英語(yǔ)單詞 Harebrained為什么是沒(méi)腦子

字號(hào):

我們平時(shí)說(shuō)某人行為做事很愚蠢,可能會(huì)用“沒(méi)腦子”或者說(shuō)某人的腦子是某種動(dòng)物的腦子,總之,就不是正常的human brain。在英語(yǔ)里,他們把“愚蠢的”行為稱(chēng)為harebrained(野兔腦子),估計(jì)跟咱們說(shuō)的“豬腦子”意思差不多。至于后來(lái)為什么演變成 hairbrained,看了下面的解釋就明白了。
    The first use of harebrained dates to 1548. The spelling hairbrained also has a long history, going back to the 1500s when hair was a variant spelling of hare. The hair variant was preserved in Scotland into the 18th century, and as a result it is impossible to tell exactly when people began writing hairbrained in the belief that the word means "having a hair-sized brain" rather than "with no more sense than a hare."
    Harebrained的用法最初見(jiàn)于1548年。而hairbrained這個(gè)拼法也有很長(zhǎng)的歷史,可以追溯到16世紀(jì),那時(shí)候hair是hare的另一種拼法。蘇格蘭一直將hairbrained這個(gè)拼法保留到18世紀(jì),因此,人們到底從什么時(shí)候開(kāi)始使用hairbrained,意即“頭發(fā)絲那么細(xì)的腦子”,來(lái)取代原本表示“跟野兔一樣沒(méi)腦子”的harebrained也就無(wú)從考證了。
    While hairbrained continues to be used, it should be avoided in favor of harebrained which has been established as the correct spelling.
    雖然hairbrained還在繼續(xù)使用,但是,既然harebrained是最初的正確拼法,我們就應(yīng)該避免這種混淆使用的情況。