter does, however, go back to the Indo-European root wed-, "water, wet.” From the formwe-n-d- of this root with the nasal infix -n- was derived the Germanic word .wintruz, with the underlying meaning "wet season" and the literal meaning "winter.”The Germanic word is the source of Old Englishwinter, the ancestor of Modern English winter. 冬,春,夏,秋。说出季节名spring 和 fall 的来历不是很难, 但如果没有一些背景知识,不可能知道winter 和 summer 的词源。 Summer 可追溯到印欧语中的词根 sem- ,意思是“夏天”。 给这个词根加后缀后又转化为史前的普通日尔曼词sumaraz, 这是古英语中sumor 的前身,由此又发展来现代英语中的 summer。 这是印欧语中表季节的词根在英语中作为季节名保留下来的唯一一个。另外三个wesr- “春”产生了象 vernal这类的词; ghyem-“冬”又给了我们单词 hibernate; esen- “收获,秋天”衍生出 earn ( 从史前的普通日尔曼词aznon “做收获的工作,服务”而来)。 然而winter 得追溯到印欧词根 wed- “水,湿的”。 由这个词根的we-n-d 形式和鼻音中缀 -n- 衍生出日尔曼语词 wintruz, 其隐含的意思是“湿润的季节”和字面意义“冬天”。这个日尔曼词是古英语中winter 的前身,也是现代英语 winter 的前身 〔empty〕In Old EnglishIc eom ǣmtig could mean "I am empty,” "I am unoccupied,” or "I am unmarried.” The sense "unoccupied, at leisure,” which did not survive Old English,points to the derivation ofǣmtig from the Old English word ǣmetta, "leisure, rest.” The wordǣmetta may in turn go back to the Germanic root mōt-, meaning "ability, leisure.”In any case, Old Englishǣmtig also meant "vacant,” a sense that was destined to take over the meaning of the word. Empty, the Modern English descendant of Old Englishǣmtig, has come to have the sense "idle,” so that one can speak of empty leisure.在古英语里,Ic eom cemfig 可以表示“我饿”,“我现在失业”或“我没有结婚。” “未占用的,空闲的”这个意思没有在古英语中保留下来,这表明æmtig , 派生自古英语词 æmetta ,意为“空闲,休息”。 鎚etta 可以追溯到日耳曼语词根 mot-, 意为“能力,空闲”。无论如何,古英语æmtig 也表示“空的”, 这个意思是注定要取代这个词的意义。 Empty 这个古英语鎚tig 在现代英语中的变形具有了“空闲的”的意思, 所以我们可以说空闲〔lingo〕A look at the entry in the Indo-European roots entry fordöghū- will show that the wordstongue, language, and lingo are related, all going back to the Indo-European rootdöghū-, "tongue.” The relationship betweenlanguage and lingo is not particularly surprising given their related meanings and common root, but one might be curious as to the routes by which these two words came into English.Language, as did so many of our important borrowings from Latin, passed through French into English during the Middle Ages, the forms involved being Latinlingua, "language,” its descendant, Old French langue, and its derivative, langage. Lingo, on the other hand, entered English after the end of the Middle Ages when Europe had opened itself to the larger world. We have probably borrowedlingo from lingoa, a Portuguese descendant of Latin lingua. The Portuguese were great traders before the English were,and it is not unlikely that the sense "foreign language" was strengthened as the Portuguese traveled around the world.Interestingly enough,the first recorded instance oflingo in English is in the New World (1660) in a reference to the "Dutch lingo.” The development in sense to "unintelligible language" and "specialized language" is an obvious one.当我们看到印欧语系词根条目dnghu- 时, 我们就可以看出tongue,language 和 lingo 之间的联系, 它们都拥有共同的印欧语系词根dnghu- “舌头”。 当我们知道language 和 lingo 拥有共同的词根并且在意思上有关联时,我们就不会惊异于他们之间的联系, 但我们可能会对这两个词是通过何种方式进入英语的感到很好奇。和许多重要的从拉丁语借来的词一样,language 是在中世纪时通过法语传入英语的, 变换的形式为拉丁语的lingua “语言”、它的变体,古法语中的 langue 和它的派生词 langage。 另一方面,Lingo是在欧洲向一个更广阔的世界开放自己的时候即在中世纪结束后期进入英语的。 我们可能从拉丁文lingua 的葡萄牙语变体 lingoa 借入了 lingo 。 葡萄牙人是英国人之前的大商人,当他们在周游世界的同时,很可能那种“外语”的意义得到了加强。很有趣的是,最先出现在英语中的lingo 新大陆(1660年)一书中用来指“荷兰语”。 