英语词汇babble的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

babble; babel. Babel, for a confused turbulent medley of sounds (“a babel of sounds”), or a scene of utter confusion, takes its name from the biblical city of Babel described in Gen- esis, where as punishment for the people’s attempt to build a tower to reach heaven itself, God confused their speech and, where there was previously one universal language, created the many tongues that we know today. Babel comes to us from the ancient Assyrian bab-ili, “gate of the gods.” Babel and Babylon are the same city, the latter word passing to us from the Greek Babulon. Babylon stands for any corrupt, luxury-loving place of riotous living, owing much of its reputation to the Babylon of the Revelation of St. John the Divine—“Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth.” In days past, and in rare instances today, Protestants have called Rome, seat of the Catholic church, “the Woman of Babylon.” Babel is of no relation to babble, a word probably suggested by the sounds made by infants, though the O.E.D. says that babble’s association with babel may have affected some of the former word’s meaning. Babel can be pronounced baybel or babble, the latter usually the American pronunciation. One time Brit- ish playwright Noël Coward corrected singer Elaine Stritch on her pronunciation of the word. “It’s bayble, Stritch,” he advised. “I’ve always said babble,” she countered. “Everyone says babble. It means mixed-up language, doesn’t it? Gibberish. It’s where we get babble from.” “That’s a fabble,” Coward said.

词汇	babble
词源	babble; babel. Babel, for a confused turbulent medley of sounds (“a babel of sounds”), or a scene of utter confusion, takes its name from the biblical city of Babel described in Gen- esis, where as punishment for the people’s attempt to build a tower to reach heaven itself, God confused their speech and, where there was previously one universal language, created the many tongues that we know today. Babel comes to us from the ancient Assyrian bab-ili, “gate of the gods.” Babel and Babylon are the same city, the latter word passing to us from the Greek Babulon. Babylon stands for any corrupt, luxury-loving place of riotous living, owing much of its reputation to the Babylon of the Revelation of St. John the Divine—“Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth.” In days past, and in rare instances today, Protestants have called Rome, seat of the Catholic church, “the Woman of Babylon.” Babel is of no relation to babble, a word probably suggested by the sounds made by infants, though the O.E.D. says that babble’s association with babel may have affected some of the former word’s meaning. Babel can be pronounced baybel or babble, the latter usually the American pronunciation. One time Brit- ish playwright Noël Coward corrected singer Elaine Stritch on her pronunciation of the word. “It’s bayble, Stritch,” he advised. “I’ve always said babble,” she countered. “Everyone says babble. It means mixed-up language, doesn’t it? Gibberish. It’s where we get babble from.” “That’s a fabble,” Coward said.
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