词组 | disassemble |
释义 | disassemble 1. Disassemble, dissemble. Dissemble means "to hide under a false appearance" or "to put on a false appearance": • ... had been trained to dissemble and conceal his real thoughts —M. S. Handler, introduction to The Autobiography of Malcolm X, 1966 • When Banquo returns as a ghost, however, Macbeth can dissemble no longer —Julius Novick, N.Y. Times, 15 July 1973 Disassemble means "to take apart": • Then we disassembled the mixers and examined them for signs of wear —Consumer Reports, July 1980 Several commentators caution their readers not to confuse these words. Our files contain no evidence of such confusion, but Gowers in Fowler 1965 cites an instance in which dissemble is used when disassemble is meant. 2.Disassemble is a relatively recent coinage in its current sense. The OED has a citation from 1611 for disassemble used to mean "disperse," but "take apart" as a sense of the word was not recorded until 1903. Its common use by mechanics in the early 20th century caused a little consternation among the nonmechanical. Its strongest critic seems to have been A. P. Herbert, the English writer and politician: • What a wicked word! Dis-assemble! The engineers of our glorious Navy say 'strip an engine'—swift and metaphorical and true. That should be good enough for any motor-monger ashore —A. P. Herbert, What a Word!, 1935 "Motor-mongers" continued to say "disassemble" anyway, despite its wickedness, and the word quickly established itself in standard English. The only recent critic to find fault with it is Follett 1966, who regards it as a needless word. |
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