希拉里即Hillary Clinton 将竞选美国总统,那么Hillary 是什么意思呢?

Hillary 的意思与“喜”有关,表示cheerful, glad “快活的、高兴的”,最终来自希腊语,它是Hilary 的变体,顺便可以学习三个词:

hilarious(hilar 幸福,高兴,-ious  形容词后缀)

a. 欢闹的;狂欢的;引人狂笑的

He didn't like the film at all - I thought it was hilarious.

We thought it was hilarious when we first heard about it.

hilarity(见上,-ity名词后缀)

     n. 欢闹,狂欢

What was all the hilarity about ?

Eva joined in the hilarity as much as anyone.

exhilarate(ex- 完全地,hilar高兴,-ate使…)

     vt. 使高兴,使兴奋,使激动

Dan felt strangely exhilarated by the day's events.

We felt exhilarated by our walk along the beach.

Our first parachute jump was an exhilarating experience.

幸福和“傻”经常是有联系的,“傻”一点也许会幸福,请看:

hilar 是词根hil 带后缀的变体,而hilsilly 词源上相关。

silly(sill  完整,幸福,-y 充满…的;本表示幸福的→纯真的、天真无邪的→简单的→头脑简单的→)

a. 傻的,糊涂的

Hillary, silly, safe,save,salvage,salvation,salute 等词源上都有关系。

作者简介:

袁新民,博士,英语词源学者。外文出版社《不再背单词》系列书作者;“新东方师训讲堂”特邀讲座嘉宾;北京人民广播之声外语广播特邀嘉宾。为了实现出国的梦想,曾用53天背完了一本15000多词的字典,有感于机械记忆的痛苦,开始探索词汇的科学记忆。

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