| 单词 | 追溯到 |
| 释义 | 〔buffalo〕The buffalo is so closely associated with the Wild West that it would seem natural to assume that its name comes from a Native American word, as is the case with the wordsmoose and skunk. In fact, however,buffalo can probably be traced back by way of one or more of the Romance languages, such as Portuguese, Spanish, or Italian, through Vulgar Latin and Latin and ultimately to the Greek wordboubalos, meaning "an antelope or a buffalo.” The buffalo referred to by the Greek and Latin words was, of course, not the American one but rather an Old World mammal, such as the water buffalo of southern Asia.Applied to the North American mammal,buffalo is in fact a misnomer, bison being the preferred term. As far as everyday usage is concerned, however,buffalo, first recorded for the American mammal in 1635, is older thanbison, first recorded in 1774. 野牛同西部荒原联系如此紧密以致人们很自然地认为这个名字源于美洲本地语言，就象这两个词moose 和 skunk。 然而，实际上buffalo 一词可以通过一种或更多种日耳曼语言，如葡萄牙语、西班牙语或意大利语溯源。 通过通俗拉丁语和拉丁语最终追溯到希腊词boubalos 意思是“羚羊或野牛”。 希腊语和拉丁语所指的野牛当然不是美洲野牛，而是东半球的一种哺乳动物，如南亚水牛。就北美哺乳动物来说，buffalo 实际上是用词不当， bison 才是合适的词。 然而就日常用法而言，buffalo 于1635年首次被用于记录美国哺乳动物， 比首次记录于1774年的bison 要早些 〔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 〔charlatan〕A charlatan and chatter are inseparable,even perhaps in the etymology ofcharlatan. According to one explanation,charlatan goes back through French to Italian ciarlatano, "mountebank, fraud,” from the wordciarlare, "to chatter.” Another explanation would derivecharlatan from the Italian word cerretano, "an inhabitant of Cerreto, a quack,” the village of Cerreto being noted for its charlatans.It seems, however, that bothciarlare and cerretano have been involved in the formation of the Italian word. The first example of the English word and of its earliest recorded sense,"huckster, especially of medicines, who gives his pitch to a crowd; mountebank,” is found in 1618.The sense familiar to us,"a person pretending to skill or knowledge,”is first recorded in 1809.“冒充内行者”与“喋喋不休”是分不开的，甚至也许在charlatan 的词源上。 根据一种解释，charlatan 可以由法语追溯到意大利语的 ciarlatano， “江湖郎中，骗子”， 其来自ciarlare “喋喋不休”。 另一种解释是从意大利词cerretano 派生出 charlatan， “塞利托的居民，庸医，” 以其庸医闻名的塞利托村。但似乎ciarlare 与 cerretano 两个词都与这个意大利词的形成有关。 这个英语词第一个例子以及它最早记载的意义，“大吹大擂推销商品的人，尤指向人群推销药品的人；江湖医生，”见于1618年。对于我们熟悉的含义，“冒充在技能和知识上内行的人，”最早记载于1809年〔fiction〕"The latest fiction" to most people means the latest novels or storiesrather than the most recently invented pretense or latest lie.All three senses of the wordfiction point back to its source, Latin fictiō, "the action of shaping, a feigning, that which is feigned.” Fictiō in turn was derived from fingere, "to make by shaping, feign, make up or invent a story or excuse.” Our first instance offiction, recorded in a work composed around 1412, was used in the sense "invention of the mind, that which is imaginatively invented.”It is not a far step from this meaning to the sense "imaginative literature,” first recorded in 1599.“最新的小说”对大多数人来说是指最新的小说或故事，而不是指最新捏造出的谎言。Fiction 这一词的所有的三个意思都追溯到拉丁语中的词源 fictio ，“假装，伪造，做假的行为。” 反过来fictio 则起源于 fingere， “捏造一个故事或编一个借口”。 