brothel的词源

英文词源

brothel

brothel: [14] Originally, brothel was a general term of abuse for any worthless or despised person (John Gower, in his Confessio Amantis 1393, writes: ‘Quoth Achab then, there is one, a brothel, which Micheas hight [who is called Micheas]’); it was a derivative of the Old English adjective brothen ‘ruined, degenerate’, which was originally the past participle of the verb brēothan ‘deteriorate’ (possibly a relative of brēotan ‘break’, which may be connected with brittle).

In the late 15th century we have the first evidence of its being applied specifically to a ‘prostitute’. Thence came the compound brothel-house, and by the late 16th century this had been abbreviated to brothel in its current sense.

brothel (n.)

"bawdy house," 1590s, shortened from brothel-house, from brothel "prostitute" (late 15c.), earlier "vile, worthless person" of either sex (14c.), from Old English broðen past participle of breoðan "deteriorate, go to ruin," from Proto-Germanic *breuthan "to be broken up," related to *breutan "to break" (see brittle). In 16c. brothel-house was confused with unrelated bordel (see bordello) and the word shifted meaning from a person to a place.

中文词源

brothel：妓院

来自break的比喻义，原指堕落的人，后指妓女，最后指妓女呆的地方。

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

brothel：妓院

源于古英语breothan‘to go to ruin’（毁灭），14世纪原指“窝囊废”，15世纪转指“妓女”，故妓院就称brothelhouse。到了16世纪末期brothelhouse缩略为brothel，brothel的词义也因此由“妓女”变为“妓院”了。这两种形式莎士比亚在剧作中都使用过。brothel的形与义的演变在很大程度上是受了意为“妓院”的古闻bordel的影响。