| 词源 |
rankle. Rankle derives from Latin dracunculus, “little snake or dragon.” It came to mean “festering sore” in French, per- haps because such sores sometimes resemble a little snake, or a coiled little snake, or the bite of a snake. In any case, raon- cler, an alternative form of French draoncles, “to fester,” passed into English about 1200 and over the years changed in spell- ing to rankle. Rankle held on to its literal meaning of “to fes- ter” but also came to mean “to cause persistent irritation or resentment.” |