所以变成“难懂的话”和“行话”的意思的发展过程是很明显的〔yes〕The wordyes is a good example of how an ordinary and frequently used word can have a complex etymology. We can traceyes back to two Indo-European roots, .i-, a pronominal stem, and .es-, "to be.” From two extended forms of.i-, .yām and .yāi, came the prehistoric Common Germanic forms.jā and jai, which gave us Old Englishgeā, an affirmative particle, the source of Modern Englishyea. The Indo-European root.es- is the source of our forms am and is. From the stem.sī- used to make verb forms in the optative mood, a mood used to express a wish, came the Germanic form.sijai-, which gave us Old Englishsīe, "may it be so.” This form, unlike the sources ofam and is, died out, but before disappearing it had combined with Old Englishgēa to form the compound gēse, the ancestor of our wordyes. Thissīe was destined to have even more of a triumph. Until around 1600yea was used to respond to positive expressions, whereasyes was used to respond to negative expressions. After that timeyes became a response to both positive and negative expressions, yea surviving primarily in voice votes. yes 一词是说明一个普通常用词如何拥有一复杂词源的极好例证。 我们可以追溯yes 到两个印欧语词根, 代名词词干i- 和 es- “是”。 从i-的两种扩展形式,yam 和 yai, 形成了史前普通日耳曼语形式ja 和 jai, 它们又带来了古英语中的肯定虚词gea , 这便是现代英语yea 的来源。 而印欧语词根es- 是我们 am 和 is 两形式的源头。 以is- ,一个用于制造祈愿语气动词的词干, 产生出日尔曼形式sijai-, 并由此形成了古英语sie, “希望如此”。 这种形式不象am 和 is 的词源,已经灭绝了, 但在消失之前,它已经和古英语gea 混合形成复合词 gese, 即我们的单词yes 的前身。 这个sie 注定要获取更大的胜利。 直至1600年左右,yea 还被用于回答肯定的陈述; 而yes 则用于回答否定陈述。 此后,yes 既可作肯定也可否定表达的回答, yea 则主要在口头投票时使用 〔giddy〕The wordgiddy refers to fairly lightweight experiences or situations, but at one time it had to do with profundities.Giddy can be traced back to the same Germanic root .gud- that has given us the wordGod. The Germanic word.gudigaz formed on this root meant "possessed by a god.” Such possession can be a rather unbalancing experience,and so it is not surprising that the Old English representative of.gudigaz, gidig, meant "mad, possessed by an evil spirit,” or that the Middle English development ofgidig, gidi, meant the same thing, as well as "foolish; mad (used of an animal); dizzy; uncertain, unstable.”Our sense "lighthearted, frivolous,” represents the ultimate secularization ofgiddy. 单词giddy 完全是指不必要的经历或情况, 但同时与深度有关。Giddy 能被追溯到它的德语词根 gud- , 从同一词根我们得到单词God 。 德语词gudigaz 由这个词根形成的意思是“由上帝占有”。 这种拥有可以是一种不平衡的经历,所以对于gudigaz ,gidig 在古英语的表达并不奇怪, 意思是“疯狂的,被恶魔占据的”或gidig, gidi 有在中古英语中发展而来的同样的意思, 另外还有“呆的;疯狂的(用于动物);头晕眼花的;不确定的,不稳定的。”我们“轻浮的,轻佻的”的解释代表了最终世俗化的giddy 〔mentor〕The wordmentor is an example of the way in which the great works of literature live on without our knowing it. The word has recently gained currency in the professional world,where it is thought to be a good idea to have a mentor, a wise and trusted counselor, guiding one's career, preferably in the upper reaches of the organization.We owe this word to the more heroic age of Homer,in whoseOdyssey Mentor is the trusted friend of Odysseus left in charge of the household during Odysseus's absence. More important for our usage of the wordmentor, Athena disguised as Mentor guides Odysseus's son Telemachus in his search for his father.Fénelon in his romanceTélémaque (1699) emphasized Mentor as a character, and so it was that in French (1749) and English (1750)mentor, going back through Latin to a Greek name, became a common noun meaning "wise counselor,” first recorded in 1750.Mentor is an appropriate name for such a person because it probably meant "adviser" in Greekand comes from the Indo-European rootmen- 1, meaning "to think.”