breeze的词源

英文词源

breeze

breeze: [16] Breeze has not always connoted ‘lightness’ or ‘gentleness’. Old Spanish briza, its probable source, meant ‘cold northeast wind’, and that is the meaning it originally had in English. The word was picked up through English-Spanish contact in Central and South America, and the fact that on the Atlantic coast of the area the onshore winds were from the east and northeast led in the 17th century to breeze being applied to any cool wind from the sea (as in ‘sea breezes’), and gradually to any light wind.

The adjective breezy perhaps retains more of the word’s earlier ‘cold’ connotations. The breeze [18] of breezeblock is a completely different word, meaning ‘cinders’, and comes from French braise ‘live coals’, source also of English braise and brazier.

breeze (n.)

1560s, "north or northeast wind," from Old Spanish briza "cold northeast wind;" in West Indies and Spanish Main, the sense shifting to "northeast trade wind," then "fresh wind from the sea." English sense of "gentle or light wind" is from 1620s. An alternative possibility is that the English word is from East Frisian brisen "to blow fresh and strong." The slang for "something easy" is American English, c. 1928.

breeze (v.)

"move briskly," 1904, from breeze (n.). Related: Breezed; breezing.

中文词源

breeze：微风

可能来自breath, 呼吸。后指微风，令人舒服的风。

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

breeze：微风　　

源于古西班牙语briza（东北风），于16世纪英西两国在海上争霸最烈之时进入英语。16世纪中期英国奴隶贩子霍金斯( Sir John Hawkins，1532 - 1595)从西非贩运奴隶到西印度群岛等地。在南美北部加勒比海沿岸航行期间他和水手们常常听到人们用西班牙语breza来指“东北贸易风”，于是就把这个词引进英语，以后它逐渐演变为breeze这一形式。最初仅作航海用语，用于原义，到了17世纪以后开始转义指“微风”。

breeze（微风）：航海家所说的“东北信风”

16世纪中期，英国著名的航海探险家、商人及海盗约翰•霍金斯（John Hawkins）在英国王室的支持下，多次率领船队远征西非，从西非绑架黑人然后贩卖之新大陆，开辟了著名的“三角贸易”。在美洲加勒比海域航行期间，霍金斯多次听到人们用西班牙语breza来表示“东北信风”，于是将该词引入英语。最初该词仅仅用于航海领域，表示赤道以北地区由于地球自转而产生的东北方向风。后来该词的拼写逐渐变为breeze，词义也从“东北信风”变为日常生活中的“微风”。

breeze：[briːz] n.微风，和风