8天攻克英语六级8000词汇(六)
2009-10-15来源:和谐英语
QUINSY: choked a dog
The Greeks called a sore throat kynanche, from kyon, “dog,” and ancho,”choke.” This word illustrates,in its career, the dramatic shifts in spelling that can occur. In Medieval Latin kynanche became quinancia , which entered Middle English as quinesye, later quinsy, the quinsy sore throat that we have today.
SCHOLAR: leisure to study
To be a true scholar one must have leisure for reading , research, meditation , and intelligent discussions. So it isn’t strange to find that our word scholar is from the Greek word schole which means “leisure.” Later , when philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato taught groups of young men, the early classes were termed schole. This passed into Latin as schola, “school,” and so gave us school, scholar, and all the related words. But the word school as used in the phrase “ a school of fish “ is from an entirely different source. It comes down to us from the Dutch word school which is related to the Old English term scolu which meant “a band of people.”
SCOTLAND YARD: palace of the kings
This place ,made famous by detective story writers, was so called because it stands on the site of a palace where the Scottish kings once lived when they visited England . The last of the Scottish Royal Family to stay there was Margaret ,Queen of James VI.
ZODIAC:meant animal
The zodiac is that imaginary belt of animals that supposed by the ancients to encircle the heavens.The twelve parts were named for taurus,"the bull,"pisces,"the fish,"and such .Each division is important to astrology for reading the character of those born under these signs.If we follow this word zodiac back far enough ,we will find its ancestor in the Greek word zoion,"animal."
9. Romantic Stories of Words about Women
ALIMONY: eating money
We have in English the word aliment that menas foof. This traces to the Latin alo, “norish.” So the way the most of our divorce laws are written now, if a wife sues for release from her bonds, she expects alimony, which, etymologically, is really“eating money.”
ALLURING: from falconry
When falconry was at its height in Englang and on the continent, allure was a device used by hunters to call back their hawks. It consisted of a bunch of feathers with a long cord attached. It was from this contraption that the hawk wasd fed during his training period, hence the attraction. So when a girl purposely allures a man, she is using the deceptive methods of a hunter. We have inherited the word from Old French allure; a, “to,”and lure, “bait.”
AMAZONS: they had only one breast
The Amazons were a race of female warriors who were alleged by the Greek historian Herodotus to live in Scythia. These manlike women fought many battles with the Greeks and the famous hero Achilles was presumed to have slain their queen penthesilea when the Amazons were trying to heop the besieged Trojans. These mythical women were said to have cut off their right breasts so that they could draw their bows more easily. The Greeks invented this fable to connect the word Amazon with a “without,”and mazos,”breast.”These Scythian women were responsible for the name of our south American river, the amazon. This river was called by its discoverer Rio Santa Maria de la Mar Dulce. But when the Spanish explorer Orellana made the first descent of the river from the Andes to the sea, he was engaged in battle by a savage tribe in which he believed that women fought beside the men and it is the accepted story that he then techristened the mighty river Amazonas. So when we call a modern woman an amazon, we mean that she is masculine, powerful, and inclined to give battle.
AUBURN: blong to red
Lots of mistakes have occurred in the making of our language.For example, the Latin word alburnus meant fair-haired,literally”like shite,”for alba meant”white.”Albunus passed over into Old French and Middle English as auburne, and then ,of all things, got confused with the native word vroune which meant brown. So the alburnus or fair –haired girls of ancient rome –and the Roman club-men loved their blondes –became The auburn-or reddish-brown-haired girls of today.
AVOIRDUPOIS: sold by weight
In our weight-conscious country, the United States, avoirdupois is a polite way of speaking of wxcess fat ,but its Old French ancestor aveir de peis meant”goods sold by weight,”such as wool.Lter on ,in English-speaking countries, avoidupois became the standard system of weights for goods other than gems, metals, and drugs.Adiose is another polite and pet word of the overweight, but its derivation is more blunt. The Latin adeps, adipis, is the source, and this just means “grease:or “fat”and nothing nicer.
BEVY: merely a drinking copany
The Latin word bibere, meant”to drink.” This became beivre in Old French. One of its derivatives came into our language as beverage,”that which is drunk.” By the same path bevee seems to have entered Old English with the meaning”a group of drinkers,”and then changed to signify a small group of birds, animals, or people,the people usually being women . In the late Middle Ages a bevy was a company of “roes, larks, quails,or ladies. The Latin term bibere perhaps also contributed the baby’s bib to our langyage, for ,after all, a bib does have to “imbibe”the moisture that the baby spills.
