8天攻克英语六级8000词汇(六)
2009-10-15来源:和谐英语
MOUNTEBANK:on a bench
The history of mountebank ties in to those barkers who talk you into sideshows at the circus, and to the old-time fakers who stepped up on a soapbox and sold Indian snake oil cures.The derivation of the word proves the point Mounteband comes from the Italian montambanco, a contraction of the phrase monta-in-banco, that reads in translation”mount-on-bench.”In Italian montambanco,a contraction of the phrase monta-in-banco ,that reads in translation “mount-on-bench.”In Italy the montambanco was a quack who customarily perched on a bench to hawk his fraudulent wares,and gathered a crowd around him with his jokes and juggling.
NEIGHBOR:your friend on the next farm
Literally,the farmer who lives near you,from the Old English neshgebur which meant “near-by farmer.”Neah appears in modern German as nahe and in English as nigh ,both of which mean”near”Gebur is related to Bauer ,”farmer ”or “peasant,”in modern German and entered our languang from Dutch as boor ,no longer a farmer or peasant but a city person’s idea of someone with the awkward and clumsy manners of a peasant .This same Dutch word boer gave us the Boer War in which the English fought the Dutch farmers in South Africa.
NICKNAME: an added name
In days long past, a nickname was an ekename, and eke meant “added”, a name ”added” to your given name. At that time an ekename was a surname , and even in surname we have the same meaning in the French sur , which means “over” or ”above” , a name “over” and “above” your first name . the Middle English word ekename finally absorbed the “n” from ‘an” and became a ekename , and later , with us , a nickname . Once again a name “added” to those you already have.
OPPORTUNE: the ship is at the harbor
Each year on August 17th the romans had a feast in honor of Portunus, the general god who protected the ports and harbors. His name is derived from portus, the Latin words for “harbor ”. Our word opportune traces to the Latin words ob-,”before”, and portus , “port ,” or “before the port .” When a ship is at the harbor mouth it is an opportune moment , or a happy , fitting, and suitable time for many things.
PALLIANTE: cover with a garment
The traditional garb of the Greek philosophers was a rectangular woolen cloak draped over the left shoulder and around the body , called by the Romans a pallium . By some strange coincidence , and just as a passing piece of gossip , this was also the popular garment of the hetaerae , those charming and cultural entertainers and courtesans of the day . From the term pallium , “cloak,” the Latins derived the word palliates which meant “covered with a cloak” , and in this circuitous way we get our word palliate with some of the original meaning left . When we palliateour sins , for instance , we attempt to cover them as with a cloak so that they will not be so easily seen and will seem less offensive . When we palliate pain , we reduce its severity and make it less obvious . Again, in a sense , we are “cloaking” it .
PARAGON: a testing stone
In order to test the purity of gold it is often rubbed against a fine-grained , dark stone like jasper in order to see what kind of a mark it leaves . This testing stone is called a “touchstone”. Ourword paragon comes through Old French from the Italian word paragone which originally meant a touchstone, and hence paragon came finally to be a standard of true worth, so that we can now say , “he is a paragon of virtue.”
PECULIAR: related to cattle
The story of the word peculiar has a “peculiar” history. In the beginning of Rome, when there were as yet no minted coins, cattle, called pecus in Latin, took the place of money . From pecus the word peculium was finally formed and it meant “private property”. This grew into the word peculiaris which applied to possessions that were “one’s own”. The term entered Old French as peculiar and English as peculiar , with the meaning of property belonging exclusively to someone and not owned by others, or it often could refer to characteristics that were quite distinct from those of other individuals. As the poet Robert Browning said : “Yes, this in him was the peculiar grace.” Now, more and more, peculiar has taken on the meaning of characteristics that are odd and queer.
PEDIGREE: foot of a crane
Perhaps you take just pride in your family tree. Like a blooded horse, you are proud of you pedigree. But you may not know that, when you boast of your pedigree, you are really speaking of a crane’s foot, for pedigree seems to have been our way of pronouncing the French phrase pied de grue which means “the foot of a crane.” In those very old documents that recorded a family tree, the three-line graph of lineal descent looked for all the world like the imprints of a crane’s foot and suggested the picturesque name. The Latin ancestors of the word pedigree are pes, “foot,” de, “of,” and grus, “crane.”
PERNICIOUS: death-dealing
A pernicious practice is a harmful one that will work evil, but even though the word still implies a threat, it has weakened in power through the centuries. The Latin perniciosus gave it to us, and this splits into per-, “through and through,” and nex, necis, “death.”
PERSON: first was a mask
Actors in Roman and Greek dramas often had to take more than one part in a single performance,and for each chanracter that they portrayed they would wear a different mask.the name of such a mask in latin was
persona,and since,in a fashion,we are all actors,the word persona came to mean the part that anyone plays in the world.and finally it designated an individuality,or,as of today,a person.by a similar figure of speech,if we impersonate another,we put on his mask.
