单词 | 正是 |
释义 | 〔party〕Party is unexceptionable when used to refer to a participant in a social arrangement, as inShe was not named as a party in the conspiracy. It is this sense that underlies the legal use of the term,as when one speaks of theparties to a contract. The legal use has in turn led to the presence of the word in many fixed expressions,such asinjured party and third party. Butparty is also widely used as a general substitute for person, as inWould all parties who left packages at the desk please reclaim their property. This usage has been established for many centuries,but in the Victorian era it came to be associated with the language of the semieducated(theOxford English Dictionary describes it as "shoppy"), and it has been the subject of many later criticisms.This use ofparty may have been reinforced by its modern adoption by telephone operators. In other contexts,when used in earnest,it may be perceived as a superfluous variant forperson. But the jocular use of the term is well established,particular in references such asa wise old party. Party 用作指一项社会活动的参与者是很常见的, 如她不是这一阴谋的参与者。 正是这一意义构成了这一词的法律用法,如人们说及 parties to a contract 。 这种法律用法反过来又使得这一词出现在许多固定的短语中,如injured party 和 third party。 但party 也被广泛地用于对 person 的泛称, 如在所有将包裹放在桌子上的人请来认领他们的东西。 这种用法已确立了许多个世纪,但在维多利亚时代,它开始与受过部分教育的人的语言联系起来(牛津英语词典 把它描述为“三句话不离本行的”), 并且它已成为后来许多批判家批评的对象。Party 的这一用法由于话务员的经常采用而被强化了。 在其它的上下文中,当用于严肃的场合时,它可以被视作是person 不必要的变体。 但这一词诙谐的用法确立已久,尤其在提及如一个精明的老人 时 〔Trent〕A city of northern Italy northwest of Venice. Probably founded in the fourth centuryb.c. , it was the site of the Council of Trent (1545-1563), which established the foundations of the Counter Reformation. Population, 98,833. 塔兰托:意大利北部一城市,位于威尼斯西北部,可能建于公元前 4世纪,它是塔兰托会议(1545-1563年)的会址,正是这次会议奠定了反宗教改革的基础。人口98,833 〔resonate〕"It is a demonology[that] seems to resonate among secular and religious voters alike" (Tamar Jacoby)“正是鬼神论 似乎在世俗的和宗教的选民中同样引起共鸣” (塔玛·雅各比)〔recoil〕"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country" (Thomas Paine).“这正是考验人类灵魂的时候,在这个危急存亡之际,那些喜欢枝草茂盛的士兵和习惯于风和日丽的爱国者们将不再为他们的祖国服务” (托马斯·潘恩)。〔right〕"An unconditional right to say what one pleases about public affairs is what I consider to be the minimum guarantee of the First Amendment" (Hugo L. Black). “对公共事件发表意见的自由权力正是我认为应是第一修正案的最低保证” (雨果·L.布莱克)。 〔fair〕American folk speech puts Standard English to shame in its wealth of words for describing weather conditions.When the weather goes from fair to cloudy,New Englanders say that it's "breedin' up a storm" (Maine informant in theLinguistic Atlas of New England ). If the weather is clear, however,a New Englander might call itopen. Southernfair off and fair up, meaning "to become clear,” were originally Northeastern terms and were brought to the South as settlement expanded southward and westward.They are now "regionalized to the South,” according to Craig M. Carver, author ofAmerican Regional Dialects. These phrases may be the origin of modern and less regional coinings,such asmild up, used on a television weather forecast: "The Southwest is beginning to mild up just a tad.”美国方言对天气状况的描写因其应有尽有的单词使标准英语黯然失色。当天气由晴转多云时,新英格兰人会说“孕育着一场暴风雨”(新英格兰语言学图册 的缅因消息提供者)。 但如果天气是无云的,新英格兰人也许会说open。 