| 词源 |
contempt. Disparaging disdain for something regarded as base or unworthy. The word, first recorded in 1393, comes to us from contemptus, the past participle of the Latin word for to despise. Writing to Mademoiselle Quinault, Voltaire was the first to point out what has become almost a literary maxim: “The only reward to be expected for the cultivation of literature is contempt if one fails and hatred if one succeeds.” |