| 单词 | 希腊字 |
| 释义 | 〔stalactite〕The wordsstalagmite and stalactite have confused many a person. A look into the history of the Greek sources of these two words may help.Both words can be traced back to the wordstalassein, "to drip,” which is appropriatesince both words denote deposits in caves formed by the dripping of mineral-rich water.The Greek base from whichstalassein was formed was stalak- and to this base were added several endings that concern us,specifically-ma, a noun suffix most frequently denoting the result of an action, -mo-, a suffix denoting the action of a verb as well as a result, and -to-, an adjective suffix forming verbal adjectives. With these suffixes and the addition of the inflectional endings, as well as a sound change from (k) to (g) before (m),we getstalagma, "that which drops, a drop,” stalagmos, "dropping, dripping of stalactites,” and stalaktos, "dropping, dripping.” Using these Greek words,Olaus Wormius formed the Modern Latin wordstalactītēs, the stalac- part meaning "dripping" and the-ītēs part being commonly used to name fossils and minerals when preceded by a form expressing a physical characteristic, in this case "dripping.” Wormius also used the termstalagmītēs, the stalag- portion expressing the notion of what drops, taken either fromstalagma, "that which drops, a drop,” or stalagmos, "dropping of stalactites.” Stalactītēs and stalagmītēs, of course, are the sources of our English words stalactite (first recorded in 1677), the formation on the tops of caves, and stalagmite (first recorded in 1681), the formation on the bottoms of caves. They have been causing trouble ever since.单词stalagmite 和 stalactite 令许多人混淆。 对这两个词的希腊起源历史进行研究可能会帮助理解。这两个字都能追溯到单词stalassein （“滴下”）， 这是很恰当的，因为两个字都表示洞里由富含矿物的水下滴而形成的沉积。形成stalassein 的希腊根源是 stalak- ， 在这个根源上加上几个与我们有关的词尾，特别是-ma （往往用来表示动作结果的名词后缀）， -mo- （用来表示动词的动作和结果的后缀）和 -to- （形成动词性形容词的形容词后缀）。 通过这些后缀和屈折变化词尾的添加以及在(m)前面由(k)到(g)的变音，我们得到了stalagma （“滴下的东西，一滴”）、 stalagmos “滴，滴下钟乳石”和 stalaktos （“落下，滴下的”）。 利用这些希腊字，奥罗斯·沃米斯组成了现代拉丁单词stalactites ， stalac- 意指“滴”。 而-ites 当由一个表示物理特征的形式开头时，通常用来表示化石和矿物，指“滴下”。 沃米斯也使用stalagmites ， stalag- 表示滴下的东西的概念， 源于stalagma （“滴下的东西，一滴”）或 stalagmos （“滴下的钟乳石”）。 stalacitites 和 stalagmites ，当然是我们的英语单词 stalactite （首次出现于1677年）即洞穴顶部的形成物和 stalagmite （最早记载于1681年）即洞穴底部的形成物的源头。 自那以后它们就常造成一些麻烦〔acrostic〕An acrostic gives the reader two for one,and the etymology of the word emphasizes one of these two.Our word goes back to the Greek wordakrostikhis, "acrostic,” which is a combination of Greekakron, "head,” and stikhos, "row, line of verse.” Literallyakrostikhis means "the line at the head,” emphasizing the fact that an acrostic has in addition to horizontal rows a vertical row formed of the letters at the "head" or start of each line.In ancient manuscripts, in which a line of verse did not necessarily correspond to a line of text,an acrostic would have looked particularly striking, with each of its lines standing by itself and beginning with a capital letter.Our word for this type of composition is first found in English in the 16th century.离合诗一词实际上有两种含义，在此这个词的语源只强调其中的一种。此词可追溯到希腊词akrostikhis “藏头诗”， 是希腊字akron “头，”和 stikhos “诗行”的合并。 akrostikhis 本来指“在开头的诗行”， 强调一首离合诗除了水平方向的行数外，还有由每一行的“头”或起首词组成的垂直方向的诗行。在古代的作品中，一诗行并不一定要和文章中的一行相对应。一首离合诗，当其每一行单列出来，且以一大写字母开头， 那就非常引人注目了。在英语中首次用藏头诗一词表示这种作品是在16世纪 |
| 随便看 |
|
学习网英语词汇栏目收词371507余条，连同派生词、复合词、词组和习语等。每个词条提供了音标、词性、释义、用法、搭配和同（近）义词等多项功能，对所收词汇进行全方位的解释和说明，内容丰富，功能全面。