我们可以在一部写于1412年前后的作品中找到fiction 的第一个例子， 文中所用的意思是“头脑中的虚构，是充满想象的虚构的”。这一意思已经和1599年首次记录的“虚构的文学作品”这层意思相去不远了〔Gloversville〕A city of east-central New York northwest of Schenectady. Its glove-making industry dates to the late 18th century. Population, 16,656.格洛弗斯维尔：纽约中东部一城市，斯克内克塔迪西北，它的手套制造业追溯到18世纪晚期。人口16,656〔chagrin〕The ultimate etymology of the wordchagrin, which comes directly to us from French, is considered uncertain by many etymologists. At one timechagrin was thought to be the same word as shagreen, "a leather or skin with a rough surface,” derived from French chagrin. The reasoning wasthat in French the word for this rough material, which was used to smooth and polish things,was extended to the notion of troubles that fret and annoy a person.It was later decided, however,that the sense "rough leather" and the sense "sorrow" each belonged to a different French wordchagrin. Other etymologists have offered an alternative explanation,suggesting that the French wordchagrin, "sorrow,” is a loan translation of the German word Katzenjammer, "a morning-after-the-night-before feeling.” A loan translation is a type of borrowing from another languagein which the elements of a foreign word,as inKatzen, "cats,” and Jammer, "distress, seediness,” are assumed to be translated literally by corresponding elements in another language,in this case,chat, "cat,” and grigner, "to grimace.” The actual etymology is less colorful,with the word probably going back to a Germanic word,.gramī, meaning "sorrow, trouble.”Chagrin is first recorded in English in 1656 in the now obsolete sense "anxiety, melancholy.”我们从法语直接借用的词chagrin 的最终词源被许多词源学家认为是不能确定的。 Charin 曾经被认为和由法语词 chagrin 派生出来的 shagreen “有粗糙表面的皮革或皮肤”是同一个词。 理由是，这种粗糙材料是用来打磨和抛光物品用的，法语里的这个词被引申到有了使人懊恼和烦恼的意思。但后来才确定，“粗糙的皮革”的含义和“沮丧”的含义分属于一个不同的法语词chagrin 。 别的词源学家提出了另外一种解释，说法语词chagrin “沮丧”是借译于日耳曼语词 Katzenjammer “醉后的难受感”。 借译是借用另一种语言，即外语词的成分，如Katzen “猫”，和 Jammer “沮丧，不舒服”， 并照那种语言的对应成分直译过来，在这种情况下为chat “猫”和 grigner “做怪相”。 实际的语源没有这么富于趣味，这个词极可能要追溯到日耳曼语词grami ， 意思为“愁苦，麻烦”。Chagrin 第一次出现在英语里有记载的时间是在1656年， 当时的含义“焦虑，忧郁”现已过时不用〔testy〕To the casual eyetesty and heady seem to have no connection until one becomes less casual and notes that both words refer to the head.Thehead in heady is easy to see both in the form of the word and in the meanings of the word. The earliest sense,first recorded in a work composed before 1382,is "headlong, headstrong,”which is clearly a "head" sensebut so is the better known current sense "apt to go to the head, intoxicating.”To see thehead in testy, we must look back to the Old French wordtestu, the source of our word. Testu is derived from the Old French word teste, "head" (Modern French tête ). In Englishtesty developed another sense, "aggressive, contentious,” which passed into the sense we are familiar with, "irritable.” 粗看testy 和 heady 似乎没有联系， 直到一个人较为仔细才注意到两个词都指头部。heady 中的 head 很容易看出在形式与意义上均相似。 其最早的意义，首次记录于1382年以前的一部著作中，指“轻率的，顽固的”，显然是“头部”的意思，但现在更为人知的意思是“能入脑的；陶醉的”。而要看head 在 testy 中， 我们必须追溯到古法语testu ，我们这个词的词源。 Testu 源于古法语词 teste ，“头部”（现代法语 tete )。 