| 词源 |
Martian canals. The myth of artificial canals on Mars is no longer believed by many people, after recent space explora- tions. In any case, the search by astronomers for life on Mars in years past was probably inspired by a linguistic accident. When in 1877 the astronomer Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli ob- served faint lines on Mars through the telescope he called them canali, Italian for “channels.” Canali was erroneously translated into English as canals, “carrying with it a strong connotation of being man-made, which canali does not.” |