| 词组 | belabor, labor |
| 释义 | belabor, labor Barzun 1975, 1985, Einstein 1985, and Bremner 1980 (quoting Barzun) object to the use of belabor instead of labor in such expressions as "belabor a point." Copperud 1980 notes that dictionaries agree the two words are interchangeable. The evidence is on the side of Copperud and the dictionaries. If you are looking for a reason to choose between labor and belabor there are these facts: labor is older and shorter. Belabor carries the connotation of its primary sense—beating. Both verbs seem to be American in this use; we have no British evidence for either. Take your choice. Here are a few examples of each: • ... and for that reason I needn't belabor here the question —Brendan Gill, New Yorker, 1 Jan. 1972 • ... the playwright often tends to labor a point — Edith Oliver, New Yorker, 20 Nov. 1971 • ... it does not ... belabor an argument —Edward Weeks, Atlantic, August 1954 • ... has a tendency to labor his points —John Kenneth Galbraith, Atlantic, November 1982 • It would be only belaboring the obvious to say that "A Solo In Tom-Toms" is "uneven" —Stanley Walker, NY. Herald Tribune Book Rev., 21 Apr. 1946 • ... which made champions of English respectability so anxious to labor the obvious differences between them —Joseph Wood Krutch, Samuel Johnson, 1944 • I do not wish to belabor this ancestor theme —Alben W. Barkley, Saturday Evening Post, 17 Apr. 1954 • I have labored a slight example —Allen Tate, New Republic, 2 Mar. 1953 |
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