| 单词 | 常用词 |
| 释义 | 〔posh〕"Oh yes, Mater, we had a posh time of it down there.”So inPunch for September 25, 1918, do we find the first recorded instance of that mysterious wordposh, meaning "smart and fashionable,”although in a 1903 book by P.G. Wodehouse,Tales of St. Austin's, there is a mention of a waistcoat that was "push.” The latter may be a different word,but in either case the dates of occurrence are importantbecause they are part of the objection to derivingposh from the initials of "Port Out, Starboard Home.” This was the cooler, and thus more expensive, side of ships traveling between England and India in the mid-19th century,and the acronymPOSH was supposedly stamped on the tickets of first-class passengers traveling on that side of ships owned by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. No evidence is definitely known to exist for this theory, however.TheOxford English Dictionary Supplement may have found a possible source or sources for posh. Another wordposh was 19th- and early 20th-century British slang for "money,” specifically "a halfpenny, cash of small value.”This word is borrowed from the common Romany wordpåšh, "half,” which was used in combinations such aspåšhera, "halfpenny.” Posh, also meaning "a dandy,” is recorded in two dictionaries of slang published in 1890 and 1902,although this particularposh may be still another word. This word or these words, however, are much more likely to be the source ofposh than "Port Out, Starboard Home,” although the latter source certainly has caught the public's etymological fancy.“哦是的，妈妈，我们在那里过着豪华的生活。”因此在1918年9月25日的punch 上， 我们看到了那个神秘单词posh 的首次记录， 意为“豪华的，时髦的，”虽然早在1903年P·G·伍德豪斯的名为圣·奥斯汀传说 的作品中就提及了意为"push"的马夹这个词。 后者也可能是另外一个不同的词，但在任何一种情况下两者被使用的时间都很重要，因为它们都反对posh 这个词源于"Port Out，Starboard Home。” 这是意指19世纪中期往来于英格兰及印度的船只中较凉爽、因而票价也就较为昂贵的一侧，而POSH 这个首字缩拼词据说就印在半岛——东方蒸汽船航运公司所拥有的船只上较为凉爽的一侧头等舱的票上。 然而对于这一说法并没有确凿的证据来加以证明。牛津英语词典增补本 也许为 posh 找到了一个或多个可能的词源。 另一个词posh 则是19世纪和20世纪初英国人用来表示“钱”的俚语， 尤指“半便士，小面值钱币。”这个词源于吉卜赛常用词på歨 ，意为“一半”， 用在诸如意为“半便士”的复合词på歨era 中。 Posh 也有“花花公子”之意， 这一用法记录于1890年及1902年出版的两本俚语词典中，尽管这个特有的posh 也有可能是另一个词。 然而这个词及上文提到的那些词比"Port Out，Starboard Home"更有可能是posh 这个词的词源， 虽然后者早被人们确认为这个词的词源〔gutter〕Certain household words have proved important as markers for major U.S. dialect boundaries.The channels along the edge of a roof for carrying away rainwater (normally referred to in the plural) are variously known aseaves spouts or eaves troughs in New England and the Great Lakes states, spouting or rainspouts in New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, and the Delmarva Peninsula, andgutters from Virginia southward. The transition points mark unusually clear boundaries for the three major dialect areas—Northern, Midland, and Southern—traditionally acknowledged by scholars of American dialects.Atypically, Southerngutters seems to have become the standard U.S. term. 某些常用词作为区分美国各主要方言的标志是非常重要的。在新英格兰和五大湖区，这种装在屋顶边缘用来排走雨水的沟槽（一般都是用作复数）被叫做eaves spouts 或 eaves troughs ， 而在新泽西，宾夕法尼亚州东部和德马华群岛被叫做spouting 或 rainspouts ， 弗吉尼亚以南人们把它称为gutters 。 这些转变表明了美国方言三大区域通常中比较清楚的边界，这三个地区是北部，中部和南部地区，这通常已为美国的方言学者所确认。而南方人使用的gutters 似乎已经成为美国英语中正规的名称，这种情况是不太常见的 〔yes〕The wordyes is a good example of how an ordinary and frequently used word can have a complex etymology. We can traceyes back to two Indo-European roots, .i-, a pronominal stem, and .es-, "to be.” From two extended forms of.i-, .yām and .yāi, came the prehistoric Common Germanic forms.jā and jai, which gave us Old Englishgeā, an affirmative particle, the source of Modern Englishyea. The Indo-European root.es- is the source of our forms am and is. From the stem.sī- used to make verb forms in the optative mood, a mood used to express a wish, came the Germanic form.sijai-, which gave us Old Englishsīe, "may it be so.” This form, unlike the sources ofam and is, died out, but before disappearing it had combined with Old Englishgēa to form the compound gēse, the ancestor of our wordyes. Thissīe was destined to have even more of a triumph. Until around 1600yea was used to respond to positive expressions, whereasyes was used to respond to negative expressions. After that timeyes became a response to both positive and negative expressions, yea surviving primarily in voice votes. yes 一词是说明一个普通常用词如何拥有一复杂词源的极好例证。 我们可以追溯yes 到两个印欧语词根， 代名词词干i- 和 es- “是”。 从i-的两种扩展形式，yam 和 yai， 形成了史前普通日耳曼语形式ja 和 jai, 它们又带来了古英语中的肯定虚词gea ， 这便是现代英语yea 的来源。 而印欧语词根es- 是我们 am 和 is 两形式的源头。 以is- ，一个用于制造祈愿语气动词的词干， 产生出日尔曼形式sijai-， 并由此形成了古英语sie, “希望如此”。 这种形式不象am 和 is 的词源，已经灭绝了， 但在消失之前，它已经和古英语gea 混合形成复合词 gese， 即我们的单词yes 的前身。 这个sie 注定要获取更大的胜利。 直至1600年左右，yea 还被用于回答肯定的陈述； 而yes 则用于回答否定陈述。 此后，yes 既可作肯定也可否定表达的回答， yea 则主要在口头投票时使用 〔paramnesia〕An inability to recall the meanings of common words.记不起常用词的含义 |
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