密歇根新闻广播 两个非常有关联的肮脏词汇

There are many things in life worth keeping unsullied or unsoiled.

From our good name to our best dress shirt, it's preferable to keep things safe from both literal and figurative sullying or soiling.

It would seem that "sully" and "soil" have a lot in common. So much so that a listener recently asked if they're related.

In fact, they are.

Sully comes from the French verb "souiller" which means to pollute or stain. That's the same meaning it had when it came into English in 1615, according to the Oxford¹ English Dictionary. Early on, "sully" takes on both physical and metaphorical² meanings.

One fun thing about the history of "sully" is that Shakespeare really liked to use it in his writing, in the both physical and metaphorical sense. Most of the first citations³ in the OED are from Shakespearean works, including A Winter's Tale, Henry IV, Henry VI, and Hamlet.

The verb "soil" comes from the same French root word as "sully," though it comes into English much earlier, in the 13th century. From early on, it also could be both physical and metaphorical. For example, mud might soil one's clothing, but sin could soil one's soul.

There are some words that tend to show up alongside "sully" and "soil" more often than others do. Linguists⁴ like Professor Anne Curzan call this type of combination a "collocation."

When it comes to sully, we found that "reputation" was one of the first words that came to mind. For example, "His reputation was permanently⁵ sullied after the scandal." For "soil," all we could think about were diapers. Dirty, soiled diapers.

Do you have strong collocations for either of these words?

1 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。

2 metaphorical   

a.隐喻的，比喻的

参考例句：

• Here, then, we have a metaphorical substitution on a metonymic axis. 这样，我们在换喻（者翻译为转喻，一种以部分代替整体的修辞方法）上就有了一个隐喻的替代。
• So, in a metaphorical sense, entropy is arrow of time. 所以说，我们可以这样作个比喻：熵像是时间之矢。

3 citations   

n.引用( citation的名词复数 )；引证；引文；表扬

参考例句：

• The apt citations and poetic gems have adorned his speeches. 贴切的引语和珠玑般的诗句为他的演说词增添文采。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Some dictionary writers use citations to show what words mean. 有些辞典的编纂者用引文作例证以解释词义。 来自辞典例句

4 linguists   

n.通晓数国语言的人( linguist的名词复数 )；语言学家

参考例句：

• The linguists went to study tribal languages in the field. 语言学家们去实地研究部落语言了。 来自辞典例句
• The linguists' main interest has been to analyze and describe languages. 语言学家的主要兴趣一直在于分析并描述语言。 来自辞典例句

5 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。