词语mentor 使我们看到了伟大的文学作品是如何在我们毫无察觉的情况下而经久而不衰的。 这个词最近开始在职业界通用起来,在职业界中,能有一个“良师”, 一个忠实而又聪明的顾问来指导你的职业生涯,尤其是你的提升,真不失为一个好办法。这个词来源于荷马英雄时代,在荷马史诗Odyssey 中,孟托是奥德赛的忠实朋友,奥德赛出征时将其留下以掌管家事。 对于我们今天mentor 这个词的用法更为重要的一个事实是, 雅典娜将自己装扮成孟托而引导奥德赛之子忒勒马科斯去寻找他的父亲。费奈隆在他的传奇故事泰雷马克历险记 (1699年)中强调了孟托这一人物, 正因为如此,这一从一个希腊人名经拉丁文演化而来的词mentor 在法语(1749年)和英语(1750年)中成了一个意为“贤明的顾问”的普通名词, 并在1750年被首次记载。Mentor 对于一个贤明的顾问是个合适的名称, 因为它在希腊语中可能有“顾问”之意,而且源自印欧语词根men- 1, 又有“思考”之意〔vogue〕The history of the wordvogue takes us back from the abstract world of fashion to the concrete actions of moving in a vehicle and rowing a boat, demonstrating how sense can change dramatically over time even though it flows, as it were, in the same channel.The history ofvogue begins with the Indo-European root .wegh-, meaning "to go, transport in a vehicle.” Among many other forms derived from this root was the Germanic stem.wēga-, "water in motion.” From this stem came the Old Low German verbwogōn, meaning "to sway, rock.” This verb passed into Old French asvoguer, which meant "to sail, row.” The Old French word yielded the nounvogue, which probably literally meant "a rowing,” and so "a course,” and figuratively "reputation" and then "reputation of fashionable things" or "prevailing fashion,” which involve courses, so to speak.The French passed the noun on to us,it being first recorded in English in 1571.vogue 一词的历史把我们从抽象世界的时尚带回到在车辆里移动和划船的具体行为, 显示出尽管意义象以前一样在同一个轨道上变化,但它能越过时间发生引人瞩目的变化。vogue 的历史起源于印欧词根 wegh-, 意思是“走,在车辆里运行”。 从此词根发展出许多别的词形,如日尔曼词干wega- ,“运动的水。” 古低地德语动词wogon 从此词干而来,意思是“摆动,震动。” 这个动词以voguer 的形式传入,意为“航行,划。” 古法语词又产生出名词vogue, 字面上的意义可能是“一次划船,”并转为“一个过程,”并且其喻义为“名声”,而后为“流行东西的名声”或“流行的时尚,”可以说它包含着一些过程。法语把这个名词传给我们,于1571年最早被录入英语〔scarce〕The phrasescarce excerpt, if it ever should occur to one, is an excellent example of how two intimately related words can diverge from one another in form while passing from one language to another over the centuries.Both words can be traced back to the Latin wordexcerpo (past participle stem excerpt- ), meaning "to pick out,” "to pick out mentally,” and "to select a passage for quotation.”This is clearly the ultimate source of our nounexcerpt (first recorded before 1638) and verb (first recorded around 1536), a past participle usage already being recorded in the 15th century. A more tangled path leads to our wordscarce. It is assumed that side by side with Latinexcerpere existed the Vulgar Latin form .excarpere. .Excarpsus, an adjective formed with the past participle of .excarpere in Vulgar Latin, meant "narrow, cramped,” and from this Vulgar Latin form came the Old French wordéchars, "insufficient, cramped,” and "stingy.” The Old French word, which existed in a variety of forms in Old French,includingscars and the chiefly Old North French form escarse, was borrowed into Middle English asscarse, being first recorded in a manuscript written around 1300.如果人们能够想到scarce excerpt 这个词语, 是一个说明两个关系密切的词语如何历经几个世纪,在一种语言转化到另一种语言的同时从一种形式转化到另一种形式的极佳例子。两个词可追溯到拉丁词excerpo (过去分词词根为 excerpt- ), 意为“选出”、“在思想上进行选择”和“为了引用而选择一个段落”。很清楚,名词excerpt (第一次记录于1638年前)和动词(首次记录于约1536年)及过去分词用法的最终词源,在15世纪时就已经被记录下来。 词语scarce 的变化更为复杂。 据猜测与拉丁文中excerpere 同时存在的有拉丁俗语形式 excarpere。 Excarpsus在拉丁俗语中是由 excarpere 的过去分词形成的,意为“狭窄的、受限制的”, 从这一拉丁俗语形式形成了古法语词echars ,意为“不足的、受限制的”及“吝啬的”。 