cherub: [OE] Cherub is of Akkadian origin (Akkad was the northern region of ancient Babylonia). Akkadian karūbu meant ‘gracious’. This was borrowed into Hebrew as kerūbh (plural kerūbhīm), which was used in the Old Testament to signify a certain class of winged divine being. It passed into English via Greek kheroúb and Latin cherūb.
late 14c. as an order of angels, from Late Latin cherub, from Greek cheroub, from Hebrew kerubh (plural kerubhim) "winged angel," perhaps related to Akkadian karubu "to bless," karibu "one who blesses," an epithet of the bull-colossus. Old English had cerubin, from the Greek plural.
The cherubim, a common feature of ancient Near Eastern mythology, are not to be confused with the round-cheeked darlings of Renaissance iconography. The root of the terms either means "hybrid" or, by an inversion of consonants, "mount," "steed," and they are winged beasts, probably of awesome aspect, on which the sky god of the old Canaanite myths and of the poetry of Psalms goes riding through the air. [Robert Alter, "The Five Books of Moses," 2004, commentary on Gen. iii:24]
双语例句
1. The skull - and - crossbones crudely carved on the first tombstones was replaced by a winged cherub.
最初粗糙地刻在墓碑上的骷髅与 交叉 的大腿骨图形,已为带翅膀的天使所代替.
来自辞典例句
2. It was easy to see why the cartoonists regularly portrayed him as a malign cherub.
难怪漫画家总是把他画成一个邪恶的小天使.
来自辞典例句
3. Tessa's face began to look as contented as a cherub's budding from a cloud.
