goal: [16] The earliest examples of what can confidently be identified as the word goal come from the first half of the 16th century, when it was used for both the ‘finishing line of a race’ and the ‘posts through which the ball is sent in football’. Before that we are in the realm of speculation. A 14th-century text from Kent has the word gol ‘boundary’, which could quite plausibly be the ancestor of the 16th-century goal, and gol suggest an Old English *gāl.
No such word has come down to us, but the Old English verb g?lan ‘hinder’, which looks as though it could have been related to a noun *gāl, indicates that if it existed it might have meant ‘obstacle, barrier’ (which would lead on quite logically through ‘boundary’ and ‘finishing line’ to ‘something to be aimed at’).
goal (n.)
1530s, "end point of a race," of uncertain origin. It appears once before this (as gol), in a poem from early 14c. and with an apparent sense of "boundary, limit." Perhaps from Old English *gal "obstacle, barrier," a word implied by g?lan "to hinder" and also found in compounds (singal, widgal). That would make it a variant or figurative use of Middle English gale "a way, course." Also compare Old Norse geil "a narrow glen, a passage." Or from Old French gaule "long pole, stake," which is from Germanic. Sports sense of "place where the ball, etc. is put to score" is attested from 1540s. Figurative sense of "object of an effort" is from 1540s.
雙語例句
1. They were still arguing the toss about the first goal.
他們仍在為第一個進球爭論不休。
來自柯林斯例句
2. It all started so promisingly when Speed scored a tremendous first goal.
比賽開始的時候形勢大好，斯皮德以一記精彩的進球拔得頭籌。
來自柯林斯例句
3. The clincher was City's second goal, scored minutes from the end.
離比賽結束還剩幾分鐘的時候，曼城隊的第二粒進球鎖定了勝局。
來自柯林斯例句
4. The home side rubbed in their superiority with a further goal.
主隊再進一球從而奠定了優勢。
來自柯林斯例句
5. Eric Cantona made the game safe with a brilliant opportunist goal.