51吃瓜

More about redoubtable

贰苍驳濒颈蝉丑听redoubtable comes from Middle English redoutable 鈥渢errible, frightening, worthy of honor, venerable,鈥� ultimately from Old French redotable, redoubtable, a derivative of the verb redouter 鈥渢o fear, dread.鈥� Redouter is formed from a French use of the prefix re– as an intensive (for instance, in refine), a use that Latin re– does not have, and from Latin 诲耻产颈迟腻谤别 鈥渢o doubt, hesitate, waver鈥� (but not 鈥渢o fear鈥�). Redoubtable entered English in the first half of the 15th century.

More about beadledom

Beadledom, 鈥渁 gratuitous or officious display or exercise of authority, as by petty officials,鈥� is a compound of beadle and the noun suffix –dom. In Old English a 产媒诲别濒 meant 鈥渁 herald, proclaimer, preacher,鈥� from an original Germanic budilaz 鈥渁 herald,鈥� akin to Old High German butyl and German 叠眉迟迟别濒 鈥渂ailiff, beadle.鈥� The Germanic word was adopted into Romance, becoming bidello in Italian, bedel in Spanish and Old French, and bidellus or bedellus in Medieval Latin.

Nowadays a beadle is a minor officer in a parish who acts as an usher and maintains order during services, a sense the word has had since the late 16th century. The Middle English forms, such as budel, beodel, bidell (deriving from Old English 产媒诲别濒), were gradually replaced by French bedel beginning in the early 14th century; the modern spelling beadle dates from the early 17th century.

The abstract noun suffix –dom, indicating a state or condition, as in 飞颈蝉诲贸尘 鈥渨isdom鈥� and 肠测苍颈苍驳诲贸尘 鈥渒ingdom,鈥� is akin to Old English and Old Saxon –诲贸尘, German –tum (as in Heiligtum 鈥渟anctuary, shrine, relic鈥�), and was originally an independent noun meaning 鈥減utting, position, stature, judgment,” a derivative of the verb do. Beadledom entered English in the 1840s.

More about golden

The adjective golden is obviously a compound of the noun gold and the suffix –en, which is used to form adjectives of source or material from nouns. The odd thing about golden is that it is first recorded only about 1300. Golden is a Middle English re-formation of gold and –en that replaced earlier Middle English gulden, gilden, gelden, gylden 鈥渕ade of or consisting of gold,鈥� from Old English gylden, gilden 鈥済辞濒诲别苍.鈥�

Golden age occurs in The Works and Days of the Greek didactic poet Hesiod (c700 b.c.) and has persisted throughout Western literature. Golden mean 鈥渢he perfect moderate course or position that avoids extremes鈥� entered English in the 1540s. Golden mean was also formerly called the golden mediocrity, a literal translation of Horace’s聽aurea mediocrit膩s聽(翱诲别蝉听2.10).听罢丑别 golden mean as an ethical principle is usually associated with Aristotelian ethics, it being a virtue, the midpoint between two opposite extremes, as, for example, the virtue of courage being the golden mean between the two opposite vices of cowardice and foolhardiness.

The Americanism golden handcuffs聽鈥渁 series of raises, bonuses, etc., given at intervals or tied to length of employment in order to keep an executive from leaving the company,鈥� dates to the mid-1960s; golden handshake聽鈥渁 special incentive, such as generous severance pay, given to an older employee as an inducement to elect early retirement,鈥� dates to the late 1950s; and golden parachute 鈥渁n employment contract guaranteeing an executive of a company substantial severance pay and other perquisites in the event of job loss caused by the company’s being sold or merged,鈥� dates to the early 1980s.