uncouth的词源
英文词源
- uncouth
- uncouth: [OE] Uncouth originally meant ‘unknown’ or ‘unfamiliar’ – a sense which survived into the 17th century (‘Now the whole superficies of the earth as well uncouth as discovered, is but a little point’, John Boys, Works 1616). ‘Crude, awkward’ is a secondary development, first recorded in the 16th century. The word was formed in the prehistoric Germanic period from the prefix un- ‘not’ and the past participle of *kunnan ‘know’ (whose closest living English relative is could).
=> could - uncouth (adj.)
- Old English uncuð "unknown, strange, unusual; uncertain, unfamiliar; unfriendly, unkind, rough," from un- (1) "not" + cuð "known, well-known," past participle of cunnan "to know" (see can (v.1)). Meaning "strange, crude, clumsy" is first recorded 1510s. The compound (and the thing it describes) widespread in IE languages, such as Latin ignorantem, Old Norse ukuðr, Gothic unkunþs, Sanskrit ajnatah, Armenian ancanaut', Greek agnotos, Old Irish ingnad "unknown."
中文词源
un-, 不，非，couth, 有礼貌的，词源同can, could.
该词的英语词源请访问找单词词源英文版：uncouth 词源，uncouth 含义。
这是一个极为古老的词，可追溯到古英语uncuth。原始意义是unknown /unfamiliar （不被人知道的，不熟悉的），由否定前缀un- 和couth构成，此义一直使用到17世纪。以后人性中存在的一种对陌生人和外国人厌恶的倾向使它的词义逐渐引申为“古怪的”、“笨拙的”，最后又进而申引为“粗野的”、“无教养的”。couth 一词原义是known/familiar （熟识的，熟悉的），与情态动词can 和形容词cunning （狡猾的）本是同源词，早已经废弃不用。可是到了20世纪60年代，人们又从用于“粗野的”或“无教养的”一义的 uncouth逆构出一个新的couth来，作为uncouth的反义词，一般用作戏谑语，表示“温文尔雅的”、“优雅的”和“有教养的”等义。
un-,不，非，couth,有礼貌的，词源同 can,could.
