| 单词 | 字面上 |
| 释义 | 〔decay〕Decompose, largely restricted to the breakdown of substances into their chemical components,also connotes rotting and putrefying, both literally and figuratively: Decompose 主要限于指物质分裂成其化学组成成份，含有腐朽、腐烂的意思，既可以从字面上来理解，也可以从喻意上来理解： 〔heavy〕 Weighty literally denotes having considerable weight ( Weighty 字面上指重量相当大的（ 〔encyclopedia〕The wordencyclopedia, which to us usually means a large set of books, descends from a phrase that involved coming to grips with the contents of such books.The Greek phrase isenkuklios paideia, made up of enkuklios, "cyclical, periodic, ordinary,” and paideia, "education,” and meaning "general education, literally the arts and sciences that a person should study to be liberally educated.”Copyists of Latin manuscripts took this phrase to be the Greek wordenkuklopaedia, with the same meaning, and this spurious Greek word became the New Latin wordencyclopaedia, coming into English with the sense "general course of instruction,” first recorded in 1531.In New Latin the word was chosen as the title of a reference work covering all knowledge.The first such use in English is recorded in 1644.单词encyclopedia 对我们而言通常是指一大套书， 来源于一个涉及掌握这类书内容的短语。希腊片语enkuklios paideia 是由下列两个词组成的 enkuklios “循环的，周期性，平常的”以及 paideia “教育”， 含义是“普通教育，从字面上说就是一个想接受通才教育的人所应该学习的艺术和科学知识”。拉丁文手稿的抄录者将此片语当成了带有相同词义的希腊词enkuklopaedia ， 而该谬传的希腊词又构成为新拉丁语词encyclopaedia ， 带着其“指导教育的普遍课程”之语意又进入英语，最先记载于1531年。在新拉丁语中该词被选中作为一本覆盖各科知识的参考著作的书名。在英国首次这样的用法记载于1644年〔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〔university〕The universe in the worduniversity is not the universe as we know it, thoughuniversity is derived from the ancestor of our word universe. This ancestor, Latinūniversus, was made up of ūnus, "one,” and versus, "in a specified direction.” Universus thus literally meant "in one specified direction" but actually meant "the whole of, entire,” and "regarded as a whole, regarded as a group.”Universum, the neuter singular of ūniversus, used as a noun, meant "the universe,”as did the derivativeūniversitās, which also meant "a corporate body of persons, community.” During the Middle Ages, when Latin continued to be used in areas such as government, religion, and education,the wordūniversitās was applied to the new corporate bodies of teachers and students, as at Salerno, Paris, and Oxford, that were the ancestors of our universities of today.Our worduniversity, going back to the Latin word, is first recorded around 1300, with reference to this corporate body.University 一词中的"universe"并不是我们所知道的宇宙这个词， 虽然university 是由我们的 universe 这个词的前身派生而来的。 这一前身，即拉丁文中的universus 是由表示“一”的 unus 和表示“沿着某一特定的方向”的 versus 构成的。 Universus 字面上的意思因此就是“沿着一个特定的方向”， 但它实际的意思却是“整个、全部”和“被视为一个整体的，被视为一个群体的”。Universum ，是 universus 的中性单数形式， 用作名词时指“宇宙”，同样派生词universitas 也指“一群个人的联合体，社团”。 在中世纪，拉丁文继续在诸如政府、宗教和教育等领域得到使用，universitas 这个词被用来指由教师和学生所构成的新联合体，比如在萨勒诺、巴黎和牛津出现的这种联合体， 而这类联合体即是我们今天的大学的最初形式。我们今天的university 这个词可以上溯到拉丁词， 它首次被记录下来是在大约1300年，当时就是用来指这种联合体〔digitalis〕The name of the plant genusDigitalis, whose member the foxglove provides an important drug used to treat heart disease,is associated with another part of the body, the finger.InDigitalis, which comes from the Latin word digitālis, meaning "relating to a finger,”we recognizedigit, which derives from Latin digitus, "finger, toe.” In Modern Latin the genus name was chosenbecause the German name for the foxglove isFingerhut, "thimble,” or literally "finger hat.” The second part of our wordfoxglove also refers to the similarity of the foxglove blossoms to the fingers of a glove. Digitalis is first recorded in English in a work published in 1664. 毛地黄 属的植物毛地黄， 是治疗心脏病的重要药物，与身体另一部位手指有关。Digitalis 来自于拉丁语 digitalis ， 意指“与手指有关的”。我们认为digit 来源于表示“手指，脚趾”的拉丁语 digitus 。 在新拉丁语中选定了种属名称，是因为熟地的日耳曼语名称是Fingerhut “指套”或字面上的“指套”。 Foxglove 的第二部分是指毛地黄开花时与手套的指头很相似。 