ambition的词源
英文词源
- ambition
- ambition: [14] Like ambient, ambition comes ultimately from the Latin compound verb ambīre ‘go round’ (formed from the prefix ambi-, as in AMBIDEXTROUS, and the verb īre ‘go’, which also gave English exit, initial, and itinerant). But while ambient, a 16th-century acquisition, remains fairly faithful to the literal meaning of the verb, ambition depends on a more metaphorical use.
It seems that the verb’s nominal derivative, ambitiō, developed connotations of ‘going around soliciting votes’ – ‘canvassing’, in fact – and hence, figuratively, of ‘seeking favour or honour’. When the word was first borrowed into English, via Old French ambition, it had distinctly negative associations of ‘greed for success’ (Reginald Pecock writes of ‘Vices [such] as pride, ambition, vainglory’, The repressor of overmuch blaming of the clergy 1449), but by the 18th century it was a more respectable emotion.
=> exit, initial, itinerant - ambition (n.)
- mid-14c., from Middle French ambition or directly from Latin ambitionem (nominative ambitio) "a going around," especially to solicit votes, hence "a striving for favor, courting, flattery; a desire for honor, thirst for popularity," noun of action from past participle stem of ambire "to go around" (see ambient).
Rarely used in the literal sense in English, where it carries the secondary Latin sense of "eager or inordinate desire of honor or preferment." In early use always pejorative, of inordinate or overreaching desire; ambition was grouped with pride and vainglory.
中文词源
英语单词ambition源自拉丁语ambitio，意思是“四处走”，其中的amb后来成为了英语词根，表示“走”，如救护车ambulance本意就是四处走的医院。ambition本来仅仅指以前的政客四处奔走发表演说拉选票的行为。在古罗马时期，谋求官职的人就像今天参加竞选活动的人一样，到处发表演说争取选票。政客拉选票自然是为了实现自己的政治抱负，所以ambition从“四处走”的基本意义中又引申出“野心、政治抱负”的含义，原本含有贬义，但现在已经变成中性词，既可以指“野心”，也可以指“雄心、志向”。
ambition： [æm'bɪʃ(ə)n] n.野心、雄心、抱负vi.追求，有……的野心
ambitious： [æm'bɪʃəs] adj.野心勃勃的，有雄心的。
该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：ambition 词源，ambition 含义。
前缀ambi-, 两边，周围。词根it , 走。向周围走，向外走，目标。
词根词缀： -amb-行走 + -it-行,走 + -ion名词词尾
