quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- torpid[torpid 词源字典]
- torpid: [17] Torpid was acquired from Latin torpidus, a derivative of torpēre ‘be stiff, numb, inactive, etc’. Also from torpēre came torpēdō, which was applied to a type of fish capable of producing an electric shock with which it numbs its prey. English adopted the term as torpedo [16]. The fish is long and thin, and in the 1860s its name was applied to an underwater selfpropelled missile which shares its shape, and its disconcerting effect on enemies (it had earlier, from the late 18th century, been used for a sort of underwater mine).
=> torpedo[torpid etymology, torpid origin, 英语词源] - torpid (adj.)
- 1610s, "benumbed, without feeling or power," from Latin torpidus "benumbed, stupefied," from torpere "be numb or stiff" (see torpor). Figurative sense of "sluggish, dull, apathetic" is from 1650s. Related: Torpidly; torpidness.