Words in time: A Social History of the English Vocabulary
Words in time: A Social History of the English Vocabulary
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时间中的单词：英语词汇的社会史
作者：
W. Francis;G. Hughes
“salary”这个词来源于“salt”这个词。顺便提一下，“saucer”和“sausage”也是如此。今天的“办公室”是我们工作的地方。在中世纪，办公室是神圣礼拜仪式的一部分。直到最近，“Gay”还只是“轻松愉快的”的意思。现在它更常用来表示“同性恋”。这本书可以看作是对《牛津英语词典》的一种评注。这本书从《牛津英语词典》中寻找证据，追溯了几个世纪以来英语单词词义变化的惊人方式。这些意义上的变化反映了英格兰的历史发展。在我们的词汇中，有一些“考古”证据，证明了诺曼征服、资本主义的发展、印刷术的发明和宗教改革的到来等重大历史变革。今天的词汇正以惊人的、前所未有的速度改变着它们的意思。杰弗里·休斯仔细观察了新闻和广告的影响，并展示了政治、科学和学术界是如何在不断变化的词汇意义上留下自己的印记的。这项工作应该是感兴趣的一般读者，以及学生和专家在英语的历史。
The word "salary" has its roots in the word "salt". So, incidentally, do "saucer" and "sausage". "Offices" today are where we work. In the Middle Ages an office was part of the sacred liturgy. "Gay" meant only "lighthearted" until comparatively recently. Now it is more commonly used to mean "homosexual". This book may be seen as a kind of commentary on the "Oxford English Dictionary". Quarrying the OED for its evidence, it traces the extraordinary way in which English words have changed their meaning over past centuries. These shifts in meaning both chart and reflect England's historical development. In our vocabulary is the "archaeological" evidence of such great historical transformations as the Norman conquest, the growth of capitalism, the invention of printing and the coming of the Reformation. Words today are shifting their meanings at a remarkable and unprecedented rate. Geoffrey Hughes looks closely at the impact of journalism and advertising and shows how politics, science and academia are all leaving their mark on the ever-changing meaning of words. This work should be of interest to general readers as well as students and specialists in the history of English.