2023年12月14日 星期四

circumscribe, anathematise, ravish, voluble, harden preconceptions

“If America would like to express that it truly values and appreciates the voices of its minorities, it will listen to all their stories, not just the ones reacting to its shortcomings and brutality,” he wrote.

In a culture that has become obsessed with how our identities define us, far less time is spent considering how those identities just as often circumscribe. Just as emphasis on diversity can open minds, it can also harden preconceptions.


Only a few years ago populist nationalists exercised voluble sway over the region’s politics. Now Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez is dead, Cristina Fernández is out of power in Argentina and Rafael Correa has opted not to run again in Ecuador


Thinking of Muslims overall as a homogenous group is foolhardy—however much some of the West’s demagogues encourage voters to. The terrorists themselves, of course, are keen to prove that the West does indeed anathematise all Muslims. To see such killers as representatives of a religion, and to reduce a complex picture to their preferred caricature, would be to reward their crimes—just as circumscribing the principle of free speech would be to bow to their medieval fantasies http://econ.st/1wweVzy


THE latest issue of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical French magazine, spotlights Michel Houellebecq, author of a new novel that imagines the Islamisation of France and...
ECON.ST


(他)會用靈巧而雋永的字句把它表達出來,使老年人聽了娓娓忘倦,少年人聽了手舞足蹈;他的口才是這樣敏捷而巧妙。(朱生豪譯、吳興華校)


William Shakespeare


"Delivers in such apt and gracious words

That aged ears play truant at his tales,

And younger hearings are quite ravished;

So sweet and voluble is his discourse."

--Rosaline from "Love's Labour's Lost" (2.1.78)




bodice‐ripper,
a popular modern variety of romance that emphasizes the sexual excitement of seduction and ‘ravishment’, usually in colourful settings based on the conventions of the historical novel and peopled by pirates, highwaymen, wenches etc. A classic example is Kathleen Winsor's best‐selling romance, Forever Amber (1944). See also S & F.



voluble
Line breaks: vol|uble

Pronunciation: /ˈvɒljʊb(ə)l /Definition of voluble in English:

ADJECTIVE

1(Of a person) talking fluentlyreadily, or incessantly:she was as voluble as her husband was silent
.1(Of speech) characterized by fluency and readiness of utterance:

Origin

Middle English (in senses 'rotating about an axis' and 'having a tendency to change'): from French, or from Latin volubilis, from volvere 'to roll'. The modern meanings arose in the late 16th century.





circumscribe

Line breaks: cir¦cum|scribe
Pronunciation: /ˈsəːkəmskrʌɪb /

Definition of circumscribe in English:

VERB

[WITH OBJECT]
1Restrict (something) within limits:the minister’s powers are circumscribed both bytradition and the organization of local government

2Geometry Draw (a figure) round another, touching it at points but not cutting it:if a hexagon is circumscribed about a circle the linesjoining opposite vertices meet in one pointCompare with inscribe.

Origin

late Middle English: from Latin circumscribere, fromcircum 'around' + scribere 'write'.





anathematize

Line breaks: anath¦ema|tize
Pronunciation: /əˈnaθəmətʌɪz /  (also anathematise)


Definition of anathematize in English:

VERB

[WITH OBJECT]
Cursecondemn:he anathematized them as ‘bloody scroungers’

Origin

mid 16th century: from French anathématiser, from Latinanathematizare, from Greek anathematizein, fromanathema (see anathema).


ravish

Pronunciation: /ˈravɪʃ /

Definition of ravish in English:

VERB

[WITH OBJECT]
1archaic Seize and carry off (someone) by force:there is no assurance that her infant child will not be ravished from her breast
1.1dated (Of a manrape (a woman):an angry father who suspects that his daughterhas been ravished
2literary Fill (someone) with intense delightenrapture:ravished by a sunny afternoon, she had agreed without even thinking
Origin
Middle English: from Old French raviss-, lengthened stem of ravir, from an alteration of Latin rapere 'seize'.
MORE
  • rape from (Late Middle English):
    This originally referred to the violent seizure of property, and later to the carrying off of a woman by force. It comes via Anglo-Norman French from Latinrapere ‘seize’, also the source of the wordrapacious and rapid [both M17th], and of rapt(Late Middle English) and rapture (late 16th century), when you are carried away by your feelings. In Old French repere was changed to ravir, source of ravish (Middle English). The plant name, rape, originally referred to the turnip. It is from Latin rapumrapa ‘turnip’.
Derivatives
ravisher
1
NOUNEXAMPLE SENTENCESravishment

2
NOUN
The Ravisher (c. 1495)
Young Woman Attacked By Death, 1495


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