| 释义 |
poll·ster AHD[pōlʹstər] D.J.[ˈpəʊlstə]K.K.[ˈpolstɚ]n.（名词）- One that takes public-opinion surveys. Also called polltaker 民意调查者：经办民意调查的人 也作 polltaker
注释- An understanding of the history of the-ster in pollster may perhaps raise more questions than it answers. In the first place apollster does not have to be a woman, despite the fact that the suffix-ster, originally-estre in Old English, was used to form feminine agent nouns.Hoppestere, for example, meant "female dancer.” But in Old English-estre was occasionally applied to men, although perhaps largely or completely in the case of translations of Latin masculine nouns denoting occupations that were held by women in Anglo-Saxon society.An example isbæcester, "baker,” glossing Latinpistor; it survives as the Modern English nameBaxter. In Middle Englishthe suffix was still largely feminine in the south of Englandbut masculine and feminine in the north,a tendency that became general in English starting with the 16th century.As an example of this tendencyseamster was remade into the feminineseamstress. In Modern English the suffix is usually derogatory.This use probably arose from the occurrence of the suffix with ambiguous verbs,such asgame, "to play at sports, to play at sex,” or with pejorative verbs,such asrime or rhyme. In some modern formations on neutral words-ster is not derogatory, as inyoungster (1589), but in most cases,as withpollster (1939), -ster has pejorative force. 对于pollster 中的 -ster 的历史的理解也许会引发比它能回答的问题更多的问题。 首先pollster 不一定非得是妇女， 尽管-ster 这一后缀， 源于古英语中的-estre ， 被用来构成阴性名词。比如hoppestere 一词意为“女舞蹈者。” 但在古英语中-estre 也偶尔可以用在男性身上， 虽然也许这种情况大多或者完全出现在表示盎格鲁-撒克逊社会中由妇女从事的职业的一些阳性拉丁文名词的翻译中。其中一个例子是boecester 意为“面包师”， 来自拉丁语的pistor； 这个词在现代英语名字Baxter 中保存了下来。 在中世纪英语中，该后缀在英格兰南部仍然主要地被用作阴性，但在英格兰北部却被同时用作阳性和阴性，而后一种趋势自16世纪以来逐渐在英语中变得普遍。反映这种趋势的一个例子是seamster ， 该词被改造成了阴性的seamstress。 在现代英语中这一后缀通常是含贬义的。这种用法可能是因为此后缀与一些有歧义的动词合用而产生的，比如game 可表示“进行体育活动，进行性游戏，” 或者是因为与轻蔑动词合用而产生的，比如rime 或 rhyme。 在某些现代英语中性名词中，-ster 不是贬损的， 如在youngster (1589年）中， 但在大多数情况下，如pollster (1939年）这个词中 -ster 仍是有贬义的
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