| 词组 | anticipate |
| 释义 | anticipate "The verb anticipate is often used with the meaning 'to foresee (something) and take action to prevent it, counter it, meet its requirements, etc.'.... Some people consider this to be the only correct meaning of anticipate, but for most speakers of English this verb has another meaning, equivalent simply to 'foresee' or 'expect'...." Thus Chambers 1985. While this statement is reasonable as far as it goes, it is based on the mistaken assumption that anticipate has but two senses. The OED identifies nine senses, most of which are still active; even Webster's Ninth New Collegiate offers six transitive and one intransitive. When the Chambers editors go on to observe that "it is perhaps unfortunate that anticipate has taken on this wider meaning," they are nodding in the direction of many earlier commentators—Reader's Digest 1983, Copperud 1970, 1980, Bryson 1984, Phythian 1979, Burchfield 1981, Sellers 1975, Gowers 1948, to name some—who condemn the "expect" use. The original objection seems to have been made by Ayres 1881. Ayres decided that certain examples he had collected meant "expect" and were wrong. To prove his contention, he points to the etymology of the word and a number of different definitions presumably taken from an unnamed dictionary, none of which is "expect." This is merely a game being played with the words that have been used to define anticipate; nothing whatsoever has been proved. But no matter. Along comes Bierce 1909 to take the same position; Bierce, however, discards all but one approved sense of anticipate, which has made life much simpler for later commentators. Copperud 1980, for instance, refers to the word's "pristine sense," although several of the OED's senses are from the sixteenth century and the "forestall" sense is not among them. The plain fact of the matter is that in some instances anticipate comes close in meaning to some meanings of expect. And in some instances it comes close to predict, foresee, look forward to, forestall, foreshadow. But none of these words are precise synonyms for anticipate; they serve only to suggest meaning. It is therefore vain to erect a whole edifice of lexical right and wrong on the shifting sands of occasional near synonyms. Here are some examples of anticipate that do not mean "forestall." Some of them do not mean "expect" either. All of them are perfectly standard. • Always she was restlessly anticipating the day when they would leave —Arnold Bennett, The Old Wives' Tale, 1908 • Pleasure not known beforehand is half wasted; to anticipate it is to double it —Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native, 1878 • He became more dependent on her; and she anticipated that he would become more exacting in his demands on her time —George Bernard Shaw, Cashel Byron's Profession, 1886 • ... said she would give me her tickets to the anticipated celebration at party headquarters —Elsa Maxwell, Woman's Home Companion, April 1954 • ... which the beau monde of the Cambrian mountains was in the habit of remembering with the greatest pleasure, and anticipating with the most lively satisfaction —Thomas Love Peacock, Headlong Hall, 1816 • She certainly had not anticipated taking a whole day to get through a belt of reeds a mile wide —C. S. Forester, The African Queen, 1935 • "I can tell you that our overall bomber losses are proving light. Only a fraction of what we anticipated, what we were prepared for." —James Gould Coz-zens, Guard of Honor, 1948 • No obstacles were anticipated —Eileen Hughes, Ladies' Home Jour., September 1971 • Both had anticipated and foretold a bit of rain before night —George Meredith, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, 1859 • Each side anticipates that the other will add to its armament —Jerome D. Frank, Psychology Today, November 1968 • Some marketers anticipate that by Labor Day motorists will be paying as much as 50 to 60 cents for a gallon of gasoline —August Gribbin, National Observer, 28 Apr. 1973 All of these examples fall within the range of the OED's sense 9. You will see that no single word, like expect or predict, and no phrase, like look forward to, quite comprehends every one. The usage of actual writers can be much subtler than commentators are often willing to recognize. |
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