mignon

源自法語 mignon，源自中古法語 mignon (“爱人”)，源自古法語 mignon (“精致的，舒心的，温柔的”)，源自古法蘭克語 *minnjo (“爱情，友情，喜爱，回忆”)，源自原始日耳曼語 *minþijō、*mindijō (“想念，关怀”)，源自原始印歐語 *men-、*mnā- (“想”)。与古高地德語 minnja (“爱，关怀，欲望，回忆”)、古撒克遜語 minnea (“爱”)同源。见mind。亦对比minion和荷蘭語 minnen (“爱”)。

more mignon (comparative)
most mignon (superlative)

小巧而可爱的，小巧玲珑的；精致的

It was the deep-blue, dreaming, haughty eyes of "Miladi" that he was bringing back to memory, not the brown mignon face that had been so late close to his in the light of the moon.

1867, Ouida, Under Two Flags: A Story of the Household and the Desert, Volume II, Chapman and Hall (1867), page 194:

Or failing that, it must be sweet to be a famous beauty, a golden-haired divinity, like that fashionable enchantress whom she had seen often on the boulevards and in the Champs-Elysées—a mignon face, a figure delicate to fragility, almost buried amidst the luxury of a matchless set of sables, seated in the lightest and most elegant of victorias, behind a pair of thoroughbred blacks.

1867, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Ishmael, John and Robert Maxwell (1867), page 119:

What she looked at was an unset miniature of a young girl, with a wealth of darkest brown hair, powdered to a gray, and a little straight nose with just a suggestion of a tilt to it, giving the mignon face an expression of pride that the rest of the countenance by no means aided.

1899, Paul Leicester Ford, Janice Meredith: A Story of the American Revolution, Volume 1, Dodd, Mead & Company (1899), page 64:

Exactly what my grandfather says," Dorothy retorted, fun flashing in that mignon face.

1911, Marcin Barner, "Britz of Headquarters", The Branford Opinion, 29 September 1911:

Starting a dance can be as fortuitous as its termination: a very short, mignon girl asks a tall guy to dance with her, then drops him a moment later without a word.

1987, Persistence of Vision: The Journal of the Film Faculty of the City University of New York, Issues 5-8, page 68:

Magazines dubbed her 'a girl for the salons', 'the pretty girl' of the Turkish cinema, perfectly suited to the role of a blonde, mignon girl who had been educated at the best schools. In later years she herself would say, 'I was cute and sweet, but unable to project the image of a sexy woman, […]

2002, Seçil Büker, "The Film Does not End with an Ecstatic Kiss", in Fragments of Culture: The Everyday of Modern Turkey (eds. Deniz Kandiyoti & Ayşe Saktanber), Rutgers University Press (2002), ISBN 0813530814, page 161:


maigre

借自法語 maigre。meager 的同源對似詞。

素的，没有肉的（可以在斋戒日吃的）


neuter

:< 拉丁語——ne （“不”） + uter （“哪个”）； 对比英语 whether、neither。

两者都不的，哪一个都不的


nostalgic

more nostalgic (comparative)
most nostalgic (superlative)


nosy

nosier (comparative)
more nosy (comparative)
nosiest (superlative)
most nosy (superlative)

好打听的，八卦的，爱管闲事的

They built tall fences, yet the nosy neighbors always seemed to know everything about them.

他们建了高高的篱笆，但是好八卦的邻居们似乎总是知道关于他们的各种事情。

"Look at you, a handsome man of thirty, with thick brown hair and a nosy nose and enormous feet and hands that can drive a team of horses or a yoke of oxen or," she hesitated in a brief shyness, and then went on, "a loving wife."

She had the same sort of handsome, square-cut features as Timothy, with the difference that her nose was small and short — it was obvious that Timothy got his thick dark hair, his brown eyes and his nosy nose from his father, that vigorous impresario who had died suddenly of a a heart-attack, his first, two years before the War began.

1971，William Cooper，You want the right frame of reference，頁 22:

The problem is particularly acute in caricature when a variety of divergent features is forced into a precarious union, when a "nosy" nose is trying to get along with a hesitant mouth and vigilant eyebrows.

Nosy in his looks by the large hooked proboscis, which dominated his face, as well as by character, Ebenezer wanted, perhaps even needed, to know everyone's business.

2005，R. G. Crouch，The Coat: The Origin and Times of Doggett's Famous Wager，頁 99:


murky

源自中古英語 mirky，等价于murk + -y。与古諾爾斯語 myrkr、俄語 мрак (mrak)、塞爾維亞-克羅地亞語 мра̑к有关。

murkier (comparative)
murkiest (superlative)

模糊的，浑浊的，朦胧的；多云的；隐晦的，暧昧不清的

murky waters

murky territory

They may face an impenetrable word, approach its murky history from every direction, and fail to find a convincing solution (or even any solution: “origin unknow,” “the rest is unclear,” and the like).

2021年April21日，Anatoly Liberman，“Going out on a Limb”, in Oxford Etymologist:

Mr. Farrier, 39, said he often questioned the moral implications of his trips. “It’s very ethically murky territory,” Mr. Farrier said.

2022年October28日，Maria Cramer，“Beaches? Cruises? ‘Dark’ Tourists Prefer the Gloomy and Macabre”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

China’s murky statistics are fueling widespread public distrust. Its narrow definition of Covid deaths “will very much underestimate the true death toll,” the W.H.O. says.

2022年December23日，Keith Bradsher, Amy Chang Chien, Joy Dong，“As Cases Explode, China’s Low Covid Death Toll Convinces No One”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:


malevolent

源自中古英語 *malevolent（以中古英語 malevolence为证），源自古法語 malivolent和拉丁語 malevolentem，源自male (“坏地，不善地”) + volens (“希望的”)，源自velle (“希望”)。

more malevolent (comparative)
most malevolent (superlative)

Vela, Javier Hernández and Lozano switched positions with a thrillingly malevolent sense of purpose.

2018年June17日，Barney Ronay，“Mexico’s Hirving Lozano stuns world champions Germany for brilliant win”, in The Guardian，London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC，存檔自the original on 2019-08-05:


nugatory

借自拉丁語 nūgātōrius。

more nugatory (comparative)
most nugatory (superlative)

I might refer to the general conviction and the common sense of society that such an investment cannot be treated as absolutely idle and nugatory.

1872，Benjamin Disraeli，Suez Canal Speech:

无效的，无用的，无意义的

I can not dismiss the subject of Indian affairs without again recommending to your consideration the expediency of more adequate provision for giving energy to the laws throughout our interior frontier and for restraining the commission of outrages upon the Indians, without which all pacific plans must prove nugatory.

1792，George Washington，Fourth State of the Union Address:

Even among the most experienced and discriminating of men, she rarely allowed the élite of the high-born or distinguished to escape her temporary allurements, so that she was the absolute horror, alike of the designing, whose baits she rendered nugatory, and the innocent attached ones, whose expectations she blighted, and whose young hearts were lacerated by the perfidy of those whom she misled.

1838 (date written)，L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon]，章號 XVI, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […]，卷 I, London: Henry Colburn, […], 出版於 1842, →OCLC，頁 204:

Bartolomé de las Casas’s critique of the cruelty of the Conquistadors led to his official appointment as ‘Protector of the Indians’ and to the passage of the New Laws which gave the Indians some nugatory protection.

2017年September7日，Ferdinand Mount，“Umbrageousness”, in London Review of Books:

The government’s response has been nugatory, its mean mitigations mostly in loans that only stoke future problems for households: high energy prices are not set to be a brief spike.

2022年April21日，Polly Toynbee，“People are struggling to pay their energy bills – here’s a simple idea that could help”, in The Guardian:

The word "necessary" is considered as controlling the whole sentence, and as limiting the right to pass laws for the execution of the granted powers to such as are indispensable, and without which the power would be nugatory.

1819, Chief Justice John Marshall, McCulloch v. Maryland (17 U.S. 316)

He protested against the Fugitive Slave Law as necessarily nugatory and utterly impossible of execution because unanimously condemned by the public sentiment of the North.

1905，William Gardner，章號 IV, in The Life of Stephen A. Douglas:

（指程序中的某部分）无用而能移除的


meek

源自中古英語 meek、meke、meoc，其词源不详，可能与古英語 smēag (“微妙的，等等”)和smūgan有关并可能借自古諾爾斯語 mjúkr (“软的，柔和的”)，源自原始日耳曼語 *meukaz、*mūkaz (“软的，柔软的”)，源自原始印歐語 *mewg-、*mewk- (“滑”)。
同源词包括瑞典語和新挪威語 mjuk (“软的”)、書面挪威語 myk (“软的”)、丹麥語 myg (“柔软的”)、荷蘭語 muik (“软的，过熟的”)，方言德語 mauch (“干枯的，腐烂的”)、Mauche。亦对比威爾士語 mwyth (“软的，弱的”)、拉丁語 ēmungō (“擤鼻子”)、吐火羅語A muk- (“放弃”)、立陶宛語 mùkti (“从...滑走”)、古教會斯拉夫語 мъчати (mŭčati，“追逐”)、古希臘語 μύσσομαι (mússomai，“擤鼻子”)、梵語 मुञ्चति (muñcati，“释放”)。

meeker (comparative)
meekest (superlative)

Blessed are the meeke: for they shall inherit the earth.

1611，The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version)，London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 5:5:


mirthful

mirthfuller (comparative)
more mirthful (comparative)
mirthfullest (superlative)
most mirthful (superlative)


misbegotten

more misbegotten (comparative)
most misbegotten (superlative)

/ˌmɪsbɪˈɡɒtn̩/

/ˌmɪsbɪˈɡɑtn̩/

Many of the strangest, most misbegotten studio films of the last 20 years have been comedies, perhaps because middle-aged executives have no comprehension of what the younger generation finds funny.

2012 March 22nd, Scott Tobias, “Cabin Boy” in The A.V. Club:

"Do they not sneakingly bestow on me their crass inability to do anything with their own misbegotten progeny, a subterfuge which I scornfully fub off on text-books?"

1930，Norman Lindsay，Redheap，Sydney: Ure Smith, 出版於 1965，頁 82:


miscreant

源自中古英語 myscreaunt、miscreaunt，源自古法語 mescreant (“不信者”)（1080年），mescreire (“不相信”)的现在分词（现代形式mécroire）。

more miscreant (comparative)
most miscreant (superlative)


melancholic

源自古希臘語 μελαγχολικός (melankholikós，“忧郁的，冲动的，悲观的”)，源自μελαγχολία (melankholía，“忧郁”)。

more melancholic (comparative)
most melancholic (superlative)


mellifluous

源自拉丁語 mellifluus (“像蜂蜜一样流动的”)，源自mel (“蜂蜜”) + fluō (“流”)。对比superfluous和fluid，两者源自同一词根，亦对比dulcet (“甜言蜜语”)，另一个词义相近的拉丁语由来词。

more mellifluous (comparative)
most mellifluous (superlative)

birdsweet

甜美悦耳的，动听的 （形容人的声音、腔调及写作风格等）

dulcet

甜美悦耳的，动听的 （形容人的声音、腔调及写作风格等）

euphonious

甜美悦耳的，动听的 （形容人的声音、腔调及写作风格等）

mellifluent

甜美悦耳的，动听的 （形容人的声音、腔调及写作风格等）

勿与melliferous (“吸引蜜蜂的；产蜜的”)相混淆。

Though in heaven the trees / Of life ambrosial fruitage bear, and vines / Yield nectar; though from off the boughs each morn / We brush mellifluous dews, and find the ground / Cover'd with pearly grain[…]

1671，John Milton，“(please specify the page)”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes，倫敦: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC:

甜美悦耳的，动听的 （形容人的声音、腔调及写作风格等）

[…]Socrates[…]Wisest of men; from whose mouth issued forth / Mellifluous streams that water'd all the schools / Of Academicks old and new[…]

No verses can be more mellifluous than Petrarch's: something of this will perhaps be attributed to the softness of the Italian language; but the English tongue is also capable of it, however obstinately Johnson may have pronounced otherwise.

1853，Sir Egerton Brydges，Life of Milton:

Certainly, he returns explicitly to the sound of Urban Hymns on his fourth solo album: neat, sad strings, unhurried percussion and his mellifluous foghorn of a voice.

2016年May19日，Rachel Aroesti，“Richard Ashcroft: These People review”, in The Guardian:

His iconic look, mellifluous croon and timeless songwriting means that he retains a strong fanbase.

2017年October20日，Ben Beaumont-Thomas，“In dreams: Roy Orbison hologram to embark on UK tour in 2018”, in The Guardian:

Radio proved a perfect fit for the mellifluous tones of Mr. Pence, who called himself “Rush Limbaugh on decaf.”

2022年July12日，Simon Montlake，“In Jan. 6 spotlight, Mike Pence navigates a tricky post-Trump path”, in The Christian Science Monitor:


melodramatic

more melodramatic (comparative)
most melodramatic (superlative)

情节剧的；适合情节剧的；夸大的，小题大做的

过于情绪化的，多愁善感的

She wrote him a melodramatic letter, threatening to kill herself.

Dearest Eloise,— There is one little and perhaps insignificant French cake, which I feel certain would soon become a favourite in the cottage, more particularly amongst its juvenile inhabitants. It is the famed galette, the melodramatic food of the gamins, galopins, mechanics, and semi-artists of France.

