词组 | Sierra |
释义 | Sierra The literal meaning of sierra in Spanish is "saw," from which arose its extended sense, "a jagged mountain range." This sense has some use in English as well as in Spanish: • ... invasions that have taken place in the Peruvian sierra in recent years —Norman Gall, N. Y. Rev. of Books, 20 May 1971 But sierra is far less well-known to most English speakers as a generic noun than as a part of the proper names of several mountain ranges—especially, for Americans, the Sierra Nevada of eastern California, also commonly known as the Sierra Nevada range, the Sierra Nevada mountains, the Sierra mountains, the Sierra Nevadas, the Sierras, and the Sierra. This plurality of names leads to a familiar problem: the same people who find redundancy in Sahara desert (because Sahara means "desert" in Arabic) are also likely to find it in Sierra Nevada range, Sierra Nevada mountains, and Sierra mountains. In addition, some critics have objected to the Sierras, arguing that sierras can only mean "the mountain ranges" since the singular sierra denotes an entire range rather than a single mountain. What this means in practical terms is that if you want to be absolutely sure of offending no one, you will have to write either the Sierra Nevada or the Sierra when referring to the Sierra Nevada mountains. If, on the other hand, you can accept the idea that the Sierra of Sierra Nevada is actually a proper name, not a generic noun, and that English and Spanish are two different languages, you will feel entitled to refer to those mountains in whatever way seems natural and idiomatic to you. See also Sahara, Sahara desert. |
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