observe: [14] Latin observāre meant ‘watch, pay attention to, look to, comply with’. It was a compound verb, formed with the prefix ob- ‘to’ from servāre ‘keep safe’, hence ‘guard, watch, heed’ (no relation to servīre, source of English serve and servant). The two semantic strands ‘seeing, noting’ and ‘complying’ have remained together in the English verb, but have diverged in its derived nouns, the former going to observation [14], the latter to observance [13]. => conserve, reserve
observe (v.)
late 14c., "to hold to" (a manner of life or course of conduct), from Old French observer, osserver "to observe, watch over, follow" (10c.), from Latin observare "watch over, note, heed, look to, attend to, guard, regard, comply with," from ob "over" (see ob-) + servare "to watch, keep safe," from PIE root *ser- (1) "to protect." Meaning "to attend to in practice, to keep, follow" is attested from late 14c. Sense of "watch, perceive, notice" is 1560s, via notion of "see and note omens." Meaning "to say by way of remark" is from c. 1600. Related: Observed; observing.
双语例句
1. The Royal Greenwich Observatory was founded to observe and catalogue the stars.
当初创立皇家格林尼治天文台就是为了观察星体并对其进行编目。
来自柯林斯例句
2. Scientists observe the same dynamics in fluids.
科学家们在液体中观察到了同样的驱动力。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Let's observe a minute's silence in memory of the dead.