这些在古法语中以多种形式存在的古法语词,包括scars 和北部古法语的主要形式 escarse , 被引入中世纪英语中成为scarse , 在1300年左右第一次被记载在一手稿本中〔triliteral〕A triliteral root or word.三辅音词根或词〔fun〕The day may come when this usage is entirely unremarkable,just as the wordtalkative has lost all taint of its originally jocular formation from the attachment of a Latinate suffix to a native Anglo-Saxon root. At present, however, the attributive use offun may still raise eyebrows, and writers who want to stay on the safe side are advised to avoid it in contexts in which a light tone would not be appropriate.也许总有一天,这一用法会变得完全不引人注意了,正如单词talkative 在其拉丁语后缀与盎格鲁-撒克逊语词根组成词时该词有打趣的意味,但现在已失去其所具有的本义了。 然而,现在使用fun 做定语仍有可能导致误解, 而为保险起见的作家也都会避免在与轻松的语调显得不太协调的行文中使用该词〔vaginismus〕Latin -ismus [-ism] 拉丁语 -ismus [某理论、主义的词根] 〔hall〕Thehalls of academe and city hall remind us that what we commonly mean by the wordhall, "a passageway, an entrance room,” represents a shrunken version of whathall once commonly designated. Going back to the Indo-European rootkel- 1, "to cover,” the Old English wordheall, ancestor of our hall, referred to "a large place covered by a roof, whether a royal residence, an official building, or a large private residence, or a large room in a residencewhere the public life of the household is carried on.”These senses and related ones are still in use,as is attested bytown hall and halls of academe. Our common use of the termhall for a vestibule or a corridor harks back to medieval times when the hall was the main public room of a residenceand people lived much less privately than now.As private rooms in houses took on the importance they have today,the hall lost its function.Hall also had come to mean any large room, and the vestibule was at one time one of the main sitting rooms in a house,but this sort of room has largely disappeared also,andhall has become the designation for the small vestibule of today as well as for an entrance passage or any passageway.halls of academe 以及 city hall 提醒我们注意: 我们通常把hall 这个词定义为“走廊,门厅”, 反映出hall 这词当初设定时的通常含义的种种痕迹。 追溯到该词的印欧语词根kel- 1, 意思是“去覆盖”, 我们hall 这个词的来源是古英语中 heall 这个词, 它指的是“一个有屋顶覆盖的大地方或者属于皇室住宅、政府建筑或是一座大的私人府第或者是一所住宅中的大房子,主人在其中进行社交活动”。这些概念或与之相关的意思直到今天还有,比如说town hall 和 halls of academe 。 我们现在一般所用的,把hall 当作门厅或走廊的用法可以追溯到中世纪, 那时大厅是居住者的最主要的起居室,人们生活还没有今天这么隐私化,于今日个人房间在生活中占主要地位,大厅失去了它当年的功用。Hall 还曾意味着大房间, 而门厅在过去一段时间内曾是房屋中主要的一处起居室,但这样的房子大部分也都消失了,而hall 的意思已经变成指那些当今小的走廊, 或者是进出口处的走廊,或者是随便哪个走廊〔root〕The element that carries the main component of meaning in a word and provides the basis from which a word is derived by adding affixes or inflectional endings or by phonetic change.词根:单词中含词义主要部分的要素,在此基础上,单词可通过加前缀或曲折词尾或通过语音变化衍生而得〔preverb〕A prefix or particle preceding the root or stem of a verb, asfor- in forget. 动词词干或词根前的前缀或语助词,如forget 中的 for- 〔cognate〕Related in origin, as certain words in genetically related languages descended from the same ancestral root; for example, Englishname and Latin nōmen from Indo-European nÒ-men- . 