physics: [16] Physics comes ultimately from Greek phúsis ‘nature’, a derivative of phúein ‘bring forth, cause to grow’. The science of studying the natural world was hence phusiké epistémē ‘knowledge of nature’, and phusiké, turned into a noun, passed into English via Latin physica and Old French fisique as fisike. By now its meaning had shifted from ‘natural science’ to ‘medicine’, a sense preserved in the now archaic physic [13] and in the derivative physician [13], and the modern plural form, which restores the original meaning, was a direct translation of Greek tà phusiká ‘the physics’, the title of Aristotle’s writings on natural science. Physique [19] was borrowed from French. => physique
physics (n.)
1580s, "natural science," from physic in sense of "natural science." Also see -ics. Based on Latin physica (neuter plural), from Greek ta physika, literally "the natural things," name of Aristotle's treatise on nature. Specific sense of "science treating of properties of matter and energy" is from 1715.
双语例句
1. Physics isn't just about pure science with no immediate applications.
物理学并非只是一门不能直接运用的纯科学。
来自柯林斯例句
2. On balance, the book is a friendly, down-to-earth introduction to physics.
总而言之，这是一本通俗而务实的物理入门书。
来自柯林斯例句
3. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1985.
