英语词汇valentine的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

valentine. There were at least two St. Valentines, legend tells us, both Christian martyrs who were put to death on the same day, one an Italian priest and physician and the other the bishop of Terni. Butler’s Lives of the Saints recounts the priest’s story, which is almost identical to the bishop’s: “Valentine was a holy priest in Rome, who . . . assisted the martyrs in the persecution under Claudius the Goth. He was apprehended and sent by the emperor to the prefect of Rome who, on finding all his promises to make him renounce his faith ineffectual, commanded him to be beaten with clubs, and afterwards to be beheaded, which was executed on February 14, about the year 270.” February 14 had been associated with the mating of birds in ancient times, making St. Valentine’s Day, which accidentally fell on this date, an excellent choice for a day for lovers, the day also being fairly close to spring, when as Tennyson wrote, “a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” It became the custom to draw lots for sweethearts, or valentines, for the ensuing year on St. Valentine’s Day, this practice probably deriving from a similar Roman custom said to be taken from either the feast of Luper- calia, the feast of Februata, or the day honoring the goddess Juno, all of which fell around St. Valentine’s Day. By the end of the 18th century, the exchange of gloves and other gifts that ac- companied the drawing of lots became the exchange of letters, which were sometimes secret and often humorous or insulting. These letters evolved into the valentines that we know today.

词汇	valentine
词源	valentine. There were at least two St. Valentines, legend tells us, both Christian martyrs who were put to death on the same day, one an Italian priest and physician and the other the bishop of Terni. Butler’s Lives of the Saints recounts the priest’s story, which is almost identical to the bishop’s: “Valentine was a holy priest in Rome, who . . . assisted the martyrs in the persecution under Claudius the Goth. He was apprehended and sent by the emperor to the prefect of Rome who, on finding all his promises to make him renounce his faith ineffectual, commanded him to be beaten with clubs, and afterwards to be beheaded, which was executed on February 14, about the year 270.” February 14 had been associated with the mating of birds in ancient times, making St. Valentine’s Day, which accidentally fell on this date, an excellent choice for a day for lovers, the day also being fairly close to spring, when as Tennyson wrote, “a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” It became the custom to draw lots for sweethearts, or valentines, for the ensuing year on St. Valentine’s Day, this practice probably deriving from a similar Roman custom said to be taken from either the feast of Luper- calia, the feast of Februata, or the day honoring the goddess Juno, all of which fell around St. Valentine’s Day. By the end of the 18th century, the exchange of gloves and other gifts that ac- companied the drawing of lots became the exchange of letters, which were sometimes secret and often humorous or insulting. These letters evolved into the valentines that we know today.
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