1854，Alexis [Benoît] Soyer，A Shilling Cookery for the People: Embracing an Entirely New System of Plain Cookery and Domestic Economy，London, New York, N.Y.: George Routledge & Co., →OCLC，頁 125:


bolshie

来自 Bolshevik（俄語 большеви́к (bolʹševík)，布尔什维克），来自俄語 большевики́ (bolʹševikí，“多数派”) + -ie。

bolshier (comparative)
bolshiest (superlative)
bolshy (alternative)

Rachel came in, and Nick felt he'd been caught larking about, Catherine squashing him like some bolshie teenage attempt at seduction.
（請為本引文添加中文翻譯）

2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty, Bloomsbury, 2005, Chapter 16,

Kate, don't be so bolshie!


obnoxious

來自拉丁語 obnoxiōsus (“有害的，危險的”)，來自obnoxius (“受懲罰的；有危險的”)，來自ob (“面對”) + noxia (“傷害”)。

more obnoxious (comparative)
most obnoxious (superlative)

The disturbance had commenced, like those of England, in the refusal of the parliament to sanction an obnoxious tax; but here all resemblance ended.

这场骚乱和英格蘭的骚乱一样，都是从议会拒绝批准一项令人厌恶的税收开始的；但所有的相似之处都在这里结束了。

1834，Letitia Elizabeth Landon，Francesca Carrara，卷 1，頁 74:

Someone jolted my arm and the contents of my glass spilled onto an immaculate white dress. I felt obnoxious.

有人搖晃著我的手臂，我的杯子裡的東西濺到了一件無瑕的白色連衣裙上。我覺得很討厭。

1989，Antônio Torres，Blues for a Lost Childhood: A Novel of Brazil，頁 41:

I WOULD HAVE been nine or ten when my mother chased me up a thorn tree with a ceremonial hippo-hide whip. What my crime was, I forget. My mother was, and remains, a woman of exceptional forbearance. I must have done something so obnoxious as to beggar belief.

我九歲或十歲的時候，我媽媽用儀式用的河馬皮鞭子追著我爬上一棵荊棘樹。我的罪行是什麼，我忘記了。我的母親過去和現在都是一個非常寬容的女人。我一定做了一些令人討厭的事情，以至於让人难以置信。

2010年August3日，David Bennun，Tick Bite Fever，Random House，頁 109:

I always feel out of place when I am around people. I feel obnoxious if I laugh or talk too much.

當我和人在一起時，我總是感到格格不入。如果我笑太多或說話太多，我會感到討厭。

2013，Catherine Hilterbrant，Drive-by Psychosis, →ISBN，頁 51:

He felt obnoxious and knew perfectly well that he would have no explanation whatsoever had anyone discovered him, but she looked so alluring, so untroubled, so fortunate, that his only concern was the terrible crack the shutter made...quiet as it was.

他感到很討厭，而且很清楚如果有人發現他，他將無法解釋，但她看起來如此迷人，如此無憂無慮，如此幸運，以至於他唯一關心的是百葉窗發出的可怕的破裂聲……尽管它是如此安静。

2013，Molly Cutpurse，Dark Man, →ISBN，頁 44:

He was an especially obnoxious and detestable specimen of a man.

他是一個特別令人討厭和可憎的男人的樣本。

Throwing stones at the bus is another example of your obnoxious behaviour.

向公共汽車扔石頭是你令人討厭的行為的另一個例子。

To begin then with his Experiment of the burning Wood, it seems to me to be obnoxious to not a few considerable Exceptions.
#*:: 还是从他的树木燃烧实验开始谈起，在我看来，对于这个实验，不考虑某些重要的例外情况是不行的。

1661, Robert Boyle, The Sceptical Chymist, p. 26,


pliant

源自中古英語 pliaunt，源自古法語 ploiant，ploiier (“折叠”)的现在分词。

more pliant (comparative)
most pliant (superlative)

Whether in its northern or southern home, the black-throated blue warbler builds its nest of bark, roots, and other pliant material, loose and rather bulky, in a variety of saplings, bushes, and weeds, but always a few inches or a few feet from the ground.

1917, The National Geographic Magazine April 1917, The Warblers of North America

a pliant thread  pliant wax

Yet there was pleasant sadness that became

1839, William Gilmore Simms, “The Brooklet” in Southern Passages and Pictures, New York: George Adlard, p. 2,

[The king] had a pliant prime minister and a general who was telling him what he wanted to hear.


paramount

原始印歐語詞
 *h₂éd
源自盎格魯-諾曼語 paramont、paramount (“至高无上的，卓越的；在上面的”)，源自古法語 par、per (“以...的手段”) + amont、amunt (“向上”)。Par派生自拉丁語 per (“以...的手段，通过”)，源自原始印歐語 *per- (“穿过；通过”);amont和amunt则源自拉丁語 ad montem (“朝向山；向上”)，源自ad (“向上往”)（最终源自原始印歐語 *h₂éd (“在；到”)） + montem（mōns (“山”)的宾格单数，最终源自原始印歐語 *men- (“耸立，矗立”)）。

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-paramount.wav

utmost

至高无上的；领先的，领导的

paravail

至高无上的；领先的，领导的

至高无上的；领先的，领导的

Hitherto she had chiefly dwelt on her unkindness and neglect; but absence, like charity, covers a multitude of sins; and the thought now paramount was, that she should see her no more.

1834，Letitia Elizabeth Landon，Francesca Carrara，卷 2，頁 168:

The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. […] The second note, the high alarum, not so familiar and always important since it indicates the paramount sin in Man's private calendar, took most of them by surprise although they had been well prepared.

1963，Margery Allingham，“Eye Witness”, in The China Governess: A Mystery，London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC，頁 249:

Getting those credit cards paid off is paramount.

把这些信用卡还清是最要紧的事。


protonated

more protonated (comparative)
most protonated (superlative)


obsequious

源自中古英語 obsequyous，源自拉丁語 obsequiōsus (“顺从的，点头哈腰的”) ，源自obsequium (“顺从”)，源自obsequor (“服从，遵守”)，源自ob (“朝向”) + sequor (“跟随”)（对比sequel）。

more obsequious (comparative)
most obsequious (superlative)

Translation falls especially short of this conceit which carries the whole flamboyance of the Spanish language. It was intended as an obsequious flattery of the Condesa, and was untrue.

1927，Thornton Wilder，The Bridge of San Luis Rey，頁 20:

Our ladies were situated as well as it was possible; they had good servants, splendid rooms, obsequious attendants, and had become habituated to the country, so that the loss of the Count was not any thing of moment beyond the pleasure of his society;[…]

1842，[anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon]，章號 XXXIV, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […]，卷 II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC，頁 140:


prodigal

源自中古法語 prodigal，源自晚期拉丁語 prōdigālis (“浪费的”)，源自拉丁語 prōdigus (“浪费的，挥霍的”)，源自prōdigō (“消耗，浪费”)，源自prōd-（←prō (“前，向前”)） + agō (“驱动”)。还见prodigy。

more prodigal (comparative)
most prodigal (superlative)

[ˈpʰɹɑɾɪɡɫ̩]

He found himself guilty of prodigal spending during the holidays.

他想起放假时没节制地乱花钱，就很有罪恶感。

The prodigal son spent his share of his inheritance until he was destitute.

浪子把自己分到的遗产花到身无分文。

The prodigal heir can only waste his own substance, and the punishment falls, as it should, upon himself; but the prince has an awful responsibility,—the welfare of others is required at his hands;...

1834，L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon]，章號 XXIII, in Francesca Carrara. […]，卷 II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC，頁 257:

乱用...的，大量使用...的

She was a merry person, glad and prodigal of smiles.

她是一个很快乐的人，一直都面带微笑。

How can he be so prodigal with money on such a tight budget?

预算那么紧，他是怎么敢这样乱花钱的。

He generally falls backwards and sometimes succumbs to the fever which ensues; hence as soon as the ordeal is over the women are prodigal of their attentions to him, and rub the swollen arm with a particular kind of herb.

1911，James George Frazer，The Golden Bough，卷 10，頁 63:

Granville poised himself over a vast sirloin, stropped his knife briskly, then began to hack away ruthlessly. He was a prodigal server and piled about two pounds of meat on my plate, then he started on the Yorkshire puddings.

1974，James Herriot，Vet in Harness，頁 201:

浪子的 （起源自《新约圣经》内通常叫做“Parable of the Prodigal Son”（浪子回头的比喻）的故事）

遗弃（他人）的，抛弃（他人）的

Simon Hart of the Daily Telegraph has tweeted that the prodigal triple-jumper has come home, in preparation for tomorrow's qualification round.

2012年August12日，Paul Owen，“London 2012 Olympics: day 10”, in The Guardian:


prodigious

源自中古法語 prodigieux，源自拉丁語 prōdigiōsus (“异常的，怪异的，奇特的，出奇的”)，源自prōdigium (“怪事，怪物，征兆”)。就词形分析：prodigy + -ous。

more prodigious (comparative)
most prodigious (superlative)

/pɹəˈdɪd͡ʒəs/

杰出的，非凡的，无与伦比的


perennial

1644年，源自拉丁語 perennis (“持续一整年的”)（源自per- (“贯穿”) + annus (“年”)） + -al，可作per- + -ennial分析。

a perennial stream

同類詞：annual、biennial

The perennial existence of bodies corporate and their fortunes are things particularly suited to a man who has long views…

1790，Edmund Burke，Reflections on the Revolution in France:

His artwork has a perennial beauty.

Change is a perennial theme in politics.

改变是政治中一个反复出现的主题。

a perennial candidate


otherworldly

more otherworldly (comparative)
most otherworldly (superlative)

ethereal

来世的，阴间的，冥界的，超脫塵俗的，另一世界的

mystical

来世的，阴间的，冥界的，超脫塵俗的，另一世界的

transcendental

来世的，阴间的，冥界的，超脫塵俗的，另一世界的

alien

怪异的，不自然的；超凡的；不属于这个世界的

来世的，阴间的，冥界的，超脫塵俗的，另一世界的

Every religion that becomes ascendant, in so far as it is not otherworldly, must necessarily set its stamp upon the methods and administration of the law.
每一種宗教，只要不是超凡脫俗的，就必然會在法律的方法和管理上打上自己的烙印。

1917, H. G. Wells, God, the Invisible King, ch. 5,

Dana has the otherworldly temperament of a mystic.

2007年August26日，Clive Davis，“Simphiwe Dana: The One Love Movement on Bantu Biko Street”, in Times of London:

怪异的，不自然的；超凡的；不属于这个世界的

An almost otherworldly resilience has characterized the 40-year arc of the Clintons’ political lives, a well-documented pattern of dazzling success, shattering setback and inevitable recovery.

2015年April15日，Jonathan Martin，“For a Clinton, It’s Not Hard to Be Humble in an Effort to Regain Power”, in The New York Times:

The sudden inundation from the remnants of Ida transformed familiar scenes of life in New York into otherworldly and waterlogged chaos on Wednesday night.

2021年September1日，Michael Levenson，Anne Barnard，“Scenes from New York City as Ida paralyzes region”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:


perfidious

more perfidious (comparative)
most perfidious (superlative)

背信弃义的，不忠的，背叛的 （自16世纪末）

The perfidious Ricimer soon became dissatisfied with Anthe'mius, and raised the standard of revolt.

1851，Oliver Goldsmith，“ch. 26”, in Dr. Goldsmith's History of Rome:

[S]he knew Huntly for the ambitious traitor he was, a man peculiarly perfidious and self-seeking.

1905，Andrew Lang，“ch. 14”, in John Knox and the Reformation:

When the Nazis branded Feininger a "degenerate artist" in 1937, he left 54 paintings for safekeeping with a Bauhaus friend named Hermann Klumpp. After the war, and for the rest of Feininger's life, the perfidious Klumpp refused to give them back.

2005 June 21，Robert Hughes，“Art: The Velocipede of Modernism”, in Time:


paranoid

more paranoid (comparative)
most paranoid (superlative)

/ˈpɛɹ.ə.ˌnɔɪd/

/ˈpæɹ.ə.ˌnɔɪd/

/ˈpæɹ.ə.ˌnɔɪd/

有关，或罹患偏执症，妄想症的

多疑的，疑心病的，无端猜忌的

Maybe I'm paranoid, but that doesn't mean that they are not out to get me.

可能是我多想了，但是那不能说明他们没有出来抓我。


paraplegic

/ˌpɛɹəˈplid͡ʒɪk/


prurient

源自拉丁語 prūriēns，prūriō (“痒”)的现在分词。

more prurient (comparative)
most prurient (superlative)

因欲望（尤指淫欲）而蠢蠢欲动的；好色的，发情的

We know that at that period certain indecencies in the dresses, even of those who were considered as the most refined and polished men of the age, were not only tolerated but ostentatiously displayed, and every sort of device that the most prurient mind could think of was had recourse to, to attract attention or excite a smile.

1823, The London Literary Gazette and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, Etc, page 781,

For example, some of the more prudish senders may have averted their attention from the sexual pictures while other more prurient viewers may have intensified their gaze.

1995, Brian Parkinson, Ideas and Realities of Emotion, page 124,

It must be removed at once, lest it disturb the young and arouse in adults the most prurient thoughts.

2010, Stephen Sartarelli (translator), Love and the Erotic in Art, (2008, Stefano Zuffi, Amore ed erotismo), John Paul Getty Trust, US, page 7,

[…] nor is it more prurient or lascivious than many productions to be found in a circulating library.

1825, The Literary Chronicle for the Year 1825, London, page 156,

But in contemporary consumerist societies, when the kids are safely in bed, television programs allow viewers to indulge their more prurient interests.

