| 单词 | 这一事实 |
| 释义 | 〔coffee〕Would one be as ready to drinkchaoua, kauhi, or coffa as coffee ? Most of these exotic early forms of our word reflect the factthat coffee, though a normal accompaniment to the life of many English speakers, was originally an exotic substance.Coffee came to Europe from the Middle East, where its name wasqahveh, an Ottoman Turkish pronunciation of Arabicqahwah, the Turks having borrowed the word and the drink from the Arabs.The first three forms cited above show the influence of the Middle Eastern words for coffee.Our formcoffee results from combining caffè, the Italian version of the Middle Eastern word, and the vowel of the Middle Eastern word, represented by o. Coffee is first recorded in English in 1601 with the spelling coffe. 人们愿意喝chaoua, kauhi 或 coffa ，就如 coffee 一样吗？ 我们言语的这些早期外来形式大多反映这一事实：咖啡虽然常伴随着许多说英语的人的生活，但它是来源于国外的东西。咖啡从中东传到欧洲，在中东它的名称是qahveh ， 阿拉伯的奥斯曼土耳其人发音为qahwah 。 土耳其人自阿拉伯借用该单词和饮料。上面引用的前三个形式表明中东话对咖啡这个单词的影响。我们的形式coffee ，得自结合中东单词的意大利的 caffe 和中东单词中用 o字母表示的元音字母。 Coffee在英国于1601年首次被记载，拼作 coffe. 〔sly〕The parvenu was much too foxy to let slip even a hint of his working-class background.暴发户十分狡猾，他决不暴露自己是工人出身这一事实。〔patience〕Too timorous to protest the disrespect with which she was being treated, the young woman could only accept it with resignation.这个年轻的女人太懦弱了以致无力抗争她所遭受的不敬，她只能接受这一事实。〔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 〔principle〕Despite generations of spelling lessons,the wordsprinciple and principal are still commonly confused. Perhaps an understanding of their history will help in keeping them straight.Both words go back to the same Latin word,prīnceps, meaning "first, as in time, position, or authority.”The split that has caused all the trouble occurred in the next stage of development.Fromprīnceps were derived the noun prīncipium, "start, origin, guiding principle,” the adjectiveprīncipālis, "first in importance or esteem,” and the noun prīncipālis, "a leading citizen.” Clearly the latter two words with theā between the p and the l have given us the adjectiveprincipal (first recorded around 1300) and the noun principal (also first recorded in a work composed around 1300).Perhaps it should not be mentioned that one Middle English spelling for the noun wasprinciple. On the other hand,the Latin wordprīncipium and its Old French descendant principe were involved in the creation of the word principle in Middle English, first recorded in a work written around 1380.Words likemanciple and participle influenced the spelling of this new word, but again perhaps we should keep silent about the fact that we also find the word spelledprincipal and prinsipal in Middle English. A key point to remember about these seemingly aberrant Middle English spellings isthat in Middle English spelling was not nearly as fixed as it usually is today,a development that was much furthered by the invention of printing.When we interchange spellings forprinciple and principal, we are doing something that would have been less of a fault in the days before the conformity imposed on us by this marvelous invention. 尽管在拼写课上反复强调，principle 和 principal 还是被人们搞混。 或许了解一下这两个词的历史有助于我们弄清楚它们的拼写。两个词都可追溯到同一个拉丁词princeps， 意为“在时间，地位或权威上第一的”。引起所有麻烦的分裂出现在发展过程的下一个阶段。从princeps 派生出了名词 principium， 意为“开端，根源，指导性原则，” 形容词principalis “最重要的或最受尊敬的”及名词 principalis 意为“处于领导地位的公民”。 显然，后两个词在p 和 l 之间带有 ā， 这就使我们有了形容词principal （最早记录于1300年左右）和名词 principal （最早记录也是在大约1300年左右创作的作品中）。或许我们不应提到这个名词在中古英语中的一种拼法是principle 。 另一方面，拉丁词principium 和其古法词的派生词 principe 共同作用创造了中古英语单词 principle， 最早记录于写于约1380年的一部作品。象manciple 和 participle 这样的单词都影响了这个新单词的拼写， 但是或许我们应该再一次对于这个单词也曾在中古英语中被拼写成principal 和 prinsipal 这一事实保持沉默。 记住这些在中古英语中貌似反常的拼写的关键在于，在中古英语中的拼写方式几乎不象今天这么固定，因为当时还没有发明印刷术。当这项神奇的发明把拼写一致的原则加到我们头上之前，我们把principle 和 principal 的拼写互相交换，也算不上什么大错 〔plutonium〕After the planet Pluto [from the fact that it follows neptunium in the periodic table] 源自 Pluto [源于该元素在元素周期表中排在铼之后这一事实] 〔moral〕"The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot" (Mark Twain).“人能分辨是非这一事实证明了他的智慧 较其它动物高一等； 但是他会做 错事的事实也证明了的他的 道德 较其它 不能做错事的动物低一等” （马克·吐温）。〔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〔nonchalant〕A nonchalant person is not likely to become warm or heated about anything,a fact that is underscored by the etymology of the wordnonchalant. Non-,the first part of the word, is easy to spot as a familiar negative prefix;since this word was formed in Old French,we havenon-, the Old French descendant of Latin nōn-. The second element,chalant, is the Old French present participle of the verb chaloir, meaning "to be concerned.”This in turn came from the Latin wordcalēre, which from its concrete sense "to be hot or warm" developed the figurative sense "to be roused or fired with hope, zeal, or anger.”Obviously the Old French verbchaloir has lost some of the warmth of Latin calēre, but then, the nonchalant person has little warmth or concern.The wordnonchalant is first recorded in English before 1734, although Frenchnonchalance, a derivative of French nonchalant, seems to have entered English first. Englishnonchalance is first recorded in 1678. 态度冷漠的人是不太可能变得热心或对某事激动的，这一事实被词语nonchalant的词源所强调。 Non-，这个词的第一部分， 很容易认出是个很熟悉的否定前缀；因为此词形成于古法语，我们可以说non-，来自 拉丁语 non- 在古法语中的衍生词。 第二个组成部分chalant， 是动词 chaloir 的古法语现在分词， 意思是“担忧的，关心的”。此词同样也来自于拉丁词calere ， 从其具体的感觉“热的或暖和的”演变到比喻的感觉“被激起或引起希望、热心或愤怒”。很明显古法语动词chaloir 已去掉了一些拉丁语 calere 的温暖， 不过，冷漠的人确是几乎没有什么热心或关心的。词语nonchalant 在1734年前第一次被记录在英语中， 尽管法语nonchalence, 是法语 nonchalant 的派生词似乎已首先进入英语。 英语中的nonchalance 于1678年第一次被记录下来 〔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 |
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