brokered, pawn, pawnshop, pawnbroker, posit, “sacrificial pawns in a game of political chess.”

Qatar has brokered a deal to reunite Ukrainian children with their families after they were separated from their parents in Russia. https://on.ft.com/3ZZbKqa The new legislation was the latest in a series of moves by Beijing to push back against international pressure on its conduct in Hong Kong and in the Xinjiang region.

Quotable: The E.U. Chamber of Commerce president said China’s new law would discourage foreign investment and make businesses feel like “sacrificial pawns in a game of political chess.”

UK pawnbrokers seek to fill credit gap

Some sectors have not only managed to buck the trend and stay afloat in the
midst of the crisis but have actually seen an upturn in business.

The DW-WORLD Article
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=ew0tbrI44va89pI4




When I was very young, I used to think that pawnshops had something to do with chess - you could buy extra pawns there to replace those that were always vanishing down behind the sofa cushions. But this is not the case.
The chess kind of pawn comes from “peon,” or peasant - the pawns are the foot soldiers, and you send them out first and make pawn sacrifices with them because they're worth relatively little. The pawnshop kind of pawn comes from a word meaning “pledge” - you leave something in the pawnshop and the pawnshop owner gives you some money and a ticket with a number on it, and you can come back later and “redeem”, or buy back, your item by presenting the ticket and paying the original sum, plus extra for the use of the money and the cost of the transaction. But if you don't come back with the cash within a stated period, you lose your right to buy the thing back, and the item belongs to the pawnbroker, who can sell it and keep the profit.



不少學者愈來愈能接受作者概念的變動性。對他們來說，“作者”不一定僅指一個人，同樣可以指所謂的“假定的身份”（即英文的posited identity）。例如唐代作者寒山（約7-9世紀），其實是若干匿名作者的合稱，也就是這個意思。

posit

ˈpɒzɪt/

verb

past tense: posited; past participle: posited

1. 1.

   put forward as fact or as a basis for argument.

   
   

   "the Confucian view posits a perfectible human nature"

   
   

   • 
     
2. 2.

   put in position; place.

   
   

   "the Professor posits Cohen in his second category of poets"

WordNet: pawnshop

Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.
The noun has one meaning:
Meaning #1: a shop where loans are made with personal property as security
Synonyms: pawnbroker's shop, loan office

n. - 當鋪

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 質屋

pawn¹

(pôn)
n.

1. Something given as security for a loan; a pledge or guaranty.
2. The condition of being held as a pledge against the payment of a loan: jewels in pawn.
3. A person serving as security; a hostage.
4. The act of pawning.

tr.v., pawned, pawn·ing, pawns.

1. To give or deposit (personal property) as security for the payment of money borrowed.
2. To risk; hazard: pawn one's honor.

phrasal verb:
pawn off

1. To dispose or get rid of deceptively: tried to pawn off the fake gemstone as a diamond.

[Middle English paun, from Old French pan, of Germanic origin .]

pawnable pawn'a·ble adj.
pawnage pawn'age n.
pawner pawn'er (pô'nər) or paw'nor' (-nôr') n.
pawn² (pôn)
n.

1. (Abbr. P) Games. A chess piece of lowest value that may move forward one square at a time or two squares in the first move, capture other pieces only on a one-space diagonal forward move, and be promoted to any piece other than a king upon reaching the eighth rank.
2. A person or an entity used to further the purposes of another: an underdeveloped nation that was a pawn in international politics.

[Middle English, from Old French pedon, paon, from Medieval Latin pedō, pedōn-, foot soldier, from Late Latin, one who has wide feet, from Latin pēs, ped-, foot.]

pawnbroker

n.

One that lends money at interest in exchange for personal property deposited as security.
pawnbroking pawn'bro'king n.