英语词汇calumny的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

calumny; libel; slander. The Romans branded false accusers with a K on the forehead, this standing for their word kalum- nia, which became calumnia when they gave the c the k sound and for the most part stopped using the k. Our word calumny, a false accusation deliberately intended to hurt another’s reputation, comes directly from the Latin calumnia, which means the same. Shakespeare and Shelley believed that only the dead knew not calumny, the bard writing in Hamlet: “Be thou chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape cal- umny.” A false accuser, the slanderer who spreads calumnies, is called a calumniator, and those who are the victims of calum- niatory charges are the calumniated. “Calumny,” said Queen Elizabeth I, “will not fasten on me forever.” Libel is written or printed calumny, and slander is legally calumny by oral utter- ance. For example, Whistler’s paintings were slandered by En- glish critic John Ruskin, but Ruskin was only sued for libel when he published such statements as “I . . . never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face.” Whistler won his case, but was awarded only a farthing, a coin then worth less than one cent.

词汇	calumny
词源	calumny; libel; slander. The Romans branded false accusers with a K on the forehead, this standing for their word kalum- nia, which became calumnia when they gave the c the k sound and for the most part stopped using the k. Our word calumny, a false accusation deliberately intended to hurt another’s reputation, comes directly from the Latin calumnia, which means the same. Shakespeare and Shelley believed that only the dead knew not calumny, the bard writing in Hamlet: “Be thou chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape cal- umny.” A false accuser, the slanderer who spreads calumnies, is called a calumniator, and those who are the victims of calum- niatory charges are the calumniated. “Calumny,” said Queen Elizabeth I, “will not fasten on me forever.” Libel is written or printed calumny, and slander is legally calumny by oral utter- ance. For example, Whistler’s paintings were slandered by En- glish critic John Ruskin, but Ruskin was only sued for libel when he published such statements as “I . . . never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face.” Whistler won his case, but was awarded only a farthing, a coin then worth less than one cent.
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