英语词汇squirrel的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

squirrel. The Greeks were impressed not so much by this bright-eyed rodent’s acrobatic performances in trees as by its bushy tail, which they believed the animal wrapped around it like a parasol when the sun was too strong. So they named the animal skiouros, “shadow-tail,” from their words for shade, skia, and tail, oura, meaning shadytail, the animal that makes shade with its tail. The allusion was pleasant, poetic, but the road to our word squirrel proved difficult. Skiouros became sciurus in Latin and then escureul in France before going through nearly a score of English spellings and becoming the squirrel that we know today. Another word from the Greek root skia, is sciama- chy, which means a sham fight or shadow boxing, and comes directly from a Greek word meaning “fighting in the shade, fighting with shadows.” The term isn’t heard in the gym, but po- litical or even CIA sciamachy is not unknown. See dray.

词汇	squirrel
词源	squirrel. The Greeks were impressed not so much by this bright-eyed rodent’s acrobatic performances in trees as by its bushy tail, which they believed the animal wrapped around it like a parasol when the sun was too strong. So they named the animal skiouros, “shadow-tail,” from their words for shade, skia, and tail, oura, meaning shadytail, the animal that makes shade with its tail. The allusion was pleasant, poetic, but the road to our word squirrel proved difficult. Skiouros became sciurus in Latin and then escureul in France before going through nearly a score of English spellings and becoming the squirrel that we know today. Another word from the Greek root skia, is sciama- chy, which means a sham fight or shadow boxing, and comes directly from a Greek word meaning “fighting in the shade, fighting with shadows.” The term isn’t heard in the gym, but po- litical or even CIA sciamachy is not unknown. See dray.
随便看	racketeer rack one-s brains radar radio radish raffles raffles hotel rafflesia ragamuffin ragged robin raglan sleeve rain before seven fine before eleven rainbow chaser rainbow division rain check raining cats and dogs raise cain raise hob raise old ned rally ’round the flag boys ram ramada ramayana ramrod rolls ramshackle