趣味英语起源论第539期:Copper 铜
日期:2014-03-25 09:00

(单词翻译:单击)

世间万物的存在,必定有其存在的价值和意义,每一个事物的产生必定有其产生的根源,并非凭空而降。

Copper 铜


古代人们把铜取名为 Copper,该词源自拉丁语 Cuprum, 与从前在“塞浦路”找到铜矿有关。德语叫 Kupfer。

A major source of copper in the ancient world was the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, so the Romans called it cyprium aes ‘metal of Cyprus’. This became cuprum in late Latin, from which it was borrowed into prehistoric West and North Germanic as *kupar, source of Old English coper. (Copper the slang term for ‘policeman’ is simply the agent noun formed from the verb cop ‘seize’, which probably comes via Old French caper from Latin capere ‘seize, take’, source of English capture.)

capture Along with its relatives captive, captivity, captivate, and captor, capture is the English language’s most direct lineal descendant of Latin capere ‘take, seize’ (others include capable, case for carrying things, cater, and chase, and heave is distantly connected). First to arrive was captive, which was originally a verb, meaning ‘capture’; it came via Old French captiver from Latin captīvus, the past participle of capere. Contemporary in English was the adjectival use of captive, from which the noun developed. (The now archaic caitiff comes from the same ultimate source, via an altered Vulgar Latin *cactivus and Old French caitiff captive’.) Next on the scene was capture, in the 16th century; originally it was only a noun, and it was not converted to verbal use until the late 18th century, when it replaced captive in this role. Also 16th-century is captivate, from the past participle of late Latin captivāre, a derivative of captīvus; this too originally meant capture’, a sense which did not die out until the 19th century: ‘The British … captivated four successive patrols’, John Neal, Brother Jonathan 1825.

captive n.俘虏, 迷恋者 adj. 被俘的, 被迷住的

【反】free

captivity n. 囚禁, 被俘, 束缚

【同】: enslavement immurement imprisonment incarceration

captivate vt.迷住, 迷惑

【同】: bewitch charm delight fascinate

captor n. 捕捉者, 逮捕者

capture n. 抓取; 捕获之物, 战利品; 把屏幕的所有或部分拷贝到暂时记忆区 (计算机用语); 俘虏 v. 俘获; 夺取; 捕获


分享到
重点单词
  • derivativeadj. (贬)非独创的,庸乏的,派生的 n. 派生物,
  • alteredv. 改变(alter的过去分词) adj. 改变了的;
  • charmn. 魅力,迷人,吸引力,美貌 v. (使)陶醉,(使)
  • archaicadj. 已不通用的,古老的,古代的
  • caterv. 备办食物,迎合,满足
  • sourcen. 发源地,来源,原始资料
  • ultimaten. 终极,根本,精华 adj. 终极的,根本的,极限的
  • chasen. 追求,狩猎,争取 vt. 追捕,狩猎 vt. 雕刻
  • delightn. 高兴,快乐 v. (使)高兴,(使)欣喜
  • imprisonmentn. 监禁,关押,拘禁