2018初中英語(yǔ)詞匯之有關(guān)鳥(niǎo)類單詞的由來(lái)

　　A large number of birds received their names through the imitation of their cries.The cuckoo is an obvious example of such an onomatopoeic naming,and so are the owl,the cockatiel,and many more.Some bird names,however,have a more intriguing linguistic history.

 

　　許多禽鳥(niǎo)的英文名都是通過(guò)模擬叫聲得來(lái)，布谷鳥(niǎo)就是一個(gè)很明顯的例子，貓頭鷹、澳洲鸚鵡等等也是如此。但是，有一些禽鳥(niǎo)的名字背后則有著十分有趣的故事。

 

　　Magpie喜鵲

 

　　The magpie was earlier known as the maggoty-pie or maggot-the-pie,of which magpie is probably a shortening.Here,maggot,or later mag,is an obsolete pet-form of the female forenames Margery and Margaret.The second element,pie,derives from Latin pica,itself meaning‘magpie’.It is also related to picus,which is the Latin name for the green woodpecker.

 

　　喜鵲早前被叫做maggoty-pie和maggot-the-pie，因此magpie很有可能只是它們的縮寫。這里的maggot和后來(lái)的mag都是舊時(shí)的動(dòng)物名，相當(dāng)于女性名字Margery以及Margaret。第二部分pie來(lái)自于拉丁詞語(yǔ)pica，這個(gè)詞本意就是“喜鵲”。Pie還與picus有關(guān)，這個(gè)詞是綠啄木鳥(niǎo)的拉丁名。

 

　　It is possible that picus also gave us the other pie,as in the baked pastry dish,perhaps alluding to the magpie’s habit of collecting random objects in comparison to a pie’s various ingredients.

 

　　很有可能picus這個(gè)詞衍生出了另一個(gè)pie的含義，即我們所說(shuō)的烘烤類面點(diǎn)“派”。也許這是暗指喜鵲有收集東西的習(xí)慣，就像派上有各類的食材。

 

　　Albatross信天翁

 

　　The albatross received its name from the alcatras,a frigate bird of similar appearance with which the oceanic bird was confused.

 

　　信天翁得名于alcatras，這是一種軍艦鳥(niǎo)，有著與信天翁這種海鳥(niǎo)相似的外形，因此常常被弄混。

 

　　According to the Oxford English Dictionary(OED),the alteration of the first syllable alca occurred by folk-etymological association with classical Latin albus‘white’in reference to the predominant colour of the plumage of many species of albatross.

 

　　根據(jù)牛津詞典，第一個(gè)音節(jié)alca的改變與詞源有關(guān)，拉丁語(yǔ)中albus表示白色，而多種信天翁體表大部分的羽毛都是白色。

 

　　Penguin企鵝

 

　　The origin of the word penguin is still a matter of debate among etymologists.It is probably derived from a Welsh phrase pen gwyn,meaning‘white head’.

 

　　詞源學(xué)學(xué)者對(duì)peguin一詞的來(lái)源仍爭(zhēng)論不休。有一種說(shuō)法是它來(lái)源于威爾士語(yǔ)pen gwyn，意思是白色的頭部。

 

　　Apparently,the name was first given to a different bird,the now extinct Great Auk,which closely resembled the penguin in its appearance.It is assumed that the British sailors who first discovered the penguins mistook them for Great Auks and applied their name to the unfamiliar birds.

 

　　顯然，這個(gè)名字最早屬于別的鳥(niǎo)類——我們現(xiàn)在所說(shuō)的大海雀，它和企鵝的外形十分相似。據(jù)說(shuō)，最早發(fā)現(xiàn)企鵝的英國(guó)船員將其誤認(rèn)為大海雀并把這種他們并不認(rèn)識(shí)的鳥(niǎo)類稱作大海雀。

 

　　Turkey火雞

 

　　Keeping with the theme of people confusing one bird for another,the American turkey doesn’t actually originate from Turkey,but from Mexico.It was,however,first confused with the Guinea-fowl,a bird native to Africa,which was imported to England through Turkey in the 16th century.

 

　　人們總是會(huì)把一種禽鳥(niǎo)認(rèn)作另一種禽鳥(niǎo)。美國(guó)火雞其實(shí)并非來(lái)自于土耳其，而來(lái)自墨西哥。但是，它最早被誤認(rèn)為珍珠雞，這種禽類來(lái)自于非洲，與16世紀(jì)通過(guò)土耳其傳入英國(guó)。

 

　　Gull鷗

 

　　Gulls are admittedly not everyone’s favourite type of bird,and they have certainly caused their fair share of controversy in the past.But how did those seabirds get their name?

 

　　不得不承認(rèn)，鷗是每個(gè)人最不喜歡的鳥(niǎo)類，在過(guò)去它也引起了很多爭(zhēng)議。但是這種海鳥(niǎo)到底是如何得名的？

 

　　Gull appears to be a word of Celtic origin,related to Welsh g?ylan,Breton gouelan,and also Irish faoileán,all meaning‘gull’.

 

　　Gull這個(gè)詞來(lái)自凱爾特與，與威爾士語(yǔ)中的g?ylan、布里多尼語(yǔ)中的gouelan以及愛(ài)爾蘭語(yǔ)中的faoileán有關(guān)，這些詞都有g(shù)ull的含義。