你知道嗎?「tragedy」這個詞竟然來源於「山羊」

The word arctic comes from arktos, the Greek word for 「bear.」 But, giant polar bears roaming the arctic tundra aren’t the bears in reference; rather, it’s the beautiful constellation Ursa Major (「Great Bear」) in the night sky above.

arctic一詞來源於希臘詞arktos，意為「熊」。但是，漫步在北極凍原上的巨型北極熊並不是書中提到的熊；相反，它是夜空中美麗的大熊星座。

Before arctic described the northernmost region of the globe, the adjective referred to the celestial regions above the sparkling night sky. Beautiful!

在arctic(北極)一詞被用來描述地球最北端之前，這個形容詞指的是閃閃發光的夜空中最好看的地區。漂亮！

Today, we think of a sturdy bed frame as being 「robust」 and 「strongly built.」 Seven hundred years ago, a sturdy frame would have been 「hard to manage」 and 「reckless」 (it was going through its teenage angsty phase and hated people getting on its back all the time).

如今，我們認為堅固的框架是「堅固的」和「結實的」。700年前，堅固的框架可能是「難以管理」和「魯莽的」（它正經歷著青少年時期的憤怒階段，討厭人們對它嘮叨不停）。

The word possibly derives from the Latin turdus, the dull brown and speckled songbirds we now call thrushes. One origin narrative explains that thrushes pecked fermented grapes left over from winemaking and would become drunk. In their loopy state, they』d behave 「recklessly,」 ransack the fridge, leave the door open all night, and pass out on the couch. The French expression soûl comme une grive, 「as drunk as a thrush,」 seems to corroborate this.

這個詞可能來源於拉丁語turdus，我們現在稱之為畫眉的一種暗褐色斑點鳴鳥。一種原始的說法是畫眉啄食釀酒時剩下的發酵的葡萄會喝醉。在這種精神錯亂的狀態下，他們會「不顧一切」地洗劫冰箱，整夜不關門，然後昏倒在沙發上。法語表達「soul comme une grive」「像一隻畫眉一樣昏醉」似乎證實了這一點。

Have you ever thought that when a person bawls, it sounds like a barking dog? If so, you’re on to the Latin origins of this word. 

你有沒有想過，當一個人哭泣的時候，聽起來就像一隻狂叫的狗？如果是這樣的話，你就了解了這個詞的拉丁起源。

In Latin, baulare meant 「to bark like a dog,」 and when the word was first adopted into English, it was only used in reference to man’s best friend. But, because distressed human beings can sound so much like dogs when they gulp for air and woof sobs of sadness, bawl is now a verb used to describe crying. 

在拉丁語中，baulare的意思是「像狗一樣吠叫」，當這個詞首次被引入英語時，它只是用來指代人類最好的朋友。但是，因為悲傷的人在大口喘氣和悲傷的嗚咽時聽起來很像狗，所以bawl現在是一個用來描述哭泣的動詞。

A butcher makes a living slaughtering animals to sell for meat, all kinds of animals. But, the word butcher originally referred to only a single animal: the goat.

屠夫靠宰殺動物，賣各種各樣的動物的肉為生。但是，單詞butcher最初只指代一種動物：山羊。

From the Old French bochier (boc meant 「goat」), butcher literally meant 「slaughterer of goats.」 Not surprising to see animal inspiration behind this word, right?

在古法語bochier (boc的意思是「山羊」)中，butcher的字面意思是「山羊的屠夫」。看到這個詞背後的動物靈感並不奇怪，對吧?

In some places, mosquitos are so bad a canopy of netting is installed around beds to keep the menaces from aggravating sleepers.

在一些地方，蚊子的危害是如此之大，人們在床的周圍安裝了蚊帳，防止這些威脅使人睡覺時更加惱怒。

Similarly, Ancient Greeks built kanopeions, 「couches with mosquito curtains,」 to block the konops, 「mosquitos.」 By the time the word canopy was assimilated into English in the late 1300s, it referred only to the curtain and not the couch-and-curtain ensemble.