南部的fair off 和 fair up 所表示的放晴, 起源于东北部词语,后被带到南部成为固定用法并向南向西流传。根据克雷格M·卡弗尔,美国地区方言 的作者所说,它们如今已“被南方地区化了”。 这些词组或许正是现代不再具地区性的词句的起源,例如mild up, 用于电视天气预报: “西南将变得暖和一点”〔Rapallo〕A city of northwest Italy on the Ligurian Sea. It is a resort on the Italian Riviera. The treaty proclaiming Fiume (now Rijeka) an independent city was signed here by Italy and Yugoslavia in November 1920. Population, 28,318.拉帕洛:意大利西北部的一城市,位于在利古里亚海上。是意大利海滨休养区和旅游景点。宣布成为现在的独立城市的条约,正是在这于1920年11月由意大利和南斯拉夫共同签订的。人口28,318〔tintinnabulum〕We may have little occasion to use the wordtintinnabulum, "a small, tinkling bell,” but it nonetheless teaches us something important about the formation of words.The English word, first used in 1597,was adopted from Latin,in whichtintinnābulum, meaning "a bell,” was derived from the verbtintinnāre, "to make a sound such as a ringing or jangling.” Tintinnāre was in turn derived from tinnīre, "to ring or clang.” Tinnīre is formed by a process called onomatopeia, or the formation of words that imitate what they denote.In the case oftinnīre we can hear the resemblance betweentinn- and a jingle or a ring. The verbtintinnāre was created from tinnīre by a process known as reduplication, in this case meaning thattin- duplicates tinn-. Tintinn- does indeed suggest a jingling, ringing sound.And a tintinnabulum makes such a sound.我们可能很少有机会用到tintinnabulum “一个小的叮铛响的铃”这个词, 但它能够告诉我们一些关于词的构成的一些重要情况。首次使用这个英语词是在1597年,它来源于拉丁文。在拉丁文中,tintinnabulum 的意思是“钟”, 它是从动词tinnare (“发出鸣响或叮铛这样的声音”)衍生而来。 Tintinnare 是从 tinnire (“鸣响或发出铛铛声”)演化而来。 Tinnire 是通过所谓的拟声构词法形成, 也就是词语模仿其所指的东西的构词法。在tinnire 这一实例中, 我们可以听出tinn- 与叮铛或鸣响之间的类似。 动词tintinnare 通过叠词构词法由 tinnire 而来, 就是说tin- 与 tinn-重叠。 Tintinn 的确让人想起这种声音。小铃铛正是发出这样一种声音〔amateur〕When Mrs. T.W. Atkinson remarked in her 1863Recollections of the Tartar Steppes and their Inhabitants, "I am no amateur of these melons,” she usedamateur in a sense unfamiliar to us. That sense, "a lover, an admirer,” is, however, clearly descended from the senses of the word's ultimate Latin source,amātor, "lover, devoted friend, devotee, enthusiastic pursuer of an objective,” and from its immediate Latin-derived French source,amateur, with a similar range of meanings. First recorded in English in 1784 with the sense in which Mrs. Atkinson used it,amateur is found in 1786 with a meaning more familiar to us, "a person who engages in an art, for example, as a pastime rather than as a profession,” a sense that had already developed in French.Given the limitations of doing something as an amateur,it is not surprising that the word is soon after recorded in the disparaging sensewe still use to refer to someone who lacks professional skill or ease in performance.当T.W.阿特金森夫人在她1863年出版的塔塔·史坦普和其居民回忆录, 中提到“我并不喜欢这些瓜果”时, 她使用的amateur 是我们所不熟悉的一个意思。 可是这种“爱好者,喜爱者,”的意思显然有其正宗拉丁语来源,amator, 意思是“爱人,忠实的朋友,奉献者,对某目标热情的追求者”, 还有由拉丁语直接派生出的法语来源,amateur, 具有相似的意思。 1784年记录在英语文字中出现的这个词正是阿特金森夫人使用的意思,1786年出现的amateur 有我们更为熟悉的意思, “如一个从事艺术,把它作为一项消遣,而不是一个职业的人,”法语的词早已发展了这种意思。