英语词汇coma berenices的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

Coma Berenices; varnish; vernis martin. Berenice’s hair, or coma Berenices, is the lock of a woman’s hair that became a con- stellation. It was made famous by the five surviving lines of the poem The Lock of Berenice by the Greek poet Callimachus, which is said to be based on a true story. Berenice was married to Ptole- my III, king of Egypt, and when he invaded Syria in 236 b.c. to avenge the murder of his sister, she dedicated a lock of her hair to the gods as an offering for his safe return. The hair mysteriously disappeared, but the court astronomer, Conon of Samos, per- haps to assuage her, pretended to discover that it had been car- ried to heaven and transformed into a constellation of the Northern Hemisphere, which has been known ever since as Coma Berenices. (A coma is the hazy envelope around a comet, and the word comet itself derives from the Greek and Latin words for hair, alluding to a fancied resemblance between the tails of comets and hair blowing in the wind.) Ptolemy returned from the wars safely, but soon after his death in 221 b.c. the fabled Berenice was murdered at the instigation of her son. Later the Greeks named the town of Berenike in Libya for Berenice. Here a paint industry thrived and one new coating was called Bereni- ce, its color said to resemble the amber hair of the queen. This paint was called bernix in medieval Latin, but the Italians cor- rupted its name to vernice, which became vernis in French and varnish in English—the chances being that the floor under your feet has something of the color of Berenice’s hair. Vernis martin, or Martin varnish, a finish for furniture, is twice eponymous, be- ing also named for the brothers Martin, 18th-century French craftsmen who invented it in imitation of Chinese lacquer.

词汇	coma berenices
词源	Coma Berenices; varnish; vernis martin. Berenice’s hair, or coma Berenices, is the lock of a woman’s hair that became a con- stellation. It was made famous by the five surviving lines of the poem The Lock of Berenice by the Greek poet Callimachus, which is said to be based on a true story. Berenice was married to Ptole- my III, king of Egypt, and when he invaded Syria in 236 b.c. to avenge the murder of his sister, she dedicated a lock of her hair to the gods as an offering for his safe return. The hair mysteriously disappeared, but the court astronomer, Conon of Samos, per- haps to assuage her, pretended to discover that it had been car- ried to heaven and transformed into a constellation of the Northern Hemisphere, which has been known ever since as Coma Berenices. (A coma is the hazy envelope around a comet, and the word comet itself derives from the Greek and Latin words for hair, alluding to a fancied resemblance between the tails of comets and hair blowing in the wind.) Ptolemy returned from the wars safely, but soon after his death in 221 b.c. the fabled Berenice was murdered at the instigation of her son. Later the Greeks named the town of Berenike in Libya for Berenice. Here a paint industry thrived and one new coating was called Bereni- ce, its color said to resemble the amber hair of the queen. This paint was called bernix in medieval Latin, but the Italians cor- rupted its name to vernice, which became vernis in French and varnish in English—the chances being that the floor under your feet has something of the color of Berenice’s hair. Vernis martin, or Martin varnish, a finish for furniture, is twice eponymous, be- ing also named for the brothers Martin, 18th-century French craftsmen who invented it in imitation of Chinese lacquer.
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