quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- ventriloquist
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[ventriloquist 词源字典] - ventriloquist: [17] A ventriloquist is etymologically a ‘stomach-speaker’. The word is an anglicization of late Latin ventriloquus, a compound formed from Latin venter ‘stomach’ (source also of English ventral [18] and ventricle [14]) and loquī ‘speak’ (source of English colloquial [18], elocution [15], eloquent [14], loquacious [17], etc).
The ultimate model for this was Greek eggastrímuthos ‘speaking in the stomach’. The term was originally a literal one; it referred to the supposed phenomenon of speaking from the stomach or abdomen, particularly as a sign of possession by an evil spirit. It was not used for the trick of throwing one’s voice until the end of the 18th century.
=> colloquial, elocution, eloquent, locution, loquatious, ventral, ventricle[ventriloquist etymology, ventriloquist origin, 英语词源] - ventriloquist (n.)
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- 1650s in the classical sense, from ventriloquy + -ist. In the modern sense from c. 1800. Ventriloquists in ancient Greece were Pythones, a reference to the Delphic Oracle. Another English word for them was gastromyth.