absorb: [15] Absorb comes, via French absorber, from Latin absorbēre, a compound verb formed from the prefix ab- ‘away’ and sorbēre ‘suck up, swallow’. Words connected with drinking and swallowing quite often contain the sounds s or sh, r, and b or p – Arabic, for instance, has surāb, which gave us syrup – and this noisy gulping seems to have been reflected in an Indo- European base, *srobh-, which lies behind both Latin sorbēre and Greek ropheín ‘suck up’.
absorb (v.)
early 15c., from Middle French absorber (Old French assorbir, 13c.), from Latin absorbere "to swallow up," from ab- "from" (see ab-) + sorbere "suck in," from PIE root *srebh- "to suck, absorb" (cognates: Armenian arbi "I drank," Greek rhopheo "to sup greedily up, gulp down," Lithuanian srebiu "to drink greedily"). Figurative meaning "to completely grip (one's) attention" is from 1763. Related: Absorbed; absorbing.
双语例句
1. The material can absorb outward-going radiation from the Earth.
该物质可以吸收地球向外辐射的能量。
来自柯林斯例句
2. The banks would be forced to absorb large losses.
银行将被迫承受巨大的损失。
来自柯林斯例句
3. His ability to absorb bits of disconnected information was astonishing.
