每日一词：leviathan（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接

原文链接


Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for March 5, 2019 is:

leviathan • \luh-VYE-uh-thun\  • noun

1 a often capitalized Leviathan : a sea monster defeated by Yahweh in various scriptural accounts

b : a large sea animal

2 capitalized Leviathan : the political state; especially : a totalitarian state having a vast bureaucracy

3 : something large or formidable

Examples:

“Fossils of the ancient leviathan were unearthed from 480-million-year-old rocks exposed on a hillside in southeastern Morocco.” — Sid Perkins, Science, 11 Mar. 2015

“… [T]he extension of the Star Wars story has been the biggest global movie phenomenon since Avatar…. It is a leviathan, totaling nearly $4.5 billion in global ticket sales and an entire subcultural media industry.” — Sean Fennessey, The Ringer, 25 May 2018

Did you know?

Old Testament references to a huge sea monster, Leviathan (in Hebrew, Liwyāthān), are thought to spring from an ancient myth in which the god Baal slays a multiheaded sea monster. Leviathan appears in the book of Psalms as a sea serpent that is killed by God and then given as food to creatures in the wilderness, and it is referred to in the book of Job as well. We began equating Leviathan with the political state after the philosopher Thomas Hobbes used the word in (and as the title of) his 1651 political treatise on government. Today, Leviathan often suggests a crushing political bureaucracy. Leviathan can also be immensely useful as a general term meaning “something monstrous or of enormous size.”

Lake桑

March 05, 2019 at 01:00PM


评论

发表评论

此博客中的热门博文

每日一词：limpid（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for September 17, 2020 is: limpid • \LIM-pid\  • adjective 1 a : marked by transparency : pellucid b : clear and simple in style 2 : absolutely serene and untroubled Examples: “She leaned toward him, entreaty in her eyes, and as he looked at her delicate face and into her pure, limpid eyes, as of old he was struck with his own unworthiness.” — Jack London, Martin Eden , 1909 “Last summer, the edges of the Greenland ice sheet experienced up to three extra months of melting weather.  Limpid blue pools formed on its surface; floods of melt gushed off the edge of the continent….” — Madeleine Stone, National Geographic , 7 July 2020 Did you know? Since around 1600, limpid has been used in English to describe things that have the soft clearness of pure water. The aquatic connection is not incidental; language scholars believe that limpid probably traces to lympha , a Latin word meaning “water.” That same Latin root is also the
阅读全文

每日一词：plaudit（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for September 7, 2020 is: plaudit • \PLAW-dit\  • noun 1 : an act or round of applause 2 : enthusiastic approval — usually used in plural Examples: “For all of the accolades, and two Grammys she’s won, this might be the song and album that finally earns McKenna the plaudits  her vocals also richly deserve.” — Jay N. Miller, The Patriot Ledger (Quincy, Massachusetts), 22 July 2020 “Long before he was collecting headlines and plaudits  for his work, Babcock was quietly creating a functioning farm to give people in his South Dallas neighborhood a real hand in improving their lives, through working on the farm or from being nourished by its fruits.” — editorial, The Dallas Morning News , 8 July 2020 Did you know? You earn plaudits for your etymological knowledge if you can connect plaudit to words besides the familiar applaud and applause . A word coined by shortening Latin plaudite , meaning “applaud,” plaudit had gained approv
阅读全文

每日一词：adjudicate（转自 韦氏词典）

原文链接 原文链接 Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for January 24, 2019 is: adjudicate • \uh-JOO-dih-kayt\  • verb 1 : to make an official decision about who is right in (a dispute) : to settle judicially 2 : to act as judge Examples: “… Nichols said in addition to the nine dogs brought to the shelter, it is housing 31 dogs that were confiscated in animal cruelty or neglect cases. She said the shelter has to board the dogs, feed them and care for them until the cases are adjudicated .” — Russ Coreyemp, The Times Daily (Florence, Alabama), 16 Dec. 2018 “To qualify as a couture house, which is an official designation like champagne, a brand must maintain an atelier of a certain number of artisans full time and produce a specific number of garments twice a year for a show. There are only a very few that can fulfill the requirements…. A lot have dropped out over the years …, and the governing organization that adjudicates  this has relaxed some of its rules to admit younger, less
阅读全文