litter

英 ['lɪtə]美 ['lɪtɚ]
  • n. 垃圾；轿，担架；一窝（动物的幼崽）；凌乱
  • vt. 乱丢；给…垫褥草；把…弄得乱七八糟
  • vi. 产仔；乱扔废弃物
  • n. (Litter)人名；(匈、德)利特
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中文词源

litter 轿，担架，杂物，垃圾，一窝幼崽

来自拉丁语lectus,床，沙发，来自PIE*legh,躺，词源同lie.其原义为床，折叠床，担架，轿子，后来指铺床的草垫，草，猫窝，一窝猫崽，现在用于词义杂草，杂物，垃圾。拼写比较latte,lettuce.

英文词源

litter
litter: [13] The word litter has come a long way semantically since it was born, from ‘bed’ to ‘rubbish scattered untidily’. It goes back ultimately to Latin lectus ‘bed’, a distant relative of English lie and source of French lit ‘bed’ (which forms the final syllable of English coverlet [13], etymologically ‘bed-cover’). From lectus was derived medieval Latin lectāria, which passed into English via Old French litiere and Anglo-Norman litere ‘bed’.

This original sense was soon extended in English to a ‘portable conveyance or stretcher’, which still survives, just, as an archaism, but the word’s main modern sense, which first emerged fully in the 18th century, derives from the notion of scattering straw over the floor for bedding.
=> coverlet
litter (n.)
c. 1300, "a bed," also "bed-like vehicle carried on men's shoulders" (early 14c.), from Anglo-French litere "portable bed," Old French litiere "litter, stretcher, bier; straw, bedding," from Medieval Latin lectaria "litter" (altered in French by influence of lit "bed"), from Latin lectus "bed, couch," from PIE *legh-to-, from root *legh- "to lie" (see lie (v.2)).

Meaning extended early 15c. to "straw used for bedding" (early 14c. in Anglo-French) and late 15c. to "offspring of an animal at one birth" (in one bed); sense of "scattered oddments, disorderly debris" is first attested 1730, probably from Middle English verb literen "provide with bedding" (late 14c.), with notion of strewing straw. Litter by 19c. had come to mean both the straw bedding and the animal waste in it after use.
litter (v.)
late 14c., "provide with bedding," from litter (n.). Meaning "to strew with objects" is from 1713. Transitive sense of "to scatter in a disorderly way" is from 1731. Related: Littered; littering.

双语例句

1. On Wednesday we cleared a beach and woodland of litter.
星期三我们清理了一块海滨林地的垃圾。
来自柯林斯例句
2. Animals reject the runt of the litter.
动物会丢弃最弱小的幼仔。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Wear rubber gloves when handling cat litter.
清理猫粪时要带上橡胶手套。
来自柯林斯例句
4. There will be fines for people who drop litter .
乱扔垃圾的人将被罚款。
来自《权威词典》
5. a litter of puppies
一窝小狗
来自《权威词典》