| 词组 | anxious |
| 释义 | anxious The discovery that anxious must not be used to mean "eager" seems to have been made in the U.S. in the early 20th century. Bierce 1909 is the earliest usage book we have found that prohibits the usage, but apparently Alfred Ayres beat him to the punch. A correspondent reading the Chattanooga, Tennessee, Times in 1901 sent us a clipping from that paper with the following quotation: • Only a few days ago, I heard a learned man, an LL.D., a dictionary-maker, an expert in English, say that he was anxious to finish the moving of his belongings from one room to another. • "No, you are not," said I. "Yes, I am. How do you know?" "I know you are not." "Why, what do you mean?" "There is no anxiety about it. You are simply desirous." —Alfred Ayres, Harper's, July 1901 The learned dictionary-maker, of course, collapsed completely at this shrewd observation, and Mr. Ayres presumably went on his merry way, illuminating other learned men. This particular learned dictionary-maker seems not to have looked at anxious in the OED (A appeared in 1884); if he had, he would have discovered that his use of anxious had already existed for some 160 years when he was corrected. Even lexicographers can be taken unawares. From its modest beginnings in the Ayres anecdote and Bierce's prescription, the anxious-eager question rapidly became a shibboleth in American usage. It appears in Utter 1916, MacCracken & Sandison 1917, Vizetelly 1922, Ball 1923, Whipple 1924, Powell 1925, and others down to Bernstein 1965, 1977, Shaw 1970, 1975, Bremner 1980, Bell & Cohn 1981, Janis 1984, Kilpatrick 1984, and Harper 1975, 1985. Fowler 1926 pooh-poohed the whole matter with the result that anxious-eager has not found much of a place in English usage books, being noticed only in Partridge 1942 and Bryson 1984 among those we have seen. There are two aspects to the question, both touched upon by Bierce. The first is semantic—do not use anxious for eager—and the second is idiomatic: "Anxious should not be followed by an infinitive." Let's begin with meaning. Bierce's semantic equation, anxious = eager in this use, is an oversimplification subscribed to by most, but not all, of the commentators who disapprove it. Utter 1916, for instance, admits anxious to (do something) when the eagerness is qualified by a troubled mind about the endeavor. Partridge 1942 seems to be thinking along similar lines when he rules out anxious meaning "eager" or "desirous," but permits it for "solicitous" and "earnestly desirous" (which might in practice be difficult to distinguish from plain "desirous" but must be passed because it is the OED definition). The word, in fact, fairly often has the notion of anxiety mingled with that of eagerness; it is not unreasonable to suppose that this is how the use developed. Here is Dr. Johnson holding forth: • ... there must always be some degree of care and anxiety. The master of the house is anxious to entertain his guests; the guests are anxious to be agreeable —in James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson, 1791 Without Johnson's mention of anxiety, a reader might take anxious to mean "eager" here. A few more examples that suggest a mixture of eagerness and anxiety are these: • Even without his books, Don Quixote set forth once again, anxious as before not to lose any time, "for he could not but blame himself for what the world was losing by his delay...." —Malcolm Muggeridge, Punch, 8 Apr. 1953 • The Court may be anxious to dispose of this potentially troublesome affair —Arthur E. Wise, Saturday Rev., 20 Nov. 1971 • Most spiders are shy and far more anxious to avoid than to attack man —Katherine W. Moseley, Massachusetts Audubon, June 1971 • ... all the Christian churches in Africa are anxious to escape from "the foreignness of Christianity" — Times Literary Supp., 2 Oct. 1969 Bierce's association of the "eager" sense with the construction with to and the infinitive is probably a clue to the way in which the sense developed in the 18th century. A few books—Scott-Foresman 1981, Swan 1980— distinguish the senses of anxious by their typical constructions. Anxious about and anxious at are associated with the "worried, troubled" sense, and anxious to and anxious for with the "eager, desirous" sense. A. S. Hornby, in A Guide to Patterns and Usage in English (1954), also places anxious that in the "eager, desirous" column. The examples that follow show that actual usage is not quite as neat as they suggest. The anxious at construction does not show up in our files, nor in the OED. We do have an anxious lest: • He was anxious lest they were broken and thus make an evil omen —Pearl Buck, The Good Earth, 1931 Anxious about is well attested. The examples are for the "worried" sense, but a couple are equivocal and the source of anxiety can often be trivial: • "We want to make a table [at cards] for Mrs. Rush-worth, you know. Your mother is quite anxious about it, but cannot very well spare time to sit down herself, because of her fringe." —Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, 1814 • As an American, I hope we shall. As a moralist and occasional sermonizer, I am not so anxious about it —Oliver Wendell Holmes d. 1894, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, 1858 • "So you're anxious about my reputation." —George Meredith, The Ordeal of Richard Fever el, 1859 • The male is hilarious and demonstrative, the female serious and anxious about her charge —John Burroughs, Wake-Robin, 1871 • ... will ease the professor's mind on a point that he seemed anxious about —George Bernard Shaw, Cashel Byron's Profession, 1886 • He would be too anxious about his son, I thought, he would care too much —C. P. Snow, The New Men, 1954 Partridge and one or two other British sources object to anxious of; why, they do not tell. The OED has a little evidence of its use from the 18th century; they mark it obsolete, but it is in fact only rare: • The Arizona statesman's practice has since been to seem anxious of an election outcome so as to stir his supporters to greater campaign activity —Current Biography 1951 But the most common constructions in which the "worried" senses of anxious are found are those of the attributive adjective and the plain predicate adjective without any following prepositional phrase: • Tie a rope round him—it is dangerous!' cried a soft and anxious voice somewhere above them — Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native, 1878 • Two anxious days followed while the ship was being loaded —Thomas B. Costain, The Black Rose, 1945 • ... avoid envy; anxious fears; anger fretting inwards —Francis Bacon, Essays, 1625 • The household income cannot be large, yet there is no sign of want, or even of anxious thrift —Rebecca West, New Yorker, 14 Feb. 1953 • ... he smiled broadly at Coverly all during the pause and so it was not an anxious silence —John Cheever, The Wapshot Chronicle, 1957 • ... her sister ... for whose happiness she grew daily more anxious —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, 1813 • ... a little tired, and more than a little anxious and nervous —Arnold Bennett, The Old Wives' Tale, 1908 • ... he who had once been oily and unctuous, a man of plenty and of ease, was now become anxious and harried —Pearl Buck, The Good Earth, 1931 • Allen Dulles would not have been impressed by the risk involved, though a modestly competent lawyer would, one imagines, have been anxious —John Kenneth Galbraith, New York, 30 July 1973 The "eager" sense is said to be found in the anxious for, anxious that, and anxious to constructions. While this is true in the main, the first of these constructions is used for both the "worried" and "eager" senses: • ... Cicero, anxious for his own safety —J. A. Froude, Caesar, 1879 • She was wounded by the disapproval of many of her friends, and anxious for the future of Hull House — Robert Morss Lovett, All Our Years, 1948 • Distraction display very rarely occurs except when a bird is anxious for its nest and eggs or young — Edward A. Armstrong, Bird Display and Behaviour, 2d ed., 1947 • His sisters were very anxious for his having an estate —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, 1813 • All seemed pleased with the performance and anxious for another of the same sort —Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim, 1954 • ... unlike many idealistic spokesmen for the left... Bevan was always anxious for power —Kenneth O. Morgan, Times Literary Supp., 14 Nov. 1980 Anxious that is found with the "eager" sense, although some of these examples carry connotations of concern as well: • ... is anxious for the sake of both that there shd not be a disappointment —Jane Austen, letter, 7 Oct. 1808 • ... Constance insisted, anxious that he should live up to his reputation for Sophia's benefit —Arnold Bennett, The Old Wives' Tale, 1908 • ... and visibly anxious that his wife should be on easy terms with us all —Agnes Repplier, Eight Decades, 1937 • Don Juan was anxious that his son be given a specific role in Spanish public life —Current Biography, October 1964 • ... Japan's chiefs felt certain Germany would win. This being so they were anxious that they, and not the Germans, should seize the Dutch, British and French possessions in the Far East —L. E. Snell-grove, The Modern World Since 1870, 1968 The most prominently represented construction of anxious in our files is the one reprehended by Bierce: anxious with to and an infinitive. The construction occurs in spoken English. Here we have Sir Winston Churchill in a debate in the House of Commons, sometime after World War II: • ... intellectual highbrows who are naturally anxious to impress British labor with the fact that they learned Latin at Winchester —quoted by William Safire, N.Y. Times Mag., 10 Oct. 1982 (Safire could not refrain from adding "Churchill meant to say eager, not anxious," but anxious/eager