同词源的:来源相关的,如在有关的语言中,一些词来自相同的词根;例如,英语name 与拉丁文 nomen 源自印欧语 no-men- 〔vail〕ad [ad-] ad [表示“反”的词根] 〔inkling〕One of the more fascinating journeys in the histories of words is the one that linksnest and inkling. We begin this journey with the Indo-European rootnizdo-, which by way of Germanic.nist- will give us nest but also leads to Latinnīdus, "nest.” From Latinnīdus may come Old French (and modern French) niche, meaning "niche.” It is possible that in Old French a variant form existed that was borrowed into Middle English asnik, meaning "a notch, tally.” This word seems related to the Middle English wordnikken, which may mean "to mark a text for correction,”andnikking, "a hint, slight indication,” or possibly "a whisper, mention.” The wordnikking appears only once, in a Middle English text composed around 1400, as does the wordningkiling, found in another copy of the same text. It is possible thatningkiling is from nikking. Furthermore, it is probable that people divideda ninkling incorrectly and got an inkling, just as they did witha napron, getting an apron. If all this has indeed happened,inkling has come a long way from the nest. 在单词的演变史中,从nest 到 inkling 是一个有趣的过程。 我们从印欧语系词根nizdo- 开始, 通过日耳曼语的nist- 变为我们的 nest , 也衍生出拉丁语的nidus ,“巢”之意。 从拉丁语的nidus 有了古法语(和现代法语)中的 niche ,表示“壁龛”。 有可能在法语中有一个变体是从中古英语的nik (刻痕,计分)变化而来。 这个词看来与中古英语中的nikken 一词有关, 它的意思是“为改正一篇文字而做记号”,也与nikking 有关,意为“暗示,轻微指示”或也可能是“低声说话,提及”之意。 在一篇1400年左右所作的中古英语文章中,hikking 只出现了一次, 在同样内容的另一份版本中ningkiling 也只出现了一次。 所以有可能ninkiling 是由 nikking 变化而来。 此外,很有可能人们错误地将a ninkling 分开从而得到 an inkling , 就象人们错误地处理a napron 从而得到 an apron 一样。 如果所有这些真的发生了,inkling 一词从其巢穴走了一条长长的演变之路 〔orgy〕The wordorgy has become connected in the minds of many of us with unrestrained sexual activity, but its origins are much less licentious.We can trace the word as far back as the Indo-European rootwerg-, meaning "to do"and the source of our wordwork. Greekorgia, "secret rites, worship,” also comes from the rootwerg-, by way of the form.worg-. The Greek word was used with reference to the worship and the ritespracticed in the worship of various deities,such as Orpheus and Dionysus.The word in Greek did not denote sexual activity,although this was a part of some of the various rites.The rites of Dionysus, for example, included only music, dancing, drinking, and the eating of animal sacrifices.Having passed through Latin and Old French into Englishthe wordorgy is first recorded in English with reference to the secret rites of the Greek and Roman religions in 1589. It is interesting to note that the word is first recorded with its modern sense in 18th-century English and perhaps in 17th-century French.Whether this speaks to a greater licentiousness in society or not must be left to the historian,but certainly the religious nature of the word has gone into eclipse.单词orgy 已经以不加节制的性行为的概念深植于我们许多人的头脑之中, 但它的原意却并非是很放荡的。我们可以追溯该词到印欧的词根werg- 当中, 意思是“做”,并且是我们work 一词的来源。 希腊语orgia, “秘密仪式,崇拜”, 也来源于词根werg-, 形式为worg- 。 希腊语中用其指崇拜以及一些仪式,这些仪式用于表达对各神明的崇拜,比如俄耳甫斯和狄俄尼索斯。该词在希腊语中并不是表示性行为,尽管性行为也是各种仪式中的一个部分。例如,狄俄尼索斯的仪式中仅仅包括音乐、舞蹈、饮酒和吃祭祀动物。从拉丁语和古法语转到英语,orgy 这一词在1589年首次在英文有记载表示希腊和罗马秘密宗教仪式含义。 有趣的是,该词早在18世纪也许17世纪就已有其现代意义的首次记载了。不论它是不是指社会中的一种大型的狂欢节(这是历史学家的事了),有一点是非常明确的,那就是这个词的宗教本质已经逐渐消失了〔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〔caviar〕Although caviar might seem to be something quintessentially Russian,the wordcaviar is not a native one, the Russian term beingikra. Caviar first came into English in the 16th century,probably by way of French and Italian,which, along with other European languages, borrowed it from Turkishhavyar. The source of the Turkish word is apparently an Iranian dialectal form related to the Persian word for "egg,”khāyah, and this in turn goes back to the same Indo-European root that gives us the English wordsegg and oval. This rather exotic etymology is appropriate to a substance that is not to everyone's taste,giving rise to Shakespeare's famous phrase,“'twas caviary to the general,”the general public, that is.