ordeal的词源

英文词源

ordeal: ordeal: [OE] The ‘meting out of judgement’ is the etymological notion immediately underlying ordeal, but at a more primitive level still than that it denotes simply ‘distribution, giving out shares’. It comes ultimately from prehistoric Germanic *uzdailjan ‘share out’, a compound verb formed from *uz- ‘out’ and *dailjan, ancestor of English deal.

The noun derived from this was *uzdailjam, and it came to be used over the centuries for the ‘handing out of judgements’ (modern German urteil, for instance, means among other things ‘judicial verdict or sentence’). Its Old English descendant, ordāl, denoted specifically a ‘trial in which a person’s guilt or innocence were determined by a hazardous physical test, such as holding on to red-hot iron’, but the metaphorical extension to any ‘trying experience’ did not take place until as recently as the mid-17th century.
=> deal
ordeal (n.): Old English ordel, ordal, "trial by physical test," literally "judgment, verdict," from Proto-Germanic noun *uz-dailjam (cognates: Old Saxon urdeli, Old Frisian urdel, Dutch oordeel, German urteil "judgment"), literally "that which is dealt out" (by the gods), from *uzdailijan "share out," related to Old English adælan "to deal out" (see deal (n.1)). Curiously absent in Middle English, and perhaps reborrowed 16c. from Medieval Latin or Middle French, which got it from Germanic.

The notion is of the kind of arduous physical test (such as walking blindfolded and barefoot between red-hot plowshares) that was believed to determine a person's guilt or innocence by immediate judgment of the deity, an ancient Teutonic mode of trial. English retains a more exact sense of the word; its cognates in German, etc., have been generalized.

Metaphoric extension to "anything which tests character or endurance" is attested from 1650s. The prefix or- survives in English only in this word, but was common in Old English and other Germanic languages (Gothic ur-, Old Norse or-, etc.) and originally was an adverb and preposition meaning "out."

中文词源

ordeal（考验）：作为神灵审判手段的肉体考验

在古代司法制度很不完善的时代，人们把声张正义的希望寄托于神灵，认为神灵可以对人世间的是非作出判定，并帮助人们给罪犯量刑。其方式多种多样，常用的有：吞食某种有毒的东西、手下油锅取物、决斗、将嫌疑者投入河中等等。以被考验者能否顺利通过考验来定输赢或判明当事人是否有罪。这种肉体考验在英语中就是ordeal，字面意思就是“deal out by gods”（由神灵来施加惩罚）。现在引申为“严峻的考验”。

ordeal： [ɔː'diːəl] n.严峻的考验，折磨，痛苦的体验

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

ordeal：（对品格、忍耐力等的）严峻考验，磨难

古时英国法庭在处理疑案时是借助超自然的方式来进行裁决的，例如使嫌疑犯或被告手抱灼热铁块，或使其蒙住双眼赤着脚从几块灼热的犁铧中间走过，或使其将手浸于沸水中，倘若手脚丝毫无损则可定为无罪。古人相信上帝会创造奇迹，保护无辜者使其不受伤害。这种神裁法古英语作ordal，其原义为“审判”或“判决”。古代条顿族及其他一些民族也曾采用类似判罪法。 13世纪初英国废除了除决斗以外的各种神裁法，但ordal一词却传了下来，拼写形式演变为ordeal，如今多用于引申义，表示“（对品格、忍耐力等的）严峻考验”、“磨难”或“煎熬”。

ordeal：磨难

来自古英语ordel,裁决，裁定，身体的磨难，来自Proto-Germanic*uz-dailjam,即deal out,神的安排，神的旨意，来自*uz,向外，词源同out,*dailijam,安排，分配，词源同deal.原指古代一种用折磨肉体来裁决对错的极其残忍的迷信审判，如使一个人赤脚走在烧红的铁块或铁板上，如果这个人安然无恙的走过这块铁板，则说明神判断他无罪，如果他倒在铁块上，则死有余辜。后引申词义磨难，折磨。