is not a shibboleth in British English, and if Churchill had meant to say eager he no doubt would have said eager.) We find it also in letters: • I feel no hesitation in saying, I was more anxious to hear your critique, however severe, than the praises of the million —Lord Byron, letter, 6 Mar. 1807 • I hope I should be ready to go, if He called me now, but I'm not the least anxious to be called yet —Lewis Carroll, letter, 12 Feb. 1887 • Mr. Cameron is anxious to have us come down, but Hay pleads his beautiful treaties —Henry Adams, letter, 1 Feb. 1900 • My book came out yesterday officially, though no copies are yet to hand; I am more anxious than I can say to know how it strikes your eminence —Harold J. Laski, letter, 28 Mar. 1919 • Thanks so much for the comments which I'll always be anxious to get, good or bad —Flannery O'Connor, letter, 30 Apr. 1952 And we have evidence from other kinds of writing: • His manner was perhaps the more seductive, Because he ne'er seem'd anxious to seduce—Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto xv, 1824 • ... the men looked hard at him, anxious to see what sort of a looking "cove" he was —Herman Melville, Omoo, 1847 • ... ever anxious to ameliorate the condition of the poor —Anthony Trollope, The Macdermots of Bal-lycloran, 1847 • In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time — Henry David Thoreau, Waiden, 1854 • I could give many facts, showing how anxious bees are to save time —Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, 1859 • Miss Manette ... was extremely anxious to see the gentleman from Tellson's —Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, 1859 • Sir Austin ... appeared so scrupulously anxious to hear the exact extent of injury sustained by the farmer —George Meredith, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, 1859 • The male is very active in hunting out a place and exploring the boxes and cavities, but seems to have no choice in the matter and is anxious only to please and encourage his mate —John Burroughs, Wake-Robin, 1871 • He was willing, perhaps anxious, to take the Eastern command —J. A. Froude, Caesar, 1879 • ... anxious as I was to tell them my story, I durst not interrupt —Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, 1883 • Punch was always anxious to oblige everybody — Rudyard Kipling, Wee Willie Winkie and Other Child Stories, 1888 • He was so anxious to do what was right —Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh, 1903 • ... schoolmasters may be pathetically anxious to guide boys right —A. C. Benson, From A College Window, 1906 • ... city bankers anxious to furnish him capital — Sherwood Anderson, Poor White, 1920 • I am particularly anxious in this lecture not to assume the role of a Christian apologist —W. R. Inge, The Church in the World, 1928 • ... the gravely courteous air of a dog who is anxious to show himself interested in what interests his master —Mary Austin, Starry Adventure, 1931 • ... I am not anxious to appraise the good or evil in the Soviet system —Bertrand Russell, The Scientific Outlook, 1931 • ... many firms are anxious to employ their cash profitably—Manchester Guardian Weekly, 19 Jan. 1940 • ... information which our enemies are desperately anxious to obtain —Franklin D. Roosevelt, fireside chat, 9 Dec. 1941, in Nothing to Fear, ed. B. D. Zevin, 1946 • The average immigrant was pathetically anxious to become an American —Allan Nevins & Henry Steele Commager, The Pocket History of the U.S., 1942 • ... more ready to sell other things besides drink, less anxious to send their customers away tipsy —G. M. Trevelyan, English Social History, 1942 • ... Paris, where there are a great many young writers anxious to experiment in literary form —Cyril Connolly, The Condemned Playground, 1946 • ... poets like Auden and Milton are more anxious to persuade than poets, like Herbert, or Vaughan, or Crashaw, of actual religious experience —G. S. Fraser, in Little Reviews Anthology 1949, ed. Denys Val Baker • ... the Japanese themselves are anxious to assume their proper international role —Dean Acheson, in The Pattern of Responsibility, ed. McGeorge Bundy, 1951 • He was so anxious to get a fly into the water that he had to reproach himself for haste —John Cheever, The Wapshot Chronicle, 1957 • I know nothing of this democracy ... but I am anxious to learn —Myles na gCopaleen (Flann O'Brien), The Best of Myles, 1968 • ... Elizabeth was initially anxious to improve the conditions of the peasants —Times Literary Supp., 2 Oct. 1970 • This couple seemed anxious to avoid Philip's four friends, or at least spoke as little as possible —Doris Lessing, The Good Terrorist, 1985 We believe these examples show clearly and amply the major patterns in which anxious occurs. Anyone who says that careful writers do not use anxious in its "eager" sense has simply not examined the available evidence. |
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