cherub的词源

英文词源

cherub

cherub: [OE] Cherub is of Akkadian origin (Akkad was the northern region of ancient Babylonia). Akkadian karūbu meant ‘gracious’. This was borrowed into Hebrew as kerūbh (plural kerūbhīm), which was used in the Old Testament to signify a certain class of winged pine being. It passed into English via Greek kheroúb and Latin cherūb.

cherub (n.)

late 14c. as an order of angels, from Late Latin cherub, from Greek cheroub, from Hebrew kerubh (plural kerubhim) "winged angel," perhaps related to Akkadian karubu "to bless," karibu "one who blesses," an epithet of the bull-colossus. Old English had cerubin, from the Greek plural.

The cherubim, a common feature of ancient Near Eastern mythology, are not to be confused with the round-cheeked darlings of Renaissance iconography. The root of the terms either means "hybrid" or, by an inversion of consonants, "mount," "steed," and they are winged beasts, probably of awesome aspect, on which the sky god of the old Canaanite myths and of the poetry of Psalms goes riding through the air. [Robert Alter, "The Five Books of Moses," 2004, commentary on Gen. iii:24]

中文词源

cherub：小天使

来自希伯来语。

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

cherub（胖娃娃）：圣经中的超自然生物　　

英语单词cherub来自希伯来语kerubh，本指圣经中的超自然生物，是上帝的侍者，中文中译为“基路伯”、“基路冰”等。在犹太教和中东古文化中，cherub是“神的坐骑”，长有人脸和翅膀，身体像牛或狮。而在基督教中，cherub是处于第二级别的“智天使”，地位低于第一级别的“炽天使”（六翼天使），通常被描绘为长有翅膀、脸蛋红扑扑的儿童形象。因此cherub一词常常用来比喻天真可爱的儿童。

　　cherub：n. ['tʃerəb] n.胖娃娃，天真可爱的儿童，小天使，基路伯，基路冰