BLUESTOCKING: affectedly literary
this is a word that was more familiar to Washington Irving than it is to us ,but there are parts of the countru where an affectedly studious and literary woman is still called a bluestocking. It all began with Elizabeth Montagu, a famous leader of London society in the 1700’s, who introduced”literary evenings” in her home as a substitute for the frivolous card-playing parties of the day . She is said to have adopted blue stockingsdeliberately as a badge of her ideas. The ladies who had a taste for such gatherings were dubbed Bluestockings by a certain Admiral Buscawen and his epithet still lives.
BOUDOIR: at one time, a pouting-room
With us , of course ,an elegantly furnished room to which a lady can retire to alone or to receive her intimate friends. But in the middle Ages a young lady was sent to her boudoir to get over the sulks. Our word comes from the French verb bouder,”to pout.”So a lady ‘s boudoir is really her pouting-room.
BRIDAL: the toast that was drunk
At modern wedding receptions of the well-to-do the bride is usually toasted in champagne. This is not at all in tune with the history of word. Tht drink should really be a tankard of that homely brew, ale for the word bridal is formed of two old English words, bruyd, “bride” and ealu,”ale,” and our bridal ceremony takes its name from the traditional “bride’s ale ” that was always drunk at the time. Brydealu changed to bridale, then bridal. The bridegroom, is another story. He should be called a bridegoom,literally a “brideman.”But somebody down the line got confused and substituted groom for goom, so now a bride has married a man who takes care of horses.
BUXOM: once meant obedient
When we call a girl buxom we mean that she is fat .But when a bitish bride of early times promised to be “buxom and bonnyh”to her husband,she didn’t mean that she was going to put on a few extra pounds.The word buxom, or buhsum, as it was then spelled, seems to have come from bugan meaning “bend,”and therefore pliant, pleasant, and kindlyl.It was customary,in that era,to talk of being buxom,that is,”obedient,”to the judges, or even buxom to the pope.Then, later ,the meaning
turned to “blithe and gay”;still later to “full of health and vigor.”But now the original “bend “has gone into the curves of her figure, and a buxom girl is just pleasingly plump.
CAPRICE: liKe a goat
One hundred years ago the British author, Thomas De Quincey wrote somewhat superciliously:”Eerywhere I observe in the feminine mind something of a beautiful caprice, a floral esuberande of that charming willfulness which characterizes our dear human sisters, Ifear, through all the world.” This lefthanded compliment makes women seem attractively feminine, and yet ,when a girl is capricious, her actions are reminiscent of the lowly billy goat. The word caprice comes through the Itaian capriccio from the Latin caper, “goat.”So when a girl is capricious and cuts up capers,she is imitating the frixsky, playful antics of the male cousin of a sheep.
CHARM: formerly a danger word
If a girl were called charming 14th-century England, you could be pretty sure that she was headed for the torture chamber or to a horrifying trial by ordeal. The charm that is now courted by every woman would be sure, at that timem to bring complete social ostracism.we inherited this word from the French charme which found its source in the Latin Carmen, “song,” usually a wicked chant or incantation of magic power lide that of the notorious Lorelei. And there was also the charm that was worn to ward off evil, the progenitor of the innocent charm bracelet that has been worn by women since the 1860’s.Even as late as the 16th century we uncover the quotation:”The serpent stoppeth his eares with hir taile, to the end that she may not heare the charmes and sorceries of the inchanter.”But by shakespeare’s time the word carried a good deal less weight and now it is a high compliment to tell a girl that she has charm.
COQUETTE: once applied to men
Men used to habe a share in this word, but the girls finally took over. Coquette comes from the French coq,”cock,” and first referred to someone who behaved like a barnyard cock with his strutting gait and amorous habits. Later the word went completely feminine and we discover the coquette defined in 17th century dictionary as “a frisking and fliperous minx” The nearest male counterpart for this word is “cocky.”
COURTESAN: formerly a perfect lady
In the beginning this lady ,as her name implies, was merely a perfectly proper member of the court circle, but since her morals were often no better than they should be ,she turned into a court mistress. The term courtesan is rarely used of a prostitute .There is a nice distinction here that was aptly pointed out by a 17th-century writer named sharpham. “Your whore”,he says,”is for euery rascall,but your curtizan is for your courtier.And it is entertaining to know in this connection that court plaster was sonamed because the xourtesans and other ladies of the court cut bits of plaster into fancy shapes and wore these black patches on the face or shoulders.
DAMASK: soft as a rose
This fine patterned fabric was named for the city of Damascus. and the damask cheeks of the English ladies to which the romantic poets paid such high tribute were so called because they resembled the fine pink rose,known as damask rose, which was also named for thsyrian city of Damascus.