在英语中，testy 所发展的另一层意思（“好战的，争论的”）转化成了我们熟悉的意思（“暴躁的”） 〔impeach〕Nothing hobbles a President so much as impeachment,and there is an etymologicalas well as procedural reason for this.The wordimpeach can be traced back through Anglo-Norman empecher to Late Latin impedicāre, "to catch, entangle,”from Latinpedica, "fetter for the ankle, snare.” Thus we find that Middle Englishempechen, the ancestor of our word,means such things as "to cause to get stuck fast,” "hinder or impede,” "interfere with,” and "criticize unfavorably.”A legal sense ofempechen is first recorded in 1384. This sense, which had previously developed in Old French,was "to accuse, bring charges against.”A further development of the sense had specific reference to Parliament and its formal accusation of treason or other high crimes,a process that the United States borrowed from the British.Although we have used it rarely at the federal level,impeachment stands as the ultimate snare for those who would take advantage of the public trust.没有事能象弹劾那样会使总统陷入窘境了，这既有词源的原因，又有程序上的原因。impeach 这个词能够通过英国法语中的 empecher 追溯到后期拉丁语中的 impedicare ， 意思为“抓住，牵连”，源自拉丁语中的pedica ，意思是“脚镣，圈套”。 于是我们发现中古英语中的empechen ， 我们现在这个词的前身，有着诸如“使牢牢困住”，“妨碍或阻止”，“干涉”和“令人不利地批评”等意思。empechen 在法律方面的意思最早在1384年被记录下来。 这个意思，原先在古法语中有一定发展，意思是“控告，指控。”这个意思的进一步发展到议会和议会对叛国罪或其他重大罪行的指控，这一程序是美国从英国那里借鉴而来的。尽管我们在联邦一级上很少使用，但是弹劾对于那些滥用公众信任的人来说是最终的陷阱〔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 〔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〔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〔stove〕A stove to us is something we expect to find in a room,but at one timea stove was a room,specifically, a room for taking a hot-air or steam bath (first recorded in 1456).Around 1545 the word is recorded with reference to another room, such as a bedroom, heated with a furnace.The devices used to heat these rooms came to be calledstoves as well, a use first found sometime between 1550 and 1625.Of course, heating devices that we would callstoves had long been in existence, going back to Roman times.However, the stove as the chief cooking device, taking the place of the fireplace, dates only to around the mid-19th century with the widespread use of wood-burning or coal-burning cooking stoves.对于我们来说，火炉是我们可以在屋内找到的东西，但是有一段时间，这种东西指的是一个房间，尤其是取得热空气或供蒸汽浴的房间（首次记载于1456年）。1545年前后，该词又记载了另一含义，指另一种带有火炉取暖的房间，如卧室。这些屋内用于取暖的器具也被称作stoves， 该用法首次发现于1550年到1625年间。当然，我们称为stoves 的加热器具已经很久以前就存在了， 可以上溯到古罗马时期。但是，该词代替壁炉成为主要的烹饪器具只能追溯到19世纪中期，那时以木材或煤作燃料的烹饪火炉得到大规模地推广使用〔athlete〕Athletes who believe that winning is the most important aspect of athletics have etymological support for their view,even if the way one plays the game is more important than winning a prize.The wordathlete may ultimately go back to the Greek word athlos, "contest, especially a contest for a prize.” Two other possible sources areathlon, "prize won in a contest,” and .athleus, "one who competes.” The Greek wordathlētēs, derived from at least one of these sources, meant "combatant, champion,” and was used especially for competitors in games.Our wordathlete, borrowed from Greek by way of Latin, is first recorded in Middle English (possibly before 1425) with reference to wrestlers.那些坚信体育比赛中取胜是最重要一面的运动员，有词源学根据来支持他们的观点，甚至参加运动的方式比获取奖品更重要。