atmosphere
英 ['ætməsfɪə]
美 ['ætməsfɪr]
CET4 TEM4 考 研 TOEFL CET6
- atmosphere
- atmosphere: [17] Etymologically, atmosphere means ‘ball of vapour’. It was coined as modern Latin atmosphaera from Greek atmós ‘vapour’ (related to áein ‘blow’, ultimate source of English air) and sphaira ‘sphere’. Its original application was not, as we would now understand it, to the envelope of air encompassing the Earth, but to a mass of gas exhaled from and thus surrounding a planet; indeed, in the first record of the word’s use in English, in 1638, it was applied to the Moon, which of course is now known to have no atmosphere. The denotation of the word moved forward with the development of meteorological knowledge.
=> air, sphere - atmosphere (n.)
- 1630s, atmosphaera (modern form from 1670s), from Modern Latin atmosphaera, from atmo-, comb. form of Greek atmos "vapor, steam" + spharia "sphere" (see sphere). Greek atmos is from PIE *awet-mo-, from root *wet- (1) "to blow" (also "to inspire, spiritually arouse;" see wood (adj.)). First used in English in connection with the Moon, which, as it turns out, practically doesn't have one.
It is observed in the solary eclipses, that there is sometimes a great trepidation about the body of the moon, from which we may likewise argue an atmosphaera, since we cannot well conceive what so probable a cause there should be of such an appearance as this, Quod radii solares a vaporibus lunam ambitntibus fuerint intercisi, that the sun-beams were broken and refracted by the vapours that encompassed the moon. [Rev. John Wilkins, "Discovery of New World or Discourse tending to prove that it probable there may be another World in the Moon," 1638]
Figurative sense of "surrounding influence, mental or moral environment" is c. 1800.
- 1. He sets the atmosphere and shapes the scenes pleasingly.
- 他把气氛和场面调动得轻松愉快。
来自柯林斯例句
- 2. At least this second meeting had helped to thaw the atmosphere.
- 这第二次会议至少起到了缓和气氛的作用。
来自柯林斯例句
- 3. There's still an atmosphere of great hostility and tension in the city.
- 强烈的敌对和紧张气氛依然笼罩着这座城市。
来自柯林斯例句
- 4. The house projects an atmosphere of calm and order.
- 这栋房子透着一种宁静和整齐感。
来自柯林斯例句
- 5. The Partial Test-Ban Treaty bans nuclear testing in the atmosphere.
- 《部分禁止核试验条约》禁止在大气层中进行核试验。
来自柯林斯例句
