spiral: [16] Spiral comes via French spiral from medieval Latin spīrālis ‘coiled’, a derivative of Latin spīra. This in turn went back to Greek speira ‘coil’. English also acquired the noun, as spire [16], which is used for the ‘tip of a spiral shell’. It is not the same word as the spire of a church [OE], which originally meant ‘stalk, stem’, and may go back ultimately to the base *spī- (source of English spike ‘pointed flower head’ and spine). The spiraea [17] is etymologically the ‘coiled’ plant; and spiraea in turn was used to form the term aspirin. => aspirin, spiraea
spiral (adj.)
1550s, from Middle French spiral (16c.), from Medieval Latin spiralis "winding around a fixed center, coiling" (mid-13c.), from Latin spira "a coil, fold, twist, spiral," from Greek speira "a winding, a coil, twist, wreath, anything wound or coiled," from PIE *sper-ya-, from base *sper- (2) "to turn, twist." Related: Spirally. Spiral galaxy first attested 1913.
spiral (v.)
1726 (implied in spiraled), transitive, from spiral (n.). Intransitive use by 1834. Transferred and figurative sense by 1922. Related: Spiraling.
spiral (n.)
1650s, from spiral (adj.). U.S. football sense is from 1896. Figurative sense of "progressive movement in one direction" is by 1897. Of books, spiral-bound (adj.) is from 1937.
双语例句
1. The process is not a circle but rather a spiral.
这个过程不是一个圆周运动而是螺旋上升型的。
来自柯林斯例句
2. The spiral of terrorism becomes never-ending.
恐怖主义活动没完没了，不断升级。
来自柯林斯例句
3. The birds circled in a slow spiral above the house.
鸟儿在房子上空缓缓盘旋。
来自《权威词典》
4. Her hair was styled into a cascade of spiral curls.
她的头发被做成了瀑布般的螺旋形鬈发.
来自《简明英汉词典》
5. Their profits began to spiral down disastrously.
