| 词组 | Scotch, Scottish, Scots |
| 释义 | Scotch, Scottish, Scots Chambers 1985, which, having been published in Scotland, would seem to be a reasonable source for accurate and up-to-date information on this subject, says that Scottish is the normal adjective: • ... people whose ancestry was Scottish —William Faulkner, 7 May 1957, in Faulkner in the University, 1959 • The revival of Scottish literature —John Butt, English Literature in the Mid-Eighteenth Century, edited & completed by Geoffrey Carnall, 1979 • In most Scottish schools —K. M. Elisabeth Murray, Caught in the Web of Words, 1977 Scotch is used chiefly in familiar compounds for well-known things like Scotch broth, Scotch whisky, Scotch salmon, the Scotch pine and the Scotch terrier. Scots, too, is restricted in application, referring mostly to law or language. • But as a child he started writing down the Scots words and phrases —Howard 1984 These are essentially the usages preferred by the Scots, and these preferences have evolved over about the last century. Earlier usage is different, as the admirably detailed historical sketch in the OED shows. Scotch, which is rather disliked in Scotland except in such uses as those just mentioned, dates only from the end of the 16th century, but was the predominant adjective in the 18th and 19th centuries; it was used by such writers as Boswell, James Beattie, Robert Burns, and Sir Walter Scott. It was likewise used by more recent Scots, including James A. H. Murray, the OED editor; presumably some Scots still use it. Non-Scottish use has never quite conformed to Scottish preferences. The English, many of whom have not been averse to needling the Scots, have kept on using Scotch, although Reader's Digest 1983 assures us that the politer ones use Scottish. In North America Scotch is the prevailing adjective, at least partly because the earlier immigrants to this continent from Scotland left that country when Scotch was still prevalent there. • ... Scotch rhetoricians —McKnight 1928 • ... may have so infuriated the Scotch that they all reverted to oatmeal —Alexander Woollcott, letter, 22 Nov. 1935 • He said he was part Scotch, English and Gypsy — Groucho Marx, letter, 5 Sept. 1940 • My first two books were published in England by the Scotch and English —Robert Frost, letter, 26 July 1942 • ... a difference of opinion as to who was superior. The Scotch believed, I have always thought rightly, that they were —John Kenneth Galbraith, The Scotch, 1964 If you live in the United Kingdom, you are aware of Scottish preferences. If you live in North America, you are likely to use Scotch automatically, especially when Scottish susceptibilities are not a consideration. There is no harm, of course, in following the Scottish preferences—Scottish is, after all, the old word—both Scotch and Scots are derived from it. There is another rule of thumb that works fairly well for the American who does not want to offend but does not know or want to know the finer points of Scottish practice: use Scottish for people and Scotch for things. |
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英语用法大全包含2888条英语用法指南，基本涵盖了全部常用英文词汇及语法点的翻译及用法，是英语学习的有利工具。