2008, Marcel Danesi, Popular Culture: Introductory Perspectives, page 204,

Much of my discussion in the previous two chapters has focused on the dichotomy in Alemán's novel between the author's stated interest in moral didacticism and the more prurient appeal of the novel's representations of material privation and violent spectacle.

2005, Donald Gilbert-Santamaría, Writers on the Market: Consuming Literature in Early Seventeenth-century Spain, page 130,


odious

源自中古英語 odious，源自古法語 odieus，源自拉丁語 odiōsus，源自odium (“恨”)。

more odious (comparative)
most odious (superlative)

Scrubbing the toilets in the bar at the end of a Saturday night is an odious task.

You told a lie, an odious damned lie: / Upon my soul, a lie, a wicked lie!

约1603–1604年，威廉·莎士比亚，“The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice [奥赛罗]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (第一对开本)，伦敦: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, 出版於 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]，行s 179-80:

I own no crime, unless it be a crime to've hindered you from perpetrating that which would have made you odious to mankind, at least the fairest half.

1750，“Theodora”, Thomas Morell 作詞, George Frideric Handel 作曲:

He looks upon study as an odious fetter; his time is spent in the open air, climbing the hills or rowing on the lake.

1818，Mary Shelley，章號 6, in Frankenstein，存檔自the original on 2013-05-08:


poignant

源自中古英語 poynaunt、poynant，借自盎格魯-諾曼語 puignant、poynaunt等，poindre (“刺”)的现在分词，源自拉丁語 pungō (“刺”)。pungent 的同源對似詞。

more poignant (comparative)
most poignant (superlative)

distressing

感人的，动人的，让人感伤的

moving

感人的，动人的，让人感伤的

His siluer shield, now idle maisterlesse; / His poynant speare, that many made to bleed [...].

1590，埃德蒙·斯宾塞，“Book VII”, in 仙后（The Faerie Qveene . […]），London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

有说服力的，准确的，利落的，直击要害的

A poignant reply will garner more credence than hours of blown smoke.

一针见血的回答比几个小时的胡诌更能赢得信任。

感人的，动人的，让人感伤的

Flipping through his high school yearbook evoked many a poignant memory of yesteryear.

翻了翻他的高中年鉴，很多人想起了去年那些动人的回忆。

A particularly poignant example of this is a child called Genie (see Curtiss 1977; Rymer 1993), who was deprived of speech input and kept locked up on her own in a room until age thirteen. When eventually taken into care and exposed to intensive language input, her vocabulary grew enormously, but her syntax never developed.

2004，Andrew Radford，Minimalist Syntax: Exploring the Structure of English，Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, §1.4，頁 13:

Hanks shepherds the young girl to safety – first brusquely, and then with a sudden outburst of affection made all the more poignant for the way it is reserved previously. He once again reminds us, quite literally, that he is in many ways the ultimate dad.

2021年February9日，Christina Newland，“Is Tom Hanks part of a dying breed of genuine movie stars?”, in BBC:

His comments were poignant and witty.


preposterous

源自拉丁語 praeposterus (“前后倒置的，颠倒的，扭曲的”)，源自prae (“前”) + posterus (“跟着的”)。

more preposterous (comparative)
most preposterous (superlative)

/pɹɪˈpɒstəɹəs/

/pɹəˈpɑstəɹəs/

荒谬的，违反常理的；离奇的，古怪的

[...] I did incounter that obſeene and moſt prepoſterous euent that draweth frõ my ſnowhite pen the ebon coloured Incke, which here thou vieweſt, beholdeſt, ſuruayeſt, or ſeeſt. [...] There did I ſee that low ſpirited Swaine, [...] hight Coſtard, (Clow[ne]. O mee) ſorted and conſorted contrary to thy eſtabliſhed proclaymed Edict and continent Cannon; Which with, o with, but with this I paſſion to ſay wherewith: / Clo[wne]. With a Wench.

c. 1595–1596，W. Shakespere [i.e., 威廉·莎士比亞]，A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto)，London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, 出版於 1598, →OCLC; 再版為 Shakspere’s Loves Labours Lost (Shakspere-Quarto Facsimiles; no. 5)，London: W[illiam] Griggs, […], [1880], →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

So I am to send Mrs. Churchill down to the very spot where a treasonable correspondence is most easily managed; and by the ease with which she gets out of a first scrape, give her all possible encouragement to get into another. Well, I was quite right in asking what preposterous request had you come here about!

1837，L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon]，“An Audience”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […]，卷 II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC，頁 257:

Leading the attack on the president's very citizenship is the professional vulgarian Donald Trump, who gets away with the kind of preposterous, race-based comments granted few black public figures.

2014年December4日，Timothy Egan，“A deficit of dignity”, in The New York Times:

Democrats, too, must be criticised. While they have not made preposterous statements or been threatening or demagogic, they, all too often, have come up short, failing to propose new ideas that can help unwind conflicts raging across the Middle East.

2016年January30日，“America deserves more from presidential hopefuls”, in The National, retrieved 2016-01-31:


pallid

源自拉丁語 pallidus。pale 的同源對似詞。

pallider (comparative)
pallidest (superlative)

The patient left the hospital but was very pallid.

病人离开了医院，但还是很苍白无力。


prerogative

源自盎格魯-諾曼語 prerogative (名词)，源自拉丁語 praerogātīva (“之前的裁决；特权”)，praerogātīvus (“有特权的，有最先发言权力的”)阴性单数的名词用法。

more prerogative (comparative)
most prerogative (superlative)

/pɹɪˈɹɒɡ.ə.tɪv/

/pɹəˈɹɑɡ.ə.tɪv/

/pəˈɹɑ.ɡə.tɪv/

Law-eroding prerogative developments cannot only be witnessed in hybrid regimes, but also in democratic states, which resort to reflections and practices of an ‘enemy criminal law’, and in the European Union’s recent crisis politics.

2020，Jan Christoph Suntrup，“Between prerogative power and legality – reading Ernst Fraenkel’s The Dual State as an analytical tool for present authoritarian rule”, in Jurisprudence，卷 11, 期 3, →DOI，頁s 335–359:


palpable

more palpable (comparative)
most palpable (superlative)

The imagination shuns to reveal its workings, unless it can clothe them in some lovely and palpable shape, and create into existence the high romance, the mournful song, the animated canvass, or the carved marble;...

1834，L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon]，章號 XX, in Francesca Carrara. […]，卷 I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC，頁 227:

I had felt that some palpable although invisible object had passed lightly by my person.

The next morning the fog had given way to a palpable, horizontally driving rain.

1894, Bret Harte, "The Heir of the McHulishes" in A Protegee of Jack Hamlin's and Other Stories:

Although the Celebrity was almost impervious to sarcasm, he was now beginning to exhibit visible signs of uneasiness,[…]。It was with a palpable relief that he heard the first warning notes of the figure.

1897年 12月（標示為1898年），Winston Churchill，章號 5, in The Celebrity: An Episode，紐約: The Macmillan Company；倫敦：Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

Her voice, her palpable agitation, prepared us for something extraordinary.

1913, Sax Rohmer, The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu chapter 24:

No use in raging, in reasoning, in arguing. No use in setting forth the facts, the palpable right and wrong.

1916, Kathleen Norris, The Heart of Rachael, chapter 7:

By Thursday, there was a palpable sense of frustration with the opposition’s strategy on the streets of Caracas, people in the capital said.

2019年May2日，Ana Vanessa Herrero，Rick Gladstone，“Maduro Speaks to Troops, Trying to Discredit Guaidó’s Call for Mutiny”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Elena Remigi, of the In Limbo Project, which is documenting the experiences of EU citizens in the UK, said: “The anxiety among EU citizens is palpable. My inbox is full of messages of people asking for reassurance or guidance.[…]”

2021年June28日，Lisa O'Carroll，Amelia Gentleman，引 Elena Remigi, “‘The anxiety is palpable’: EU citizens face looming settled status deadline”, in The Guardian:


ornery

ordinary的缩约形或方言读法。

ornerier (comparative)
orneriest (superlative)

Seemingly here was an intruder who was violating custom. Moreover, the partners had come to look upon this exceedingly rich district as their exclusive property. And so their indignation was extreme. / "The low-down, ornery cuss!" said Dobbs. "The nerve of him, crowdin' in on us, just as if there wasn't lots of other places for him to go!"

I ain't sayin' I don't share your sentiments, Buck, but you're a born fool. First place Luke would kill the Kid in a gun-fight. Second place if Luke did get shot he's got two brothers just as ornery as he is, and if Ike Plummer didn't kill the Kid then Hank Plummer would.

1939，Dudley Nichols，Stagecoach (motion picture), spoken by Marshal Curley Wilcox (George Bancroft):

after a lifetime of being sweet as pie, once Grandpa died, she got kinda ornery.

2013，Richard Linklater、Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke，Before Midnight (motion picture), spoken by Jesse (Ethan Hawke):

But in many instances, the complainers are not just being ornery; they could have a condition called misophonia, in which one experiences strong negative feelings to specific sounds — like the proverbial nails on a chalkboard.

2020年May25日，Abby Ellin，“Couples Who Eat Together May Not Stay Together”, in New York Times:


prescient

源自praesciēns (“预知的，预测的”)，拉丁語 praesciō (“预知”)的现在分词，源自prae- (“...之前”之意的前缀)（最终源自原始印歐語 *preh₂- (“在...之前”)）+ sciō (“知道”)（最终源自原始印歐語 *skey- (“解剖，分割”)）。与中古法語 prescient（现代形式法語 prescient (“有先见之明的”)）、意大利語 presciente (“有先见之明的”)同源。

more prescient (comparative)
most prescient (superlative)

clairvoyant

有先见之明的，预知的 （自17世纪初叶）

foreknowing

有先见之明的，预知的 （自17世纪初叶）

foreseeing

有先见之明的，预知的 （自17世纪初叶）

prescious

有先见之明的，预知的 （自17世纪初叶）

prescientific

有先见之明的，预知的 （自17世纪初叶）

prevoyant

有先见之明的，预知的 （自17世纪初叶）

unforeseeing

有先见之明的，预知的 （自17世纪初叶）

有先见之明的，预知的 （自17世纪初叶）

And if the præſcient Muſes guide my Lay, / Or, future Secrets, Phœbus can diſplay, / The Day ſhall ſhine diſtinguiſh'd from the reſt, / That Anna dignify'd, and Hymen bleſt; […]

1733–1734，Stephen Duck，A Poem on the Marriage of His Serene Highness the Prince of Orange with Ann Princess-royal of Great Britain. […]，London: Printed for Weaver Bickerton […], →OCLC，頁 7:

Mean time the king, aſtoniſh'd at the ſign, / Haſtes to conſult his præſcient ſire divine.

1753，Virgil，Christopher Pitt, transl.，“Virgil’s Æneid. The Seventh Book.”, in The Works of Virgil, in Latin and English. […]，卷 III, London: Printed for R[obert] Dodsley […], →OCLC，頁 283，行s 103–104:

Benignant Heaven, præscient and kind, / Made man for toil, and left sweet Sleep behind, / To nerve the arm which labour had unstrung— […]

[1812]，William Grisenthwaite，Sleep, a Poem in Two Books, with Other Miscellaneous Poems, […]，Lynn: Printed for the author, by W. G. Whittingham, and sold by R. Baldwin, […], →OCLC, book I，頁 5，行s 77–79:

Members opposite seem to be prescient; they seem to know what I am going to say before I have said it.

1960年August24日，Roy Emile Jack，“Business of the House—Urgency”, in Parliamentary Debates (Hansard): Fourth Session, Thirty-second Parliament: House of Representatives，卷 323, Wellington: R. E. Owen, government printer, →OCLC，頁 1740:

[Neil] Warnock described City as the best team in Europe in the build-up to this match and joked that his players had been preparing for the game – and City's inevitable dominance – by training without a ball. It proved to be a prescient quip, as the home side had to toil for long periods, struggling to lay a glove on their stylish opponents.

2018年January28日，Dafydd Pritchard，“Cardiff City 1 – 1 Manchester City”, in BBC Sport，存檔自the original on 2018-03-17:


propitiatory

源自拉丁語 propitiātōrius (“补偿的；和解的”)。

more propitiatory (comparative)
most propitiatory (superlative)

/pɹəʊˈpɪʃɪətəɹɪ/

/pɹəˈpɪʃi.əˌtɔɹi/

/pɹoʊˈpɪʃi.əˌtɔɹi/

安抚性的，追求和解、调解的

Hecatombs were early substituted for single victims; and, to render the worship still more propitiatory, these were soon exchanged for human sacrifices.

1831, Timothy Dwight, Theology Explained and Defended, in a Series of Sermons, page 493,

So that no words can be more propitiatory; and it is to be observed, that, while they are spoken, the Minister is holding the consecrated elements in his hand, tendering them at the same time to God, and to the communicants.

1838, Tracts for the Times, Volume 4: 1836-7, page 326,

"I beg your pardon, Sir," said Mr. Carker, riding up, with his most propitiatory smile. "I hope you are not hurt?”

1848, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, Volumes 1-20, 1848, page 224,

The weak branded those they feared evil, and praised the ‘propitiatory’ qualities natural to men like themselves who were incapable of aggression. […] Those who cultivate humility and the other propitiatory virtues to cloak their weakness nourish an envious resentment against those stronger than themselves.