虽然鱼子酱一词有点俄罗斯风范,但caviar 一词不是俄语, 俄语词是ikra。 Caviar 第一次出现在英语中是在16世纪,大概是来自法语和意大利语,而它们又与其它欧洲语言一起从土耳其语havyar 借用而来。 土耳其词的来源很明显是从与波斯单词“鸡蛋”khayah 有关的伊朗方言中而来, 并且由此追溯到给我们带来egg 和 oval 的同一印欧语系词根。 这种怪异的词源学不会适合所有人的口味,由此带来了莎士比亚的名言,“它是适合大众口味的鱼子酱,”即指一般公众〔Beguine〕from Middle Dutch beg- [root of] beggaert [one who rattles off prayers] 源自 中古荷兰语 beg- beggaert的词根 [喋喋不休地祈祷的人] 〔effete〕The fact thateffete has come to mean "effeminate" marks a return to its etymological roots. Effete came into English from the Latin wordeffētus, made up ofex-, "out,” and the adjective fētus, "having recently given birth,” which is related to the nounfētus, "offspring,” a word we have borrowed as well. Latineffētus was used of plants that had borne fruit or of animals that had borne young, buteffētus could also mean "worn out with bearing young, exhausted, feeble.” The English wordeffete, whose earliest appearance is recorded in 1621, was first used in senses similar or identical to senses of Latineffētus ; however, in the last two centuries or so the senses "characterized by weakness or decadence" and "overrefined, effeminate,” have appeared.Botheffeminate and effete go back to the same Indo-European root, dhē(i)-, meaning "to suck.” Ineffeminate we see the development from a form of the root meaning literally "she who suckles"; ineffete, the development from a form of the root that refers to the baby who sucks milk from the mother. 事实上,effete 这个词表示“女人气的”意义反而表明其意义更接近于其词根的意义。 Effete 是从拉丁语effetus 传入英语的, 这个拉丁语词是由ex- 表“出”和形容词 fetus 表“刚刚生产”组成的, 该词与我们借用来的名词fetus 表示“后代”有关。 拉丁语effetus 用于指植物刚刚结出果实或动物刚产幼仔, 但effetus 可能也表示“刚出生而精疲力竭、无力、柔弱”。 英语词语effete 第一次记载于1621年, 当时的意义与拉丁语effetus 的意义基本相同或相似, 但从以后近两个世纪以来,表示“柔弱或堕落”和“娇柔或女人气”的意义相继出现。effeminate 和 effete 都源于同一印欧语系的词根 dhe(i-) 意为“吸”。 在effeminate 中,我们看到从词根形式拓展来的意义大体上是“喂奶的女人”; effete 从词根形式发展而来的意义是指从母体身上汲取乳汁的幼儿 〔banquet〕The linguistic stock of the wordbanquet has been fluctuating for a long time. The Old French wordbanquet, the likely source of our word, is derived from Old Frenchbanc, "bench,” ultimately of Germanic origin. The sense development in Old French seems to have changed from "little bench" to "a meal taken on the family workbench" to "feast.”The English wordbanquet is first recorded in a work possibly composed before 1475 with reference to a feast held by the god Apollo, and the word appears to have been used from the 15th to the 18th century to refer to the feasts of the powerful and the wealthy.Perhaps this association led a 19th-century newspaper editor to label the word "grandiloquent"because it was being appropriated by those lower down on the social scale.单词banquet 的词根很长时间来一直有变化。 古法语中的词banquet 可能是我们所使用的词的来源, 是由古法语banc 一词衍生而来的,在日耳曼族语中表“长凳”之意。 而在古法语中其意已由“小椅子”演变为“全家围坐在一起吃的一顿饭”,再演变为“宴席”。英语中的banquet 一词首次记载于1475年前一部描写阿波罗神举行的一次宴席的作品中。 从15世纪至18世纪该词一直用于特指权贵们举行的筵宴。