athlete 这个单词可以最终追溯到希腊单词 athlos “比赛， 尤指为获取奖品的竞赛。”另外两个可能的词源是athlon “体育竞赛中获得的奖品”和 athleus “参加体育竞赛的人”。 athletes 这个希腊单词至少从这些词源之一发展而来，意思是“竞技者、冠军”， 尤其用来指体育比赛中的竞技者。这个词athlete 通过拉丁语从希腊语中借用， 最早记录于中世纪英语（大约在1425年以前），用来指摔跤运动〔Zhou〕A Chinese dynasty (traditionally dated 1122-221b.c. ) characterized by great intellectual achievements, including the rise of Confucianism and Taoism and the writing of the oldest known Chinese literature. 周朝：中国历史上的一个朝代，（习惯上追溯到公元前 1122-221年）以伟大的智慧结晶为特征，包括儒学和道学及中国最早的著名文学作品的出现 〔Philistine〕It has never been good to be a Philistine.Samson, Saul, and David in the Bible helped bring the Philistines into prominence because they were such prominent opponents.Even though the Philistines have long since disappeared,their name has lived on in the Old Testament.The English name for them,Philistines, which goes back through Late Latin and Greek to Hebrew, is first found in Middle English,wherePhilistiens, the ancestor of our word, is recorded in a work composed before 1325. Beginning in the 17th centuryphilistine was used as a common noun usually in the plural to refer to various groups considered the enemy,such as literary critics.In Germany in the same centuryit is said that in a memorial at Jena for a student who had been killed in a town-gown quarrel,the minister preached a sermon from the text "Philister über dir Simson! [The Philistines be upon thee, Samson!],”the words of Delilah to Samson after she attempted to render him powerless before his Philistine enemies.From this usage it is said that German students came to usePhilister, the German equivalent of Philistine, to denote nonstudents and hence uncultured or materialistic people.Both usages were picked up in English in the early 19th century.做非利士人从来没有好处。《圣经》中的参孙、索尔和大卫使非利士人出名是因为他们是很优秀的对手。尽管非利士人已消失很久了，他们的名字却仍存在于《旧约》当中。他们的英文名称Philistines 可由晚期拉丁语和希腊语追溯到希伯来语， 是在中世纪英语中首先发现的，其中我们所用词的前身Philistines 记载在一部1325年前的著作中。 17世纪以来，Philistine 被用作普通名词并且常以复数形式出现， 意指被认为是敌人的各种团体，如文学批评家。在同一世纪的德国，据说在耶拿举行的纪念一名在市民和大学生争执中被杀的学生的纪念会上，牧师从“［非利士人比你强，参孙!］”中选取了一段做布道，就是迪莱勒在试图使参孙在他的非利士手面前变得软弱无力后说的那些话。这段话的用法中可见德国学生开始使用philister 作为 philistine 的德语替代语， 意指不是学生因此也就是没有文化以及不务实的人。这两种用法在19世纪早期的英语中均能找到〔ofay〕The commonly seen etymology ofofay —Pig Latin for foe —is perhaps of less interest than the more likely story of this word's origins. The word, which is first recorded in the first quarter of the 20th century,must have been in use much longer if it is, as some scholars think, borrowed from an African source.Although this source has not been pinned down,the suggested possibilities are in themselves interesting.One would trace it to the Ibibio wordafia, "white or light-colored.” Another would have it come from Yorubaofe, a word that was said in order to protect oneself from danger. The term was then transferred to white people,regarded as a danger to Black people throughout the wretched days of slavery and beyond.ofay 一词的最常见的词形变化是 foe ，一种儿童黑话说法——可能更有趣的是关于这个词来源的故事： 在20世纪前二十五年里有次记载，如果按一些学者们所想，如果它是从非洲借过来的，它被使用的时间应更长一些。虽然这个说法还没有定下来，但它蕴含的可能性本身就很有趣。人们可能将它追溯到一个伊比比奥词afia ，意思是“白色或浅色”。 另还有人将它追溯到约鲁巴语ofe ，这个词是为了保持自己，避开危险的意思。 