2020年2月9日 星期日

evolving, imperative, Have a dekko, technical imperative

美國駐日內瓦聯合國大使Andrew Bremberg週四曾在WHO執行委員會議上表示,「由於武漢肺炎迅速擴散,WHO清楚納入台灣的公衛資料並直接與台灣公衛機關合作是『技術上的必要』。」Bremberg大使的演說全文請見:https://bit.ly/3bok1dt #coronavirus #2019nCov #WuhanCoronavirus #CoronavirusOutbreak #WHO #WorldHealthOrganization
Andrew Bremberg, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, on Thursday told the WHO’s Executive Board that “for the rapidly evolving coronavirus, it is a technical imperative that WHO present visible public health data on Taiwan as an affected area and engage directly with Taiwan public health authorities on actions.” Read Bremberg’s speech here: https://bit.ly/3boKtnm


Ukraine Blames I.M.F. for Halt to Agreements With Europe

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

Ukraine's prime minister said his government's decision to walk away from the pacts was based on fiscal imperatives, and ultimately prompted by the I.M.F.'s overly harsh terms for an aid package.

imperative

Syllabification: (im·per·a·tive)
Pronunciation: /imˈperətiv/
Translate imperative | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish

adjective

  • 1of vital importance; crucial:immediate action was imperative [with clause]:it is imperative that standards be maintained
  • 2giving an authoritative command; peremptory:the bell pealed again, a final imperative call
  • Grammar denoting the mood of a verb that expresses a command or exhortation, as in come here!.

noun

  • 1an essential or urgent thing:free movement of labor was an economic imperative
  • a factor or influence making something necessary:the change came about through a financial imperative
  • 2 Grammar a verb or phrase in the imperative mood.
  • (the imperative) the imperative mood.

Derivatives



imperatival


Pronunciation: /-ˌperəˈtīvəl/
adjective


imperatively

adverb


imperativeness

noun

Origin:

late Middle English (as a grammatical term): from late Latin imperativus (literally 'specially ordered', translating Greek prostatikē enklisis 'imperative mood'), from imperare 'to command', from in- 'toward' + parare 'make ready'


dekko

Pronunciation: /ˈdɛkəʊ/

Definition of dekko


noun

[in singular] British informal
  • a quick look or glance:come and have a dekko at this

Origin:

late 19th century (originally used by the British army in India): from Hindi dekho 'look!', imperative of dekhnā


Have a dekko

Meaning

Have a look.

Origin

Those of you who speak English but don't live in England may not have come across this expression before and even here it is now rather archaic. Nevertheless, I like to help keep such expressions alive, so here's the derivation...
Have a dekko'Dekko' is the usual spelling, but as it is a slang term derived from spoken language the spelling is somewhat arbitrary; sometimes 'decko', sometimes 'deko'. The proper spelling, which is virtually never used, is 'dekho'....
'Dekho' is a Hindi word meaning 'look'. The expression first began to be used by the British in India in the middle of the 19th century and soon migrated back home with soldiers on leave. The phrase was originally 'have a deck', which derived in the same way but which has now gone out of use. 'Have a dekko' is first found in print in January 1856 in an appropriate place - Allen's Indian Mail, a newspaper devoted to news of India and China aimed at the families of servicemen stationed there:
The natives of the place flock round, with open mouths and straining eyes, to have a dekko.
'Have a dekko' was (and is) used mostly in the London area, as are two other phrases with the same 'have a look' meaning - 'have a Captain Cook' and 'have a butchers', which are both rhyming slangrather than foreign imports. 'Take a shufti', yet another London expression with the same meaning, is a better match for 'have a dekko', being a foreign word mispronounced by members of the British army, this time from the Arabic word 'šufti', meaning 'have you seen?'.
 
Have a ganderAnother odd-sounding phrase in the British 'have a look' lexicon is 'have a gander'. This sounds as though it could be a mispronounciation of a foreign word or possibly rhyming slang. In fact, it's neither. It merely alludes to the bird's habit of stretching its neck high when looking for predators.

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