也许正是由于这个原因,19世纪一位报纸编辑将该词归为“大言不惭的”一类,因为当时一些中下层人士也开始使用该词了〔pilot〕The pilot of an aircraft flying through the air has a foot on the ground not literallybut etymologically.If we poke around in the etymological soil for the roots of the wordpilot, we find that it goes back to the Indo-European rootped-, meaning "foot.” From the lengthened-grade suffixed formpēdo- came the Greek word pēdon, "blade of an oar,” and in the plural, "rudder.” In Medieval Greekthere is assumed to have existed the derivativepēdōtēs, "steersman,” which passed into Old Italian and acquired several forms,includingpedota, and pilota, the form that was borrowed into Old French aspilot. English borrowed the word from French,and aspilot it has moved from the water to the air, first being recorded in 1848 with reference to an airborne pilot—a balloonist.飞行员一脚踩地飞进天空这句话字面上虽讲不通,但在词源上却可以。如果为找到pilot 的根源而溯其词源, 我们会发现它源自印欧语系词根ped- 意为“脚”。 从加长的这个词根的后缀形式pedo- 我们得到希腊词语 pedon “桨叶”及复数形式,“舵”。 在中世纪的希腊,据称曾存在派生词pedotes “舵手”, 该词进了古意大利语并添了一些形式,包括pedota 和 pilota , 这些形式被法语借用过来,便成了pilot 。 英语又借自法语,随着pilot 从水上被移用到天上, 于1848年第一次用来指天上飞行员——热气球驾驶员〔examine〕A student who is being examined might prefer at times to deal with a swarm of bees rather than be weighed in the balance once again.The history of the wordexamine involves both phenomena. Examine, first recorded in English in a work composed before 1338,goes back to the Latin wordexāmināre, which in turn is derived fromexāmen, meaning both "a swarm of bees" and "the apparatus or process of weighing, balance.” Exāmen has these senses because it is formed from the prefixex-, "out of,” and the root .ag-, "to drive, force.” The semantic possibilities of this combination are shown by the senses of the related verbexigere, which meant "to drive out,” "to exact payment,” "to demand,” and "to inquire after or into.”The verbexāmināre derived from exāmen has the sense "to swarm" as well as the senses "to weigh, balance,” and "to consider critically.”一个正在考试的学生有时宁愿去对付一群蜜蜂也不愿再一次参加考试。examine 这个词的历史涉及到以上两种现象。 Examine 在英文最早的记录是出现于1338年以前的一本书中,回溯到拉丁文中的examinare, 其源自examen, 意思不但包括“蜂群”,还包括“衡量和平衡的程序或装置”。 Examen 具有这些含义是因为它由前缀ex-, 意为“超出”,和词根 ag-, 意为“驱使,强迫”组成的。 这个组合在语义上包含的几种可能被相关动词exigere 的意义表达出来, 它的含义有“赶出”、“要求支付”、“需要”和“问候或调查”。examinare 这个动词源自 examen, 含有“云集”的意思, 同时也有“衡量、平衡”和“吹毛求疵地考虑”等含义〔paronymous〕Allied by derivation from the same root; having the same stem; for example,beautiful and beauteous. 同源的,同词根的:由同一词根派生而联系在一起的;有同样词根的;例如,beautiful 和 beauteous 〔primary〕Having a word root or other linguistic element as a basis that cannot be further analyzed or broken down. Used of the derivation of a word or word element.具有不可分的语根的:具有不能再分析或分解的词根或其他语素的用于词或词素的派生〔triliteral〕A three-letter word or word element.三字母词:由三个字母组成的词或词根、音节〔derivation〕The process by which words are formed from existing words or bases by adding affixes, assinger from sing or undo from do, by changing the shape of the word or base, as song from sing, or by adding an affix and changing the pronunciation of the word or base, as electricity from electric. 衍生:通过在已存在的词或词根后加上词缀,例如从sing(唱歌) 到 singer(歌唱家) 或从 do(做) 到 undo(解开,不做) ,或通过改变词或词根的形状,例如从 sing(唱歌) 到 song(歌曲) ,或是通过加一词缀并变化该词或词根的发音,例如从 electric(电子) 到 electricity(电,电力) 〔absquatulate〕The vibrant energy of American English sometimes appears in the use of Latin affixes to create jocular pseudo-Latin "learned" words.There is a precedent for this in the language of Shakespeare,whose plays contain scores of made-up Latinate words.Midlandabsquatulate has a prefix ab-, "away from,” and a suffix-ate, "to act upon in a specified manner,” affixed to a nonexistent base form-squatul-, probably suggested bysquat. Hence the whimsicalabsquatulate, "to squat away from.” Another such coinage is Northernbusticate, which joins bust with -icate by analogy with verbs like medicate. Southernargufy joins argue to a redundant -fy, "to make; cause to become.” These creations are largely confined to regions of the United States where change is slow,and where the 19th-century love for Latinate words and expressions is still manifest.For example, Appalachian speech is characterized by the frequent use ofrecollect, aggravate, oblige, and other such words. 