hearse的词源
英文词源
- hearse
- hearse: [14] The ancestor of hearse seems to have been a word in an ancient Italic language meaning ‘wolf’ – Oscan hirpus. The salient feature of wolves being their teeth, the Romans took the word over as hirpex and used it for a ‘large rake, of the sort used for breaking up fields’. It passed via Vulgar Latin *herpica into Old French as herse, and by now had moved another semantic step further away from its original sense ‘wolf’, for, since agricultural harrows in those times were typically toothed triangular frames, the word herse was applied to a triangular frame for holding candles, as used in a church, and particularly as placed over a coffin at funeral services.
This was its meaning when English acquired it, and it only gradually developed via ‘canopy placed over a coffin’ and ‘coffin, bier’ to the modern sense ‘funeral carriage’ (first recorded in the mid-17th century).
=> rehearse - hearse (n.)
- c. 1300 (late 13c. in Anglo-Latin), "flat framework for candles, hung over a coffin," from Old French herse, formerly herce "large rake for breaking up soil, harrow; portcullis," also "large chandelier in a church," from Medieval Latin hercia, from Latin hirpicem (nominative hirpex) "harrow," a rustic word, from Oscan hirpus "wolf," supposedly in allusion to its teeth. Or the Oscan word may be related to Latin hirsutus "shaggy, bristly."
The funeral display is so called because it resembled a harrow (hearse in its sense of "portcullis" is not attested in English before 15c.). Sense extended to other temporary frameworks built over dead people, then to "vehicle for carrying a dead person to the grave," a sense first recorded 1640s. For spelling, see head (n.).
中文词源
hearse（灵车）：教堂中悬于灵柩上方的耙形烛台
英语单词hearse（灵车）和单词rehearse（排练）的后一部分完全相同， 它们之间有什么关联吗？没错，它们其实拥有相同的词源。单词hearse的词源是herse，指的是农具耙子，用作动词时表示用耙子耙地。所以 rehearse的本意就是用耙子反复耙地，比喻反复练习、排练。hearse除了表示“耙子”外，还可以表示教堂中的一种灯具，用来安放蜡烛。在教堂举 行丧礼时，通常会把这种耙形灯具放在灵柩的上方。由于插上蜡烛后形状类似一把耙子，所以这种灯具也被称为hearse。后来，hearse一词又衍生出 “灵柩、灵车”的含义，原本表示“耙子”、“耙形灯具”的含义反而被人淡忘了。
hearse：[hɜːs] n.灵柩，灵车
rehearse：[rɪ'hɜːs] vt.vi.排练，预演，演习
rehearsal：[rɪ'hɜːs(ə)l] n.排练，预演，演习
该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：hearse 词源，hearse 含义。
来自古法语herce,耙子，来自拉丁语hercia,耙子，来自古希腊方言Oscan语hirpus,狼。由狼引申词义狼牙，耙子，因形如狼牙而得名。后引申词义教堂大烛台，灵车前的灯烛，后代指灵车，灵柩。