如果把意思限定为从事业余活动的人,这个词被记录下来后不久就有了贬义含意,也就不足为奇了,我们用它来指在表演中缺乏专业技巧或缺乏得心应手的感觉〔unique〕Over the course of the centuryunique has become the paradigmatic example of the class of terms that do not allow comparison or modification by an adverb of degree such as very, somewhat, or quite. Thus, most grammarians believe that it is incorrect to say that something isvery unique or more unique than something else, though phrases such asnearly unique and almost unique are acceptable. In the most recent survey the sentenceHer designs are quite unique in today's fashion scene was unacceptable to 80 percent of the Usage Panel. · Critical objections to the comparison and degree modification of absolute terms date to the 18th centuryand have been applied to a wide group of adjectives includingequal, fatal, omnipotent, parallel, perfect, and unanimous. According to the standard argument, such words denote properties that a thing either does or does not have but cannot have to a qualifiable degree.Thus ifunique is properly used to mean "without equal or equivalent,” something either is unique or it isn't, and phrases such asvery unique and more unique can only betray a weakening of the sense to mean something like "unusual" or "distinctive.” It is true that comparison and modification ofunique are often associated with the style favored by copywriters, as in the advertisement announcing thatOmaha's most unique restaurant is now even more unique or in the claim that a new automobile is So unique, it's patented. But modification ofunique is also found in the work of reputable writers, where it may lack any connotations of hyperbole.A painting is described asthe most unique of Beckman's self-portraits, and a travel writer states thatChicago is no less unique an American city than New York or San Francisco. The relative acceptability of these usages reflects the semantic subtlety ofunique itself. If we were to useunique only according to the strictest criteria of logic, after all, we might freely apply the term to anything in the worldsince nothing is wholly equivalent to anything else.Clearly, then, when we say that a restaurant or painting is unique,we mean that it is worthy of inclusion in a class by itself according to certain implicit but generally accepted criteria.Thus a legitimately unique painting might be one that realizes an unparalleled aesthetic vision,but not one that is rendered only in pigments whose names begin with the lettero; and a legitimately unique restaurant might be one that serves 18th-century French cuisine according to the original recipes,not one that has been installed in a converted sardine cannery.Given this understanding, it is not inherently impossible to think of uniqueness as a matter of degree,in the sense that one painting or restaurant may be more or less worthy of inclusion in a class by itself than some other. ·What is troubling about the copywriters' use ofunique is not that the word has become a synonym for unusual. Rather, it is the copywriters who are using the word in conformity with strict logic.Uniqueness is claimed for a restaurant in virtue of some trivial properties of its decor or menu,or for a resort hotel that simply happens to have a singularly picturesque view of the bay.Though it may be true that such properties render these thingslogically unique, they do not constitute legitimate grounds for putting the things into a class by themselves according to the criteria ordinarily invoked