tempest

英 ['temp?st] 美['t?mp?st]

GRE暢通詞匯

復數(shù):?tempests;

tempest 暴風雨，暴風雪

來自拉丁語 tempestas,風暴，暴風雨，暴風雪，來自 tempus,時間，季節(jié)，詞源同 temporal. 詞義由一段時間引申為特殊的時間，惡劣天氣，最后指暴風雨雪天氣，即代表性的天氣特征。詞義演變比較 meteor,meteorology.

tempest: tempest: [13] Latin tempestās started off meaning nothing more alarming than ‘period of time’ (it was a derivative of tempus ‘time’, source of English temporary). Gradually, however, it progressed via ‘weather’ to ‘bad weather, storm’. Tempus moved in to take its place in the neutral sense ‘weather’, and provides the word for ‘weather’ in modern French (temps), Italian (tempo), Spanish (tiempo), and Romanian (timp). Other languages whose word for ‘weather’ comes from a term originally denoting ‘time’ include Russian (pogoda), Polish (czas), Czech (po?así), Latvian (laiks), and Breton (amzer).
=> temporary
tempest (n.): "violent storm," late 13c., from Old French tempeste "storm; commotion, battle; epidemic, plague" (11c.), from Vulgar Latin *tempesta, from Latin tempestas "a storm; weather, season, time, point in time, season, period," also "commotion, disturbance," related to tempus "time, season" (see temporal).

Sense evolution is from "period of time" to "period of weather," to "bad weather" to "storm." Words for "weather" originally were words for "time" in languages from Russia to Brittany. Figurative sense of "violent commotion" in English is recorded from early 14c. Tempest in a teapot attested from 1818; the image in other forms is older, such as storm in a creambowl (1670s).

1. I hadn't foreseen the tempest my request would cause.: 我沒有料到我的請求會掀起這么大一場風波。

3. The sailors took in sail when the tempest was approaching.: 暴風雨來臨之際,水手們將帳篷放下.

4. He won a tempest of applause when he ended his speech.: 演講結束時,他博得暴風雨般的掌聲.

5. No tempest is capable of shattering his firm determination.: 任何驚濤駭浪都不能動搖他堅如磐石的決心.