supercilious的词源
英文词源
- supercilious
- supercilious: [16] The etymological notion underlying supercilious is of raising the ‘eyebrows’ as a sign of haughty disdain. It comes from Latin superciliōsus, a derivative of supercilium ‘eyebrow’, hence ‘haughtiness’. This was a compound noun formed from the prefix super- ‘above’ and cilium ‘eyelid’ (source of the English biological term cilium ‘hair-like process’ [18], whose meaning evolved via an intermediate ‘eyelash’).
- supercilious (adj.)
- 1520s, "lofty with pride, haughtily contemptuous," from Latin superciliosus "haughty, arrogant," from supercilium "haughty demeanor, pride," literally "eyebrow" (via notion of raising the eyebrow to express haughtiness), from super "above" (see super-) + second element akin to cilium "eyelid," related to celare "to cover, hide," from PIE root *kel- (2) "to conceal" (see cell).
Since cilium is more recent than supercilium, the former can be interpreted as a back-formation to the latter .... If indeed derived from the root *kel- 'to hide', we must still assume that a noun *kilium 'eyelid' existed, since the eyelid can 'hide' the eye, whereas the eyebrow does not have such a function. Thus, supercilium may originally have meant 'what is above the cilium'. [Michiel de Vaan, "Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages," Leiden, 2008]
Related: Superciliously; superciliousness.
中文词源
在身势语中翘鼻子( cock one's nose)表示轻蔑，竖眉毛(raise／lift one's eyebrows)也表示轻蔑。supercilious 一词源自原义为“眉毛”的拉丁语supercilium（super‘above’十cilium‘eyelid’）。由于竖眉毛所带有的含义，supercilium的词义就引申为“傲慢”。这样，supercilious用以表示“傲慢的”、“轻蔑的”、“目中无人的”或“目空一切的”就不难理解了。
该词的英语词源请访问找单词词源英文版：supercilious 词源，supercilious 含义。
来自 supercilium,眉毛，-ous,形容词后缀。比喻用法，形容人眉毛高扬，目空一切。