when things are sorted into classes.In fact, the abuse ofunique can be cloying even when no modification or comparison is involved; when we read an advertisement for a line of sportswear that featuresa unique selection of colors, we may suspect that the distinctive properties of the color selection are not so remarkable as the advertiser would have us believe. But it is not surprising that these uses ofunique should lend themselves to promiscuous modification and comparison; for once it is granted that uniqueness can be claimed for any product or service that is somehow distinctive from all its competitors,it is inevitable that an increase in uniqueness will be seen in every minor innovation.See Usage Note at equal ,infinite ,parallel ,perfect 在本世纪整个过程中unique 已成为不能由程度副词,例 very、somewhat 或 quite, 比较或修饰的一类术语的例证。 因此,多数语法学家认为说某事是very unique 或 more unique than 是不正确的, 虽然短语例如nearly unique 和 almost unique 是可接受的。 在最近的调查中,句子Her designs are quite unique in today's fashion scene (她的设计在现今流行样式的场面中是很独特的) 对用法专题使用小组的百分之八十成员是不可接受的。 对纯粹术语的比较和程度修饰的主要异议可追述到18世纪,并已广泛用到许多形容词中,包括equal, fatal, omnipotent, parallel, perfect 和 unanimous。 根据标准论据,这些单词表示一事有或没有但不能有可修饰的程度的性质。于是如果unique 适当地用于表示“没有相等或相当的”,则某事是唯一的或不是唯一的, 而短语像very unique 和 more unique 仅能表露出说明某事像“不寻常的”或“独特的”的意义的减弱。 的确,unique 的比较和修饰常与撰稿人喜欢的文体相联系, 如在广告中称Omaha's most unique restaurant is now even more unique(奥马哈城的最独特的餐馆现在甚至是更加独特) 或声称新汽车是 So unique, it's patented(如此独特,它取得了专利权)。 但是unique 的修饰也在著名作家的作品中发现, 那里可能缺乏夸张法的任何涵义。描述一张油画为the most unique of Beckman's self-portraits(最独特的贝克曼的自画像), 一位旅游作家叙述Chicago is no less unique an American city than New York or San Francisco(芝加哥比纽约或旧金山是不逊独特的美国城市)。 这些用法的相对可接受性反映unique 自身语义的巧妙。 如果我们仅按照逻辑的严格标准使用unique , 则我们终于会自由地把此术语使用于世界上的任何事,因为没有完全等同于另一事的事。于是,显然当我们说餐馆或油画是独特的时,我们意味着根据某种隐含的但可普遍接受的判据它是值得包含在一个等级内的。于是合理独特的油画可能是实现空前未有的审美型的,而不是仅给予名字以字母O开始的颜料; 合理独特的餐馆可能根据原来的食谱提供18世纪法国菜肴的餐馆,而不是配备转换的沙丁鱼罐头食品的餐馆。按这样了解,将独特性视为程度问题不是本来就不可能的,在这个意义上一张油画或一个餐馆或多或少可能是极好的有价值的内涵物而不是其他。关于撰稿人使用unique 的困惑不是此单词已成为 unusual 的同义词。 相反地,正是撰稿人使用此单词与严密的逻辑相一致。对餐馆声称独特性是由于它的布置或菜单的某些不重要的性质,或者对于人们常去的旅馆仅因为有海湾的独一无二地别致的景象。虽然这样的性质使得这些事logically 独特的可能是真实的, 但是当事情进行了分类,根据平常实行的判据把这些事情自身放到一类,他们不组成正常的基础。事实上unique 的滥用会使人发腻,即使在没有涉及修饰或比较的时候; 当我们读运动服装的unique selection of colors(颜色的独特选择) 的一行广告时, 我们会怀疑颜色选择的独特性质并非广告商希望我们所认为的那么明显。但不必惊讶于unique 的这些用法应当适用于杂乱的修饰和比较; 就这一次可以承认,独特性能用来指任何产品或服务,它们与所有的竞争者相比较有某种程度的特色,在每一小的创新中可以看到独特性的增加是必然会发生的 参见 equal,infinite,parallel,perfect〔precisely〕Inferior equipment was precisely the reason some hikers refused to continue the climb.正是设备的低劣才导致一些徒步旅行者不愿继续攀登〔mug〕Various senses of the termmug illustrate uses and abuses of the human face. One use to which the face was put in the 18th century was as a form of decoration for cups or mugs.It is probably from these grotesque and striking facesthatmug came to mean "face,” the word in this sense being first recorded in 1708.The next recorded development ofmug is its use as a verb in 1818 in the sense "to strike in the face.” This verb has developed the sense "to attack and rob,”all too familiar to urban dwellers.The face's role in conveying emotion explains the development of the verb sense "to make faces, grimace,”recorded first in 1855.Another sense of the noun, "photograph or portrait of the face,”found earliest in 1887,is an obvious development, although it is ironic that those who mug criminally end up in a mug book.The use of the face to express affection explains the sense "to kiss, fondle,”recorded first in Australia in 1890.mug 的各种不同的含义显示了对人脸的使用和滥用。 