1978, Philippa Foot, Nietzsche: The Revaluation of Values, in Virtues and Vices and Other Essays in Moral Philosophy, University of California Press, 1981, page 82,


propitious

源自盎格魯-諾曼語和古法語 propicius，源自拉丁語 propitius (“有利的，支持的，善良的”)。对比法語 propice、葡萄牙語 propício和西班牙語 propicio。

more propitious (comparative)
most propitious (superlative)

/pɹoʊˈpɪʃəs/

propitious weather

But counterrevolutions are reversible. Klein devotes much of her book to propitious signs that this can happen — indeed is happening.

2014年November6日，Rob Nixon，“Naomi Klein’s ‘This Changes Everything’”, in New York Times:


paltry

源自中古低地德語 paltrig (“破旧的，劣质的，无价值的”)，源自palter、palte (“破布”)，源自古撒克遜語 *paltro、*palto (“布，破布”)，源自原始日耳曼語 *paltrô、*paltô (“碎屑，破布，补丁”)。 与低地德語 palterig (“破败的，破碎的”)、方言用词德語 palterig (“微不足道的”)同源。亦对比低地德語 palte (“破布”)、西弗里斯蘭語 palt (“破布”)、薩特弗里斯蘭語 Palte (“布条，袋子”)，德語方言Palter (“破布”)、丹麥語 pjalt (“破布，碎布”)、瑞典語 palta (“破布”)。另见palterly。

paltrier (comparative)
paltriest (superlative)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-paltry.wav

insignificant

无价值的，无用的，微不足道的，蹩脚的

unimportant

无价值的，无用的，微不足道的，蹩脚的

petty

无价值的，无用的，微不足道的，蹩脚的

trivial

无价值的，无用的，微不足道的，蹩脚的

无价值的，无用的，微不足道的，蹩脚的

This is indeed a paltry flyer about a silly product.

这就是一个愚蠢产品的垃圾传单。

She made some paltry excuse and left.

她找了点蹩脚的借口离开了。

There are a great many languages, like Eskimo and Nootka and, aside from paltry exceptions, the Semitic languages, that cannot compound radical elements.

1921，Edward Sapir，Language: An introduction to the study of speech:

Could someone hope to survive on such a paltry income?

能有人指望这丁点收入过活吗？

Student grants these days are paltry, and many students have to take out loans.

现在的助学金都没有几个钱，很多学生得去借贷款。

"An aged man is but a paltry thing, / A tattered coat upon a stick"

1928，William Butler Yeats，Sailing to Byzantium:

A paltry coward.


preservative

其他欧洲语言中与此同源的词汇多有“避孕套”之意，如法语 préservatif，意语、葡语、西语 preservativo，俄语 презерватив，使用时需要注意。参见 preserve#词源。


parsimonious

more parsimonious (comparative)
most parsimonious (superlative)

penurious

过分节俭的；吝啬的，悭吝的

niggardly

过分节俭的；吝啬的，悭吝的

stingy

过分节俭的；吝啬的，悭吝的

pennywise

过分节俭的；吝啬的，悭吝的

tight-fisted

过分节俭的；吝啬的，悭吝的

过分节俭的；吝啬的，悭吝的

Our fathers would have an economical government, even if grand people called it a parsimonious one, and taxes should be no greater than were absolutely necessary to pay for such a government.

1898，William Graham Sumner，“The Conquest of the United States by Spain”, in War and Other Essays，New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 出版於 1911, →OCLC，頁 333:

The first three college-savings plans stand out for their parsimonious expenses […]

2002 January，“55 great personal-finance ideas”, in Kiplinger's Personal Finance，卷 56, 期 1, Washington, D.C.: Kiplinger Washington Editors, →ISSN, →OCLC，頁 53, col. 3:

Statistical methods offer the ability to enforce parsimonious selection of the most influential potential predictors of each gene's state.

2006，Richard Bonneau [et al.]，“The Inferelator: An Algorithm for Learning Parsimonious Regulatory Networks from Systems-biology Data Sets de Novo”, in Genome Biology，卷 7, 期 5, London: BioMed Central, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, →PMCID，頁 R36:

They played like a team that was in a hurry to get back to the Premier League. Norwich City had dismantled the most parsimonious defence in the Championship inside the opening quarter of an hour and at the final whistle it was the yellow end, rather than Middlesbrough’s banks of red, where the euphoria could be found.

2015年May25日，Daniel Taylor，“Norwich reach Premier League after early blitz sees off Middlesbrough”, in The Guardian，London，存檔自the original on 2015-11-01:


puerile

源自拉丁語 puerīlis (“幼稚的”)，源自puer (“小孩，男孩”)。

more puerile (comparative)
most puerile (superlative)

The French have been notorious through generations for their puerile affectation of Roman forms, models, and historic precedents.

1850, Thomas De Quincey, French and English Manners (originally published in Hogg's Instructor

源自the table he had received the gout; from the alcove a tendency to convulsions; from the grandeeship a pride so vast and puerile that he seldom heard anything that was said to him and talked to the ceiling in a perpetual monologue; from the exile, oceans of boredom, a boredom so persuasive that it was like pain,—he woke up with it and spent the day with it, and it sat by his bed all night watching his sleep.

1927, Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, page 79:

[…] I have always found it hard that Hamlet, a character that I love and admire, is guilty of a puerile misogyny and, perhaps, more worryingly, of the unnecessary deaths of his old friends from university, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern。

2014年April12日，Simon Russell Beale，“Why Shakespeare always says something new: As the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth approaches, the great Shakespearean actor Simon Russell Beale explains his secrets [print version: The king and I]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review)，London，頁 R7:

Today we should welcome, and even study, every serious attempt to envisage the future of our race, not merely to grasp the very diverse and often tragic possibilities that confront us, but also that we may familiarize ourselves with the certainty that many of our cherished ideals would seem puerile to more developed minds.

1930 July, West Kirby, Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon, Preface (page 9 of the Dover 1968 reprint of L&FM and Star Maker):


outstanding

more outstanding (comparative)
most outstanding (superlative)

Charles S. Peirce, 1839 to 1914, was one of America's most outstanding intellects. Philosopher, mathematician, and scientist, he wrote profusely, the equivalent of almost 100,000 printed pages in all.

1978，Arthur Burks，The New Elements of Mathematics (review by Burks):

The Gunners captain demonstrated his importance to the team by taking his tally to an outstanding 28 goals in 27 Premier League games as Chelsea slumped again after their shock defeat at QPR last week.

2011年October29日，Phil McNulty，“Chelsea 3 - 5 Arsenal”, in BBC Sport:

At a distance of about seven or eight miles to the northeastward of the landing, there is an outstanding group of mountains crowning a spur from the main chain of the Coast Range, whose highest point rises about eight thousand feet above the level of the sea;...

You must pay any outstanding corporate card balance immediately.

您必须立即支付所有尚欠的商务卡结欠款。

The distribution of the capital shall in the case of each loan be based on the capital amount outstanding at the date of the coming into force of the present Treaty.

I kept account of every farthing I spent, and my expenses were carefully calculated. Every little item such as omnibus fares or postage or a couple of coppers spent on newspapers, would be entered, and the balance struck every evening before going to bed. That habit has stayed with me ever since, and I know that as a result, though I have had to handle public funds amounting to lakhs, I have succeeded in exercising strict economy in their disbursement, and instead of outstanding debts have had invariably a surplus balance in respect of all the movements I have led. Let every youth take a leaf out of my book and make it a point to account for everything that comes into and goes out of his pocket, and like me he is sure to be a gainer in the end.

1927-29, M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai, Part I, Chapter xvi:


pungent

借自拉丁語 pungens（词根：pungent-），pungo (“刺”)的现在分词。poignant 的同源對似詞。

more pungent (comparative)
most pungent (superlative)

I accidentally dropped the bottle of ammonia and after few seconds, a very pungent stench could be detected.

我不小心弄掉了一瓶氨水，过了几秒后就闻到了一股刺鼻的臭味。

I can almost smell the fir scent… resinous, pungent.

1991，Paul Chadwick，Concrete: American Christmas，Dark Horse Books:

刺激性的，强烈的 （一般指辛辣的东西）

The critic gave a pungent review.

评论家给出了一个很尖刻的评论。


quaint

源自中古英語 queynte、quoynte，源自盎格魯-諾曼語 cointe、queinte和古法語 cointe (“聪明的”)，源自拉丁語 cognitus，cognōscō (“知道”)的过去分词。

quainter (comparative)
quaintest (superlative)

fastidious

过度细致的，苛求的 （15-19世纪）

狡猾的，精明的 （13-19世纪）

精妙的，巧妙的 （14-19世纪）

describe races and games, / Or tilting furniture, imblazon'd shields, / Impresses quaint, caparisons and steeds, / Bases and tinsel trappings […]。

1667，John Milton，“Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books，London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; 再版為 Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […]，London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

Till that there entered on the other side / A straunger knight，源自whence no man could reed, / In quyent disguise, full hard to be descride […]。

1596，埃德蒙·斯宾塞，“Book IV, Canto IV”, in 仙后（The Faerie Qveene . […]），London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

What none would dispute though many smiled over was the good-humored, necessary, yet quaint omission of the writer's name from the whole consideration.

过度细致的，苛求的 （15-19世纪）

She, nothing quaint / Nor 'sdeignfull of so homely fashion, / Sith brought she was now to so hard constraint, / Sate downe upon the dusty ground anon […]。

1590，埃德蒙·斯宾塞，“Book III, Canto VII”, in 仙后（The Faerie Qveene . […]），London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

奇怪而有趣的；古老的，古色古香的 （自18世纪）

If you're fond of sand dunes and salty air, / Quaint little villages here and there, / You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod.

1957，Claire Rothrock，Milton Yakus，Allan Jeffrey （作曲作詞）, “Old Cape Cod”, 演出者 Patti Page:

The rock is a haven for rare wildlife, a landscape where pretty hedgerows and quaint villages are bordered by a breathtaking, craggy coastline.


pugnacious

借自拉丁語，派生自pugnāx，源自pugnō (“战斗”)，源自pugnus (“拳头”)。

more pugnacious (comparative)
most pugnacious (superlative)

Not that the doctor was a bully, or even pugnacious, in the usual sense of the word; he had no disposition to provoke a fight, no propense love of quarrelling.

1858，Anthony Trollope，章號 3, in Dr Thorne:

In the face of bad news Churchill normally became even more pugnacious, always wanting to respond to defeat by going on the attack.

2003，Ken Follett，Hornet Flight, →ISBN，頁s 249-250:

[I]n the 575 days since [Oscar] Pistorius shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, there has been an unseemly scramble to construct revisionist histories, to identify evidence beneath that placid exterior of a pugnacious, hair-trigger personality.

2014年October21日，Oliver Brown，“Oscar Pistorius jailed for five years – sport afforded no protection against his tragic fallibilities: Bladerunner's punishment for killing Reeva Steenkamp is but a frippery when set against the burden that her bereft parents, June and Barry, must carry [print version: No room for sentimentality in this tragedy, 13 September 2014, p. S22]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Sport):


puissant

源自中古英語 puissaunt，源自中古法語 puissant、poissant、盎格魯-諾曼語 puissant、古法語 pussant等，pooir (“可以，能够”)的现在分词，最终源自拉丁語 posse (“能够...的”)。

more puissant (comparative)
most puissant (superlative)

强大的，强力的，有权力的

Awake remembrance of these valiant dead, / And with your puissant arm renew their feats.

讓這些長眠在地下的勇士重又出現在回憶中吧，你統率著雄師，把他們的英雄偉業重新來一遍吧。

1599，William Shakespeare，“The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio)，London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, 出版於 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

For who can yet believe, though after loss,
That all these puissant legions, whose exile
Hath emptied Heaven, shall fail to re-ascend,
Self-raised, and repossess their native seat?

然而，谁又能够相信，在遭受失败之后，
这些强大的军团，这些被逐而流落他乡，
使天庭空空如也的斗士，不会重新登天，
依靠自我的力量，夺回他们当然的职位？

1667，John Milton，“Book 1”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books，London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; 再版為 Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […]，London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

In fact the titles could be anything-or (with some of the most puissant) no title at all...

1961 - Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land


querulous

源自古法語 querelos，源自晚期拉丁語 querulōsus，源自拉丁語 querulus，源自queror (“抱怨”)。

more querulous (comparative)
most querulous (superlative)

爱抱怨的，爱发牢骚的；烦躁的，抱怨的

"But how am I to obtain such treaty?" asked Monsieur, in a querulous tone.

1834，Letitia Elizabeth Landon，Francesca Carrara，卷 1，頁 101:

The nights were now cold, gemmed with a multitude of bright stars, uncanny with the querulous wail of coyotes and the occasional deep voices of wolves.

1922, A. M. Chisholm, A Thousand a Plate:


personable

源自中古英語 personable、personabil，等价于person + -able。对比出现于13世纪末英国文献内的中世紀拉丁語 personabilis (“个人的”)。中古法语personable (“重要的”)在1528年前无记载。

more personable (comparative)
most personable (superlative)

friendly

友好的，友善的；优雅的，有风度的

amiable

友好的，友善的；优雅的，有风度的

I admit him a personable man, for I have seen him; and I will suppose him courteous and agreeable.

1822，Sir Walter Scott，章號 19, in The Fortunes of Nigel:

Barefoot, bare-chested, radiant and personable against the shadowy woods, he called: "Hullo, Miss Honeychurch! Hullo!"

1908，E. M. Forster，章號 12, in A Room With a View:

友好的，友善的；优雅的，有风度的

Wise, warlike, personable, curteous, and kind.

1590，埃德蒙·斯宾塞，“Book III, Canto IV”, in 仙后（The Faerie Qveene . […]），London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 5:

I'm bound to admit that you're a personable young rascal, with the best manners I've met in a long time.

