curtail
- vt. 縮減;剪短;剝奪…特權(quán)等
詞態(tài)變化
助記提示
2. 同源詞:curt, curtail.
3. Originally curtal, used of horses with docked tails, which probably influenced the spelling.
4. => make short.
5. (記)cur+tail 諧音"割尾巴";聯(lián)想"截短,縮短"
中文詞源
來自PIE*sker, 剪,切,詞源同shear, short. -ault, 貶義后綴,詞源同valiant, 勇敢的,頑固的。比較-ard, 貶義后綴,來自hard, 見bastard. 原指剪短尾巴的馬,拼寫受tail影響俗化。
英文詞源
- curtail
- curtail: [16] The now defunct English noun curtal meant ‘horse with a docked tail’. It was borrowed in the 16th century from French courtault, a derivative of the adjective court ‘short’. Like English curt [17] this came from Latin curtus ‘cut off, shortened’, which in common with English short and shear, can be traced back to an Indo-European base *ker- or *sker- ‘cut’. In the late 16th century the noun was converted into a verb, originally meaning literally ‘dock a horse’, and the close semantic link with ‘tails’ led to its alteration to curtail.
=> cuirass, curt, shear, shirt, short, skirt - curtail (v.)
- late 15c., from Middle French courtault "made short," from court "short" (Old French cort, from Latin curtus; see curt) + -ault pejorative suffix of Germanic origin. Originally curtal; used of horses with docked tails, which probably influenced the spelling in general use; curtal is retained in poetics to describe a "shortened" stanza or poem. Related: Curtailed; curtailing.
雙語例句
- 1. I told Louie that old age would curtail her activities in time.
- 我告訴路易,一上年紀(jì)她的活動(dòng)量就會(huì)減少。
來自柯林斯例句
- 2. NATO plans to curtail the number of troops being sent to the region.
- 北約計(jì)劃縮減派往該地區(qū)的士兵數(shù)量。
來自辭典例句
- 3. It is necessary to curtail or alter normally coexisting stimuli.
- 必需消除或改變正常時(shí)并存的刺激.
來自辭典例句
- 4. Again the purpose of this action was to curtail inflation.
- 此行動(dòng)的目的在于抑制通貨膨脹.
來自辭典例句
- 5. In all cases we'll curtail baggage handling.
- 在任何情況之下,我們要簡化行李的發(fā)送.
來自辭典例句