其中一个用途是在18世纪作为杯子上的装饰图案。也许正是由于这些鬼脸和令人惊讶的脸谱,mug 开始意指“脸”, 该词有此意义最先记录于1708年。此后,另一种有记录mug 的用法作为动词的意思是“打击脸部。” 这个动词以后又发展为“袭击和抢劫”之意,这对城镇居民来说真是太熟悉了。脸在表达感情时所扮演的脸色可以解释该动词的延伸义“做鬼脸,做怪像”,该意思最早记录于1855年。该名词的另一个意思:“脸部的像片或画像”最早见于1887年,虽然具有讽刺意味的是那些抢劫犯最终将被警方拍照存档,但这仍然是一个显而易见的进步。运用脸部来表达情爱意指“吻,抚爱”,此用法最早于1890年在澳大利亚有记载〔inform〕"It is this brash, backroom sensibility that informs his work as a novelist"(Jeff Shear)“正是这种直率而又隐避的敏感性使其作品成为大手笔”(杰夫·希尔)〔malaprop〕"She's as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile" and "He is the very pineapple of politeness" are two of the statements from the mouth of Mrs. Malapropthat helped her name become synonymous with ludicrous misuse of language.Mrs. Malaprop, a character in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's playThe Rivals, produced in 1775, consistently uses language malapropos,that is, inappropriately.The wordmalapropos comes from the French phrase mal à propos, made up ofmal, "badly,” à, "to,” and propos, "purpose, subject,” and literally means "badly to the purpose,” or "inappropriate.” The Rivals was a popular play, and Mrs. Malaprop became enshrined in a common noun,first in the formmalaprop and later inmalapropism, which is first recorded in 1849.Perhaps that is what Mrs. Malaprop fearedwhen she said "An aspersion upon my parts of speech" and "If I reprehend any thing in this world,it is the use of my oracular tongue,and a nice derangement of epitaphs!”“她与尼罗河堤岸上的寓言一样顽固”和“他正是礼貌的菠萝”是从马勒普罗太太嘴里说出的两句话。她的这张嘴使她的名字成为荒唐地错用语言的代名词。1775 年,理查德·布林斯利·夏里丹写成了剧本情敌 ,马勒普罗太太就是这剧中的一个人物。 她不断地误用词语,即遣词造句不当。单词malapropos 来源于法语短语 mal _ propos, 构成是mal, “坏地”, _ “对于”和 propos, “目的,目标”结合起来,意指“对于目标不适当地”或“不恰当的”。 情敌 是一部很受欢迎的戏剧, 马勒普罗太太逐渐演变成一个大家都接受的名词。这个名词一开始的形式是malaprop , 后来变成malapropism, 最早的记载是在1849年。可能使马勒普罗太太最为担心的,是当她说“对我部分言语所进行的诽谤”和“如果我还对这个世界上的任何事物能理解的话,那就是我玄妙的言语运用,以及墓志铭上那美妙的错乱!”〔larva〕The wordlarva referring to the newly hatched form of insects before they undergo metamorphosis comes from the Latin wordlārva, meaning "evil spirit, demon, devil.”To understand why this should be so,we need to know that the Latin word also was used for a terrifying mask,and it is this sense of the word that has come down to us.In Medieval Latinlarva could mean "mask or visor.” Larva is therefore an appropriate term for that stage of an insect's life during which its final form was still hidden or masked, and New Latinlārva was thus applied by Carolus Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist who originated our system of classifying plants and animals.The wordlarva is first recorded in English in its scientific sense in 1768, although it had been used in its "spirit" sense in 1651 and in a way that foreshadowed the usage by Linnaeus in 1691. larva 一词指昆虫在变形前刚孵化出来的幼虫, 来源于拉丁词larva , 意为“邪恶的精灵,鬼怪,恶魔”。为了了解为什么,我们需要知道这个拉丁词语还用于指一种令人恐惧的面具,而且正是该词的这一层含义流传了下来。在中世纪的拉丁语中,larva 有“面具或面甲”的意思。 Larva 在形容昆虫成熟之前被隐藏或遮盖的这一段时期的时候,成为一个适合的名称, 这样新拉丁语的larva 一词首先由瑞典植物学家卡罗拉斯里纽斯赋予以上含义, 卡罗拉斯是首创动植物分类系统的第一人。