英文词源
No matching word found in the dictionary.
Word of Random
- crank
- crank: [OE] There appears to be a link between the words crank, cringe, and crinkle. They share the meaning element ‘bending’ or ‘curling up’ (which later developed metaphorically into ‘becoming weak or sick’, as in the related German krank ‘ill’), and probably all came from a prehistoric Germanic base *krank-. In Old English the word crank appeared only in the compound crancstoef, the name for a type of implement used by weavers; it is not recorded in isolation until the mid-15th century, when it appears in a Latin-English dictionary as a translation of Latin haustrum ‘winch’.
The adjective cranky [18] is no doubt related, but quite how closely is not clear. It may derive from an obsolete thieves’ slang term crank meaning ‘person feigning sickness to gain money’, which may have connections with German krank. Modern English crank ‘cranky person’ is a backformation from the adjective, coined in American English in the 19th century.
=> cringe, crinkle
中文词源
pointblank：近距离平射的，直截了当的（地）．断然的（地）
在法语中靶子中心的白点即靶心叫point blanc。许多辞书认为pointblank 一词就是从它英语化而来的。16世纪时在英国射箭运动中瞄准靶心直射( pointed directly at the blank)就说a point-hlank shot。随着火器的使用，pointhlank被转用来表示“近距离平射的”或“抵近的”，今天该词又往往用于喻义，表示“直截了当的（地）”或“断然的（地）”。例如：He shot her in the brain, poim-blank.（他抵着她的脑袋开枪。）／He put the question point-blank to them.（他直截了当地向他们提出了这个问题。）／It is tantarnount to a pointblank refusal.（那等于断然拒绝。）
该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：pointblank 词源，pointblank 含义。