此后这个术语被移用于白人，这些白人在奴隶制及以前的悲惨日子里，被认为是对黑人们的危险〔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〔strawberry〕Izaak Walton's 1655 comment,"We may say of Angling as Dr. Boteler said of Strawberries; Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did,”is perhaps the nicest use of the wordstrawberry in its history. This history goes back much further in English to the Old English period when the word is first recorded.We know thatstrawberry was formed during that period from the Old English ancestors of our words straw and berry. What is not known is why the wordstraw is the first part of this compound. One possibility is that the small, one-seeded fruits on the surface of a strawberry resemble fragments of straw.尹扎卡·沃尔顿在1655年的评论道，“我们可以谈论钓鱼就如同包特勒医生谈论草莓；无疑地，上帝可以创造一种更好的浆果，但毫无疑问他从来没有做”，这一评论可能是strawberry 这个词在其历史上最好的用法。 在英语中，这个词的最早记录历史可更远地追溯到古英语时期。我们知道，strawberry 这个词在那时来自于我们的词语 straw 和 berry 的古英语祖先。 为什么这个复合词的前半部分为straw 无从得知。 一种可能是草莓表面小的单个种子状的果实象稻草的碎片〔economy〕Managing an economy has at least an etymological justification.The wordeconomy can probably be traced back to the Greek word oikonomos, "one who manages a household,” derived fromoikos, "house,” and nemein, "to manage.” Fromoikonomos was derived oikonomia, which had not only the sense "management of a houseold or family" but also senses such as "thrift,” "direction,” "administration,” "arrangement,” and "public revenue of a state.”The first recorded sense of our wordeconomy, found in a work possibly composed in 1440, is "the management of economic affairs,” in this case, of a monastery. Economy is later recorded in other senses shared byoikonomia in Greek, including "thrift" and "administration.”What is probably our most frequently used current sense, "the economic system of a country or an area,” seems not to have developed until the 19th or 20th century.管理经济可以从词源上得到确认。economy 一词的来源很可能追溯到希腊文中的 oikonomos 即“管家”， 这又是从oikos 意为“房子”，以及 nemein 意为“管理”两词演化而来。 从oikonomos 派生出的 oikonomia 意思不仅有“家庭管理”， 而且有“节约”、“指示”、“行政”、“安排”及“国家岁入”等含义。Economy 这个词的意思最早记载在约1440年出版的一篇作品上，意思是僧院的“经济事件管理”。 Economy 在此之后记载下来的意思与希腊语的oikonomia 有相似之处， 包括“节约”和“行政”，直到19世纪或20世纪，今天最常用的意思才开始出现，即“国家或地区的经济体系”〔rather〕This use ofhad shows an unbroken line of usage running back to Middle English, and traditional criticisms of these constructions are unfounded. ·Before an unmodified noun onlyrather a is used: It was rather a disaster. When the noun is preceded by an adjective, however, bothrather a and a rather are found: It was rather a boring party. It was a rather boring party. Whena rather is used in this construction, rather can be construed as qualifying only the adjective, whereas withrather a it can be construed as qualifying either the adjective or the entire noun phrase. Thusa rather long ordeal can mean only "an ordeal that is rather long,” whereasrather a long ordeal can also mean roughly "a long process that is something of an ordeal.” Rather a is the only possible choice when the adjective itself does not permit modification: The horse was rather a long shot (not The horse was a rather long shot ). See Usage Note at better 1should Had 的这种使用方法可以一直追溯到中古英语， 但历史上并没有对此方法批评的记载。在一个没有修饰词的名词前，一般只使用rather a ： 真是一场灾难。 