虽然larva 一词在1651年曾经以其“精灵”一层意思被使用并在一定程度上预示了于1691年出现的里纽斯的用法,但是于1768年才以科学术语的形式首先在英语中出现的 〔resonance〕"It is home and family that give resonance . . . to life"(George Gilder)"Israel, gateway to Mecca, is of course a land of religious resonance and geopolitical significance"(James Wolcott)“正是家庭和家族给予人生以共鸣”(乔治·吉尔德)“以色列,通往麦加的大门,当然是产生具有宗教共鸣与地理政治重要性的地方”(詹姆斯·沃尔科特)〔thing〕just the thing to increase sales.正是这种手段增加了销售〔precise〕Strictly distinguished from others; very:明确的:严格区别于其他的;正是所要的:〔complementarity〕"This is where the complementarity of the masculine and the feminine so acutely emerges. They are the necessary poles of a dialectic process"(Therese Namenek)“正是在这里男性与女性的互补性明显表现出来。这正是辩证过程中两个不可或缺的方面”(特蕾泽·内姆奈克)〔compleat〕"Here was the compleat modern misfit: the very air appeared to poison him; his every step looked treacherous and hard won"(Stephen Schiff)“这正是现代错位的一个典型例子:这里的环境在毒害他;他的每一步都象是跋涉但还是艰难取胜”(斯蒂芬·希夫)〔surly〕The fact that the wordsurly means "churlish" nicely indicates its fall in status. Churlish derives from the word churl, which in its Old English form ceorl meant "a man without rank, a member of the lowest rank of freemen,” as well as "peasant" in general. In Old Englishceorl may have been a term of contempt; it certainly became one in Middle English,wherecherl meant "base fellow, boor,” with churlish descending in meaning accordingly. Surly, on the other hand, started its life at the top of the scale but fell just as far. Looking at instances of this word in Middle English and Early Modern English,we see thatsurly was only one spelling for this word, another spelling beingsirly, which makes it clear that it came from the word sir, the term of honor for a knight or for a person of rank or importance in general. Thussirly, the form under which the early spellings of the word are entered in the Oxford English Dictionary, first meant "lordly.” Surly, entered as a separate word in the OED and first recorded in 1566, meant perhaps "lordly, majestic,” in its earliest use,subsequently being used in the sense "masterful, imperious, arrogant.” As the gloss "arrogant" makes clear, the wordsirly could have a negative sense, and it is this area of meaning that is responsible for the current "churlish" sense of the word.surly 意为“粗野的”事实生动地说明了这个词的地位下降。 Churlish 是 churl 的派生词,其古英文形式 ceorl 的意思是“没有爵位的男人,或者是自由民中最低等级的男人”,大概象“农民”一样。 古英语中ceorl 可能含有贬意; 中古英语中肯定是贬意,其cherl 的意思是“卑贱的人,粗野的人”,相应地 churlish 的意思也下降了。 另一方面,Surly 开始是个高尚的字,后来地位同样下降。 从中古英语和早期现代英语中的实例,我们可以看到,surly 的拼法只有一个, 另一个是sirly ,它清楚地表明这个字来自 sir (给于骑士或有等级或有身份的人的尊称)。 因此,sirly 这个字的最初形式记载在 牛津英语词典 中,开始的意思为(有威严的,高傲的)。 Surly 作为另一个字最初于1566年记录在 OED 中, 最初的意思是“老爷的、尊贵的”,以后的意思为“老爷般的、命令式的、傲慢的”。“傲慢”这个字条清楚地说明sirly 可能有过否定的意思, 也正是在这层意义上,它和目前“粗野的”意义有关〔famously〕"Frost had famously declared that poetry is what gets lost in translation"(David Lehman)“佛斯特已经众所周知地宣布诗歌正是在转换中消失之物”(戴维·李曼)〔provoke〕"It was him as stirred up th' young woman to preach last night" (George Eliot). “正是他鼓动了这个年青女子在昨天晚上进行布道” (乔治·艾略特)。 