| 词组 | reiterate |
| 释义 | reiterate This verb has attracted commentary because it has a kind of built-in redundancy; there is a rarely used verb iterate (from the Latin iterum, "again") that itself means "to say or do again," so that it seems as if reiterate ought to mean something like "to re-say or re-do again," or "to say or do over and over." Bernstein 1962 disapproves its use in describing a first repetition (he favors repeat or restate), and Einstein 1985 agrees: • If you've said something once and you now say it again, you aren't reiterating. You're iterating. From the third time on, you're reiterating. But other commentators (such as Harper 1975, 1985 and Bryson 1984) recognize that no such nice distinction exists in actual usage. Both iterate and reiterate are used essentially as synonyms of repeat, with the chief distinction between them being that reiterate is the far more common word. Reiterate does, however, often convey the idea of many repetitions: • ... by echoing the point... Mr. Kaminsky had frequently reiterated with gallows humor —Judith Appelbaum, N.Y. Times Book Rev., 12 Dec. 1982 • ... and repeatedly reiterates his views that the Supreme Court's ... decision was wrong —David Farrell, Boston Globe, 22 July 1984 • ... even such genuine affection grows numbing when reiterated more than 600 times —Geoffrey C. Ward, N.Y. Times Book Rev., 7 Aug. 1983 But it frequently has no such connotations. Very often, it is instead distinguished from such common verbs as repeat and restate by connotations of forcefulness and emphasis: • ... he reiterated his anti-war views even more forcefully —Dictionary of American Biography, 1936 • In his speech of acceptance Wilson reiterated his belief in "aggressive Americanism, international realism, and no compromise with communism." — Current Biography 1953 • This, I reiterate, might have happened —George F. Kennan, New Yorker, 1 May 1971 • To reiterate: a catch phrase is something to be both admired ... and avoided —Simon 1980 Iterate, on the other hand, is rarely used except in mathematical and technical writing: • ... the functions obtained by iterating the operation of differentiation —School Mathematics Study Group, Calculus, Part I, 1965 Outside of such contexts, it is a decidedly bookish word: • This ancient motif ... was classically iterated by Horace and later, in the last gasp of a noble and epicurean Roman culture, by Ausonius —J. O. Tate, National Rev., 15 Nov. 1985 |
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