1919，Joseph A. Altsheler，章號 5, in The Sun Of Quebec:

Aside from being incredibly funny and personable he is generous, kind and is great fun to play catch with.

2009年October5日，Randy James，“2-Min. Bio: Stephanie Birkitt: Letterman's Lover?”, in Time:

The Queen be by that name personable to plead

The demaundant was iudged personable to maintaine this action


quantitative

more quantitative (comparative)
most quantitative (superlative)


purgatory

源自拉丁語 purgātōrium (“清洗的”)。与英語 purge同源。

more purgatory (comparative)
most purgatory (superlative)

/ˈpɝɡəˌtɔɹi/

Last of all, the prodigie of Siracusa was expiat by a purgatory sacrifice, by direction from the soothsaiers to what gods, supplications and sacrifice should be made.

1600，Philemon Holland（译者），李维所著《罗马史》，London, Book 41, p. 1103,

This purgatory interval is not unfavourable to a faithless representative, who may be as good a canvasser as he was a bad governor.

1790，埃德蒙·伯克，《对法国大革命的反思》，London: J. Dodsley, p. 272,


quick-witted

more quick-witted (comparative)
most quick-witted (superlative)


polygamous

/pəˈlɪɡəməs/

That Mormon community no longer practises polygamous relationships.

[…] declaring legitimate all children of LDS polygamous marriages […]

2001, Kathryn Daynes, More Wives Than One, p 177


preternatural

源自拉丁語 preternātūrālis/praeternātūrālis，源自praeter nātūram，源自praeter (“超越”) + nātūra (“自然”)，对比supernatural。

more preternatural (comparative)
most preternatural (superlative)

现代的一般用法中，指的是奇怪但是仍属自然范畴内的现象，比如“preternatural talent”。而在宗教或玄学用法中，和supernatural类似，指“超自然的”，但相较于supernatural较为低级 – 其能作它的同义词，下义词或同类词。比如在天主教神学中preternatural用来形容天使一类生物，而supernatural只用来形容神。

I have employed cold air, and very often spongings with cold water, in order to moderate the preternatural heat of the skin, and to check the increased velocity of the circulation.

1815，William Shearman，New Medical and Physical Journal:

Doubtless there has been some exaggeration in the picturesque and fanciful relations of the almost preternatural skill and cunning of the Indian […]

1882，George Edward Ellis，The Red Man and the White Man in North America，頁 152:

"Villette! Villette! wrote George Eliot。"It is a still more wonderful book than Jane Eyre. There is something almost preternatural in its power."

2014年January4日，Lucy Hughes-Hallett，“The other Charlotte Brontë girl [online version (3 January 2014): Why Villette is better than Jane Eyre: Everybody knows Jane Eyre, but Charlotte Brontë's greatest and most original novel was her last, Villette]”, in The Daily Telegraph，London，頁 R14:

D.B. Woodside as Amenadiel: "Something Charlotte said made me think. Maybe celestial beings and humans, Luci maybe they aren't that different."
Tom Ellis as Lucifer Morningstar: "What, are we talking in bed? 'Cause we know all know my skills are preternatural. But I suppose you on the other hand..."

2018，“Quintessential Deckerstar”, in Lucifer:

Macbeth is like a record of a preternatural and tragical event.

1817，William Hazlitt，“Macbeth”, in Characters of Shakespeare's Plays:

Not Leonore, in that preternatural midnight excursion with her phantom lover, was more terrified than poor Maggie in this entirely natural ride on a short-paced donkey, [...]

1860，George Eliot，The Mill on the Floss, Book 1, Chapter 11:

Vansittart Smith, fixing his eyes upon the fellow's skin, was conscious of a sudden impression that there was something inhuman and preternatural about its appearance.

1925，Arthur Conan Doyle，The Ring of Thoth:


pesky

peskier (comparative)
peskiest (superlative)


pushy

pushier (comparative)
pushiest (superlative)

Pushy parents 'ruin sports days'


rare

:< 中古英語 rare < 拉丁語 rarus（“稀疏的，稀少的”）。取代了中古英語固有词 gesen（“稀少的”）（ < 古英語 gǣsne）、seld（“少见的”）（ < 古英語 selden）、seldsene（“少见的”）（ < 古諾爾斯語 sialdsēnn）。

rarer (comparative)
rarest (superlative)


recluse

源自古法語 reclus，reclure的过去分词，源自拉丁語 reclūdere，reclūdō (“公开，揭露；打开”)的现在主动不定式，源自re- + claudō (“关闭”)。

more recluse (comparative)
most recluse (superlative)

a recluse monk or hermit


pathetic

more pathetic (comparative)
most pathetic (superlative)


ruffian

源自中古法語 rufian，源自意大利語 ruffiano (“皮条客”)。

more ruffian (comparative)
most ruffian (superlative)

残忍的，嗜血的，惨绝人寰的，滥杀的

ruffian rage


quizzical

more quizzical (comparative)
most quizzical (superlative)

But I did see things that aren't yet quite right, and at which I raised a quizzical eyebrow.

2022年July27日，Sir Michael Holden，“In praise of Crossrail 1... and in search of Crossrail 2”, in RAIL，期 962，頁 34:


primeval

源自拉丁語 primaevus (“生命的初期阶段”) + -al，源自primus (“第一的”) + aevum (“阶段，时期”)，见prime和age。

more primeval (comparative)
most primeval (superlative)

A letter from Mr. [Brian Houghton] Hodgson to Mr. Bayley, was then read, giving an outline of the theocracy of the Buddha system of Nepal. […] According to the information now communicated, the northern Buddhas acknowledge four sets of divine beings, or of superhuman objects of veneration. The first of these is, contrary to the generally supposed atheistical tendency of the faith, one primæval and uncreated deity. This first Buddha manifested five of his attributes, as five secondary Buddhas; in one of whom, Amitabha, or the 'immeasurably splendid,' in Prakrit and Pali, Amitabo, we recognise the Amito of the Japanese.

1827 July，“Asiatic Society of Calcutta”, in The Oriental Herald, and Journal of General Literature，卷 XIV, 期 43, London: Printed for the editor, and sold by all booksellers [printed by J. R. Gordon, 147, Strand, →OCLC，頁 147:

But if life has a happiness over which the primeval curse has passed and harmed not, it is the early and long enduring affection of blood and habit.

1831，L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon]，章號 VI, in Romance and Reality. […]，卷 III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC，頁 116:

If their views were entrancing their sanitation was primeval; if they possessed stables they were also next to the gas-works; if their gardens were delightful there were odours suspicious of mice in the bedrooms.


petulant

源自中古法語，源自拉丁語 petulāns，与petere有关。

more petulant (comparative)
most petulant (superlative)

Lack of sleep is causing Dave's recent petulant behavior.

睡眠不足让Dave最近特别任性。

Former associates have described Musk as petty, cruel and petulant, particularly when frustrated or challenged.

December 13 2021，Molly Ball, Jeffrey Kluger and Alejandro de la Garza，“Elon Musk: Person of the Year 2021”, in Time Magazine:

Who hath not like cause to complain, and is not so troubled, that shall fall into the mouths of such men? for many are of so petulant a spleen

1624，Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton]，The Anatomy of Melancholy: […]，第2nd版, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:


run-down

In the Seventies the system was run-down and demoralised. Road transport was the future, the Underground was being 'managed for decline', and the system was filthier than the streets above.

2012，Andrew Martin，Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube，Profile Books, ISBN 978-1846684777，頁 xiii, Preface:

Among its findings, the report says: "In recent years we have seen more stations transformed from run-down Victorian hulks, or spartan bus-sheltered platforms, into places that people can take pride in, feel comfortable in using, and which are fulfilling more of their wider potential.

2020年August26日，“Network News: Stations investment boosts regeneration, says report”, in Rail，頁 17:


run-of-the-mill

1922年出现，源自磨坊（mill）每批次（run）产出来的东西都应该一致标准的说法。

more run-of-the-mill (comparative)
most run-of-the-mill (superlative)

普通的，平凡的，平平无奇的

This isn’t your run-of-the-mill refrigerator; you’ll find the extra features well worth the price.

这款不同于那种普普通通的冰箱，您会发现附加功能很值这个价。

The other had the most run-of-the-mill news which make some of my recent run-of-the-mill columns appear like the raciest escapist fare.

1971 November 30, Martin Lapidus, Class Notes: 62, Princeton Alumni Weekly, Volume 72, page 26,

For a deeper, less familiar philosophy, you have to listen to your more run-of-the-mill dossers, and they don't come more run-of-the-mill than Ratso.

In one side of the prestigious commissions, public and private, sacred and profane, which could make the name of an artist, there was a more run of the mill style of painting which already enjoyed a vast clientéle at all levels of society.

1995, Alain Mérot, French Painting in the Seventeenth Century, page 42,

Who the more run-of-the-mill victims were is unclear, since they are often not named or have no emblem glyphs attached to them.

1999，David Drew，The Lost Chronicles of the Maya Kings，頁 284:

Or even more run-of-the-mill murders which usually turn out to be family or business affairs and where someone's usually heard something or, in the case of the more professional killings, someone wants to do a deal.

2001, Gabrielle Lord, Death Delights, 2002, unnumbered page,


pompous

源自中古英語 pompous，源自古法語 pompeux，源自晚期拉丁語 pomposus，源自拉丁語 pompa (“壮丽”)，源自古希臘語 πομπή (pompḗ，“派遣；庄重的队列；壮观，壮丽”)，源自πέμπω (pémpō，“派遣”)。pomposo 的同源對似詞。

more pompous (comparative)
most pompous (superlative)

自傲的，高傲的，浮夸的，华而不实的

"Not that the parting speech caused Amelia to philosophise, or that it armed her in any way with a calmness, the result of argument; but it was intolerably dull, pompous, and tedious; and having the fear of her schoolmistress greatly before her eyes, Miss Samuel did not venture, in her presence, to give way to any ebullitions of private grief."
（請為本引文添加中文翻譯）

1847 January – 1848 July，William Makepeace Thackeray，Vanity Fair. A Novel without a Hero，London: Bradbury and Evans, […], 出版於 1848, →OCLC:
, Bantam Classics (1997), 16:


pristine

more pristine (comparative)
most pristine (superlative)

纯净的，纯洁的，未被弄脏的；崭新的

The beach back is in pristine condition after a council-led cleanup.

市政组织了一次清扫后，海滩又回到了干干净净的样子。


pristine

源自古希臘語 πρίστης (prístēs，“锯子”)。

This indicates that the present levels of genetic diversity in P. microdon are not unusually low, although the amount of diversity to be expected in pristine populations of coastal species of elasmobranch remains elusive because all populations investigated to date have suffered some degree of decline (e.g. Sandoval-Castillo et al. 2004, Keeney et al. 2005, Hoelzel et al. 2006, Stow et al. 2006, Lewallen et al. 2007).

2008, J.M. Whitty, N.M. Phillips, D.L. Morgan, J.A. Chaplin, D.C. Thorburn & S.C. Peverell, Habitat associations of Freshwater Sawfish (Pristis microdon)and Northern River Sharks (Glyphis sp. C): including genetic analysis of P. microdon across northern Australia https://web.archive.org/web/20120601194551/http://environment.gov.au/coasts/publications/pubs/freshwater-sawfish-northern-river-shark.pdf


banal

:< 法語 bannal < 中世紀拉丁語 bannalis < bannum （“命令”）。

more banal (comparative)
banaler (comparative)
most banal (superlative)
banalest (superlative)

平庸的，平淡乏味的，无关紧要的，陈腐的


ravenous

more ravenous (comparative)
most ravenous (superlative)

The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite. There is something humiliating about it.

1922，Ben Travers，章號 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest:

Supply-and-demand? One begins to be weary of such work. Leave all to egoism, to ravenous greed of money, of pleasure, of applause: — it is the Gospel of Despair!

1843, 托马斯·卡莱尔，Past and Present，卷3，章节IX，Working Aristocracy

Mrs. Michael turned out to be a ravenous, fast-fading woman in a slashed skirt and a low blouse over an unappetising chest. While her husband did things in his shed, where he appeared to live, Pym inexpertly mixed the Yorkshire pudding and fought off her embraces...


phallic

A little later the phallic explanation of everything came into fashion. The deities were all polite names for the organs and powers of procreation.

1920，Edward Carpenter，Pagan and Christian Creeds，New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 出版於 1921，頁 10:

The natural rhythm of the male is a phallic one of rise and fall, whether it involves towers, stock markets, or whole civilizations.

1981，William Irwin Thompson，The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture，London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co.，頁 128:

My mother has a very phallic salt shaker.

我妈有个看起来特别像阴茎的盐罐。

For many first-time visitors, a common initial impression of the Washington Monument is that it is incredibly phallic.

1993，Joseph Downton，Washington D.C.: An Alternative Guide，頁 T-221:

The incinerator and a big smoke stack / It's a phallic symbol and it makes me laugh

Opposing the war in El Salvador and opposing the phallic aggression everywhere.

1990年April14日，Jeremy Grainger，Read Weaver，“You Don't Gotta!”, in Gay Community News，頁 8:


peaceable

源自盎格魯-諾曼語 pesible、peisible、中古法語 paisible，源自pais (“和平”) + -ible，后改为peace + -able。

more peaceable (comparative)
most peaceable (superlative)

热爱和平的，拒绝暴力的 （自14世纪）

But in the Muslim world we are dealing with regimes who have banished, imprisoned, silenced or neutralised all opposition, even where this is entirely peaceable.