〔well〕Used as an adjective applied to people,well usually refers to a state of health, whereasgood has a much wider range of senses. It has always been a first principle of grammatical criticism that there should be no difference without a distinction,and perhaps for this reason, some critics have insisted that the expressionfeel good cannot be used in reference to health. It is true that there is a distinction betweenfeel well and feel good, but both can be applied to a state of health.Thus a patient suffering from a chronic disease might appropriately say to a doctorI feel good today, which implies a relative lack of physical discomfort.By contrast,I feel well today would be appropriate if the patient believes that the ailment has disappeared. See Usage Note at good 用作形容词来形容人时,well 通常指健康状况, 但是good 的意思更加广泛。 在语法评论中,没有区别就没有差别一直是第一性原则,也许正是因为如此,一些批评家坚持认为feel good 这一表达方式不能用来指健康。 诚然,feel well 与 feel good 有区别, 但是两者都可用来指健康。所以一位患有慢性病的病人完全可以对医生说I feel good today(我今天感觉不错) , 这句话暗示着病痛相对减轻了。相反,I feel well today(我今天感到全好了) 也可以,如果病人确信病症已消失了 参见 good〔crayfish〕The crayfish, also known as the crawfish, owes its name to a misunderstanding.The actual source of the word may be the Old High German wordkrebiz, "edible crustacean,” or a word related to it.From this Germanic source came Old Frenchcrevice, which when taken into English becamecrevise (first recorded in a document written in 1311-1312). In Old French and Middle English these words designated the crayfish.People began to pronounce and spell the last part of this word as if it werefish, the firstfish spelling (actually fysshes ) being recorded in 1555. Because of a variation in Anglo-Norman pronunciation,two forms of the word have come down to Modern English:crayfish and crawfish. 螯虾又名crawfish,正是出于误解才有现在这个名字。该词的真正来源可能是古高地德语中krebiz 一词, 意为“可食用的甲壳类动物”,或与之相关的一词。从这个日耳曼语词源中出现了古法语crevice 一词, 该词被借用入英语中变成了crevise (初次记录在1311-1312年间所写的一个文件中)。 在古法语和中世纪英语中这一词被称为crayfish。人们开始用fish 来发音和拼写这个词的后半部分, 而第一个fish 拼写法(实际上是 fysshes )被记录于1555年。 由于英国法语发音的差异,这个词的两种变体,即crayfish 和 crawfish 就共同延续到了现代英语中 〔ticket〕"He went to Washington . . . to become press secretary . . . it was his ticket out of the Delta"(Nicholas Lamann)“他去了华盛顿…当了一名新闻秘书…这正是他离开德尔塔的方法”(尼古拉斯·拉曼恩)〔banquet〕The linguistic stock of the wordbanquet has been fluctuating for a long time. The Old French wordbanquet, the likely source of our word, is derived from Old Frenchbanc, "bench,” ultimately of Germanic origin. The sense development in Old French seems to have changed from "little bench" to "a meal taken on the family workbench" to "feast.”The English wordbanquet is first recorded in a work possibly composed before 1475 with reference to a feast held by the god Apollo, and the word appears to have been used from the 15th to the 18th century to refer to the feasts of the powerful and the wealthy.Perhaps this association led a 19th-century newspaper editor to label the word "grandiloquent"because it was being appropriated by those lower down on the social scale.单词banquet 的词根很长时间来一直有变化。 古法语中的词banquet 可能是我们所使用的词的来源, 是由古法语banc 一词衍生而来的,在日耳曼族语中表“长凳”之意。 而在古法语中其意已由“小椅子”演变为“全家围坐在一起吃的一顿饭”,再演变为“宴席”。英语中的banquet 一词首次记载于1475年前一部描写阿波罗神举行的一次宴席的作品中。 从15世纪至18世纪该词一直用于特指权贵们举行的筵宴。也许正是由于这个原因,19世纪一位报纸编辑将该词归为“大言不惭的”一类,因为当时一些中下层人士也开始使用该词了〔floor〕The very idea floored me.正是这种想法使我震惊不已〔indifferent〕“[His] maturity appears in the detached clear-sightedness with which he could observe his own character" (David Cecil). “[他的] 成熟表现在他客观公正而且敏锐的洞察力中,正是这种洞察力使他能省视自己的性格” (戴维·塞西尔)。