awkward的词源

英文词源

awkward

awkward: [14] When awkward was coined, in Scotland and northern England, it meant ‘turned in the wrong direction’. Middle English had an adjective awk, which meant ‘the wrong way round, backhanded’, and hence ‘perverse’, and with the addition of the suffix -ward this became awkward. Awk itself was adopted from Old Norse afugr, which is related to German ab ‘away’ and English off. Awkward followed a similar semantic path to awk, via ‘perverse, illadapted’ to ‘clumsy’.
=> off

awkward (adj.)

mid-14c., "in the wrong direction," from awk "back-handed" + adverbial suffix -weard (see -ward). Meaning "clumsy" first recorded 1520s. Related: Awkwardly. Other formations from awk, none of them surviving, were awky, awkly, awkness.

中文词源

awkward：笨拙的

发音释义：['ɔːkwəd] adj.笨拙的；棘手的；不合适的；尴尬的

结构分析：awkward = awk（方式或手法不正确）+ward（后缀）→笨拙的→尴尬的

词源解释：awk←北欧语afugr（逆着转的、反着转的）

常见搭配：awkward gesture（笨拙的姿势）；awkward peasant（笨手笨脚的乡下人）；awkward instrument（不称手的仪器）；awkward situation（棘手的情况）；awkward customer（不好对付的顾客）；awkward moment（尴尬的时刻）

古英语awk及其衍生词awky、awkly、awkness都已经废弃，只有awkward一词仍在使用中。

该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：awkward 词源，awkward 含义。

awkward：笨拙的

awk-,错误方向，-ward,朝向。引申词义笨拙的。