tandem的词源
英文词源
- tandem
- tandem: [18] Latin tandem meant ‘eventually, at length’. Its use for ‘acting conjointly’ arose from an 18th-century play on words, in which ‘at length’ was jocularly interpreted as ‘lengthwise, in a straight line’, and the word was applied to a ‘carriage drawn by two horses one behind the other in a straight line’. In the 1880s it was transferred to a ‘bicycle with two seats, one behind the other’. Its more general modern use, for ‘acting together’, dates from the early 20th century.
- tandem (n.)
- 1785, "carriage pulled by horses harnessed one behind the other" (instead of side-by-side), jocular use of Latin tandem "at length (of time), at last, so much," from tam "so" (from PIE *tam-, adverbial form of demonstrative pronoun root *-to-; see -th (1)) + demonstrative suffix -dem. "Probably first in university use" [Century Dictionary]. Transferred by 1884 to bicycles with two seats. In English as an adverb from 1795; as an adjective from 1801.
中文词源
tandem：前后双座自行车，一前一后地
二马拉车，通常是并列而行的。但有一种双轮双座马车由纵列二马，即一前一后的两匹马来拉的，这种马车就叫tandem。tandem本是个拉丁副词，原意为'at length,at last,finally'（最终，终于）。18世纪流行于英国的大学的一则笑话戏谑地将该拉丁词解释为lengthwise （纵向地，一前一后地），以使笑话带上几分幽默感。嗣后，人们索性用tandem 一词来指“纵列二马拉的双轮马车”。在1785年问世的《俗语词典》（A Classical Dictionary of Vulgar）编者 Francis Grose 就把该词释为此义。没过多久，tandem 就从俗语升格标准语。到了19世纪80年代tandem 被用来转指“前后双座自行车”。以后，tandem除了作名词用，还常用作形容词或副词，表示“一前一后的（地）”、“纵列的（地）”。介词短评 in tandem 也用以表示“一前一后地”、“纵列地”或“协同地”，“联合地”。例如：Tom and Ruth arrived,riding tandem. 汤姆和鲁丝骑着双座自行车来了。/These two groups will be working in tandem on this project. 这两个组将在这个工程中能力合作。
该词的英语词源请访问找单词词源英文版：tandem 词源，tandem 含义。
来自拉丁语 tandem,最后，究竟，持续时间，来自 tam,因此，来自 PIE*to,指示代词根，词源 同 the,that,-dem,指示副词后缀。后幽默的用于指一前一后两匹马拉的马车（而不是两匹马并 排），再后用于指一前一后的双座自行车。