〔brunette〕Brunette was for a long time used to denote a woman having a dark complexion; now it is used chiefly in reference to hair color.The general practice is to use the formbrunette to refer only to women, withbrunet as a less frequently used variant that can be applied as well to men and mixed groups. The distinction, like the one betweenblonde and blond, has been regarded as carrying sexist implications.In this case, however, it is difficult to see how the problem can be easily resolved.It is unlikely thatbrunette could be pressed into service as a neutral term, since the suffix-ette is too closely associated with marked feminine gender. Brunet is theoretically available for both sexes but is rarely applied to men, whose corresponding coloration is typically described simply as "brown.”It would, of course, be possible to usebrown for the hair color of both sexes, if only that word could be redeemed from the associations of drabnessthat led to the adoption of the substitutebrunette in the first place. See Usage Note at blond ,-ette Brunette 过去很长一段时间用来指肤色黝黑的女人; 现今多用于指头发的颜色。通常brunette 只指女人, 而不如其常用的变体brunet 可用于指男人和男女都有的群体。 两词的区别正如blonde 和 blond 的区别, 被看成带有性别的含意。即使如此也很难看出如何轻易地解决两词之间区别的这一难题。brunette 不可能被看成一个中性词, 因为后缀-ette 与女性紧密联系。 Brunet 从道理上来说适用于男人和女人,但很少用于指男人。 男人相应的肤色仅用brown表述即可。当然,brown 也可适用于指男女两性的头发颜色, 只要此词不再与卖淫联系在一起。正是由于这一联系brunette 才首先被用作替代词 参见 blond,-ette〔ticket〕A change of scene would be just the ticket for us.环境的变换正是我们所需要的〔iconoclast〕An iconoclast can be unpleasant company,but at least the modern iconoclast only attacks such things as ideas and institutions.The original iconoclasts destroyed countless works of art.Eikonoklastēs, the ancestor of our word, was first formed in Medieval Greek from the elements eikōn, "image, likeness,” and -klastēs, "breaker,” fromklan, "to break.” The images referred to by the word are religious images,which were the subject of controversy among Christians of the Byzantine Empire in the 8th and 9th centuries, when iconoclasm was at its height.Those who opposed images did not, of course, simply destroy them, although many were demolished;they also attempted to have the images barred from display and veneration.During the Protestant Reformationimages in churches were again felt to be idolatrous and were once more banned and destroyed.It is around this time thaticonoclast, the descendant of the Greek word, is first recorded in English (1641), with reference to the Greek iconoclasts.In the 19th centuryiconoclast took on the secular sense that it has today, as in "Kant was the great iconoclast" (James Martineau).亵渎偶像者可能令人生厌,但至少现代的偶像毁坏者只是攻击思想和制度这类东西。最初的偶像破坏者却毁掉了无数的艺术作品。Eikonoklastes 最早见于中世纪希腊语,是我们现代词的前身,由 eikon 意为“图象,相象”和 -klastes 意为“毁坏者”组成, 它又来源于klan “打碎”的意思。 此词所说的肖像是指宗教的肖像,8至9世纪当毁坏偶像主义在拜占庭帝国盛行时,宗教偶像成为基督教徒中争执的焦点。反对宗教肖像的人尽管销毁了不少画像,但这并不是他们唯一的形式,他们也试图禁止偶像展览和偶像崇拜。在新教改革时期,教堂里的宗教画像再次被认为是盲目崇拜而遭到禁止和毁灭。正是在这一时期iconoclast 一词开始作为希腊语的衍生词在英语中出现, 第一次记录于1641年。到19世纪,iconoclast 一词开始有了现代的含意, 比如在“康德是一位伟大的传统叛逆者”(詹姆士·马提诺)〔surround〕"It was the country, the flat agricultural surround, that so ravished me"(Listener)“正是这乡间、这平坦的农田如此令我陶醉”(听众) |
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