Today’s word is belittle. It was first used by Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States.
Many years ago, a French naturalist, the Count de Buffon, wrote some books about natural history. The books were a great success even though some critics did not like them. Some critics said, “Count Buffon is more of a poet than a scientist.”
Thomas Jefferson did not like what the Count had said about the natural wonders of the New World. It seemed to Jefferson that the Count had gone out of his way to speak of natural wonders in America as if they were unimportant.
This troubled Thomas Jefferson. He too was a naturalist, as well as a farmer, inventor, historian, writer and politician. He had seen the natural wonders of Europe. To him, they were no more important than those of the New World.
In seventeen eighty-eight, Thomas Jefferson wrote about his home state, Virginia. While writing, he thought of its natural beauty and then of the words of Count de Buffon. At that moment, Jefferson created a new word – belittle. He said, “The Count de Buffon believes that nature belittles her productions on this side of the Atlantic.”
Noah Webster, the American word expert, liked this word. He put it in his English language dictionary in eighteen-oh-six. ‘Belittle – to make small, unimportant.’
Americans had already accepted Jefferson’s word and started to use it. In seventeen ninety-seven, the Independent Chronicle newspaper used the word to describe a politician the paper supported. “He is an honorable man,” the paper wrote, “so let the opposition try to belittle him as much as they please.”
In eighteen forty-four, the Republican Sentinel of Virginia wrote this about the opposition party: “The Whigs may attempt to belittle our candidates … that is a favorite game of theirs.”
In eighteen seventy-two, a famous American word expert decided that the time had come to kill this word. He said, “Belittle has no chance of becoming English. And as more critical writers of America, like those of Britain, feel no need of it, the sooner it is forgotten, the better.”
This expert failed to kill the word. Today, belittle is used, not only in the United States and England, but in other countries where the English language is spoken. It seems that efforts to belittle the word did not stop people from using it.
GRE阅读功能段落之“个体与群体”
新GRE阅读考试长难句实例解析88
新GRE阅读考试长难句实例解析75
新GRE阅读考试长难句实例解析19
新GRE阅读考试长难句实例解析55
新GRE阅读考试长难句实例解析89
新GRE阅读考试长难句实例解析78
GRE考试阅读经典句型盘点(11-20)
新GRE阅读考试长难句实例解析69
GRE考试阅读经典句型盘点(81-90)
新GRE阅读考试长难句实例解析76
新GRE阅读考试长难句实例解析22
新GRE阅读考试长难句实例解析37
新GRE阅读考试长难句实例解析84
新GRE阅读考试长难句实例解析72
新GRE阅读考试长难句实例解析86
GRE考试阅读经典句型盘点(31-40)
新GRE阅读考试长难句实例解析92
新GRE阅读考试长难句实例解析91
新GRE阅读考试长难句实例解析82
新GRE阅读考试长难句实例解析61
新GRE阅读考试长难句实例解析74
新GRE阅读考试长难句实例解析20
新GRE阅读考试长难句实例解析56
新GRE阅读考试长难句实例解析59
新GRE阅读考试长难句实例解析87
新GRE阅读考试长难句实例解析62
新GRE阅读考试长难句实例解析66
新GRE阅读考试长难句实例解析18
突破GRE逻辑阅读之并列平行结构篇
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |