| 词组 | trooper, trouper |
| 释义 | trooper, trouper A state policeman who can be counted on to do his job when the going gets rough is not only a good trooper (that is, a good state policeman), he is also a good trouper. Trouper is used figuratively to describe a person who carries on gamely through good times and bad. Such use owes its origin to the theatrical world of the 19th century, when troupe was first used in English to mean "a company of performers" and trouper to mean "a member of a troupe." In the 20th century, trouper has come to be applied to anyone who recognizes that the show must go on: • Gary Hart came to Houston Thursday in the role of the good Democratic trouper ... chipping in a good word or two on behalf of Walter Mondale, the man who edged him out for the Democratic presidential nomination —Jim Simmon, Houston Post, 7 Sept. 1984 Trooper is a more common word than trouper, with various meanings that relate primarily to the military and the police. The two words are pronounced alike, of course, and are close etymological relatives (both derived ultimately from the Middle French troupe, meaning "company, herd"). It is not surprising that the more familiar trooper is sometimes used in place of trouper: • ... real troopers in cultured places have turned out to be pills in the wild —John Heminway, Town & Country, July 1983 This use of trooper is treated as standard in the OED Supplement, wherein trooper is entered as a secondary spelling variant of trouper. However, this use of trooper is not entered in Merriam-Webster dictionaries, and usage writers who take up this subject consider it an error. |
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