美国英语的创造力有时表现在用拉丁文词缀去创造滑稽的假拉丁文“文雅”的单词。莎士比亚的语言是一先行者,他的戏剧中有大量创造出来的拉丁词。中部地区的absquatulate 有一前缀 ab-, 表“离开,走开,” 和一个后缀-ate, 表“以特殊方式行事,” 这些再加在一个不存在的词根上-squatul-, 也许是由squat 而来的。 所以奇特的absquatulate 表“走开,离开。” 另外一个这样的造词是从北部的busticate 来的,这是把 bust 加上 -icate 变来的,如同源动词 medicate。 南部的argufy 把 argue 加上多余的 -fy, 意为“变成;使成为”。 这种造词只见于美国变化较慢的地区,在那儿仍保持了19世纪那种喜好拉丁语词语的习惯。比如在阿巴拉契亚地区的语言中,如同recollect,aggravate,oblige 和其他这样一些词经常被使用的 〔acorn〕A thoughtful glance at the wordacorn might produce the surmise that it is made up of oak and corn, especially if we think ofcorn in its sense of "a kernel or seed of a plant,” as in peppercorn. The fact that others thought the word was so constituted partly accounts for the present formacorn. Here we see the workings of the process of linguistic change known as folk etymology,an alteration in form of a word or phrase so that it resembles a more familiar term mistakenly regarded as analogous.Acorn actually goes back to Old English æcern, "acorn,” which in turn goes back to the Indo-European root ōg-, meaning "fruit, berry.” 对acorn 稍加分析我们可能会产生这样的假设,它是由 oak 和 corn 两个词组成的, 特别是当我们想到corn 作为“植物的核或种子”的意思用时,如 胡椒粒。 有人认为这种组合方式就可解释现在acorn 这种形式。 在这我们就看到了语言学上被称为俗语源学的语言变化形式。一词或词组在形式上改变从而错误地被认为是类似性地代表另一个更为熟悉的词。Acorn 在古英语中实际上是 æcern, "acorn"的印欧语系中的词根是 og- ,意指“水果,浆果。” 〔suffix〕An affix added to the end of a word or stem, serving to form a new word or functioning as an inflectional ending, such as-ness in gentleness, -ing in walking, or -s in sits. 后缀,词尾:在一个词或词根末尾加的词缀,用来形成一个新单词或作为曲折变化的结尾,如-ness 在 gentleness中,-ing 在 walking 中或 -s 在 sits 中 〔whore〕Derivatives of Indo-European roots often make strange bedfellows. A prime example is the case of.kā-, "to like, desire.” From the stem.kāro- derived from this root came the prehistoric Common Germanic word .hōraz with the underlying meaning "one who desires" and the effective meaning "adulterer.” From this word came the Old English wordhōre, the ancestor of Modern Englishwhore. The same stem produced the Latin wordcārus, "dear,” from which came Modern Englishcaress, cherish, and charity, the highest form of love. Contact with East Indian culture has added yet another pair of derivatives from this Indo-European root to the English language.From the stem.kāmo- came the Sanskrit word kāmaḥ, "love, desire,” from which are derived the English borrowingsKama, "the Hindu god of love,” andKamasutra, "a Sanskrit treatise on the rules of love and marriage according to Hindu law.” 从印欧语词根派生出的词常产生奇怪的词伴。一个很好的例子就是ko- “喜欢,渴望”。 从这个词根派生出karo 这个词干,然后又产生出史前共同日尔曼语的 horaz 一词,暗指“渴望…的人”,也含有显著的意义“通奸者”。 从这个词又产生古英语中的hore, 这是现代英语whore 的前身。 这一词干产生了拉丁词carus “亲爱的”, 又由它而引出现代英语中的caress,cherish 和 charity 这是爱的最高形式。 与东印度文化的接触又给英语语言加上了另外两个从这个印欧词根派生出的词。从词干kamo- 产生出梵语词 kamah “爱,欲望”, 从这个词又产生出英语的外来词Kama “印度人的爱神”, 和Kamasutra “根据印度法律所制定的关于爱情和婚姻的规定的梵语论述” 〔reduplicate〕To double (the initial syllable or all of a root word) to produce an inflectional or derivational form.重叠音:为产生曲折变化或衍生形式而重复(词根的第一个音节或全部) |
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