The Greeks called a sore throat kynanche, from kyon, “dog,” and ancho,”choke.” This word illustrates,in its career, the dramatic shifts in spelling that can occur. In Medieval Latin kynanche became quinancia , which entered Middle English as quinesye, later quinsy, the quinsy sore throat that we have today.
SCHOLAR: leisure to study
To be a true scholar one must have leisure for reading , research, meditation , and intelligent discussions. So it isn’t strange to find that our word scholar is from the Greek word schole which means “leisure.” Later , when philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato taught groups of young men, the early classes were termed schole. This passed into Latin as schola, “school,” and so gave us school, scholar, and all the related words. But the word school as used in the phrase “ a school of fish “ is from an entirely different source. It comes down to us from the Dutch word school which is related to the Old English term scolu which meant “a band of people.”
SCOTLAND YARD: palace of the kings
This place ,made famous by detective story writers, was so called because it stands on the site of a palace where the Scottish kings once lived when they visited England . The last of the Scottish Royal Family to stay there was Margaret ,Queen of James VI.
ZODIAC:meant animal
The zodiac is that imaginary belt of animals that supposed by the ancients to encircle the heavens.The twelve parts were named for taurus,"the bull,"pisces,"the fish,"and such .Each division is important to astrology for reading the character of those born under these signs.If we follow this word zodiac back far enough ,we will find its ancestor in the Greek word zoion,"animal."
9. Romantic Stories of Words about Women
ALIMONY: eating money
We have in English the word aliment that menas foof. This traces to the Latin alo, “norish.” So the way the most of our divorce laws are written now, if a wife sues for release from her bonds, she expects alimony, which, etymologically, is really“eating money.”
ALLURING: from falconry
When falconry was at its height in Englang and on the continent, allure was a device used by hunters to call back their hawks. It consisted of a bunch of feathers with a long cord attached. It was from this contraption that the hawk wasd fed during his training period, hence the attraction. So when a girl purposely allures a man, she is using the deceptive methods of a hunter. We have inherited the word from Old French allure; a, “to,”and lure, “bait.”
AMAZONS: they had only one breast
The Amazons were a race of female warriors who were alleged by the Greek historian Herodotus to live in Scythia. These manlike women fought many battles with the Greeks and the famous hero Achilles was presumed to have slain their queen penthesilea when the Amazons were trying to heop the besieged Trojans. These mythical women were said to have cut off their right breasts so that they could draw their bows more easily. The Greeks invented this fable to connect the word Amazon with a “without,”and mazos,”breast.”These Scythian women were responsible for the name of our south American river, the amazon. This river was called by its discoverer Rio Santa Maria de la Mar Dulce. But when the Spanish explorer Orellana made the first descent of the river from the Andes to the sea, he was engaged in battle by a savage tribe in which he believed that women fought beside the men and it is the accepted story that he then techristened the mighty river Amazonas. So when we call a modern woman an amazon, we mean that she is masculine, powerful, and inclined to give battle.
AUBURN: blong to red
Lots of mistakes have occurred in the making of our language.For example, the Latin word alburnus meant fair-haired,literally”like shite,”for alba meant”white.”Albunus passed over into Old French and Middle English as auburne, and then ,of all things, got confused with the native word vroune which meant brown. So the alburnus or fair –haired girls of ancient rome –and the Roman club-men loved their blondes –became The auburn-or reddish-brown-haired girls of today.
AVOIRDUPOIS: sold by weight
In our weight-conscious country, the United States, avoirdupois is a polite way of speaking of wxcess fat ,but its Old French ancestor aveir de peis meant”goods sold by weight,”such as wool.Lter on ,in English-speaking countries, avoidupois became the standard system of weights for goods other than gems, metals, and drugs.Adiose is another polite and pet word of the overweight, but its derivation is more blunt. The Latin adeps, adipis, is the source, and this just means “grease:or “fat”and nothing nicer.
BEVY: merely a drinking copany
The Latin word bibere, meant”to drink.” This became beivre in Old French. One of its derivatives came into our language as beverage,”that which is drunk.” By the same path bevee seems to have entered Old English with the meaning”a group of drinkers,”and then changed to signify a small group of birds, animals, or people,the people usually being women . In the late Middle Ages a bevy was a company of “roes, larks, quails,or ladies. The Latin term bibere perhaps also contributed the baby’s bib to our langyage, for ,after all, a bib does have to “imbibe”the moisture that the baby spills.