But if you talk to people here privately, they suggest there are three possible scenarios. The first (intended to sound incredible) is that Israel’s biggest neighbour will be transformed into a peaceable, pluralist democracy.

2011年February8日，‘Feeling understandably twitchy’，The Economist:

Though unusual in the Dublin area he knew that it was not by any means unknown for desperadoes who had next to nothing to live on to be abroad waylaying and generally terrorising peaceable pedestrians by placing a pistol at their head ….

1922 February，James Joyce，Ulysses，Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:
, Episode 16:


befitting

more befitting (comparative)
most befitting (superlative)

适合的，相称的，配得上的

He moved with a befitting grace.


phantasmal

more phantasmal (comparative)
most phantasmal (superlative)

Phantasmal mirth, folded away: muskperfumed.

1922 February，James Joyce，“[Episode 1]”, in Ulysses，Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:


based

more based (comparative)
most based (superlative)

（一般用于结合形式）有（怎样的）根据的

That was a soundly based argument.


based

指代精炼可卡因（freebase cocaine），经由basehead一词。由美国歌手Lil B所创来形容自己的生活方式。

unwoke

很棒的，值得赞赏的，令人钦佩的，中肯的

cringe

很棒的，值得赞赏的，令人钦佩的，中肯的

unbased

很棒的，值得赞赏的，令人钦佩的，中肯的

不在乎世俗眼光的，我行我素的

Based means being yourself. Not being scared of what people think about you. Not being afraid to do what you wanna do. Being positive. […] Based is positive.

You have to work as a human with empathy and love in your heart, staying positive and staying based and staying normal.

2012, Duncan Cooper, "Based Scripture: The Full Transcript of Lil B’s Lecture at NYU", The Fader, 12 April 2012:

很棒的，值得赞赏的，令人钦佩的，中肯的 （因反对政治正确或左翼价值观而）值得赞赏的

OP is based as fuck

Based and red pilled.

My last account got banned for being too based.

Those who are against Trump are not based at all. On February 16th, The Donald users comment on a “based” post in r/DankMemes which uses a classic Squidward sleeping meme to criticize those who are upset by Chris Pratt going to “church” (one which was purportedly anti-LGBT) but “ok” with sex predators in Hollywood: […]

2019, Kira Stalker, "The Fracturing of the Alt Right: Conflicting Online Discourses Of White Nationalist Communities", thesis submitted to George Mason University, page 139:

His [Brenton Tarrant's] meme-themed shooting greatly represents the spirit of the aussie people, in the sense of shitposting until their last moment, based and redpilled he is.

2019, anonymous, quoted in Cathrine Thorleifsson, "From cyberfascism to terrorism: On 4chan/pol/ culture and the transnational production of memetic violence", Nations and Nationalism, Volume 28, Issue 1, page 293:

Then, in the same month, noted feminist Christina Hoff Sommers was branded “white supremacy-adjacent” by feminist Roxane Gay. Her reasoning? That our beloved “Based Mom” once appeared at an event with Milo Yiannopoulos and didn't disavow him enough.

2020，David Rubin，Don't Burn This Book: Thinking for Yourself in an Age of Unreason，頁 未標明:


ragtag

more ragtag (comparative)
most ragtag (superlative)

bedraggled

邋遢的，不整洁的，破烂的

decrepit

邋遢的，不整洁的，破烂的

motheaten

邋遢的，不整洁的，破烂的

tattered

邋遢的，不整洁的，破烂的

邋遢的，不整洁的，破烂的

He liked to wear an old ragtag coat that was so threadbare that he'd get sunburned through it.

他喜欢穿一件破旧的外套。那件外套都磨穿了，他穿着甚至会晒黑皮肤。

The guerrillas were a ragtag band of local thugs, former soldiers, displaced farmers, and political idealists.

那个游击队是一个当地流氓、退伍士兵、无家可归的农民和政治理想家组成的涣散的组织


remedial

more remedial (comparative)
most remedial (superlative)

/ɹɪˈmiːdɪəl/

旨在解决问题的；补救的；纠正的

（为后进学生）补习的，辅导的


brutish

more brutish (comparative)
most brutish (superlative)


brethren

源自早期现代英语brethren，brother的复数，源自中古英語 brethren，源自中古英語 brethere、brether + -en (复数后缀)。 最终源自古英語 brōþor、brōþru (“兄弟们”)，受到了古英語 brēþer的影响，其为brōþor (“兄/弟”)的与格复数。等价于brother + -en 複。对比德語 Brüder (“兄弟们”)。详见brother。这种元音变化（自o到e）称为元音变音。

more brethren (comparative)
most brethren (superlative)

The principle still sounds good, but our astronomical knowledge is limited, and we haven't yet discovered any such brethren solar systems.

2009，Seth Shostak，Confessions of an Alien Hunter:


bubbly

bubblier (comparative)
bubbliest (superlative)

Whip the egg white into a bubbly froth.

将蛋清搅拌直到起大量泡沫。

She has a bubbly personality.

泡泡的，类似泡泡的，泡沫质的

The architecture of the conservatory was bubbly.

China’s economy is too bubbly and will soon slow down.

中国经济泡沫过大，很快就会放缓。

2011年July2日，Iana Dreyer，“China’s coming era of slower growth: Are western economies prepared?”, in East Asia Forum:


bleak

源自中古英語 bleke（亦bleche，→同源对似词bleach (“苍白的”)），和bleike（源自古诺尔斯语）及早期中古英語 blak、blac (“苍白的”)，源自古英語 blǣc、blǣċ、blāc (“苍白的，憔悴的，乌青的；明亮的，闪亮的，闪闪发光的”)和古諾爾斯語 bleikr (“苍白的”)，源自原始日耳曼語 *blaikaz (“苍白的”)。同源词有荷蘭語 bleek (“苍白的”)、低地德語 blek (“苍白的”)、德語 bleich (“苍白的，蜡黄的”)、丹麥語 bleg (“苍白的”)、瑞典語 blek (“苍白的”)、書面挪威語 bleik、blek (“苍白的”)、新挪威語 bleik (“苍白的”)、法羅語 bleikur (“苍白的”)、冰島語 bleikur (“苍白的；粉色的”)。

bleaker (comparative)
bleakest (superlative)

a bleak and bare rock    a bleak, crater-pocked moonscape

一个孤零零的裸露的岩石   荒凉而坑坑洼洼的月球表面

They escaped across the bleak landscape.

他们逃跑时穿过了那片荒地。

We hiked across open meadows and climbed bleak mountains.

他们跋涉过开阔的草地，攀上荒凉的大山。

Wastes too bleak to rear / The common growth of earth, the foodful ear.

1793, William Wordsworth, Descriptive Sketches

不快的，不高兴的；悲怆的

Dany didn’t necessarily have to die, but letting her live would’ve been an assessment of humanity so bleak that even George R.R. Martin, it seems, wants to hope for something better.

2019年May19日，Alex McLevy，“The final Game Of Thrones brings a pensive but simple meditation about stories (newbies)”, in The A.V. Club:

Downtown Albany felt bleak that February after the divorce.

A bleak future is in store for you.

The news is bleak.

The survey paints a bleak picture.

调查描绘出一副悲凉的光景。


bleaker

bleak 的比較級形式。


bleakest

bleak的最高級形式。


bemused

more bemused (comparative)
most bemused (superlative)


righteous

源自早期形式rightuous、rightwose、rightwos、rightwise，源自中古英語 rightwise、rightwis，源自古英語 rihtwīs (“正直的，正义的”)，对应于right + -wise（第二个词素的发音被同化成了-ous），又或者right + wise (“方式”)。同源词包括低地蘇格蘭語 richtwis (“正直的”)、古高地德語 rehtwīsic (“正直的，正义的”)、冰島語 réttvíss (“正直的，正义的”)。亦对比thefteous、mighteous。

more righteous (comparative)
most righteous (superlative)

The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bolde as a lyon.

1611，The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version)，London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 28:1:

Human beings should take a righteous path, and so should art. We should promote kindness and beauty through art.

righteous indignation

The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies, dickheads - they all adore him. They think he's a righteous dude.

1986，John Hughes，Ferris Bueller's Day Off (Motion Picture), spoken by Grace Wheelberg (Edie McClurg):

He sold me a bulging paper sack full of Cambodian Red for two dolla' MPC. A strange experience, copping from a kid, but it was righteous weed.

1995，Norman L. Russell，Doug Grad，Suicide Charlie: A Vietnam War Story，頁 191:

Tonight the kids will go out and party down in a more righteous mode. Alcohol and not a few tabs of X will be ingested. Club music will throb through big speakers.

He found Richard in one piece near a large circular container, thankfully, staring at a righteous mess of blood and gore.


bounteous

more bounteous (comparative)
most bounteous (superlative)

Hail, univerſal Lord, be bounteous ſtill / To give us onely good; […]

1667，John Milton，“Book V”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books，London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; 再版為 Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […]，London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

“Your Grace may be well assured,” said the Friar, “that, with the grace of Saint Dunstan, I shall find the way of multiplying your most bounteous gift.”

1820，沃尔特·司各特，章號 XL, in 艾凡赫，卷 III, 爱丁堡: […] Archibald Constable and Co.；伦敦：Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC，頁 266:

“I’d like to say it’s not just bounteous privilege, but it is. People like Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak, they’re incredibly cut off from the world. […]

2023年March5日，Miranda Sawyer，引 Jason Williamson, “Sleaford Mods: ‘The UK is like a crazy golf course – all we’ve got left are landmarks’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:


blighted

more blighted (comparative)
most blighted (superlative)


rambunctious

more rambunctious (comparative)
most rambunctious (superlative)

hyphy

活泼的，闹腾的，吵闹的；难以控制的

robustious

活泼的，闹腾的，吵闹的；难以控制的

rumbustious

活泼的，闹腾的，吵闹的；难以控制的

shandy

活泼的，闹腾的，吵闹的；难以控制的

unruly

活泼的，闹腾的，吵闹的；难以控制的

wild

活泼的，闹腾的，吵闹的；难以控制的

活泼的，闹腾的，吵闹的；难以控制的

The kids are being especially rambunctious today.

"Bad cess may attend you, where are you scampering to, you rambunctious"—but she could go no farther; the tears burst from her, and she gave way, without farther resistance, to an explosion of grief.

1852 November，O’Hara Family，“Clough Fionn; or, The Stone of Destiny”, in The Dublin University Magazine, a Literary and Political Journal，卷 XL, 號 CCXXXIX, Dublin: James McGlashan, […]; London: W[illia]m S[omerville] Orr and Company, →OCLC, chapter XI，頁 557，列 1:

"Not as you knows on, you rambunctious wool grower," said the indignant Yankee.

1856 October，“About These Books”, in The Western Literary Messenger […]，卷 XXVII, 期 II, Buffalo, N.Y.: Thomas & Lathrops, […], →OCLC，頁 64，列 1:

There was close by me a window, and, noiselessly as possible, I slid back a small piece, thereby rousing the light-sleeping mistress of the canary, who sharply requested it be closed again; [...] the other lady smiled despairingly, and signed me to obey, which I reluctantly did by closing the glass; but the shutter proved rumbunctious, and for no effort of mine would again move out of his groove; [...]

1862 January，“A Canal-boat Sketch”, in Duffy’s Hibernian Magazine. […]，卷 I (New Series), 期 1, Dublin, London: James Duffy, […], →OCLC，頁 92:

"I guess the governor'd be rambunxious, as usual, if I was to ask his permission," the dutiful son remarked; "but he's going away for a few days next week, and mother won't hinder me, I know."

1873 March，W[illia]m S. Walsh，“How We Watched the Grapes”, in Our Young Folks. An Illustrated Magazine for Boys and Girls，卷 IX, 期 III, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, […], →OCLC，頁 181:

It may sometimes appear that Canada is composed of nine complacent, cohesive English-speaking provinces and rambunctious Quebec. In fact, it is composed of ten provinces, each different and all occasionally rambunctious.

1979，“The Art of Government is the Art of Adjustment”, in Canada Today = Canada d’aujourd’hui，卷 10, 期 4, Washington, D.C.: Canadian Embassy, →ISSN, →OCLC，頁 2:

Eventually the two rambunctious wolves decided to race back towards the carcass, no doubt forgetting I was still there.

1990 March，L[ucyan] David Mech，“Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?”, in Audubon，New York, N.Y.: National Audubon Society, →ISSN, →OCLC，頁 82，列 2; reprinted in “Appendix 15. Article—Wolf Attacks on Humans”, in The Reintroduction of Gray Wolves to Yellowstone National Park and Central Idaho: Final Environmental Impact Statement，Helena, Mont.: Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, May 1994, →OCLC，頁s 6-100:

Mrs. Tinkle, your son’s rambunctious behavior is quite common in children with unusually high intelligence levels.

2002年May1日，Jeffrey J. Rowland，Wigu Adventures，存檔自the original on 2009-01-06:

She was placid, stately and Juno-esque, soft-toned in her trance utterances, but she could become powerful in her office, an imposing presence. Sometimes a rumbunctious, chaffing persona emerged and was a little over the top for genteel spinsters to tolerate.

2015，Molly Whittington-Egan，“Preface: Into the Cabinet”, in Mrs Guppy Takes a Flight: A Scandal of Victorian Spiritualism，[Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland]: Neil Wilson Publishing, →ISBN，頁 x:

She does the same thing as any parent worth their salt, and gets rambunctious youngsters engaged in daily drudgeries by refashioning the quotidian as adventure.

