英语词汇raffles的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

Raffles; Raffles Hotel; Rafflesia. Naming the genus Rafflesia after English administrator Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raf- fles (1781–1826) could be interpreted as either a compliment or an insult. On the one hand, the species Rafflesia arnoldi has the largest single flower known to man—its bloom measuring up to six feet in diameter, three-quarters of an inch thick and attain- ing a weight of 15 pounds. On the other hand this same bowl- shaped, mottled orange-brown-and-white flower is commonly called the stinking corpse lily. A parasite that grows on the roots of vines in its Malaysian habitat, only the plant’s bloom is visible above ground, the rest being a fungus growing beneath it, and its smell of decaying flesh attracts the carrion flies that pollinate it. On balance it seems that Sir Stamford would have been better off if he had only had the world-famous Raffles Hotel in Singa- pore named for him, but since he discovered the plant genus, he really had no one to blame but himself; he should have kept qui- et about it. Raffles gained no gratitude from the British powers that were, either. An able colonial administrator in the East In- dies, he did much to suppress the slave trade, was conspicuous for his liberal treatment of his subjects, zealously collected much historical and zoological information, and secured the transfer of Singapore to the East India Company in 1819. But he was censured for freeing slaves, and after his death his wife had to pay the costs of his mission to found Singapore. Raffles for “a gentleman burglar” comes from the name of a suave character created by Australian writer Ernest W. Hornung in a collection of stories published in 1899.

词汇	raffles
词源	Raffles; Raffles Hotel; Rafflesia. Naming the genus Rafflesia after English administrator Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raf- fles (1781–1826) could be interpreted as either a compliment or an insult. On the one hand, the species Rafflesia arnoldi has the largest single flower known to man—its bloom measuring up to six feet in diameter, three-quarters of an inch thick and attain- ing a weight of 15 pounds. On the other hand this same bowl- shaped, mottled orange-brown-and-white flower is commonly called the stinking corpse lily. A parasite that grows on the roots of vines in its Malaysian habitat, only the plant’s bloom is visible above ground, the rest being a fungus growing beneath it, and its smell of decaying flesh attracts the carrion flies that pollinate it. On balance it seems that Sir Stamford would have been better off if he had only had the world-famous Raffles Hotel in Singa- pore named for him, but since he discovered the plant genus, he really had no one to blame but himself; he should have kept qui- et about it. Raffles gained no gratitude from the British powers that were, either. An able colonial administrator in the East In- dies, he did much to suppress the slave trade, was conspicuous for his liberal treatment of his subjects, zealously collected much historical and zoological information, and secured the transfer of Singapore to the East India Company in 1819. But he was censured for freeing slaves, and after his death his wife had to pay the costs of his mission to found Singapore. Raffles for “a gentleman burglar” comes from the name of a suave character created by Australian writer Ernest W. Hornung in a collection of stories published in 1899.
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