单词 | 阳光光束 |
释义 | 〔sunbeam〕The period of European history from the 5th to the 11th century,although often called the Dark Ages,in fact did much to preserve and extend the light of civilization.One of the relatively minor contributions of the time, albeit a fortunate one for us, is the addition of the wordsunbeam to the English language. The word is believed to have entered English in the 9th century through the work of the English king Alfred the Great. A scholar as well as a king, Alfred undertook a number of translations of great Latin writings,rendering them into the English of his time, now known as Old English.Among the works translated during Alfred's reign was a store of narratives and information about England's earliest connections with the Church,called theHistoria Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, or The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, a work composed by the Venerable Bede. Several times in his book Bede uses the Latin phrasecolumna lucis, which we would today translate as "a column of light.”Since the Old English translator did not have the wordcolumn in his vocabulary, he substituted the word beam, which meant "a tree" or "a building post made from a tree.”Columna lucis thus became sunnebeām, or "sun post,” which survives as our sunbeam. Ifsunbeam is perhaps a less stately expression than "column of light,” it has nevertheless served us well. From it the wordbeam alone came to mean "a ray or rays of light"; it subsequently became a verb meaning "to radiate.”It now allows us not only to beam with pride or happinessbut also to beam our broadcasts to other countries and ourselves, as some would have it, through space.Column would never do. 欧洲历史上从5世纪到11世纪这段时期,尽管经常成为黑暗的年代,但为保存和发展文明之光做了很多努力。这个时期相对不太重要的贡献之一,但对我们来说 十分幸运的就是阳光光束 这个单词加进了英语语言中。 人们相信这个词是通过英格兰国王阿尔费雷德大帝的努力于9世纪进入英语的。阿尔费雷德不仅是位国王,他还是位学者,他着手翻译了许多部重要的拉丁文作品,他将它们译成他那个时代的英文,即现在所说的古英语。在阿尔费雷德统治时期翻译的作品中,有一部有关于英格兰与教会的最早联系的丰富叙述和信息,书名是Historia Ecclesiastic Gentis Anglorum 或 The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (英国人民的基督教历史),作者是尊敬的比德。 在这本书中,比德数次使用了拉丁文短语columna hucis , 今天我们将其译为“一束阳光”。因为古英语翻译家在他所掌握的词汇中还没有column (柱子)这个词,所以他用 beam 这个词代替, 当时的意思是“树”或“用树做成的建筑物的支柱”。Columna lucis 就这样成了 sunnebeam 或“光束”, 它以 sunbeam 的形式存在。 或许sunbeam(阳光光束) 这种表达方法不如“光柱”这么堂皇,但是它很合我们用。 由此,beam 这个词单独也可作“一束光或多束光”讲, 而且它逐渐地变成了动词,意思是“发射,发光”。现在我们不仅可以说因骄傲或幸福而散发光彩,还可以说通过大气向其它国家和我们自己广播,如果他们进行的话。Column 可不行 |
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