2018年December12日，Charles Bramesco，“A Spoonful of Nostalgia Helps the Calculated Mary Poppins Returns Go Down”, in The A.V. Club，存檔自the original on 2019-05-24:


pigheaded

more pigheaded (comparative)
most pigheaded (superlative)


blistering

more blistering (comparative)
most blistering (superlative)

Dati launched a blistering attack on the prime minister, François Fillon, under whom she served as justice minister, accusing him of sexism, elitism, arrogance and hindering the political advancement of ethnic minorities.

2011年December14日，Angelique Chrisafis，“Rachida Dati accuses French PM of sexism and elitism”, in Guardian:

Messi showed some of the old touches while Mbappe demonstrated his blistering pace and eye for goal but Neymar was disappointing, too easily shrugged off the ball and missing a great chance to restore PSG's lead.

2021年November24日，Phil McNulty，“Manchester City 2 - 1 Paris Saint Germain”, in BBC Sport:


blithe

源自中古英語 blithe (“高兴的，开心的；使人愉快的；温柔的；大方仁慈的；闪亮的；美丽的”) [以及其他形式]，源自古英語 blīþe (“高兴的”)，源自原始西日耳曼語 *blīþī，源自原始日耳曼語 *blīþiz (“友善的；温柔的；使人愉快的”)，源自原始印歐語 *bʰlī- (“好；轻；愉”)，源自原始印歐語 *bʰel- (“亮；白”)。

blither (comparative)
blithest (superlative)

She had a blithe disregard of cultures outside the United States.

她对美国以外的文化毫不在意。

There on Beds of Violets blew,
And freſh-blown Roſes waſht in dew,
Fill'd her with thee a daughter fair,
So buckſom, blith, and debonair.

a. 1645，John Milton，“L’Allegro”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […]，London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], 出版於 1646, →OCLC，頁 31:

For that fair femal Troop thou ſawſt, that ſeemd
Of Goddeſſes, ſo blithe, ſo ſmooth, ſo gay,
Yet empty of good wherein conſiſts,
Womans domeſtic honour and chief praiſe; […]

1667，John Milton，“Book X”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books，London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; 再版為 Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […]，London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC，行s 610–613:

I was feeling blithe, almost jocund.

1876 June，Mark Twain，“The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut”, in The Atlantic:


ramshackle

首次可考于1830年，是ramshackled 的逆構詞，源自ransackled，ransackle (“洗劫”)的过去式，中古英語 ransaken (“掠夺”)的反复态。

more ramshackle (comparative)
most ramshackle (superlative)

/ˈɹæmˌʃæk.əl/

They stayed in a ramshackle cabin on the beach.

他们待在海滩上一个破破烂烂的小屋里。

A ramshackle old empire. (of Austria-Hungary).

So ramshackle was the locals' attempt at defence that, with energetic wingers pouring into the space behind panicked full-backs and centre-halves dizzied by England's movement, it was cruel to behold at times.

2012年September7日，Dominic Fifield，“England start World Cup campaign with five-goal romp against Moldova”, in The Guardian:

The alliance that pushed the Inflation Reduction Act into law in August was always a somewhat fragile and ramshackle one: Green New Dealers and the coal-state senator Joe Manchin, carbon-capture geeks and environmental justice warriors, all herded together in the sort of big-tent play you get with a 50-50 Senate and one party functionally indifferent on climate.

2022年October5日，David Wallace-Wells，“Progressives Should Rally Around a Clean Energy Construction Boom”, in The New York Times:


pedagogical

* pedagogic + -al，其中，pedagogic来自古希腊语παιδαγωγός (paidagōgós，“教师”)，由παῖς (paîs，“儿童”)和ἄγω (ágō，“我带领”)組成。

more pedagogical (comparative)
most pedagogical (superlative)

教学法的，教学的，教育的


risky

riskier (comparative)
riskiest (superlative)

Investing in this start-up company could be risky.

投资这家创业公司有风险。

risqué的拼寫錯誤。

That awkward moment when someone doesn't reply to your risky text message.

2012, Marlize Schmidt, That Awkward Moment..., Lulu Press, Inc (ISBN 9781105877346)

Have you no risky songs , no indecent ballads?

1889, Charles Leonard Moore, Banquet of Palacios: A Comedy, page 157:

Ronald Frankau (pronounced Franco) wrote a few risky songs, such as FANNY'S BEEN EVACUATED NOW with the line “and for half a pound of butter, well a lady's got to eat” ~ he got banned for it.

2020, B. Barrett-Lennard, Mind Control Through the Mass Media: Transmission of the Politics of Inequality, B. Barrett-Lennard (ISBN 9781925999891)


brachial

借自拉丁語 bracchialis，源自bracchium (“手臂”)。brachialis 的同源對似詞。


brackish

源自苏格兰brack（←中古荷蘭語 brac (“有盐味的”)） + -ish。同源词包括荷蘭語 brak (“有盐味的”)、德國低地德語 brack、brakerg、brakig (“有盐味的”)、德語 brackig (“有盐味的”)、丹麥語 brak (“有盐味的”)、瑞典語 bräck (“有盐味的”)、挪威語 brakk (“有盐味的”)。可能是brook的远亲同源对似词。

more brackish (comparative)
most brackish (superlative)

有盐味的，较咸的 （程度在海水与淡水之间，如在入海口的水）；太咸的

...by a low courſe and too long ſporting with the briny Ocean it taſts brackiſh and inſalubrious...

1638，Sir Thomas Herbert，Some years travels into divers parts of Asia and Afrique:

On all sides a powerful brackish marshland odor, the odor of damp, and decay, and black earth, black water.

1992, Joyce Carol Oates, Black Water, Penguin Books, paperback edition, page 4.

The water we took on at Chatham Isle is now brackish & without a dash of brandy in it, my stomach rebels.

2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, Random House.


bullshit

more bullshit (comparative)
most bullshit (superlative)

荒唐的，乱讲的，胡说八道的

That's the most bullshit excuse I've ever heard.

这是我听到过的最荒唐的借口。

They're bullshit jobs

这些工作都什么乱七八糟的。


refined

more refined (comparative)
most refined (superlative)

精准的，精确的，尤指：
睿智的，聪明的， 过于讲究的；假装聪明的

精准的，精确的，尤指： 精妙的，细致的，周全的

The argument, while not persuasive, is quite refined.

那个论点虽然没有说服力，但是还是很细致的。

精准的，精确的，尤指： 成熟的

The curriculum has been carefully refined to meet the needs of foreign students.

课程表经过精心改善来满足外国学生的需求。

文明的，尤指： 高雅的，精良的

In the British Isles, Oxbridge is considered refined; Geordie somewhat less so.

不列颠群岛中，牛津剑桥[的口音]被认为较为高雅，而泰恩赛德就没那么高雅。

文明的，尤指：
优雅的，文雅的，斯文的， 做作的；过于追求高雅的

Don Draper was a man of refined tastes.

唐·德雷柏的品味很高雅。

"Jesus Christ! Was my folks refined. My mam she wouldn't think-a lettin' us young'uns call a pee pot a pee pot. A chamber's what she called it... And by God! Us young'uns had ter call the pee pot a chamber or git our God damn necks wrang."

1946, Elizabeth Metzger Howard, Before the Sun Goes Down, p. 31:

提纯的，无杂质的，尤指： 高纯度的，精制的

Under current guidelines, refined sugar must be at least five times purer than its raw counterpart.

按目前的指导方针，精制后的糖的纯度必须是加工前的纯度的至少5倍。

提纯的，无杂质的，尤指：
精炼的 （无熔渣或合金的）

The Temple at Jerusalem preferred Tyrian shekels, since even with Ba'al's portrait they bore highly refined silver.

提纯的，无杂质的，尤指： 有道德的，无污点的


bearing

源自中古英語 beringe、berynge、berende、berande、berand，源自古英語 berende (“结果实的”)（亦作古英語 bǣrende的同义词），源自原始日耳曼語 *berandz，原始日耳曼語 *beraną (“承载，拿着”)的现在分词，等价于bear + -ing。

拿着...的，承载着...的

a gift-bearing visitor

That's a bearing wall.


pedigree

:< 盎格魯-諾曼語 pe de gru，同古法语 pié de gru （“鹤足”） < 拉丁语 pedem （“足”） + gruem （“鹤”）。

more pedigree (comparative)
most pedigree (superlative)


beaut

beauty 的截斷形式。

beauter (comparative)
beautest (superlative)

An' there was posies all round Jim, He had a bran new suit, The first un that he ever had, An' everything was beaut. An' when the preacher told 'bout Jim— How ' twas he got the swipe— I saw most all them dandy swells A feelin' fer a wipe.

1895，Elbridge Kingsley, Frederick Knab，Picturesque Worcester ...: Complete in Three Parts，頁 40:

It was beaut to have him home again, and gee, you should have seen the bike he bought me from Paris. From the same factory as his own was made.

She was very motherly towards me then and it was beaut. Before I was eighteen, there just wasn't any kind words. All I wanted to do was get away from there.

1978，Kevin Gilbert，Living Black: Blacks Talk to Kevin Gilbert:

Yes, it was beaut.

1996，Madeleine St. John，A Pure Clear Light，4th Estate, Limited:


bespectacled

more bespectacled (comparative)
most bespectacled (superlative)

The choristers were as bespectacled as the audience. Are Protestants more bespectacled than Catholics because of too much Bible reading?

2002，Steven Barclay，A Place in the World Called Paris，頁 149:


peerless

more peerless (comparative)
most peerless (superlative)

Let's after him, / Whoſe care is gone before, to bid vs welcome: / It is a peerleſſe Kinſman.

c. 1606 (date written)，William Shakespeare，“The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio)，London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, 出版於 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]，頁 134:

Telegram! Malachi Mulligan, The Ship, lower Abbey street. O, you peerless mummer! O, you priestified Kinchite!

1922 February，James Joyce，“[9]”, in Ulysses，Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

Foden has also grown into this World Cup, having scored against Wales and creating two goals here. England's midfield and attack is taking shape with perfect timing for what will be the sternest of tests against France and the peerless Mbappe。

2022年December4日，Phil McNulty，“England 3-0 Senegal”, in BBC Sport:


brazen

源自中古英語 brasen，源自古英語 bræsen (“黄铜的”)，等价于brass + -en（对比golden）。
原意为“黄铜的”，动词的比喻义（brazen it out (“放肆”)）追溯至16世纪50年代（可能源自“脸像黄铜一样不见羞耻”），形容词义“厚颜无耻的”源自16世纪70年代。对比bold as brass。

more brazen (comparative)
most brazen (superlative)

Brazen or rather copper swords seem to have been next introduced; these in process of time, workmen learned to harden by the addition of some other metal or mineral, which rendered them almost equal in temper to iron.

1786, Francis Grose, Military Antiquities Respecting a History of the English Army, from the Conquest to the Present Time, London: Printed for S. Hooper […], OCLC 745209064; republished as Military Antiquities Respecting a History of the English Army, from the Conquest to the Present Time, volume II, new [2nd] edition with material additions and improvements, London: Printed for T[homas] Egerton, […]; & G. Kearsley, […], 1801, OCLC 435979550, page 262:

And Moses made a brass image of the fiery serpents, and put it up on a pole, where all the people could see it; and when any one was bitten, he could look upon the brazen serpent, and was cured.

1836，[Harvey Newcomb]，The Brazen Serpent: Being a Simple Illustration of Faith Drawn from Scripture History. […]，Philadelphia, Pa.: American Sunday-School Union, […], →OCLC，頁s 40–41:

The women, stout, strong, brazen-faced creatures, in most cases looked able to thrash any of the partners with whom they consorted.

1859年May2日，X. X. X. [pseudonym]，“Looking at Lodgings”, in The Ragged School Union Magazine，卷 IX, London: Ragged School Union, […]; Partridge & Co., […], →OCLC，頁 91:

Through the brazen hours that followed high noon, we crept onwards through a tunnel of glittering verdure.

And now the Trumpets terribly from far, / With rattling Clangor, rouze the sleepy War. / The Souldiers Shouts succeed the Brazen Sounds, / And Heav'n，源自Pole to Pole, the Noise rebounds.

1697, Virgil; John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. Translated into English Verse; […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 839376905; republished as The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. Translated into English Verse by Mr. Dryden. In Three Volumes, volume III, 5th edition, London: Printed by Jacob Tonson […], 1721, OCLC 181805247, book IX, page 822, lines 667–670:

Often a traveller, when the air is quiet, / Will make the night reverberate with this riot / Of brazen sounds, whose singing cadence swells / The harmony of bleating and lambs' bells.

2001，R[alph] N[ixon] Currey，“The Horn”, in Collected Poems，Oxford: James Currey; Cape Town: David Philip Publishers, →ISBN，頁 246:

The giant [Goliath] was thus conquered by the youth [David]; the man-at-arms by the unarmed; the stone of the shepherd pierced the brazen defences of the warrior.

1870，The Sunday at Home: A Family Magazine for Sabbath Reading，卷 XVII, London: Religious Tract Society, →OCLC，頁 587:

In the autumn, when a small group of us heard him [Frank Wedekind] read from Heracles, his last work, I was amazed at his brazen energy. For two and a half hours without stopping, without once lowering his voice (and what a strong, brazen voice it was), barely pausing for breath for even a moment between acts, bent motionless over the table, he read – half from memory – those verses wrought in brass, looking deep into the eyes of each of his listeners in turn.