英语中第一次记录Digitalis 的作品是在1664年发表 〔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〔carry〕A non-Southerner is always amused when a Southerner offers to "carry" rather than to drive him or her somewhere,imagining it to be an invitation to be picked up and bodily lugged to the destination.However, the verbcarry, which to Southerners means "to transport (someone) in a motor vehicle, such as an automobile,” is etymologicallymore precise in the Southern usage than anywhere else.Carry derives from the Latin noun carrus, "cart,” from which we get the nounscarriage and our modern car. Therefore,carry is more closely related to car than is drive, which only makes literal sense if the vehicle is drawn by a team of animals.当一个南方人提出把一个非南方人“运送”而不是开车带到某地时，这个非南方人总是觉得好笑，会以为是一个把他或她“拖运”到某地的邀请。然而，carry 这个动词对南方人来说意思是“用机动车辆（例如汽车）运送某人，” 从词源学的角度来讲，该词在南部的用法比在其它任何地方者更为确切。Carry 一词从拉丁语中的名词 carrus “货车”发展而来， 从此我们又得到了名词carriage 和现在的 car 。 因此，carry 比 drive 而更为与 car 的关系密切， 因为如果一辆车由一组动物拉着，那么它就只能表示字面上的意思〔midwife〕The wordmidwife is the sort of word whose etymology is perfectly clear until one tries to figure it out.Wife would seem to refer to the woman giving birth, who is usually a wife,butmid ? A knowledge of older senses of words helps us with this puzzle.Wife in its earlier history meant "woman,” as it still did when the compoundmidwife was formed in Middle English (first recorded around 1300). Mid is probably a preposition, meaning "together with.”Thus amidwife was literally a "with woman" or "a woman who assists other women in childbirth.” Even though obstetrics has been rather resistant to midwifery until fairly recently,the etymology ofobstetric is rather similar, going back to the Latin wordobstetrīx, "a midwife,” from the verbobstāre, "to stand in front of,” and the feminine suffix -trix; theobstetrīx would thus literally stand in front of the baby. 单词midwife 属于那类语源看起来相当明了的词， 可当人们试着搞清楚时，才发现并不那么简单。Wife 似乎是指临产的妇女， 通常都身为人妇，但是mid 指的是什么呢？ 通过了解词语原有的含义我们可以解开这个谜。Wife 早期时意指“妇女”， 当midwife 这个复合词在中古英语中形成的时候它仍然有此含义（首次记载于1300年前后）。 Mid 有可能是个介词， 意为“与…在一起”。这样midwife 字面上的意思就是“与妇女在一起”或者“帮助临产妇女生产的妇女”。 虽然直到近期产科学还一直抵制助产术一词，但是obstetric 的语源却与其很相似。 它可以上溯到拉丁词语obstetrix 意为“接生者”， 该词由动词obstare “站在…的前面”再加上阴性后缀 -trix 构成； 于是obstetrix 这个词字面上的意思是站在婴儿前面的人 〔stiff〕Tense means stretched tight;it is applied literally to body structures such as musclesand figuratively to what is marked by tautness or strain: Tense 指拉紧的；在字面上用于身体结构，如肌肉，比喻意义用于非常紧或紧张的东西： 〔boil〕 Stew refers literally to slow boiling and figuratively to a persistent but not violent state of agitation: Stew 字面上用文火煨，喻指长时间但并不加重的焦虑： 〔implicature〕The aspect of meaning that a speaker conveys, implies, or suggests without directly expressing. Although the utterance"Can you pass the salt?” is literally a request for information about one's ability to pass salt, the understood implicature is a request for salt. 言下之意：此方面意义指的是说话者并非以直接表达的方式传达、意指、或是建议某件事情，虽然"Can you pass the salt?” 字面上指的是询问有关某人是否有能力递盐的讯息，但我们所了解的言下之意却只是对盐的需求 〔dark〕 Shady refers literally to what is sheltered from light, especially sunlight ( Shady 字面上指避光的，尤其是太阳光( 〔coupon〕A Roman might have had difficulty predicting what would become of the Latin wordcolaphus, which meant "a blow with the fist.” In Old French, a language that developed from Latin,Late Latincolpus, from Latin colaphus, became colp, or modern French coup, with the same sense. Coup has had a rich development in French, gaining numerous senses, participating in numerous phrases,such ascoup d'état (a term that we have borrowed), and giving rise to many derivatives, includingcouper, "to cut; literally, to divide with a blow or stroke.” Couper yielded the word coupon, "a portion that is cut off,” which came to refer to a certificate that was detachable from a principal certificate.The detachable certificate could be exchanged for interest or dividend payments by the holder of the principal certificate.Coupon is first recorded in English in 1822 with this sense and then came to apply to forms or tickets, detachable or otherwise,that could be exchanged for various benefits or used to request information.罗马人大概很难想象拉丁词colaphus 意为“拳头的一击”所发生的变化。 在由拉丁文发展而来的古法语中，由拉丁词colaphus 转变为后期拉丁文中的 colpus ，变为了 colp 或现代法语中的 coup ，意思未变。 Coup 在法语中变化发展很多， 具有了许多意思，组成了许多短语，如coup d'ètat （英语中已借用的单词），并生成许多派生词， 包括couper “切；字面上的意思是用一击或一打使分开。” Couper 又产生了 coupon 一词，意思是“切掉的一部分”， 并且还用来指可从主要证书中分开的票证。这个可分票证可以由主证书的持有者为得利息或分期付款进行交换。Coupon 有这个意思的最早记录是在1882年， 然后被用来指格式或门票，可分离的或其他样式，它可以用来交换不同的利益或用来获取信息 |
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