但当名词前有形容词时，rather a 和 a rather 就都能使用了： It was rather a boring party 。It was a rather a boring party 。 在这种搭配中，如果使用a rather ， rather 只是用来修饰这个形容词； 如果使用rather a， 那么同时修饰形容词和名词，即可认为修饰形容词也可以为修饰名词词组。 因此a rather long ordeal 的意思仅指布道很长， 而rather a long ordeal 则可概略地指一个“像布道似的漫长过程。” 如果形容词本身没有引申义，那么就只能使用rather a ： The horse was rather a long shot （而不是 The horse was a rather long shot ) 参见 better1should〔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〔leprechaun〕Nothing seems more Irish than the leprechaun;yet, hiding within the wordleprechaun is a word from another language entirely. If we look back beyond Modern Irish Gaelicluprachán and Middle Irish luchrupán to Old Irish luchorpān, we can see the connection.Luchorpān is a compound of Old Irish lū, meaning "small,” and the Old Irish word corp, "body.” Corp is borrowed from Latin corpus (which we know from habeas corpus ). Here is a piece of evidence attesting to the deep influence of Church Latin on the Irish language.Although the word is old in Irishit is fairly new in English,being first recorded in 1604.没有什么东西看上去比矮妖精更具有爱尔兰特色；但是，leprechaum （矮妖精）这个单词里却隐藏着一个完全来源于另一种语言的单词。 如果我们通过现代爱尔兰语中的luprachan 和中世纪爱尔兰语 luchrupan 一词，追溯到古代爱尔兰语中的 luchorpan 这个单词， 我们就可以看出其中的联系了。luchorpan 是由古代爱尔兰语中表示“小、矮小”，意思的 lu 和古代爱尔兰语中表示“身体”的 corp 一词所构成的复合词。 corp 一词是从拉丁语中 corpus 借用过来的（这一点我们可以从 habeas corpus 【人身保护令】得知）。 这是一个证明教堂拉丁语对爱尔兰语有着重大影响的证据。虽然该词在爱尔兰语中已经很古老了，但在英语中却很新，首次记录于1604年〔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〔Harappa〕A locality in the Indus River valley of the Punjab in Pakistan. Archaeological finds dating back to the third millenniumb.c. include the remains of a well-laid-out city and indicate a possible link between Indian and Sumerian cultures. 哈拉帕：巴基斯坦旁遮普印度河谷的一个地方，追溯到公元前 3000年的考古发现，包括一座设计不错的城市遗址，这表明在印度和苏美尔文化之间可能有联系纽带 〔oscillate〕The rather dry wordoscillate may become a bit less dry as we learn its story. It is possible that it goes back to the Latin wordōscillum, a diminutive ofōs, "mouth,” meaning "small mouth.” In a passage in theGeorgics, Virgil applies the word to a small mask of Bacchus hung from trees to move back and forth in the breeze.From this wordōscillum may have come another word ōscillum, meaning "something, such as a swing, that moves up and down or back and forth.”And thisōscillum was the source of the verb ōscillāre, "to ride in a swing,” and the noun (from the verb) ōscillātio, "the action of swinging or oscillating.” The words have given us, respectively, our verboscillate, first recorded in 1726, and our noun oscillation, first recorded in 1658. The next time one sees something oscillating,one might think of that small mask of Bacchus swinging from a pine tree in the Roman countryside.当我们了解了与oscillate 有关的传说时，这个较为枯燥的词就会变得不那么干巴巴的了。 此词可被追溯到一个拉丁词oscillum， 可简写成os， “嘴”，意为“小嘴”。 在农事诗集 的一节中， 维吉尔用这个词指挂在树上在微风中来回摆动的酒神巴克斯的小假面具。从oscillum 一词可以得出另一词 oscillum， 指“前后或上下摆动的某物，如秋千。”而这里的oscillum 便是意为“在秋千上摆动”的动词 oscillare 和意为“摆动或摇动的动作”的名词（从动词来） oscillatio 的词源。 从这些单词中分别得出了我们今天所用的动词oscillation （首次记录于1726年）和名词 oscillation （首次记录于1658年）。 以后若看见物体在摆动，就很可能会想起古罗马乡间一棵松树上摇来晃去的巴克斯的小假面具了 |
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