POSTMAN:reminder of romance
when the postman rings our doorbell on his daily rounds,he gives little hint of the romance of his beginnings.the first postman were royal couriers who rode post,and a post was one of a chain of stations that furnished a relay of fresh men and horses to carry the king`s messages to some distant point.later on these postriders carried the mails.the word post itself came up from the latin posita,"placed,"for the original posts were "placed"at intervals,along a communication route.
PRECARIOUS:obtained by prayer
when we are in a precarious positiomn,oursituation is uncertain and often dangerous.the whole thing started out with the idea of prayer,for precarious is based on the latin word prex,precis, "prayer."it looks as though the romans thought when you got anything by prayer or entreaty,it was a pretty uncertain piece of business,for their same word precarious meant "risky".in the begings of the English language precarious meant supplication,and in 1656 the English lexicographer Blount defined precarious as something "granted to one by prayer and entreaty,to use as long as it pleases the party and no longer."Now the word more nearly means "dependent on chance or hazard."
PRECOCIOUS: half-baked?
Latin prae-,"before,"and coquere,"to cook,"were combined to form praecoquere,"to cook beforehand"or"ripen beforehand."in the latter sense the word applied to fruits that ripened early.From this was derived the English word precocious ,originally applied to plants and trees with the meaning "flowwering or fruiting early or before the usual time ,""early or prematurely ripe or edveloped."We speak of a precocious child as one who is unusually forward and mature .He is "cooked ahead"or if he happpens to be a brat you don't like ,you might prefer to say he is "half-baked."
PRESTIGE:meant magic
When we say that a man has gained great prestige we intend it as a compliment ,but the French word prestige that we have borrowed is allied to prestidigitation and originally meant juggling tricks ,or illusion. So the prestige that has been won by some of our political leaders may sometimes have something to do with sleight of hand. As one 17th-century writer put it:"I am not deceived by the prestiges of the impostor."
PUNTY:born later
The word puny has meant many things down through the years, as:"inferior in rank," a puny officer;"more recent in time," a puny date;" a junior,"he left his money to the older children, none to the punies;"a novice or tyro,"I see you are but a puny in your studies.And now puny just means small and feeble.The word is directly trom the 12th-century French puisne,from puis, "later,"and ne,"born,"and its meaning "of small growth" or "weak" simply refers to the fact that babies and younger children "born later" have less strength than the older ones.if you bive the French pronunciation to puisne the sound is almost identical with puny.
The history of mountebank ties in to those barkers who talk you into sideshows at the circus, and to the old-time fakers who stepped up on a soapbox and sold Indian snake oil cures.The derivation of the word proves the point Mounteband comes from the Italian montambanco, a contraction of the phrase monta-in-banco, that reads in translation”mount-on-bench.”In Italian montambanco,a contraction of the phrase monta-in-banco ,that reads in translation “mount-on-bench.”In Italy the montambanco was a quack who customarily perched on a bench to hawk his fraudulent wares,and gathered a crowd around him with his jokes and juggling.
NEIGHBOR:your friend on the next farm
Literally,the farmer who lives near you,from the Old English neshgebur which meant “near-by farmer.”Neah appears in modern German as nahe and in English as nigh ,both of which mean”near”Gebur is related to Bauer ,”farmer ”or “peasant,”in modern German and entered our languang from Dutch as boor ,no longer a farmer or peasant but a city person’s idea of someone with the awkward and clumsy manners of a peasant .This same Dutch word boer gave us the Boer War in which the English fought the Dutch farmers in South Africa.
NICKNAME: an added name
In days long past, a nickname was an ekename, and eke meant “added”, a name ”added” to your given name. At that time an ekename was a surname , and even in surname we have the same meaning in the French sur , which means “over” or ”above” , a name “over” and “above” your first name . the Middle English word ekename finally absorbed the “n” from ‘an” and became a ekename , and later , with us , a nickname . Once again a name “added” to those you already have.
OPPORTUNE: the ship is at the harbor
Each year on August 17th the romans had a feast in honor of Portunus, the general god who protected the ports and harbors. His name is derived from portus, the Latin words for “harbor ”. Our word opportune traces to the Latin words ob-,”before”, and portus , “port ,” or “before the port .” When a ship is at the harbor mouth it is an opportune moment , or a happy , fitting, and suitable time for many things.
PALLIANTE: cover with a garment
The traditional garb of the Greek philosophers was a rectangular woolen cloak draped over the left shoulder and around the body , called by the Romans a pallium . By some strange coincidence , and just as a passing piece of gossip , this was also the popular garment of the hetaerae , those charming and cultural entertainers and courtesans of the day . From the term pallium , “cloak,” the Latins derived the word palliates which meant “covered with a cloak” , and in this circuitous way we get our word palliate with some of the original meaning left . When we palliateour sins , for instance , we attempt to cover them as with a cloak so that they will not be so easily seen and will seem less offensive . When we palliate pain , we reduce its severity and make it less obvious . Again, in a sense , we are “cloaking” it .
