英语语法：113 Zeroscape Versus Xeriscape

 

图片1Photo courtesy¹ of Laura Herman, Tampa, Florida

Grammar Girl here.

Today's topic is the word xeriscape.

This is kind of a self-indulgent podcast for me. I've been house hunting lately, and I swear if one more real estate agent tells me about a property's wonderful zeroscape, I'm going to rent for the rest of my life.

The word is xeriscape. X-E-R-I-S-C-A-P-E. It comes from a combination of the word xeric, which means "having scant² moisture," and the word scape, which in this case refers to a type of land. So a xeriscape is a type of landscape where the plants don't require a lot of water, and it usually doesn't require much other maintenance³ either. That makes it a wonderful thing in my book, and I can see why people get confused and think the word is zeroscape, because it requires zero maintenance, but according to the Oxford⁴ English Dictionary, the word was coined by the Denver Water Department in 1981, and the word is xeriscape.

The root xeric in xeriscape come from the Greek prefix⁵ xer-, which means "dry." There aren't many English words that use the xer- prefix. Xeroderma is dry skin, xerography is a type of dry printing, xerophagy is eating dry food, and besides xeriscape there are just a few others.

Vote for Your City

It's a short episode⁶ this week, so I'd like you to take a second to vote on something. We're just starting to plan the Grammar Girl summer tour to promote my print book that is coming out in July, and I'd like to hear from you what cities you want me to visit. The coordinators have given me a list of 25 cities to choose from that I'll list on the website, and I've set up a special e-mail address for the voting.

Please look at the city list at the Grammar Girl section of QuickAndDirtyTips.com, and then send an e-mail with the city of your choice in the subject line. The e-mail address is.... So here's how you do it: you go to the website, pick your city, and then if it is Seattle, for example, send an e-mail message with the subject line "Seattle" to.... You can vote until March 1. And then sometime in early March I'll let you know what cities I'll be visiting this summer! I can't wait to meet a lot of you in person!

That's all. Thanks for listening.

 

1 courtesy   

n.谦恭有礼，礼貌的举止，好意，恩惠

参考例句：

• She called on us merely for the sake of courtesy.她来访只是为了礼貌。
• After a few words of courtesy,they got down to business.双方客气了一番，就开始谈正事。

2 scant   

adj.不充分的，不足的；v.减缩，限制，忽略

参考例句：

• Don't scant the butter when you make a cake.做糕饼时不要吝惜奶油。
• Many mothers pay scant attention to their own needs when their children are small.孩子们小的时候，许多母亲都忽视自己的需求。

3 maintenance   

n.维修，保养，扶养费，维持，保持

参考例句：

• His small farm provides maintenance,but not much more.他的小农场能使他们维持生活，但仅此而已。
• He has to pay maintenance to his ex-wife.他必须给前妻赡养费。

4 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

5 prefix   

n.前缀；vt.加…作为前缀；置于前面

参考例句：

• We prefix "Mr."to a man's name.我们在男士的姓名前加“先生”。
• In the word "unimportant ","un-" is a prefix.在单词“unimportant”中“un”是前缀。

6 episode   

n.（作品的一段）情节，插曲，系列事件中之一

参考例句：

• The episode was a huge embarrassment for all concerned.这段小插曲令所有有关人员都感到非常尴尬。
• This episode remains sharply engraved on my mind.这段经历至今仍深深地铭刻在我的心中。