broom的词源
英文词源
- broom
- broom: [OE] Broom was originally the name of the yellow-flowered bush; its application to the long-handled brush did not come about until the 15th century (the underlying notion is of a brush made from broom twigs tied to a handle). The plant-name occurs throughout the Germanic languages, but it is applied to quite a wide range of plants: Old High German brāmma, for instance, is a ‘wild rose’; Old Saxon hiopbrāmio is a ‘hawthorn bush’; and English bramble probably comes from the same source.
=> bramble - broom (n.)
- Old English brom "broom, brushwood," the common flowering shrub whose twigs were tied together to make a tool for sweeping, from Proto-Germanic *bræmaz "thorny bush" (cognates: Dutch braam, German Brombeere "blackberry"), from PIE root *bh(e)rem- "to project, a point."
Traditionally, both the flowers and sweeping with broom twigs were considered unlucky in May (Suffolk, Sussex, Wiltshire, etc.). The witch's flying broomstick originally was one among many such objects (pitchfork, trough, bowl), but the broomstick became fixed as the popular tool of supernatural flight via engravings from a famous Lancashire witch trial of 1612.
中文词源
broom（扫帚）：用金雀花枝叶制造的扫帚
英语单词broom在辞典中有两个释义：1、扫帚，2、金雀花。这两个看似不相关的事物是怎么扯到一起的呢？原来，在古英语中，用来表示“扫帚”的单词原本是besom，而单词broom表示“金雀花”，一种长荆棘的小灌木。本来这两个词毫无关联，但由于人们常常使用金雀花的枝叶来制作扫帚，因此人们将这种用金雀花枝叶制造的扫帚称为broom。随着时间流逝，broom的使用频率越来越高，逐渐替代了besom一词，成为“扫帚”的代名词。
broom：[bruːm] n.扫帚，金雀花vt.扫除
该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：broom 词源，broom 含义。
词源同bur, 毛刺果，bristle, 刺毛。原指一种灌木，后指灌木扎的清扫工具。
早先英国家庭妇女用来扫地的并非我们今天称之为broom的扫帚，而是叫做besom的扫帚，其实那只是一束带树叶的细枝。当时broom原指“金雀花”，一种枝细叶小花黄的植物。由于扫帚常常用broom的枝叶做成，所以到了大约1000年扫帚逐渐改称为broom，不过besom 一词也一直使用到19世纪以后才渐渐地步了下来。昔日有一种迷信，broom横放在门上可以驱挡妖巫，虽然妖巫能乘broom飞行，但她得先把横置于门上的broom里的细枝或麦秆之类的东西一一数清方能开门人内。
