| 词组 | burglarize, burgle |
| 释义 | burglarize, burgle Apparently somebody about 1870 felt that a verb was needed to express the meaning "to commit burglary." We don't know why—rob had always served the purpose—but burgle ( 1870) and burglarize (1871) were coined at about the same time to supply the felt need. Perhaps some pedantic newspaper editor objected to rob: "rob means to commit robbery; it can't mean to commit burglary. There's a distinction between robbery and burglary, you know." (See burglary, robbery). We'll probably never know. But in 1870 this line appeared: • The Waverly National Bank burgled —Philadelphia Press, 15 Mar. 1870 (Dictionary of American English) Our first citation for burglarize comes from an April 1871 magazine article quoted by M. Scheie de Vere in his 1872 book of Americanisms. The citation was written about the use of the word in an English magazine; it was clearly used earlier, but no one has so far found the actual citations. Both burgle and burglarize seem to be Americanisms, but they must either have crossed the Atlantic quickly or have been independently coined in England at about the same time: we have Scheie de Vere's citation for burglarize and an 1872 citation in the OED for burgle. The OED, incidentally, indicates that a verb of this specific meaning had existed in English law- Latin from the 14th century—burgulâre, which, had it been brought into English, might have produced something on the order of burgulate. Both burgle and burglarize were quickly under a cloud. Bardeen 1883 puts both in his "indefensible" category on the basis of remarks by Scheie de Vere and Richard Grant White. The 1885 volume of the OED lists burglarize as U.S. and burgle as facetious—a judgment perhaps colored by W. S. Gilbert's use in The Pirates of Penzance ( 1879): • When the enterprising burglar's not a-burgling American commentators have generally tended to disparage burgle, partly, at least, because it is a back-formation. Lounsbury 1908 had his doubts about it; Lurie 1927 despised it; Krapp 1927 considered it facetious; later commentators, such as Bernstein 1971 and Kilpatrick 1984, find it funny. British usage differs. In 1926 the magisterial H. W. Fowler looked at both words and said "it is to be hoped that burgle may outgrow its present facetiousness & become generally current." Fowler's wish has come true in British English—indeed such use had started earlier: • ... which led him to imagine that the residence of M. Dagnan-Bouveret, the well-known artist, was to be burgled —Auckland (New Zealand) Weekly News, 1 Oct. 1903 • There was a story that he had once been caught burgling a house —H. G. Wells, Joan and Peter, 1918 • In 1617 his house was burgled by Henry Baldwin and others —E. K. Chambers, The Elizabethan Stage, 1923 • And while Mr Ede sits and waits, how many holiday makers will find their empty houses burgled this Easter? —The Economist, 27 Mar. 1948 • ... in spite of having his cabin burgled by an enterprising gentleman —Times Literary Supp:, 19 Feb. 1971 The last anti-burgle shot in British English seems to have been fired by Partridge 1942, standing by the OED label facetious and opting for rob. And in spite of the doubts of the American commentators, burgle has begun to turn up in serious contexts here: • The O.S.S. did not burgle the Japanese Embassy in Portugal —Cornelius Ryan, TV. Y. Times Book Rev., 17 Sept. 1972 • They burgle supermarkets, pharmaceutical houses and other cash repositories —John Crosby, NY. Times Book Rev., 31 Oct. 1976 • ... the government will burgle us if we don't watch out —John Leonard, Vogue, November 1976 Burglarize, in the meantime, has won grudging acceptance in American use. There is still British resistance to it: • What I cannot abide is to read in one of our own papers that a house has been burglarised rather than burgled —Honor Tracy, Encounter, January 1975 It was criticized as journalese by Evans 1957 and as "colloquial" by Bernstein 1962 (he recanted in 1971), but most current commentators find it acceptable. The following are typical instances: • ... he and his partner burglarize the Academy's clerical office —Mary Perot Nichols, N. Y. Times Book Rev., 27 May 1973 • A car had been burglarized —G. Christian Hill, Wall Street Jour., 18 Mar. 1974 • No sooner was the first batch of paintings returned ... than the museum was burglarized again —Katharine Kuh, Saturday Rev., 26 July 1975 Conclusion: if you go on the assumption that a verb distinct from rob is needed, there has never really been anything wrong with either burgle or burglarize. The whole fuss has really depended on the fact that burgle is a back-formation and burglarize an -ize verb (see -ize 2). Both are in respectable use in the U.S.; there seems to be a preference for burgle in British English. |
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