| 单词 | 驯养者 |
| 释义 | 〔mastiff〕The mastiff, which was at one time used in bullbaiting and bearbaiting as well as in dogfights,is ultimately named not for its fierceness but for its tameness.To find this tamenesswe must look back to the ultimate source ofmastiff in the Latin word mānsuētus, "tame, domesticated,” itself derived from the past participle ofmanusuēscere, "to tame,” made up of the rootman- found in the wordmanus, "hand,” and the verb suēscere, "to become accustomed to.” Tame beasts are accustomed to the hand.To explain howmansuēscere became mastiff, we must follow it through its Vulgar Latin development,.mansuētīnus, "domesticated,” and the later Old French development, mastin, "mastiff.” While being borrowed into English,mastin was probably blended with the Old French word mestif, "mongrel,” and was possibly influenced by the Medieval Latin wordmastīvus, "mastiff,” probably itself an error formastīnus, which came from the same Vulgar Latin source as the Old French word. Mastiff is first recorded in Middle English (as mastif ) in a work written before 1387. 曾经一度被用于纵狗斗牛、纵狗斗熊以及斗狗的大驯犬，最终并不是因为它的凶狠而是因为它的驯顺命名。要找到这种驯顺，我们必须回溯到mastiff 的最终拉丁语词源 mansuetus 意为“驯服，驯养”， 该词本身源于manusuescere “驯养”的过去分词， 由man- 构成， 始于manus （意为“手”）和动词 suesere “适应，习惯于”。 被驯养的野兽习惯于驯养者的手。要知道mansuecere 如何成 mastiff ， 我们必须紧跟它在俗拉丁语中的发展，mansuetinus （“驯服的”）以及后来古法语的发展 mastin “猛犬”。 当mastin 一词借用到英语中时，它可能和古法语词 mestif （“杂种狗”）相混合， 还可能受中世纪拉丁语词mastivus （“大驯犬”）的影响， 但也许这个词本身就是同样作为古法语词来源于俗拉丁语的mastinus 的误写。 Mastiff 在1387年的一部作品中首次出现在中世纪英语里（当时写作 mastif ） |
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