wiseacre

英 ['waɪzeɪkə] 美 ['waɪzekɚ]
  • n. 自以为聪明者

中文词源


wiseacre 自以为无所不知的人

wise,聪明的,智慧的,-acre,词源不详。词义贬义化。

英文词源


wiseacre
wiseacre: [16] Wiseacre has no etymological connection with acres. The word’s ancestral meaning is ‘person who sees or knows things, prophet’. It was borrowed from Middle Dutch wijsseggher, which denoted ‘soothsayer’ (with no derogatory connotations). And this in turn came from Old High German wīssago, an alteration (due to the similarity of wīs ‘wise’ and sagen ‘say’) of wīzago ‘prophet’, which was derived from the prehistoric Germanic base *wīt- ‘know’ (source of English wise and wit).
wiseacre (n.)
1590s, partial translation of Middle Dutch wijssegger "soothsayer" (with no derogatory connotation), probably altered by association with Middle Dutch segger "sayer" from Old High German wizzago "prophet," from wizzan "to know," from Proto-Germanic *wit- "to know" (see wit (v.)). The deprecatory sense of "one who pretends to know everything" may have come through confusion with obsolete English segger "sayer," which also had a sense of "braggart" (mid-15c.).

双语例句


1. Jack is a wiseacre who hears the grass grow.
杰克是个自作聪明的人,对什么事都非常敏感.

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