cantankerous是什么意思

cantankerous

英 [k?n't??k(?)r?s] 美 [k?n't??k?r?s]

cantankerous 壞脾氣的

可能來自contentious和raucous的合成詞。或來自于cantan, 鴨叫聲，見canary, -ker, 狗叫聲，見cur, curmudgeon.

cantankerous: cantankerous: [18] Cantankerous is a rather mysterious word. It first appears in the 1770s, and the earliest known reference to it is in Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer 1772: ‘There’s not a more bitter cantanckerous road in all christendom’. Its origin is disputed: perhaps the likeliest source is Middle English contekour ‘brawler’, from contek ‘strife’, a borrowing from an unrecorded Anglo-Norman *contek, but an Irish origin has also been suggested, perhaps from Irish cannrán ‘strife, grumbling’ (another early user of the word was the Irish playwright Thomas Sheridan).
cantankerous (adj.): 1772, said to be "a Wiltshire word," probably from an alteration (influenced by raucous) of Middle English contakour "troublemaker" (c. 1300), from Anglo-French contec "discord, strife," from Old French contechier (Old North French contekier), from con- "with" + teche, related to atachier "hold fast" (see attach). With -ous. Related: Cantankerously; cantankerousness.

3. He was nothing but a narrow, ignorant, and cantankerous sea -- faring man .: 他只不過是個狹隘無知、脾氣暴戾的海員而已.

4. Sometimes they can be cantankerous, mean - spirited, unkind, and sometimes downright cruel.: 有時候,他們可能脾氣古怪, 心胸狹窄, 不友善, 有時簡直是殘酷的.

5. The cantankerous bus driver rouse on the children for singing.: 那個壞脾氣的公共汽車司機因為孩子們唱歌而罵他們.