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总有些人会说snob一词源于拉丁语短语sine nobilitate的缩写形式......人们提出过各种各样据说使用过这一缩写形式的场景：如牛津或剑桥学生的名单上；船上乘客的名单上；以及宾客清单中。

 

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Dictionary一词的来历One could argue that dictionaries are called as such because they tell the user how to say things. Or you could say that the Latin word dictio means ‘a word’, and so a dictionary might be seen as a compendium of words.

人们可能会辩说，字典称之为字典是因为它告诉使用者如何称呼事物或者有人会说，拉丁语dictio一词的意思是“一个字”，因此，字典应该是被看作字的概要In fact, the word ‘dictionary’ (in its Latin form dictionarius) appears to have been coined by the Englishman John of Garland in the early 13th century as the title of a children’s textbook written as a guide to Latin composition, and Garland makes clear in his introduction that he is thinking of dictio not so much in its sense ‘word’ but in its sense ‘connected speech’, because by using his guide the learner will be able to put words together to form connected speech.。

事实上，单词dictionary（其拉丁语形式为dictionarius）是由13世纪的John Garland创造的，当时该词用在一本指导儿童写拉丁作文的教科书的书名上Garland在书序中明确说道，他认为。

dictio并非仅有字的含义，更是有连贯的语句的含义，因为使用他写的教科书可帮助学习者将词汇连接成语句。

牛津字典里为何会收录粗俗和攻击性语言？Oxford’s dictionaries are descriptive rather than prescriptive: our editors research the way that words are used by analysing vast databases of language such as the Oxford English Corpus, and craft entries to summarize as clearly and accurately as possible how words are really used, rather than how we may think they should be used.

牛津的词典都是描述性而非规定性的：我们的编辑们通过分析庞大的语言数据库（如牛津英语语料库）研究词汇的使用方法，然后精巧地编写词条，尽可能清楚准确地总结出单词的真实使用方式，而不是概述我们认为单词应该如何使用。

Our general adult-level dictionaries cover informal and offensive terms and meanings as well as standard, formal, and technical vocabulary. They are not deliberately excluded because they areas much a part of the language as any other words. Our policy is to include informal or offensive words on the basis of their currency of use, as reflected in the Oxford English Corpus and other databases, but always to alert the user by marking them clearly and appropriately using labels such as ‘derogatory’ or ‘vulgar’, and also by specific usage notes. We mark as ‘offensive’ any words or meanings which are likely to cause offence, even if a user may intend no offence by using them. We are constantly re-evaluating and improving our dictionary texts and this includes ongoing assessment of the way in which these labels are applied.

我们的成人级别词典通常不仅收录标准的、正式的和技术性词汇，还包含非正式和攻击性词语及其含义这些非正式和攻击性词汇也如其他词汇一样，是语言的一部分，因此并未排除在字典之外我们收录非正式或攻击性词汇的政策是基于它们的使用频率，这也在牛津英语语料库和其他数据库中有所体现，但我们总是使用例如。

“贬义词”或“粗俗语”这样的标签，或是通过具体的用法说明，清楚又适当地提醒用户这些词义我们标记为“冒犯性”的词汇或释义可能会触怒他人，即使使用者并无意冒犯我们会不断地重新评估和改进我们的字典文本，也包括不断评估各种标签的使用。

什么术语能表示一个单词反过来就是另一个单词？Theres no generally accepted term.The simplest way of referring to such words (e.g. lap/pal, dog/god) is probably semi-palindrome or half-palindrome. Some other suggestions have been made, including heteropalindrome, reversgram (or reversible anagram), and semordnilap (i.e. palindromes written backwards).

其实并没有普遍接受的术语最为简单的说法来说明这种词汇（例如lap/pal, dog/god），可以用semi-palindrome或half-palindrome（半回文）还有一些其他的建议说法，如heteropalindrome, reversgram, reversible anagram

，以及semordnilap（生造词，是palindromes一词倒过来）。

企鹅一词的起源是什么？The origin of penguin is still debated. The name originally applied to the great auk (now extinct) of the seas around Newfoundland in Canada, and may have come from the Welsh pen gwyn, meaning white head (or a similar phrase in the Breton or Cornish languages). In the logbook of the Golden Hind, which sailed around the world in 1577–80, there is a reference to a foule, which the Welsh men name Pengwin that was seen in the Magellan Straight at the tip of South America. The sailors on the expedition may have mistaken penguins for great auks, or simply applied a term they knew to an unfamiliar bird: the great auk resembled a penguin in that it was a large flightless bird with black and white plumage that was adapted to life in freezing waters.