2015，Bertolt Brecht，“Frank Wedekind”, in Brecht on Theatre，第3rd rev. and updated版, London, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN，頁 19:

恬不知耻的，厚颜无耻的 （自16世纪70年代）

She was brazen enough to deny stealing the handbag even though she was caught on closed-circuit television doing so.

她脸皮厚到被监控拍到偷手提包了还拒不承认。

He looked at her for a long moment. Slowly, a smile lit in his eyes. "Never a shrew. A fighter and a brazen hussy." / Placing a finger beneath her chin, he tilted her face up. "And, I'd say, you're the only brazen hussy who blushes." / A brazen hussy. She should be offended. But the smile in his eyes, the touch of his finger moving slowly and feather-light from chin to throat and along the sensitive skin of her neck made it impossible to concentrate on rebuke.

1993，Karla Hocker，A Deceitful Heart (Zebra Regency Romance)，New York, N.Y.: Zebra Books, Kensington Books, →ISBN:

If one had to lie at all, the brazen lie was better because brazen lies were so outrageous many people failed to question them.

2012，Michelle West，Skirmish: A House War Novel (DAW Books Collectors; no. 1571)，New York, N.Y.: DAW Books, →ISBN:


Brazilian

/bɹəˈzɪlɪən/

[bɹəˈzɪɫjən]


bogus

首个可考书面记载中是一个指假硬币制造机的黑话，后还指这些假硬币。之后其演变为指代劣质物品。最新的词义“没用的”可能派生自计算机黑客俚语。
其词源不详，但目前有两个理论：
* 源自豪薩語 boko (“伪造”)。bogus最初出现于美国，因此可能由奴隶运输船中传播来。
* 为tantrabogus的犯罪黑话缩略形式，该词在19世纪是一个指代危险物品的俚语用词；这一理论让一些人联想到bogy或bogey（见bogeyman）。在这个意义上，本词可能与bogle有关，其指的是苏格兰边境的一种在人家中做恶作剧（但不会给人财产损失）的骗子。

more bogus (comparative)
most bogus (superlative)

illegal

假的 （用于形容欺骗集邮爱好者的印着不存在国家的邮票）

[…] that he and David Whitmer swore falsley, stole, cheated, lied, sold bogus money, (base coin,), and also stones and sand for bogus; that letters in the post-office had been opened, read, and destroyed; and that those same men were concerned with a gang of counterfeiters, coiners, and blacklegs.

1842，Daniel Parish Kidder，Mormonism and the Mormons: A Historical View of the Rise and Progress of the Sect Self-styled Latter-Day Saints，Carlton & Lanahan:

They have printed bogus despatches, and unhesitatingly used what they knew was bogus matter in a way to mislead even newspaper men.

1895，Alphonso Alva Hopkins，Wealth and Waste: The Principles of Political Economy in Their Application to the Present Problems of Labor, Law, and the Liquor Traffic，Funk & Wagnalls Company:

The organization of “bogus companies,” started purely for the purpose of eliminating competitors, seems to have been a not infrequent practice.

1921，Burton J. Hendrick，The Age of Big Business:

What Jefferson was saying was, Hey! You know, we left this England place 'cause it was bogus; so if we don't get some cool rules ourselves - pronto - we'll just be bogus too! Get it?

1982，Cameron Crowe，Fast Times at Ridgemont High，spoken by Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn):

假的 （用于形容欺骗集邮爱好者的印着不存在国家的邮票）

Bogus stamps are labels made to deceive stamp collectors. Many bogus stamps were made prior to 1900 when some had names of imaginary countries.

1962，Douglas Patrick，The International Guide to Stamps and Stamp Collecting: Includes the Answers to 1200 Questions Most Often Asked about Stamps:

bogus laws


portly

portlier (comparative)
portliest (superlative)

当指肥胖的人时，本词的语气比fat轻。

His portly middle section, rising beyond like a small hill, heaved rhythmically.

1913，P. G. Wodehouse，章號 14, in The Little Nugget:

In Heavyweights, Tony Perkis (Ben Stiller) is a fitness guru who installs himself as the über-buff leader of Camp Hope, with the goal of helping portly youngsters shed their saggy stomachs and thunder thighs.

2011年July6日，Nick Carbone，“Top 10 Worst Fictional Camp Counselors”, in Time, retrieved 2014-05-08:

英俊的，潇洒的 （自15世纪）

Portly his person was, and much increast
Through his Heroicke grace and honourable gest.

1590，埃德蒙·斯宾塞，“Book III, Canto II”, in 仙后（The Faerie Qveene . […]），London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

Be studious well to imitate
My portly motion, mien, and gait

1728，Jonathan Swift，A Dialogue between Mad Mullinix and Timothy:


penniless

源自中古英語 penyles、penylees，等价于penny + -less。对比古諾爾斯語 penningalauss (“身无分文的”)。

A dollar and a quarter seems a small sum, but if you are absolutely penniless it might as well be a thousand.

1889, Horatio Alger, Driven From Home, ch. 10:


precipitous

源自法語 précipiteux (现已弃用)，源自通俗拉丁語 *praecipitosus。等价于precipice (“陡峭”) + -ous。

a precipitous cliff

a precipitous mountain

a precipitous decline

a precipitous drop

头朝下的，头朝前的，直直的

a precipitous fall

唐突的，鲁莽的，草率的，突然的，匆忙的

precipitous attempts

[…]humans have been responsible for a precipitous decline of elephants，源自perhaps 300,000 in the early 1970s to some 10,000 today.

2007 March，J. Michael Fay，“Ivory Wars: Last Stand in Zakouma”, in National Geographic，頁 46:


posthumous

源自拉丁語 posthumus，postumus的一拼写变体，posterus (“在之后的”)的最高级，因“埋葬”与humus (“地面”)的联想而添加了⟨h⟩。

The most favorable posthumous history the stay-at-home traitor can hope for is—oblivion.

1885，Ulysses S. Grant，“Chapter IV”, in The Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant，New York, United States: Charles L. Webster & Co.，頁 68:

Artists obscure during their life often receive posthumous recognition, too late for them to enjoy.

一生默默无闻的艺术家常在死后才得到认同，但他们已经无法享受了。

His memoirs were his posthumous revenge on enemies he dared not take on alive.

他死后出版的回忆录是他对在世时不敢动手的敌人的还击。

Eight posthumous albums have been released to date – two more than the man managed in his lifetime – often with conspiracy-baiting titles such as Still I Rise and Tupac Resurrection.

2012年April17日，Alex Macpherson，“Tupac's hologram reflects another milestone in his mythology”, in The Guardian:

遗腹的 （父亲死后出生的）

Posthumous orphans never even knew their fathers.

遗腹的孤儿甚至不认识自己的父亲。


potable

形容词派生自中古英語 potable (“可饮用的”)，借自中古法語、古法語 potable（现代法語 potable (“可饮用的”)），以及源自其词素晚期拉丁語 pōtābilis (“可饮用的”)，源自拉丁語 pōtāre (“喝”) + -bilis (表示可以或值得对被修饰词施以某种动作的形容词后缀)。 Pōtāre是pōtō (“喝”)的现在主动不定式，源自原始印歐語 *peh₃- (“喝”)。英语词与加泰羅尼亞語 potable、意大利語 potabile、西班牙語 potable同源。
名词派生自形容词形式。

more potable (comparative)
most potable (superlative)


power

源自中古英語 power、poer，源自古法語 poeir，源自通俗拉丁語 *potēre，源自拉丁語 possum、posse (“能够”)，见potent。对比法語 pouvoir。取代了古英語原生词汇anweald。

more power (comparative)
most power (superlative)

Check out the POWER Mee Rebus & Lontong in this newly established Nasi Padang coffee shop at Market Street Carpark.

Their performance is very the Power!

2005，Bayya，Bayya Eats ... and Other Stuff:

His hokkien is damn power lah!

2010，Caihong Lim & Kesheng Lim，Footprints All Over: Love, Happiness,Joy:

Eh his soccer skills damn power one.

2015，SGMOJI，Your Ultimate Guide to Locally-Grown Emojis:


phoney

:可能源自 fawney（“骗子用的镀了金的黄铜环”）(1781) < 爱尔兰语 fáinne（“环”）。

phonier (comparative)
phoniest (superlative)


placid

源自法語 placide，源自拉丁語 placidus (“平静的，安稳的”)，源自placeō (“满足，取悦于”)。

placider (comparative)
placidest (superlative)

a placid disposition

a placid lake

April advanced to May: a bright serene May it was; days of blue sky, placid sunshine, and soft western or southern gales filled up its duration.

1847，Charlotte Brontë，章號 9, in Jane Eyre，第HTML版:

The ant has made himself illustrious / Through constant industry industrious. / So what? / Would you be calm and placid / If you were full of formic acid?

1941，Ogden Nash，“The Ant”, in The Face is Familiar，Garden City Publishing Company，頁 224:

[I]n the 575 days since [Oscar] Pistorius shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, there has been an unseemly scramble to construct revisionist histories, to identify evidence beneath that placid exterior of a pugnacious, hair-trigger personality.

2014年October21日，Oliver Brown，“Oscar Pistorius jailed for five years – sport afforded no protection against his tragic fallibilities: Bladerunner's punishment for killing Reeva Steenkamp is but a frippery when set against the burden that her bereft parents, June and Barry, must carry [print version: No room for sentimentality in this tragedy, 13 September 2014, p. S22]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Sport):


platitudinous

more platitudinous (comparative)
most platitudinous (superlative)

If [Lord George] Bentinck had been reared for office, if, as Wilberforce recommends, he had been harnessed early to official duty, and if he had been sent into Parliament a platitudinous thing, made up of statistics, red tape and priggishness, like Mr. [Benjamin] Disraeli's Tadpole and Taper, we could well understand his strong mind breaking the thralls of official conventionality, and forcing him to become the man he was, armed at all points, ever ready for attack or defence; […]

1852 March，“Art. II.—Lord George Bentinck. Lord George Bentinck: A Political Biography. By B. Disraeli, Member of Parliament for the County of Buckingham. London: Colburn and Co. 1851. [book review]”, in The Irish Quarterly Review，卷 II, 期 V, Dublin: Published by W. B. Kelly, 8, Grafton-Street; London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co.; Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, →OCLC，頁 77:

“House Decoration” is written with somewhat less verbosity and with a good deal more taste and common sense. But it is, however detailed in its suggestions, equally platitudinous where it is sensible.

1877 April，“Household Art”, in The Carpet Trade Review. Devoted to the Interest of the Trade in Carpets, Upholstery Goods, Oil Cloths, Paper Hangings, Mattings, Linings, Stair Rods, etc., etc.，卷 4, 期 4, New York, N.Y.: Thomas A. Kennett, →OCLC，頁 46，列 2:

As [Charles] de Gaulle's minister, he [André Malraux] was able to visit China in 1965 and to persuade the rather baffled Chinese authorities to grant him an audience with Mao [Zedong]. […] The meeting was brief and platitudinous, but in later accounts […] Malraux turned it into a major summit of great minds.

2005年April10日，Christopher Hitchens，“‘Malraux’: One man’s fate [review of Malraux: A Life (2005) by Olivier Todd]”, in The New York Times:

But surely it is possible for those tasked with ensuring public safety to imagine creative solutions beyond platitudinous expressions of sympathy, extra concrete barriers and additional airport security checks?

2017年August20日，“The Observer view on the attacks in Spain: We must now give into fatalism on terror [editorial]”, in The Observer，London，存檔自the original on 2017-09-16:


tart

:可能源自古英語 teart。

tarter (comparative)
tartest (superlative)

（话语等）尖酸的，刻薄的，辛辣的


United

联合的，来源于unite


yiff

(獸迷術語)性的、性感的、搧情的

(獸迷術語)能夠進行性交的

(獸迷術語)有意願性交的


sissy

sissier (comparative)
sissiest (superlative)

[…] she’d decided the wrapping paper was too feminine. It had a viney pattern that wasn’t anything sissier than you’d see in the old Arabian Nights illustrations. But Richard might think they were flowers.

2000，Jeffery Deaver，Manhattan Is My Beat，第revised版, Bantam Books, →ISBN，頁 173:


ago

:< 中古英语 ago、agon（已过去的）——agon（离，逃，通过）的过去分词 < 古英语 āgān（走开，出去） < 原始日耳曼语 *uz-（出）、*gēnan（走）。 等同于 a- + gone。 同源词有：德语 ergehen（出去，发生，经历）。 另对比古萨克森语 āgangan（路过）、哥特语 (usgaggan)（出去）。

more ago (comparative)
most ago (superlative)


surreptitious

借自拉丁語 surrēptīcius (“鬼鬼祟祟的，秘密的”)，源自surrēpō (“爬，爬过”)。

more surreptitious (comparative)
most surreptitious (superlative)

/ˌsʌɹɪpˈtɪʃəs/

/səˌɹɛpˈtɪʃəs/

/ˌsʌɹəpˈtɪʃəs/

/ˌsɛɹəpˈtɪʃəs/

鬼鬼祟祟的，偷偷摸摸的，悄悄的

He read the letter aloud. Sophia listened with the studied air of one for whom, even in these days, a title possessed some surreptitious allurement.

1922，Ben Travers，章號 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest:

It is also worth noting the case law on prisoners' correspondence which establishes that interception of a person's communications need not be surreptitious in order to amount to an interference with respect to Art 8 (1) [ECHR].

1998，Lee A. Bygrave，“Data Protection Pursuant to the Right to Privavy in Human Rights Treaties”, in International Journal of Law and Information Technology，卷 6, 期 3，頁s 260–261: