treacle「糖漿，糖蜜」

Word of the Day : October 27, 2021

treacle

糖漿，糖蜜

noun TREE-kul | [ˈtrik(ə)l]

What It Means

Treacle is a British word for molasses. The heavy sweetness of the syrup influenced people to apply its name to things overly sentimental.

Treacle 在英國是糖蜜的意思。 濃重甜味的糖漿影響了人們将它的名字應用于過于感性的事物。

Examples

From beginning to end, the movie had many lines of sentimental treacle.

影片從頭到尾，有很多蜜糖般感傷的台詞。

"But Parr's script swings so often between artistic triumph and personal tragedy that the structure quickly feels predictable, and lines likely intended to be inspirational sound more like pat treacle." — Steve Barnes, The Times Union (Albany, New York), 25 Aug. 2021

但是帕爾的劇本經常在藝術的勝利和個人的悲劇之間搖擺不定，以至于很快讓人感覺内容可以預測，而那些鼓舞人心的台詞聽起來更像pat treacle（甜膩的蜜糖？）。”

Did You Know?

Treacle begins in ancient Greece. The Greek word thēriakos, meaning "of a wild animal," came from thērion ("wild animal"). Since wild animals are often known to bite, these words gave rise to thēriakē, meaning "antidote against a poisonous bite." Latin borrowed thēriakē as theriaca. Those roots gave life to treacle referring to molasses (developing from the "antidote" sense). The "molasses" sense was extended to things excessively sweet or sentimental.

Treacle 始于古希臘。 希臘語 thēriakos 的意思是“of a wild animal「屬于野生動物」”，來自 thērion（“wild animal「野生動物」”）。 由于野生動物經常咬人，是以這些詞産生了thēriakē，意思是“antidote against a poisonous bite「針對毒物叮咬的解藥」”。 拉丁語借了 thēriakē 用于 theriaca。這些詞根賦予了treacle生命，來指代molasses「糖蜜」 （從“antidote「解毒劑」”意義發展而來）。molasses的含義延伸為過于甜蜜的事物；多愁善感的事物。

Quiz

Fill in the blanks to complete an adjective meaning "overly sentimental": m _ _ d _ _ n.

maudlin「脆弱的感情」

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