imbecile
英 ['?mb?si?l]
美 ['?mb?sa?l]
- n. 低能者；愚蠢的人
- adj. 低能的；愚笨的；虛弱的
助記提示
1. Etymologically imbecile means 'without support, unsupported', hence 'weak'.
2. Anyone or anything without a stick or staff for support is by extension weak, and so it came to mean 'weak, feeble'.
3. in- "not, opposite of" + baculum "a stick" (see bacillus, bacteria).
中文詞源
imbecile 笨蛋，弱智im-,不，非，bec-,支撐，桿，詞源同bachelor,bacillus.即無支撐的，虛弱的，后來詞義惡化為笨蛋，弱智。
英文詞源
- imbecile
- imbecile: [16] Etymologically imbecile means ‘without support’, hence ‘weak’. It came via French from Latin imbēcillus, a compound adjective formed from the prefix in- ‘not’ and an unrecorded *bēcillum, a diminutive variant of baculum ‘stick’ (from which English gets bacillus and bacterium). Anyone or anything without a stick or staff for support is by extension weak, and so the Latin adjective came to mean ‘weak, feeble’. This broadened out to ‘weak in mind’, and was even used as a noun for ‘weak-minded person’, but English did not adopt these metaphorical uses until the late 18th century.
=> bacillus, bacterium - imbecile (adj.)
- 1540s, imbecille "weak, feeble" (especially in reference to the body), from Middle French imbecile (15c.), from Latin imbecillus "weak, feeble" (see imbecility). Sense shifted to mental weakness from mid-18c. (compare frail, which in provincial English also could mean "mentally weak"). As a noun, "feeble-minded person," it is attested from 1802. Traditionally an adult with a mental age of roughly 6 to 9 (above an idiot but beneath a moron).
雙語例句
- 1. It was an imbecile thing to do.
- 這么做很愚蠢。
來自柯林斯例句
- 2. For two years that imbecile threw his money away like this.
- 兩年來那個傻瓜就像這樣揮霍錢財.
來自《簡明英漢詞典》
- 3. Did you ever see anything so imbecile as her mother?
- 象她母親那樣無用的人,你說少見不少見?
來自辭典例句
- 4. He was an imbecile to sign a contract with them.
- 他跟他們簽合同,真是愚不可及.
來自辭典例句
- 5. I've very good mind to shake you severely, for your contemptible treachery, and your imbecile conceit.
- 我 倒 想狠狠地搖撼你, 就因為你的可鄙的奸詐, 和你那低能的奇想.
來自辭典例句