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释义 | 〔woodchuck〕The woodchuck goes by several names in the United States.The most famous of these isgroundhog, under which name all the legends about the animal's hibernation have accrued.In the Appalachian Mountains the woodchuck is known as awhistle pig. The wordwoodchuck is probably a folk etymology of a New England Algonquian word—that is, English-speaking settlers "translated" the Indian word into a compound of two words that made sense to them in light of the animal's habitat.土拨鼠在美国有好几个名字。最有名的是groundhog, 在这个名字中关于动物冬眠的传奇已经出现了。在阿巴拉契亚山脉,土拨鼠被认作whistle pig 。 woodchuck 这个词可能是新英格兰阿尔贡金语中民间起源的语汇──就是说, 讲英语的殖民者的把这个印度语单词根据这种动物的习性“翻”成了两个字的合成词,以使其有意义〔shakedown〕In 1969 a majority of the members of theAmerican Heritage Dictionary Usage Panel felt that the noun shakedown in the sense "extortion" and the related phrasal verb shake down were acceptable in writing, though both are now labeledslang. It would seem that certain usages take a while to attain respectability because of the company they keep.Shake and the verb phrase shake out of already meant "to steal" in Middle English. This usage ofshake is still found in the 19th and 20th centuries. Bothshake and shake out of in the sense "to steal" are clearly related to shake down, which is first recorded in 1872, shake down being glossed "to extort money from individuals.” This is a slang usage,probably occurring, as had the verbshake, largely in contexts having to do with criminal or corrupt behavior. As our Panel realized,the verb and the later nounshakedown (first recorded in 1902 in the United States) have now moved from the lingo of criminals, loan sharks, and politicians into wider currency. 1969年,大多数美国经典辞书 用法研究小组的成员认为名词 shakedown (意为“敲诈”)及相关的短语动词 shake down 在写作中是可接受的, 虽然现在两者均被标以俚语。 与之有关的意义似乎有些用法需要一些时间来获得社会的承认。在中世纪英语中,Shake 和 shake out of 已经意味着“偷盗” 。 shake 的这种用法仍见于19世纪和20世纪。 Shake 及 shake out of (意为“偷盗”)明显与 shake down (首次记载于1872年)有所联系。 shake down 被解释为“从个人处敲诈金钱”。 这是俚语用法,很可能如动词shake 一样,大量用于与犯罪或腐败行为有关的语境中。 正如我们的用法研究小组所意识到的,该动词及后来的名词shakedown (在美国最早记载于1902年)已从罪犯、高利贷者及政客的语汇发展到更广泛的使用领域 〔dogie〕In the language of the American West,a motherless calf is known as adogie. InWestern Words Ramon F. Adams gives one possible etymology for dogie, whose origin is unknown.During the 1880's,when a series of harsh winters left large numbers of orphaned calves,the little calves, weaned too early, were unable to digest coarse range grass,and their swollen bellies "very much resembled a batch of sourdough carried in a sack.”Such a calf was referred to asdough-guts. The term, altered todogie according to Adams, "has been used ever since throughout cattleland to refer to a pot-gutted orphan calf.” Another possibility is thatdogie is an alteration of Spanish dogal, "lariat.” 在美国西部英语中,无母犊牛被称为dogie 。 莱蒙·F·亚当斯为dogie 在 西部语汇 中找到一个词源, 但该词源的出处也是未知的。19世纪80年代,连年酷寒的冬季造成了大量孤犊,尚不能消化粗糙的牧草小牛犊过早断奶,肚子鼓胀“就象装在袋子里的发酵面团”。这样的小牛被称作dongh-guts 。 据亚当斯称,该称呼后来变作dogie ,“整个牧牛区从此用来称呼大肚子的孤犊。” 另外一种可能性是dogie 为西班牙语 dogal 的变体,意即“套索” |
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