類似地，古希臘人建造了「kanopeions（帶蚊帳的埃及床）」，「掛著蚊帳的窗簾」來阻擋konops，即「蚊子」。「canopy」一詞在14世紀晚期被英語同化時，僅指窗簾，而不是指沙發和窗簾的組合。

Back in the 1800s, it was popular to hunt snipes, or long-billed birds notorious for being jittery and flying at high speeds—making them one of the most difficult game birds to shoot.

早在19世紀，獵鷸(一種長嘴鳥，因其戰戰兢兢和高速飛行而臭名昭著)是一種很流行的運動——這使得獵鷸成為最難射殺的鳥類之一。

Moving too close to them would really ruffle their feathers and ruin a good shot, so the only way a sniper (snipe hunter) could possibly hit the bird was from a distance, hidden out of sight.

如果離它們太近，就會激怒它們的羽毛，破壞射擊的效果，所以狙擊手(狙擊手獵手)唯一可能擊中這隻鳥的方法就是躲在看不見的遠處。

Fans of British dramas may know that hackneys were the Ubers of centuries past. The word originates from the Old French haquenée, or a docile horse suitable for the dainty and delicate dispositions of the fairer sex.

喜歡英劇的人可能知道哈克尼是幾個世紀前的英國人。這個詞起源於古法語haquenée，意思是溫順的馬，適合女性的嬌嫩性情。

Hackney then came to describe any horse hired out for service (along with the coach or carriage it was attached to). Poor hackney horses suffered through the drudgery of hard and incessant labor, pounding the streets every day until they were used up. By extension, anything that’s hackneyed reflects that sense of wearied, worn-out toil. 

哈克尼後來用來形容任何被僱傭於服務的馬(以及與它們有聯繫的馬車)。可憐的哈克尼馬忍受著無休止的辛苦勞作，每天在街上奔走，直到筋疲力盡。推而廣之，任何陳腐的東西都反映出一種疲憊不堪的辛勞感。

Replacing the word tragedy with its Ancient Greek meaning turns tragic comic: 「It was such a goat song the way Romeo and Juliet both die at the end!」 「Goat song」? Yes, that is indeed what tragoedia means (from tragos, 「goat」 and oide, 「song」).

將單詞tragedy(悲劇)用它的古希臘含義替換就變成了悲劇性喜劇:「羅密歐和朱麗葉最後都死了，這真是一首山羊歌！」「山羊之歌？」是的，這確實是tragoedia的意思(來自tragos，「goat」和oide，「song」)。

Numerous conjectures try to explain this peculiar meaning; some say the earliest tragic plays were performed by actors dressed in goatskins; others relate the meaning’s origins to the fact that the goat was the sacred animal of Dionysus (the god of theater) and tragedies were the first plays created in the god’s honor.

無數的猜想試圖解釋這一奇特的含義；有人說最早的悲劇戲劇是由穿著羊皮的演員表演的；另一些人將這個意思的起源與山羊是狄奧尼索斯(戲劇之神)的神獸這一事實聯繫起來，而悲劇是為紀念神而創作的第一部戲劇。

Also related to the noble equine, a hobby in the 1400s was a 「small, active horse,」 perfect for pulling a cart. The name for the small horse easily lent itself to describe a tiny toy horse in the word hobbyhorse.

同樣與高貴的馬有關，在15世紀，hobby指「小而活躍的馬」，非常適合拉車。在單詞hobbyhorse中以馬起名是借用了它自己的一部分去形容一種小的玩具馬。

Hobbyhorses are fun but they don’t go anywhere, which is exactly the sense that hobby came to pick up next: a favorite pastime that 「doesn’t go anywhere,」 or that isn’t one’s main (and very serious) occupation. 

木馬很有趣，但它們哪兒也去不了，這正是hobby接下來開始流行起來的原因：一種「哪兒也去不了」的最喜歡的消遣，或者這不是一個人的主要（非常嚴肅的）職業。