thwart: [13] Thwart was originally an adverb and adjective, meaning ‘across, crosswise’. It was however used as a verb, meaning ‘obstruct’ (from the metaphorical notion of ‘crossing’ someone) as early as the 13th century. It was borrowed from Old Norse thvert, the neuter form of thverr ‘transverse’. This went back to a prehistoric Germanic *thwerkhwaz (possible source also of English queer), which in turn was descended from Indo-European *twork-, *twerk- ‘twist’ (source also of English torch, torment, torture, etc).
How the noun thwart ‘seat across a boat’ [18] fits into the picture is not altogether clear. Its modern meaning clearly connects it with thwart ‘across’, but the notion of ‘crosswise’ may have been a secondary development. For an earlier noun thought ‘seat in a boat’ existed, which came ultimately from Old English thofta ‘rower’s bench’, and it could be that thwart the modern English noun represents a blending, both formal and semantic, of thwart ‘across’ with the now obsolete thought. => queer, torch, torment, torture
thwart (adv.)
c. 1200, from a Scandinavian source, probably Old Norse tvert "across," originally neuter of thverr (adj.) "transverse, across," cognate with Old English tweorh "transverse, perverse, angry, cross," from Proto-Germanic *thwerh- "twisted, oblique" (cognates: Middle Dutch dwers, Dutch dwars "cross-grained, contrary," Old High German twerh, German quer, Gothic twairhs "angry"), altered (by influence of *thwer- "to turn") from *therkh-, from PIE *terkw- "to twist" (cognates: Latin torquere "to twist," Sanskrit tarkuh "spindle," Old Church Slavonic traku "band, girdle," Old High German drahsil "turner," German drechseln "to turn on a lathe"), possibly a variant of *twerk- "to cut." From mid-13c. as an adjective.
thwart (v.)
"oppose, hinder," mid-13c., from thwart (adv.). Related: Thwarted; thwarting.
雙語例句
1. The accounting firm deliberately destroyed documents to thwart government investigators.
會計事務所故意毀壞文件，阻撓政府調查工作。
來自柯林斯例句
2. to thwart sb's plans
阻撓某人的計劃
來自《權威詞典》
3. We must thwart his malevolent schemes.
我們決不能讓他的惡毒陰謀得逞.
來自《簡明英漢詞典》
4. The Everton keeper needed all his courage to thwart a charging Vinny Jones in full flow.
埃弗頓的守門員需要鼓足全部勇氣才有可能抵擋住狀態正佳的維尼·瓊斯的沖鋒射門。
來自柯林斯例句
5. He sat down and, clinging to the thwart, began to sob quietly.