英语词汇hottentot的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

Hottentot. The Khoikhoi were a proud tribe, and their na- tive name meant “men among men,” but they had the misfor- tune to be the first Africans to come in contact with the Dutch settlers of the Cape of Good Hope, eventually losing most of their land and now numbering less than 20,000. Even their name was taken from them and they became the Hottentot tribe, a word that means gibberish in English, describes a stu- pid, depraved person as well, and is sometimes used as an ugly slang word for a black person. Hottentot is the name that Boers gave to this South African tribe closely allied to the Bushmen. The Dutch and other Europeans, imposing their own values on another civilization, had long thought the pas- toral people small and stupid; hence Hottentot’s second meaning. As for Hottentot meaning “gibberish,” the Khoikhoi dialect is full of harsh, staccato clicks and clacks and kissing sounds, unique in that it is spoken by breathing in rather than out. These noises made by the tongue (similar to the way we say “tsk tsk”) sounded like so much stammering or clucking to Dutch ears. The Boers therefore named the people after what the language sounded like to them, calling them Hotten- tots from the Dutch hateren en tateren, to “stammer and stut- ter,” and it wasn’t long before hottentot was applied to any gib- berish at all.

词汇	hottentot
词源	Hottentot. The Khoikhoi were a proud tribe, and their na- tive name meant “men among men,” but they had the misfor- tune to be the first Africans to come in contact with the Dutch settlers of the Cape of Good Hope, eventually losing most of their land and now numbering less than 20,000. Even their name was taken from them and they became the Hottentot tribe, a word that means gibberish in English, describes a stu- pid, depraved person as well, and is sometimes used as an ugly slang word for a black person. Hottentot is the name that Boers gave to this South African tribe closely allied to the Bushmen. The Dutch and other Europeans, imposing their own values on another civilization, had long thought the pas- toral people small and stupid; hence Hottentot’s second meaning. As for Hottentot meaning “gibberish,” the Khoikhoi dialect is full of harsh, staccato clicks and clacks and kissing sounds, unique in that it is spoken by breathing in rather than out. These noises made by the tongue (similar to the way we say “tsk tsk”) sounded like so much stammering or clucking to Dutch ears. The Boers therefore named the people after what the language sounded like to them, calling them Hotten- tots from the Dutch hateren en tateren, to “stammer and stut- ter,” and it wasn’t long before hottentot was applied to any gib- berish at all.
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