prairie的词源

英文词源

prairie

prairie: [18] Prairie comes ultimately from Latin prātum ‘meadow’ (source also of French pré ‘meadow’). From it was derived Vulgar Latin *prātāria, which passed into English via French prairie. The word was from the start almost exclusively used with reference to the plains of North America.

prairie (n.)

tract of level or undulating grassland in North America, by 1773, from French prairie "meadow, grassland," from Old French praerie "meadow, pastureland" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *prataria, from Latin pratum "meadow," originally "a hollow." The word existed in Middle English as prayere, but was lost and reborrowed to describe the American plains. Prairie dog is attested from 1774; prairie schooner "immigrant's wagon" is from 1841. Illinois has been the Prairie State since at least 1861. In Latin, Neptunia prata was poetic for "the sea."

中文词源

prairie：北美草原

来自法语prairie,草地，牧场，来自拉丁语pratum,草地。特指北美大草原。

prairie、pampas、veld、savanna和steppe都是大草原，但是有区别。prairie主要指美国中部和蒙古的大草原；pampas是南美洲南部的“潘帕斯”草原；veld和savanna是南部非洲的比如苏丹草原和海拔较高的草原；steppe则是乌克兰那里的欧亚大草原，这里是原始印欧人的发源地，也是世界上最早驯服马匹的草原。

该词的英语词源请访问找单词词源英文版：prairie 词源，prairie 含义。