| 词源 |
belittle. Thomas Jefferson coined the word belittle in about 1780 and Noah Webster included it in his 1828 dictionary, but many critics denounced it as an incurably vulgar term, one go- ing so far as to say “It has no visible chance of becoming En- glish . . .” The condemnations went on for almost a century, but needless to say all the belittling of belittle failed to ban the word from the language. |