BLUESTOCKING: affectedly literary
this is a word that was more familiar to Washington Irving than it is to us ,but there are parts of the countru where an affectedly studious and literary woman is still called a bluestocking. It all began with Elizabeth Montagu, a famous leader of London society in the 1700’s, who introduced”literary evenings” in her home as a substitute for the frivolous card-playing parties of the day . She is said to have adopted blue stockingsdeliberately as a badge of her ideas. The ladies who had a taste for such gatherings were dubbed Bluestockings by a certain Admiral Buscawen and his epithet still lives.
BOUDOIR: at one time, a pouting-room
With us , of course ,an elegantly furnished room to which a lady can retire to alone or to receive her intimate friends. But in the middle Ages a young lady was sent to her boudoir to get over the sulks. Our word comes from the French verb bouder,”to pout.”So a lady ‘s boudoir is really her pouting-room.
BRIDAL: the toast that was drunk
At modern wedding receptions of the well-to-do the bride is usually toasted in champagne. This is not at all in tune with the history of word. Tht drink should really be a tankard of that homely brew, ale for the word bridal is formed of two old English words, bruyd, “bride” and ealu,”ale,” and our bridal ceremony takes its name from the traditional “bride’s ale ” that was always drunk at the time. Brydealu changed to bridale, then bridal. The bridegroom, is another story. He should be called a bridegoom,literally a “brideman.”But somebody down the line got confused and substituted groom for goom, so now a bride has married a man who takes care of horses.
BUXOM: once meant obedient
When we call a girl buxom we mean that she is fat .But when a bitish bride of early times promised to be “buxom and bonnyh”to her husband,she didn’t mean that she was going to put on a few extra pounds.The word buxom, or buhsum, as it was then spelled, seems to have come from bugan meaning “bend,”and therefore pliant, pleasant, and kindlyl.It was customary,in that era,to talk of being buxom,that is,”obedient,”to the judges, or even buxom to the pope.Then, later ,the meaning
turned to “blithe and gay”;still later to “full of health and vigor.”But now the original “bend “has gone into the curves of her figure, and a buxom girl is just pleasingly plump.
CAPRICE: liKe a goat
One hundred years ago the British author, Thomas De Quincey wrote somewhat superciliously:”Eerywhere I observe in the feminine mind something of a beautiful caprice, a floral esuberande of that charming willfulness which characterizes our dear human sisters, Ifear, through all the world.” This lefthanded compliment makes women seem attractively feminine, and yet ,when a girl is capricious, her actions are reminiscent of the lowly billy goat. The word caprice comes through the Itaian capriccio from the Latin caper, “goat.”So when a girl is capricious and cuts up capers,she is imitating the frixsky, playful antics of the male cousin of a sheep.
CHARM: formerly a danger word
If a girl were called charming 14th-century England, you could be pretty sure that she was headed for the torture chamber or to a horrifying trial by ordeal. The charm that is now courted by every woman would be sure, at that timem to bring complete social ostracism.we inherited this word from the French charme which found its source in the Latin Carmen, “song,” usually a wicked chant or incantation of magic power lide that of the notorious Lorelei. And there was also the charm that was worn to ward off evil, the progenitor of the innocent charm bracelet that has been worn by women since the 1860’s.Even as late as the 16th century we uncover the quotation:”The serpent stoppeth his eares with hir taile, to the end that she may not heare the charmes and sorceries of the inchanter.”But by shakespeare’s time the word carried a good deal less weight and now it is a high compliment to tell a girl that she has charm.
COQUETTE: once applied to men
Men used to habe a share in this word, but the girls finally took over. Coquette comes from the French coq,”cock,” and first referred to someone who behaved like a barnyard cock with his strutting gait and amorous habits. Later the word went completely feminine and we discover the coquette defined in 17th century dictionary as “a frisking and fliperous minx” The nearest male counterpart for this word is “cocky.”
COURTESAN: formerly a perfect lady
In the beginning this lady ,as her name implies, was merely a perfectly proper member of the court circle, but since her morals were often no better than they should be ,she turned into a court mistress. The term courtesan is rarely used of a prostitute .There is a nice distinction here that was aptly pointed out by a 17th-century writer named sharpham. “Your whore”,he says,”is for euery rascall,but your curtizan is for your courtier.And it is entertaining to know in this connection that court plaster was sonamed because the xourtesans and other ladies of the court cut bits of plaster into fancy shapes and wore these black patches on the face or shoulders.
DAMASK: soft as a rose
This fine patterned fabric was named for the city of Damascus. and the damask cheeks of the English ladies to which the romantic poets paid such high tribute were so called because they resembled the fine pink rose,known as damask rose, which was also named for thsyrian city of Damascus.
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