英语词汇engine的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

engine; engineer. The gin in Eli Whitney’s cotton gin is no more than another word for engine, an old word that dates back to the 13th century as the synonym for a mechanical contrivance or de- vice. Engine itself has a more interesting history. It is from the Latin ingenium, “the powers inborn,” the same word that gives us ingenious. In English it first meant “native talent, mother wit, genius,” Chaucer noting three qualities of the mind: “Memorie, engin and intellect.” By extension engine came to mean “trickery or device,” and Shakespeare used it this way when he wrote in Othello that men’s lures and promises are “engines of lust.” But as more complicated machines were developed the word came to mean the “products of engine or wit,” the name for the power transferred to its product, and it is only in this sense that it is used today. An engineer was first a wit, one who might have invented a phrase, or even a tricky political plot. Only later was the name ap- plied to constructors of military engines (Shakespeare writing in Hamlet, “For ‘tis sport to have the enginer hoist with his own pe- tard”) and in this sense applied to anyone who operated an en- gine, like a railroad engineer. The only engineers to whom the ti- tle applied in early times, however, were military engineers, who constructed military engines and works intended to serve mili- tary purposes. It wasn’t until the mid-18th century that the title was used for those who designed and constructed public works such as roads, bridges, and tunnels—these men called civil engi- neers to distinguish them from their military counterparts.

词汇	engine
词源	engine; engineer. The gin in Eli Whitney’s cotton gin is no more than another word for engine, an old word that dates back to the 13th century as the synonym for a mechanical contrivance or de- vice. Engine itself has a more interesting history. It is from the Latin ingenium, “the powers inborn,” the same word that gives us ingenious. In English it first meant “native talent, mother wit, genius,” Chaucer noting three qualities of the mind: “Memorie, engin and intellect.” By extension engine came to mean “trickery or device,” and Shakespeare used it this way when he wrote in Othello that men’s lures and promises are “engines of lust.” But as more complicated machines were developed the word came to mean the “products of engine or wit,” the name for the power transferred to its product, and it is only in this sense that it is used today. An engineer was first a wit, one who might have invented a phrase, or even a tricky political plot. Only later was the name ap- plied to constructors of military engines (Shakespeare writing in Hamlet, “For ‘tis sport to have the enginer hoist with his own pe- tard”) and in this sense applied to anyone who operated an en- gine, like a railroad engineer. The only engineers to whom the ti- tle applied in early times, however, were military engineers, who constructed military engines and works intended to serve mili- tary purposes. It wasn’t until the mid-18th century that the title was used for those who designed and constructed public works such as roads, bridges, and tunnels—these men called civil engi- neers to distinguish them from their military counterparts.
随便看	simenon -simmon simoleon simon legree simon pure simony simples simpson-s rule since hector was a pup sincere since the hogs et grandma since time immemorial since well i’ve played my part since when sin-eater sine die sine qua non sing a different tune singapore sing for one-s supper sing indian singing beach singing psalms to a dead horse singing telegram sing like a canary