PARAGON: a testing stone
In order to test the purity of gold it is often rubbed against a fine-grained , dark stone like jasper in order to see what kind of a mark it leaves . This testing stone is called a “touchstone”. Ourword paragon comes through Old French from the Italian word paragone which originally meant a touchstone, and hence paragon came finally to be a standard of true worth, so that we can now say , “he is a paragon of virtue.”
PECULIAR: related to cattle
The story of the word peculiar has a “peculiar” history. In the beginning of Rome, when there were as yet no minted coins, cattle, called pecus in Latin, took the place of money . From pecus the word peculium was finally formed and it meant “private property”. This grew into the word peculiaris which applied to possessions that were “one’s own”. The term entered Old French as peculiar and English as peculiar , with the meaning of property belonging exclusively to someone and not owned by others, or it often could refer to characteristics that were quite distinct from those of other individuals. As the poet Robert Browning said : “Yes, this in him was the peculiar grace.” Now, more and more, peculiar has taken on the meaning of characteristics that are odd and queer.
PEDIGREE: foot of a crane
Perhaps you take just pride in your family tree. Like a blooded horse, you are proud of you pedigree. But you may not know that, when you boast of your pedigree, you are really speaking of a crane’s foot, for pedigree seems to have been our way of pronouncing the French phrase pied de grue which means “the foot of a crane.” In those very old documents that recorded a family tree, the three-line graph of lineal descent looked for all the world like the imprints of a crane’s foot and suggested the picturesque name. The Latin ancestors of the word pedigree are pes, “foot,” de, “of,” and grus, “crane.”
PERNICIOUS: death-dealing
A pernicious practice is a harmful one that will work evil, but even though the word still implies a threat, it has weakened in power through the centuries. The Latin perniciosus gave it to us, and this splits into per-, “through and through,” and nex, necis, “death.”
PERSON: first was a mask
Actors in Roman and Greek dramas often had to take more than one part in a single performance,and for each chanracter that they portrayed they would wear a different mask.the name of such a mask in latin was
persona,and since,in a fashion,we are all actors,the word persona came to mean the part that anyone plays in the world.and finally it designated an individuality,or,as of today,a person.by a similar figure of speech,if we impersonate another,we put on his mask.
POSTMAN:reminder of romance
when the postman rings our doorbell on his daily rounds,he gives little hint of the romance of his beginnings.the first postman were royal couriers who rode post,and a post was one of a chain of stations that furnished a relay of fresh men and horses to carry the king`s messages to some distant point.later on these postriders carried the mails.the word post itself came up from the latin posita,"placed,"for the original posts were "placed"at intervals,along a communication route.
PRECARIOUS:obtained by prayer
when we are in a precarious positiomn,oursituation is uncertain and often dangerous.the whole thing started out with the idea of prayer,for precarious is based on the latin word prex,precis, "prayer."it looks as though the romans thought when you got anything by prayer or entreaty,it was a pretty uncertain piece of business,for their same word precarious meant "risky".in the begings of the English language precarious meant supplication,and in 1656 the English lexicographer Blount defined precarious as something "granted to one by prayer and entreaty,to use as long as it pleases the party and no longer."Now the word more nearly means "dependent on chance or hazard."
PRECOCIOUS: half-baked?
Latin prae-,"before,"and coquere,"to cook,"were combined to form praecoquere,"to cook beforehand"or"ripen beforehand."in the latter sense the word applied to fruits that ripened early.From this was derived the English word precocious ,originally applied to plants and trees with the meaning "flowwering or fruiting early or before the usual time ,""early or prematurely ripe or edveloped."We speak of a precocious child as one who is unusually forward and mature .He is "cooked ahead"or if he happpens to be a brat you don't like ,you might prefer to say he is "half-baked."
PRESTIGE:meant magic
When we say that a man has gained great prestige we intend it as a compliment ,but the French word prestige that we have borrowed is allied to prestidigitation and originally meant juggling tricks ,or illusion. So the prestige that has been won by some of our political leaders may sometimes have something to do with sleight of hand. As one 17th-century writer put it:"I am not deceived by the prestiges of the impostor."
PUNTY:born later
The word puny has meant many things down through the years, as:"inferior in rank," a puny officer;"more recent in time," a puny date;" a junior,"he left his money to the older children, none to the punies;"a novice or tyro,"I see you are but a puny in your studies.And now puny just means small and feeble.The word is directly trom the 12th-century French puisne,from puis, "later,"and ne,"born,"and its meaning "of small growth" or "weak" simply refers to the fact that babies and younger children "born later" have less strength than the older ones.if you bive the French pronunciation to puisne the sound is almost identical with puny.
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