Penguin的起源仍有争议最初，penguin指加拿大纽芬兰海域的一种大海雀（现已绝迹），这可能是源于威尔士语的pen gwyn（或布列塔尼或奥沃尔语的类似短语），意思为“白头”根据1577-80年间环球航行的金鹿号的航行日记，曾有记录威尔士人在南美洲角的麦哲伦海峡看到这种动物，被命名为

Pengwin。探险的水手们可能错将企鹅当作大海雀，或是简单地用已知词汇称呼这种陌生的鸟：大海雀酷似企鹅，都是一种大型的不会飞的鸟，带有黑白色羽毛，适应寒冷水域的生活。

Snob一词的起源People often claim that this word originated as an abbreviated form of the Latin phrase sine nobilitate, meaning without nobility (i.e. of a humble social background). Various accounts of the circumstances in which this abbreviation was supposedly used have been put forward: on lists of names of Oxford or Cambridge students; on lists of ships passengers (to make sure that only the best people dined at the captains table); on lists of guests to indicate that no title was required when they were announced.

总有些人会说snob一词源于拉丁语短语sine nobilitate的缩写形式，意思为“without nobility / 非贵族”，即“有卑微的社会背景的”人们提出过各种各样据说使用过这一缩写形式的场景：如牛津或剑桥学生的名单上；船上乘客的名单（以确保只有最高等人与船长同桌就餐）上；以及宾客（表示在念到名字时没有头衔）清单中。

The theory is ingenious but highly unlikely. The word snob is first recorded in the late 18th century as a term for a shoemaker or his apprentice. At about this time it was indeed adopted by Cambridge students, but they didnt use it to refer to students who lacked a title or were of humble origins; they used it generally of anyone who was not a student. Its quite possible that the phrase sine nobilitate may have appeared in one context or another, but it is difficult to see why it would have given rise to a word for a shoemaker.

这一说法有着独特的想象力，但可能性不大单词snob第一条记录出现在18世纪晚期，是指代鞋匠或他的学徒的词汇在同时期，剑桥学生确实也用到过该词，但并不是指代没有头衔或出身寒微的学生；而是泛指并非学生的任何人。

很有可能短语sine nobilitate在某一两个语境中出现，但很难看出它如何生成指代鞋匠的词汇By the early 19th century snob was being used to mean a person with no breeding, both the honest labourers who knew their place, and the vulgar social climbers who copied the manners of the upper classes. In time the word came to describe someone with an exaggerated respect for high social position or wealth who looks down on those regarded as socially inferior.。

到了19世纪早期，snob开始用来表示没有“教养”的人，既可以是知晓自己身份的诚实的劳动人民，也可以是模仿上层阶级礼仪的庸俗的攀高枝的人随时间推移，该词开始形容对社会地位高或更富有的人过分尊重，并看不起被视为社会低等人的人。

World一词的起源The ancient root of world meant ‘age or life of man’. The first part is the same as were- in werewolf (see wolf)—it means ‘man’—and the second part is related to old. The Anglo-Saxons first used world to mean ‘human existence, life on earth’ as opposed to future life in heaven or hell. America was first called the New World in 1555, and Europe, Asia, and Africa the Old World at the end of that century.

World的古词根意思为“人的年龄或生命”该词第一部分是were-，这与werewolf的前缀一样，意为“man/ 人”，而第二部分与“年老”相关盎格鲁∙撒克逊人最初用world一词表示“人类的存在、地球上的生命。

”，与天堂或地狱的未来生活相对美洲大陆在1555年时被首次称作“New World / 新世界”，在同一个世纪的末期，欧洲、亚洲和非洲成为了“Old World / 旧世界”The developing countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America were initially known as the Third World in the 1950s by French writers who used tiers monde, ‘third world’, to distinguish the developing countries from the capitalist and Communist blocs. The first use in English came in 1963.。

法国作家在上个世纪五十年代首次使用tiers monde（third world）一词，用其指代亚洲、非洲和拉丁美洲的发展中国家，以此区分资本主义和共产主义集团的发展中国家英语词汇Third World。

在1963年首次使用。

本文内容编译自牛津辞典博客（blog.oxforddictionaries.com），牛津大学出版社拥有中英文两版版权。如需转载，请标明出处。

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